Oh, Poor John Stemberger

John Stemberger has spent the better part of the last few years engaged in bigoted, anti-gay endeavors. Now he is complaining about some alleged hate mail. According to an email to supporters sent out today:

For the past 24 hours, my team and I have received a barrage of hateful and ugly emails, Facebook posts, and Tweets calling us a variety of unsavory names, all in response to the filing of the two lawsuits yesterday.

Unsavory? This is the jerk who started an alternative to the Boy Scouts just so his kids didn't have to be around gay boys. Stemberger is also the idiot trying to prevent same-sex couples from getting hitched for no articulated reason. Poor fucking John Stemberger. These nuts are always claiming to receive hate mail and death threats. When it comes to actual violence, however, it seems that they are never on the receiving end. Doesn't it?

Stemberger and Staver file preemptive lawsuit in Florida

John Stemberger's Florida Family Policy Counsel and Mat Staver's Liberty Council have joined forces in an attempt to slow the progress of equality in the Sunshine State. It's the American Way. They have filed suit in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Orlando which covers Orange and Osceola counties. One lawsuit was filed against Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Ninth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Bob LeBlanc. A second lawsuit has been filed against Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez in Kissimmee.

About that tacky Christmas card Mr. Brown

Brian Brown, head of National Organization for Marriage, continues to demonstrate his utter lack of organization-development skills. NOM's Christmas card included the following image (cropped):

It looks like Mrs. Brown is working on number nine. But I digress. An organizational Christmas card is supposed to show a picture of the team (the folks who actually work at NOM) and not the president's family. NOM is not this guy's wife and kids. Just another example of Brown's less than stellar leadership of this anti-gay hate group. Amateur.

Stemberger laments the inevitability of marriage equality in Florida

In an email to supporters on Friday John Stemberger, head of Florida Family Policy Council, claims that courts have dealt the citizens of Florida a “cruel blow” by effecting marriage equality. He vows to support and advance marriage discrimination in perpetuity.

NOM's new tasteless money-beg

Mr. Reverse Midas himself

The folks at National Organization for Marriage have outdone themselves (at least this calendar quarter) for tastelessness. A missive authored by Brian Brown (or a paid flack) is titled “A Reflection.” Brown starts off with the usual, and expected, self-righteous devotional:

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. It's a time of family and celebration. And it's a time of reflection — looking back at the past year and looking forward to the new.

Recently, reflecting on the story of the birth of Christ, I realized something...

When Jesus came into the world, it was with nothing. No money. They had to move to a new city. His father, Joseph, had to start a new business. They didn't even have a home to stay in as he came into our world.

Wow. Really? This rapidly devolves into:

NOM asks for money to oppose David Koch

In a blog post today, National Organization for Marriage acknowledges that one of the GOP's largest donors and bundlers is a proponent of marriage equality. According to Brian Brown:

I have to let you know exactly what we're up against.

Recently, the news reported that David Koch—the conservative boogeyman of the left—will be interviewed by ABC's Barbara Walters for her "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014" special scheduled to air on Sunday.

In the interview, he unequivocally states, "I'm basically a libertarian, and I'm a conservative on economic matters, and I'm a social liberal." It harkens back to a 2012 Politico article where he said, "I believe in gay marriage," pointing out that he openly supported legal abortion as a Libertarian party candidate in 1980.

NOM Appealing Decision on Legal Fees

National Organization for Marriage has filed notice that they intend to appeal a circuit court decision denying them recovery of $691 thousand in legal fees incurred in their suit against the IRS. John Eastman must need some money.

h/t Fred Karger

ActRight Action (Brian Brown's other enterprise) is now more than a half million dollars in the hole

Does this man suffer from Reverse Midas?

In 2012 ActRight Action (founded by NOM's Brian Brown) lost $277 thousand. Now we know that, for 2013, ARA lost an additional $291 thousand. In case you did not already know, Mr. Brown is not exactly a business genius. At the end of 2013, his venture had a negative net asset value of more than $519 thousand. Along with comparable negative working capital the organization was (and probably is) essentially insolvent.

The GOP's Shameful Defense of Michigan's Right-to-Discriminate Bill

Last week, the Michigan House passed what it cynically calls the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The obvious intent is to suggest that Michigan is simply enshrining federal code into state law and that is simply not the case.

The first point that the Michigan House Republican Caucus makes in their rather shabby defense of the bill is to point out:

The MiRFRA, like its federal counterpart, provides no new rights to people of faith to refuse service to LGBT people.

Oh so just existing rights to discriminate are protected? The simple fact is that this law is intended to nullify local non-discrimination ordinances. Moreover, the Michigan version is not just an incorporation of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. For starters, the federal act was not intended to justify discrimination against the LGBT community while that is the very purpose of the Michigan bill. In order to ensure that religious whack jobs don't have to do things like hire us or serve us, the Michigan bill has some clear differences. For example, when it comes to the exercise of religion, here is the federal definition:

Just on a brief hiatus

The Frog has not croaked.

I'll be back on Monday. Fred Karger was a welcome visitor to South Beach this past weekend. We had a long and interesting lunch on Sunday. Two cranky old Jewish queers.