The next time Jennifer Roback Morse moans about SPLC ...

Jennifer Roback Morse has done a great deal of whining lately about her Ruth Institute being designated a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center. Rather than addressing the issue, Morse seeks to delegitimize SPLC's designation. She certainly has not modified her hateful behavior as evidenced by an email from her today with the subject: Growing up with a trans dad. She cannot help herself:

When I was at Mass Resistance's "Teens4Truth" conference in Texas this past November, I met Denise Schick and learned her heart-breaking story of growing up with a transgender father.

Now he is claiming that NOM has influence over the makeup of the Supreme Court

According to Brian S. Brown: “One Retirement Away.” Most of you can complete the wishful thinking from there.

Reason, logic, veracity and honesty no longer matter when one is a fundamentalist Catholic trying to get people to donate to National Organization for Marriage. I suppose that I might give Mr. Brown some credit for trying but sending out emails asking for money doesn't take much thought.

FRC's General Jerry demonstrates the point - Creating anger and fear to open wallets

“Zeig …”

Earlier today I wrote about how the cynical religious right raises funds off of manufactured persecution. They do this by making people angry and fearful through the mis-characterization of events. This then spills over into nonacceptance of LGBT people.

I received an email from Family Research Council's Executive VP Jerry Boykin. It is titled: “Christian bakers lose court appeal.” It is about Aaron and Melissa Klein. Poor them. They were sanctioned for refusing to serve a gay couple. They seem to believe that fundamentalist Christians are entitled to exemptions to laws that everyone else is required to obey.

Regarding GLAAD's report showing an "alarming" decline in LGBT acceptance

GLAAD has released its annual report: Accelerating Acceptance 2018. GLAAD notes:

For the first time, the 2018 Accelerating Acceptance report found a decrease in acceptance of LGBTQ people. As in previous years, this year's report examines issues such as comfort levels around LGBTQ individuals, reports of LGBTQ discrimination, and support for equal rights.

I do not doubt the findings and agree that it is troubling. I have an hypothesis as to the elements of what I think and hope is a temporary decline in acceptance of LGBT people.

Ed Whelan doesn't get it because he refuses to get it

Ed Whelan is a smart guy. However, Whelan can demonstrate unimaginable ignorance, presumably in service to his religion. Today Whelan writes:

2014—By a vote of 5-1, the Maine supreme court, purporting to reconcile two statutes, rules that a public school is required to allow a “transgender girl”—that is, a boy who identifies as a girl—to use a girls’ bathroom.

You won't believe the latest "slight" that has con Christians whining

The masses in South Beach worshiping the sun

No one enjoys persecution more than a conservative Christian and no one enjoys whining about persecution more than a conservative Christian. Furthermore, to abet a desire to discriminate against people they do not approve of, it is constantly necessary to feed the narrative that Christians are under withering attack.

The latest foe of Christendom is Google Home. That's right, Google's voice response bot. According to the marginally sane set at Charisma (via Will Maule at Faithwire):

NY court upholds lesbian couple's parental rights - Nixes paternity challenge

On Thursday a New York appellate court ruled that a sperm donor to a lesbian couple was not entitled to a paternity test.  Justice Robert Mulvey wrote, for a unanimous panel:

Testing in these circumstances exposes children born into same-gender marriages to instability for no justifiable reason other than to provide a father-figure for children who already have two parents. This would be indefensible, and not warranted by the facts adduced at the hearing. Further, it would undermine the ‘compelling public policy of protecting children conceived via AID [artificial insemination by donor].

A reminder that AFA is as anti-Muslim as they are anti-LGBT

Hate Group Leader Tim Wildmon of American Family Association

American Family Association should never complain about being designated a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center. Once again AFA is using their phony news blog to assert that Islam and Muslims present a threat to Christianity and Christians. They also try to discredit Islam by questioning whether or not Islam is a religion in the same way that Christianity is a religion.

Their Bill Bumpas (I won't state the obvious) writes:

According to the leader of a major network of pastors in the United States, the growing Muslim population in America should be a major concern for Christians.

Kentucky Governor Bevin declares a day of prayer in the wake of deadly school shooting

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signs a prayer proclamation as a
substitute for common-sense gun safety initiatives.

The butcher's bill from Tuesday's shooting at Marshall County High School in Kentucky includes two dead; another 21 injured. In the aftermath of every shooting people pray. And then there is another shooting. To this survivor of gun violence it is infuriating.

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin is part of the “thoughts and prayers” caucus:

I want to encourage this community to do what it’s doing, which is pray. I also want to encourage every single faith-based organization, church, house of worship, everyone this Sunday to pray for Marshall County.

Brian S. Brown finds more reasons to ask for money

National Organization for Marriage's latest attempt to get some hand-outs is titled: “Arrested for praying in America.” Of course no one was arrested for praying. Brown should know better. Perhaps he does. He goes on to write:

Not too long ago, a teenager in Tennessee who wanted to deliver a prayer at graduation was threatened by the school principal with being physically removed from the ceremony and arrested.

The alleged incident happened in 2011. The source of the information is none other than Todd Starnes who seems to have gotten it from hate group leader Tony Perkins who came across the information in 2017. We have no idea what really happened or if anything happened at at all but I can say that people are allowed to pray. What they are not allowed to do is to lead an assembly of students in prayer.

The craziest polemic of the week leads us to some sound research

Dr. Andre Van Mol - Loony of the week

I find sexuality science absolutely fascinating, particularly when it involves how clinicians deal with children. To get there I first have to deal with some religious dogma and how it improperly shapes the way that some doctors treat kids. It is both sad and infuriating. So bear with me. I will get to the good stuff.

Andre Van Mol, MD is a nutty physician in the lovely city of Redding California. Van Mol is a 1986 graduate of the inconsequential Medical College of Wisconsin — one of a handful of medical schools refusing to fill out a US News statistical summary. Perhaps the most important thing about the unremarkable Van Mol is that he is co-chair of the American College of Pediatricians’ (ACPeds) Committee on Adolescent Sexuality.

Katy Faust pops up at a Washington legislative committee

Katy Faust on Australian television. It would appear that Faust did not particularly like the question she was asked.

Having recently failed to deter marriage equality in Australia, Katy Faust, a resident of Seattle, showed up to testify in opposition to revisions to Washington's Uniform Parentage Act. She even wrote about her testimony at LifeSiteNews claiming “I told you so.” The bottom line is that she wants, for religious reasons, to prevent gay couples from raising children. She claims that her reasoning is secular. I claim to have X-Ray vision.

Faust attempts to make a secular argument about what is best for a child but, at the end of the day, she is an evangelical conservative Christian who is married to a conservative Christian pastor. Growing up, Faust's parents divorced. Her mother, who then partnered with another woman, had sole custody. Although Faust claims to have a good relationship with her father I suspect that was not the case during her childhood. Ultimately, Faust has “Daddy” issues in conjunction with her religious disapproval of gay people. She has never gotten over the divorce.

Robert Oscar Lopez and a new lack of civil restraint

I am in the process of writing something about Katy Faust which diverted into seeing what Robert Oscar Lopez is up to. Turns out that Bobby is still writing virulently bigoted anti-gay pieces on his English Manif blog. His polemics seem to be far more Christiany and considerably more rabid than in the past. Perhaps that reflects the fact that he left Cal-State Northridge and is now at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He is no longer restrained by polite society and there seems to be something in the Texas water supply.

Apparently Lopez believes — and asserts — that homosexuality is a contagion that wickedly spreads through society. His latest essay is titled: “Mapping the Swamp: Sodom and Contagion.” It is a somewhat verbose exercise in theology mixed with sociology. I will just quote from two paragraphs:

On another Liberty Counsel matter

About two weeks ago I submitted a FOIA request to the Internal Revenue Service relative to Liberty Counsel obtaining religious organization status. Liberty Counsel is now not required to file an annual report with the IRS and Congress has made it very difficult to subject them to audit. They can operate in total secrecy.

Liberty Counsel's idiotic suit against Guidestar has finally been dismissed

Hate Group Leader Mat Staver
"Mad Man Mat"

It took several months but on Tuesday Federal District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson for the Easter District of Virginia dismissed Liberty Counsel v. Guidestar USA. The only thing disappointing about what was a foregone conclusion is that the judge did not sanction Liberty Counsel's lawyers for vexatious litigation. He could have. He should have.

Liberty Counsel concocted a Lanham Act claim which is really reserved for trademark infringement because Guidestar dared to flag certain nonprofit organizations as Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate groups. Mat Staver hates the fact that people call Liberty Counsel a hate group. Nevertheless, Liberty Counsel is a rabid anti-LGBT hate group. If they do not like the label then they should modify their ways. They will not.

Football players pray because it works

Herbert I. London
London Center for Policy Research

Herbert I. London has an elaborate editorial in the hopelessly incoherent Washington Times titled: “Prayer is part of sports because imponderables determine a game's outcome.” I will not quote much of this polemic.

There were five seconds left in the playoff game … the Vikings’ quarterback, threw a pass to Stefon Diggs in the flat. He jumped up and dashed to the end zone. What was a virtually assured Saints’ victory became a Vikings visit to the NFL championship game.

…Mr. Diggs said, “it happened so fast, I didn’t know what was happening.” He went on to note that he owes his success to God. “God made it happen.”

The conservative Christian freak-out over Barna's Gen-Z study

I am not in favor of purchasing Barna's Gen-Z study for $39.95. Nor would I be inclined to read the 128 page report which is only available in paperback format. However, someone at Christianity Today has apparently purchased and read it.

Their take is best summarized by their headline which reads: “Group Leaders: Teens Twice as Likely to Identify as Atheist or LGBT — Barna findings on Generation Z pose new challenges for the church.” Since I have not spent the 40 bucks or read the report I have no way of determining how Barna reached those conclusions.

LaBarbera still whining about SPLC

Hate group leader Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality) is fawning over the factually flawed video by John Stossel criticizing Southern Poverty Law Center. At the same time he is complaining that his organization is unfairly designated a hate group.

According to LaBarbera:

It exposes the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) for what it is: a “hate group” and ” and “left-wing, money-grabbing slander machine.”

None of that is true of course and this opens up Mr. LaBarbera to some comparisons:

Elaine Donnelly will not gracefully disappear

The Witching Hour at C-SPAN

Elaine Donnelly's preposterously named Center for Military Readiness (CMR) was actually created by Phyllis Schlafly in 1993. Donnelly was the front person but it was Schlafly's enterprise. Its original mission was to keep women from serving in meaningful roles in the United States military. Donnelly has never served in the military. CMR is perhaps best known for its hyperbolic opposition to gays serving openly.

Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, CMR is a tiny organization. 2016 revenues were all of $55,659.

Here we go again - Anderson: "The Sex-Change Revolution Is Based on Ideology, Not Science"

Ryan T. Anderson is, no doubt, a smart fellow. However, he looks thoroughly stupid trying to conform medical science to the teachings of the Catholic Church. I am not even certain that he realizes, after so many contortions, that he is attempting to irrationally support the teachings of the Church but that is most assuredly what he does. The Heritage Foundation, Anderson's employer, provides the perfect environment to nurture Anderson's personality disorder.

Alex Jones and "Activist Mommy" Elizabeth Johnston - LGBT people are mean!

A red-faced Alex Jones combining cynicism with batshit crazy
for a sizable constituency of dim bulbs

On Friday Alex Jones claimed that LGBT people have higher suicide rates because they are very mean to each other. Some people claim that Jones is just a cynic, an act. After all, he seems to be sufficiently competent to make oodles of money from spouting conspiracy theories. Alex Jones is certainly cynical but he is also insane.

The ever discerning Mr. Jones interviewed the so-called “Activist Mommy,” Elizabeth Johnston, a conservative Christian who has managed to turn massive ignorance about sexual orientation and sexual identity into celebrity through social media (although she was recently whacked by Twitter for a week).

We ALL paid for Kenneth Copeland's new toy

Prosperity preacher, Kenneth Copeland, is just gushing over his latest acquisition, a $36 million Gulfstream V private jet. The jet was fully funded by contributions to Copeland's enterprise, Eagle Mountain International Church dba Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Newark, TX.

Copeland claims that he simply cannot fly commercial because of the threat from “demon” passengers. Copeland is raising another $17 million for new avionics and construction of a hangar. The hourly operating cost of the jet is about $4,700. All the money to buy and fly the damned thing comes from tax deducted contributions which means that we are all subsidizing Copeland's largess. Donors made a choice to be stupid and gullible. The rest of us are involuntary providers.

Liberty Counsel is threatening teachers again

Hate Group Leader Mat Staver

Once again Liberty Counsel is trying to intimidate teachers who coordinate activities with GLSEN. Liberty Counsel is a rabid and pernicious anti-LGBT hate group. The already unhinged Mat Staver, did not like GLSEN's No Name-Calling Week which took place January 15-19.

According to GLSEN, Liberty Counsel has sent out letters threatening to sue teachers and their school districts. At some point the federal judiciary has to realize that Liberty Counsel is a vexatious litigant. I have a FOIA request in process to obtain the documents associated with Liberty Counsel being given religious organization status by the Internal Revenue Service. Making matters worse, they can now operate in total secrecy without having to even file an annual tax return.

John Stossel needs a better fact-checker

John Stossel has published a video to Facebook about Southern Poverty Law Center. According to Stossel: “The Southern Poverty Law Center has become a hate group itself. It is now a left-wing, money grabbing, slander machine.”

Stossel uses the word “slander” which is the written form of defamation. Defamation is generally limited to misstatements of fact rather than a point of view that someone doesn't like. Mr. Stossel failed to point out a single factual inaccuracy published or expressed in some form by SPLC. However, the same cannot be said for Mr. Stossel.

A lawyer and an anti-Common Core activist with American Principles Project don't like an NIH study

Dr. Quentin Van Meter (left) is unqualified to treat children with gender

dysphoria in any manner other than to provide hormones and puberty blockers.

American Principles Project (APP), founded by Robert P. George and Luis Tellez, is a hard-right ultra-conservative Catholic organization masquerading as something else. APP's Jane Robbins and Erin Tuttle have authored “What's Wrong with the New NIH Study on Transgender Kids?” The outlet for for this attempt to conform science to religion (which they will deny all day long) is none other than the pseudo-intellectual blog of Witherspoon Institute.

Witherspoon is also a hard-right Catholic organization co-founded by George and Tellez. Tellez, by the way, is an Opus Dei numerary.

Defining a "NOM"

A “NOM” is a thin excuse to send out email seeking donations similar to the incessant behavior of National Organization for Marriage for which it is named. Suggestions to call this a “Brown” were well received and certainly applicable. Too common.

The latest bit of irrelevance from Brian S. Brown is this:

Trump's nauseating letter to equally nauseating Log Cabin Republicans

Donald Trump sent a rather odd congratulatory letter to the Log Cabin Republicans in late December — about the same time that he was trying to pack the federal judiciary with anti-LGBT bigots that we will have to live with for decades. This is also the same Trump whose solicitor general filed a brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado supporting the baker. This is the same Trump who has surrounded himself with bigots like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. This is the same Trump who supported North Carolina's offensive House Bill 2. I wonder just how stupid he thinks the Log Cabin is.

Speaking of Richard A. Cohen and exgayland

Richard Cohen from the 2014 documentary film
The Third Way: Homosexuality and the Catholic Church
Cohen went from Jewish to evangelical Christian to Moonie.
Did he convert again?

It looks like Richard Cohen has gone away quietly. International Healing Foundation is no longer a tax-exempt entity. It filed its 990 with the IRS for 2015 as a final return. It looks to me like Cohen grabbed the remaining assets for himself through bloated expenses. Cohen's website is still alive but most of the links do not work. Those that do work point to a site that sells at-home STD tests. Did Cohen die? Retire? Move with his wife to South Korea? Who knows? Maybe he became a Trappist monk.

Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning, as most of you know, has decided to challenge Ben Cardin, Democratic U.S. senator from Maryland. It seems like a self-promoting stunt as Manning's chances of defeating Cardin in the primary seem slim. Manning is probably struggling with the question of how she will support herself.

The fact that Ms. Manning is transgender does not qualify her to be a U.S. senator. Nor does being transgender disqualify her for any public office. The fact that she leaked confidential documents to WikiLeaks doesn't qualify Ms. Manning for the U.S. Senate. I think that her disclosure raises concerns. Now you may think that we, the public, benefited from some of the information that she made public. I do. Case in point was the Baghdad airstrike which WikiLeaks labeled “Collateral Murder.”

We get it Joy Pullmann - You do not approve of trans youth

When I first wrote about Ashton Whitaker I used the image on the left
a more recent image is on the right

Joy Pullmann at The Federalist has a religious objection to transgender youth. It is obvious and we already knew about it. It is kind of moronic to have a religious objection to a medical condition (gender dysphoria). It makes no sense to me. And it's not like they have any alternatives to mitigating the extreme discomfort. They simply refuse, again for religious reasons, to accept the fact that gender and natal sex are two different constructs.

Of course medical science disagrees. But what do they know? Pullmann's headline today reads “School District Pays Teen $800,000 For Refusing To Let Her Sleep, Micturate With Boys.” I had to look up what micturate means; urinate. The subheading reads:

A Wisconsin school district will pay a transgender student $800,000 to settle a lawsuit she filed in a successful attempt to share bathrooms and overnight sleeping quarters with male high school students.

A hate group has a post "Teaching Our Children to Appreciate Diversity"

Imagine my surprise when a hate group blogs about: “Teaching Our Children to Appreciate Diversity.” Yet that is exactly what one did on Monday.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) is a small hate group (the real professional peer organization is the American Academy of Pediatrics). ACPeds' president, Michelle Cretella is a staunch proponent of thoroughly discredited conversion therapy; pseudoscience used as a pretext for discrimination against LGBT people.

Cretella has been popping up at seemingly every right wing outlet lately to denounce “gender ideology.” A form of sexual identity that Cretella disapproves of is not an ideology and she is prostituting her education and training in the service of the Catholic Church and its extreme anti-LGBT animus.

Pete's telltale titillation re-appears

I have speculated that the demise of Peter LaBarbera might occur from scarfing in women's underwear while being paddled by a naked twink. There is just something that is not quite right about a guy who is obsessed with the sexuality of other people.

On Sunday, LaBarbera offered “Homosexual Perversion-fest – Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend – Returns to DC and Hyatt Regency.” It is not something that appeals to me but I couldn't care less what consenting adults do in their bedrooms. The event is sold out by the way. Furthermore, while this event is gay-oriented, far more heterosexuals engage in this kind of activity than gay men.

No Mr. Perkins - You don't get to appropriate Martin Luther King's legacy

Monday night, Tony Perkins wrote “When Freedom Was King” at Family Research Council's blog. I will quote the first paragraph:

When the sun broke over the frosty city of Washington this morning, light caught the stony silhouette of a man. Arms crossed, the towering likeness of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges out of granite, as unflinching as the leader himself. Like a centurion, he stares straight ahead, eyes fixed on another monument of freedom: the Jefferson Memorial. Like a faint echo, the wind whips around the words etched in the rock at his back, as relevant as ever, “We shall overcome.”

Perkins' use of Dr. King's memory to advance his agenda is appalling. Tony Perkins is a hate group leader and a Louisiana politician who has direct connections to the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups.

Crazy in Philadelphia?

The headline in The Trumpet reads: “Transgender Indoctrination Rising — Parents—be aware of transgender indoctrination!” It was written by Dennis Leap. Leap manages to combine being unhinged with profound ignorance. Sometimes I refer to the condition as Staverism.

The Trumpet is the organ of the Philadelphia Church of God which is not in Philadelphia (it is domiciled in Edmond Oklahoma). PCOG used to be part of the World Church of God, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. World Church of God is a cult. Philadelphia Church of God is a cultier cult with some racism thrown in and it has some very weird beliefs other than supposed transgender indoctrination.

Equality Florida takes on a hate group

Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida

Equality Florida has petitioned a federal court to intervene in a case challenging Tampa's ordinance restricting gay conversion therapy. Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian rights are assisting Equality Florida. Equality Florida has also filed a motion to dismiss.

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, issued a statement:

At Equality Florida, we fight to protect LGBTQ families and children, which is why participating in this lawsuit is at the core of our mission as Florida’s statewide LGBTQ organization. We worked closely with the City of Tampa, elected leaders, and members of the community to ensure LGBTQ young people are protected from this deceptive and utterly discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy.

When a hate group desperately tries to sow confusion

Nicole and Jonas Maines were identical twin brothers at birth

Photo credit: Bill O'Leary/Washington Post

Part of FRC's graphic

Friday, Family Research Council offered “Public School Kids Get Assembly on Sex Changes.” Those public school kids were high school students but the piece is disingenuously topped with a graphic of a confused child who is very young. Even if, say, fourth-graders were similarly assembled, those younger children are probably capable of understanding gender. If students are confused it is because of the unscientific, religion-driven claims of groups like FRC. But confusion is just what FRC wants for those who are not religious believers.

FRC would have people believe that there is great uncertainty and disagreement among scientists about gender dysphoria. That is false.

Uh oh: The pope is a hostage to the gay lobby

Whoever, or whatever, the Vatican's gay lobby is — real or imagined — it seems to have supernatural powers in the minds of some. Apparently whoever, or whatever, it is has subversively taken control of the Vatican. At least that is according to Christine de Marcellus Vollmer (whatever that is) at LifesiteNews.

Vollmer writes: “More proof that Francis’ pontificate has been ‘hijacked’ by the ‘Gay Lobby’.” I never have figured what is supposed to be within quotation marks and why. I will leave that up to Vollmer & Co.

NOM's graphic for their latest money-grub is special

Brian Brown looks deranged and
 he seems to be sporting a NOM tiara

The latest donor dig from Brian S. Brown of National Organization for Marriage is titled: “Fighting to Protect Supporters of Marriage.” I am a supporter of marriage and I require no protection. If I did need protection from anything, the folks at NOM would be about the last people I would seek for help given their track record.

After all, through the end of 2016 NOM burned through nearly $70 million of donors' money and has nothing to show for it. The anti-gay group did not seem to do anything (other than try to raise money) in 2017. It accomplished nothing of note.

Leave it to the Washington Times to try to legitimize the shithole utterance

Cheryl K. Chumley, Washington Times opinion writer

Cheryl K. Chumley writes: “Trump haters have their next distraction.” Note the proficiency in mind reading:

Democrats this morning are on a mass tantrum, taking to the media to outdo themselves with the best shock and awe impression they can muster over President Donald Trump’s “sh—hole” comment — the same comment Trump now denies, via Twitter, saying.

Thing is: Democrats really don’t care what Trump said.

C-Fam guy claims that Obama is to blame for the persecution of LGBT people abroad

Note: On Thursday I ran out of time and posted a partial piece that was not fully edited. I regret having done so. Here is the complete, rather lengthy essay.

Stefano Gennarini has entered the theater of the absurd. Gennarini, who has a JD from Notre Dame, is director of legal studies at C-Fam. He doesn't seem to have a law license in New York, where he is based. But I digress. At The Federalist (where else?) Gennarini shares a polemic titled “How Their Refusal To Tolerate Dissent Is Creating A Global Backlash Against LGBT People.” As you might guess, the intolerant are those who do not tolerate intolerance.

Just in case you still think that Trump is a friend of the LGBT community

As Lambda Legal points out, Trump is re-shaping the federal judiciary in a way that will negatively impact LGBT people for decades to come. These judicial appointments are not undoable; they are for life.

Anti-LGBT record of nominees: Trump’s record speed and the alarmingly high number of nominees with anti-LGBT records whom he is advancing is triggering a growing judicial crisis for LGBT people. Nearly one-in-three have records that demonstrate hostility towards the rights of LGBT people. While several of these nominees are anti-LGBT activists who have openly denigrated LGBT people and families, others have more quietly undermined LGBT rights and protections.

A continuing journey through the mad world of hate group leader Mat Staver

“Huh?”

Mat Staver's latest revelation: “Planned Parenthood Now Offers “Sex-Change” Services.” The nutty leader of Liberty Counsel has probably read every word of Planned Parenthood's annual report looking for a “gotcha.” Here is the latest (highlight added):

Planned Parenthood’s 2016-17 annual report states: “We’re expanding access to care - from pioneering research on self-injectable birth control to offering new services for our transgender patients. Planned Parenthood has focused on expanding services to people who are too often overlooked by the larger medical community - including trans patients. Seventeen states now have Planned Parenthood health centers that provide hormone therapy.”

The folks at 2ndVote should feel like mindless idiots

2ndVote is the outfit that kind of reverse engineered the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. It has several categories and rates companies overall for their Christianism. Consumers are encouraged to shop at the more religiously conservative outlets and services. Lately they seem to be arbitrarily increasing some scores. I guess they realized that all of corporate America wasn't cooperating. That defeats the whole purpose since there are no 2ndVote-better options. Hence, 2ndVote manufactured supposedly better options.

That brings me to the subject of Target Corp. 

NOM is selling Ryan Anderson's moronic book

I am a capitalist. I am not disturbed that National Organization for Marriage will receive up to a 7.5% commission from Amazon.com for peddling Ryan T. Anderson's latest book. The  book, however, and Brian Brown's marketing language, are more repulsive than they are disturbing.

Anderson's pretentious tome is titled When Harry Became Sally. In pre-release, it is priced at $23.99. The book expresses a certainty about medical science that is based upon religious dogma. Once again, faith over evidence.

Would someone please tell me what Mat Staver's point is regarding gender?

I just received an email from hate group leader Mat Staver. The subject line is: “Study Confirms Gender Is Not Social Construct.” Isn't that what we have been trying to tell him all along? That gender is organic?

A recent study authored by John A. Barry of Institute for Women's Health at University College London found that children overwhelmingly chose to play with toys typed to their gender. Boys played with male-typical toys more than girls did, and girls played with female-typical toys more than boys did.

The study, "Sex differences in children's toy preferences: A systematic review, meta-regression, and meta-analysis," which was published in Infant and Child Development, reviewed 16 studies, from 1980 to 2016, of 787 boys and 813 girls ranging in age from one to eight years.

What is it that so infuriates and frustrates this Federalist polemicist?

“What I find truly insufferable is the idea that we should pretend that science knows less about sexuality than it knew in the 1950s.”

Maureen Mullarkey is in distress

From the ever-erudite Federalist we are blessed with Maureen Mullarkey's religious diatribe titled: “Georgetown University To Offer ‘Jesuit-Approved’ LGBTQ-Only Housing.” I am not entirely sure that she is factually correct. Nevertheless, the subtitle of her little tantrum reads:

The once-eminent Jesuit university has approved a queer-only campus residence. Georgetown officials crow this ‘is in keeping with our Catholic and Jesuit values.’

Two things seem to be driving Mullarkey over the edge of reason:

1. The fact that a Jesuit university is trying to be welcoming to LGBT students and;
2. The fact that medical science does not conform to the catechism of the Catholic Church when it comes to human sexuality.

These are the same people who claim expertise in human sexuality

The mythology of The Great Flood

The next time people at American Family Association weigh in on the nature of sexual orientation or sexual identity, consider this “revelation.” Consider how it depicts a complete misunderstanding of evidentiary science.

Christian science is an oxymoron. When American Family Association isn't promoting anti-LGBT hate they are propping up the theories of crackpots. They want you to know that “'Mummified' trees more proof of the Flood.” Indeed:

A recent discovery of well-preserved trees in Antarctica can be explained by the biblical account of a worldwide flood, according to a Christian geologist.

The challenge to Mississippi's right-to-discriminate law is not over

Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear two challenges to Mississippi's Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act. The presence of this unconscionable law not only licenses discrimination but encourages discrimination. It permits government employees to refuse service

Oh dear: "Seven things a bishop should say when a priest tells his congregation he’s ‘gay’"

Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky (left) conversing with a nun

Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky has some advice for bishops about priests. It has little relevance to the plight of LGBT people. However, it is a reflection of what some conservative Catholic clergy are imparting to children and parents. For some, it fosters self-hate. For most, just hate. Here's what bothers Pokorsky:

Recently, a priest who was prominent in the pastoral care of those with sex addictions received his fifteen minutes of fame when he revealed to his congregation at a Sunday Mass and to the National Catholic Reporter that he was “gay.” According to news reports, his self-congratulation was met with thunderous applause. In a television interview, he proclaimed there is “nothing wrong with being gay.”

AFA's hate extends to immigrants

Hate group leader Tim Wildmon - America Family Association

Monday, American Family Association has taken to its phony news blog (via Michael F. Haverluck) to undermine DACA with an assist from another hate group. AFA is extremely Christian when it suits them, particularly when it comes to discriminating against LGBT folks. They do not seem to have Christian concerns for the well being of immigrant children,

The headline reads: “Dreamers: 25% illiterate, half speak little English.” Those numbers supposedly come from “research” performed by the nativist hate group; Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). According to AFA:

Hate group Liberty Counsel is now a church!

Hate group leader Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel

Somehow the hate group known as Liberty Counsel has managed to convince the Internal Revenue Service that it is a church or church support organization. The result of this is that Liberty Counsel is no longer required to file an annual report with the IRS which means that the organization will operate in secrecy. If that is not bad enough, Congress has passed a measure that makes auditing churches nearly impossible.