Anti-Gay

After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech announcing a new administration directive to protect the rights of LGBT people abroad, the Religious Right reacted with the predictable rage and vitriol. Pat Robertson warned that God will punish America with a “horrible” blow and the Family Research Council accused Obama of “imposing an alien ideology on other countries” for trying to stop countries from criminalizing homosexuality.

Conservative commentators ignored well-documented evidence of pervasive anti-LGBT violence around the world, as radio talk show host Janet Mefferd railed against the directive as “crazy” and dismissed reports of violence against gays and lesbians, and Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber denied reports of persecution against the LGBT community as “nonsense” and “Orwellian New Speak.” In fact, they readily defended the seventy-six countries which criminalize homosexuality:

Last week, the United Nations even released a new report [pdf] chronicling “violations for close to two decades” of killings, rape and physical attacks, torture, arbitrary detention, the denial of rights to assembly, expression and information, and discrimination in employment, health and education” against LGBT and LGBT-perceived people:

Homophobic and transphobic violence has been recorded in all regions. Such violence may be physical (including murder, beatings, kidnappings, rape and sexual assault) or psychological (including threats, coercion and arbitrary deprivations of liberty).25 These attacks constitute a form of gender-based violence, driven by a desire to punish those seen as defying gender norms.

In addition to “street” violence and other spontaneous attacks in public settings, those perceived as LGBT may be targets of more organized abuse, including by religious extremists, paramilitary groups, neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists. Young LGBT people and those of all ages who are seen to be transgressing social norms are at risk of family and community violence. Lesbians and transgender women are at particular risk because of gender inequality and power relations within families and wider society.

Violence against LGBT persons tends to be especially vicious compared to other bias-motivated crimes. According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), homophobic hate crimes and incidents often show a high degree of cruelty and brutality and include beatings, torture, mutilation, castration and sexual assault.

The report went on to discuss how “members of sexual minorities are disproportionately subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment” and that the government, police, schools, health institutions and the justice system are major perpetrators of discrimination against LGBT people.

Surely, Religious Right activists will take heed of this new report….

Cindy Asmussen of Concerned Women for America’s Central Texas chapter pleaded with the organization’s members to boycott Macy’s over the company’s LGBT rights policy and to protest the Obama administration’s directive to combat discrimination against the LGBT community abroad. Macy’s has faced a torrent of criticism from Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association because the company fired a worker in San Antonio, Texas, who refused to abide by the company’s guidelines on LGBT customers. Asmussen said that members should stop shopping at the store until they rehire the employee:

As I strive to finish my Christmas shopping this season, the stores I choose to shop at are in the forefront of my mind. There are some companies that are actively supporting the lesbian, "gay," bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) agenda in our nation; therefore, they will not be getting my business. In the past week, one more store has been added to my list - Macy's (also their affiliate company Bloomingdales).

The Macy's store in San Antonio, Texas, fired Natalie Johnson after she noticed a cross-dressing man wearing lipstick coming out of the women's dressing room; she politely told him the rooms were for women only. The man, and several friends who were with him, began shouting profanities at Natalie and demanded to speak with her supervisor. After the management of the store assured the man that Macy's was indeed a LGBT friendly store and transgender men could use the women's dressing rooms, the supervisor then summoned Natalie into an office where she was forced to choose between upholding the company policy or job termination. Natalie chose to defend her values and the belief that it is a dangerous precedent to allow men to change in a women's dressing room also used by young girls. For that, she was fired.

But Asmussen wasn’t just concerned about “the lesbian, ‘gay,’ bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) agenda in our nation” (apparently only the word ‘gay’ warrants scare quotes), as she went on to rail against the Obama administration’s efforts to fight both legal and social discrimination against LGBT people around the world, which she said infringed on the rights of people who don’t support LGBT rights and undercut ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy:

On December 6 at the United Nations, Hillary Clinton championed LGBT "rights." She claimed that members of the LGBT community are born that way, and it is something they cannot change. We know from all of the facts and testimonies of those who have come out of LGBT lifestyles that this is simply a lie. They can and do change all of the time. It is a behavior and a choice, and this is why there are several nationwide ministries helping those who want to be free from this lifestyle.

Statistics and facts already prove the destructiveness of these behaviors (such as the high numbers of sexually transmitted diseases in the homosexual community). Yet despite that, LGBT activists want to alter OUR lifestyles by intimidating us into accepting what we know is not of God, by trying to inhibit our free speech rights and abilities to speak out against it, and by forcing us to use the same dressing rooms (and, in many cases, bathrooms) with the opposite sex.

Evidently, while Concerned Women for America wants their members to pressure companies that developed progressive policies regarding their LGBT customers, the group condemns the U.S. for pushing back against countries that criminalize homosexuality and discriminate against their LGBT communities.

Joe Dallas, the former leader of Exodus International and speaker at Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out conferences, appeared yesterday on The Janet Mefferd Show to attack Christian figures who support equal rights for gays and lesbians. Dallas claims that he is an “ex-gay” and runs his reparative therapy group, Genesis Counseling. He has also endorsed the work of the immensely discredited Joseph Nicolosi, an officer of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality and who jokes that it is better for a child to have brain damage than to be gay.

While the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychiatric Association all deny the effectiveness, safety and ethics of ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy, Dallas in his book When Homosexuality Hits Home claims that people can change their sexual orientation. He lists the “causes” of homosexuality, including “unmet needs for bonding with the same sex” and “early sexual violation” like child molestation. He also argues that Satan has a role:

Satan’s strategy is leading humans astray, whether the arena is doctrinal or moral, is to deceive an individual into thinking that what God has forbidden is not really wrong or destructive, but is, in fact, life enhancing. So it was I the garden when Satan tempted Eve; so it may well be with your loved one. The sin of homosexuality is human nature, but the belief that sin is not really sin comes not from human nature alone but from an ancient and evil messenger.

Dallas told Mefferd that church leaders who are gay, such as Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, or who support gay rights are all asking for God’s judgment. “So I really tremble for Bishop Robinson and the many other leaders who are in essence perverting the truth that they have been commissioned to speak,” Dallas said, “and I don’t want to be anywhere near them when they stand before God.” He went on to compare Christians who back gay rights to cultists and Nazis who distort scripture:

That causes me to wonder when Bishop Robinson says he’s going to evangelize, what exactly he means by evangelizing, of course I would love to see anyone preaching the gospel to homosexual people or heterosexual people anywhere but I’m not sure what gospel he will be preaching to put it plainly and I’m not sure what his concept of evangelism is going to be, I suspect that it will be a message to young people stating that homosexuality is legitimate, therefore they can embrace their homosexuality and do so with God’s approval.

I am reminded of the warning to those who call good evil and evil good and darkness light. There is a particular judgment, and this is the heart of the matter, there is a particular judgment that is placed biblically on leaders who teach falsehood, it is of course serious when any Christian goes into error, whether moral error or doctrinal error, but you remember James said, ‘my brethren let us not be many teachers because we will receive the greater judgment.’ Shepard’s in the Old Testament who misrepresented God and misrepresented truth were in a terrible position and had serious judgments placed on them. Jesus was death-on-wheels when he talked to religious leaders who proclaimed falsehoods.

So I really tremble for Bishop Robinson and the many other leaders who are in essence perverting the truth that they have been commissioned to speak, and I don’t want to be anywhere near them when they stand before God.

…

And as you know, if you took the Bible hard enough you could make it say whatever you want it to, cults can do that, Nazis did that and I’m afraid it’s being done today under the guise of civil rights and gay liberation.

Before it received national attention for its pressure campaign against TLC’s All-American Muslim, in April the Florida Family Association launched a pressure campaign against advertisers on the TeenNick show Degrassi because of the show’s “irresponsible affirmation of a transgender lifestyle” and negative portrayal of “ex-gay” reparative therapy. The FFA was also outraged that Degrassi ran PSAs for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and The Trevor Project, an anti-suicide group that focuses on at-risk LGBT youth.

In an interview today with the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow, FFA president David Caton claimed credit for convincing Macy's and Target to stop advertising on Degrassi and said that the group is redoubling its efforts to pressure other advertisers as a result of the show’s supposed promotion of “immoral behavior”:

In response to pressure from concerned parents, more sponsors are withdrawing their support from a pro-homosexual cable television show for teens.

Because the work of the Florida Family Association (FFA), Macy's and Target have stopped advertising on Degrassi (see earlier story). David Caton explains why MTV's Teen Nick show is not appropriate for kids and why his organization is urging businesses to pull their sponsorship from the program.

"It has content that is very extraordinarily explicit towards transgender and homosexual lifestyles," he details. "It often has promotions on there that direct teens to organizations that will encourage them to embrace and accept the transgender or homosexual lifestyle," particularly TheTrevorHelpline.org -- a website that describes itself as "a free and confidential service that's open for gay and questioning youth," and claims to be "saving lives" by encouraging confused kids to "be proud of who you are."

His organization is currently targeting Mars and Wrigley, both owned by the same company, as they continue to run Orbit gum, Skittles, Snickers, Starburst, and Twix commercials during the show.

"We're challenging Mars-Wrigley to stop advertising and stop supporting this kind of content that is aimed at an immoral behavior that children would embrace," reports Caton.

After Lowe’s capitulated to the calls from the Florida Family Association to withdraw its ads from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim, the home improvement company immediately faced a hostile response from consumers not driven by unremitting anti-Muslim bigotry. The Florida Family Association launched its pressure campaign against All-American Muslim advertisers by citing the articles of anti-Muslim activists Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, who claim that the show misrepresents the Muslim community because it doesn’t match their stereotypes of Muslims as anti-American terrorists. Spencer demanded TLC create a show about a secular Muslim who becomes a terrorist and Geller claimed that the “program is an attempt to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad” because the people in the show aren’t terrorists, and smeared Think Progress reporter as a “Dhimmi Jew” for defending TLC.

While siding with the likes of Spencer and Geller is bad enough, the Florida Family Assocation has a long history of not only attacking Muslims but also President Obama, entertainment companies and the LGBT community:

• The FFA created a highly-edited video that tries to make President Obama appear to be Muslim and derided the “extraordinarily strong bond that President Barack Obama has with Islam.”

• The group went after Campbell’s soup for boosting the “advancement of Islam and Sharia law in the United States” because the company made halal soups and sponsored a conference held by a Canadian Muslim relief organization.

• Predicting that “Islam will not sweep into America overnight though it could under the current president” as the “Islamization of America will most likely happen city by city,” the FFA launched a website to combat the purported “Islamization” of Tampa, warning that “Tampa is headed toward embracing Islam.”

• The FFA also waged a campaign against Modern Family, bragging that they convinced “107 companies to stop advertising during the ABC show Modern Family after the advertisers received thousands of emails from Florida Family Association supporters. Florida Family Association objects to Modern Family because the show labels a same-sex couple with an adopted child as a modern family and attempts to normalize homosexuality by contrasting it with heterosexual couples that the show characterizes as abnormal.”

• The organization attacked advertisers on Degrassi because the teen show included a gay, bisexual and transgender characters, calling it “salacious and irresponsible propaganda,” and also criticized Degrassi for promoting The Trevor Project, an anti-suicide group that specifically focuses on at-risk LGBT youth. “Degrassi’s targeting of children and teens with homosexual and transgender content and promotions which encourage kids to call homosexual hotlines is irresponsible,” the group wrote.

• Unsurprisingly, the FFA went after Chaz Bono’s appearance on Dancing With The Stars, saying “Chaz’s appearance on this show looks like nothing more than social engineering to mainstream extreme parts of the homosexual agenda.”

• The group helped pass a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, a ban on same-sex parents adopting children, and claimed to have sent state legislators “over 10,000 emails opposing Domestic Partnerships and legislation that promotes the homosexual lifestyle,” including legislation that would bar discrimination against people due to their sexual orientation.

• The FFA also regularly protests Gay Day at Disney World for “offending unsuspecting families,” even contracting a plane to fly over Disney with a seven foot banner reading, “WARNING GAY PRIDE DAY@DISNEY 2DAY.” They even campaigned against the AARP for starting a program aimed at older gays and lesbians, saying it promotes “special rights for immoral behavior.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech and the new Obama administration directive on protecting rights for LGBT people abroad set off a firestorm among right-wing activists, who have done everything from defending the criminalization of homosexuality to dismissing rampant violence against gays and prophesying God’s harsh and imminent judgment on America.

You will be stunned to learn that Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera isn’t happy either, asking, “Who knew that when President Ronald Reagan spoke idealistically about America becoming a ‘shining city on the hill,’ that city would turn out to be Sodom?” LaBarbera said that Obama and Clinton are putting America in a position of “defiance toward her Creator to a new level” and endorsing an “affront to our Declaration of Independence”:

With their new escalation of promoting homosexual behavior to other nations through U.S. foreign policy, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have raised America's defiance toward her Creator to a new level -- while needlessly alienating nations less morally compromised than our own. Not content to keep our decadence between our shores, the United States -- through aggressively pro-"gay" Democratic administrations -- now demands that other countries sink to our level by embracing homosexuality as a "human right."

Who knew that when President Ronald Reagan spoke idealistically about America becoming a "shining city on the hill," that city would turn out to be Sodom? Hillary earned plaudits from the Left with her U.N. speech on international "gay rights," but her words were an affront to our Declaration of Independence, which appeals to "Nature and Nature's God."

By redefining "human rights" to include the normalization of same-sex behaviors and gender confusion, Obama and Clinton have turned God's natural moral order on its head. There are many countries -- including Muslim-dominated nations and major powers like Russia -- that reject homosexuality. By pushing sexual deviance on these nations, we only confirm their perception of America as a corrupt and declining -- and very arrogant -- superpower.

…

Homosexuality -- once widely regarded as a Crime Against Nature -- is no more a "fundamental human right" than any other sexual sin. Moreover, its practice is linked disproportionately to sexual diseases like HIV, anal cancer, hepatitis, gonorrhea and syphilis. Culturally and politically speaking, what makes this perversion unique is that it has a powerful and well-funded ("gay") movement behind it. (There are no "Adultery Pride Parades" or "Porn-Users Pride Months.") However, that does not make it right. All Americans who love God and respect His wonderful design for mankind should be ashamed of Obama's and Hillary's campaign to force a deeply flawed sexual ideology on innocent nations that do NOT want to emulate American decadence.

The Religious Right erupted against the Obama administration’s new policy to protect the rights of LGBT people around the world with warnings that God will punish America and calls for urgent prayers against the initiative. Yesterday, Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber joined Janet Mefferd to attack not only the administration’s directive to support LGBT-rights abroad but also to dismiss the ample evidence of violence against people as a result of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Both Barber and Mefferd earlier defended countries that criminalize homosexuality, and while speaking together they both claimed that violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is not a problem. Apparently, Barber and Mefferd do not believe that arresting, imprisoning and punishing people because they are gay are forms of violence, and choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence of persecution of LGBT people throughout the world.

Barber dismissed concerns about violence against the LGBT community as “nonsense” and said that efforts to protect the rights and dignity of LGBT people are “unconscionable” and “disgusting.”

Barber: You don’t force other nations to put their stamp of approval, the official government stamp of approval, on disordered, sinful behavior.

Mefferd: Here’s a question I had too. In all the stories I was reading yesterday about this directive, in none of them did I see any break down of statistics on the number of homosexuals and transgenders worldwide who are being tortured, persecuted and killed for being gay, have you seen any statistics like that?

Barber: Of course not, it’s nonsense. It’s Orwellian New Speak.

…

Barber: His latest actions I think bring shame upon this nation that he has pledged to serve in that again he’s embarrassed us in the eyes of nations around the world by pushing this radical—and it is a radical sexual anarchist agenda—and telling other nations ‘you will sign off on this radical sexual anarchist agenda or you will get no U.S. foreign aid.’ That is extortion, it is unconscionable, it is disgusting but it is in keeping with this radical president’s M.O.

The United Nations has consistently pointed to the “abuses that target LGBT people, including killings, torture, rape, violence, disappearances, and discrimination in many areas of life” and Lutheran Social Services found that violence against the LGBT community in the developing world is “horrific” as “people from the LGBT community are beaten, killed, tortured, psychologically tormented, or jailed because of their sexual orientation.” The group also notes that the government is often responsible for promoting anti-gay attacks, as many times “the police will not protect individuals and may be the worst perpetrators of the violence.”

According to the ILGA’s 2011 report [pdf] on “State-Sponsored Homophobia,” 76 countries criminalize homosexuality, five of which have the death penalty. The ILGA noted that for many LGBT people, particularly in Africa, the situation has “worsened” with increases in “harassment, humiliation, extortion, arbitrary arrests, judicial violence imprisonment, torture, hate crimes and honor killings.” Corrective rape against lesbians is also on the rise in countries like South Africa and Jamaica.

Rather than do actual research, Barber and Mefferd are so committed to their anti-gay ideology that they even try to whitewash the unmistakable cases of violence against LGBT people throughout the world.

Secretary Hillary Clinton’s speech on defending LGBT rights abroad and the new Obama administration policy to protect people around the world who are jailed, beaten and executed for being LGBT have been met with intense uproar from the Religious Right.

Pat Robertson on The 700 Club today said that the policy was “appalling” shows that America is willing to “violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws.” Robertson even warned that God will not tolerate it and “when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible”:

Robertson: Isn’t it appalling that the United States of America would try to force the acceptance of homosexuality on other nations but at the same time we would not force them to take care of their religious minorities and they would permit discrimination and persecution of Christians? What kind of a country have we got? You know, there is a God in heaven and He is just. Thomas Jefferson, ‘I tremble when I remember that God is just.’ He is just, he is not going to allow this kind of thing to go on forever. This country cannot continue to violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws and think we’re going to get away with it. And when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible.

On Crosstalk yesterday, Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America argued that the new policy shows that “the inmates have taken over the asylum” and Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said it confirms the administration’s support of the “radical sexual anarchist agenda”:

Janet Mefferd yesterday defended Nigeria’s right to have a law criminalizing homosexuality and a bill that would crack down on gay couples, and even dismissed concerns about persistent violence against gays and lesbians in Africa:

Mefferd: Let’s get our priorities straight here, in other words, why are we even focusing on this? Other than the fact that you have African countries that have policies like Nigeria, criminalizing homosexuality, are they not a sovereign nation? Can’t they make up their own minds about these things? If they want to pass a law we’re going to play bully over this issue? I can understand countries where people are being flagrantly persecuted for their faith but this one; I don’t see that this is something that the United States has to jump in on because it’s such a huge global tragedy. It’s crazy. They’re saying it’s all homophobia in Nigeria, according to the law I guess in Nigeria not only is gay marriage a crime punishable by a fourteen year jail term but any person who registers, operates or participates in gay organizations faces a decade in jail, a clause that specifically targets the many active sexuality-rights advocacy groups in the country. Alright, but they’re not killing them are they? Are they going to go to jail?

What do you say about this? For another country to make the decision that anybody who violates a standard that they want to uphold in their society to go to jail, where do you draw the line on that? If you have a culture that had a lot of Christians who say we cannot as a society look upon homosexuality as a good thing for all of us, but in that case you’ve got to gather together the global community and bully them out of it.