Bigot of the Week Award: May 10, Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Bigot of the Week

As the date draws near for the Boy Scouts of America to take their next vote on just how icky the gays are, the hypothetically Christian far right is mounting its vocal protests of any change in Scout policy. There are plenty of BWA nominees in the making, but my friend Jennifer Carey sent me the clear winner this week.

The Family Research Council hosted its bigotastic “Stand With Scouts Sunday” last weekend. Hosted by the ever nefarious Tony Perkins, it was a festival of hate disguised as religious freedom and family values. One of the virtual guests at the Jamboree of Hate was Texas Governor Rick Perry. Somehow his inability to form a cohesive sentence qualifies him as an FRC guest spokesman.

Perry calls civil rights for gay scouts and leaders the “flavor of the month” and mere “pop culture.” He then manages to toss a bit of Texas Pride into his babblings, invoking the spectre of Sam Houston. He refers to Houston’s opposition to slavery and secession as the kind of principled stand the Scouts would be taking by NOT changing their homophobic practices.

MEMO TO PERRY: Houston’s actions were principled because they represented ADVOCACY of human rights. That’s really not what you’re talking about here…

Dishonorable mention this week goes to wrestler Jay Briscoe. The Ring of Honor Champion displays some real dishonor in his response to the creation of marriage equality in Delaware this week. He tweeted a congratulatory message “if that makes you happy,” then added a truly disturbing follow-up.

… try and teach my kids that there’s nothing wrong with that and I’ll f**king shoot you!

Wow! Briscoe manages to oppose education, trivialize equal rights under the law, and make a strong argument for gun control all in one tweet.

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Hero of the Week Award: December 14, the Merck Foundation

Hero of the Week

This week another organization adds itself resoundingly to the chorus opposing the Boy Scouts of America’s discrimination and bigotry. Thank you to my friend and fighter for social justice, Ani Allison for inspiring me to write this weeks’ HWA. The Merck Company Foundation has a long history of giving and philanthropy. It has also been a major supporter of the Scouts, recognizing “the fine work that the BSA has done in communities throughout the country.”

As they reviewed giving for 2013, however, they realized that core BSA values are inconsistent with Foundation principles. As a result, they are suspending all funding and related activities.

The Merck Foundation believes that it is critical to honor and support a foundational policy of diversity and inclusion in all funding decisions…We cannot continue to provide support to an organization with a policy that is contrary to one of our core beliefs.

Emphasizing the importance of this decision, the Foundation made it clear that it is withholding more than dollars:

The decision to suspend support applies to direct funding from the Merck Foundation, the matching of gifts from Merck employees, and paid time off for volunteering.

Officials tied the decision directly to the Scouts’ reiteration of its homophobic antigay stand earlier this year. Other major funders like Intel and United Parcel Service have already withdrawn at least direct financial support.

As a side note, official hate group the Family Research Council have severed their ties with UPS over the BSA decision just as holiday shipping time got underway. As you make your shipping decisions, remember to support equality and thank UPS with your business.

Honorable mention goes to Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Rice has served the country ably and well. She was on President Obama’s short list to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State. Sadly, a group of angry Republican obstructionists led by John McCain (R – Get Off My Lawn) vowed to fight her nomination. Yes, McCain is such a good judge of what is good for the country–Sarah Palin–enough said.  As a result, Rice has put country ahead of self — again — and withdrawn from consideration, writing to the President

If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly—to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. […] That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country.

What a loss for America, once again thanks to the Pseudopatriot Senator. Does McCain have no sense of decency?

REMINDER: Hero of the Year nominations are still coming in. Please submit your suggestions by December 23 so we can celebrate the finest five heroes!

Hate Groups Trying to Play Victim Card: Hypocrisy Much?

What, me hate?

First allow me to say how saddened I was to learn that a security guard was injured at the Family Research Council (FRC).  I, for one, am not a proponent of violence, regardless of the fact that FRC and the ironically named National Organization for Marriage (NOM) — along with their sponsored elected officials — are pushing violence as part of their “Christian” agenda.

There is a very good and very real reason why the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has acknowledged FRC and NOM as hate groups.  Now closet case Tony Perkins and our ball of crazy Maggie (I can’t stop thinking about gay sex) Gallagher are trying to play the victim card. They say the “hate group” label caused the shooting. Good ol’ Maggie is even helping another hate group, LivePrayer, mount a $100 million lawsuit against the SPLC.

Let us have a bit of a history lesson before we proceed.  The FRC is rooted in White Supremacy and has ties to the KKK — big shock there.  Both NOM and the FRC have decades of blood on their hands for pushing their homophobic hate. Violence against the LGBT community has gone up by 13%, as have gay teen suicides.  Where is the apology from the FRC and NOM?  Let us also be reminded of the extraordinary misogyny of these hate groups.  James Dobson, the founder of the FRC (secret lover of Tony Perkins) was quoted as saying: “The biggest Holocaust in world history came out of the Supreme Court with the Roe v. Wade decision.”

What’s sad is that many in the media are buying Perkins’ poor li’l me sob story. The same twisted rationale that has him appear on news programs to provide a “balanced view” has them saying  the “hate group” label is too harsh for a “policy organization.” If any of those so-called journalists had done a bit of research, they would know that the SPLC addressed that issue, highlighting the aggressively hostile language that Perkins and the FRC use about the LGBT community. (GLAAD has a good overview as part of their commentator accountability project. Maggie is on the list there as well.) The crowning irony is that Perkins has repeatedly accused the LGBT community of exploiting bullied gay teens (many of whom committed suicide) to gain sympathy; now he’s hiding behind his employee and “friend.” How christian…

P.S. FRC hosts a big conference each September, the horrifically titled Values Voters Summit. They just confirmed a new speaker for this year’s event…Rep. Paul Ryan. That should be all anyone really needs to know about Romney/Ryan 2012.  Yes, Paul Ryan represents the values or the lack of values of registered Hate Groups!

Who Would Jesus Hate?

One of the scariest aspects of the lunacy that drives the Right-wing agenda in America today is its claim of divine right. The Querulous Quartet and all their ilk regularly invoke their faith as the justification for their actions. After all, who can argue with actions inspired by God?

T.A. Barnhart published a brilliant piece on BlueOregon this weekend that calls out the artificiality of this claim. Using the wonderful example of Mr. Rogers, a true Christian who promoted loving values without ever even invoking God, Barnhart demolishes the howling hypocrisy of those who trade in biblical invocations without practicing any true Christian values.

I told you to LOVE one another

Sadly, the examples of this kind of fakery are all too prevalent:

• Banning Gay/Straight Alliances in the name of Catholic values while comparing the LGBT community to Nazis
• Preachers devoting whole sermons to the evils of homosexuality while ignoring poverty and homelessness
• A mother being berated by her minister for a blog post about loving her son
• A “christian activist” from the U.S. helping create homophobic legislation in Uganda
• A Georgia congressman calling homosexuality a capital offense, using the bible as his source
• That same congressman practicing his christian values by attacking rape victims
• A fast-food restaurant famous for its christian values sponsoring rabidly anti-gay seminars
• The Governor of Alabama telling people that non-Christians are unworthy in a public speech
• A “family values” organization using teen suicides to blame the gay community
• The Pope himself promoting violence against the gay community

The list goes on and on. Apparently all of these people learned scripture where Michele Bachmann leanred history. (Bachmann herself is a big user of false christianity to explain her ranting.) How dare these people misuse God as a weapon? True Christians like Chuck Currie, Kathy Baldock, and Daphne’s mom have a very difficult task  making a true message of love and hope heard over these miscreants. People who truly understand what family values are get drowned out by bigots who have co-opted the language.

I’m certainly not a biblical scholar, but this behavior puts me in mind of a couple of verses.  How about the 9th Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness. It seems that such regular abuse of scripture in the name of power certainly violates that edict. Seeing all the damage done and the potential good works avoided by warriors in the name of Christ, I think also of a very simple line.

“Jesus wept.”

Number 4 Bigot of the Year Award

Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council (FRC), made the list of hate groups this year for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In the wake of now over a dozen gay teen suicides, I found it unconscionable that Perkins and his “gay, merry band ” of cohorts would respond with: “gay suicide victims are abnormal.”  Perkins et. al., identify themselves as “christians.”  Now they are furious that the SPLC has listed them as a “hate” group.  Yea, how dare the SPLC call them haters just because they are!  Sorry, Perkins.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t be both the persecutor and victim.  We are all familiar enough with your work to know you are NOT the victim.  The dubious honor of the Number 4 Bigot of the Year award goes to Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council.  I only hope with increased awareness, this group will have a declining influence in our government–John Boehner, stop giving audience to these hate groups!

Perkins and Fisher, the Real Terrorists

Even with DADT soon to be relegated to history books, we must not let our guard down.  The Family Research Council (FRC) and The American Family Association (AFA) are spewing such venom, the likes of which are not just shameful, but embarrassing on a global stage. You may remember that the President of FRC, Tony Perkins, blamed gay suicide victims for being “abnormal.”  You probably also remember Bryan Fisher, of AFA, calling on Christian conservatives “to breed gays and progressives out of existence.”  I would like to just ignore these vicious haters, but as a gay man I don’t have the luxury of ignoring them.  These men and their organizations wield a great deal of power and influence.  Their hate and fear SELL.  Their money speaks to the conservatives in congress, the very conservatives that fought against the repeal of DADT, the very conservatives that want to protect and preserve an elite, white, super wealthy class.  The LGBTQ community must remain vigilant and continue to speak truth to power.  Unlike the idiot Log Cabin Republicans who vote against our best interest and the interest of civil rights in general.  None of us can rest while some of us are oppressed.  To see the entire article, click here.

Bigot of the Week Award: November 26

It looked as though the Salvation Army was going to win this week’s award, and trust me, their putting hate before serving needy families right now certainly earns them the BWA, however the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) helped influence this week’s award.  Yes, the BWA goes to the Family Research Council (FRC), now added to the list of Hate Groups by the SPLC.  Tony Perkins, the head of the FRC is outraged that people are accusing them of hate, just because they do promote hate and discrimination.  The FRC supported Jim DeMint’s efforts to fire all gay teachers.  The always charm free Perkins said that “gay teens try suicide because they know homosexuality is abnormal.”  Really?  Really?  And how would one describe the behavior of a purported heterosexual man that does nothing but obsess over homosexuals?