LGBTQ Rights and Right-wing Gay Bashing

[LFC]

Nothing like acting the buffoon in front of a college audience, and clearly having virtually no knowledge of the actual science she's touting as settled.

GOP Senator Booed For Dragging Transgender Grievance Nonsense Into Commencement Speech

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) apologized for claiming that “the existence of two sexes, male and female” was a “fundamental scientific truth” during her commencement speech at the University of Wyoming on Sunday. Students booed the senator as she pasted this awkward-ass smile on her face:



• Lummis put out a statement after the speech apologizing to anyone who felt “un-welcomed or disrespected” by her comment, which was “intended to highlight the times in which we find ourselves, times in which the metric of biological sex is under debate.” K.

To be fair I actually found video of the science lecture that "informed" her viewpoint on gender. I'll warn you now that it's highly technical, maybe beyond the scope of understanding for most of us besides BactPhD.

[goldenvalley]

That was University of Wyoming that she spoke at.  Perhaps she assumed the schtick would work there.  Darn college educations addled those students' brains.  I do think we need to straighten out the differences between sex and gender so that people really know what they are mad about.  

[LFC]

It's the beginning of Gay Pride Month, created to pull people out of the closet, provide support, and create acceptance of those who are different and not hurting anybody. Predictably lifelong gay hater Rod Dreher is already in meltdown. In The Shame of Pride Month he rants and rants and rants in what his effectively a screed that his hateful, unyielding religious beliefs are no longer in control of the country. His summary.

Pride Month is a 30-day celebration of human desire, sexual autonomy, and the defiance of all that restrains desire’s expression. It is, in that sense, Luciferian — and it’s what the West worships. All those rainbow flags do — I saw one on top of a government building this morning — is make explicit the post-Christian decadence that was spreading within the West even when LGBT was a fringe phenomenon.

We are being weighed, and we will be found wanting. You watch. From Live Not By Lies, here’s a passage about how eros-worship opened the door to revolution:

Regarding transgressive sexuality as a social good was not an innovation of the sexual revolution. Like the contemporary West, late imperial Russia was also awash in what historian James Billington [in The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture— RD] called “a preoccupation with sex that is quite without parallel in earlier Russian culture.” Among the social and intellectual elite, sexual adventurism, celebrations of perversion, and all manner of sensuality was common. And not just among the elites: the laboring masses, alone in the city, with no church to bind their consciences with guilt, or village gossips to shame them, found comfort in sex.

The end of official censorship after the 1905 uprising opened the floodgates to erotic literature, which found renewal in sexual passion. “The sensualism of the age was in a very intimate sense demonic,” Billington writes, detailing how the figure of Satan became a Romantic hero for artists and musicians. They admired the diabolic willingness to stop at nothing to satisfy one’s desires and to exercise one’s will.

Pride goes before a fall. Like I said: you watch.

He just doesn't get it and he never will. His religiously enabled hatred is just too all consuming.

At least this meltdown called Put A Wiener On The Barbie over a Barbie has a funny title but it's still all about how any observable signs of LGBTQ people is an affront to God(tm) and Rod. The hatred isn't remotely masked anymore.

As we prepare to enter the High Holy Month of Pride, the children’s toymaker Mattel debuts its latest creation: Tranny Barbie, modeled after the trans actor Laverne Cox. Mattel saith:

Laverne Cox is an award-winning actress, producer, writer, and prominent LGBTQ+ advocate. We’re proud to honor her in the Barbie Tribute Collection, to help amplify her message of moving beyond societal expectations to live more authentically.

“Authentically,” as defined by a major corporation. There is nothing that Woke Capitalism™ can’t co-opt.
Meanwhile, bigots aren’t allowed to drink Sam Adams beer during the High Holy Month. Non-bigots, however, are invited to these Sam Adams sponsored public liturgies:

A list of Pride Month events follows, none of which bars heterosexuals but would certainly not be comfortable for "bigots", like Rod.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 2, 2022 17:50:19 GMT LFC said:

It's the beginning of Gay Pride Month, created to pull people out of the closet, provide support, and create acceptance of those who are different and not hurting anybody. Predictably lifelong gay hater Rod Dreher is already in meltdown. In The Shame of Pride Month he rants and rants and rants in what his effectively a screed that his hateful, unyielding religious beliefs are no longer in control of the country. His summary.

I wonder if the legalization of same sex marriage caused his divorce.

[LFC]

Jun 2, 2022 20:00:44 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jun 2, 2022 17:50:19 GMT LFC said:

It's the beginning of Gay Pride Month, created to pull people out of the closet, provide support, and create acceptance of those who are different and not hurting anybody. Predictably lifelong gay hater Rod Dreher is already in meltdown. In The Shame of Pride Month he rants and rants and rants in what his effectively a screed that his hateful, unyielding religious beliefs are no longer in control of the country. His summary.

I wonder if the legalization of same sex marriage caused his divorce.

I've never been able to relocate the article but somebody on the old TRS posted something about "peak personality" which describes how personality disorders are bad when young but that many (most?) people get them under control as they get a bit older. They need to if only to function in the world. Then in later years, roughly 50-60 years of age but with clear average variation between different mental illnesses, they start losing control again. Rod is at that age and his meltdowns are become ever more frequent even as his side is potentially gearing up to crush gay rights. I suspect his wife realized she was living with the equivalent of a slightly less deranged and more eloquent Alex Jones and that can't be easy to deal with 24x7.

That said I would not be at all shocked if Rod came out of the closet. Maybe it is just hatred, fueled by his oft told story of an incident that occurred when he was a kid and was bullied by other kids, but it seems that his level of spite must be coming from a deeper well than that.

[LFC]

They do wear their hate on their sleeves. It was the high school graduates' day and he just couldn't help himself. I'm sure he feels downright righteous about it.

It has been less than a month since a Florida student body president was prevented from saying he was gay in his commencement address.

In Ohio, however, a different commencement speaker was given a platform to voice his opposition to LGBT marriage on the basis that it's against "biblical principles," the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"It is currently some people’s thoughts to be in vogue to diminish or play down biblical principles," proclaimed Jim McGuire, the owner of a manufacturing company. "It is what established us, it is what continues to establish us through the years. Everyone in every country in this planet lives by calendar that was based on 2022 years ago, it was established by Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that. I promise any time you spend learning God‘s word will not be subtracted from your life."

He went on to tell the River Valley High School graduates to get married to different-sex people.

"Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male," the speech continued.

One 2018 graduate was at the speech to support her sister and posted on Facebook that she "felt like crying" over the words and the few people in the crowd clapping.

"When he made the comment that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, my jaw dropped to the floor, and I honestly thought I was hearing it wrong," said Alexis Osipow.

[indy]

Apr 8, 2022 15:44:31 GMT indy said:

Apr 8, 2022 14:39:55 GMT pnwguy said:

"The Big Sort" has been going on for decades, but I suspect we'll see it accelerate, much like climate change.  We'll see educated people, especially more mobile people without children, migrate to ever-expensive urban areas where white collar jobs are.  And we'll see religious, less educated aggrieved whites continue moving to rural areas where they can numerically dominate (and physically intimidate) others.  

I've actually been wondering about this for awhile now and if the opposite might happen or the trend reverse to some degree. My son, for example, is only considering jobs where he can work remotely. His plan is to move to a low cost area (which means somewhere rural most likely and perhaps even outside the US). I have no idea if he is part of a general trend but I think he may be.

As a bit of a follow up, my son just accepted a job that is not only 100% remote but also completely asynchronous. No set working schedule, no set meetings, and he can literally work from anywhere. Should be interesting to see how it works out.

[LFC]

Sure, these two are about as vapid and evil as it gets, but they still live comfortably in American "conservatism."

Nowadays, the month of June is notable to most Americans not just for the hot weather, swimming pools, and explosion of summer produce, but also for the cheerful displays of rainbows everywhere to honor Pride. While there's plenty of criticism to be had about the corporate-ization of Pride, what is also true is that, for right-wing bigots who still refuse to accept LGBTQ identities, the ubiquitous, normalizing presence of the rainbow flag during this month chaps their hides. Unfortunately, that means right-wing propagandists and Republicans see an opportunity to use Pride month to pander directly to the worst people in our society, turning up the trolling and harassment of LGBTQ people during a moment of celebration.

On Monday, the biggest Republican troll in Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, announced a right-wing grifter team-up with Milo Yiannopoulos, who she is hiring as an "intern," even though he is a married, nearly middle-aged man who hasn't attended college in over a decade. Yiannopoulos was doing fairly well for himself a few years ago by being a full-time troll until a video resurfaced in 2017 of the right-wing provocateur praising a Catholic priest for molesting him as a boy. He then spent years struggling after losing the right's financial support. He eventually caved and rebranded himself as an "ex-gay" and a champion of a fascist form of Catholicism.

As Kathryn Joyce reports for Salon, the alliance between Greene and Yiannopoulos is largely built on their shared interest in Christian nationalism. The timing, however, is notable. The announcement was pegged to Pride month and is clearly about trolling the gay rights movement by promoting the right-wing myth that gay people can be "converted" to straight people. Indeed, Taylor Greene leaned directly into this narrative by releasing a statement about how Yiannopoulos "was" gay but "changed his life" through "Jesus and Church."

One should be skeptical of all this, of course, and not just because Yiannopoulos still appears to be married to a man, glibly telling reporters that his husband has been "demoted to a roommate." Yiannopoulos has a long history of cynical and insincere stunts to promote both himself and to drape his fascist views in a pseudo-irony that allows him to recruit followers while not being taken too seriously by the press. Greene, as well, plays stupid for the cameras but is likely a fairly savvy operator who knows how to use her "dumb blonde" persona to get liberals to spread her noxious ideas.

While a lot of the trolling from these two is likely fake, what is not fake is the hate they're spreading.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

Greene's trolling hire of Yiannopoulos is just the most ridiculous example of what is shaping up to be a deeply ugly month of Republicans leeching onto the publicity of Pride month to spread lies, stoke homophobia, and target LGBTQ people for harassment and violence.

Republicans are using Pride as an opportunity to escalate their deeply scary and damaging attacks

[LFC]

Right-wing gay bashing seems to be more and more popular.

According to KLFY, a former police chief just elected to the city council in Abbeville, Louisiana, was caught on film spewing slurs in a bar fight, with the footage released the night before he's set to be sworn into office.

"Body camera footage obtained by News Ten from the Abbeville Police Department shows newly elected city councilman Tony Hardy getting into a fight at a local bar and using homophobic slurs," reported Britt Lofaso. "At the time, Hardy was still a political candidate running for office."

"'Hey queer boy, hey queer boy. You’ll never get a bleep chance like that again. You’ll never get another chance like that. I’ll hurt you next time, bleep,' Hardy is heard saying to a man he had gotten into the fight with in the body camera footage," said the report. "After yelling at the man, Hardy turns to a police officer and says, 'Hey, I’m not doing nothing. Do your bleeping job. Bring that bleep to jail. Bring this queer to jail.'"

"According to the incident report from Abbeville Police, when officers arrived, Hardy and an unidentified man were in an verbal altercation. The report says both men were irate. Officers separated the men and then spoke with the bar owner who said she did not want to kick anyone out but wanted the men separated. While officers were speaking with the bar owner, the report says Hardy and a different man got into a verbal fight, and it became physical," said the report. "The body camera video shows the two men pushing and punching one another. An officer ran towards the altercation. 'You saw that? I’m filing charges on that bleep,' Hardy tells the officer."

Hardy did not start the physical altercation, according to witnesses, but had been "antagonizing" the other person.

[LFC]

The hate for LGBTQ people is so thick in Michigan that they're trying to pass a law for something that doesn't exist. After all, what's a fascist without enemies?

When Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) accused Republicans of manufacturing “fake issues,” several Republicans apparently took that as serious advice.

During a press conference on Thursday, Michigan state House Reps. Beau LaFave (R), Andrew Fink (R), Greg Markkanen (R), Steve Carra (R), Ryan Berman (R) and Luke Meerman (R) unveiled a bill that would ban K-12 public schools from doing anything that would “expose” students to “a drag show or drag presentation.”

Under the legislation, parents would be allowed to sue school districts for up to $10,000 in damages.

GOP Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, a supporter of the legislation, claimed during the press conference that the bill was an earnest solution to a joke Nessel made several weeks ago proposing “a drag queen for every school” as she slammed Republicans for coming up with “fake issues.”

Because what if the attorney general, the first gay person in Michigan to be elected to statewide office, wasn’t kidding about making every school have its own in-house drag queen? What if Nessel really does want to expose kids to the horrors of men in wigs and sparkly dresses?

“She said she was joking, but we take this as a trial balloon,” Dixon declared. “We’re here to fight that culture war.”

But the stunt did little to refute Nessel’s point about Republicans contriving outrage over nothing; the bill’s sponsors admitted they couldn’t actually think of a time when schools put on drag shows.

Nonetheless!

“I don’t think that we need to have a problem occur in the state of Michigan before we address it,” LaFave argued.

[pnwguy]

Jul 1, 2022 18:17:41 GMT LFC said:

The hate for LGBTQ people is so thick in Michigan that they're trying to pass a law for something that doesn't exist. After all, what's a fascist without enemies?

 “We’re here to fight that culture war.”

And when things rhetorically get to the point that any Democrat is guaranteed to be a pedophile, then armed militias going house to house to kill at random is justified.  Only Americans will use AR-15s instead of machetes, as Rwandan sociopaths did.

[LFC]

Hawley is such a tool. It's great to see his leading question bullshit called out and shoved back in his face.

[LFC]

A gay bashing, misogynistic "Christian" "pastor" who is secretly in the closet. Gee, what an original story.

In the hyper-masculine right-wing internet community known as the “manosphere,” few figures loom larger than Jesse Lee Peterson.

The Los Angeles-based pastor and online radio host has become a star in conservative media in part for his demands that men and women return to his unorthodox version of traditional gender norms. Peterson’s ideas about gender can be eccentric even by the standards of his compatriots, with Peterson claiming that a woman who orgasms during sex is somehow “becoming a man,” a practice he frowns upon.

Peterson has also emerged as one of the right’s most vocal anti-gay figures. He’s claimed that people who march in gay pride parades are the children of Satan, and that “radical homosexuals are evil.” He’s become a regular sparring partner for progressive YouTube personalities, telling online commentator “Destiny” in 2020 that he didn’t understand why his debating partner was openly bisexual.

“I don’t understand the purpose of putting that out there,” Peterson said. “People are going to judge you, they’re going to look down on you.”

Now several of Peterson’s one-time friends allege that the pastor’s own personal life is rife with gay sexual relationships.

Two of Peter’s former male associates came out in June with on-the-record interviews saying they engaged in sexual activities with him, while other men say he propositioned them. These allegations about the pastor—who in public is staunchly heterosexual—have ripped like an earthquake through the manosphere, prompting some of Peterson’s allies to abandon him and prompting one manosphere conference to ban him.

[pnwguy]

We sure wouldn't want these women "becoming a man", so you men need to be the most clueless and self-centered sexual partners you can be. Where does it say in the Bible that wives should be sexually satisfied? Female orgasms are Satan's Deception, just like that apple in the Garden.

[LFC]

Jul 13, 2022 18:58:50 GMT pnwguy said:

We sure wouldn't want these women "becoming a man", so you men need to be the most clueless and self-centered sexual partners you can be. Where does it say in the Bible that wives should be sexually satisfied? Female orgasms are Satan's Deception, just like that apple in the Garden.

Female circumcision, coming to a red state near you.

[andydp]

Jul 13, 2022 14:47:25 GMT LFC said:

A gay bashing, misogynistic "Christian" "pastor" who is secretly in the closet. Gee, what an original story.

Its the old "Methinks he doth protest too much".

And of course:  The GOP: where an accusation is an admission of guilt.

[pnwguy]

Jul 13, 2022 19:26:41 GMT LFC said:

Jul 13, 2022 18:58:50 GMT pnwguy said:

We sure wouldn't want these women "becoming a man", so you men need to be the most clueless and self-centered sexual partners you can be. Where does it say in the Bible that wives should be sexually satisfied? Female orgasms are Satan's Deception, just like that apple in the Garden.

Female circumcision, coming to a red state near you.

Don't give these theo-fascists any ideas.

If SCOTUS took up such a state law case, even Justice Barrett would vote to uphold it, given the religious cult she is part of.

[LFC]

Jul 13, 2022 19:46:59 GMT pnwguy said:

Don't give these theo-fascists any ideas.

If SCOTUS took up such a state law case, even Justice Barrett would vote to uphold it, given the religious cult she is part of.

Female circumcision keep young women pure until marriage (perhaps to a man 30 years older), help keep married women in their God(tm) given gender roles, and could also reduce the incidents of lesbianism. It's a right-wing Christian cult trifecta!

[LFC]

They're getting their way on abortion. Now it's time to attack gays again because apparently they aren't real people who deserve the same fundamental rights as others. Walking, talking, leaking anal sphincter Ted Cruz is all about it because of course he is.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Saturday tore into the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized gay marriage in 2015, calling it the high court “overreaching.”

During his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the GOP senator addressed the possibility of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority taking aim at Obergefell the same way it dismantled Roe v. Wade, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for in his concurring opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson case last month.

Cruz claimed that the rulings in both Obergefell and Roe “ignored two centuries of our nation’s history” by deciding on issues that, according to the Texas Republican, ought to have been up to the states to decide.

“Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states,” Cruz said. “We saw states before Obergefell — some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships.”

The senator argued that marriage equality, a major step for the LBTGQ+ rights movement, was something that needs to remain up for debate.

[LFC]

The Democrats are forcing congressional Republicans' extremism to go on record. Good. They wanted a culture war well now they've got one. Same sex marriage is an issue that has 71% support and even 55% Republican support according to the latest Gallup poll. A surprising number of House Republicans actually voted for decency. (In full due to paywall.)

When Roe was overturned, it took with it a series of legal doctrines that undergirded other Court-mandated rights like the right to same sex marriage (Obergefell), to contraception (Griswold) and, less directly, the right to marry regardless of racial categories (Loving). Congressional Democrats have been pushing in recent days to pass new legislation to protect these rights by statute. For Democrats, it’s a win whatever the outcome. If Republicans block it in the Senate, as seems likely, it’s another issue to run on. If they don’t and it passes, great: a whole swath of Americans in jeopardy from the Court’s corruption get their rights confirmed by law.

This afternoon House Democrats brought a bill called the Respect for Marriage Act to a vote. But something unexpected happened.

As you’d expect, every Democrat voted for the bill. But so did 47 Republicans. That’s a lot. The list covers a lot of territory. A lot of it’s generational. A high percentage of the GOP caucus’s Hispanic members are on the list. And a significant number of representatives already booted or retiring for bucking Trump are there too. But 47 is a high number regardless. And it makes it seem significantly more possible that the bill might actually stand a shot in the Senate.

As I said, the best option is it passes. If it gets blocked, that’s a good campaign issue. I would further argue that even if it passes it’s still a good campaign issue for Democrats and for Roe. Because it puts on the table that the Congress can act to curb the Court’s corruption. If you can deal with the Court’s action on this front, why not with abortion? Why does this get an up or down vote and not this other right?

One more point. All the reporting I’ve seen on this says this protects marriage equality across the country. But it’s not clear to me what part of the bill does that. It clearly requires the federal government to recognize same sex marriages. It protects marriages that were entered into under Obergefell even if that decision is later struck down. So if you got married in Alabama last year to a same sex partner your marriage is protected no matter what the Court does. It also, I think, compels states to recognize marriages from other states (which is how things work generally). But does it actually require Alabama to keep issuing same sex marriages if Obergefell is struck down? I don’t think so. I think if you live in Alabama you might not be able to get married in the state if Alabama continues to bar same sex marriage. But if you fly to an equality state and get married there and come back to Alabama then Alabama has to accept your marriage on the same basis as any other marriage.

That amounts to pretty robust protection. But I wanted to point out that I’m not clear the law actually compels states to keep issuing same sex marriage licenses without Obergefell.

I should note that I’m not an expert on reading legislative text. So perhaps I’m missing part of how the law works. But that’s my read.

Keep an eye on this bill. Things could move fast.

[LFC]

Bill passed in the House. One Republican who voted for it had this to say.

“I kind of expected this to be filled with poison pills, but the bill’s only about three-and-a-half pages long, and it’s pretty straightforward,” Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer said in a selfie video while walking away from the Capitol on Tuesday night. The bill in question was the Respect for Marriage Act, which the House had just passed with every Democrat plus Meijer and 46 other GOP lawmakers voting “yes.”

The act “says with regards to a marriage between two individuals—regardless of sex, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of race, regardless of national origin—if it is legally performed in one state, it has to be recognized for the purposes of state-based actions such as taxation in another state,” Meijer continued in his clip. “That’s it. There’s no compulsion. There’s no threats to religious freedom,” he said, touting the bill as “the right choice” in terms of liberty, limited government, and avoiding the “chaos” that would come if Supreme Court decisions protecting interracial and/or gay marriage were revoked.

Legislators in both parties should take a lesson from Meijer’s explanation of his vote: This bill is small. It’s simple. It accomplishes its goal with a light touch, neither grabbing for a sweeping victory nor cramming together a panoply of unrelated partisan priorities.

[andydp]

And the award, for the most two faced, hypocritical schmendrik goes to:

GOP lawmaker attended gay son's wedding 3 days after voting against same-sex marriage

The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., got married on Friday. A few days earlier, his father voted against the Respect for Marriage Act.

www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/gop-lawmaker-attended-gay-sons-wedding-3-days-voting-sex-marriage-rcna39863?fbclid=IwAR0MqDXgZo1jrbA5jhYjh2atdicxBHmo29t9koizi963LmpWlQe33PRkuXg
 

[LFC]

Gawd, PA is stuck with some of the worst shits in politics.

[LFC]

Republicans want to keep their gay bashing quiet and only delivered to their bigoted, religious zealot base.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters today that he has no plans to weigh in on the bill to codify same-sex marriage into federal law until the measure is brought to the Senate floor.

“I’m not going to make an observation about that until the issue is actually brought up in the Senate,” he said.

It’s a standard delay tactic that other Republicans have used in recent days as Democrats push to pass crucial privacy-related protections into law after the Supreme Court overturned Roe — and to get their Republican colleagues on the record about their stances on important and long-established American rights, like same-sex marriage and access to contraceptive care.

McConnell — who is not often loathe to publicly discuss where he stands on policy issues ahead of votes — appears to be avoiding the latter at the moment, much like many of his Republican colleagues.

Here's "Little Marco" and other Republicans are tapdancing, look-squirrelling, and just lying to avoid having to take a firm position.

“I don’t know why we’re doing that bill, there’s no threat to its status in America,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Punchbowl News when asked about the Respect for Marriage Act last week. “But I know plenty of gay people in Florida that are pissed off about gas prices.”

“I’m not voting for that bill, what do you mean I won’t say how I’ll vote?” he told Business Insider a few days later, calling it a “waste of our time on a non-issue.”

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) also recently shrugged off the issue, telling CNN that he respects the high court’s 2015 ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges and argued that threats to that decision are not “an issue right now that anybody’s talking about.”

Again, simply not true.

[pnwguy]

Jul 27, 2022 14:55:08 GMT LFC said:

Republicans want to keep their gay bashing quiet and only delivered to their bigoted, religious zealot base.

The more complicated the world gets, the more that simple people fall prey to demagogues that promise simple solutions, especially if you can blame some Others for all these complications.

"Hey, he hates the same people we do!"



If only we could all shout "Home, home, home"

Watching that clip reminds me of how much Dumpster behaves like Beetlejuice.  Now where can we find a tribesmen that has some head shrinking powder?