Quote of the day

"I fear that those of us who stand up in front of America’s children every day have made a Faustian bargain. In accepting history courses shaped by war and structured around war, we allow our students to internalize war as normal, constant, at times attractive. In telling stories about war, we fall back on noble explanatory devices and encourage our students to appreciate high moral outcomes over bodies on the ground." -- Dwight Simon

Anti-gay group calls gays Nazis

Is this starting to sound familiar?

In a post on OneNewsNow, a "news" site run by homophobic hate group the American Family Association on August 1, Becky Yeh writes:

"Goal: Bringing end to Gov. Brown's 'Nazi state'"

Regular readers of this blog will recall that this is the third incident in as many weeks in which gays have been compared to Nazis. 

The article concerns efforts to reverse a new state law requiring public schools to teach students about LGBT people's contributions to history.  The group must collect 505,000 signatures within 90 days to place the repeal on the ballot for June 2012.

It is worth reposting (again!) the chairman of the Australian Anti-Defamation Commission Anton Block, originally made in response to the Rudd scandal:

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of . . . the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [it] in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive."

US hate group's charitable status revoked

According to Ex-Gay Watch, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of US hate group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH, headed by notorious homophobe Peter LaBarbara) in 2010 for failing to file the forms required for review by the IRS and the public.

"While the current incarnation of AFTAH appears to have been active since 2006, we found only one form 990-EZ on file — for the year 2009 (PDF).  In this, total receipts are listed as $110.000, out of which Peter LaBarbera received a salary of $75,000.  For perspective, this is approximately the same salary plus benefits claimed by Exodus president Alan Chambers.  Exodus lists eleven employees and a million dollar budget."

While the donations section of the AFTAH website no longer claims tax-exempt status, as of this posting their About page still claims that donations are tax deductible (see screenshot).

AFTAH is one of a small number of anti-gay organizations classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, due to LaBarbera’s homophobic lies and constant attempts to vilify gays and lesbians.

Stephen Colbert on the "Muslim" attack in Norway

A San Francisco judge has struck an anti-circumcision measure from the city's November ballot.  The measure would have banned non-medical circumcision of male children.  Superior Court judge Loretta Giorgi said the proposed law violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom. San Francisco would have been the first U.S. city to hold a public vote on outlawing the circumcision of minors.

Michael Kinane, an attorney for the proponents, had argued that circumcision is not usually performed for medical reasons, and that the ballot measure included an exception for medical circumcisions.  The measure did not include exemptions for religious rituals.  The ban's sponsor, anti-circumcision activist Lloyd Schofield, said he is considering an appeal.

Religious groups argued that it is up to parents to decide whether or not to circumcise their children.  Many anti-circumcision activists consider male circumcision just as much a form of genital mutilation as female circumcision.  The US government bans female genital cutting for any non-medical reason.

No professional association of physicians currently recommends routine circumcision, and many argue that it adversely affects penile function and sexual pleasure, is extremely painful, and is a violation of human rights.  The British Medical Association stated in 2006 that "it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure has medical and psychological risks."  A 2002 review by Boyle et al. stated that

"the genitally intact male has thousands of fine touch receptors and other highly erogenous nerve endings—many of which are lost to circumcision, with an inevitable reduction in sexual sensation experienced by circumcised males . . . intercourse is less satisfying for both partners when the man is circumcised."

Neo-natal circumcision was introduced as a way to curb masturbation.  Today, globally 30 per cent of males over 15 are circumcised, and 70 per cent of these are Muslim.  Circumcision is not a condition for converting to Islam or for carrying out religious duties.  Muslim circumcisions are performed as early as 7 days after birth or as late as the onset of puberty and are often done in a medical setting.  Among Jews, ritual circumcision is performed on the 8th day after birth by a man or woman called a mohel, using a knife.  Under Jewish law, a mohel must draw blood from the circumcision wound; some use their mouth for this purpose; the practice has resulted in the spreading of herpes to infants, at least one of which suffered brain damage and another died as a result.

Comic books and trading cards featuring evil Jewish characters distributed by the measure's proponents made the measure even more controversial.

Quote of the day

"[The kind of people who elect Michelle Bachmann:] Scum of the earth. Parts of Michele Bachmann's district contain the most smug, pious, conservative rat-buggering jerks on the planet (like Marcus Bachmann and his anti-gay "clinic", for instance). And the symptoms are beginning to show: the Anoka-Hennepin school district, part of Bachmann's domain, home of the Elmer Gantry-wannabe Bradley Dean, is also the epicenter of an epidemic of teen suicides, 9 in the last two years. These are kids who were bullied for being gay, or suspected of being gay, or not fitting in to the their inbred little community (and who would want to?), and the school district has been acquiescing to pressure from religious groups to maintain a policy of intolerance and even demonization of gays." -- PZ Meyers

$10K offered for proof Marcus Bachmann has had sex with a man

Website Pure Film Creative has offered a $10,000 reward for proof that homophobe Marcus Bachmann, husband of US presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann, has had sex with a man:

"PFC will award $10,000.00 (ten thousand US dollars and zero cents) to any man who has solid, verifiable proof that he has had sex with Marcus Bachmann.  We’ll consider another arrangement if you were just propositioned."

And the Teabaggers lose their minds in 5...4...3....

Glenn Beck: Norway victims like "Hitler Youth"

American right-wing nutjob Glenn Beck, a favourite of the Tea Party, has compared Utøya victims of the Norwegian right-wing nutjob Anders Behring Breivik to the Nazi party's youth wing:

"There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or, whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics. Disturbing."

Torbjørn Eriksen, former press secretary to Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg, described the comment as "a new low" for Beck, adding:

"Young political activists have gathered at Utøya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about. Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful."

Beck lost his show on Fox when his increasingly crazy claims began to result in lower ratings and advertiser pullouts.  He accused US president Barack Obama of being a racist, and claimed that George Soros helped "send Jews to the death camps."

The Tea Party organizes summer camps at which children are taught about God, the US constitution and "the defence of economic liberty."

Quote of the day

"Like any mother, I want life to run smoothly for all my darling daughters, or at the least I want a level playing field for Holly, Tiffany, and their little girl. I don’t want them to have to worry about legal property or inheritance problems in the event of a death or a split or any of the other brickbats that life might throw at them. I want them to be able to get insurance and mortgages and health care as a family.

Holly intends to adopt Huckleberry, but until she does, she has no legal right to her as a mother, and by the same token I have no real right to call myself her granny. But I am, and I do."

Wait... Huckleberry?

Read the whole thing here.

Anti-gay groups seek to reverse NY marriage equality law

Twenty-four hours after New York's first legal same-sex marriages were conducted, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn it the marriage equality law.  The group claims the Senate violated the state’s Open Meetings Law and ignored the constitutionally mandated three-day waiting period before a bill can be acted upon.  They also claimed that lawmakers approved the legislation in exchange for campaign contributions from "Wall Street financiers."

Gov. Cuomo's spokesman Josh Vlasto said "The plaintiffs lack a basic understanding of the laws of the state of New York. The suit is without merit.”

Meanwhile, State Senator Ruben Diaz, a minister and the only Democrat to vote against the marriage equality law, said that he would try to get Sunday’s marriages annulled claiming that judges broke the law by waiving the 24-hour waiting period without a good reason.

The Undefeated soundly defeated

Even as Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated has increased its showings by 40 percent, its box office revenues have declined by more than 63 percent, and the film will soon be available on pay per view.  It played in 14 Tea Party-friendly locations this weekend but grossed an embarrassing $24,000.

Written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette, "The Undefeated" was independently financed by Victory Film Group and its partners.

Washington Times condemns Pearl Harbor Tea Ceremony

Sen Genshitsu offers tea to Pearl Harbor victims.

In an "Analysis/Opinion" piece titled "Crashing the Party at Pearl Harbor" in right-wing "propaganda sheet" The Washington Times on Friday, former editor Wesley Pruden condemns a historic tea ceremony conducted by Dr. Sen Genshitsu, who served in the Japanese naval air force during World War II, (though not at Pearl Harbor), the 15th generation grand master of the  Urasenke school, as "political correctness run amok" and "misplaced sentiment."

In a short piece throbbing with ignorance and barely disguised racism, Pruden writes:

"The grand tea master of something called the Urasenke School of Tea in Japan brewed up a pot of ceremonial green tea and presented two bowls of it to the ghosts of the 1,177 men whose names are engraved in marble above their ship as 'the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941.' Genshitsu Sen XV, now 88, was a Japanese airman during World War II, though not at Pearl, and said his tea ceremony was a gesture of respect toward the dead, an attempt to make sure sacrifice was not forgotten, as well as a few words of ritual blah blah about world peace, mutual understanding, reconciliation and all that good stuff. Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii went all starry-eyed and applied more goo-goo in response . . . The governor thinks the tea pots even hold a lesson for 'other people and countries warring with as much enmity and mutual misunderstanding as we once experienced ourselves.' Maybe it does, though to expect such an example to make friends of radical Muslims in the Middle East is to expect a lot from a little tea and sympathy."

The Urasenke school, which dates to the 16th century, is the largest school of traditional Japanese tea ceremony on Earth.  The current grand master is the 16th hereditary head of the school, which has branches all over the world, and also runs two accredited universities. 

In Japanese tea ceremony, tea is not "brewed" in a pot, as Pruden would have learned had he bothered to do 30 seconds of research; instead, it is prepared ceremonially by whisking powdered tea and water, in this case in a ceremony over a millennium and a half old, specifically for honouring the dead.  "Ceremonial tea-sipping at the USS Arizona" (had it actually taken place; sources indicate that it did not: bowls of tea were presented to the dead and for world peace) is not, therefore, "akin to crashing the funeral, as Pruden writes; instead, it is performing a memorial.  Not one the painfully parochial Pruden bothered to try to understand, evidently, but no less appropriate, symbolic, and heartfelt for it.

Pruden then goes compare the ceremony to Ronald Reagan's remarks about "another old foe now friendly, sort of," invoking that president's remarks about German soldiers:

"The SS troopers were human, perhaps, but [Reagan] was more than a few inches over the top to mourn storm troopers. They were the crushers working for the 'vicious ideology,' not the crushees [sic] . . . The Japanese tea master said his ceremony was meant to 'heal,' invoking the favorite soothing syrup of the therapeutic age, and no doubt it was. (Cue applause.) But some wounds can't be healed by a pot of tea, hot or iced. A tea party aboard the remains of the USS Arizona, however well-meant, is sentiment misplaced, and a little bit creepy. To think otherwise demeans the sacrifice of the men at the bottom of Pearl Harbor."

Pruden is known for his racism.  On November 17, 2009, he published an opinion piece titled "Obama bows, the nation cringes," in which he railed about what he claimed were President Obama's breaches of etiquette committed on his tour of Asia, such as bowing to Emperor Akihito of Japan.  Since Obama was "sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii," Pruden wrote, he "has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what [America] is about."

Pakistani Senate condemns LGBT function at US embassy

ISLAMABAD - The Senate has severely condemned the hosting of a gay pride ceremony at the US embassy in Pakistan, and has sent the matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs for discussion.

The Committee will determine whether any kind of action could be initiated against the organisers of the LGBT function. One lawmaker from every parliamentary party will sit in the committee.

World headlines were made last month when US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Richard Hoagland and members of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFFA) hosted the first ever LGBT Pride Celebration at the US Embassy in Islamabad on June 26, at which the Chargé d’Affaires addressed the Pakistani LGBT community, acknowledging their struggle for rights.  He said:

“I want to be clear. The US embassy is here to support you and stand by your side every step of the way.”

Pakistan has no laws prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation, and no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.  The Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, originally developed under British rule, punishes acts of "sodomy" with imprisonment. Under Articles 377 and 496,

"Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than two years nor more than ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offense described in this section . . . Whoever, dishonestly or with a fraudulent intention, goes through the ceremony of being married, knowing that he is not thereby lawfully married, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall be liable to fine."

Worse, under Islamic laws, the maximum punishment for sodomy is death.  LGBTs are subject to police blackmail, harassment, fines and threats of imprisonment. 

In condemning the event at the embassy, lawmakers said that homosexuality is against the basic principles of Islam and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and hence could not be allowed.

Gay blogger calls gays Nazis

Via Joe.My.God

Joe.My.God posts this screenshot of a tweet by Gay Patriot, a self-described "independent, political and opinion-based Weblog created by Bruce Carroll that is a forum focusing on gay conservative issues, themes, culture and ideas," which likens gay people to Nazis:

"Statement: Labeling the Gay Leftist [sic] radicals as the 'Gay Gestapo' is appropriate given their history of tactics.  Discuss."

We reported last week that Loree Rudd, sister of former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has come under fire for accusing Labor members of being brainwashed by a "global gay Gestapo" to accept same-sex marriage.

The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. It maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, where millions of gay men were executed along with Jews, political dissidents and others. The organization's normal methods of investigation included blackmail, threats, extortion, harassment, and torture. The Anti Defamation Commission has demanded an apology from Rudd, saying:

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [the Gestapo's] name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive, and we call upon Ms Rudd to apologise immediately and unreservedly."

JMG notes that Gay Patriot "got ALL bent out of shape" when he referred to gay conservative group GOProud as kapos and Quislings because that was "'defamatory language' directed at fellow gays."  GOProud has recently made the news for announcing its support for viciously homophobic US presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann.

First same-sex NY couples marry

Just after 12:00am this morning, the first same-sex couples were married in New York.  Gay rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were tied the knot at a rainbow-lit Niagara Falls just after the stroke of midnight, while across New York, marriage license offices will be open today to couples can get the necessary paperwork, while dozens of judges have volunteered to officiate so that people do not have to wait until tomorrow to get married.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg will officiate at the wedding of two colleagues at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.

New York City has planned several weeks of festivities including a giant wedding event next Sunday in Central Park.

Rachel Maddow on Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum's Google problem

Americans still ignorant about HIV

Fully 25% of Americans believe HIV can be transmitted by sharing drinking glasses. 16% believe it can be transmitted by sharing toilet seats. And perhaps most alarmingly of all, 12% believe that they can contract HIV by swimming in the same pool as a carrier. These figures perhaps explain why a majority of Americans--51%-- would not be "very comfortable" working with someone who has AIDS. See the whole thing here.

Bachmann's anti-gay clinic in terrifying glitter attack

That shit is hard to get out.

US anti-gay conservative nutjob Michele Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic, Bachmann & Associates, was the focus of a glitter attack by a more than a dozen "barbarians" Thursday morning.  The clinic is run by Bachmann's possibly gay husband Marcus, who is on record using the term "barbarians" for LGBT people.

The group was protesting the publicly funded clinic's practice of offering so-called "reparative therapy," an approach rejected by all mainstream science, to "cure" people of their homosexuality.  The clinic has taken in more than $137,000 in government funds despite Bachmann's strong opposition to government involvement in health care.

The group's aim was to glitter "Dr." Marcus Bachmann; since he wasn't available, the "glitterati"  glittered the waiting room instead, shouting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!”

Update: watch the whole thing on video:

Quote of the day

"Over the past 50 years, televisions have [become] a lot cheaper and college . . . a lot more expensive. Consequently, even a low income person can reliably obtain a level of television-based entertainment that would blow the mind of a millionaire from 1961. At the same time, if you’re looking to live in a safe [American] neighborhood with good public schools in a metropolitan area with decent job opportunities you’re going to find that this is quite expensive. Health care has become incredibly expensive. The federal poverty line for a family of three is $18,530 a year." -- James Kwak

Man banned from donating blood because he looks "too gay"

Indiana--An American man's blood donation has been rejected because he looked “too gay.” 

The Chicago Sun Times reports that Aaron Pace, 22, who says he is heterosexual, “was humiliated and embarrassed.”  Pace was rejected by Bio-Blood Components Inc., which pays for blood and plasma donations.  During the interview portion of the screening process, Pace said he was told he could not be a blood donor there because he “appears to be a homosexual.” 

A nearly 30-year-old federal policy prohibits gay men from donating blood in America.  The Food and Drug Administration policy states that men who have had sex with another man even once since 1977 are not allowed to donate blood.  Canada has a nearly identical policy.  The policies were enacted at a time when little was known about AIDS and HIV screening tests had not yet been developed.  Today, all donated blood is tested for HIV along with a myriad of other diseases before it is released, and the lifetime ban on donations from men who have sex with men has been repeatedly criticized as “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”  As in Canada, Americans who pay for sex or who have sex with intravenous drug users are only deferred from donating for 12 months.

Japan, Sweden and other countries currently subject sexually active gay men to a one-year ban.  Recent research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that if gay men who practised safe sex were allowed to donate, one HIV-postive blood donation would be likely to slip through the clinical screening process once every 5,769 years, or once between now and the year 7778.