Via JMG: This Week In Holy Crimes

Over the last seven days...

Illinois: Pastor Christian J. Johnson and his wife arrested for car theft and meth possession.
Maryland: Pentecostal Bishop Roan Samuel Faulkner arrested for sexually assaulting a female parishioner.
Canada: Bishop Raymond Lahey set to begin trial for possession of child pornography. Lahey has also been accused of molesting an orphan boy in his care.
New York: Pastor Phillip Joubert puts his church up for bail collateral after being charged with rape, incest, and sexual abuse of a child. Joubert does not own the church.
Maryland: Father Michael L. Barnes pleads guilty to child molestation.
Ireland: Father Oliver O'Grady will get $94K from his diocese in an annuity payment, even though he's been convicted of child molestation.
Connecticut: Pastor Iura Godenciuc to pay $26K in fines after larceny arrest for lying about his address to change the school his kids attend. The school district says he owes $76K.
Australia: Father Victor Farrugia charged with eight counts of indecent sexual assault.
Florida: Youth Pastor Paul A. Lisowski stabs himself in the neck as deputies close in to arrest him for violating a protection order on an underage girl.
Nigeria: Father Felix Afolayan charged with defrauding 110 people of millions by promising them Canadian visas.
Colorado: Pastor Douglas Alan Scott loses appeal on $12M hedge fund scam conviction. Scott defrauded more than 400 parishioners.
Italy: Bishop Gino Reali charged as an accessory for covering up multiple child molestations committed by a priest in his diocese.

This Week's Winner
Denmark: In 2005 a Catholic priest in charge of teaching children was convicted of downloading 38 child pornography films, but it wasn't until last month that he was suspended. And Bishop Czeslaw Kozlon, head of the Catholic Church in Denmark, didn't even tell his parish why the suspension finally took place. (They learned the truth from reporters.) The Danish Catholic Church is also facing accusations that an elderly senile nun froze to death after she was locked out of church for making noise during the morning prayers.reposted from Joe

Sen. Kerry called the couple heroes for persevering in their marriage

Gay couple get a boost in winning bid to reunite

Kerry helps Brazilian return to Haverhill

Tim Coco (left) with Genesio Oliveira and their dog, Q-tip, at home in Haverhill yesterday. Oliveira can now try again for legal residency. (David Kamerman for The Boston Globe)

By Maria Sacchetti Globe Staff / June 4, 2010

Tim Coco and Genesio Oliveira married in 2005, among the throngs who wed after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. But for nearly three years, they lived apart — Coco in Haverhill and Oliveira in his native Brazil — because federal law does not recognize their union.

make the jump here to read the entire article

Via JMG: GLAAD Demands Apology From Bill O'Reilly For Comparing Gays To Al Qaeda

GLAAD has issued a call to action, demanding that Fox's Bill O'Reilly issue an apology for comparing gays to al Queda.

On the June 2 edition of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly made highly offensive comments while discussing a gay themed McDonald’s advertisement currently airing in France. After playing the ad for his viewers O’Reilly asked Jane Skinner to weigh in on the content. Skinner pointed out that the ad campaign is “part of an overreaching campaign called ‘come as you are,’ which you saw at the end there. So they show people in different walks of life.” O’Reilly then asked, “Do they have an al Qaeda ad, you know, come as you are? You know?” Instead of evaluating the commercial in a fair manner, O’Reilly used the occasion to defame the LGBT community, suggesting that McDonald’s might begin marketing to terrorists simply because the company produced a gay friendly television commercial. His lighthearted tone in the segment was equally disturbing. Cable opinion programs like “The O’Reilly Factor” have a responsibility to cover issues with a level of respect and civility. Bill O’Reilly failed to live up to that standard in making these defamatory remarks. Fox News Channel is equally accountable for allowing O’Reilly a platform for this insulting and irresponsible commentary.

Join in GLAAD's demand here.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Happy Gay Pride From Tony Perkins

"Happy sexual deviance month--or, as this President likes to call it, Gay Pride Month. Under this administration, every month feels like one long same-sex parade. For the second year in a row, however, the White House decided to make it official, weighing in with its second proclamation for 'Gay Pride Month' detailing how homosexuals and cross-dressers have "enriched' American life. Unlike President Clinton, who spent a fair amount of his time indulging the Human Rights Campaign, President Obama took it a step further and added 'bisexuals' and 'transgenders' to the list. In fact, he called on 'every American' to spend the month celebrating their movement--a movement dedicated to destroying marriage, free speech, public health, religious liberty, and (after the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal) national security." - From yesterday's Washington Update by the Family Research Council, a message that was also emailed to their millions of members.

The Family Research Council wants LGBT people criminalized.
The Family Research Council wants LGBT people deported.
The Family Research Council wants LGBT people put to death.

And yet every time an LGBT rights issue is in the news, Tony Perkins or Peter Sprigg are trotted out on national television as America's leading Christian voices as they tut-tut their hatred, smirk their oily smiles, and promise viewers that they love homosexuals, despite our "sins."

Stormfront loves blacks.
Al Qaeda loves Jews.
Hutus love Tutsis.
And the Family Research Council loves you.reposted from Joe

Via JMG: UNITED NATIONS: Egypt Blocks LGBT Rights Group From Accreditation

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's request for accreditation as a consulting group to the United Nations has been blocked by Egypt.

The group, which had applied for "consultative status" at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three years ago, is an international NGO and advocacy group focusing on protecting the rights of homosexuals and lesbians worldwide. Diplomats from Western nations that support gay rights complained that Egypt and other developing states that have been criticized by rights groups for discriminating against gays and lesbians prevented the committee from voting on whether to accredit the group, thereby leaving it in limbo. "IGLHRC is disappointed by the vote of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations to block action on our application," Cary Alan Johnson, head of the New York-based group, said in a statement to Reuters.

The U.N. NGO committee has 19 members, among them the United States and Britain, as well as Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Pakistan and China. Johnson said it was a "clear case of discrimination against an organization because it defends the human rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi- and transsexual) people around the world." The U.S. delegation defended the work of IGLHRC. "This NGO is committed to combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity," the U.S. statement said. "It has contributed to valuable research on HIV/AIDs and its work is well known to this committee."

According to the British delegation, Egypt blocked IGLHRC "on behalf of African countries."

via JMG: WaPo Picks Up My FRC Post

The Washington Post's David Weigel has picked up my post about the Family Research Council lobbying against Uganda's "kill gays" bill.

Gay City News and blogger Joe My God dug into the lobbying records of the Family Research Council and found that among the "Civil Rights/Civil Liberties" issues that the FRC's Tom McCluskey and David Christensen lobbied on was HR 1064, a resolution condemning Uganda's proposed anti-homosexuality bill. That's the bill that would assign a seven-year sentence for "homosexuality" and a possible death sentence for "aggravated homosexuality."

Should this come as a surprise? Well, it's the only issue under the "Civil Rights/Civil Liberties" heading that doesn't actually touch on a change to American laws. The resolution, proposed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Ca.), spends most of its length arguing that Uganda's efforts to fight AIDS would be impeded by the law and proclaims that "all people possess an intrinsic human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation, and share fundamental human rights." In the FRC's report, this resolution is short-handed as "pro-homosexual promotion."

Weigel has posted the FRC's lobbying report in full, as well as the wording of the House resolution. He is waiting for the Family Research Council to respond.

a post lifted from Joe

Via another list: JUST A RANDOM THOUGHT....

the writer says:

I was walking through my midtown neighborhood of Lavendar Heights a little while ago, and since this section of Midtown is the "gay ghetto" of Sacramento, how come there aren't any rainbow flags or gay-related events posted on lightposts, stop lights, etc, you know kind of similar to what it's like down in the Castro. I think it would be a great idea to show our presence in this great neighborhood, other than just walking down or driving through the area streets. I was thinking how interesting it would be if the city did decide to put up those rectangular rainbow flags up and down the major thoroughfares, like 21st St, 19th St, P St, N St, K St, J St, etc, you know like you see in San Francisco. Since Sacramento has the sixth largest gay and lesbian population (percentage-wise) in the United States at around 33,000 or so, why not go for that idea?

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Admiral Mike Mullen

"The law needs to change. Fundamentally, it’s an issue of our values. It’s very critical for us as an institution, and I’m hard-pressed not to support policy and a law that forces individuals to come in and lie everyday. I have every expectation that not only we will do this, but we will lead in a way [so] it gets done. That doesn’t mean we won’t have challenges. I want to understand what the possibilities are … what it’s going take to implement this and, in that regard, address the leadership challenges and implementation with expectations that at the small-unit level, not exclusively, it will be led and led well. I have a lot of faith in you that that’s doable." - Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, speaking to soldiers yesterday at Fort Bragg.

Perhaps referencing the ridiculous claim by the Family Research Council that openly gay soldiers will lead to rampant male rape, one soldier asked Mullen if repealing DADT wouldn't lead to increases cases of sexual harassment. Mullen responded: "Certainly any change in the laws is not an excuse for anything like that to ever happen. We are a disciplined force. We have standards. Maintaining those standards, sustaining that discipline is our job, no matter what happens."

(Tipped by JMG reader Matt)reposted from Joe

Quote of the day (via JMG discssion):

To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

— Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, aphorism 215 (1955)

Via JMG: CHRISTIAN LOVE: Family Research Council Lobbied Congress Against Resolution Denouncing Uganda's Kill Gays Bill

It's time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to reclassify the Family Research Council as an official hate group, not merely anti-gay as they are now listed. According to the FRC's official lobbying report for the first quarter of 2010, they paid two two of their henchmen $25,000 to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. The resolution passed in the Senate on April 13th, but remains languished in the House almost four months after being referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Did the FRC's lobbying kill it? As we learned last week with Malawi, international pressure CAN sway even the most virulently anti-gay government.

Below are three screencaps of the 20-page Family Research Council lobbying report supplied to me by Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News. Among the other items they lobbied against are the overturn of DADT and DOMA, which is to be expected. But it's almost astounding, almost, that they would lobby the members of Congress against denouncing the death penalty for LGBT people. THIS needs to fucking THROWN in Tony Perkins' and Peter Sprigg's smirking faces the next time they appear on cable television to speak in soothing voices about the FRC's godly gentle love for homosexuals. The proof is right below on official United States government stationery. The Family Research Council wants you DEAD. Glory! Praise His Name! Also: Die, faggots, die!
reposted from Joe

T-shirt of the day

Via Stuart Gaffney on Facebook: IRS adopts state domestic-partner property law

"In a significant move for same-sex couples, the Internal Revenue Service has decided to recognize California's community property law and treat the income earned by California registered domestic partners as community property income for federal income tax purposes."

IRS adopts state domestic-partner property law

www.sfgate.com

In a significant move for same-sex couples, the Internal Revenue Service has decided to recognize California's community property law and treat the income earned by California registered domestic partners as community...

Via Belirico:Obama shifting responsibly for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Filed by: Rev Irene Monroe

June 3, 2010 8:30 AM

Last week, with a vote of 230 to 191, the House of Representatives voted to repeal former President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy that bars lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer service members from serving openly in the military. On the same day the House passed to repeal DADT, so too did the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"This legislation will help make our armed forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity," President Obama told the Associated Press.

But at the end of the day of all this historic voting, last week, the plight of our LGBTQ service members remained unchanged.

Investigations and discharges for being an openly LGBTQ service member will continue on as usual. Why? Because the Pentagon has not completed its study, reviewing how to maintain the military's "unit cohesion" while integrating LGBTQ service members.

December 1 is the day the country will know the results of the Pentagon study. We will also know if the welcoming mat will truly begin to unfold for our LGBTQ service members.

So, with the military having the real power to either overturn or to uphold DADT, what was last week's voting in the House and the Senate Armed Services Committee really about?

Pressure? Posturing? Or both?

Continue reading "Obama shifting responsibly for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"" »

Via Belirico: New Rules For The Barracks

Filed by: Father Tony

June 3, 2010 10:30 AM

According to recent studies, most soldiers are OK with the idea of gay comrades in arms, but the generals would have us believe that straight military personnel are trembling with fear at the thought of the elimination of DADT. I am not the only one who has occasionally asked a homophobe "What on earth are you afraid of?" I usually frame this heartfelt question with the explanation that homophobia is irrational. Gay marriage won't destroy straight "traditional" marriage. It won't destroy the "family". Letting gay men and women become ordained priests will not dilute the leadership of churches, nor would it pollute the pristine waters of heaven to affirm the presence of gay post-mortem angelic souls (for them that find comfort in fairy tale endings.) Openly gay military personnel won't cause weak links to form in the chain of command and within the ranks of those who have each other's backs.

Last week, I finally got an answer to my wondering about the basis of fear in the hearts of military brass. The rarely uttered truth is that some generals think that ditching DADT will mean that gay male soldiers will boldly creep into the beds of snoring straight soldiers and fellate them in their sleep.

There you have it. I knew that if we pushed hard enough, we'd eventually get the homophobes to blurt out the ridiculous fear that is at the root of their anxiety about the functioning of the military post-DADT.

Obviously, the real homophobic fear is not that a sleeping soldier will orgasm in the mouth of a gay soldier but that the straight soldier will enjoy gay sex, awake or otherwise. In the minds of homophobes, anti-gay rules constitute a dam that keeps their own guilty desires in check just as much as it keeps gay people in check. Homophobes tremble with fear at what is in their hearts. Let's help them out of their fear by suggesting some new rules for the barracks.

Continue reading "New Rules For The Barracks" »

Via Belrico: Some benefits extended to federal employees

Filed by: Alex Blaze

June 3, 2010 1:00 PM

Some progress:

The same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal workers can start applying next month for long-term health-care insurance, the Office of Personnel Management said Tuesday.

That's great, because long-term health insurance can be incredibly expensive. The more people who have quality long-term health insurance, the better.

Of course, there'll be some who say this isn't enough, and it isn't. Regular health care benefits aren't extended here, although the bill to extend those to same-sex partners has already made it through committee and is expected to make it to the floor of the Senate this month (we'll see, of course).

What's been surprising is the number of queer commentators saying how this only affects a small number of people, as if that's ever been a reason for the LGBT community not to advocate for something. Marriage only affects those LGB people in long-term relationships who choose to participate in the institution, which isn't most of us. DADT only affects those of us in the military or who plan on enlisting if it gets repealed, which really doesn't account for the swaths of people who'll never enlist discussing DADT.

Nothing's stopped us before from celebrating progress that benefits only a sector of the community, and federal workers are great people to celebrate.

Continue reading "Some benefits extended to federal employees" »

Via 365gay: Culhane: How DADT repeal will help gay marriage

June 3rd, 2010

By John Culhane 06.03.2010
Professor of Law, Widener University

If the military can do it - so can society. Read more...

Via JMG: Chief Of Naval Operations Urges Sailors To Participate In DADT Study

It sure seems like he's asking for negative comments. "The repeal will ONLY go into effect AFTER this study."

reposted from Joe

ViaJMG: PFOX Complains: The PTA Won't Let Bigots Like Us Come To Their Convention!

"Ex-gay" group PFOX is stamping their widdle footies because the PTA says they don't allow hate groups to come to their national convention. PFOX says they called and emailed for eight months, requesting a booth at the convention, only to finally be told they don't meet the PTA's standards. Via Christian Newswire:

"Why is it gay groups meet the PTA Diversity and Inclusion Policy but our families do not? 'Diversity' and 'inclusion' should mean exactly that -- diversity and inclusion of everyone," said [PFOX head Regina] Griggs. "Instead, gay groups like PFLAG that deny public access to ex-gays and disrupt church events welcoming former homosexuals are approved by the PTA while ex-gay groups are not," said Griggs. "Now the PTA is pressuring its state PTA chapters nationwide to adopt its biased national diversity policy, which includes 'sexual orientation,' even though that term is selectively used to discriminate against people of faith and ex-gay families." "The PTA has become a left-wing advocacy group instead of serving the needs of all children," said Griggs.

PFOX is asking for concerned Christians to join in an email campaign to the national and local chapters of the PTA demanding that they rescind their sexual orientation non-discrimination policy until it includes the orientation of "ex-gay." Or "totally kidding themselves," as it is more properly known.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: American Catholic Bishops Agree On ENDA: It Should Remain Legal To Fire Gays

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has written a letter to Congress demanding that they vote against ENDA. An excerpt:

While the Church is ardently opposed to all unjust discrimination on the grounds of sexual inclination, whether homosexual or heterosexual, it does teach that all sexual acts outside of a marriage between one man and one woman are morally wrong. The Catholic Church’s teaching cannot, therefore, be equated with “unjust discrimination,” because it is based on fundamental truths about the human person and personal conduct. Homosexual conduct is categorically closed to the transmission of life, and does not reflect or respect the personal complementarity of man and woman. In contrast to sexual conduct within marriage between one man and one woman—which does serve both the good of each married person and the good of society— heterosexual and homosexual conduct outside of marriage has no claim to special protection by the state.

Just as every other group in our society, the Catholic Church enjoys the same rights to hold to its beliefs, organize itself around them, and argue for them in the public square. This is guaranteed by our Constitution. This includes the right to teach what it holds to be the truth concerning homosexual conduct—and to act as an employer consistent with that truth—without the threat of government sanction. The USCCB continues to oppose “unjust discrimination” against people with a homosexual inclination, but we cannot support a bill – such as ENDA in its current form – that would legally affirm and specially protect any sexual conduct outside of marriage.

Andrew Sullivan reacts:

Notice that there is no attempt here to argue that straight people who violate church doctrine - anyone who masturbates or uses contraception, is divorced or re-married - should not be protected from discrimination. It is always just the gays who are the target, because their identity inherently proves their iniquity, while most straight people can hide theirs. Notice also that the focus here is entirely on the victims of discrimination, not the perpetrators.

Labels: bigotry, Catholic Church, employment, ENDA, LGBT rights, religion

reposted from JMG