LGBT POV

On MSNBC’s Countdown Monday night, Keith Olbermann challenged right wing talk show hosts Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to sue Law & Order: SVU creator Dick Wolfe after a character – John Larroquette playing a Southern-accented defense attorney – claimed in an episode that the talkers “spread ignorance and hate” and the right wingers complained.

But there has been no similar outrage or even snarky finger-pointing at Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins who is organizing the grassroots Religious Right leaders in a way that might have considerably more far-reaching effect. Click inside to see how I connect the dots.

San Francisco-based blogger Michael Petrelis has done some important reporting on a possible link between the Christian Right movement in Southern California and the Ugandan government, which is considering an Anti Homosexuality Bill that calls for the death penalty. Over the weekend Petrelis discovered that Uganda has an honorary consul in Hollywood – Matthew Crouch, a producer of Christian movies. Petrelis writes that Crouch was appointed honorary counsel in September 2007. Click inside to read more from Petrelis, with a few added notes from me.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 – 46 years ago Sunday – during a campaign stop in Dallas, Texas.

It is hard to convey the impact this young President had in his three years in office – and it’s hard to imagine the impact he might have had if he lived. There’s evidence he might have pulled out of Vietnam and who knows where we might have been with space exploration. But given the Kennedy family connection to Barack Obama, one truly wonders if America might have made more progress on race and – given Bayard Rustin – gays. Click inside to read the story of JFK and race. Meanwhile – here is President John F. Kennedy’s live televised historic speech on race, given five months before his assassination.

Watch out. Former Watergate felon and now Religious Right point person Chuck Colson is at it again. This time with a “Manhattan Declaration” of so-called Christian principles delivered at the National Press Club today with all the splash of a Hollywood PR campaign.

You can read the entire “declaration” at the Family Research Council (whose president, Tony Perkins is pictured here with Church Colson). Click inside to read some excerpts and reactions.

Here’s Chuck Colson’s tease:

Rachael Maddow continues her important muckraking – shining a light into the Heart of Darkness known as the Religious Right. Wednesday night she addressed the ubiquitous slogan: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

It reads:

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

She points out that this casual reference to assassination is now on bumper stickers and even teddy bears. But watch for yourself. Click inside for the transcript.

In his Nov. 5 Washington Update newsletter, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council – which contributed $25,000 to the Yes on 1 ballot fight in Maine (hat tip Joe.My.God) – usurps the term “bullying” to complain about how the group Maine Marriage Equality is challenging the blatant erosion of the separation of church and state by Religious Right political professionals. But this is the message that is being fed out to religious conservatives across the nation – setting the stage for the fights ahead. Click inside to read Perkin’s message and how Maine Marriage Equality wants to challenge the tax-exempt status of politically antigay churches.

There’s an old saying:

“The Devil screams the loudest just before leaving the room.”

After last night’s devastating loss of marriage equality in Maine 52.84% – 47.16% – an almost exact mirror of the loss of constitutionally protected same sex marriage rights with Prop 8 in California – it’s time to call out the “Devil” cleverly disguised as the antigay forces of the Religious Right. Click inside to read my analysis and challenge to those who call themselves Christians.

As you know by now – we lost marriage equality in Maine 52.84% – 47.16% - an almost mirror to the loss of Prop 8 last year. Last night I thought I’d write the standard political analysis – but something kept bugging me deeper than just the anger of losing again despite an almost perfectly run campaign. And suddenly I realized I was re-living the soul-wrenching rage over how religion turned a blind eye to my gay brothers who lay dying of AIDS – saying it was God’s wrath and they were being punished for their “sin” of homosexuality. What we’ve been seeing in California and Maine – and will soon see in New Jersey – is the use of religion to kill our relationships since we are no longer dying en masse of AIDS. This is not just about marriage equality – it is about ending US. Click inside for more info about the races and about the piece I’m working on now. Meanwhile – please plan on attending this:

I originally wrote about the Religious Right rally dubbed TheCall for The Bilerico Project Nov. 2, 2008. It still holds up. And while the National Organization for Marriage and the Protect Marriage franchise are trying to export their Prop 8 victory to Maine and Washington state and beyond – these extreme Religious Right professionals are their secret weapon. Dethroned Miss California Carrie Prejean’s pastor, Miles McPherson, is on that stage, for instance. Click inside to read my report about this religious revival meeting in Qualcomm Stadium.

While the eyes of the LGBT nation are now focused on President Obama signing the federal hate crimes bill and on beating back the Religious Right Prop 8 sequel in Maine – same sex couples in Washington state are sweating bullets that in just over a week they might lose the simplest of family relationship protections – Domestic Partnerships. This is, in fact, the second flank in the Religious Right’s war on same sex rights and relationships. Click inside for a detailed explanation.

On Monday, Miss California state director Keith Lewis and K2 Productions filed a cross-complaint and demurrer in Los Angeles Superior Court against former Miss California, Carrie Prejean. In an interview with LGBT POV, Lewis talks about the lawsuit, Carrie, wanting her ill-gotten profits, more explicit pictures to come, the National Organization for Marriage, Carrie’s pastor Miles McPherson, and oh, yeah – Mr. Trump who taped promos for a Nov. 22 televised Miss California pageant. Click inside for the scoop.

David Bohnett, chair of the David Bohnett Foundation, delivered a passionate speech last Friday accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award from GLSEN. Click inside to read an extended excerpt from the speech, a must-read especially in the context of the National Equality March and the fights in Maine and Washington.