Caught in a lie, Mat Staver simply repeats the lie

Mat Staver is apoplectic over being labeled a hate group leader. Aside from marginal mental hygiene the self-righteous Staver is probably the dumbest lawyer in America and a notorious bigot and a pathological liar. Staver, also a Christian supremacist, subscribes to the theory that repeating a lie will convince people that it wasn't a lie in the first place due to his sanctimony.

We begin on Wednesday, December 27:

Oregon bakers lose their appeal

Melissa and Aaron Klein of Sweet Cakes by Melissa

Thursday, Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, lost their case with the Oregon Court of Appeals. The Court sustained a $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake in 2013 for (now married) Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer.

The Court overturned, in part, a ruling that the Kleins violated the law by threatening to discriminate against gays in the future. However, that had no effect on the outcome or the award for damages.

Roy Moore's Official Pimp

I received an email from Janet Porter last night regarding Roy Moore's election certification challenge. It is written as if she is the official spokesperson for Roy Moore. Perhaps she is.

Moore, the disgraced former judge, alleges widespread voter fraud. Regardless of the language in the complaint, there are two reasons that Moore is asserting his allegations of fraud:

1. He lost and;
2. He prayed.

Just what the world needed - Another anti-SPLC website

William Owens is prominently featured in Expose SPLC's video.

Owens used to be on NOM's payroll. His Coalition of African-American Pastors was a NOM front group.

The new website is called Expose SPLC. About the only thing that is exposed is that anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim hate groups absolutely loathe being designated as hate groups by Southern Poverty Law Center.

The headline on the site reads “America’s #1 'Hate Group' Targets Conservative and Christian Organizations.” Along with a video and accompanying text, the gist is that:

1. These hate groups have been “targeted,” as in persecuted and;
2. The fact that groups are Christian means that they cannot possibly be hate groups.

A new NOM bomb - This stuff writes itself

Ah, yes, the latest missive from NOM. It is titled: “Help Us Finish 2017 Strong.” As you probably guessed, Brian S. Brown is asking for money — again. Here is the most endearing part:

This year has been one of amazing accomplishment for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). We've had incredible successes in every area of our work – public education, legal advocacy, and federal and state policy advancement. The landscape is decidedly better today for traditional values, for families and for supporters of true marriage than it was a year ago. NOM has played a significant role in that turn-around.

Bigoteria: Two cranks for sale or rent

Two enthusiastic bigots, Scott Lively and Mat Barber, begin the week's journey into the new year.

We start with Scott Lively who manages to combine his innate homophobia and anti-Semitism into a single expression of hate-filled Christian supremacy. Lively writes: “The Fake Jews Behind Fake News and the True Jews Whose Friends are Few.”

At one time or another, every anti-Semite has posed the defense that they love Jews. After all, they argue, Jesus was a Jew. Uh huh. Lively is no exception, combining the Jesus style with “some of my best friends …”:

Yes, Mr. Backholm - We are experiencing "gender hysteria"

Joseph Backholm (Family Policy Institute of Washington) is a Christian supremacist. He desperately wants the world to conform to his specific ideology. Backholm's familiar contortions preclude him from separating his belief system from evidentiary science.

Backholm has sent out an email Friday with the subject: “The Problem of Highly Rejecting Parents.”

Are you a Highly Rejecting Parent?

A lot of people are concerned about new policies being adopted in schools around the country dealing with gender.

Brian S. Brown endangers toddler

Brian S. Brown has sent out his organizational Christmas card to supporters. He needs to lay off that white bread. Were Brown's suit jacket button to pop off, it would be expelled from his girth with the force of a howitzer round. The child in Mrs. Brown's arms is in peril of being perforated. I must admit, however, that the kids are cute.

Seriously, though, this virtual card says a great deal about Brown. It is something that a trained professional would never send out because it substitutes the leader and his family for the organizations. L'etat c'est moi. If NOM and  IOF haven't sufficient staff for a photo (or they prefer not to be in one) then the organizations should use other art. Furthermore, combining the two organizations (linked by their leader) is a mistake. Each should have its own unique identity. Ultimately a quality-managed organization is detached from its leaders and particularly from the leader's family.

Priest: "Schools are now the breeding grounds for radicalizing kids into transgender activists"

Fr. Mark Hodges returns with his usual hate-filled rhetoric regarding LGBT people. The religious right defines an “activist” as an individual capable of independent thought. No other definition would be suitable for school kids who learn about gender. All activists are always radical according to the same folks.

Hodges has finally gotten around to an October 24 post at the venerable New York Times.

New York schools are intentionally promoting transgenderism to children, putting “Gender” studies alongside reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Is a hate group leader lying or just plain stupid? You decide

Kelvin Cochran, dismissed Atlanta fire chief has now had his discrimination claims demolished by a federal judge but you wouldn't know that
from the usual coterie of Christian supremacist organizations

The hate group leader I am referring to is Tim Wildmon of American Family Association. Yes, readers, he is probably full of crap and dumber than Roy Moore's horse. I will elaborate in order for you to decide.

At issue is an email from Wildmon with the subject: “A victory today for the First Amendment.” Wildmon continues:

Many of you remember when Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired because of his religious views on marriage and homosexuality. In late 2014, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed handed a pink slip to Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran purely on the grounds of Cochran’s faith.

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman - Keeping things lively

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman is another cultist with LifeSiteNews, an orthodox Catholic outlet obsessed with all things LGBT. Wednesday, Cullinan writes: “Vatican hires LGBT activist company to create and run new internet news platform.” He goes on with:

Eyebrows are being raised following the announcement that a Vatican official with strong ties to LGBT activists has hired an openly homosexualist digital marketing company to design and manage the Holy See’s new internet news service.

The latest pot of hate from General Jerry

One hate group reporting on the antics of another hate group.

Hate group activist, Jerry Boykin (Family Research Council)

Retired Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin never retires from being an obnoxious Christian supremacist when it comes to LGBT people. America Family Association reports that Boykin is urging Trump “to appoint federal judges who follow the U.S. Constitution.” What that really means is that Boykin wants judges who will make rulings in accordance with conservative Christian doctrine — something that is expressly prohibited by the Constitution.

Boykin will say, straight to your face that the Establishment Clause doesn't mean precisely what it says. According to Chad Groening, one of AFA's village idiots:

George W. Bush

Somewhere in my closet I still have a Buck Fush sweatshirt from circa 2004. I had enormous disdain for Bush because of the pointless and unnecessary war in Iraq. I am reading some history on our involvement in Afghanistan. Because of Iraq we had a grave insufficiency of troops and equipment in Afghanistan, including essential aircraft. People died because of it.

In further reading, Bush visited Walter Reed Medical Center. He took the time to console the wife of Army Captain Robert Yllescas, an immigrant from Guatemala who was in critical condition from an enemy RPG in Afghanistan. Bush was reportedly crying. Yllescas died a few days later.

The delusional continue to insist that Trump is a great friend to the LGBT community

According to Chad Felix Greene:

Trump is a unique figure because he has been a well-known media icon for decades and has long publicly supported LGBT rights. He is arguably the most pro-LGBT president ever to be elected and the first to openly support same-sex marriage upon election.

I will return to that in a moment. But first, Chad Felix Greene claims to be a conservative gay Jew from West Virginia who is HIV+.  Only The Federalist would provide a forum for Greene. I take that back. Ryan T. Anderson permitted Greene to post an anti-transgender piece at Witherspoon Institute's blog. Apparently it was sufficiently hateful to warrant Anderson's endorsement.

NOM poised for "Major Announcement" - "Send money"

I am quite certain that the major announcement from National Organization for Marriage will be something concocted by Brian S. Brown to supposedly justify more contributions from the gullible. It is unlikely to have anything to do with marriage. 

I am writing to let you know that we're on the cusp of making a major announcement in the next few days about a big new initiative we have planned for the new year – the launch of a program that will bring together all the major elements of our work: public education, grassroots engagement, judicial activism and policy advancement. I can't say much more right now, but I am very excited about this new approach!.

Robert Oscar Lopez claims that gays want to kill him

Robert Oscar Lopez describes his torturous self-loathing in some detail, particularly if one consolidates his prior anti-gay diatribes with his current offering.

Robert Oscar Lopez has a new piece out titled: “As an Ex-Gay Cradle Catholic, I Know the Devastation That Awaits Those Who Follow Fr. James Martin.” His is a lengthy and rambling polemic including:

I immersed myself in the gay world of New York. It was a world in which youth and beauty were weapons. Sexual freedom gave everyone license to manipulate and compete with each other. It was not Catholic guilt but cancer, my loss of a muscular physique, and my falling in love with a woman in 1999 that prompted me to break out of homosexuality. Because I’d never heard the priests or other Catholics I met take a biblical (or traditional Catholic) stand against the lifestyle that held me captive, I left that church in search of answers.

Once again the bishops harm children to defend the faith

Last Friday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a letter titled: “Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders.” Therein, they express the religious belief that people with gender dysphoria should not be treated through gender affirmation. They offer no real alternatives and they go well beyond religious doctrine.

Medical science is just that — science. I understand faith. There are some very smart people who are religious. As a nonbeliever I disagree with them and believe that faith has dangers associated with it. One of those dangers is present when people attempt to conform science to religious belief. When that occurs, faith becomes superstition.

Evangelical hate monger blaming other evangelicals for Roy Moore's defeat

At times March Creech, head of the Christian Action League in North Carolina, prefers “Dr.” Creech. Yet his educational background it noticeably missing from his biography. I wonder why that is. It has also been my experience that conspiracy theorists tend to be full of crap themselves. Mr. Creech is most assuredly a conspiracy theorists. Whenever something that he does not like happens, Creech knows who to blame.

In April, 2016 Creech blamed the Human Rights Campaign for allegedly smearing North Carolina. It couldn't possibly be the bigoted HB2 that Creech helped to promote (Creech is a registered lobbyist).

Hate group leader takes a victory lap again over a loss

Hate group leader and Christian supremacist, Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel), lives in a world of delusion. He actually believes that Kim Davis prevailed in her federal trial. Aside from the fact that she spent a few days in the hoosegow, Kentucky had to reimburse the ACLU for over $220,000 in legal fees (which go to the winner in litigation).

Staver is lucky that he did not lose his ticket over telling his client to disobey a federal judge. Davis, meanwhile, basically inherited her clerkship from her mother and employs her son in the office. She has to defend the office next November from David Ermold, one of the men denied a marriage license by Davis. It would be the ultimate fuck you from the voters to unseat Davis. Davis can probably get a job cleaning rooms at the local Motel 6. She does look the part.

If it's okay for the baker then how about this tax evader

Michael Bowman, 53, of Portland, Oregon says that the free exercise of his sincerely held beliefs prohibits him from participating in any way with what he calls “child killing. Therefore, he is refusing to pay taxes until the government stops promoting the “murder of babies” with his income taxes.

Bowman, a self-employed software developer, has claimed a conscientious objection to funding abortions since 1997. He has asked both state and federal authorities to exempt him from the portion of taxes that support abortion.

Austin Institute demonstrates a commitment to scholarship bankruptcy

Austin Institute was formed circa 2012. The IRS tax-exempt ruling is dated June, 2013. Mark Regnerus was one of the founders (page five, starting at line 18 [under oath]). Interestingly, one of the organization's board members and co-founder of Austin Institute is Luis Tellez. Tellez, an Opus Dei numerary, was one of the founders, along with Robert P. George, of National Organization for Marriage, Witherspoon Institute and the American Principles Project.

California has a baker-bigot

Our nitwit du jour

This week California sued a Bakersfield baker asking the state superior court to enjoin the shop from discriminating against gay couples. The action is against Cathy’s Creations dba Tastries and its owner, Cathy Miller.

Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe rejected a motion for a restraining order on Thursday. Judge Lampe has scheduled a hearing for February 2 to entertain a motion for a preliminary injunction. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed both motions ex parte on behalf of a lesbian couple who claim they were denied a wedding cake.

American College of Pediatricians remains minuscule

	American College of Pediatricians	American Academy of Pediatrics
Purpose	Christian organization	Professional peer group
Membership	200	60,000
2016 Revenues	$110,696	$121,251,130
Chapters	0	50

It has been some time since I last compared American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) with the real professional peer group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. Not much has changed. AAP still has more than 1,000 times the revenues of ACPeds. Yet ACPeds is still capable of creating confusion, much of which is willful.

Please remember our incompetence and ineptitude this holiday season

National Organization for Marriage has sent out an email Thursday with the subject line of [first name], please remember us this holiday season. I guess that depends upon how they wish to be remembered. What, exactly, have they accomplished in 2017 other than to provide me and others with blog fodder?

Brian S. Brown is as shameless as Frank Gallagher:

Some sanctimonious BS from Bill May over marriage equality

William B. May

Bill May (Catholics for the Common Good Institute) is terribly distressed over events in Australia. So much so that he revisits the entire issue of same-sex marriage. The result is an email that reads like something from National Organization for Marriage circa 2012.

We wonder why people keep making the same arguments over and over to protect marriage, and expect a different result. In Australia, as in the United States before, the issue became a referendum on "same-sex marriage" and discrimination. There was never any intention of putting "same-sex marriage" in the law. In fact there is no such thing in any law in any country. Instead, the word "marriage" has been redefined to separate it from its reality.

A sad goodbye (for now) to Firefox

For the first Time since the release of Red Hat 8.0 in 2002¹, a Mozilla release is not my default browser. It's not that I am crazy about Google Chrome but it is significantly faster over Fedora 27 and a number of pages that do not open in Firefox do open flawlessly in Chrome. The same is true if I deactivate all of my extensions. I am sure that there are folks with different experiences.

The folks at Mozilla have also been intent on imposing certain policies. The most recent release of Firefox disabled a number of extensions I relied upon. Those should have been retained as “legacy” add-ons. This created considerable inconvenience.

This hate group leader is ineducable

Hate Group Leader Tim Wildmon (American Family Association) is presumably conversant in regard to the New Testament. When it comes to finance and the nation's equity markets, Wildmon is just a Mississippi rube who inherited his position from his father.

Wildmon is inextricably wed to the notion that his group is damaging Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT). Yet, since it reported disappointing fourth quarter results last February, the company has consistently delivered results exceeding expectations. Target shares are trading at a nine month high and the dividend yield exceeds 4%.

License-to-discriminate introduced in Florida House to nakedly advance a political career

Jacksonville Rep. Jay Fant wants to be Florida's next attorney general.

His campaign has mystically transformed the state legislator

into a holier than thou defender of the faith.

There is nothing very original about Florida House Bill 871, cynically titled The Free Enterprise Protection Act. Its original author is someone at Alliance Defending Freedom (an anti-LGBT hate group). The text is modeled after the federal First Amendment Defense Act that never got out of committee. Introduced by Rep. Jay Fant (R-Jacksonville), HB 871 discriminates in the guise of religious freedom. It would nullify existing nondiscrimination laws affecting public accommodations, employment, housing, insurance and even medical care. It renders municipal nondiscrimination ordinances unenforceable. It is so broadly worded that virtually no business activity can be deemed discriminatory.

In case you haven't had your fill of sophistry today I present Michelle Cretella

Michelle Cretella - "No better than a shaman"

Michelle Cretella is president of American College of Pediatricians, the little hate group that should, evaporate. Cretella, really a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has a post that has been making the rounds through the sanctimony echo chamber. It is titled “American Academy of Pediatricians Pres. Tells What She Did When Young Boy Said He Was a Girl.”

Before I go any further there are several reasons why “what she did” (if she really did it) are irrelevant:

Another helping of gay gene crackpottery

Bradley Eli

Bradley Eli has an M.Div. The process of obtaining an advanced degree (even in divinity) should have refined his critical thinking skills, stimulated his intellectual curiosity and created a respect for intellectual honesty. Either the process failed, the (unknown) institution failed or Mr. Eli failed because none of the three are present in his essay titled: “NO SCIENCE BEHIND ‘GAY GENE’ THEORY.”

I have been unable to determine exactly who formulated this gay gene theory that Eli is referring to. About the only people who seem to theorize about a so-called gay gene are people who claim that it does not exist. Moreover, there is considerable scientific evidence that genetics play some role in the formation of sexual orientation. For the record, there are no identifiable genes corresponding even to race (it's a very lengthy discussion that I will not get into). Yet race is clearly genetic.

The craziest argument yet in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop

Every hate group has a propagandist like Peter Sprigg

Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council's “expert” on all things LGBT has a legal theory. It starts with a familiar argument. Dumb but familiar:

Now, before discussing the question of whether “discrimination” based on “sexual orientation” is the same as racial discrimination, let me state my own view that refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding does not constitute discrimination based on “sexual orientation” at all. Phillips’ principal objection stems primarily from his religious beliefs about the definition of marriage (that it is inherently a union of one man and one woman) and his beliefs about the appropriate boundaries of sexual conduct (that it should only take place in the context of a marriage so defined). This has nothing inherently to do with the “sexual orientation” of the individuals involved.

GOD PREVAILED IN ALABAMA!!!

Yahooie!!

On Monday, Roy Moore presumed (as did I) that he would win Alabama's special election. Moore told supporters:

It’s God’s will whatever happens, so we’re expecting God to do whatever he does will be the right thing to do.

Moore restated this claim Tuesday evening when he refused to concede to Doug Jones. The disgraced former jurist is now in a rather tight spot. If he is truly as pious as he claims to be he must admit that God prefers Doug Jones and that God did the right thing.

Oppressing gays while simultaneously claiming victim-hood

Father Mark Hodges

An irresponsible headline at LifeSiteNews reads: “Christians fear retribution for opposing same-sex ‘marriage’ in Australia.” The author is Orthodox priest, Mark Hodges. Here he is complaining about how Christians are treated. Yet Hodges insists on the petty quotation marks around the word marriage — as if that changes anything related to the legal recognition of civil marriage. In that regard, our marriages are as good as his marriage (yes, he is a married priest).

According to Hodges:

Christians in Australia who uphold the sanctity of one-man, one-woman marriage are feeling threatened after the country legalized same-sex “marriage” last week.

A new whopper from Mat Staver

Hate Group Leader Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel) outlining his group's accomplishments during 2017:

We defended ninth-grade students in a Tampa public school where the pro-LGBT teacher bullied them by removing their small cross necklaces, placing rainbow stickers on their books, displaying a large button that read, "I Love My LGBT Students," and punishing those who objected.

ADF developed a stable of anti-LGBT "expert" witnesses

Dr. Paul Hruz (L) and Dr, Allan Josephson - Part of an anti-LGBT
panel at a Heritage Foundation presentation

Alliance Defending Freedom has been holding conferences to cultivate anti-LGBT expert witnesses. Far from experts, these crackpots are at the medical fringe and at odds with their own professional organizations.

ADF has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBT agenda which includes advocating for state-sanctioned sterilization of transgender people.

A new Christian enterprise's site reads like The Onion

Matt Barber and Gordon Klingenschmitt have partnered for a new venture called Christian Civil Rights Watch — Fighting for True Civil Rights. Before I get to the goodies, there is this bit of BS on their site to contend with:

In case you cannot read it, that last line says: “CCRW is a national, non-profit 501c3 charity authorized for tax-deductible donations.” It is none of those things. Neither Christian Civil Rights Watch nor CCRW are national, a 501(c)3 or “authorized for tax-deductible donations.”

The telephone number is Barber's and the address is Klingenschmitt's Persuade the World Ministries, a 501(c)3 with 2016 revenues of $1.4 million. When I finish writing this, I'll have a missive for the IRS. Klingenschmitt's tax return, by the way, is incomplete.

Witherspoon poseurs urge Trump to counter 'transgender ideology' in public schools

Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins

We are informed that Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins are senior fellows with the American Principles Project. APP was co-founded by Robert George and Luis Tellez, an Opus Dei numerary. The two were co-founders of Witherspoon Institute and National Organization for Marriage.

APP has a long history of anti-LGBT bigotry. In 2009, for what it called “The Innocence Project,” George recorded a video claiming that Kevin Jennings, an Obama appointee to the U.S. Department of Education, posed a threat to children because Jennings is gay. American Principles Project has tried to scrub that from their site but we have long memories.

Moore: The outcome of the election is 'God's will'

Roy Moore (in costume) would be holding a Bible in his left hand
were it not grasping a microphone

Alleged pedophile, Roy Moore, has now claimed that what happens in his Senate race is up to God:

Nice to see everybody. We’ve got one more day and then the election. We’re looking forward to it. It’s God’s will whatever happens, so we’re expecting God to do whatever he does will be the right thing to do. This election is probably as big as any election has been.

Cardinal living illusory life claims that same-sex marriage ‘denies reality’

Cardinal of Vienna Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert, Count of Schönborn

There is something very strange about a celibate Austrian prelate, who is also a count of a former principality of the Holy Roman Empire, living in a palace, dressed in silks and expecting obedience claiming that anything else denies reality. However that is precisely what the Cardinal of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn has done in response to to the legalization of same-sex marriage by Austria's Constitutional Court.

Has Jewish gay conversion therapy returned to New Jersey?

Arthur Abba Goldberg circa 2014

Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) was put out of business through the efforts of Southern Poverty Law Center. It seems to have reconstituted itself in violation of a permanent injunction. In the way of brief review, JONAH was founded by Arthur and Jane Goldberg with Theodore and Elaine Berk. Both couples had gay sons. Both couples still have gay sons. Southern Poverty Law Center was instrumental in putting JONAH out of business.

We have long memories - What goes around comes around

Jim Noble in one of his restaurants

via Todd Sumlin - Charlotte Observer

Jim Noble, chef, restaurateur and Baptist minister plans to open a barbecue restaurant called Noble Smoke Charlotte. In 2015 Noble was one of only two public accommodations to sign onto a letter authored by Alliance Defending Freedom opposing Charlotte's nondiscrimination ordinance. ADF is a designated hate group.

City Councilwoman LaWana Mayfield signed onto something of a different sort:

Washington Times polemicist incorrectly claims that parents defeated trans education guidance

The Washington Times is controlled by a toxic cult

Cheryl K. Chumley at the Washington Times will repeat just about anything from the right wing and Christianist echo chambers without independent verification. How we treat transgender and gender nonconforming kids is far more important than Chumley or her factual errors. Chumley's opinions in that regard are as absurd as her factual incompetence. I will deal with both.

Friday, Chumley writes: “Delaware parents show teeth and halt gender self-ID in tracks.” That is incorrect. The only thing that ended is the comment period on Regulation 225 which, among other things, addresses the needs of trans youth. According to the Delaware Education Department on December 5:

Marriage equality comes to Australia on Saturday

The people voted. Parliament voted and Governor-General Peter Cosgrove has signed the marriage equality bill into law on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, Australia's constitutional head of state. Same-sex marriage is legal in Australia as of tomorrow.

Gay couples who married overseas will have immediate recognition of their marriages. Marriage in Australia requires a calendar-month in advance notice. Therefore, same-sex weddings will start taking place on January 9, 2018.

According to Austin Ruse Gay People Imperil Western Civilization

There are things I like about Austin Ruse. Believe it or not, he is a very caring and decent man who is well read, respectful of others and worldly. Ruse seems willing to judge LGBT people as individuals who happen to be LGBT. However, he has an existential fear over a perceived nefarious agenda — to the boundless extremes of dread.

It is that extreme irrational fear that comes across in an interview with Church Militant.

1st Lesson AFA: Transgender is an adjective - not a noun

“An impulsive and incurious Trump is a bigger threat to our security and safety than transgender troops.”

Needless to say, American Family Association's message of hate is worse than its faulty grammar. It is, after all, a designated Hate Group. Thursday they are bent out of shape over transgender military personnel.

A year after former President Barack Obama initiated the practice of recruiting and accepting transgenders into the United States military – and just five months after Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump told the Pentagon transgenders would not be allowed into the Armed Forces in any capacity, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday that it is preparing to accept transgenders on New Year’s Day.

Ryan Scott Bomberger doesn't get enough credit for his bigotry

Ryan Scott Bomberger's own expression of ego

On Thursday Ryan Scott Bomberger writes: “Sorry, ACLU. Gay is not the new black.” I am delighted that Mr. Bomberger wants to provide a history lesson but he is rather loud — out-sized — in contrast to the size of the Radiance Foundation which he and his wife Bethany run. 2015 revenues were $154 thousand and it ended the year with net assets of $11 thousand.

Bomberger's intent has less to do with history than his ambition to create that proverbial wedge between the black and gay communities. The intent is to undermine LGBT rights. The reasons for doing so are less relevant and less evident than Bomberger's objective.

One-third of evangelicals say that Trump could do nothing to lose their support

According to research released Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), white men, those without a college degree and white evangelicals continue to be the president's strongest supporters. Too bad the rest of us didn't all vote.

Nearly one-third of white evangelicals said that there is “almost nothing President Trump could do to lose my approval.” Those folks are our country's keenest critical thinkers. In fact, 37% of Trump supporters claim that there is nothing Trump could do do lose their support. They are wizards.

Win or lose at the Supreme Court we have work to do

American Family Association pitched a fit when a local equality organization started to provide these stickers to fair-minded Mississippi businesses.

At Think Progress Ian Millhiser writes: “LGBTQ rights just had a horrible day in the Supreme Court — There are almost certainly five votes for the anti-gay cake baker Jack Phillips.”

The transcript of oral arguments is here. You can judge for yourself. I am far more optimistic than Ian but let us assume, for the moment, that we lose this case. What do we do?

A must-have 'come-to-Jesus' moment for every 'victim'

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The death-determined taxi drivers of Bangkok sit kind of side-saddle. They will explain in passable English  that they are leaving room for Buddha who is the real driver of the vehicle. 

Speaking of gods and cars, a post to Charisma is quite informative. It is titled: “The Amazing Moment the Colorado Baker Suddenly Started Serving Christ.”

Amazing indeed:

I suggest not trying to read the tea lives

Whatever is going to happen in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado is going to happen. We will probably have to wait until late June. Yes, I have seen some tweets suggesting that Justice Kennedy was adversarial to our interests. I have seen and read coverage that is more ambiguous. Amy Howe at Scotusblog offered some additional insight:

But even if there are five votes in favor of Masterpiece, it’s not clear how or whether the justices will draw a line that respects the religious beliefs of people like Phillips without opening up a Pandora’s box that, as Justice Stephen Breyer put it, could “undermine every civil rights law since year 2.”

My search for the most intellectually dishonest polemic about the bigoted baker

Arguments in favor of  the bigoted baker are apparently on sale at impressive discounts. Robert P. George and Sherif Girgis got to make their all too familiar case at the New York Times. They can certainly do better than:

Our point is not that forcing people to sell a product or service for an event always compels them to endorse the event. It’s that forcing them to create speech celebrating the event does. And it’s well-established that First Amendment “speech” includes creative work (“artistic speech”) ranging from paintings to video games.

FRC'sPeter Sprigg hasn't so much as a shred of decency when it comes to trans people

Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg writes on Monday: “Remembering Mike Penner.” Penner was a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times. At the age of 50 Penner transitioned to female “Christine Daniel.” Penner committed suicide on November 27, 2009 at the age of 52.

Mr. Sprigg, a Baptist minister, works for an anti-LGBT hate group. He is at least partially responsible for that designation. He is personally responsible for making life more difficult for LGBT people. Mr. Sprigg can shove his phony remembrance of someone with gender dysphoria where the sun does not shine. It is disgraceful. Sprigg is a disgrace. Penner wrote, in The Times: