Is it Christian to be Anti-Gay?

Between Chick-fil-A and today’s shooting at the Family Research Council’s (FRC) offices, there’s been a lot of discussion about something called a “Hate Group.”

Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins

Groups such as FRC, the National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, Public Advocate, American Family Association and many others frequently refer to themselves as “Pro-Family,” “Pro-Marriage” and sometimes “Christian” organizations. And when asked, the leaders of these groups will be the first to tell you they hold nothing against the gay community. It’s their actions though, that you need to take a look at. As I’d mentioned in some discussions last week, Richard Nixon can say “I’m not a crook” all he wants, that doesn’t mean he’s not one.

While these groups may do some excellent work with Christian charities, their primary focus is on fighting to have the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people denied. But over the years, they’ve been able to frame what it is they do with those “Pro-family” and “Christian” modifiers. It’s a frustrating fight for those of us seeking nothing more than equal treatment under the law, when these incorrectly-identified groups can lie by claiming they are being attacked by people who are “Anti-Christian” or “Anti-family.” Even today’s attack, though details are still not complete – it’s become clear that the suspect was angered over FRC’s anti-gay policies. If it was an organization that was simply hosting soup kitchens, running orphanages and caring for the poor, I can almost guarantee he wouldn’t be driven to opening fire in their offices.

That’s where the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) comes in. According to their website, “SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education and other forms of advocacy, we work toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.” One of the ways they do this is by exhaustively researching the work of groups like the Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis, racist skinheads,  black separatists and border vigilantes and identifying them as “hate groups.”

Identifying an anti-gay group as a “hate group” is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups. 

While identifying themselves as “pro-family” groups, they are actually fighting against more than 1 million American families with more than 2 million kids who are being raised by LGBT parents. Without marriage protections, some of these families are legal strangers to one another. Anti-gay adoption laws, which were lobbied for and won by these organizations keep kids from ever finding forever homes. And anti-gay marriage laws assure that these families will suffer from a crippling lack of legal protections. There is nothing “pro-family” or “Christian” about allowing families to be ripped apart or seeing children raised by a foster care system when there are thousands of loving couples ready to adopt.

In addition to the work of these groups in the U.S., some of them have been linked to anti-gay legislation in other countries. The Ugandan “Kill the Gays” bill would penalize acts of homosexuality with life imprisonment or in “aggravated” cases, gay people could be put to death. While the US Congress was preparing to pass a condemnation of the Ugandan legislation, FRC spent $25,000 on lobbyists to stop them from denouncing the law. They claim that they were only trying to change the language of the denouncement, but in prior lobbying documents from FRC, they’d indicated they were attempting “to amend” legislation, whereas the tax documents for this action contained no such itemization of amendments.

National Organization for Marriage’s        Brian Brown

These groups have painted themselves with bright colors to make people think they are fighting for tradition, for family, for morality and for freedom. But the truth of the matter is they don’t fight for anything. They are only fighting against LGBT people so that we can’t experience the same freedoms they do. How else can you explain the National Organization for Marriage, whose mission statement is “to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it,” attacking things like bathrooms for transgender people, gender identity in children, or children being taught that gay people even exist. They’ve even worked to falsely link gay people to pedophilia. None of those things have anything to do with “protecting marriage,” so why are they fighting them? Because they are not pro-anything, they are anti-gay.

Folks, none of this is about marriage and none of this is about “protecting” anything. These groups have spent years weaving a myth shrouded in flowery and false “pro-Christian” memes. Today’s attack on FRC is something that was perpetrated by a man who was clearly out of his mind. And just as these groups’ motivations have very little to do with marriage, I don’t beleive the shooter’s motivations did either.

Despite Family Research Council’s lobbying against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, we believe that what happened today was a hate crime and should be investigated as such. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community understands all too well violence against people based on their political beliefs and personal lives.

And while nearly every group pro and anti-LGBT, took time today to condemn the shooting and call for sanity and non-violence in this debate, one group made the active decision to politicize the discussion. The National Organization for Marriage released statements and blog posts (long before anything was known about the shooter), to attack SPLC for identifying Family Research Council as a “hate group.” At a time when many people’s thoughts are with the victim of the shooting, NOM is once again spending their time on something other than marriage. If there was ever a question about their true motivations, that question has been answered.

These are the vocal organization who are out in the media every day claiming to represent Christians and Christian morality. If you are a Christian and know that what they are doing is decidedly against the things you’ve learned, it’s up to you to speak up. Tell them and tell your religious leaders that the bigotry being taught is not representative of you.

In closing, I wanted to share my own motivation in writing this. A comment from someone named Leslie McLafferty on my previous post about today’s shooting:

Penn State: The Connection Between Pedophilia and Homosexuality

The Washington Examiner's Cal Thomas

For a few weeks now, the Religious Right has been shamelessly co-opting the Penn State child rape tragedies to spark further hatred of the gay community. As discussed here last week, one organization went so far as to raise money with their incoherent linking of being gay to the Penn State incidents.

Well, I’ve had enough. After reading an utterly embarrassing piece of writing in the DC morning ‘Examiner‘ which grasped at straws by trying to link the relationship of Kurt and Blaine on ‘Glee’ to Penn State, I cannot stay quiet about it. And tonight, I discovered an equally horrific piece at World Net Daily which continues along the ridiculous and completely unsubstantiated link between being gay and being a pedophile.

The long and short of it: Being a pedophile has zero to do with being gay.

Dr. Carole Jenny of Denver Children’s Hospital put together an exhaustive study on this very topic. She took 352 children who were referred to a clinic for potential sexual abuse. 35 of these children were ruled out of the study as abuse seemed unlikely in these cases.

Of the remaining 317 cases…

• 74 children were abused by other children or teens under the age of 18.
• 9 children could not identify their abuser.
• 2 children were abused by someone identified as gay or lesbian.
• 232 children were sexually abused by the heterosexual partner of a close relative.

And if you’d like to discuss gay men, the usual target of lies perpetrated by the Religious Right, the same doctor did a study of 50 boys who had been molested.

Of those 50 boys…

• 37 were abused by a man in a straight relationship with a relative.
• 3 were molested by their mother or grandmother.
• 5 were molested by both parents.
• 3 were molested by a male family friend who had no history of sex with men.
• 1 was molested by an uncle, also with no history of sex with men.
• 1 was molested by a man who was possibly, but not definitely a gay man.

This is outlined beautifully by blogger Rob Tisinai in a video I will include at the end of the post, which you should all pass around as much as you can.

The vast majority of men who abuse boys are either not attracted to adults of either gender or are straight men who are emotionally disturbed, frequently only involved because of the power they may have over a young boy. Additionally, the reason so many boys are molested by men is that men have greater access to boys than they do to girls.

Several studies have concluded that only a fraction of pedophiles have ever shown an attraction to other adult men – a fraction that is far below the ratio of openly gay men in society.

As Rob Tisinai says in the video:

“When our opponents demonize openly gay men and falsely shine the spotlight on us, they’re letting the real abusers hide in the darkness…and continue their abuse.”

It has become clear through every actual fact that can be found, that what is more important to Peter LaBarbera, WorldNetDaily, Cal Thomas at the Washington Examiner and every other anti-gay activist, is that gays and lesbians be denied equality. They are continually putting their own anti-gay agenda ahead of the lives and abuses of children.

With every one of these articles, they are extending the myth that openly gay men are the ones to watch when it comes to the sexual abuse of children. And for every minute they spend penning an article like these, a real predator is getting away with these horrific acts. Peter LaBarbera, Cal Thomas, and WorldNetDaily have all made the conscious decision to prioritize their own anti-gay agendas over the lives and well-being of children.

It is up to us to spread the truth and combat the lies and fear with scientifically-proven facts. This is not about defending our honor, this is about really protecting our children.

Anti-Gay Hate Group Uses Penn State Tragedy to Raise Money

Peter LaBarbera

Anti-Gay Hate Group, “Americans for Truth About Homosexuality” led by Peter LaBarbera has been a factory for lies and hatred of LGBT people for several years now. The lies perpetuated by LaBarbera have crossed the line of “offensive” and jumped straight into “crazy.” His obsession with gay pornography has earned him the popular nickname “Porno Pete,” and his unwavering dedication to spreading untruth and bile about the LGBT community is second-to-none.

But this evening, he has done something so hateful, so hurtful and outright malicious that I hope anyone observing will see the anti-gay movement for what it truly is.

In the past few days, a horrific story has come out of Penn State where an assistant football coach has been accused of molesting and raping several young boys. Even upon being observed raping a 10-year old boy in the school’s locker room, the accused was protected by the football coach, athletics directors and school administration. As if this was not bad enough, upon the firing of the football coach over these accusations, hundreds of Penn State students have abandoned any moral fiber within and taken to the streets to defend the coach who knowingly let these acts slide.

When these stories are being reported, it’s hard not to feel ill just thinking about what these children went through and how the defense of these people who covered up the atrocities must feel like they are being violated all over again.

This is all quite bad enough to deal with, but now that Peter LaBarbera has started reporting the story, he is not only using these horrific allegations to spread further lies about gay people, but he is trying to raise money off it as well.

When reading the words posted on his site, all of which have been debunked by the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and every reputable medical association in the country, one cannot help but notice the enormous “DONATE HERE” button glaring on the right side of the story.

Some in this country still don’t believe in marriage equality, and I can understand that and work at having a coherent and respectful discussion about it. But this kind of propaganda and fear mongering, and the use of this horrible tragedy to raise money for your organization is simply beyond the pale.

The spreading of lies and hatred is one thing, but to try to make a quick buck off the story of these children is easily the worst thing I’ve seen in the modern anti-gay movement. LaBarbera should be ashamed. Please see the screen cap below to see what can be found on LaBarbera’s Hate Group’s website. Additionally, an email was sent to the organization’s list which featured the Penn State story followed by the following: