The unhinged Mr. Staver - again

“With understanding comes the gentle kindness and common courtesy of using gender appropriate pronouns.”

Mat Staver, leader of the hate group Liberty Counsel is obsessed with all things LGBT. Rights and courtesies extended to LGBT people drive him to distraction. As I previously noted, Staver has come unglued over an Education Department  memorandum requiring people to use gender-appropriate pronouns. He sees this as an affront to his Christian beliefs.

Mr. Staver is also a Young Earth Creationist. Must we entertain the notion that the universe is less than 10,000 years old?

In Mississippi There Remain a Number of Options

As most of you have probably heard by now, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth District reversed and injunction issued by a lower court that prohibited Mississippi's HB-1523 from taking effect. At the same time they dismissed the case which is captioned Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant. The cased was dismissed because the plaintiffs lack standing. That means, rather than an actual injury (which is required by law) the Court found that the injury was prospective or hypothetical.

According to the panel:

Hate groups continue to assert that they are victims of SPLC

Guidestar's listing for Liberty Counsel is headed by this image

While hate group leaders maintain that the Southern Poverty Law Center is irrelevant, they seem to be considerably dismayed by the listing of their group.

Guidestar is now indicating nonprofit organizations designated as hate groups by SPLC. To put it mildly, this has upset some folks who love to embrace victimhood. Victims? These are the organizations that oppress LGBT people, Muslims, immigrants and others yet lack the introspection on the part of their leaders to cease the activities that invite the SPLC listing in the first place. Guidestar is providing information that might be important to people investigating nonprofit organizations.

Arts Not Parts

Irregular Labs (studio and think tank) has launched Arts Not Parts, a creative call to action in support of and solidarity with trans and gender nonconforming youth.

Speaking of Diminished Intellect ...

And by the way it's “judgment” — just one e

We can always count on the tag team of AFA's Charlie Butts and Greg Quinlan (of some obscure New Jersey hate group) to submit, for our entertainment and review, examples of their incapacity to grasp simple concepts.

On Wednesday at American Family Association's “news” blog, Butts writes: “Celebrating mental illness Jersey-style.” Mr. Butts is apparently proud of his employer's designation as a hate group because his headline refers to transgender children. AFA will be labeled a hate group in perpetuity.

No Major Religious Group Supports Denial of Service to Gays and Lesbians

The highly respected Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) has a new survey out Wednesday.

Some of the findings include:

• Not a single major U.S. religious group where a majority of members support denying service to same-sex couples. Fifty percent of white evangelical Protestants supported such service denial. That's the closest to a majority that they get. 42% of Mormons, 34% of Hispanic Protestants, 25% of black Protestants and 25% of Jehovah's Witnesses believe businesses should be allowed to deny services to same-sex couples.

Governor Rick Scott Has Broken His Promise to Protect LGBT People

One year ago, representatives of Equality Florida asked Governor Rick Scott to honor the victims of the Pulse massacre by taking action to reduce workplace discrimination. The expectation was that Scott would issue an executive order protecting state employees from discrimination and ensuring that taxpayer funds went to contractors who would not discriminate.

Workplace equality has a direct effect on reducing anti-LGBT violence. By working together diverse people find common ground. They realize that people are not defined by their sexual orientation or sexual identity. This would be a very good place for Governor Scott to influence his constituents in a positive way.

Hate Group Leader Exposes the Mediocrity of His Wit

The unhinged Mat Staver doesn't want students addressed by preferred pronouns. In an email to supporters he writes: “DOE Gets Failing Grade for So-called Transgender Student Memo.” At the risk of being pedantic, “DOE” is the abbreviation for the Department of Energy. The correct shorthand for the Department of Education is ED. Staver should know better. His take on how vulnerable children should be treated is similarly limited by ignorance.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a memo to public schools and teachers explaining that refusal to refer to so-called transgender students by their preferred pronoun or name could be grounds for an investigation.

Ryan T. Anderson & McHugh, Mayer and Hruz Promote the Transgender Catechism

At Heritage Foundation's blog, Ryan T. Anderson writes: “New Paper Says Puberty Blockers Aren’t the Answer to Gender Confusion.” The “paper” that Anderson is referring to is a piece at the New Atlantis which is nothing more than a pretentious Christian blog. Titled Growing Pains, the post was written by Paul W. Hruz, Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh. It is a literature review that is not peer reviewed and is subject to selective observation. The subtitle reads: “Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria.”

Should an Indiana Christian School Be Permitted to Discriminate - With Tax Dollars

Lighthouse Christian Academy of Bloomington, Indiana publishes an admissions brochure that says the school has the right to decline to enroll LGBT students. According to the brochure the LGBT “lifestyle” is prohibited by the Bible. The Lighthouse brochure states that the Bible does not allow homosexual, bisexual or “any form of sexual immorality” and if a student’s “home life” violates biblical rules, the school can deny them admission or expel them.

Restored Hope Network: Purveyors of Deceit and Dismay

Anne Paulk

This past weekend, Restored Hope Network, advocates of gay conversion “therapy,” held its annual conference at a San Diego church. The event was titled Hope 2017. This year's gathering even featured a supposed ex-transgender by the name of Linda Seiler.

Linda Seiler once had plans to have sex reassignment surgery, change her name to David, and live happily ever after. But God. Today, she is living the dream, content in a female body and wholly attracted to men. Linda shares candidly from her own struggles coupled with a strong Scriptural foundation and the latest scientific research regarding the origins of homosexuality and gender dysphoria.

NOM's Impressive Marriage March

NOM's marriage march on its arrival at the Supreme Court

Photo via Right Wing Watch

Right Wing Watch has the photos. Brian S. Brown and National Organization for Marriage have laid another rotten egg. Take away NOM staff and some curious onlookers and we wonder if anyone showed up for the 2017 March for Marriage.

Adding to the shame is the fact that they have been raising money off this silly event since at least May 1 with this missive from Mr. Reverse-Midas himself:

May 1, 2017:

…I'm writing to ask for your help with the upcoming 2017 March for Marriage, which is scheduled for Saturday, June 17th in Washington, DC!…

NOM gives supporters 36 hours to pony up

I just received the latest email money-grub from Mr. Misadventure, Brian S. Brown of National Organization for Marriage. It is titled: “...36 Hours to Save This.”

I hate to tell you this, but we are nearly $12,000 short of our $100,000 goal as we hit the final 36 hours of the Spring Matching Campaign. Once the campaign ends on Saturday night, that's it. Anything that we have failed to raise will be lost forever, and then some. If, for example, we fall $8,000 shy of the goal, that's $16,000 we will miss out on, never to get it back. We not only lose the $8,000 that wasn't contributed, we also lose the match of $8,000. The thought of losing out on that kind of money is heartbreaking, because I know how much good we can do for our cause if only we were fully funded.

An enviable effort by an Orthodox priest to look spectacularly stupid

The headline by Father Mark Hodges at LifeSiteNews: “‘Disgusting:’ McDonald’s introduces ‘gay pride’ fries, Christians call for boycott.” I have absolutely no idea why the word disgusting is in quotes. I will get to Hodges' bigotry but there's some preliminary business to take care of:

Personally I think that they should boycott McDonald's as well as all of the other companies that are supportive of fair treatment for LGBT people.

The first thing that they are going to have to do is to throw away their cell phones. Between Apple (iPhone) and Google (Android) there are no reasonable choices. Apple even has the temerity to employ an openly gay CEO. What kind of message does that send to impressionable children? How many kids choose to be gay in order to be just like Tim Cook? Hodges can probably supply us with a statistic.

Proof that there are some really crazy Jews too

Arthur Goldberg is an orthodox Jew and, by the way, a convicted felon (for a $2 billion security fraud). Goldberg did 18 months as a guest of the federal government. He got off light. Unable to deal with the fact that his son is gay, Goldberg was a co-founder of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing). JONAH was put out of business for consumer fraud.

Thursday Goldberg writes at Witherspoon Institute's pretentious, pseudo-intellectual blog: “Same-Sex Attraction and Therapy: It’s Time to Let People Choose.” As wrote earlier today, no scientist uses the term “same-sex attraction.” It is religious BS to liken being gay to something like a predisposition to abuse alcohol. The comparison is ridiculous and offensive.

Polemicist: Be very kind but that does not include trans and gay people

Circa 2013 photo of Vincent Weaver or
@ChastityMan via Twitter

Vincent Weaver has no bio at National Catholic Register. He seems to be a professional Catholic whose Twitter handle is @ChastityMan. Thursday, Weaver writes: “Be Kind, But Don't Kill People With Kindness.” The subtitle of this mess reads:

Jesus told us not to judge. But he also obligated us to address harmful behaviors and told us that “The Truth will set you free”.

Weaver's truth doesn't really mean truth. Not at all. Truth to Weaver means the uncritical acceptance of Church teachings in spite of the fact that many of those pronouncements are the product of Bronze Age beliefs. Other Church edicts reflect the opinions of priests and prelates who have no scientific training or experience.

What is most irritating about this and similar pieces is the author's proposition that he is an authority on human sexuality. What medical school did he go to?

Conforming Science to Scripture Infects More Than LGBT Rights

It is part of an intellectually dishonest mindset. People obsessed with religion work reason backwards. Rather than an hypothesis they start with a conclusion which they adopt as absolute truth because religious teachings and scripture are presumed to be inerrant. These folks are selective observation prodigies. It is how we end up with junk science. Junk science satisfies a need by offering something that people want to believe. Its accuracy and (oddly enough) probity are irrelevant. The people who produce the junk are either cynics

We are told that Michael J. New is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. Mr. New is not listed among the faculty at the political science department at University of Alabama. People associated with Witherspoon Institute are defenders of the faith (Witherspoon's head is an Opus Dei numerary).

LifeSiteNews is obsessed with LGBT people

Wednesday, Matthew Cullinan Hoffman is incensed that the New York Archdiocese of the Catholic Church is a bit more progressive than his personal tastes permit. Hoffman is a rather odd individual. An American, he lives in Mexico City and writes orthodox Catholic screeds for the faithful. Hoffman has seemingly surrendered whatever remains of this critical thinking skills to the Church.

Today's polemic is titled “‘Catholic’ LGBT ministries in New York run by gay drag queen, abortion advocate.” Among the tags that Hoffman has assigned is the pejorative term, “Gay Mafia.” Seriously. These imbeciles manage to alienate most of polite society and then they claim victimization over the well-earned ridicule that attaches to them.

Washington State Anti-LGBT Scam Redux

Joseph Backholm of Family Policy Institute of Washington seems to be stealing money — again. At issue is a initiative committee “Just Want Privacy” which is trying to end transgender accommodations in the state. This is their second time around. Last year the committee failed to get enough signatures for their initiative (I-1552) to be on the ballot.

Last year the committee provided someone by the name of Omah Ekott with $175,000 to gather signatures. Ekott does not appear to have an organization and he lives about 1,100 miles away in Fullerton, California. According to his LinkedIn profile he is the CEO and founder of “BarwOrC Ent. & Beat Club Clothing” for which the Secretary of State of California has no record (I tried various combinations).

The Klan Shows Up at a Pride Parade in Alabama

Pride parades are not a frequent occurrence in northwest Alabama. Gays are expected not to offend “normal” citizens with a display of their sexuality. Nevertheless, Pride parade participants in Florence, Alabama were shocked Sunday when the KKK showed up. According to Benjamin Newbern, executive director of Equality Shoals after the shock set in, attendees were embarrassed.

Alabama is a breeding ground for ignorance and hate. State law requires public schools to teach that homosexuality is a criminal offense.

Comment Cleanup

I finally have a working computer. While I try not to ban users I did ban one today (Stan) with a mass delete. Sorry for the delay and thank you all for flagging inappropriate content.

BTW an I7 with a solid-state drive flies.

I have much to do today to get back up to speed but I wanted to let you all know about the comment section. I greatly appreciate your participation.

Hate Group Leader Offers a Generous Helping of BS on White Bread

Tim Wildmon is either colossally  stupid or he thinks that his supporters are. Well, maybe it is a bit of both. According to Wildmon, in an email to supporters:

Target's dangerous policy of allowing men into women's dressing rooms has claimed another innocent victim of sexual voyeurism.

Just last week, in The Woodlands, Texas, a woman was sexually violated when a man freely entered the women's dressing room and began videotaping her trying on bathing suits.

A terribly sad anniversary

Today marks the first anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida. It is a sobering reality and memory. The carnage — 49 murdered, 53 injured — is too great for us to properly process. While the scale of the slaughter is difficult to adequately appreciate, it is all too easy to assign blame to one deranged individual.

John Colin Collette v. Archdiocese of Chicago

According to Christian media the the former music director lost his case against the Archdiocese of Chicago for discrimination. Collette was fired from Holy Family parish in Inverness in July 2014 after announcing his engagement to his partner on social media. He had been in the employ of the parish for 17 years as music director and director of worship.

We can create idiotic victims too

I have no sympathy for Brian Talbert. Talbert is the gay guy who was barred from having a float in the Charlotte Pride Parade because he is a Trump supporter. According to The Washington Post Talbert is a member of a group called Deplorable Pride. Evidently, Talbert is Deplorable Pride.

ACPissed ACPeds

Dr. Jack Turban

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) responds to an article in Psychology Today by Dr. Jack Turban. ACPeds is a minuscule, right wing Christian hate group that should not be confused with the real peer organization, The American Academy of Pediatrics. Needless to say, Turban's article is highly critical of ACPeds because they are at odds with medical science.

Hate Group Demonstrates Uncompromising Ignorance at Every Opportunity

At American Family Association's news blog Laurie Higgins (Illinois Family Institute) is again warning people about "pro-LGBT rules" adopted by Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services. They have not manufactured a victim — yet. Eventually they might find some poor schmuck in the employ of DCFS who will claim to be a Christian who has been discriminated against. At the moment, Higgins and Co. are trolling.

Priestly Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

Most of us can agree on what an "LGBT student" is. A student is someone attending school at some level and in this case they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Msgr. Andrew Cummings (out of Baltimore and currently at the Vatican) doesn't see things that way. "Truth," for Cummings, is defined by religious doctrine. Science, society and our very culture must conform to the catechism of the Catholic Church.

Bam-Bam and Elaine Donnelly Arise for a Hate Group

On its "news" blog, American Family Association is heaping praise on Trump for not acknowledging June as Pride Month. According to Chad Groening, writing for the hate group:

It's obvious that radical homosexual groups aren't happy that Donald Trump has thus far chosen not to celebrate June as "LGBT Pride Month" with an official proclamation, like Barack Obama did for several years. LGBT advocacy groups, while not surprised, are calling it "deeply disappointing."

... why they march

Brian S. Brown, on behalf of the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage, has sent out an email titled: ...why we March. According to Brown:

Someone asked me the other day why we are going to the time and trouble to expend substantial financial and human resources on the upcoming 2017 March for Marriage. It's a good question, and I have a simple answer: Because we must.

Hate Group Leader Exploits the Sad Death of a Child

Monday evening, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council took to his organization's blog with Gender Distortion and Tragedy. We can be spared several paragraphs of bloated prose with a summary of the circumstances:

Matt and Erin Georgia allowed their gender dysphoric daughter Jane to socially transition to their transgender son, Jay. Jay was in counseling but he ultimately killed himself. Gender dysphoric people are at risk for self-harm. It is a virtual certainty that Jay did not kill himself because of gender affirmation. There is overwhelming consensus in the mainstream medical community that:

ACPeds' OTHER Site

Monday at National Catholic Register Marcia Segelstein is extolling the virtues of the American College of Pediatricians, a designated hate group (not to be confused with the real peer organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics).  Segelstein's "logic" coincides with my post earlier in the day. She has adopted the notion that conformity with scripture offers reassurance, if not scientific truth.

The Methodology Behind a Pseudo-Intellectual "Eureka!"

At Witherspoon Institute's blog, one John Skalko explains human sexuality. We are told that Skalko is an adjunct professor at St. John’s Seminary and a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas. His post is titled “Why there are only two sexes.”

Witherspoon's blog — Public Discourse — is edited by Ryan T. Anderson. Apparently both Anderson and Skalkos are wed to the belief that a part-time instructor at a Catholic seminary in pursuit of a PhD in philosophy is qualified to inform us about sexuality. Why is that I wonder?

A new "expert" on gender identity

Doug Mainwaring

Note: This post is not as much about transgenderism as it is about the pervasive and pernicious penchant of conservative Christians to redefine science and reality. More and more I realize the portability of their bigotry. With few changes they can re-purpose anti-gay arguments or anti marriage equality arguments to become anti-trans arguments.

At LifeSiteNews.com, Doug Mainwaring writes: "Christians who reject transgenderism banned from adoption, working with children in Illinois." Apparently, conservative Catholics in the employ of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services must be permitted to impose their superstitions on the families and children in their care.

Trump managed to remember to forget that June is Pride Month

Trump has issued proclamations recognizing June as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, National Homeownership Month, Great Outdoors Month and National Ocean Month. If you are looking for some LGBT acknowledgment from this White House, don't hold your breath.

Oh that great friend of "the gays" isn't so friendly after all. We, our families and our allies greatly outnumber the conservative Christians but Trump knows that they pull levers. We were not quite as dependable - or President Clinton would be doing something wonderful for June.

Don't you just love when Christian crackpots make assertions about science?

Julaine Appling

Julaine Appling is with Wisconsin Family Action. She is also astonishingly confused about science, gender, sexuality and just about everything else that doesn't conform to scripture. Appling is distressed that a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a Wisconsin trans high school boy, Ash Whitaker.

Back to the gift for Brian S. Brown

Brian S. Brown, on behalf of National Organization for Marriage, writes:

We're now just over two weeks away from the critically-important 2017 March for Marriage, and I received some great news today that the Spring Matching Campaign will be extended through June 17th so that every donation we receive to support the March for Marriage will be matched dollar for dollar (up to a total match of $100,000)!

Saddleback's pedophile does not prove that gay men are a threat to children

Alleged pedophile Ruven Muhlenberg

According to the Orange County Sheriff's office, a Saddleback Church youth mentor — Ruven Muhlenberg — allegedly molested two young boys. I see that the Christian right is busy claiming that this demonstrates the depravity of gay men. Actually it demonstrates the depravity of Christian youth couselors.

ADF probably has a good case but their client is an obnoxious bigot

This matter involves Steve Tennes and Country Mill Farms, a fruit orchard in Michigan. In addition to selling fruit, Tennes uses the orchard to host weddings. He posted the following to Facebook: