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.

Hate group is "alarmed"

Parents’ Voice member Homara Ahmad is "alarmed," according to the hate group's latest press release.  The group was created to oppose the Burnaby School Board's anti-homophobia policy.

According to the release, Parents' Voice members decided to file a freedom of information (FOI) request after reading a story in The Province about a student being bullied because he was skinny:

"Parents’ Voice members wanted to know the extent of the 'bullying' problem: who the perpetrators are--staff or students--and their targets."

It is unclear why Parents' Voice twice decided to use scare quotes around the word "bullying."

Allegedly, group member and spokesperson (they all seem to be spokespeople) Homara Ahmad made an FOI request for "copies of all reports, incidents recorded, and/or complaints made involving students, staff or any other person related to the operation of the Burnaby School District, that has been party to any form of bullying, assault, harassment, verbal abuse or any form of mean-spirited conduct, that has occurred on or near any property owned, managed or operated by School District 41," and demanded an exemption from fees, which was refused, leading the group to lose its collective mind.

Gordon World, another "spokesman," said:

"it seems highly unlikely that the incidents of reported bullying will justify the special attention directed to the political agenda of the sex activists involved in creating Policy 5.45. I believe this last point is the real issue. If the claims of sex activists were true, and a disproportionate number of children were being attacked based on sexual orientation, wouldn't the Burnaby School Board be more than willing to release this information to back up their claim?"

World is known for his outrageous homophobic lies, such as claiming that the murder of Aaron Webster was not an anti-gay hate crime and that gay men are responsible for most HIV infections and have a significantly shorter lifespan.

In another staggering display of homophobia, the press release goes on to add:

"Burnaby trustees, and others in positions of trust, should know better by now than to rely upon data and research generated by homosexual and other sex activists. Our children deserve better than to have policies developed by hyperbolic-spin propaganda, masquerading as research, generated by sex activists who want to promulgate their version of diversity politics and practices among our children, via the public education system. Parents’ Voice is against all forms of child abuse, including bullying, the political sexualization of children and the intellectual abuse of children by indoctrinating them with propaganda that falsely portrays sexual and emotional practices that can and do result in provable harm, as being 'acceptable.'"

Not coincidentally, this hate-filled press release coincides with the Outgames and Vancouver Pride.

Italy rejects anti-discrimination bill

Italy’s parliament has rejected a bill which would have extended protection from discrimination to LGBT people.

The Chamber of Deputies voted July 26.  The result was 250 votes in favour and 293 votes opposed.  Gay rights supporters have called on the European Union to intervene.  Gay couples in Italy cannot marry or adopt children.

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi opposes gay rights.  He has an extensive record of criminal allegations--including mafia collusion, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges--and sexual scandals.

Homosexuality is a treatable disorder: chief psychiatrist

Ghana--Homosexuality is a psychiatric disorder which can be treated, according to Akwasi Osei, Chief Psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Modern Ghana reports.

"The way forward is to let these people accept that they have a problem and that they can be treated."

"Conversion," "reparative" or "reorientation" therapy, while promoted by some conservative and extremist religious groups, is considered unethical and harmful by all the major mainstream psychological, psychiatric and medical organizations, and there has been no scientifically adequate demonstration of its efficacy.  Male same-sex sexual acts are illegal in Ghana.  Under the Criminal Code 1960– Chapter 6, Sexual Offences Article 105:

"Whoever is guilty of unnatural carnal knowledge— (a) of any person without his consent, is guilty of first degree felony; (b) of any person with his consent, or of any animal, is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Female same-sex sexual activity is not addressed by the law.

On July 21, 2011, Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Region Minister, called for all gay people in the west of the country to be rounded up and arrested, and for landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspected of being gay.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

Has Ghana minister ordered arrest of all gays?

Various reports are coming in that Ghana's Western Region Minister Paul Evans Aidoo has ordered the arrest of all gays in the area.

Allegedly, Aidoo has directed the Bureau of National Investigations and other agencies to find gay people and bring them before the courts, and has called for citizens to inform on those they believe to be gay.

According to Ghanaian news reports, he said:

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society.”

In Ghana, where 69 per cent of the population is Christian, homosexuality is still considered morally wrong.  Homophobic violence is common, and most gay people are closeted. 

Aidoo's witch hunt, if true, may have been inspired by comments from the general secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana Reverend Fred Deegbe, who said of homosexuality:

“This detestable and abominable act if passed into law in Ghana will bring the wrath of God upon the nation and the consequences will be unbearable.” 

According to Ghanaian news, Aidoo has said that anyone arrested on suspicion of homosexuality will be tried in court under a law banning “unnatural canal knowledge,” but Ernest Kofi Abotsie, a Lawyer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, says that no person can be arrested for breach of morality, explaining that the law is ambiguous and cannot necessarily be said to cover homosexuality.

NOM: FCKH8 is "propagandizing children"!!

The mouth-breathers at NOM are having a bloody cow over the latest video from FCKH8, which features an innocent peck on the lips between what appear to be two boys of around 12 years old:

"We've had the unfortunate duty before of having to inform you about how "F*K H8" tries to propagandize young kids to become activists for gay marriage. We can't underscore how offensive this video is."

NOM should know: they're the experts at "propagandizing" children and using them to frighten parents into voting against gay rights.



FCKH8.com: Top 5 Reasons 2 Ban Gay Marriage (LOL, Sarcastic) from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.

DOMA hearing: US Senator Al Franken smacks down Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery

During today's DOMA debate, Senator Al Franken gave us this delicious smackdown of hate group Focus on the Family's head Tom Minnery.  Enjoy:

NOM's Brian Brown: "victims" of the "new gay marriage regime"

Brian Brown, president of American anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage, today posted that the New York marriage equality law is victimizing Christians:

We've already met the first victims of this new gay marriage regime. Town clerks, charged with a duty to issue and record marriage licenses, are faced with a stark choice: give up stable employment in the midst of a troubled job market, or give up their religious convictions about marriage. Two clerks have already resigned; others have been warned that failure to comply with the new law could land them in jail. Who will the next victims be? A wedding photographer or owner of a reception hall? Parents of public school children who object to curriculum changes this fall? How long before the new law impacts you and your family? The answer from Albany is clear: We couldn't care less.

Rob Tisinai put it best in a June 29 post about an elderly clerk who NOM identified as the "first casualty" of the marriage equality law.  Tisinai's response is worth quoting at length:

Live video: US Senate debates Defense of Marriage Act

Broadcasting live with Ustream

Same-sex marriage in Canada: 6 years on

Six years after marriage equality became the law of the land on July 20, 2005, Naomi Lakritz reflects on the devastating impact it has had on Canadian society and the institution of marriage.

Before Bill C-38, also known as the Civil Marriage Act (full title: "An Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes"), was passed, Lakritz notes, 

 "the naysayers darkly predicted the seismic crumbling of Canadian society as we know it; they said the 'gay agenda' would undermine heterosexual marriage and families.  They predicted that in this new anything-goes Canada . . . people would be marrying their cats, pedophiles would be marrying children, priests would be forced against their religious beliefs to officiate at gay marriages, and on and on. Each imagined scenario was more dire and ridiculous than the last. Oh, and polygamy would be the next step down the proverbial slippery slope to that inky abyss of promiscuity and immorality where everyone would be frolicking.

None of it has happened."

According to the Ottawa-based Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, whose statistics are current to November, 2010, in Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, the Yukon and Nunavut, the total number of new divorce cases has declined six per cent over the four-year period ending in 2008/2009. 

And, according to Statistics Canada, the number of marriages in 2006, the year after same-sex marriage was legalized, was higher than in 2004, the year before the law came into effect. 
 
Lakritz sums it up:

"So despite the passage of Bill C-38, the sun has continued to come up each morning. Nobody has married their cat, their tree or their favourite living room chair. No priest has been forced to marry same-sex couples. No pedophiles have married children. I've long been a supporter of same-sex marriage, and I got married, too, just last fall — to a man."

Right-wing "pro-family" group wants to repeal California LGBT history law

Paulo Sibaja, acting on behalf of Sacrament0-based right-wing "pro-family" group Capital Resource Institute, filed documents July 15 to start a voter referendum to repeal the recently signed LGBT history law. Sibaja claims that a coalition of groups backs his organization's move, but declined to name them. Over 400,000 signatures are required to allow the referendum to proceed.

The law, the first of its kind in America, requires public schools in California to teach students about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Democratic Senator Mark Leno, who introduced the bill, called the Capital Resource Institute "extremist," adding that it will be a challenge for them to get the signatures required, and even if they did succeed, Californians would reject the proposal.

Dozens of judges volunteer to officiate at first NY same-sex weddings

New York--dozens of judges have volunteered to be on duty on July 24, the Sunday on which New York's same-sex marriage law goes into effect, as part of what the New York Times calls one of the most unusual judicial mobilizations in years. Only judges have the authority to waive with the 24-hour waiting period required by law for couples who wish to be married on that first day, and judges can then officiate on the spot.

Former Australian PM's sister: gays are like Nazis

Loree Rudd, sister of former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has come under fire for comparing gays to Nazis. Earlier this week, she accused 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.

"I call them the global gay Gestapo: it is the lobbying movement that is brainwashing people, particularly the young in the community that this (homosexuality) is an optional extra in life."

Rudd, a "devout Christian" who is nevertheless divorced, is lobbying Labor t0 reject marriage rights for LGBTs at its national conference in December, having written to every Federal MP as well as newspapers and fellow Labor members in Queensland, to voice her opposition. As prime minister, Kevin Rudd opposed legalising same-sex marriage; his successor, Julia Gillard, has adopted the same stance.

ADC chairman Anton Block said in a statement on Friday:

"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."

Four state Australian Labor Party conferences have endorsed same-sex marriage, but New South Wales Labor has deferred a decision until the national conference in December.

California Governor signs LGBT History Bill

In a move sure to piss off homophobes everywhere, California Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law an LGBT education bill requiring the state to include the contributions of gay, lesbian and transgender people in school history lessons and textbooks. Republicans had argued, predictably, that the bill would force a "gay agenda" on students.

The bill's sponsor, openly gay state Senator Mark Leno, said

"Today we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of LGBT Americans . . . Denying LGBT people their rightful place in history gives our young people an inaccurate and incomplete view of the world around them."

Meanwhile, Benjamin Lopez of the Anaheim-based hate group Traditional Values Coalition, said "It’s a sad day for the state of California . . . we are now going to inject gay studies into the classrooms. Its absurd and offensive."

California public schools are already required to teach about a wide range of groups including women; African, Asian, European, and Mexican Americans; and Native Americans. The new law could have wide-reaching consequences because California is one of the nation’s largest buyers of textbooks.