Louisiana Man Charged With Attempted Murder In Violent Anti-Gay Attack

Surveillance video shows that a vicious attack on 52-year-old John Skaggs in a Shreveport, Louisiana tavern was totally unprovoked.  Several eye witnesses, including the owner of the Sandbar, said the victim was a regular patron at the bar and never bothered anyone, and had never even made eye contact with the attacker, William Payne.  Payne had told someone in the bar that he knew Skaggs was gay and that he was going to go beat him up.  Fucking sick.

face of ignorance: gaybasher William Payne

 

This comes from only one place: the church.  Christian leaders are working overtime to desensitize their flocks to violence and to encourage them to break the law (as declared in the Manhattan Declaration by Chuck Colson, a convicted felon from the Nixon administration).

Georgia Home Firebombed Following Christian Anti-Gay Threats

A 40-something gay man in Carroll County, Georgia was in his living room when a rock came smashing through the window of his house.

[… ]

The rock had a threatening note attached.

“It said, ‘we know you’re gay. And God hates gays. You won’t be raping anybody in the county and God’s going to make sure that you burn in hell.’ And something about my daddy… my daddy will make sure you burn in hell,”

Then hours later, he woke up to flames filling his bedroom.

[…]

His mother said she heard a commotion and saw fire coming from her son’s house next door. She said she ran out to find Staples lying in the yard. She said she thought he was dead.

[…]

“This is the first time I’ve dealt with anything of this nature in 16 years,” said Capt. Shane Taylor of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
“I can’t believe anyone would have such hatred in their heart as to do somebody like that, especially when they don’t even know him. They don’t know him,” she said.“It hasn’t sunk in to me yet that somebody intentionally tried to burn my house down with me in it, and it just doesn’t register,” Staples [the victim] said. 

 

[…]

Here’s another report: Arson of gay man’s home probed as hate crime – [link – Times Georgian.com]

And another: Mother of gay Carrollton man speaks out on suspected arson of his home – [link – GA Voice]

More Christian anti-gay arson crimes:

I posted HERE about a fire-bombing incident last October in Canada following weeks of harassment, threatening notes with Christian anti-gay bullshit, then the mailbox burned down, then *boom* — a fire-bomb through the bedroom window in the early morning hours.  The couple barely escaped with their lives and their dog.  Everything burned to the ground.

–

Glory to Jesus!  Praise his name!

TN Judge (Magistrate, Actually) Suggests Corrective Rape For Lesbians In Military

Unfuckingbelievable.  This person needs to be put on suspension and submit to a psychological evaluation pronto.  If you want to read serious crazy from someone with some deep-seated issues, read the article at The Daily Caller (link in quote below).

But, first, read below for what the chicken-shits scrubbed from the article. From Raw Story:

The conservative news site The Daily Caller has removed part of an article that suggested lesbians be allowed into the US military so that their male colleagues can “convert” them.

Critics say the article went as far as to suggest corrective rape for lesbians.

“Lesbians should be allowed to serve, gay men should not,” declared Joe Rehyansky in an article published Monday. Rehyansky, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, is a part-time magistrate in Hamilton County, Tennessee, and a former assistant district attorney.

In the original article, Rehyansky concluded that his lesbians-only policy “would get the distaff part of our homosexual population off our collective ‘Broke Back,’ thus giving straight male GIs a fair shot at converting lesbians and bringing them into the mainstream.

[…]

Pseudo-science And Religion: Drapetomania To Homomania

On their Facebook page, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) says that being gay is a mental illness.  It’s true because they say so!  Read the comments over at GoodAsYou; there are some excellent, well thought-out critiques on NOM’s pseudo-scientific claims.

It is really appalling to examine the lengths that religious extremists will go to justify their bigotry and hatred, and using their Bible to do it — I’ve discovered the term “drapetomania” (2nd paragraph below the Facebook screenshot).

“I believe …”, begins the quote by Louis J. Marinelli III, of NOM, and that is all it takes for a christianist to declare something as fact.

"I believe ..." turns anything into fact for christianists, with no regard for mountains of scientific data from medical, psychological, and social research findings.

Well, then what would one call the “mental illness” with the symptoms of refusing to be treated worse than garbage and having one’s basic human rights legislated away?  I think what I have, then, is “homomania”, ‘cuz the fantastic lies these people spew make this homo crazy-mad.

Physician Samuel Cartwright (1793-1863) coined the term "drapetomania"

In the 1800’s, when slaves had the annoying habit of running away from their masters, the Louisiana physician Samuel A. Cartwright “diagnosed” this “mental illness” and coined the term drapetomania.

His reasoning was that since God created some people to be slaves, that their NORMAL inclination (in caps, like in the NOM post shown, it helps to make it true), their NORMAL state of mind put there by God, was to be subservient to their masters.  Therefore, the “unnatural” desire to run away from their masters must be a mental illness.  Emphasis added:

Cartwright described the disorder — which, he said, was “unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers”^[4] — in a paper delivered before the Medical Association of Louisiana^[5] that was widely reprinted.

He stated that the malady was a consequence of masters who “made themselves too familiar with [slaves], treating them as equals.”^[6]

Cenk Uygur: “Wake Up And Smell The Hate”

Cenk Uygur to gays: "Wake up and smell the hate"

Click over to The New Civil Rights Movement for a clip of MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur asking gay people who voted Republican, “What part of this don’t you understand? They’re just not that into you!” and “Wake up and smell the hate”

He hits the points pretty well — yes, the Democrats suck, and yes, it’s true that not all Republicans are against gay folk [but most are] and not all Democrats are for us [but most are].  But the Republican Party (Repulicorp) as a whole is steadily working against equality for gay people (and they kiss and bow to the Religious Reich, who want us either imprisoned, experimented on, exiled, or preferably, dead.)

I only had a problem with Cenk using the term “lifestyle”.  Gay folk do not all think the same, act the same, or live the same — just like heterosexual people.  Sexual orientation is not a “lifestyle”.

High School Students Wear Shirts Calling For Death To Gays

On a day for raising awareness of bullying at a high school in the Chicago area, three students wore t-shirts reading “Straight Pride” on the front.

Cool.  I am up with Straight Pride.  I am all for it.  Go, straight people!  But the front of the shirts wasn’t the problem.

The back of the shirts had gentle christianists’ favorite loving Bible verse calling for gay people to be put to death, with “death” in capital letters, btw.

Not. cool.

The comments by “christians” after the news stories are predictably appalling.  Of course, now these poor, oppressed christian students are having their faith under attack for not being able to freely threaten people with death!

What the fuck do you think would happen to a non-christian kid if he were to wear a t-shirt with the slogan “Too Many Christians, Not Enough Lions”?  What would have happened if a white-supremacist’s kid wore a shirt calling for Jews or African Americans to be put to death?  They would have been expelled immediately with no question.

Christians, it’s time to dump those verses — you cherry-pick every damn thing else — dump the death threats.  It would only be Nth-hundredth time that the Bible has been changed over it’s history.  Learn about this disgusting book that you praise, and maybe actually read the goddamned thing once in a while.  If you are a christian, and you think that it is acceptable to the rest of civilized society for your Stone Age death threats, you need your fucking head examined.

via Twitter, stcharles-il-patch .. Daily Herald ..

Andrew Shirvell Finally Fired, Cries Victim

Andrew Shirvell will become another darling of the Religious Reich, already crying “Victim!”, his christian right to lie, harass and stalk sinners has been violated!  This poor, oppressed christian was minding his own business when, out of nowhere and for no reason, evil homosexual tools of Satan and the librul media swooped down on him to destroy his life and attack his christian beliefs.  But, Je$u$ will bless him.  He will write a christian best-seller, go on speaking engagements for anti-gay christianist organizations, appear on christian talk radio and the Christian Broadcasting Network, hell, he might even get a job with Bryan Fischer!

via JMG

 

Ugandan Tabloids Resume Outings And Calls To “Hang Them”

The Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (not in any way affiliated with the U.S. Rolling Stone magazine), run by Giles Muhame cashing in on the anti-gay hysteria, last week published names and photos of alleged gay Ugandan citizens with the headline “Hang Them!”

Afterwards, they were shut down by the government, but only temporarily, something having to do with their business license.  Now they are back in operation, and along with the competing Red Pepper and another tabloid, are running more photos and names of citizens, making them targets for violence.

Muhame falsely claims (CNN video at link) that nobody is being attacked because of this evil and inhumane propaganda and says he will keep doing it. Some of the citizens who were named in the first issue and human rights advocates, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) are filing legal action.

[UPDATE] – Good news!  Uganda’s high court has ordered the Rolling Stone tabloid to cease publishing these names and photos on grounds of violation of privacy.

The fires of anti-gay hysteria in Uganda were flamed by U.S. pastor/sociopath Scott Lively and other christianist sociopaths.  Lively is very proud of what they have accomplished in Uganda with their dark, twisted version of “christianity”.

AC360: Clint McCance Faces Parents Of Suicide Victims

Anderson Cooper interviews vile (but apologetic) homophobe Clint McCance (now, formerly) of a school board in Arkansas.  He has apologized, and seems sincere enough, as though he’s had a glimpse of empathy for the pain his words have brought to parents who have lost kids to suicide, and he is resigning from the school board.

But he kept saying how he used the wrong words.  There are no right words or right way to mock the agonizing pain and anguish of children; there is no right way to mock the suicides of children tormented every day of their short lives by the vile religious hatred that is pounded into them.

McCance made it very clear in his anti-gay screed on Facebook what a Holy Righteous Christian™ he is, so I’m quite sure that he thinks that there are “right words” and a right way to tell kids that they are abominable, subhuman scum.  He made it very clear in that screed that his children would be banished if they every dare to step outside of the christian indoctrination he instilled in them.

This man’s attitude that is so pervasive in Authentic Christians™, is it any wonder that many kids are very, very afraid to talk to the adults in their lives if they need to?  Is it any wonder that a kid in that kind of home would just rather end it?

The next two videos of the AC360 segment are after the fold:

Evan Wolfson To Maggie Gallagher: Discrimination Has Consequences

Maggie Gallagher Srivastav of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) recently made a statement in the New York Post trying to brush off any culpability in the Religious Reich’s anti-gay hatred that drives teens to end their lives.

One of NOM’s supporters brought this sign to a NOM anti-equality tour bus stop a couple of months ago:

Maggie cannot figure out what her organization is doing that would cause anyone harm.

But for the life of her, Maggie Gallagher Srivastav cannot figure out what her organization, or any of the christianist organizations, could be doing to make teens not want to live anymore.

Nope, no reason at all!  After all, she and her cohorts are wonderful,  gentle, loving christians.

Well, Evan Wolfson, founder and director of Freedom to Marry, fires back on Maggie Gallagher Srivastav.  Here’s his letter:

Face it! Discrimination has consequences.

Dear Ms. Gallagher:

In your October 20th New York Post column attempting to take me to task for pointing out the damage done by anti-gay discrimination and the destructive message it sends to gay youth, you wrote, “These kids need help, real help. They should not become a mere rhetorical strategy, a plaything in our adult battles.”

Yet in that very column and, of course, in your continued use of anti-gay prejudice and rhetoric to advance your political agenda, you use young people in just that way.

In state after state, week after week, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young people hear anti-gay organizations like your “National Organization for Marriage” (NOM) characterizing gay people as “depraved” and “immoral” and denigrating gay youth for embracing an “unhealthy sexual identity and lifestyle.” You have opposed non-discrimination laws and even legal support for LGBT youth, exclaiming that being gay is a “dysfunction” that people should work to “overcome.”

Even as you note many of the harms endured by LGBT youth, you continue to campaign relentlessly for the legal discrimination that reinforces their inequality and sense of isolation and that licenses other people to look down on these young people and their dreams of full and equal participation in our society, including a lifetime commitment to the person they love.

Marriage Equality Is Not A Threat In Iowa

Starting with the quote that torques me:

“They shouldn’t be allowed to marry,” Maggie Gallagher, chairman for the National Organization for Marriage, said in an e-mail. “They shouldn’t be allowed to redefine marriage to mean whatever relationship (they) choose.”

First off, I’ll refrain from saying “Maggie, go fuck yourself!”. I think it’s fair to claim that, according to the definition of “traditional” marriage that Maggie holds, it’s considered “untraditional” for a woman to use her ‘maiden’ name (Gallagher).  It is also very un-Biblical for a self-professed Christian woman, like Maggie Gallagher Srivastav, to dishonor her husband by refusing to use his name.

As Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, so the husband is the head of the wife, and both are to submit to Christ, which Maggie Gallagher Srivastav is clearly not doing.

The law should reflect Biblical Principles™ controlling the personal relationships of every citizen — that’s what these fuckwits want — so it should be the law that the woman must take and use her husband’s surname to further preserve the sanctity of Traditional Marriage — Maggie Gallagher Srivastav should not get to redefine traditional marriage.

</sarcasm>

Christine O’Donnell And The “Ex-Gay” Scam

This lady is an incredible piece of work!  Besides her long record of many-faceted scumbag behavior, lies and looney statements, Christine O’Donnell is another Christian scam artist making a buck on the “ex-gay” therapy scam.

Also, Christine “dabbled in witchcraft” (video below the fold) … She must be put to death according to her unchanging, infallible, holy scriptures.  By letting this admitted witch/sorceress live, other innocent Christians can be at risk for demon possession, or, something.  Christians, pick up those stones and do what you know is commanded in God’s Infallible, Unchanging Word.  And none of this “oh-we-follow-the-New-Testament” bullshit.  Jesus himself allegedly said (allegedly, because Jesus probably never existed, and even if he did, the NT was written after he allegedly died by people who never met him) that he was not here to throw out the Old Laws, that you must keep “every letter” of the Law.

TN Couple’s Home Torched After Threats From Neighbor

QUEERS lived here.

In Tennessee, a lesbian couple’s home was burned to the ground in a possible arson hate crime (emphasis added):

Carol Stutte says her partner is too afraid to come back to the property since the fire. She says they’ve been harassed all five years they’ve lived there by one neighbor.

She also says recently the neighbor threatened to kill them and burn down their house,” Stutte said. “I knew we had been threatened, but we never thought anything would be followed through,”

Lora Black, the Stutte’s neighbor and friend, was with the couple in Nashville when they learned their home was on fire.

“Right now, they are just terrified that our county is feeling like this about homosexual couples. Most homosexual couples are no different than any other couples,” Black said.

The Stuttes are staying in a safe house until investigators can determine what happened the night of the fire.

Nutjob Dominionist Preacher Cindy Jacobs: The Plague Of Girl-on-Girl Kissing

Cindy Jacobs, a self-proclaimed “Prophetess” and seriously whacked-out christianist nutjob, was in Sacramento last weekend at Lou Engle’s TheCall, shrieking about Britney and Madonna’s girl-on-girl kiss and that girl-on-girl action is a “plague on society”.  But, I would say that the rates of teen pregnancies and out-of-wedlock births, especially among Good Christians™, would suggest otherwise.

Cindy Jacobs’ shrieking, shrill voice calls on the women in the audience to drop to their knees and repent of all their girly action.  At least it’s a quick break from their usual obsession with man-on-man sex.  Oh Cindy, projecting much?

Lou Engle Brings TheCall To Sacramento

TheCall Sacramento

With “offering stations” conveniently planted throughout the grounds at the state capitol building in Sacramento, Lou Engle attracts thousands of bleating sheeple to fast and pray away the Homosexual Demons™.  (YouTube video after the fold)  A couple of snips from the SFGate Online:

Ken and Antoinette Rodrigues, who described themselves as born-again Christians, drove in from Fremont to attend Saturday’s rally after their daughter-in-law saw it over the Internet.

It’s a little more blunt than I anticipated, not that I’m opposed to that, but the things they are speaking, it’s bold, very bold,” said Antoinette Rodrigues, 48. “But I feel that it’s very appropriate and timely.”

Yes, Antoinette, calling for the blood of gay people is pretty goddamned blunt, but it’s nowhere near appropriate.  I don’t know about this particular event (this is the only clip of this I can stomach right now), but there are many times that Lou Engle and other public christian figures do just that — call for the Leviticus-style literal spilling of the blood of queers in the streets — calling for christians to be martyrs in the same way that islamic zealots do.