Thank heavens for LGBT equality activists and the bloggers who post about them! Otherwise how would we know what was really going on in the culture wars? How would we know that only 40 “protect marriage” supporters showed up for the much heralded National Organization for Marriage’s “One Man, One Woman” bus tour stop in Indianapolis? They’ve been met at every stop along the way by Freedom to Marry supporters, who turned out over 250 LGBT and allied supporters to counter NOM’s rally, according to Bil Browning’s post at Bilerico. He also provided this sign from one of NOM’s God-fearing supporters. This sign alone is critical in countering the “victim” meme NOM and Protect Marriage has been using in court and the media, as Mark Hefflinger reported here earlier this month.
The Courage Campaign is also making a strong commitment to countering NOM’s spin, bringing the expertise they developed as virtually the bloggers of record during the Prop 8 trial with their Prop8TrialTracker to the NOM campaign. Eden James announced that Adam Bink (OpenLeft) is taking over Courage’s important NOMTourTracker site – which is where you can find this extraordinary July 26 interview with a NOM supporter by Courage’s Arisha Michelle Hatch.
Some of the quotes from Larry Adams: “What you gotta do with sin is take it out.” And, “if it was punished like it was supposed to be, there wouldn’t be so much homosexuality out there.” Larry also admits that he has been attracted to another man, but “I knew it was from the devil so I avoided it.”
UPDATE: Michael Crawford from Freedom to Marry says that they have launched a petition campaign to “Tell NOM to Denounce Call to Murder Gay Couples.” The petition says, in part: “Your fear-mongering and assaults on gay families are inciting prejudice and inviting violence. We call on you to immediately denounce these tactics and the harm you are doing to gay and lesbian families and the national conversation around marriage.”
But contrast this reporting on LGBT blogs with the slick faux-news report from NOM about them being “bullied and intimidated,” a video which can be easily distributed to churches and the NOM network created during Prop 8. Additionally, consider that without LGBT press and blog reporting to counter “reports” such as this, the lazy or otherwise-engaged mainstream media could consider this video, conveniently handed to them by NOM, to be the “truth.”
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The way he describes himself, I can’t help but wonder if Larry Adams was first harmed by anti-gay animus in his church environment. He’s been attracted to men, it caused him some degree of problems, but at about 40 he somehow resolved his issues with “literal” biblical principles?
That sounds an awful lot like an ex-gay narrative.
He is the “success” story he seeks to create by criminalizing non-hetero relationships.
[...] him is certainly making the rounds on the Web. I’ve seen it on The Advocate, Dallas Voice, LGBTPOV, San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, AMERICABlog, Towleroad, Think Progress, and elsewhere. If you [...]
HRC made an interesting point today — that this tour is simply an attempt to provoke LGBTs and document poor behavior that they can claim is harassment and intimidation. I’ve monitored a lot of Prop 8 news, and the anti-gays really need to grasp at straws to prove that they’re being intimidated — so it would actually a very shrewd strategy if they’re really trying to push LGBTs into behaving poorly.
Too bad things backfired for them when this Larry guy showed up to harass and intimidate. His sign is chilling, and his story is very very sad.
[...] LGBT Blogs Provide Critical Counter to NOM Spin | LGBT POV [...]