Truth is Not Sacred to the Holier-Than-Thou Crowd

What makes this particularly disgraceful is that these sanctimonious people are telling lies while, at the same time, holding themselves out as holders of moral authority.

Embed from Getty Images

There is no title on a dishonest treatise attributed to Charlene Aaron — CBN News. The meta-title (the text that appears at the top of your browser) reads: “California Lawmakers Pass Measure Forcing Pastors to Embrace LGBT Ideology.” That is a lie. It continues a la pants-on-fire:

The California State Assembly has passed a resolution telling pastors to affirm homosexuality in violation of their biblical beliefs.

Assemblyman Evan Low and three dozen other lawmakers pushed the resolution in the state Assembly Judiciary Committee that's aimed at telling religious leaders in California what they should preach from their pulpits.

An FRC Intern Is Absorbed Into the Culture of Ignorance and Hate

Hugh Phillips

via LinkedIn

We are told that Hugh Phillips is a Government Affairs Intern at Family Research Council. Family Research Council is, of course, a notorious anti-LGBT hate group posturing as a religious affinity organization. Its leader, Tony Perkins, has direct ties to the Ku Klux Klan through David Duke. Thursday, the young Mr. Phillips (a graduate this year from Liberty University) offers: The Summer of Love: The Beauty of the Marriage Covenant.

I do not want to be overly harsh but it is a sophomoric effort which reads like a consolidation of anti-LGBT talking points from a Catholic extremist (irrespective of Phillips' actual religious affiliation). Phillips gets off to an intellectually dishonest start:

During the month of June, the wedding season is in full swing. Yet, June is also celebrated as “LGBT Pride Month.” Throughout this month, the LGBT lobby argues that they are “celebrating love” and claim that their movement is based in love and a respect for human dignity. However, much of the LGBT movement is based on a misguided notion of love that is rooted in a harmful postmodern hedonism that, as Nancy Pearcey details in her book Love Thy Body, actually devalues human dignity.

Hate Group Leader: "Fed up with 'Gay Pride?' So am I"

Jennifer Roback Morse, a rabid anti-LGBT bigot

via YouTube

According to an email from Jennifer Roback Morse leader of Ruth Institute, an anti-LGBT hate group, she would be happier if we all went back into the closet:

I don't know about you, but I'm fed up with being spoon-fed "gay pride" for the entire month of June. I'm fed up with companies like American Airlines with a rainbow on their tail, "virtue-signalling" their "political correctness." They pretend to not know that millions of people have been harmed by the s*xual revolution, including the LGBT sub-culture.

Interesting Results From a Gallup Poll on Transgender Access

Slightly more than half of Americans believe that bathroom access should be limited to natal sex.

In a new Gallup survey over half of the 1,017 American adults surveyed (51%) believe that transgender people should “use the restroom that corresponds with their birth gender.” The wording in the question is awful. Gallup should have avoided using the ambiguous term “birth gender.” The birth gender of a transgender person might very well be perceived to be their gender identity. Clearly we have some work to do to educate the public but there is an interesting twist to the results.

Another philosopher opines on "gender ideology"

And you thought that Ryan T. Anderson cornered this market.

Bryan R. Cross is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has penned Gender Ideology and the Catholic Church at Witherspoon Institute's pseudo-intellectual blog.

There are two reasons I care about Catholic dogma in spite of the fact that I am not Catholic:

1. The Catholic Church has a well documented history of attempting to impose its teachings on public policy and;
2. There are children of observant Catholics who have gender dysphoria. Those kids have enough problems without parents preferencing religious beliefs over medical science.

So let's see if I have the right - Ex-gay is suing Vimeo for sexual orientation discrimination?

California's Unruh Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful for businesses to discriminate based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation.

You all know what Vimeo is. In some respects it is where people go after their account gets whacked by YouTube. In 2014 Vimeo changed its acceptable use policy to preclude posting videos promoting conversion therapy. Vimeo is owned by IAC. Vimeo and its parent are both located in New York City.

Bozell's Bozos

L. Brent Bozell III

via YouTube/Fox News

L. Brent Bozell III is the founder of the far-right Media Research Center (out of which he extracts more than $500 thousand/year). Bozell is a fundamentalist Catholic who is on the board of Blowhard Bill Donohue's Catholic League. Two of Bozell's staff writers, Ken Oliver-Méndez and Alexander Reyes have written a post about a drag kid named Keegan who is gender nonconforming.

Some of the paragraphs are right out of the Bozell LGBTQ defamation machine:

… child LGBTQ life is highly correlated with mental illness. Even Reuters noted last week that a new national survey of 34,000 LGBTQ youth aged 13 to 24 found 39 percent seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months, as did more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.

Hate group leader: "Parental Alert on Sexuality-Based Recruiting Efforts Aimed at Kids"

Yet again Tim Wildmon, a frantic anti-LGBT bigot, is claiming that LGBT people pose a threat to children.

via Jackson Free Press

Hate Group Leader Tim Wildmon (American Family Association) is warning parents of “efforts to 'normalize' homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the transgender lifestyle among our nation’s youngest citizens.” The intended inference is that we are determined to turn children gay or transgender. Be afraid!

“Parents, beware,” declared Tim Wildmon, AFA’s president, in remarks shared with LifeZette this week. “The LGBT social-political agenda is out there. We all see it every day, but it is targeting our children and teenagers, and the agenda is being promoted in the mainstream popular culture. These recruiting efforts are aimed at children and teens because they are impressionable.”

How do people this shallow and intellectually dishonest get elected to Congress?

Rep. Doug Lamborn proudly displays a confederate battle flag and he has the balls to claim concern for images depicted on PBS.

via Change.org

Rep. Doug Lamborn represents Colorado’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lamborn has decided that he needs to air his grievances at the religious-right Heritage Foundation's blog. His polemic is titled: PBS Is Indoctrinating Our Kids. It’s Time to Defund Them. Fascinating I assure you:

In 2015, after the Supreme Court handed down its controversial ruling declaring same-sex marriage to be a constitutional right, President Barack Obama called for respect and tolerance between citizens who hold differing viewpoints on the issue.

A Shick-Fit Offers an Opportunity

Being LGBT is not unhealthy. Bigotry and persecution are unhealthy for LGBT people.

Denise Shick | via YouTube

Monday, Denise Shick wrote: Loving homosexuals, transgenders means telling them the dangers of LGBT behavior. Shick regurgitates lore about the health of LGBT people as a means of justifying discrimination. If gay people, for example, disproportionately suffer from [fill in the blank] then Shick's solution is for people to stop being gay. I suppose that they are expected to pray their gay away. Shick is kind enough to link to her sources which provides an opportunity for exploration. Suffice it to say that:

Loving LGBT people means accepting them for who they are!

It might also mean treating the words homosexual and transgender as the adjectives that they are rather than as nouns.

Misrepresenting a trans problem in amateur athletics

via Mercury News

Brian S. Brown has a new plea for money on behalf of National Organization for Marriage titled: Track records dropping like flies. The Catholic Church recently reiterated its anti-transgender dogma. Brown, and much of the Christian right, are using athletics as a means of attacking transgender people.

Sometimes the religious right are implying that people are claiming to be transgender in order to have an unfair athletic advantage. The very idea that someone would voluntarily subject themselves to the persecution that transgender people endure makes the theory preposterous. All of the time they are claiming that transgender women have an unfair advantage in sports.

Speaking of Christian right blowhards ...

Larry Tomczak circa 2015

via YouTube

Larry Tomczak asks: Is It Acceptable to Attend a Gay Pride Event? I am certain that my readers want answers to that stunningly important question. To keep matters brief, Tomczak says that he has attended numerous Pride events:

While I never celebrate "gay pride" during the month of June, I've attended 17 gay pride events in Washington, DC, Atlanta and Nashville. Knowing we must be cautious and use wisdom in participating in these types of events, I go to connect with people and share the gospel as the Holy Spirit leads me. I engage with people and reach out to them in love, usually concluding my interaction by giving them my personal testimony tract.

Who could refuse that tract? Claiming that bigotry is love is standard fare for these people.

Misrepresenting Dr. Lisa Diamond and the APA

Sex researcher Dr. Lisa Diamond's TEDx talk in Salt Lake City - September, 2018 - is very well received.

via YouTube

Dr. Don Boys is an anti-LGBT Christian blabberer who doesn't have a real doctorate. That makes him a pretentious anti-LGBT Christian blabberer. Boys is a dim bulb who is not worth my time. However, he provides an opportunity to correct some widely believed misrepresentations from the Christian right echo chamber. Included below are actual quotes and links.

In one of his moronic diatribes on Monday Don Boys asks why Mayor Pete isn't asked obnoxious questions about his sexuality. Boys doesn't really ask anything. His intellectual horsepower limits him to posing rhetorical questions. Boys' incurious constituency knows all of the answers.

Conversion therapy is a toxic dead end for LGBT people - UPDATED

Every mainstream medical and counseling professional peer association agrees that conversion therapy is ineffective and potentially harmful.

Originally published on August 8, 2018.

Liberty Counsel, an anti-LGBT hate group, is spreading misinformation throughout the religious right echo chamber about the supposed effectiveness of conversion therapy.

Update: Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist) found out that the subject research article has been retracted by Linacre, the journal of the Catholic Medical Association. Mad Mat Staver is going to be even madder when he finds out. I have his real email address. I think that I will drop him a little note.

The existence of conversion therapy is — and always has been — a way for the religious right to claim that sexuality is a choice and is not immutable. They perpetuate the myth that sexuality they disapprove of is a mental disorder that can be cured.

The latest anti-LGBT fear mongering and outright lies from Tony Perkins

Once again, a self-righteous fundamentalist Christian who presumes to be an arbiter of morality is caught lying through his teeth.

via YouTube/Fox News

Heritage Foundation continues to provide blog space to hate group leader Tony Perkins (Family Research Council). Friday's spew from Perkins is titled: Vermont Poised to Let Kids, Not Parents, Make Gender Decisions.

Like his idol, Mr. Trump, Tony Perkins is a pathological liar:

Most schools can’t give a child an aspirin without getting a parent’s OK. But in Vermont, kids are about to get a whole lot more than Tylenol. Under a new rule, they’ll be able to get entirely new bodies—in some cases, without ever calling home.

No Mr. Perkins. No. Not one word of the above is true.

We should excuse Christian bigotry because the Saudis are worse

Julio Severo

via Last Days Watchman

Julio Severo is the author of “Prophetic Prayers: Daily Prayer Guide Based on the Book of Proverbs.” Intriguing no doubt. Julio Severo is also the author of Taylor Swift Music Video Attacks People Who Protest Against LGBTQ Behavior, But Refrains from Condemning Islamic Nations that Execute Homosexuals. Within this intellectual masterpiece is this:

If Swift treated Saudis the way she has treated Christians in her music video, the Saudi reprisals would be fast.

If she does not accept Christians who do not accept homosexual depravity, she should target George Washington, the first U.S. president. He never executed homosexuals, but he discharged dishonorably from the Army a soldier who committed sodomy (homosexual acts).

The Peter is Having One of His Delusions

“Unlike most straw men, LaBarbera is a self-manufactured convenience.”

He hangs upside-down and produces disproportionately massive amounts of crap.

Hate Group Leader Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality) has sent out an email titled: Rally Against Obergefell and (Fake) "Gay Marriage," Wed., June 26 at Supreme Court -- Anniversary of Immoral Ruling. I suppose that LaBarbera will find a few fellow crazies to fart out their discontent over something that doesn't affect them in any way whatsoever.

What is the point? What does he hope to accomplish? The justices of the Supreme Court are not interested and no one recognizes Peter LaBarbera as the arbiter of morality in America. Presumably Peter has better things to do. He can start by getting his books and records in order. Perhaps the IRS will once again grant his little org tax-exempt status which was revoked over four years ago. But I digress.

New England has its share of crazy bigots

Steve Pauwels is another know-it-all Christianist blowhard and bigot

via Twitter

I like to think of New England as Bernie Sanders territory. A place where people are not overly concerned with the sexuality of others.

Steve Pauwels is pastor of Church of the King in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Church of the King seems to be located in a strip mall in close proximity to Crazy Noodle. How appropriate. Anyway, Mr. Pauwels doesn't like LGBT people very much and he is not content to simply accept the premise that his version of Christianity does not approve of gay sex or transgender folks.

Pauwels' real problem is that most people are not as bigoted and hateful as he is:

Exactly when did our intrepid conservative leaders deem it impermissible to make the moral argument against official approval of homosexuality? The date, the year at least, when our “on-the-Right” stalwarts junked any reference to the disorder of a “gay” lifestyle? That there is something decidedly and intrinsically “wrong” with same-sex activity?

Indiana ignoramus sues

Former music teacher John Kluge (right) with unnamed attorney in June, 2018. Kluge claims that transgender accommodations amount to religious discrimination.

via NBC News

A former music teacher has sued his school district (below the fold) for religious discrimination. Apparently, requiring proper forms of address for transgender students is abhorrent to a religious conservative. About a year ago I wrote about John Kluge and Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, Indiana. (At the time the soon-to-be-dead cat seemed funny.) Kluge claimed that he had a religious duty to deadname transgender students.

Not being able to abide by school policy to treat gender diverse students with kindness, Kluge resigned under pressure. Kluge then unresigned. The school district, having accepted the resignation, did not agree to retain Mr. Kluge. Kluge claimed religious discrimination.

Don't believe the VidAngel BS - Not for a second

Sanctimonious Christians are self-righteous moralists except when it comes to cheating others in business. Then, anything goes. As some of you may know the video streaming company, VidAngel is on the wrong side of a $62 million judgment levied against them on June 17. VidAngel, which has been popular with conservative Christians, streams movies with user-configured filtering. A subscriber could zap the gay stuff or profanity or apply any of a number of filters.

Christendom would like people to believe that major studies sued VidAngel for filtering their movies. A headline at the increasingly preposterous Federalist reads: Hollywood Punishes VidAngel For Cleaning Up Their Smut. Over at CBN they got the headline right but the text includes: “The judge ruled the company violated the studios' copyrights by streaming filtered versions of their movies.”

The filtering was irrelevant to the verdict.

What's it to you?

“Burning heretics at the stake is passé. It hasn't been fashionable for a few hundred years.”

via mastercard.us

Tuesday, at the hate-site LifeSiteNews, Calvin Freiburger writes: MasterCard to let gender-confused customers pick their names on credit cards. Freiburger is not excessively critical of MasterCard but it is clear that neither he nor his employer approve. Why is this any of his business?

Oh, I see. The Vatican pretends that transgender people do not exist. Freiburger and LifeSite are obliged to follow suit. The Pope, an amature psychiatrist, has been claiming since the start of his papacy that gender variances put the Church in peril. Pope Francis is a theologian and catechist, not a scientists. Fortunately, most Catholics in the United States are supportive of LGBT people.

Defending a Lie With More Lies Has Become Essential Doctrine

“In the end, a whole lot of self-righteous, sanctimonious people are telling a whole lot of fibs.”

Fire and brimstone

via Seattle Mennonite Church

Tuesday, fundamentalist Christians are outraged over a non-binding California Assembly resolution calling upon clergy not to promote conversion therapy. In short strokes, it does not work and it is potentially harmful

On June 4, California Assembly Member Evan Low introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99. It is a nonbinding statement of support for the LGBTQ community through a carefully worded denunciation of conversion therapy. On June 14 the matter was discussed in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Staff prepared a synopsis which reads, in part (emphasis added):

A dominionist shares his expertise on human sexuality

Lee Duigon. Oddly enough this crackpot has written several children's books.

via Amazon.com

Lee Duigon is affiliated with the Chalcedon Foundation and anti-LGBT hate group and a leader in Christian Dominionism. Monday, Duigon writes: Stop This Wicked Transgenderism.

Our culture has gone “transgender”-mad. Not that there’s any such thing as “transgender.” There are only profoundly disturbed people, and liars who encourage them, who say they’re “transgender.” I have to put quotes around it because it isn’t real.

Mr. Duigon is a few circuits shy of proper punctuation, grammar and knowledge of transgender people. In case he finds himself reading this I have a responsibility to at least attempt to educate Lee Duigon.

Dear Tim: If you use a term then know what the hell it means

Donate a few bucks and an anti-gay DVD can be yours to enjoy.

The intellectually challenged Tim Wildmon has some hate for sale.

via YouTube

Monday, I have a new missive from Tim Wildmon, president of the hate group, American Family Association. It is titled: Cultural Marxists don't want truth to prevail. Uh-huh. Tim is not exactly an intellectual powerhouse. Tim's sons, Walker Wildmon and Wesley Wildmon are 2-watt bulbs. They are AFA's future. I digress.

Cultural Marxism is, by definition, an irrational political movement based on falsehoods promoted as real truth. Which of the following is more likely to be representative of cultural Marxism? Or does Tim think that it has a universal meaning for anything that he does not like?

• The quest for LGBTQ equality is based upon evidence-based scientific fact that our sexuality is not a choice or;
• Evangelical Christian bigotry towards LGBTQ people is faith-based belief comprised of a combination of Bronze Age texts of dubious provenance and mysticism.

Were FRC's Peter Sprigg Ever Factually Accurate About Trans People it Would Be By Accident

Friday, Peter Sprigg writes: Trans Activists: We’re Normal, But You Must Pay To Fix Us. Peter Sprigg works for Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT hate group. Sprigg promotes anti-LGBT bigotry because he is a religious fanatic (he is an ordained Baptist minister) and because doing so is a condition of employment. According to Sprigg:

Transgender advocates are manipulating medical definitions to get a diagnosis without the ‘stigma’ of having a ‘mental disorder.’

Sprigg indulges in bullshit because he gets away with doing so all too frequently. In this case the BS begins with “Trans Activists” and “Transgender advocates.” These are abstractions. There are numerous sources of transgender advocacy. There is the World Professional Association of Transgender Health for example. Jennifer Finney Boylan, a transgender woman, is a regular columnist for the New York Times. There is also the Human Rights Campaign and these are just for starters.

Uh oh, We Are Indoctrinating Children - Again

Pat Robertson is the old schmuck and Trump adorer who is president of CBN.

via the Advocate

Thursday's headline from CBN News reads: Cartoon Network Tells Children to 'Stand Proud' While Promoting LGBT Pride Month. What follows is predictable.

The Cartoon Network, which is very popular amongst children, is encouraging their viewers to celebrate Pride month alongside them in honor of LGBTQ+ fans during the month of June.

In a tweet to their followers, the network expressed “Happy Pride” to all of their LGBTQ+ fans, while encouraging them to “stand proud all year long!”

The picture tweeted alongside the message showed the “Powerpuff Girls,” and included the hashtags “#powerpuffyourself,” “#pridemonth” and “#powerfuffgirls.”

The Holier-Than-Thou Crowd and Tax Obligations

The banner at AFA Action's website which is separate from American Family Association.

AFA Action is American Family Association's 501(c)4. It can engage in political activities but donations are not tax deductible. Regardless of the deductibility of donations, we all subsidize AFA Action. If it has revenues in excess of expenses, the surplus is not taxed enabling it to accrue assets that can be used to persecute LGBTQ people (AFA is an anti-LGBT hate group).

Please bear with me. The Internal Revenue Service last updated the source for my nonprofit database (the Business Master File or BMF) on June 10, 2019. As of that date, the most recent tax return for AFA Action was filed for calendar year 2015 which means that it has not filed for two years in a row (2016 and 2017). Indeed, 2015 is the most current return that Guidestar can provide and it is not marked as a final return which is obvious since it remains in the BMF.

Dear Religious Conservatives: Drag Queens are Not Trans Women

Throughout fundamentalist Christendom there is confusion between drag queens and transgender women.

Chris Plante (Family Policy Institute of Washington) is terribly confused.

via YouTube

Christopher Plante, late of National Organization for Marriage and now with Family Policy Institute of Washington, asks: Are Drag Queens Reading to Your Kids? It is an idiotic question. Given that only a few 6-year-olds have driver's licenses, attendance at a Drag Queen Story Hour is probably dependent upon parental assistance.

Once again, conservative Christians think that they can, and should, impose their ideology on everyone else.

Possibly today's most moronic harangue

Chad Felix Greene

via The Federalist

About a year ago I stopped writing about Chad Felix Greene. Being an anti-gay gay might garner some attention and provide him with an income writing for the Federalist. I don't pay attention because his banal offerings are predictable and tediously pointless. Greene frequently opposes many of the things that LGBT activists are working towards. However, he reaps the same benefits. Indeed, he is married.

I will make an exception to my self-imposed ban on Greene because of Thursday's I’m HIV Positive, But I Can’t Support AIDS Research That Uses Aborted Baby Parts. Mr. Greene has entered Darwin Award territory.

I read through Greene's polemic looking for some reasoning. About 60% of the way through, Greene makes a feeble attempt to find some rationale (emphasis added):

Brian S. Brown has not given up on raising money off of stopping the Senate from passing HR5

“There are no cases pending at the Supreme Court claiming that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 violates someone's civil rights, complaining that they are unable to discriminate against Jews or Muslims in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

via YouTube/Fox News

Wednesday's message yells: Send These Senators A Message. One need not be a prophet to see what is happening here:

1. This email is a donation bait.
2. Brian S. Brown is trying to give National Organization for Marriage some relevance — a raison d'être.
3. If McConnell fails to allow the Equality Act to come to the floor of the Senate or if the measure fails to get enough votes for passage, then Brown will take all the credit for its demise.

LaBarbera lies - A brief history of how homosexuality was removed from the DSM

Peter LaBarbera should spend more time trying to restore the tax-exempt status of his group than advancing crackpot theories.

In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed a diagnosis of “homosexuality” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual II. The religious right has promoted the mythology that the APA only did so out of political correctness. Wednesday, according to Hate Group Leader Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality:

Gay activism pressured and prodded to the point that eventually the American Psychological Association (APA) normalized homosexuality.

Has JONAH finally met its conversion therapy end?

The continuing saga of Arthur Abba Goldberg, a convicted felon whose dishonesty has continued for years after his original conviction.

via YouTube circa 2014

Monday, a New Jersey state judge has closed down Jewish Institute for Global Awareness. JIFGA was nothing but a new name for Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) which was prohibited from operating its conversion therapy business under a permanent 2015 injunction.

In a news release the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote:

In order to “deter and punish” the defendants, Judge Bariso also barred JONAH's founders from serving as directors of any New Jersey nonprofit corporation and ordered that they pay attorney fees incurred in connection with plaintiffs’ efforts to enforce the injunction. The court also ordered the defendants pay the full amount owed under the settlement agreement.

What would LGBT Pride month be without Peter Sprigg calling it evil?

via YouTube/Newsmax

Peter Sprigg is one of the reasons that Family Research Council is recognized for what it is; an anti-LGBT hate group. Tuesday, the Sprigg asks: Should Christians Recognize “LGBT Pride?” Since about two-thirds of Americans are Christian and since Sprigg indulges in the fallacy of begging the question as well as the use of rhetorical questions. I thought that a closer look at Sprigg's output is warranted. I cannot respond to this entire piece. Doing so would be far too tedious. Here are some of the lowlights.

Blowhard Bill is another one unable to differentiate between religious dogma and science

If you read Blowhard Bill Donohue's review of the Catholic Church's denial of sexual reality, you would think that the Church just invented gravity:

The Congregation for Catholic Education has published the most brilliant and authoritative document on the sexes that is currently available. It literally tears to pieces the fatuous claims of gender ideology. Fortunately, it does not water down its account by trying to appease its critics.

“Male and Female: He Created Them” is not only the title of this work, it accurately conveys reality. God did not create mere human beings. No, he created two very different, yet complementary, sexes.

CBN: 'Vatican Rejects Idea People Can Choose or Change Genders'

The full title of the post by someone named Steve Warren is: Vatican Rejects Idea People Can Choose or Change Genders; Noted Psychiatrist Agrees. Accompanying the post is a profoundly offensive photograph of a man with a beard wearing lipstick and nail polish. That psychiatrist is Dr. Lawrence Mayer.

I actually agree with the headline (and presumably the Vatican). Gender identity is not a choice and gender identity is highly resistant to change. I doubt that my version is what the Vatican had in mind.

Pope Francis recently went on record again rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders, insisting that men and women are the biblical complement to each other in order to make children.

Is it a trans scam designed to fleece conservative Christians?

Jeff Younger appears to be a ne'er-do-well who lives in a fantasy constructed by his own BS. I am highly skeptical of the fundraising.

“Save James,” an anti-transgender campaign, has received donations totaling more than $75,000. I have written about this family in the  past. What brings me to this story today is a thoughtful reader alerting me to some updates to the Save James website. I will get to the most recent update upon conclusion.

Here is the story as described in the far-right Daily Wire run by the very crazy Ben Shapiro who makes me want to convert to Christianity. The narrative has been focused on this poor child's father who, it is falsely claimed, is in a custody battle with his ex-wife. November 2018:

According to court documents, the young boy only dresses as a girl when he's with his mother [Dr. Anne Georgulas], who has enrolled him in first-grade as a female named "Luna." The father [Jeffrey D. Younger], however, contends that his son consistently chooses to wear boy's clothes, "violently refuses to wear girl’s clothes at my home," and identifies as a boy when he is with him.

A look-at-me stunt: Gays opposing the Equality Act

If there is a contest between broken stupid promises and civil rights, which should prevail?

Former Log Cabin president Gregory T. Angelo is seeking some attention by being anti-gay.

photo via Michael Key, Washington Blade

Last Friday, led by former Log Cabin president, Gregory T. Angelo, a group of gay people sought some attention. Inconsequential people seeking relevance. Angelo was joined by the likes of Christopher Barron, co-founder of the defunct GOProud. Barron, who is not too bright, was a Trump 2016 surrogate. These people have engaged in a pointless stunt that offers fuel for discrimination against themselves.

They sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asking him not to allow the Equality Act to come to the floor of the Senate (letter and signatories are “below the fold”):

We, the undersigned members of the gay community, formally ask that you never bring the Equality Act up for a vote in the United States Senate. While discrimination against LGBT Americans is wrong, and while legislation protecting against discrimination may yet be possible in the future, the Equality Act is so flawed and problematic that it should not be considered by the United States Senate.

Let them destroy each other

via History Daily

American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group, offers up: Evangelicals to Trump: On LGBT issue, 'you've got to pick a side.' Trump does not even get a “President” Trump. Trump's sin was crassly acknowledging Pride Month on Twitter, the Official American News Agency©. Crass because the Trump administration has been consistently anti-LGBT and his tweet was an obvious attempt to garner some support for his 2020 campaign.

If we have learned anything from Trump it is this: Trump only cares about one thing — Trump. Everything that Trump does is for the benefit of Trump. If it doesn't benefit Trump then Trump doesn't do it. While Trump's stance on immigration is partially fueled by his inherent racism, Trump knows that it attracts a segment of society that believes brown people are determined to steal something from white people.

PragerU's Fundraising Scam

Allow me to introduce a very conservative value: The right of corporations to operate free of government interference.

With great fanfare, Prager University (which, of course, isn't a university) has notified me: We’re suing YouTube for censoring conservative content. They figure that they can raise more money off of this than they will expend, or have expended, in legal fees:

The email is signed by Dennis Prager and I don't know what the hell he is saying? Does he? In conservative circles people are convinced that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a radical left-wing organization staffed by evil card-carrying commies. Some of the same people also believe that Trump is a selfless and honest servant of the people.

Prager's intended inference (although the wording is ambiguous) appears to be that PragerU is listed as a hate group. It is not.

Furthermore, Prager is suggesting that the SPLC did something in response to the filing of the lawsuit. That is also untrue. The right wing use the SPLC to make people angry over something else.

Florist loses - ADF asks for money

The floral bigot, Barronelle Stutzman has lost her case before the Supreme Court of Washington. She is not entitled to discriminate against gay people in contravention of state law. The email from Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBT hate group, is titled: Justice Denied. According to the text:

Stand with Barronelle as she appeals her case to U.S. Supreme Court once again

According to Google Translate, “Stand with Barronelle” means: Send some money to Alliance Defending Freedom. Okay, it wasn't from Google. It was from my personal Christianist-to-English dictionary. Within the very lengthy email there are six Gimme Money links.

A Eunuch and an Ex-Gay Walk Into a ...

via Church Militant

Michael Voris is the gay man (now allegedly celibate) who runs Church Militant. The website has been described as the Alt-Right of ultra-conservative Catholicism. Voris is a profoundly homophobic eunuch.

Thursday, Voris writes: THE WAR ON REASON
Activists are denying the reality of human sexuality.

Christopher Doyle of the Institute for Healthy Families talks about the effort of homosexual activists to destroy reparative therapy.

Trump admin decides to make migrant children more miserable in violation of a court order

via Politico

Donald Trump has no understanding of American traditions. Trump has only one interest: Trump. We gave wealthy people an enormous tax break and now we cannot take proper care of migrant children, allegedly because we lack the funds to do so. President Obama would have found the necessary funds.

According to the Associated Press:

In violation of a long-standing federal court settlement, the Trump administration government has stopped paying for legal services and English-language courses at jails for immigrant children around the country, saying budget cuts make it necessary.

The Health and Human Services department notified shelters around the country last week that it was not going to reimburse them for teachers’ pay or costs for legal services or recreational equipment. The move violates a legal settlement known as the Flores agreement that requires the government to provide education and recreational activities to immigrant children in its jails.

No Mr. Staver. No. Being transgender is not a political statement

via YouTube/Fox News

Hate Group Leader Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel) is having a shitfit over a transitioning teacher in Wisconsin. The well regarded science teacher explained the transition to his students. During the process he has asked his students to call him “Mix” instead of “Mr.” You would think that this is an end-of-world event. According to Mad Mat Staver:

School administrators allowed a male science teacher in the Madison Metropolitan School District to show a personal “transgender coming out” video to every class of K-5th grade children at Allis Elementary School. The male teacher also instructed all of the students to call him by a woman’s name, an invented title of “Mix” instead of “Mr.,” and to call him by false plural pronouns. Liberty Counsel sent a records request to the school district to begin uncovering the full extent of this teacher’s inappropriate activism in the classroom.

"Respect and love" is as meaningless as "thoughts and prayers"

via Boston Globe

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has issued a statement on the Diocese of Providence website. Apparently, he was reacting to the backlash created by his offensive June 1 tweet to adherents that they should not attend any Pride events which, according to him, are especially harmful to children. If Tobin was seeking to clean up his act, he failed to do so.

I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community. That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense. I also acknowledge and appreciate the widespread support I have received on this matter.

YouTube is removing thousands of extremist videos

According to the New York Times

YouTube announced plans on Wednesday to remove thousands of videos and channels that advocate for neo-Nazism, white supremacy and other bigoted ideologies in an attempt to clean up extremism and hate speech on its popular service.

The new policy will ban “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion,” the company said in a blog post. The prohibition will also cover videos denying that violent incidents, like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, took place.

Some anti-gay mythology never dies - UPDATED

Greek Mythology | via Wikipedia

I have no idea who, or what, Don Boys is. Boys is complaining that Newsweek “slandered” him which is inaccurate per se because slander is oral defamation. Written defamation is libel.

Boys claims to have a PhD from Heritage Baptist University. Perhaps that is Heritage Baptist College in Indiana (where Boys resides) which is: a) Unaccredited and; b) Not offering post-graduate degrees. According to the US Education Department there is no accredited post-secondary school beginning with Heritage Baptist.

Update: I am informed that Heritage Baptist University merged with Indiana Baptist College. That does not improve the legitimacy of Boys' claimed PhD because Indiana Baptist College is not accredited. I that is the source of Boys' doctorate he can use the certificate for toilet tissue.

The absence of a legitimate PhD is less important that the attempt to mislead people.

It is HATE that is immoral

Hate Group Leader Tim Wildmon, American Family Association

via YouTube

American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group, claims to be very upset that Trump recently postured as LGBT friendly. For the record, Trump is the most homophobic/transphobic president in decades. The White House has announced that Trump will not sign the Equality Act were it to be approved by the Senate. Yet, according to AFA:

On Friday, May 31 President Trump put out a statement celebrating LGBT pride month.

Homosexuality is not something the president should celebrate. It's unnatural, unhealthy and immoral behavior. We hope he will continue to stand firm against the so-called Equality Act (H.R. 5) and any legislation that threatens religious freedom. Such legislation will use the full force of the federal government to punish Americans who don't embrace the LGBT political agenda.

Oh, people are supposed to "Dump Netflix"

LifeSiteNews has a new campaign and, for a change, it is not anti-LGBT: PETITION: 'Dump Netflix' over their attack on unborn babies. According to the introductory email:

The 'Dump Netflix' campaign has caught fire, and Netflix is starting to feel the heat!

Since we first launched this petition on May 31st, more than 16,750 people have signed.

If you haven't already signed, could you please consider signing this petition and help turn up the heat on Netflix?

Your signature would make a big difference!

HRW: Russia’s Film Distributor Censors Gay Scenes Out of Rocketman

Film Cuts Made to Comply with So-Called ‘Gay Propaganda’ Law

Via Human Rights Watch:

Rocketman – the Elton John biopic – opened this weekend to generally great reviews, but cinema-goers in Russia were only getting to see part of the story.

According to the film’s Russian distributor, cuts were made to the blockbuster film to scenes depicting gay sex and men kissing, in order to comply with Russian law.

Jennifer Roback Morse blames LGBT people for anti-LGBT violence

via YouTube

Fundamentalist Catholics cannot simply ignore Pride Month. Hate Group Leader Jennifer Roback Morse (Ruth Institute) finds an outlet for her bigotry at Heritage Foundation's blog. According to Morse on Monday: Survivors of the Sexual Revolution the News Media Will Ignore During ‘Gay Pride Month.’ Morse knows what others will, or will not, do because she has unique supernatural capabilities achieved through prayer.

June has been declared “Pride Month,” and we’re supposed to celebrate those “coming out” and living a “gay” life.

June 12 will mark the third anniversary of the Pulse gay nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 dead. Some will no doubt connect those two things to claim America hates people who have same-sex attraction and to make new demands for affirmation of homosexuality.

But that’s not the only lesson one could draw from these events. The media will not tell you this, but in the aftermath of the Pulse massacre, some survivors began to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

Victims of Their Own Ignorance

Pride Month allows people to shamelessly and openly demonstrate their spectacular stupidity.

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin

via Catholic Diocese of Providence, RI

Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin felt compelled to author an offensive, homophobic tweet:

A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.

— Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) June 1, 2019

ADF asks "Are you a hater?"

via Lowering the Bar

Alliance Defending Freedom has sent out an email to supporters smearing the Southern Poverty Law Center. The "are you a hater"email links to a post on ADF's blog titled: The SPLC Is Not Just Trying to Silence ADF – It’s Trying to Silence You. Suffice it to say that the SPLC is not trying to silence anyone.

Argument ad hominem — attacking the arguer rather than the argument.

The SPLC is very specific with respect to why ADF is deemed a hate group. If ADF is displeased with their hate group listing then it is incumbent upon them to explain where the SPLC is incorrect. Instead they offer a banal recitation. I suppose it is the best that they can do: