Friday, November 14, 2008

Use your heads, folks. The religious right is watching us.

Tomorrow is the day, folks - Join the Impact - keep it nonviolent and love-filled.

Today, my favorite anti-gay spokesperson (who am I kidding, I love 'em all) Matt Barber gave his "opinion" on Proposition 8.

According to Barber, my community is calling for wanton acts of violence. Strange because I didn't get that memo.

The funny part about Barber's screed is him running defense for black folks:

Don’t compare your sin to my skin," goes the African-American mantra. Or, as influential black pastor Ken Hutcherson notes, "It has been said loudly and proudly that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. If that’s the case, then gays would be the new African-Americans. I’m here to tell you now, and hopefully for the last time, that the gay community is not the new African-American community."

Understandably, blacks want all this nonsense to stop. Exit polls indicate that in the Democratic stronghold of "left coast" California, African-Americans - 96 percent of whom voted for Barack Obama - also voted to pass California’s marriage protection amendment (Prop 8) by an overwhelming 70 to 30 percent. As luck would have it, the unprecedented turnout of black voters for Obama very likely tipped the scale and restored the enduring definition of natural marriage to the Golden State. This has made "gay" activists mouth-foaming furious.

What's funnier? That Barber calls Hutcherson "influential" or that he is speaking for the African-American community.

Black folks who complain about gays appropriating the civil rights movement should really pay attention to Barber and his cohorts.

Just when did they ever speak out about education, inner-city violence or the other problems that face African-American community.

Maybe black folks would be best served not to pay as much attention to lgbts but to those claiming to be their friends.

A perfect example of what I am talking about is this lovely piece Barber also wrote about President-Elect Barack Obama:

Obama Vows Blood for Bloodshed

Seriously though, Barber alluded to several unfortunate incidents in order to enhance his lies about gays rioting in the streets. He also take several comments from pro-gay blogs out of context It just goes to show how the religious right monitors our web pages and how we need to be on the ball about monitoring them.

So be careful folks. Put a kibosh on nonsense posted on your sites:

Barber issued a news release, cited at various right-wing Christian sites and GLBT sites alike, in which he claimed that gays were actively advocating that hate crimes targeting Christians be carried out.

Striking an incredulous tone, the news release declared that “several self identified homosexuals on a number of homosexual blogs are advocating violence against Christians and other supporters of traditional marriage.”

The release went on, “Additionally, some homosexuals are calling for church burnings in response to yesterday’s three state referenda in defense of natural marriage.”

The release then cherry-picked from various comments posted to GLBT Web sites such as Queerty and JoeMyGod.

One posting at Queerty called for readers to burn Mormon temples, with the blogger writing, “Can someone in CA please go burn down the Mormon temples there, PLEASE. I mean seriously. DO IT.”

Responded Queerty, “No, don’t.”

Added Queerty, “First and foremost, violence solves nothing and obviously we don’t condone such thinking.

“Second, if people actually started attacking churches, it would do the gay rights movement a great disservice.

“We’re sure there are other ways to fight for our rights, like public protests, lawyers and other perfectly legal venues,” Queerty continued.

The religious right suggested that such expressions of anger be criminally prosecuted and tutted the gay community for asking for “tolerance,” only to post such commentary when their rights were taken from them by legal maneuvers and the use of the popular vote.

No such calls from the religious right for criminal prosecution have been noted in instances where right-wing bloggers suggested physical violence should be visited upon gays and lesbians.

The release also culled carefully excerpted text from blogger postings at JoeMyGod, including a comment that encouraged readers to “Burn their f-ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers.”

JoeMyGod responded by warning readers that, “The Christianists are monitoring this and other LGBT blogs and calling for the criminal prosecution of those calling for violent revenge against the religious right in the wake of yesterday’s vote on Proposition 8.”

Added JoeMyGod, “Please refrain from any possibly actionable calls to violence against our foul enemies and their property.

“There have been over 1000 comments today already, but I will go slog through them and remove any comments that might cause you legal repercussions, as remote as that prospect probably may be.”

At the right-wing religious site WorldNetDaily, a Nov. 5 article based on the release reveled in the claims made by Barber, who stated in the release that, “The homosexual lobby is always calling for ’tolerance’ and ’diversity’ and playing the role of victim.

“They claim to deplore violence and ’hate.’ Here we have homosexuals inciting, and directly threatening, violence against Christians.”

Added Barber, “This is not free speech; these are ’hate crimes’ under the existing definition.

“Imagine if Christian websites were advocating such violence against homosexuals. There’d be outrage, and rightfully so. It’d be national front-page news.

“Federal authorities should immediately investigate these threats and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.”

Given that federal authorities have not, to date, launched any extensive investigations of Christian and conservative Web sites for similar user-posted language against gays, that outcome seems unlikely.

In the release, Barber also encouraged GLBT leaders to encourage that threatening language not be employed by angry gays whose rights have been curtailed.

With Queerty and JoeMyGod having done so, it remains to be seen whether the Liberty Council and other right-wing Christian organizations will issue a similar call for civility to members of their own ranks.



And on the offchance that Barber and company is monitoring Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters (and ooooooooh I hope that they are):

Guys, you have a momentary victory here and a chance to exploit the rage and anger your nonsense has caused and continues to cause in the lgbt community.

But be forewarned. The day is coming that everything you have done; all of the times you have cited Paul Cameron (while knowing that his work was false), all the times that you have distorted legitimate studies (and ignored the authors when they complain), all the times you have written columns and gone on news programs distorting current events and controversies to suit your agenda; all of these things will come back on your head.

You claim to speak for God but the God I know doesn't like lies even if they are told in His name and He doesn't like ugly. If He is merciful , all the wrong things you have done will come out in the open.

And you will have no one to blame but yourselves.