What

[ladyinred]

Oops,meant to write what's news.

http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Gay+Rights

[freethinkingrev]

That there Gates feller can double-speak with the best of them, can't he?
Translation: Ignore the problem and maybe it will go away.

Here's another'n that'll steam yer broccoli.

http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20070401adf_1.cfm

[ladyinred]

From the article:
"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN IS IN"—Over the past several years, ADF has seized on "viewpoint discrimination" to put the gay rights movement in its cross hairs. Gay rights, in ADF's view, cannot coexist with its version of Christianity. Anti-harassment codes at schools and universities, gay rights events, and other expressions of freedom or equal rights for LGBT people, necessarily silence Christians, who, ADF insists, are biblically compelled to condemn homosexuality. The "homosexual agenda," then, is ipso facto anti-Christian. Alan Sears, ADF's president, told the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit last fall that "the homosexual agenda and religious freedom are on a collision course." He scoffed at what he called "propaganda about so-called oppression" of gays, countering that the "homosexual agenda" not only seeks to silence religious speech but it "probably includes the abolition of marriage."


Sounds like they condone harrassing of GLBT students , even to the point of abusive behavior toward them. From reading the whole article it sounds like they ran the gay-straight alliance out of town.They actually harrassed the students to the point of violence or threat of it and took over the whole school and seem to have incited students to this.

[ladyinred]

There is one thing I firmly believe , that all of us will stand before God and have to give an account for our deeds and words. Those who think they are on the right side of God who condone violence and abusive behavior however may find themselves on the other side of the "gate".

[Rick336]

Well things will change and someday we'll look back on all this in amazement.

1917: "It's hard to imagine there was ever a time when America had slaves."

1947 "It's hard to imagine there was ever a time when women couldn't vote."

1987 "It's hard to imagine there was a ever time when black people couldn't eat a Woolworths."

2037 "It's hard to imagine there was ever a time when gay people couldn't get married."


Rick

[ladyinred]

Why I became angry Rick is that the GSA was bullied and intimidated and basically ran off the campus of Boyd school.The ADF used strong arm tactics and intimidation to stifle free speech and to suppress any opposition to it.
An excerpt from the article:
"Despite ADF's ongoing litigation, the percentage of students viewing the video has steadily increased since 2004, when barely half the students watched it, to over 87 percent. But there is no longer a GSA at Boyd County High School, which to Bill Scaggs proves that it was just a "flash in the pan," failing to see that his organization intimidated the club out of existence. As William Carter, a Boyd County High School graduate whose efforts to start the GSA resulted in years of personal upheaval and entanglement in lawsuits, said, "Who wants to join a club where you would have to explain to your parents, you know, I'm going to be involved in a federal lawsuit because I'm going to be in a club or someone hit me in the head with a can of pop, or someone's going to kill me? No one's going to do that. It's high school."

[ladyinred]

Her is a website to GSA. I don't see anything wrong with the group nor do I see that it is promoting a "radical homosexual agenda" that those in the religious right would have you believe.. basically it is trying to protect all students from harrassment and make schools safer for GLBT kids as well.
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/student/news/custom/faq.html and a survey on the extent of harrassment and bullying in schools:http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/1859.html

I just wonder why this is so widely accepted as normal and condoned.

What is wrong with advocating that all students regardless of their gender or sexual orientation not be picked on, harrassed, bullied or intimidated with violence. To me that is just common sense. Do we want more violence in our schools ?
Why not advocate that schools be a safe place for all students? (Which is what the GSA is trying do) Again that just is common sense.

While I'm not against religious expression I also feel that school campuses should not be a place for proselytizing. Especially if this used to promote intolerance and other problems like ignoring the rights of others,or creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.

Unfortunately many schools are becoming a battle ground over religious ideology and having it crammed down their throats like bad medicine.

[Diane Vera]

Oops,meant to write what's news.

http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Gay+Rights

The above page includes the following, on the remarks by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace calling homosexuality “immoral” and comparing it to adultery:


Gates: Pace Doesn’t Need To Apologize For Anti-Gay Remark (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/19/gates-pace/)
Pelosi: ‘We Don’t Need Moral Judgment From The Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs’ (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/13/pelosi-pace-homosexuality/)


Below I'll quote brief excerpts of other listed pages:

Musgrave: Gay Marriage ‘Is The Most Important Issue That We Face Today’ (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/27/musgrave-gay/)

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), the lead sponsor of the constitutional ban on gay marriage in the House, spoke this weekend at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.”

‘Values Voter Summit’ Features Attack on ‘Faggots,’ Claim That Gay Rights Movement Inspired ‘From The Pit Of Hell Itself’ (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/)

This weekend, some of the nation’s leading conservatives — from Tony Snow and Attorney General Gonzales to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK) to Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity — appeared at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.”

An hour and a half after Snow’s speech, Bishop Wellington Boone, founder of the Wellington Boone Ministries, took the stage and announced, “I want the gays mad at me.”

...

As Right Wing Watch notes, another speaker at the conference later claimed “the gay rights movement was inspired ‘from the pit of hell itself,’ and has a ’satanic anointment.’ … He suggested that the anti-Christ is himself gay, citing a verse from the book of Daniel saying the anti-Christ will have no desire for a woman.”

Rep. Ackerman: ‘A Platoon Of Lesbians’ Could ‘Chase Us Out Of Baghdad’ (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/08/dontask-platoon/)

Yesterday, during hearings on the State Department’s 2008 budget, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) slammed the U.S. military’s ban on gay servicemembers, saying the Pentagon “seems more afraid of gay people than they are [of] terrorists,” and that if the terrorists were smart, “they’d get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad.”

And, on a more hopeful note:

Pentagon University Elects First Openly Gay Student President (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/31/gay-student/)

For the first time, a Defense Department university has elected an openly gay student council president.

The student body of Uniformed Services University (USU), which includes uniformed personnel in the armed forces, this week voted for Patrick High to represent graduate students at the school. High served nine years in the Illinois Army National Guard and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at USU.

[ladyinred]

My summary of the so-called gay agenda.We do not want to be harrassed, violated , attacked and made to feel unsafe. We do not want to be treated like second class citizens. We do not want to be the brunt of other's contempt or ridicule,or campaign to undermine anti-discrimination laws. We do not want to be treated like criminals and have others spew their venomous anti -gay rhetoric to incite violence and intolerance toward us. We want to be treated with respect like anyone else. Perhaps it should be called the GLBT bill of rights,lol. If anyone would like to add to this list , feel free to do so. I will say this I do not believe there is a " gay agenda" to undermine traditional marriages or values, but we believe our families should have the same rights and protection under constitutional law as any other family or person. As far as " special rights"? That is utter nonsense.. What special rights do we have anyway? I prefer to say equal consideration and fair treatment are far more accurate in explaining what GLBT people want to obtain

[Diane Vera]

Here's another'n that'll steam yer broccoli.

http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20070401adf_1.cfm

ARMY OF GOD
The Legal Muscle Leading the Fight to End the Separation of Church and State
By Sarah Posner | April 1, 2007
The Washington Spectator (http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20070401adf_1.cfm)

Mostly about the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Starts with a story about Bill Scaggs, a retired government and public-relations executive of ARMCO Steel, who is also a board member of Defenders Voice, a local organization formed two years ago by a group of ministers and their followers who fought the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Boyd County High School, in Cannonsburg, Kentucky.

I wonder if Soulforce might consider a stop there next year? Admittedly it's not a college, but still....

[Diane Vera]

As mentioned in an article quoted above:

September 24, 2006
Values Voter Summit: Is the Anti-Christ Gay?
Right Wing Watch (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/09/values_voter_su_13.html) (People for the American Way)

It wasn’t easy at this conference to distinguish yourself by the ugliness of your anti-gay remarks, but Rev. Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Texas rose to the occasion in a Saturday workshop on “Impacting the Culture Through the Church.” His remarks were one part bragging about “Not on My Watch,” his road show of opposition to marriage equality for gays, and four parts attacking the gay rights movement.

McKissic denounced as “insulting, offensive, demeaning, and racist” the gay right’s movement trying to “hitch itself” to civil rights. Gays, he said, can’t “compare their sin to my skin.” He repeated the classic charge that gays “can’t reproduce so they have to recruit.”

But he was just warming up. The civil rights movement, he said, was grounded in moral authority, truth and righteousness, the impetus to freedom, constitutional authority, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In contrast, he said, the gay rights movement was inspired “from the pit of hell itself,” and has a “satanic anointment.” The gay rights movement was birthed and inspired by the anti-Christ. He suggested that the anti-Christ is himself gay, citing a verse from the book of Daniel saying the anti-Christ will have no desire for a woman.

“I don’t think there is any issue more important than how we are going to define the family,” said McKissic. Television shows portraying homosexuality in a positive light have put us “on the road to Sodom and Gomorrah,” and “God’s got another match…He didn’t run out of matches.”

[ladyinred]

Diane, in truth who is trying to wage a war here? GLBT people or the religious right?The anti Christ according to the bible is described as a deceiver and metaphorically speaking a figure who rises to take control over all nations if I remember correctly. GLBT people obviously do not have that kind of clout or political power. Nor do they have evangelicals that reach other nations through their televised programming in large numbers
(Or at least none that I know of)
I'd read somewhere that the anti-Christ would actually be some sort of religious and political leader who would have a large following. Of course this is just what I read..

[Diane Vera]

More about the claim that tha Anti-Christ will be gay:

Is the Antichrist gay? Stretching scripture at the 'Values Voter Summit'
The Free Library (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Is+the+Antichrist+gay%3F+Stretching+scripture+at+t he+'Values+Voter...-a0155041035)

During the Family Research Council's recent "Values Voter Summit" in Washington, one speaker espoused one of the more unusual theories about this mysterious opponent of Christianity: The Antichrist, the Rev. Dwight McKissic said, may be gay.

McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, put forth slim evidence for the assertion, citing a murky passage in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Daniel. Interestingly, the verse in question, Daniel 11:37, does not mention the Antichrist by name. It talks instead about a prophecy concerning a Persian king who will amass great power and oppress God's people.

...

This monarch, the King James Version of the Bible says, will not shine "the desire of women."

Although other translations of the scripture differ radically, to McKissic, the KJV text is proof enough.

Another copy of the same article can be found on Find Articles (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200611/ai_n17189841).

[ladyinred]

additional passages in Daniel11:38
But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

40And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.

41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.

45 And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Yep definitely sounds like a gay agenda and conspiracy goin' on here.(Yeah ri-i-i-i-i-gt)

[Diane Vera]

Diane, in truth who is trying to wage a war here? GLBT people or the religious right?The anti Christ according to the bible is described as a deceiver and metaphorically speaking a figure who rises to take control over all nations if I remember correctly. GLBT people obviously do not have that kind of clout or political power.

Of course it's complete nonsense. But I expect we'll probably be hearing more and more of this sort of thing from the nuttier fringe of the religious right wing.

[ladyinred]

Yes, I agree with you. But it just makes me sick , how they selectively choose certain biblical verses and omit others to prove that there is some "anti-Christ gay agenda." It makes you wonder,Will they stop at nothing to bend and twist the truth and to distort and misrepresent things?

Would you trust people who do these things as credible or good examples of Christian leadership? Would you call them honest? Is lack of integrity supposedly a Christian value? I think not.

[Diane Vera]

Would you trust people who do these things as credible or good examples of Christian leadership? Would you call them honest? Is lack of integrity supposedly a Christian value? I think not.

Given the "trust and obey" mentality encouraged by many churches, it is only natural that the pastors can and will get away with lying. Only where critical thinking is encouraged will there be a genuine search for truth.

[ladyinred]

Again I agree with you Diane.Very well put.

[ladyinred]

Diane, to be honest I have no stomach for the religious right, to me they sound like madmen ranting and raving. And they seem to be somewhat paranoid to the extreme.I used to think people tended to be more reasonable.. But all this talk about a cultural war and undermining separation of church and state , and armegeddon has me thinking that logic and reason have been thrown to the wind. It's like they are obsessed with war, they've waged war on everything.Our constitution, our democracy, our freedom of religion, our government, freedom of speech,our own people and countries abroad.

[Diane Vera]

Diane, to be honest I have no stomach for the religious right, to me they sound like madmen ranting and raving. And they seem to be somewhat paranoid to the extreme.I used to think people tended to be more reasonable.. But all this talk about a cultural war and undermining separation of church and state , and armegeddon has me thinking that logic and reason have been thrown to the wind. It's like they are obsessed with war, they've waged war on everything.Our constitution, our democracy, our freedom of religion, our government, freedom of speech,our own people and countries abroad.

Yep. Luckily the 2006 elections have swung against them. But by no means are they no longer a danger. I would suggest doing whatever you can to educate everyone you know.

[ladyinred]

Here is something I will comment about with the ADF and the actions at Boyd high school. They seem to think it is ok to promote harrassment, bullying , intimidation even to the point of violence toward gay students.It's ok to torment kids because of their sexual orientation in other words. One thing is to take a stand on something you may not like or agree with but this does not justify abuse and they quite frankly are just being hateful.

It seems they think freedom of speech justifies such outrageous and objectionable behavior on their part,they had literally turned the school upside down and into a battleground of hatred and violence. That is not ok by any standard.Why do people think this type of behavior is perfectly acceptable to promote their religious views is beyond me.


Abusive, and obnoxious behavior should be called just that and seen as such.There is no excuse for such conduct, and there should be no tolerance for it.It is not ok to hurt other people just because you don't agree with them.I will even go as far as to say what they are doing is child abuse.

Let's forget the euphemisms that they so fondly like to quote,"We love the sinner ,but not the sin." Their actions show anything but. Jesus said by their fruits you shall know them.. In other words look beyond appearances, into the heart of a man and see what his words and actions are really speaking.

I will also say the parents of these kids at Boyd high school are also culpable, if they encourage this kind behavior in their children, Any responsible parent would not want their children tormenting or bullying other kids ,or having their children treated that way, and would object to the violence.Schools need to provide a safe environment for all kids to learn and be in.