Oil City Grace United Methodist Church Promotes Hate Group's Lies

Several readers have written recently to draw attention to the fact that Oil City's Grace United Methodist Church has the following bulletin (shown below) linked on the front page of its web site under the title: How The Hate Crimes Bill May Affect You



The source of this outdated bulletin is the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, a state affiliate of the Tupelo, MS-based American Family Association, the controversial national organization recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.” (Pictured above, right, is Diane Gramley, President of the Venango County-based American Family Association of Pennsylvania.)

(An analysis about the religious-right's lies is printed below the bulletin.)

Under 'action steps," the bulletin recommends contacting Sen. Arlen Specter, who was replaced as Pennsylvania's Senator by Pat Toomey on Jan. 3, 2011. Why Grace United Methodist Church is circulating outdated hate group lies now is an important question.

More importantly, what are more reasonable voices in Oil City doing to counter such lies and to make sure that local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, and all people, feel welcome and safe in the region?

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Pastors In Prison?: Religious Right Spreads Lies About Hate Crimes Bill

by Rob Boston for Talk to Action (4/21/09):

Legislation that would target hate crimes is expected to start moving in Congress soon. The Religious Right is going bananas.

The legislation, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (H.R. 1913), is intended to do a few key things: It would allow the U.S. Justice Department to offer assistance when a crime that results in death or serious injury is committed against any American because of the victim's race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The federal government could even prosecute such cases if local officials were unwilling to do so. This section of the proposed bill reflects statutes from the Civil Rights era that gave the federal government a greater role in battling crimes against African Americans in the Jim Crow South and also allowed the Justice Department to address the denial of voting rights. It's nothing new.

The bill also would also make some federal money available to for law enforcement training. It would help police officers recognize bias-motivated violence and combat it, especially among young people.

The bill penalizes assault and physical violence, not speech. In fact, the legislation makes it clear that free speech is protected. Section 10 states, "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."


Nevertheless, here's what the Family Research Council told pastors in a recent bulletin: "Let's say you preach from Genesis 19 or Romans 1, referencing the homosexual agenda or lifestyle. Your sermon could be heard by an individual who applies it in a way prohibited by a hate crimes law. Not only would the offender be prosecuted under this law, but you could also be prosecuted for conspiracy. Consequently, hate crimes laws would radically impact our freedom of speech as Christians."

Wrong.

As Becky Dansky, federal legislative director for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, told the Washington Blade, such claims by the Religious Right are "completely inaccurate, unless their priest or reverend or religious leader is physically assaulting someone based on their sexual orientation while they're giving that sermon."


Yet Religious Right leaders keep playing the "your-pastor-will-go-to-jail" card.

"An offended homosexual could accuse a pastor, Sunday School teacher of broadcaster of causing emotional injury simply by expressing the Biblical view that homosexuality is sinful," blares the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association in an e-mail alert.

Over at the Traditional Values Coalition, Andrea Lafferty warns, "Your pastor could be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit a hate crime if it passes and become law. This so-called `hate crimes' bill will be used to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute, and persecute pastors, business owners, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, youth pastors - you name it - or anyone else whose actions are based upon and reflect the truth found in the Bible."

What is the Religious Right's evidence for these extravagant claims? It doesn't have any.

The FRC is fond of citing the case of Ake Green, a pastor in Sweden who was sentenced to a month in jail in 2004 after he delivered a sermon attacking gays that he later distributed to local newspapers.

There are two things wrong with this: Green's case happened in Sweden. Sweden is not part of the United States. It does not have our First Amendment. Secondly, Green's conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Many members of the clergy are debunking the Religious Right's claims and support the bill (as does the ACLU). Hundreds of religious leaders endorsed the measure in 2007.

"This law," the clergy coalition wrote to senators, "does not criminalize or impede religious expression in any way. Rather, the bill specifically addresses violent acts by those who act on their hate to terrorize entire communities."

The text of H.R. 1913 is online at Thomas.gov. Anyone can go there and read it.

I sure wish the Religious Right would. But I suppose I'm being silly to think that would make a difference. Truth long ago became irrelevant to that gang.

Hateful Connections

Is there really much distance between this:



And this?


Transgender Woman Brutally Attacked - the attackers claimed that the victim was "a man dressed like a woman in the bathroom"

A McDonald’s worker has taken credit for filming and uploading to YouTube the latest viral video to capture a brutal assault at a fast food restaurant.

The employee, identified as Vernon Hackett on social network accounts, posted the video clip to his YouTube page earlier this week. According to his Facebook page, the 22-year-old Hackett, pictured at right, has worked for McDonald's since September 2009 .

The April 18 assault, seen below, took place at a McDonald’s location on Kenwood Avenue in Rosedale, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb. According to the Baltimore County Police Department, a 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile in connection with the assault, while charges are pending against an 18-year-old woman. “The incident remains under investigation and the State’s Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case,” added investigators.

Police said the assault victim "appeared to be having a seizure" when officers arrived at the McDonald's at around 8 PM. The victim suffered cuts to the mouth and face during the attack and was transported by medics to Franklin Square Hospital for treatment, according to a police report.

The police report identifies the victim as 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis, who appears identical to Christopher Lee Polis, whose rap sheet includes convictions for disorderly conduct, property destruction, and prostitution, according to court records. The civil rights group Equality Maryland has identified the McDonald’s victim as a transgender woman.

Polis told police that she was walking to the restaurant’s bathroom when she “got into a verbal argument with two black females” who “began punching her in the face with their fists and pulling her hair.” A female bystander told cops that when she tried to break up the fight, the suspects punched her in the face, which “caused her to become disoriented.” Police noted that the woman, who declined medical treatment, had “redness around her right eye which is consistent with someone punching her in the face.”

A manager at the Rosedale McDonald’s said she was “not allowed to speak to a reporter." In a corporate statement this afternoon, McDonald’s said it was “shocked by the video from a Baltimore franchise,” and called the incident “unacceptable, disturbing and troubling.” The firm added, “We are working with the franchisee and the local authorities to investigate this matter.”


As seen above, in a Facebook posting, Hackett contended that the woman seen getting beaten in the video was actually a man "dressed like a woman" who got into a confrontation with female patrons when he refused to leave the women’s bathroom at the Baltimore-area eatery. Hackett claimed that the victim faked a seizure and, when cops arrived at the restaurant, “he got right up.”

In other Facebook messages sent Friday by Hackett (see below), he acknowledged filming the fight, denied the victim was transgendered, and claimed he had “No Hate For Anybody…No Matter Tha Gender/Race Or Sexual Preference.” Hackett exchanged messages with Facebook users who wrote him to express anger about the video and his gleeful play-by-play.


Hackett did not reply to TSG messages sent to his Twitter and Facebook pages, which he subsequently deleted late this morning. He also has deleted his YouTube channel.

See Video of Beating HERE

 

Stoning Gays - A "Bible-Believing Christian" Act?

STATEMENT OF EQUALITY PENNSYLVANIA:

The Murder of Murray Seidman and Hate Crimes

Harrisburg: This past January, a 70-year-old man was stoned to death by a younger friend who alleged the victim made unwanted sexual advances. According to authorities, 28-year-old John Thomas of Lansdowne said he killed Murray Seidman because the Old Testament refers to stoning gay people.


Equality Pennsylvania reaches out with condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Seidman. We offer our sincere support for your loss. The media has reported that he lived a dignified life as an independent man who overcame the challenges of being developmentally disabled, who worked long hours and offered his friendship and a good word to everyone he met. Like so many tragedies, this one is senseless; the loss of Mr. Seidman is one that will be felt by many and hopefully will be recognized for what it is by law enforcement and the LGBT community - a brutal and gruesome crime motivated by the real or perceived notion of the victim’s sexuality.

It is impossible for Equality Pennsylvania to let this moment pass by without once more calling attention to the absolute lack of hate crimes protections in Pennsylvania. Expanded hate crimes protections were passed in 2002 by the General Assembly and signed into law by Republican Governor Mark Schweiker. This law was successfully used by police officers, prosecutors and district attorneys to address a number of serious hate crimes which occurred in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately in May 2008, this law was overturned on a technicality unrelated to the substance of the law itself.

For those who would claim that all crimes are driven by hate, let them pay special attention to the killer's distinct and stated motivation in this heinous act. Surely, nothing could be clearer than the fact that this man was targeted because he was perceived to be both gay and an easy target due to his mental disability.

Certainly compassionate people - especially those with the power to change the law to protect all Pennsylvanians - can come to the honorable conclusion that Murray Seidman's death was not something that can be easily brushed aside as just another murder. Rather, it was a malicious act motivated by vicious anti-LGBT hatred.

Equality Pennsylvania calls for those in power to use the clarity of this tragic moment to produce a positive result and once again enact a strong hate crimes law that says no individual should be targeted in a violent way for who they are or who they love.


In Pennsylvania, we need a strong Hate Crimes law which adds back into the Ethnic Intimidation and Institutional Vandalism Act” the same protected classes that were signed into the amended law in 2002 (“actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, gender, mental or physical disability, and ancestry.”).

Equality Pennsylvania is committed to that goal. Our mission is to be the
preeminent LGBT advocacy organization for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and work collaboratively to establish a comprehensive network of individuals and organizations united in securing equal rights for the LGBT community (www.equalitypa.org).

Event Featuring Diane Gramley and the AFAofPA Slanders Gays and Promotes Violence Against Transgender Persons

Dispatch from Coudersport, PA

by Joe Wilson, August, 31, 2010:

Diane Gramley sat peacefully behind Robert Wagner in the Coudersport Public Library as the retired physician shared his views on transgender individuals with the assembled audience. “I'm gonna put a ball bat in my car,” he said, “and if I ever see a guy [Wagner refuses to use proper pronouns] coming out of a bathroom that my granddaughter's in, I'm gonna use the ball bat on him.”


Moments later he added: “In the good old days, before 'she-males' existed, they just called such people perverts.”

Gramley is no stranger to such ideas. As President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Family Association, a 'traditional family values' organization based in Mississippi, she spends much of her time planting similar seeds of suspicion about the dangers posed by “men who think they are women,” her disparaging term for transgender females. She also crusades relentlessly against what she and the AFA call the “homosexual agenda” and the type of legal protections that her and Dr. Wagner's threatening rhetoric suggests are needed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Gramley was in Coudersport, a small town of 2,600 residents in the sparsely populated north-central part of the state known as the Pennsylvania Wilds, as a special guest of Dr. Wagner for what he titled “A Bible Believing Christian's Response to OUT IN THE SILENCE,” my documentary film about the quest for inclusion, fairness and equality for LGBT people in the small town where I was born and raised, Oil City, PA, just a two-hour drive from Coudersport.

Gramley, who also happens to call the Oil City area home, plays a central role in OUT IN THE SILENCE as a result of the firestorm of controversy she helped to ignite in opposition to the publication of my same-sex marriage announcement in the local paper. It was that controversy that compelled my partner, Dean Hamer, and I to go back to my hometown with our cameras to document what life is like there for LGBT people, and to show hopeful and inspiring stories about the growing movement for equality.

The film was produced in partnership with Penn State Public Broadcasting, received support from the Sundance Institute, premiered at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, and has been broadcast on PBS stations around the country. We're now using it as an educational tool in a grassroots campaign to help raise LGBT visibility and to bring people together in small towns like Oil City and Coudersport to begin building bridges across the gaps that have divided families, friends, and entire communities on these issues for far too long.

As part of this campaign, OUT IN THE SILENCE had screened just a month earlier for a standing-room-only crowd in the Coudersport Public Library despite vehement opposition from Dr. Wagner and the efforts of the local Tea Party and a small group of fundamentalist preachers to shut the event down and have the library 'de-funded' for making its space available for such a program.

Wagner's “Bible Believing Response,” he told the crowd of approximately 60 local church people, “was intended to expose the filmmakers’ real agenda and to question the directors’ assertion that the community should tolerate alternative lifestyles.”

During the two hour program, Wagner asked special guest Gramley a few questions about her experiences as a minor subject of the film, but he used her more as a prop, seated silently behind him, providing an odd sort of legitimacy as he put forth offensive theories and mischaracterizations about LGBT people, including that “AIDS is the gay plague” and “gays can't have families.”

Dean and I were in the library for the presentation. We made the six-hour drive to Coudersport from our home in Washington, DC because I wanted to bear witness to this event, to experience for myself, if only for a few hours, what it feels like to be so close to such willful ignorance and brazen cruelty.


As I sat there, listening to 'amens,' snickering laughter, and even a roar of approval from the people around me when asked if they agree with the AFA assertions that there “should be legal sanctions against homosexual behavior” and “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office,” I felt a sadness unlike any I have known before. A sadness for those who fall prey to such bigoted and hostile bombast, who carry the feelings these things stir into their homes and family relationships, and for the communities that suffer the sometimes-violent consequences of such mean-spirited divisiveness.

But as I looked at Gramley, unmoved next to Wagner, condoning the ugliness without a word of protest, I thought of all the courageous people who have attended OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign events over the past many months in far flung places, including there in Coudersport, who refuse to be silent anymore, who are working for change in their communities against great odds, and I was inspired all over again.

It is in their spirit that we will continue our campaign to speak out in the silence and to help build the movement for fairness and equality in small towns and rural communities across America.

I hope you'll join us! Learn more at OutintheSilence.com

=======================================================

Hate Crimes In A Small Town -- This Is What Leadership Looks Like

from the Imagine 2050:

Hate crimes throughout the United States are on the rise. While many state governments have ignored the statistics and refused to address rising hate crimes, one small town in Ohio is taking a stand.


Joseph P. Sulzer, mayor of Chillicothe, Ohio, has sprung into action by creating a diversity task force. Mr. Sulzer recruited city and county officials, ministers, school administrators, community members and educators to join him in the effort.

The mayor’s reason for creating the group is simple: “The unfortunate thing is we’re seeing a lot of hate groups becoming more visible, not just here but throughout the state, and I think this is an appropriate response to that.”

In recent years, hate crimes in the community have increased. Swastika graffiti was found on an African American family’s home last spring. Other graffiti depicting a lynching and racial slurs was found in a park bathroom. In February of 2008, a Martin Luther King march in the town was disrupted when residents came across a large sign on the back of a pickup truck that read, “A real white person would not march for MLK.”

Instead of the usual method of a fruitless police investigation, which usually fails to apprehend the culprits, the mayor hopes that his task force will help to prevent incidents from happening completely through education and awareness. “We’re hoping this group can act as a voice for the community,” Sulzer said.

The task force has also had meetings with officials from the FBI, Department of Justice and the US Attorney General’s Office. A member of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division detailed how relatively simple and cost effective a task force like this can be. He stated, “This can be a volunteer effort and not cost the city anything,” “Part of this is in training the youth, teachers, police officers, and offering interfaith dialogue — getting groups worshiping together who normally wouldn’t.”


Ohio has turned into a hotbed of white nationalist activity recently, with groups such as the Counsel of Conservative Citizens setting up new branches throughout the state. Be that as it may, it’s nice to hear about a community that has decided to take a stand against white nationalist’s who are spreading hate. With the increase in hate groups and hate group activity, other communities should follow Chillicothe’s lead. Creating a task force is relatively easy and cost-effective for most communities as long as there are residents committed to making it work.

One of the main goals of white nationalist groups is to divide communities by increasing tension between different racial groups. By creating a successful diversity task force like the newly formed one in Chillicothe, a community can defeat racism by bringing the entire community, men, women, and children of all races together in an effort to eradicate hate crimes.

Learn more HERE.

Murder: Is The Bible Really Meant To Be A Weapon?

Will It Be Used As A Weapon For Such Violence In Venango County Someday?

Will Local Leaders Act Before It's Too Late?

The Laramie Project -- 10 Years Later

Big Opening for Epilogue to ‘The Laramie Project’

By Patrick Healy for the NY Times:

The creators of “The Laramie Project,” the acclaimed play about the 1998 murder of a 21-year-old gay man, Matthew Shepard, are finishing work on an 80-minute epilogue to the original work that will be given its debut simultaneously at dozens of theaters across the United States on Oct. 12, the 11th anniversary of Mr. Shepard’s death.


Moisés Kaufman, the playwright and director who, with his Tectonic Theater Project company, wrote and produced the first “Laramie Project,” said the epilogue would explore the impact of the Shepard killing on the residents of Laramie, Wyo., where it occurred. The dialogue will be drawn from interviews with dozens of people there, some of whom were involved in the crime, including Aaron McKinney, who was convicted of murdering Mr. Shepard and who gave an interview to the Tectonic artists.

“We wanted to see what occurs in a small town in the long run when it’s been subject to such a devastating event,” Mr. Kaufman said in an interview. “What has been the long-lasting effect of this watershed moment? Is the fallout of these events positive, negative or perhaps a better question, is it measurable in those terms?”

In holding multiple premieres of the play on the same night, Mr. Kaufman said he was taking a page from the Federal Theater Project, the New Deal program that often opened plays in a multitude of cities on the same night.

Tectonic’s goal is to recruit 100 regional theaters, universities and other arts organizations to hold staged readings of the work, which is called “The Laramie Project — 10 Years Later.” More than 40 theaters have committed to the readings, including Arena Stage in Washington, Seattle Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. The Tectonic company will hold its performance in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.


“We’re also taking advantage of contemporary technology so that at the New York performance we’ll be connected to the other productions across the nation via the Internet,” Mr. Kaufman said. “We’re giving each production a video recorder so that they can document the event, and we’ll be answering questions live from across the country,” after the performances on Oct. 12, a Monday.

Mr. Kaufman and his epilogue co-writers — Stephen Belber, Leigh Fondakowski, Andy Paris and Greg Pierotti — returned to Laramie last fall to reinterview several townspeople who originally gave accounts to Tectonic in 1998 about Mr. Shepard, Mr. McKinney and the events preceding and following the murder. Those accounts were threaded together verbatim to create “The Laramie Project,” which has had several thousand productions since it opened Off Broadway in 2000.

In writing the new work Mr. Kaufman and his colleagues said they would reflect the range of views currently held by Laramie residents and others about whether Mr. Shepard’s murder was a hate crime by two homophobic men (Mr. McKinney and his accomplice, Russell Henderson) or the result of a botched attempt by the two men to rob Mr. Shepard.

Some Laramie residents, in defending their community during the interviews last fall, argued that they had come to see the motives and circumstances leading to the murder as more complicated than a hate crime. But others there insisted that Mr. McKinney and Mr. Henderson had been driven by their personal disgust toward Mr. Shepard, who was well known as an openly gay man in their town.

Mr. Kaufman declined to reveal details of the interview with Mr. McKinney, who, like Mr. Henderson, is now serving two consecutive life sentences. The two men lured Mr. Shepard from a Laramie bar on the night of Oct. 6, 1998; Mr. Shepard was ultimately tied to a fence, pistol-whipped and left to die.

“As always, what we found defied expectations,” Mr. Kaufman said. “It’s a fallacy to try to define Laramie the way one would describe an individual. There are 27,000 people in Laramie. There are at least 27,000 Laramies.”

“But one of the things that was very clear from the start is the question of how does one measure change,” he continued. “Is it in the number of public monuments that have been erected? Is it in the number of laws that have been passed? Is it in the number of people whose views have been changed?”

Natalie Bohnet, executive director of UApresents, which will stage the reading at a 2,500-seat theater at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, said the campus is expected to sponsor other events in conjunction with the performance in hopes of turning that Columbus Day weekend in October into “a major learning experience.”

“We’ll have some professors of constitutional law holding a forum, and students on campus are expected to hold their own events, so we can look more deeply at hate crimes in America and issues of justice,” she said.


It is unclear if the new work will be performed on that October night in Laramie, but it will be produced as close as Denver, about two hours away by car, at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. Stephen Seifert, executive director of the Newman Center, at the University of Denver, said he chose to hold a reading in part because of the theater’s proximity to Laramie. (Mr. Shepard died at a hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., several days after the attack.)

“I was a history major in college, and my focus was the history of the American frontier,” Mr. Seifert said. “No matter what differences of opinions exist about Matthew Shepard, his murder is now a part of the West’s history, of American history.”

Right Wing Watch: The "Religious" Right Lies About Hate Crimes

As Senate Prepares to Take Up Hate Crimes Bill, Far Right’s Inflammatory Claims Should Not Be Taken Seriously

Lies should be refuted as a matter of record,but demonstrably false and ridiculous attacks deserve to be dismissed


from People for the American Way:

Anti-gay organizations have been fighting the steady advance of federal hate crimes legislation with rhetoric that is increasingly unhinged from reality. When the U.S. House of Representatives passed a hate crimes bill on April 29 with a bipartisan 74-vote margin, Religious Right leaders and some of their congressional allies were inspired to new heights (or depths) of literally incredible accusations.


Now, as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up its version of a hate crimes Bill, right-wing leaders are trying to crank up the volume even further on their propaganda campaign. Emblematic is a May 6 diatribe by Focus on the Family’s James Dobson:

As I'm recording this video greeting, there's a so-called hate crimes bill that's working its way through the congress that contains no adequate safeguards to protect the preaching of God's word. Because the liberals in Congress would not define sexual orientation, we have to assume that protection under the law will be extended to the 30 sexual disorders identified as such by the American Psychiatric Association. Let me read just a few of them: bisexuality, exhibitionism, fetishism, incest, necrophilia, pedophilia, prostitution, sexual masochism, urophilia, voyeurism, and bestiality. Those are just a few. And I have to ask, have we gone completely mad?

Religious Right leaders have gotten undeserved support for their accusations from some members of Congress – notably Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) – and from right-wing media outlets and figures, like Fox’s Sean Hannity. In the Senate, South Carolina’s Jim DeMint in particular has distinguished himself as a purveyor of false information, and has promised anti-gay groups that he will launch a filibuster against the bill.

The Religious Right’s campaign of distortions and outright lies about the hate crimes bill has been unfolding all year and has been well-documented by RightWingWatch.org and others; in April, we published “Right Wing Sounds False Alarm on Hate Crimes Legislation.”

During Senate debate we hope that journalists and public officials will not treat the Right’s false charges as if they represented one-half of a real policy debate on the legislation. The Right’s wild allegations should be treated instead as evidence of the desperation and utter lack of credibility on the part of those who are opposed to extending legal protections to LGBT Americans.


It would take many pages to compile the lies and fear-mongering of the Right on the hate crimes bill. This memo will highlight some representative examples from the past 10 weeks or so, and compile some of the readily available documentation that Religious Right leaders are lying to the media, to Members of Congress, and to their own supporters.

Big Lie Number One: The End of Religious Liberty

For years, Religious Right leaders have been claiming that adding protections based on sexual orientation to the federal hate crimes bill would mean an end to free speech and religious liberty in America. It’s never been true.

In fact, the current House and Senate hate crimes bills have such clear and explicit protections for First Amendment speech, it’s hard to know how right-wing leaders can continue to make the argument with a straight face. But make them they do. Here are just a few recent examples:

* In mid-June, more than 60 people, including pretty much all the major Religious Right figures and friends like Tom DeLay, sent a letter to Senators claiming that the hate crimes bill would criminalize preaching the Gospel and would, among other evils, “Silence the moral voice of the Church," “Punish principled dissent from the homosexual agenda," and “Be a savage and perhaps fatal blow to First Amendment freedom of expression."

* Janet Porter, a leading supporter of Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid, helped boost a Flag Day (Sunday, June 14) effort involving pastors “standing for freedom by exposing this dangerous bill that could land them in jail for the ‘crime’ of reading from Romans.” Porter, a WorldNetDaily columnist, was also behind a letter writing campaign to the Hill; its claims to have sent 700,000 letters sounds impressive until you read that people paid a lump sum to have 100 letters (one to each senator) generated over their name.


* The American Family Association’s Donald Wildmon sent activists an alert in late June under a headline that screamed, “The ‘Hate Crimes’ bill will take away our religious freedoms.”

* Pat Robertson recently told viewers of his 700 Club show that the bill would prevent pastors from preaching against homosexuality, claiming that “if anybody speaks out about homosexuality, says it’s a sin, says its wrong, says it’s against the Bible, that individual would be charged with a quote, hate crime.”

* On the eve of the House bill’s passage, GOP Representatives Louie Gohmert of Texas and Trent Franks of Arizona joined Bishop Harry Jackson and spokespeople from the Traditional Values Coalition and Concerned Women for America to claim that preaching against homosexuality would become a hate crime. Talking points handed out by Rep. Louie Gohmert’s staff claimed that “The Hate Crimes bill creates a new Federal “Thought Crime.”

The Truth: Religious Liberty and Free Speech Carefully, Clearly, Explicitly Protected

As we and others have pointed out repeatedly, it could not be clearer that the hate crimes bills moving through Congress apply only when violent hate crimes have been committed against individuals. They have nothing to do with regulating speaking or preaching, which are protected by the First Amendment. But just to be clear, both House and Senate versions of the legislation include clear and explicit affirmations for speech and religious teaching. Here’s language from the bill about to be taken up in the Senate:

CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit any constitutionally protected speech, expressive conduct or activities (regardless of whether compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief), including the exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment and peaceful picketing or demonstration. The Constitution does not protect speech, conduct or activities consisting of planning for, conspiring to commit, or committing an act of violence.

FREE EXPRESSION- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to allow prosecution based solely upon an individual's expression of racial, religious, political, or other beliefs or solely upon an individual's membership in a group advocating or espousing such beliefs.

Faced with that clear language, Religious Right leaders claim that some judge will somehow interpret the language to allow for prosecution of preachers if some member of their congregation responds to an anti-gay sermon by committing an act of violence. But unless a preacher is explicitly urging his parishioners to commit acts of violence against their gay neighbors, that scenario is nothing but the Right’s paranoid fantasy.

As we pointed out in April, stories cited by right-wing leaders as evidence that their fears are justified are mostly from other countries, which do not enjoy the strong free speech and religious liberty protections granted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And the American examples they cite, such as the supposed persecution of Christian grandmothers for sharing the gospel with gay people, don’t hold up to scrutiny.

As Right Wing Watch has noted:

The idea that hate crimes laws infringe free speech is ludicrous. Hate crimes protections for race and religion have existed for over a decade and racist or anti-religious speech has not been made illegal and nobody has been charged with a hate crime for engaging in such speech.

Big Lie Number 2: Hate Crimes Bill as ‘Pedophile Protection Act’

Last month, in “Free Speech, Irresponsible Speech, and the Climate of Intolerance,” we noted:

One appalling development has been the return to public discourse of public officials openly equating gay rights with support for pedophilia, a false and hugely inflammatory charge that seemed to have faded somewhat as equality for gay people gained support among the American public. But in their desperation to defeat hate crimes legislation, Members of Congress joined James Dobson and other Religious Right leaders insisting that Democrats were giving rights to pedophiles at the expense of Christians. One WorldNetDaily story used the phrase “Pedophile Protection Act” no fewer than four times in referring to federal hate crimes legislation under consideration, once quoting Rep. Louis Gohmert of Texas using the term.

Accusations that the gay rights movement is a threat to children have typically been made in sleazy insinuations like this one from Donald Wildmon’s Speechless: Silencing the Christians:

Hate crimes laws have very little to do with hate or with crime. The primary goal of these laws is to silence Christians who object morally to sodomy and who object politically to the attempt of the secularist elite to dominate our culture and to subject our children to their own beliefs and to their own desires.

But in recent months they have gone well beyond insinuation to claim that a majority of the House of Representatives voted to grant pedophiles greater legal protections than Christians in America. Here’s a characterization by the Traditional Values Coalition on the eve of the House vote: “the ‘moral’ of this law, if it has one, is that child molesters and those who only ‘date’ dead people need to be protected but is open season on pastors and churchgoers.”

People like Sean Hannity find this shocking and unbelievable. Of course it’s not believable because it is not true. But it gets repeated because supposedly credible people, like Members of Congress, repeat the claim.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa has emerged as the King of Congressional Demagogues on the issue . On a May 14 radio show with Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, King claimed: “we have a record roll call vote that shows every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee voting to have pedophiles protected.”

Right-wing media is now filled with variations on a bogus hypothetical scenario: that a woman who pushes away an exhibitionist, or a person who steps in to defend their daughter or nephew from a child molester, would be sent to jail for ten years under the hate crimes law.

The Truth: Pedophilia is in no way protected by the hate crimes bill.

Rep. King and his friends are lying. The Right’s claims and the label they have slapped on the hate crimes bill – “Pedophile Protection Act” – are based on falsehood layered upon falsehood.

The first falsehood is that because the bill does not include an explicit definition of “sexual orientation,” the term would be used to cover, depending on which Religious Right figure is speaking at any moment, either a list of 30 “paraphilias” listed in the American Psychicatric Association’s current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or a much larger list of “547 sexual deviancies,” as claimed by radio host Janet Porter and RightMarch.com PAC. The ever-memorable Pat Robertson suggested that it might protect “people who have sex with ducks.”

The second falsehood is that the House Judiciary Committee, by rejecting an inflammatory and unnecessary amendment by the grandstanding Rep. King, was somehow voting to extend new legal protections to pedophiles.

Here’s the simple fact regarding a definition of sexual orientation: Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation by anyone’s definition – only in the imagination of Religious Right organizations and political figures trying to derail the legislation with the most inflammatory charge they can come up with. As Rep. Tammy Baldwin pointed out during debate, sexual orientation is explicitly defined in the federal hate crimes statistics act as “consensual heterosexuality and homosexuality. And in spite of the Right’s claims about paraphilias, the American Psychiatric Association defines sexual orientation very clearly as homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.

Jim Burroway, who blogs at boxturtlebulletin, interviewed Dr. Jack Drescher, a member of the APA’s DSM-V Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, who, asked about the Right’s claims regarding the hate crimes bill, said:

Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation, nor would pedophiles be covered by a law protecting people for their sexual orientation. Religious social conservatives who oppose gay rights are using terms that sound like science, as opposed to actual science, to make unwarranted and malicious comparisons between homosexuality and pedophilia. Not only is this scare tactic untruthful, it reveals how little respect some religious conservative leaders have for the intelligence of the people they are trying to persuade.

And regarding Rep. King’s claims – touted by folks like Sean Hannity – that House Democrats supposedly voted to extend protection to pedophiles in the bill, here’s what really happened. While legislation was being considered in the House Judiciary Committee, Republicans introduced a series of amendments that were designed to distort the intent of the legislation and create an opportunity for divisive debate. Among them was an amendment by Rep. King to exempt pedophilia from the legislation. As Rep. Baldwin made clear during the mark-up of the legislation, the amendment was not necessary, because sexual orientation is defined in federal law as heterosexuality or homosexuality, and the act already had nothing to do with peodphilia. King’s amendment was one of a series of grandstanding efforts voted down by Democrats.

Strange Auxiliary Lie: Hate Crimes Bill Would Target Pro-Life Military Personnel

The Religious Right has even tried to claim that hate crimes legislation would somehow be used to target pro-life military personnel. This one is so bizarre and convoluted that it merits little attention on the substance. It does, however, shed light on the credibility of Focus on the Family and other groups desperately grasping for ways to slow the momentum of hate crimes legislation. Here’s a claim from Focus on the Family:

House Hate-Crimes Bill May Target Pro-Life Servicemen and Women

Senate Republicans have called a hearing Thursday to discuss proposed hate-crimes legislation. The contentious language would elevate some victims of violent crimes over others.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a hate-crimes bill, and is trying to take the concept one step further.

Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings has added language that would ban the recruitment, enlistment or retention of military personnel affiliated with "hate groups." Just a month ago, the Department of Homeland Security issued a study listing pro-life advocates as potential national security threats.

And here’s how Right Wing Watch dispatched it:

Does this make any sense at all? Focus is claiming that passage of hate crimes legislation will somehow prevent anti-choice individuals from joining the military by stirring together three completely separate issues into one steaming mass of nonsense.


First of all, hate crimes legislation has already passed in the House and contains no such language regarding military recruitment, nor does the version being debated in the Senate. And considering that the legislation has already passed in the House, there is no way that Rep. Hastings could have "added language" to it.

Secondly, what Hastings has done is add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 that "would prohibit the recruitment, enlistment, or retention of individuals associated or affiliated with groups associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons or the United States government." The language of the amendment can be found here [PDF] and defines "hate groups" as groups that advocate violence against others based on race, religion, or ethnicity, engage in criminal activity, or advocate armed revolution against the government.

Thirdly, these two things have nothing to do with one another and neither has anything to do with the recent Department of Homeland Security report.

Yet, somehow Focus on the Family's Steve Jordahl has managed to combine all three of these issues into one claim that hate crimes legislation would somehow lead to pro-life members of the military being targeted. And even though this claim is utterly incoherent and fundamentally nonsensical, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see it get picked up by others in the right-wing echo chamber and quickly establish itself as part of the narrative.

More resources on hate crimes

People For the American Way has compiled a resource page on the hate crimes bill which includes links to several letters to Congress from progressive African American clergy debunking right-wing lies and calling for the bill’s passage.

Urgent Action: Senate Hate Crimes Bill Up For Vote As Soon As This Thursday!

from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force:

When hate crimes legislation passed in the House of Representatives, we knew it would only be a matter of time before we'd need you and all of our supporters to take action again — this time to help push this critical legislation through the Senate.

The Task Force has learned that the Senate may be voting on hate crimes legislation as soon as this Thursday as an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill.

That's why it's so important for you to make your voice heard now, before it's too late.

Call your senators right away to urge them to pass the hate crimes amendment without delay.

With your help, we can convince our senators to do the right thing. Once the amendment passes the Senate, it will go back to the House for approval. And once that's happened, it will be sent to President Obama for his signature. This means we are literally steps away from securing federal protection for the LGBT community from vicious attacks and hate.

But your senators need to hear from you. They need to know that you're holding them accountable for the passage of this bill. Every single one of us must act — and act now — to ensure that it is passed.

Please call right now and then urge everyone you know to contact their senators.

Thank you for taking action and for spreading the word.

Not In Our Town: The Legacy of Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder

Editor’s Note: Ten years ago, on July 1, 1999, Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder, a gay couple from Redding, California, were murdered by
white supremacists. Benjamin Matthew Williams and James Tyler Williams confessed to killing the couple because they were gay. The two brothers were also responsible for the 1999 Sacramento synagogue arson attacks. The Working Group documented the tragic loss and the remarkable response by the greater community to condemn hate violence and support the Matson and Mowder families. We asked Clea Matson, Gary’s daughter, to reflect on the couple’s legacy.

By Clea Matson for Not In Our Town:

It has been 10 years since my dad and his partner were murdered. It is so surreal to write those words, simply because I cannot believe that it has already been 10 years since my life changed so drastically, so suddenly, and in such an unexpected way. Even after such a significant amount of time, I still find myself, at times, feeling angry at the fact that my parents were robbed of such a large part of their lives, and that my family and I were robbed of them. But the person that I have become over the last 10 years has been so affected by this experience with loss, violence and hate, and there are things about the person that I’ve become – things that I have learned – that I am proud of.


Through my experience growing up in a place that I perceived to be not accepting of my family, and living through the events of the past 10 years, something that I have come to know is that an ability to feel empathy, or to pay enough attention to feel true empathy, is an essential ingredient to being truly tolerant (or “accepting,” as my mom would have said).

I have learned, and am learning, to be this observant. I realize now that people are hardly ever who they appear to be at first glance. I realize that there is so much behind the actions and statements of each and every person. At the time of my parents’ murders, I could not believe that anyone could see them only as symbols of something wrong with the world. To me, they were, and will always be, symbols of what can be right with the world. This is partly because of their determination to live their lives as they wanted and with whom they wanted, but mostly because of other things: because of how important their community was to them, and what great parents they were.

Soon after my parents’ death a friend gave me a small piece of paper with a famous quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., the one that ends with:

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that.”

Since then I have taken this on as a sort of motto to live by – a truth to make sure that I constantly remind myself of.

Clea Matson is pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Amsterdam

Watch video of Clea and her family featured in “Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here”:

Let's Prove That Love Conquers Hate

Judy Shepard lost her son Matthew to an anti-gay hate crime more than 10 years ago. Since then tens of thousands more Americans have been the victims of hate violence. Tell Congress it's time to act.

Check out FIGHT HATE NOW

GOP Hysterical Over Hate Crimes Bill Because It Would Protect Gay People

from Pam's House Blend:

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act was approved by the U.S. House 249 to 175. Virginia Foxx wasn't alone in her insane bigotry; the GOP fringe had their time on the floor to embarrass themselves, further driving the Republican party into the dustbin of history as the haven for extremists, eliminationists and know-nothings.

Check out this compilation from Think Progress of the parade of wingnuts, including Michele Bachmann, making asses out of themselves on the House floor. These members of Congress have been captured for eternity on video. Their grandkids are going to wonder what the hell was wrong with their kin when they see these hysterics.



REP MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): I feel that this hate crime legislation could be considered the very definition of tyranny.

REP. GRESHMAN BARRET (R-SC): This bill would inhibit religious freedom in our society -- a scary thought.

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): You think a pregnant mother does not deserve the protection of a homosexual? You think a military member doesn't deserve the protection of a transvestite?

REP. STEVE KING (R-IA): I, Mr. Speaker, oppose and I defy the logic of the people that would advocate for such legislation the very idea we could divine what goes on in the heads of people when they commit crimes.

But we can't just rail about the batsh*t Republicans. Guess who voted against the hate crimes bill from the Blue Dog Dem Hall of Shame?

Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA) who still hasn't learned his lesson
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)
Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Brad Ellsworth(Blue Dog-IN)
Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)


Positive reaction to the passage of the bill:

"All Americans are one step closer to protection from hate violence thanks to today's vote," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Hate crimes are a scourge on our communities and it's time we give law enforcement the tools they need to combat this serious problem."


"No one should face violence simply because of who they are," said Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. "This bill is a critical step to erasing the hate that has devastated far too many families."

Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund

"Our country is on the cusp of recognizing and responding to the reality of hate violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It is a national embarrassment that bigotry and ignorance have prevented enactment of substantive federal hate crimes legislation, but that goal is finally, truly, within our grasp.

"Laws embody the values of our nation, and through this legislation the House is clearly and unequivocally saying that America rejects and condemns hate violence against its people. The importance of this cannot be overstated, particularly in light of the toxic misinformation campaign that has been waged against the bill by right-wing forces who would rather see anti-LGBT crimes go unaddressed than have the words 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' appear alongside other protected classes in federal law.


"We thank all the House members who voted for this bill today. We urge the administration to help usher this critical legislation through the Senate, and for President Obama to then quickly sign the legislation, as he has signaled he will do."

People For the American Way President Michael B. Keegan:

"I applaud the House for passing this legislation. Hate crimes remain all too common in this county, and it's important that the federal government take strong stand to ensure that no one is subjected to the threat of violence because of who they are.

"I'm especially pleased that this bill contains strong First Amendment protections to ensure that no one's right to free expression will ever be affected by this law. All Americans have a right to live in safety, and all Americans have a right to speak, preach, and worship freely. This legislation helps ensure both of those goals.

"I want to thank the members of People For's African American Ministers In Action program who worked so hard to help pass this legislation. Their voices were crucial in pushing back against the dishonest attacks of those who wanted to derail this legislation.

"Now that the House of Representatives has acted, it's time for the Senate to do the same and send this bill to President Obama's desk."

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays:

"The critically important bill approved by the House today would give law enforcement officials a powerful weapon in battling the nearly 1,000 anti-gay and transgender hate crimes reported each year, and give victims and their families hope that our country will finally take serious steps to curb those attacks," said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG's executive director. "Too many families have lost a loved one to hate, and this bill would ensure that, moving forward, other families will be able to more easily seek, and find, justice in bias-motivated cases. This measure, which was supported by 31 attorneys general and more than 200 organizations from both sides of the political aisle, is long overdue and urgently needed. PFLAG families urge the Senate to quickly approve the measure as well, and send the bill to President Obama for his signature."

National Black Justice Coalition:

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) applauds the passage of H.R. 1913, Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, which would allow the federal government to work with state and local authorities to prevent and if necessary punish hate crimes to the fullest extent possible. The House passed the legislation by a vote of 249 to 175.

Congress passed the Act ten years after Matthew Shepard's hate-motivated murder, giving the federal government the authority to investigate, prosecute, and help local law enforcement crack down on hate crimes. NBJC is pleased at the passage of H.R. 1913 and urges our members and supporters to work to ensure that the Senate adopt the companion legislation S. 909 and send the bill to President Obama for his signature.

One in six hate crimes are motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity/expression bias. In 2003, Sakia Gunn, a 15-year old African American lesbian, was murdered in a hate crime in Newark, New Jersey. On the night of May 11, Gunn was returning from a night out in Greenwich Village, Manhattan with her friends. While waiting for the #1 New Jersey Transit bus at the corner of Broad and Market Streets in downtown Newark, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two men. When the girls rejected their advances, by declaring themselves to be lesbians, the men attacked them. Gunn fought back, and one of the men, Richard McCullough, stabbed her in the chest. Both men immediately fled the scene in their vehicle. After one of Gunn's friends flagged down a passing driver, she was taken to nearby University Hospital, where she died.

Another personal story begins to illustrate some of the unique experiences of Black SGL/LGBT victims of hate. Earlier this month a Colorado court convicted Allen Andrade of first-degree murder and a bias-motivated crime in the death of 18-year-old transgender woman Angie Zapata. It was one of the first times in the country that a state's hate crimes statute was used in the investigation and prosecution of an anti-transgender murder case.


NBJC would like to thank the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who stood up and supported this Act by speaking out on the House Floor: Al Green (TX), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Robert "Bobby" Scott (VA), and Donna Edwards (MD), along with Chairman John Conyers of Michigan for his leadership in introducing this legislation and ensuring its passage.

"On May 11th we will commemorate the 6th anniversary of the brutal murder of Sakia Gunn, a 15-year old African American lesbian from Newark, NJ. In her name and in the name of the countless others who have suffered at the hands of anti-gay bigots we celebrate this step toward ensuring justice," said H. Alexander Robinson, Executive Director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC).

African Americans continue to rank as the highest target for hate crimes while gays and lesbians are ranked third by total number of victims.

NBJC Deputy Director for Communications and Connecticut State Representative Jason W. Bartlett noted, "Having legal protection for LGBT individuals is a key component in helping to stem the tide of violence directed towards lesbian, gay and transgender Americans as a group. I am please to see that as a country, we will no longer turn our backs on our brothers and sisters."