Religious Liberty Is Not A License To Discriminate

by Julian Bond - Politico - June 12, 2013:

By the mid-1960s, the civil rights movement had made significant cultural, legal and political progress in advancing the cause of racial justice and equality under the law — a struggle that continues to this very day. This was a rapidly evolving, heady time in American history.

It was a time when individual men, women and, yes, children came together to literally bend the moral arc of their nation in the direction of justice.

In our current day, we have approached a very similar point in the struggle for basic fairness and equality under the law for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters. The incredible progress this community has made over the past four decades is remarkable on many levels and is a testament to what is possible when everyday people come together to make real the promise of America.

Today, gay and lesbian people are widely visible in popular culture, increasing numbers of elected officials are “coming out” in support of fairness and equal treatment, and landmark cases related to marriage for same-sex couples are pending at the Supreme Court. This barrier is even starting to be broken in professional sports.

We did not arrive at this point by happenstance. It took a great deal of courage and decades of advocacy and activism on the part of many.

However, as LGBT people have gained greater equality under the law, we are hearing similar objections to the ones I heard in response to the civil rights gains of African-Americans in the 1960s. We hear people asking for exemptions from laws — laws that prohibit discrimination — on the ground that complying would violate their religious beliefs.

I heard this argument in Maryland last year when working to secure the freedom to marry for committed and loving same-sex couples. And now we are hearing it in Congress with respect to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, critical federal legislation introduced in Congress in April that would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in most American workplaces.

ENDA follows in the mold of life-changing civil rights laws that, for decades, have prohibited employment discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, age and disability. However, there are some who feel that ENDA must allow religiously affiliated organizations — far beyond churches, synagogues and mosques — to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people.

We haven’t accepted this in the past, and we must not today. In response to the historic gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, opponents argued that their religious beliefs prohibited integration. To be true to their religious beliefs, they argued, they couldn’t serve African-Americans in their restaurants or accept interracial marriages.

Indeed, during consideration of the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964 (and again in 1972), there were attempts to provide religious organizations with a blank check to engage in discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, sex and national origin — like the one now proposed for ENDA — and both times we said no to those efforts. We weren’t willing to compromise on equality. We weren’t willing to say that African-Americans were only mostly equal. Today’s struggles are similar in that we shouldn’t accept only partial equality for LGBT people.

Let me be clear. Religious liberty is one of our most cherished values.

It guarantees all of us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs. But it does not allow us to harm or discriminate against others. Religious liberty, contrary to what opponents of racial equality argued then and LGBT equality argue now, is not a license to use religion to discriminate.

Today, discrimination against individuals based on their race, sex, national origin, age or disability is almost universally viewed as unacceptable. That is because people of goodwill came together to make it so. At this critical moment in history, we should also come together to make clear that our LGBT brothers and sisters deserve full equality under the law, not just 80 percent. I believe in America’s promise of equality under the law for all. I hope that Americans from across the political spectrum will stand with me.

Julian Bond is chairman emeritus of the NAACP and a professor at American University.

Oil City Council Proclaims Day of Recognition for "Fair and Equal Treatment for All People"

© OIL CITY, PA. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Fairness and Equality Proclamation Signed by Oil City Council

City council members signed a proclamation Monday night that designated the day (Sept. 13) as Joe Wilson Day. The tribute refers to former Oil City resident Joe Wilson who with his partner Dean Hamer, directed and produced the award winning film “Out in the Silence.”

The film celebrates diverse lifestyles and was shot in Oil City and the surrounding area.

“Joe Wilson’s film shows Oil City to the rest of the country as a town capable of positive change and documents progress in fair and equal treatment for all people in this community,” notes the proclamation.

Council was asked in June by local resident George Cooley to adopt a formal human rights policy and to embrace Wilson’s film on tolerance in small towns. The documentary tells the story of a gay high school student and explores small-town reaction to same-sex marriage.

"Many important topics were discussed at last night's City Council meeting," said Colley, "but we were proud to see the Oil City Council sign the proclamation. This is a first step in a marketing attitude toward our city. It is also a step towards a progressive Human Rights Initiative."

"A Special Blend of People"

High School Teachers Accused of Bullying

This Article Raises Issues That Starkly Resemble Problems That Continue To Plague Venango County's Franklin High School

By Tony Dokoupil for Newsweek:

Teachers are supposed to prevent harassment of students. But in a controversial case, they were allegedly the harassers.


Alex Merritt was not used to being the butt of jokes. Solidly built with a smooth face and shaved blond hair, he cruised to junior year of high school without the usual social speed bumps. But, enrolled in a part-time vocational program, he was taking his first lumps, scorned for being gay—or so his tormentors claimed. "Alex's fence swings both ways," they taunted. "Alex's boat floats in a different direction than the rest of the guys in the class." Suddenly everything Alex did seemed to offer evidence against him: when he mentioned Ben Franklin in a report on the Industrial Age, it was because he has "a thing for older men." When he covered Abraham Lincoln in another presentation, it was because Honest Abe and Merritt were "made for each other." Even the name of his car, a Ford Probe, was viewed as a sign of his homosexuality—the perfect vehicle for a boy who "enjoys wearing woman's clothes."

That was 2007, during the fall semester of the Secondary Technical Education Program (STEP) in Anoka, Minn., a suburb 20 miles from Minneapolis. As the year progressed, the sneers sharpened and spread through much of the student body. "Kids were calling me fag, they were calling me queer," recalls Merritt, who says that he is straight. The Minnesota native, then 16, says that he initially decided to laugh along with the verbal attacks, hoping they would disappear. Instead, he says they escalated. The final straw came in December that year, when Merritt asked to use the bathroom. Did he want a fellow student "to sit in the stall next to him and stomp his foot?" he was asked—reference to former senator Larry Craig, whom police arrested earlier that year in Minneapolis for allegedly using the move to solicit sex with an undercover officer in an airport bathroom. What makes this juvenile behavior so unusual? Merritt's bullies, who allegedly made all of these remarks, were his teachers.

In a damning report issued by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and made public last month, the alleged incidents at STEP were perpetrated by social-studies instructor Diane Cleveland and Walter Filson, a former cop who taught a course on law enforcement. While enrolled in a traditional high school nearby, Merritt came to STEP for three periods a day in search of college credit. What he found, according to the report—which draws on interviews with Merritt's classmates and echoes an initial report by the school district—was "regular comments, jokes and innuendo about his perceived sexual orientation," resulting in an environment that "a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive." Stained in the eyes of fellow students, who brought the STEP punch lines back to his regular high school, Merritt says he was forced to transfer out of the district to escape the bullying. As part of a temporary reassignment following Merritt's initial complaint to the district, Cleveland was ordered to spend the remainder of the fall semester—five days—working on a social-studies curriculum and "reflecting on diversity." She called in sick after serving just one day. While Filson has yet to be disciplined, the district later suspended Cleveland for two days without pay and agreed to give Merritt's family $25,000 for what a district spokesperson has called the "inconvenience" of his having to commute 25 miles to a new school.

Both Filson and Cleveland deny Merritt's allegations, and maintain that they have been miscast as homophobes. "I treat all students equally," Filson tells NEWSWEEK, adding that "live and let live" is his policy toward gays. Cleveland, for her part, recently told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that "the insinuation that I’m homophobic, that I’m a bigot, bothers me to no end." The school district, despite its own findings, has not acknowledged wrongdoing. And last week, some students and teachers came forward to offer a different accounting of events more sympathetic to the teachers. The case reflects a broader cultural paradox: at a time when same-sex relationships and gay culture have never been more mainstream, the classroom remains rife with homophobia. The percentage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) middle and high-school students who report harassment has hovered above 80 percent since 1999, according to the New York-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which conducts a biennial survey of school climates. Long after it has become taboo to publicly lampoon other minorities, homophobic humor still flies—even in a public school. "There isn't the same recognition that antigay bias is wrong the way bias based on gender, race, or ethnicity or religion is wrong," says Ellen Kahn, family project director for the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based advocacy group for the LGBT community.

The ambivalence over homophobic humor is reflected in weak legal protections for gays: only 21 states ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and in 29 states a person can still be fired on the basis of their bedroom partner. More than 40 states have antibullying laws, but less than a third specifically prohibit bullying on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. Intent on plugging this gap, LGBT activists have long lobbied Congress for a federal law that requires public schools to adopt such codes—although they are hardly foolproof. Merritt's home state of Minnesota has had a comprehensive antidiscrimination policy on the books such 1993. (Although the DHR found probable cause that Filson and Cleveland's actions violated Minnesota's Human Rights Act, the school district avoided court and denied liability as part of its cash settlement with Merritt.)

It's perhaps understandable, given the state of popular culture, that public-school teachers and kids would be confused about what passes as school-ready humor. Their fictional counterparts on Fox's new fall series Glee—a comedy about a high-school music club—don't offer much of an example. In the show's second episode, which aired recently, the coach is along for the ride as a kid mocks a song as "really gay" and the coach's wife calls a pink and lace-strewn room in a model house the place "where our daughter, or gay son, will live." Last fall in partnership with GLSEN, the Advertising Council, which directs public-service campaigns on behalf of Madison Avenue, launched a campaign aimed at discouraging use of the word "gay" as a synonym for "uncool" or "undesirable." "When you say 'That's so gay,' do you realize what you say?" the ads ask. For millions of people, the answer is still "no."


Merritt himself seems confused over what passes as good, clean fun in the classroom. The teen says that he was not offended by his teachers' alleged homophobic humor, at least not at first. "A joke is a joke," the self-described class clown says of his initial reaction, "and I thought it would get old." (It was his mother, Jodi, who intervened against his wishes after she heard the Larry Craig joke.) According to the school district report, a partial copy of which was leaked to local press and obtained by NEWSWEEK, Cleveland also ignored comments like "that's so gay" if they were said without malice. (Details on Filson remain private as his case is still under dispute.)

The best way to clear the fog, according to a 2009 report by the National Education Association, a 3-million-strong union of public-school teachers—including Filson and Cleveland—is to provide programs that promote tolerance among students, provide training for educators and include policies that specifically prohibit harassment and bullying on the basis of sexual orientation. But many states are wary of deploying such a "rainbow" approach, which can fall foul of conservative parents and religious groups that view homosexuality as a sin and sex education as outside the bounds of public school.

Back in Minnesota, both Cleveland and Filson still have their jobs. But all isn't exactly rosy for the two teachers. Some parents, students and gay-rights supporters packed last month's school board meeting and protested on the first day of classes, calling for Cleveland and Filson to be fired. More than 2,000 people have joined a Facebook group dedicated to the same cause. Cleveland has taken an indefinite unpaid leave, "because of all the news coverage in this case and the pressure it has brought to bear on her," according to her lawyer. Filson has done the same, but he tells NEWSWEEK that his absence is due to Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare nerve disorder. Merritt, for his part, joined the Army earlier this month, partly because "they have rules to prevent this sort of thing." Then again, so does Minnesota.

Anti-Gay Discrimination Has No Place in America

Overcoming the Myth of Lifestyles

by Linda Henderson:

I received a letter the other day from my step-grandmother.

The Lord had put it upon her heart to write to me about the "homosexual way of life." She included a tract from church which lamented the horrors of a homosexual lifestyle.


Businessdictionary.com has a very good definition of lifestyle:

"Way of living of individuals, families (households), and societies, which they manifest in coping with their physical, psychological, social, and economic environments on a day-to-day basis. Lifestyle is expressed in both work and leisure behavior patterns and (on an individual basis) in activities, attitudes, interests, opinions, values, and allocation of income. It also reflects people's self image or self concept; the way they see themselves and believe they are seen by the others. Lifestyle is a composite of motivations, needs, and wants and is influenced by factors such as culture, family, reference groups, and social class..."

Stereotyping is one of the oldest tools in the book for keeping a hated group isolated and feared.

The idea that there is a "homosexual lifestyle" is the first myth we have to overcome.

How ridiculous!

What is the heterosexual lifestyle? Do they all have the same activities, attitudes, interests, and allocate their income in the same manner?

Talk with anyone who admonishes the "homosexual lifestyle" and ask them if they actually know any homosexuals.

My step-grandmother has never been to my home - not in 42 years. I have actually seen her about 20 full days in my life. Her opinions about my lifestyle are purely based on what her church tells her my lifestyle is about. She, and others like her, will not learn any different because they will hold firm to their stereotype. Because they have used the Bible to justify their mythical beliefs, they will accept no evidence that would contradict it.


Actually getting to know GLBT people would shatter the "lifestyle" myth. Examining their Bible in full context would shatter their literalist myth. Insisting that every single verse in the Bible be applied in it's most literal interpretation would expose the foolishness of their views.

There is no more a homosexual way of life than there is a heterosexual way of life.

Stereotyping is bigotry even when you use the Bible to justify it.

ExxonMobil Says Yes to Gay Bias

For the past decade a proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's official equal employment opportunity policy has been voted down by the oil company's shareholders. At the most recent vote more shareholders than ever voiced support for the protections -- but the proposal still failed.

For the past decade a proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's official equal employment opportunity policy has been voted down by the oil company's shareholders. At the most recent vote more shareholders than ever voiced support for the protections -- but the proposal still failed.

The Human Rights Campaign announced that 39.3% of shares voted in favor of the new policy this year, compared to 8.2% in 2000. Before merging with Exxon in 1999, Mobil included sexual orientation in its equal employment opportunity policy , but the wording was removed when ExxonMobil was formed. Since then, support for adding sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's policy has grown, but not by enough to make it official policy. Meanwhile, 85% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies -- all Fortune 50 companies have it as part of their official policy -- and more than 35% include gender identity.

"ExxonMobil continues to have the dubious distinction of being the only Fortune 50 company that refuses to add sexual orientation and gender identity to their nondiscrimination policy and is stuck in the ever-shrinking minority of businesses that don't offer domestic-partner benefits," Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president, said in a release. "While the rest of corporate America recognizes and respects the diversity of their workforce, ExxonMobil continues to resist the most basic protections that should be afforded to all Americans."

Training Rules at Penn State: No Lesbians!

by Cyd Zeigler jr. for OutSports:

“To be part of that crucial part of an individual’s life is really important to us, and those of us that coach at this age group understand that responsibility.”


It’s like a cruel joke when former Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland says this 18 minutes into the new documentary, “Training Rules.” The film chronicles Portland’s reign of terror of almost 30 years at Penn State and document her routine of threatening her players, creating a deeply homophobic environment on the team and systematically kicking women off her team for being lesbians or even for being a suspected lesbian. In 2005, Portland removed standout player Jennifer Harris from the team and Harris believed it was because Portland suspected she was gay. Harris filed a lawsuit with the National Center for Lesbian Rights; That prompted former Penn State players to come out of the woodwork corroborating Harris’ story. And in that lies the crux of “Training Rules.”

When I first heard about the film, I wondered how the filmmakers would tell the story without being able to talk to Portland and Harris, both of whom are bound by court settlement to not discuss the case. The only time Harris was speaking on screen was reading a statement written by her lawyer; Portland, predictably, refused to meet the filmmakers. The filmmakers took the muzzle on its two stars as an opportunity. The point of the film isn’t to simply tell the story of Rene Portland’s homophobic reign of terror and the young women she tossed into the gutter: It’s meant to make you feel it. When former player Lisa Faloon says, “Rene explained to all of us that we weren’t to talk to a lesbian, and if we were a lesbian, she specifically said, I will take your scholarship away and you will never play basketball again,” it lays the foundation for a series of stories of heartache from women who didn’t have the strength to stand up to Portland and the juggernaut of Penn State athletics. The film focuses on a half dozen other women, straight and gay, who were victims of Portland’s intolerance. Hearing women who played for Portland from 1980 to the late 1990s talk about how Portland undermined their self-confidence, attacked them, and shattered their lifelong dreams is heart-wrenching.

For some reason, the most emotional aspect of the film for me was listening to Jennifer Harris’ parents, Lambert and Pearl, talk about what Portland did to their daughter. They share home movies of Jennifer running a race at the age of 3 and we hear from her childhood track coach about her ultimate dream: Be a world-class athlete. In high school, there was no one in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who could beat her in hurdles or the long jump. She was called maybe the best girls’ basketball player ever from her high school district. She was named to the All-State basketball team. In her senior year, she was rated one of the top 20 basketball players in the country. She had a promising future ahead of her and her sights were set squarely on the WNBA.

Hearing her parents and coaches and sports commentators talk about her in this way makes Jennifer’s story about so much more than just her. So when later in the film we find out that Portland destroyed Jennifer’s hopes and dreams and destroyed her as a person, it’s much more than that one person we feel for: An entire community was shattered by the intolerant actions of one homophobic woman, and we’re left wondering how many others were hurt for each of the half dozen women we hear from in the film.

“Someone did die,” Lambert Harris says about the night Jennifer was kicked off the team. “Jennifer’s spirit died that night. I never seen her smile or laugh since that day. She started speaking in a whisper. There were times when we didn’t know if she was going to kill herself or not. We were frightened.”


All of this unfolds against a paradoxical atmosphere in which Rene Portland continued to be praised by her fellow coaches, lauded by sports columnists and put on a pedestal by Penn State fans. The driving force behind all of that: Win and you can do anything to anyone you want; you’ll be protected. The athletic department handed Portland the keys to her castle as she put together winning season after winning season. Portland would threaten her players and tell them that no one, not even the athletic department, could stop her from kicking lesbians off her team. Everyone, including the NCAA itself, sat by and watched while Portland exacted her homophobic attacks on these teenagers and young women.

The filmmakers do a fantastic job of establishing the power of big-time college athletics, particularly winning coaches and winning programs. But USA Today’s Christine Brennan encapsulates the real problem: “I will not recruit black people. I will not recruit Jewish people. I will not recruit Asian people. How quickly would that woman be fired?” Regardless of any coach’s win-loss record, national championships or the support of boosters, the coach that made those statements would be fired before week’s end. While the protective cocoon of big-time sports is important to the story, the bigger problem is that sexual orientation is still not protected by colleges and the NCAA as race is. Changing that dynamic is one of the potential results of Harris’ public victory and the documentary film itself.

The cruelest joke of all is that Jennifer Harris isn’t gay. Portland got it wrong. The coach sacrificed the success of her team for a hunch she had about one of her best players, and she has paid dearly since. If Portland hadn’t kicked Harris off the team, she’d still be the head coach of the Penn State women’s basketball team, and Harris would likely be in the WNBA right now. Those were heavy prices these two women had to pay for progress. After an hour of former Penn State players telling their stories and pouring their hearts out to the filmmakers, you’re left wondering if Jennifer Harris thinks her sacrifice was worth saving other women from the persecution of Rene Portland. If this film is successful in telling Harris’ story to a mass audience, she’ll likely save the lives and careers of many more men and women than she had ever thought possible.

The film is produced and directed by Award-winning documentary filmmakers Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker. Running time: 61 minutes. It is appearing in special engagements over the next few months; You can find the schedule here.

End Discrimination -- Take Action Today !

Dear Residents of Venango county,

In the three weeks since a state House committee passed House Bill 300, legislation to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pennsylvanians, there has been a flurry of activity at the state capitol, including our enormously successful Rock the Dome lobby day and rally, which drew several hundred people to Harrisburg.


Of course, opponents of equality, based right there in your backyard, are not sitting back. Opponents to this necessary legislation have been hammering the offices of state representatives with phone calls and emails. Most representatives have received nearly 1,000 emails from a vocal minority of Pennsylvanians.

Unfortunately, those who think LGBT Pennsylvanians should be second-class citizens have had some success. Numerous representatives have been intimidated by this vocal minority, including some co-sponsors who have removed their name from the bill.

It’s time for those of us who oppose discrimination to make our own voices heard. If we expect to win in this important struggle, we need you to take action! Take just five minutes to call and e-mail your State Representative TODAY!

Discrimination is unjust, immoral, and impractical for our commonwealth. And we know from our polling that Pennsylvanians support anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community. But state legislators have been easily swayed by the loud, vocal minority who oppose this bill.


Please take action TODAY by e-mailing and calling your legislators!

Thank you for standing up for LGBT people across the state, and taking a stand for equality and fairness in Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,

Equality Advocates

Surprise! Anti-Gay Forces Work to Regain Influence

"Religious" conservatives fear Congress will advance gay rights legislation

By Chris Johnson for the Washington Blade:

Anti-gay conservatives are increasing their rhetoric and activities because they fear public officials are more likely than ever to act on pro-gay initiatives.


That’s the perception of at least one activist, who said he’s noticed an upswing in the ferocity of opposition to pro-gay initiatives now that social conservatives have lost power on the national stage and may be unable to stop lawmakers from approving measures like hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said opponents of gay rights are “lying and spreading misinformation in greater ways than they ever have before.”

“The more gains you make and the closer your opponents are to losing, the more ferocious they are in the way in which they lash out,” he said. “That is just the nature of social change.”

But Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said even as anti-gay forces use homophobic rhetoric, Americans are becoming more able to see through it.

“Anti-gay activists have continued to recycle the same divisive rhetoric and inflammatory misconceptions in their attack on LGBT people and our families,” he said, “and I think more and more people are seeing a contrast between the inclusive, affirming rhetoric of our current administration and the divisive, politics of the past that these groups represent.”

One ill-fated attempt at demonizing gays emerged last week, as a one-hour television special targeting gay rights was slated to air on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich. The show, titled “Speechless: Silencing Christians,” was promoted as a program that would “reveal the truth about the radical homosexual agenda.”

The opening of the special, which is still available to view online, shows women who suggest they were arrested for “trying to share the gospel.”
Another male speaker decries how “we have compartmentalized where the gospel is allowed to go.” A female speaker says gays “can’t tolerate a story like mine that says … I used to be gay, but with the help of Jesus, I’ve been able to overcome that.”

Grassroots activists in Michigan worked for days to convince WOOD-TV to remove the show from its schedule. Colette Beighley, assistant director of the gay resource center at Grand Valley State University, led the grassroots efforts by spearheading online networking on Facebook and speaking against the special to local news outlets.

On Feb. 11, shortly after HRC issued an “action alert” urging supporters to call the station and oppose the special, WOOD-TV rescinded its offer to air it.

The American Family Association, the organization that produced the show, didn’t respond to the Blade’s request for comment.

Giuliano said the effort’s success shows that “when our community is vocal and visible … media outlets come to a greater [understanding] of their responsibility to serve their entire community with the public’s airwaves.”

Anti-gay forces on the defense in GOP

On Feb. 12, Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, issued a statement urging Michael Steele, the newly elected chair of the Republican National Committee, to resist giving the Log Cabin Republicans a greater voice within the GOP.

In an appearance on Fox News earlier this month, Steele, who has a history of opposing gay rights initiatives as a former one-term Maryland lieutenant governor, said reaching out to people who support gay rights is “an important opportunity” for the GOP.

LaBarbera’s statement warns Steele that reaching out to Log Cabin may cost the Republican Party supporters in its base.

“Michael Steele and the GOP need to do the math,” LaBarbera said. “It is foolish and impractical to risk alienating millions of pro-family, pro-life, conservative grassroots Republicans to appease a tiny homosexual special interest group with fewer members than the population of Liberal, Kansas.”

LaBarbera told the Blade he issued the statement to Steele because he thinks Log Cabin “is angling to say that it has got the upper hand” with the election of Steele as RNC chair.

“Log Cabin is out of step with the grassroots base of the Republican Party,” LaBarbera said. “When you’re joining the other gay groups in trying to reverse Proposition 8, very few Republicans are going to say that’s a winning strategy for the Republican Party to be behind.”

LaBarbera said he has heard that “hundreds, if not thousands” of calls were made to Steele’s office in support of Americans for Truth’s statement. The RNC didn’t respond to a request to comment.

LaBarbera acknowledged that there was fear among social conservatives because “at least politically, on the Hill, the gay side is stronger than ever.”

Regarding lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, Solmonese said HRC has noticed “increased activity” in opposition to the movement of pro-gay initiatives.

“I think the fact of the matter is, as we become more successful and we’re able to move legislation in a more successful way, either at the state or the [federal] level, we see increased opposition to that movement and we always will,” he said.

However, Solmonese said that it’s “hard to measure an increase” in opposition to pro-gay lobbying efforts because Congress hasn’t been in position to advance pro-gay initiatives until recent years. He said “it remains to be seen” whether members of the far right are going to engage in correspondence with lawmakers and visits to their offices when bills like hate crimes legislation come before Congress.

A number of organizations traditionally opposed to pro-gay initiatives wouldn’t comment on whether they shared a perception that anti-gay rhetoric and activity has increased since the election. Focus on the Family declined to comment for this article and the Family Research Council didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Pam Spaudling, a lesbian who operates Pam’s House Blend, a blog that often tracks anti-gay efforts, said she wasn’t sure if the rhetoric and activity against the gay community has increased, but said she has noticed “a shift in focus” by anti-gay organizations toward more activism in getting anti-gay measures passed.

A resident of North Carolina, Spaulding said there are efforts underway there to encourage the state’s General Assembly to pass a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. North Carolina is the only state in the South that doesn’t have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The Rowan County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution on Monday urging the General Assembly to bring the marriage amendment to the floor for debate, Spaulding said. And supporters of the ban are planning to stage a march near the state capitol and bus people in to Raleigh on Tuesday, she said.

Spaulding said she thinks anti-gay forces are trying to build off the momentum from their victory of passing Proposition 8 in California, which ended same-sex marriage in that state.

“I think they are desperate to have some more wins because, quite frankly, they spent a ton of money getting Prop 8 to pass, so they need to fill their coffers,” she said. “And the fact that they don’t have a hotline to the White House any longer means that they have to increasingly participate in activities that make them highly visible in order to keep the money coming in.”

Spaulding said she didn’t know whether anti-gay forces would succeed in passing a marriage amendment in North Carolina, but she predicted that if the groups are unable to pass any more anti-gay initiatives this year or in 2010, they will fall back on the line that “they are oppressed Christians and that any pro-LGBT efforts are squashing religious freedom.”

“I think that this continued theme of being victimized by the homosexual agenda is their backup plan if the public decides that [it] isn’t important enough to pass any anti-gay legislation,” she said.

Online media used to further anti-gay causes

Anti-gay groups are also making use of online media to advance their positions.

The National Organization for Marriage launched a web site and a group called the DOMA Defense Fund last month to raise money to preserve the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and allows states to ignore same-sex marriages enacted in other states.

“In the wake of repeated setbacks at the ballot box, and with an increasingly receptive audience in Washington, gay marriage advocates are now seeking to impose same-sex marriage on the entire nation with a single stroke of the pen,” the web site says.

The web site urges opponents of same-sex marriage to tell their legislators to uphold DOMA and donate money to the DOMA Defense Fund to “take this effort from coast to coast with radio and TV ads if needed.”

Solmonese said it’s interesting that anti-gay activists are focused on DOMA because “it’s in a basket of a greater set of things we’re working on.”

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, previously told the Blade that “we’re not even close to being able to” repeal DOMA.

“It almost makes you wonder,” Solmonese said, “are they going right to that because they think that’s going to fire people up more so than if they talked about the immediate things that in fact we are focused on this year?”

Web sites have also been launched to advocate against the approval of relationship recognition bills in various states, where passage in state legislatures seems imminent.

In Maine, where lawmakers are poised to debate same-sex marriage, the Maine Marriage Initiative has launched a web site arguing that, “changing the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples has very real, and very negative, consequences.” And in Hawaii, where the legalization of civil unions is about to be debated in the Senate, a group has created a web site to protect Hawaii’s “keiki,” or children, against “homosexual marriage in the state.”

Despite these web sites, gay activists view the online presence of anti-gay forces as minimal.

Spauding said anti-gay forces are “not afraid to use the Internet to spread their message,” but added, “whether or not they have a receptive audience — that is questionable.”

“This is about energizing the base activists on their side,” she said. “I think they’re just throwing everything against the wall at this point.”

Solmonese agreed that “social conservatives have been behind the ball” in exploiting online media.

“I think that most people agree that that’s a generational issue,” he said.
“New forms of communication — whether it’s social networking or cell phone technology — those are things that tend to be used more by younger people who tend to be more supportive of LGBT issues.”

And how should gays respond when opponents speak out against them — be it through television specials, activism or online media?

Solmonese said anytime that occurs, pro-gay forces need “to call the other side out” and “do whatever it takes it make sure that we counter those lies with the truth.”

“That’s what we did in Michigan,” he said, “and anytime we see that happening, that’s what we as an organization have a responsibility to do.”

Hate Moves To Facebook - Anti-Gay Extremist Group Seeks Friends

by Jon Ponder for Pensito Review:

Don Wildmon, the leader of the Mississippi-based, virulently anti-gay group, the American Family Association, joined Facebook recently, and has sent an email blast to his followers urging them to sign up so that they can use the social networking platform as an outlet for propagating hatred and intolerance of gay people.

“I have joined Facebook. Please join me on Facebook and become a friend of AFA,” reads the email’s headline. In the body, Wildmon explains what Facebook is and hints at how his followers can use it to promote the homophobia agenda:

Every day new technologies are emerging on the Internet. For several years now Internet “social networking” has been the preferred choice of many for keeping in touch with friends and family. From Yahoo! 360 to MySpace to Facebook, people of all ages are enjoying quick, easy, and inexpensive ways of communicating with others near and far. And best of all it’s FREE!

I have joined Facebook. I hope you will join, too, and become a friend of AFA. Facebook allows users to send and receive emails, add comments, post photos and videos, share links, and join groups or causes. You can also learn about the people you meet or would like to meet. And you can network with like-minded people concerned about America’s moral decline. Once signed up, you can invite your family and friends to visit or join your homepage. You can also search the entire Facebook site to see if relatives, friends, acquaintances, and classmates are already members. Facebook is informative, fun, and easy to use. There simply is no reason not to join!

Take Action!

It’s likely that most Facebookers are not familiar with the AFA, which is among the wealthiest of the groups that raise money based on gay-hate mongering. In fiscal year 2006, the last year for which figures are available, it claimed net assets of $37 million. The AFA generates almost all its revenue in advertising campaigns designed to raise the specter of hatred of gay people, mostly among less educated, low-income whites.

The AFA is known for its “off with their heads” approach to boycotts. It even targets companies that exercise free speech — and free enterprise — by marketing to gay consumers. The list of companies boycotted by AFA is a who’s who of American brands, including 7-Eleven, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Airlines, American Girl, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Carl’s Jr., Clorox, Crest, Ford, Hallmark Cards, Kmart, Kraft Foods, S. C. Johnson & Son, Movie Gallery, Microsoft, MTV, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, IKEA, Sears, Pampers, Procter & Gamble, Target, Tide, and Walt Disney Company.

The group is not just opposed to gay marriage, it even attacks companies that provide partner benefits for their employees:

[The AFA asks]”Christian consumers”to think twice before they patronize companies that support the homosexual agenda.” AFA lists major corporations that have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation or that offer domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples… “One company losing five to ten percent of its sales will send a clear message to every company in America,” offers Don Wildmon. AFA attacked Kraft Foods (owner of brand names Post, Oscar Meyer, and Maxwell House, among others) for the company’s support of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago.

Facebookers should know that, like all anti-gay groups, AFA purports to base its anti-gay agenda on the Scriptures. But not only is using the Bible to justify organized hate campaigns a bizarre construct, it also requires a mind-bendingly selective reading. The Bible does condemn homosexuality in a few obscure references, but, in the Old Testament, it classifies it as an “abomination,” a class of sins that also famously includes eating shrimp, lobster and ham, as well as burning incense, cheating at business, women wearing pants, haughtiness, lying and improperly covering one’s poop in the desert. among other infractions.

At the same time, anti-gay Christians selectively ignore sexual sins that the Bible decries much more frequently and fervently than homosexuality, including sex between unmarried people, which it calls “fornication,” and, in particular, adultery. Adultery, unlike homosexuality, is prohibited in the Ten Commandments — the only Old Testament laws that Jesus did not rescind with his New Covenant.

In the real world, adultery, unlike gay marriage, is a real threat to “traditional” marriage. Adultery destroys families, and is a direct cause of the high incidence of single-parent homes, poverty and a whole host of social ills. Heterosexual adulterers are 100 percent more likely than monogamous gays and others to contract sexually transmitted diseases. Adulterers are, by definition, liars, and there is no doubt that adultery, unlike being gay, is a choice.


But the AFA is mute in opposition to the civil rights of adulterers. It has never opposed the right of adulterers to remarry. It has never launched a boycott against a company that employs adulterers or that gives partner benefits to remarried philanderers. The AFA once forced the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to reassign a reporter who covered education because he happened to be gay, but the AFA finds no problem with adulterous reporters covering education or even with adulterers working as teachers, where they are can recruit children into their sinful, adulterous lifestyle.

When the day comes that the AFA expands its agenda to advocate rescinding the marriage rights of adulterers and denying adulterers’ protections from being fired or evicted because of their status as sinners, we’ll start to believe their antipathy toward gays is purely Bible-based. Until then, the only conclusion to draw is that they are using the Bible to excuse their own personal prejudices and, too often, their own self-loathing — a fact that renders their hatred of gays to be as destructive and scornful as white supremacists’ hatred of blacks and antisemites’ hatred of Jews.

Like all social media platforms, Facebook is largely self-policing, so it will be interesting to see whether the Facebook community will tolerate a hate group like the AFA moving in and establishing an outpost there for its message of intolerance and oppression.