Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Supreme Court torpedoes NOM's Oregon marriage stay request

This just in from Buzzfeed:


The U.S. Supreme Court has given NOM's Brian Brown a new reason to cry
The Supreme Court denied the National Organization for Marriage’s attempt to stop same-sex couples from marrying in Oregon.

NOM has appealed the trial judge’s decision not to let the group, which is opposed to same-sex couples’ marriage rights, to intervene in the lawsuit challenging Oregon’s ban on such marriages.
The appeal of the intervention denial now continues at the 9th Circuit, but same-sex couples will continue to be able to marry during the time that is happening.

The 9th Circuit, which is hearing that appeal, denied NOM’s request to stop the trial court decision striking down the ban from going into effect during the appeal. NOM then went to Justice Anthony Kennedy to ask him to stop the marriages while that appeal is pending before the 9th Circuit.

Kennedy, who hears procedural matters brought to the court from the 9th Circuit, referred the request to the full court, which denied the request without comment on Tuesday. NOM’s appeal of the denial to intervene is the only matter left pending in the case because Oregon state officials had not fought the lawsuit, having agreed with the plaintiffs that the ban is unconstitutional. They had said that they would not appeal the decision if U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane struck down the ban.

''Christian' writer picking on transgender child' & other Wednesday midday news briefs

BarbWire Pundit Says Transgender Boy Is Possessed By Demons - Because the "Christian" thing to do is always pick on the transgender child.  

Um, not sure I'd use the phrase 'drive a wedge' when defending a NOM event - NOM's fake black civil rights group is getting serious pushback on its video comparing marriage equality to slavery and segregation. Good. 

Top Christian Activist: Gay Rights Transforming US Into ‘Totalitarianism’ Of Hitler’s Germany - Oh yeah. You can just see it by the way folks like Tony Perkins are free to make such evil comparisons. After all, the Nazis were always one for NOT viciously stamping out those who complain about them.  

Southern Baptist Minister Explains Why He Changed His Mind On Homosexuality - Progress! Sweet, sweet progress! 

 On Fox, The Gay Marriage Revolution Has Not Been Televised - Ignore marriage equality victories, but if Fox News can push a false story of gays supposedly "persecuting" folks, stand back!

FRC's Tony Perkins deserves special award for his latest anti-gay lie

Ken Blackwell
Ken Blackwell, a spokesman with the Family Research Council, recently caught a lot of heat for blaming marriage equality for the recent awful mass killings in Isla Vista, CA.

According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch:

Family Research Council senior fellow Ken Blackwell yesterday linked the Isla Vista mass killings to marriage equality laws, which he claimed are destroying the culture. Speaking with FRC president Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch,” Blackwell blamed the shooting on “the crumbling of the moral foundation of the country” and “the attack on natural marriage and the family.”

“When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing,” Blackwell said, arguing that people who are “blaming the Second Amendment” are “avoiding talking about what is at the root cause of the problem.”

In the face of this controversy, FRC has chosen to ignore Right Wing Watch, and the with the help of a site called TruthRevolt, attack a second party who reported the story, Media Matters. The following is from an email sent by FRC president Tony Perkins as a part of his Washington Update:

If you can't beat 'em, smear 'em. That seems to be Media Matters's far-Left M.O. for intimidating people who make compelling cases for conservatism. Its latest target? FRC's Ken Blackwell. In an interview last week, Ken talked about the latest shooting spree at the University of California and pointed back to the "crumbling of the moral foundation of the country" as a contributing factor to the recent spate of violence. Media Matters, a pet project of multi-billionaire George Soros, went on the attack -- accusing Ken of blaming same-sex "marriage" for the murders.

TruthRevolt immediately fired back at the wild distortion. "Blackwell never mentions same-sex marriage. Not once. His discussion... revolves around the generalized breakdown and destruction of sexual values. Blackwell's main point is with the hyper-sexualized, porn-obsessed society that we live in, Elliot Rodger's perception of what a relationship between a man and a woman comes from the "development of human sexuality in our culture."

I don't know what the heck TruthRevolt is supposed to be, but both it and the Family Research Council are attempting to pull a fast one.  Let's look at what Blackwell actually said (and this exact quote is from Truth Revolt. The audio is from Right Wing Watch):



Transcript: 

When you see there's a crumbling of the moral foundation of the country, you see the attack on the -- on natural marriage and the family that has been a part of the, not only the moral foundation and the upbringing of our children but the teaching of sexual roles and the development of human sexuality in our culture. When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing and that is a flood of these disturbed people in our society that are causing great, great pain. And as opposed to dealing with the foundational problems, we look for ways of blaming the Second Amendment, or blaming knives or blaming cars when they are used. At the end of the day, you have just underscored the problem. This is a convenient way of avoiding talking about what's at the root cause.

So yes, Blackwell was talking about marriage equality or "same sex marriage," even though he didn't mention it by name.  And he was blaming it in part for the mass killings. To say otherwise when one has access to the original audio and the transcript is a bold-faced lie.

And to claim that Blackwell wasn't talking about marriage equality in his comments is an even bigger bold-faced lie if you just happened to have been there when he made the statement, isn't that right, Mr. Perkins.

You see, the other person on the audio with Blackwell was in fact Tony Perkins, i.e. the same person who is now claiming that Blackwell was not blaming marriage equality for the Isla Vista mass killings. And one has to ask why would Perkins cite a second party (i.e. TruthRevolt) in a sad attempt to absolve Blackwell when he was present at the time of Blackwell's statement?

I can't say much for his honesty, but Perkins deserves some type of special recognition to lie this brazenly.