Repudiating Their Rhetoric?

On 19 July of 2005 two Gay teenage Iranian boys (pictured) were publicly hanged for the "crime" of homosexuality, charges that were later trumped up to rape by the religious authorities who control the Iranian judicial system.  Furthermore, according to Iranian law, for crimes of this nature, they were allowed to choose from four individual methods of execution: hanging, stoning, severed in half with swords, or dropped from the highest perch.  They seem to have chosen the far less painful method for their death.  Unfortunately, the mainstream news media did not seem to give this important story the attention that it rightfully deserved (a search of CNN yields no results), even when there was one more hanging of a Gay couple scheduled five months later.  So, when a local Gay Rights group here in Iowa sought to buy ad space from the Des Moines Register in order to report on these events, they were rejected on the grounds that the photograph of the two boys would be too graphic for their readership.  The irony is, of course, that the Des Moines Register later published a very graphic and disturbing advertisement from a Theofascist pro-life group featuring the image of an aborted fetus!

This tragic state-sponsored murder of two Gay youths seems to have served as the inspiration for an atrocious sign that was brandished by one of the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) supporters in Indianapolis during their "Summer for Marriage Tour" last year, as Maggie Gallagher was speaking at the podium:

Today, however, I awoke to check the national GLBT news, only to find (thanks to my good friend Alvin McEwen of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters) that the NOM has released a statement on its Blog repudiating any violent or hateful rhetoric on their behalf directed at my Gay brothers and Lesbian sisters:

We stand with [the GLBT community] abhorring any threat to the person and property of gay people, or gay marriage supporters. We hope you do the same for marriage supporters.

But we do it because it's the right thing to do not because anyone demands this of us. 

I know.  I almost stroked-out when I read that, too!  But, is their Blog an accurate reflection of past events, or are they merely trying to cover their asses in an attempt to make it seem as though they are not the vicious and uncaring hate-mongers that they seem?  According to NOM, they appear to be speaking of the incident involving the above sign when they write:

When a man came to a NOM rally with a hateful sign, he was immediately told he wasn't welcome. This is why the photo of the hateful sign is not of a sign being held up at a NOM rally but a sign discarded across the street.

However, no report of these events were made by the Courage Campaign (CC) who was closely monitoring NOM's tour.  Instead, as the following video will show, when reporters from the CC approached this individual holding that disgusting sign NOM's officials were quick to pounce upon the CC reporters to warn them, "We don't want anything inflammatory!":

Also, does this photo look as though he is standing "across the street"?  I didn't think so.  You can clearly observe the stairs leading up to the podium with some sound equipment and a few assembled supporters behind him.  Nice try, NOM!

Almost immediately after this incident was disclosed by the GLBT Blogosphere, Evan Wolfson of the Freedom to Marry campaign begun circulating a petition calling on Maggie Gallagher or other officials of NOM to repudiate this heinous gesture.  To my knowledge, NOM simply ignored our attempts to hold them accountable for the anti-Gay vitriol that they inspire in their supporters.  (I have contacted Evan Wolfson in order to be sure about whether or not Maggie issued a statement - any statement - castigating Larry Adams' sign.  I am awaiting his response.)  Four days after this sign was waved about, Maggie was called to repudiate it on Box Turtle Bulletin, given that she certainly seemed to endorse celebrities which quote Scripture calling for the slaughter of Gay men!  Neither has Maggie gone on record denouncing the barbaric and inhuman Ugandan "Kill the Gays" Bill that is still pending!

This now brings us to the NOM-sponsored anti-Gay Theofascist hate rally in the Bronx (N.Y.) that Brian Browne attended (pictured here, intimating the Million Man March on Washington as they begin their Hetero-Hegemony Pride Parade) in which one Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega, who also spoke at the event sometime after both Browne and Sen. Ruben Diaz, declared over the microphone that Gay men and Lesbians "are worthy to death!"  NOM has yet to repudiate Ortega's disgusting proclamations that might serve to encourage a homophobic and Theofascist society!

I don't know about you, but given NOM's previously disingenuous track record, I'm not buying it.  Indeed, considering the viciously anti-Gay hate-speech on hehalf of NOM's FaceBook supporters, I also have to wonder if they have not alienated their Theofascist base because of this new statement?  Maggie Gallagher has even shown her insensitivity towards my Gay brothers and Lesbian sisters at a public gathering, during the Iowa stop on NOM's "Summer for Marriage Tour":

Given the short-lived life span for many of NOM's tweets and blogs that are in any way supportive of the Gay community once they alienate their Theofascist base, I must wonder how long this anonymous posting is likely to remain.

How to Spell "Bigot" in Legalese!

For the past few years - since she has been a blip on my Gaydar - I have wondered, precisely, what Maggie Gallagher-Srivistav means when she would run off at the mouth with, "They will call you bigots", or this gem during a lecture she gave at The Sutherland Institute (Salt Lake City, Utah) in April of 2011 where she was the Key-Note Speaker:

If you want to know how same-sex marriage is going to affect traditional believers, mainstream Christians and other faith communities, ask yourself, 'how do we treat racists who are opposed to interracial marriage in the public square?'  Racists are marginalized, stigmatized, oppressed and made second-class citizens.

But, what is a second-class citizen?  The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997) defines it as follows:

An individual regarded or treated as inferior to others in status or rights, an underprivileged person. ("Second Class", pp. 562)

Sweet and concise - this definition has been in use since the early 1940s.  Is there any authentic evidence, however, that racists and other bigots are actually treated as second class citizens?  During the 1940s of Nazi Germany - when this term was coined - my Gay brothers were targeted for second class citizenship by the Nazi regime along with Gypsies, Jewish citizens, as well as Unionists.  However, the treatment of these men and women were relatively mild when one takes into account the brutality meted out to one who was branded with the Pink Triangle, even among his fellow inmates!  Even today, Maggie and her organization is fighting for the status quo in an effort to keep us Second Class Citizens, so that my Gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters cannot take full advantage of the laws that govern the country in which we live and pay our taxes to!  Sadly, Maggie does not seem to have realized the irony of her own statement.  But, let's think of this in another way.  Can a bigot be denied the Due Process of Law, such as loosing their children, being arrested, being denied the freedom to marry, filing joint taxes, ad nauseum?  The answer, of course, is a definite "No", unless the party in question wants to be brought up on charges that they have violated their Constitutionally Guaranteed Right to be an unapologetic bigot or a racist in this country!

Indeed, one wonders if Ms. Gallagher-Srivistav is, perhaps, also saying that she is - or would be - a second class citizen because she and her fellow "traditional believers" would no longer have the "right" to openly and publicly discriminate against the GLBT comm. as they have had in the past?

On a released memo from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) - of which Maggie Gallagher-Srivastav is Chairperson of the Board - during the battle over Prop-8 in California the group gives a variety of examples about what the organization believes will befall them - their so-called "consequences" - if they are legally defined as bigots within American society and culture:

(Source)

So far as I am aware, the FCC has not pulled Michael Savage's radio license for his frequently anti-Semitic remarks, nor that of Tony Perkins since the SPLC has designated his group - The Family Research Council - an anti-Gay Hate Group in 2010, nor the radio license of white supremacist, James Edwards, because this would clearly infringe upon their Constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech, no matter how despicable the public may find their rhetoric!  Edwards, who is only 27, still hosts his shamelessly white nationalist radio talk show - The Political Cesspool - for two hours each weeknight from a local station near Memphis, Tenn. where Edwards is currently a resident.  According to The Southern Poverty Law Center:

"The Political Cesspool" in the past two years has become the primary radio nexus of hate in America. Its sponsors include the CCC and the Institute for Historical Review, a leading Holocaust denial organization. Its guest roster for 2007 reads like a "Who's Who" of the radical racist right. CCC leader Gordon Lee Baum, Holocaust denier Mark Weber, Canadian white supremacist Paul Fromm, American Renaissance editorJared Taylor, neo-Nazi activist April Gaede, anti-Semitic professorKevin MacDonald, Stormfront webmaster Jamie Kelso and League of the South president Michael Hill have all been favorably interviewed on the "Political Cesspool" this year, along with former Klan leader and neo-Nazi David Duke, the show's most frequent celebrity racist guest, who has logged three appearances.

Ms. Gallagher-Srivistav must realize that "bigot" is a public term, not a legal principle.  In fact, if one draws these fear-based scenarios to their logical conclusions, than we should expect to find a sudden crack down on websites espousing hate-rhetoric!  But, we don't.  Furthermore, according to Dr. Heidi Beirich - Research Dir. of the Southern Poverty Law Center - "there are [in fact] several hate groups [operating in the U.S.] with 501c3 [charity] status, including the very noxious Council of Conservative Citizens (they have a tax-deductible foundation)" (pers. comm.: 4 July, 2011).  As an example of the CCC's extremism, consider the following odious comment that can be found on the group's website: "God is the author of racism.  God is the one who divided mankind into different types...Mixing the races is rebelliousness against God".

Ultimately, NOM has no basis in fact for these accusations; they are nothing more than empty words intended to frighten their "traditional believers" into conforming with their oppressive ideology.  Indeed, as Dr. Beirich alerts us, these specious arguments which NOM is employing have been used before: "No Christian is going to be persecuted for being [opposed to] same-sex marriage.  These are the same specious arguments that the Religious Right has been making against hate-crimes laws - of course their only concern is about hate crimes protections for the LGBT community.  They argued that the recently passed Matthew Shepard bill would end with preachers in jail because they [evangelized] against homosexuality" (pers. comm.: Ibid.).  Indeed, in an attempt to martyr themselves in the service of their religious calling, several Christian ministers staged a protest in Wash. D.C. 11 July, 2007, because they considered the Hate Crimes Legislation that was being reviewed by the Senate as "hatred and intolerance aimed at ministers and good Christian folks who dare to call a sin a 'sin'".  Two years later, after the bill was signed into law by President Obama, a group billing itself as the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission - yes, the same group that defends so-called "Christian" organizations who spout anti-Gay defamatory rhetoric insisting that Gay men molest children and wallow in feces - engaged in a protest outside the Justice Department opposing the Hate Crimes Legislation, attempting to test the merits of the new law and their worries over religious freedoms to preach intolerance against the GLBT community in the hopes that these Evangelical ministers might be arrested for their cause.

The Watershed of Lawrence...

A great article was published today on HuffPo:

Lawrence was a watershed moment that continues to generate other watershed moments. One can draw a line connecting Lawrence to the landmark decisions in its aftermath that have recognized marriage equality, found the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in various settings, and struck down laws burdening the right of same-sex couples to form intimate relationships. When a federal trial court declared "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" unconstitutional last year, it relied on Lawrence. When Prop 8 was declared unconstitutional last year by Judge Walker, he too relied on Lawrence. Just as the government may not make criminals of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people based on their relationships, neither can it fire them from their jobs, ignore their cries for help when harassed at school, deny them the same rights that heterosexuals enjoy, nor exclude them from institutions like marriage.

One wonders, then, why NOM (in general), and Maggie Gallagher or Brian Browne (in particular) have not come out swinging against Lawrence as a threat to their alleged "religious liberties" (QED)?  I, honestly, can't seem to locate any commentary by Gallagher directly opposing Lawrence v. Texas!