Box Turtle Bulletin

Huckabee: 1992 AIDS Quarantine Story “Just Politics”

The Associated Press has reported that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee once advocated quarantining everyone with AIDS during a run for the U.S. Senate in 1992:

“If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague,” Huckabee wrote.

“It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.”

He also wrote that Hollywood celebrities should fund AIDS research from their own pockets rather than federal health agencies. And he said this about homosexuality in 1992:

“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.”

When asked about his 1992 statements, refused to address the question directly, but he did respond this way:

Many of you know that I’m a human being that’s going to make a whole lot of mistakes, in fact you’re going to hear that I am a human being that’s made a lot of mistakes. In fact, if you don’t know that yet, just keep reading all the press releases from my opponents. And when they can’t find enough, they’ll make some up.”

“And that’s politics,” he added.

Huckabee is being touted as a gentleman’s social conservative. But he sees his campaign in somewhat grander terms. Here’s the explanation he gave before Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University for why his poll numbers have been rising lately:

There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people. (Applause and cheers)

And that’s the only way that our campaign could be doing what it’s doing. And I’m not being facetious, nor am I trying to be trite. There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much, and it has. And it defies all explanation. It has confounded the pundants, and I’m enjoying every minute of their trying to figure it out. And until they look at it from a… just experience beyond human, they’ll never figure it out. And that’s probably just as well. That’s honestly why it’s happening.

See also:

Huckabee Denies Advocating Quarantine

Hetero Suburban Sex Club In Texas

Here’s more evidence of the heterosexual menace that’s sweeping the nation:

The most popular address on Cedar Ridge Drive is Jim Trulock’s split-level home, which has a group sex room and attracts as many as 100 people to swinger parties featuring “Naked Twister” nights.

The Trulocks have been transforming their home on a quiet Duncanville, Texas street into “The Cherry Pit” every Friday and Saturday evening, and local officials fear that it may be placing a stain on the city just south of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Duncanville bills itself as “The Perfect Blend of Family, Community and Business.”

Duncanville officials are moving to ban sexually-oriented businesses inside the city limits, but the Trulocks plan to sue, saying their parties are private parties and not a business. And what a party it is:

“They have the largest hot tub in Dallas … a dance floor complete with stripper pole, a torture room … a group room with a giant frame with 6 full mattresses … and a semi-private room with three mattresses.”

Now I know Peter LaBarbera has been very keen to bust some of these parties wide open, now that he’s earned himself an appearance on Fox News showing his home movies of the Folsum Street Fair. Maybe he’d like to pack his camera and head down to Duncanville before the parties end. I happen to know for a fact that flights between Chicago and D/FW are cheap and frequent. If he can’t make the flight, then he might just head over to Club Meet4more in Chicago.

Oh, but it’s mostly heterosexuals. I guess he won’t be interested.

Chanukah: “Defeat of the Homosexual Agenda”

Tuesday was the start of Hanukkah (or Chanukah), the eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. During the rededication, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. But miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was enough time to press and consecrate more olive oil to keep the eternal flame alive. I had to look all that up in Wikipedia. I apologize if I got any of the details wrong or left out anything important.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, thinks that description is deficient in one important aspect:

Chanukah was Historically and Remains a Celebration of the Victory Over Hellenistic Jewish Social Liberals and the Homosexual Agenda

…The faithful Jews, willingly martyred themselves to defeat the debauchery of that time both heterosexual and homosexual. Thus Chanukah represents the first ever defeat of a world power’s homosexual agenda!

I’ve probably only heard the Dreidel song a couple of times in my lifetime, but I don’t remember that in the lyrics.

Bill Keller’s Faulty Powers of Prognostication

I have to admit that I don’t now much about Rev. Bill Keller, but lately I’ve found him to be quite amusing. (Sometimes it does a soul better to be amused than constantly outraged.) Yesterday, we reported on an apparently retracted press release that Keller issued via Christian Newswire in which he pretended to know what Mitt Romney was going to say this morning.

Well imagine the déjà v I experienced today when this press release bounced into my inbox at 12:37 EST. Just in case that one disappears, here’s a screen capture (Click on the image to see it full-size):

And compare that to yesterday’s withdrawn press release:

It looks like all that Keller did was take yesterday’s press release and “corrected” it. It turns out he had to make quite a few corrections — so many that maybe his strikeout of his own self-description as an “expert” may have been a remarkable moment of candor. Anyway, I’m guessing his markups looked something like this, with italics representing his additions:

Expert Guest/Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing but a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

ST. PETERSBURG, Fl., Dec. 5  6/Christian Newswire/ — Bill Keller, founder of www.liveprayer.com – the first national Christian leader to call into question Mitt Romney’s Mormon background with his now infamous “A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan” message – is predicting calling Romney’s upcoming speech on Thursday will be “Nothing but a big lie.” [sic – he forgot to strike out “will be”]

So certain is Keller, who sends out a daily devotional to over 2.4 million opt-in subscribers worldwide, that he has pre-written his devotional for Thursday morning critiquing critiqued Romney’s speech as deceptive and misleading.

Keller states that if Romney wanted to be honest, he would be giving have given his speech in at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, rather than at the George Bush Presidential Library in Houston College Station, Texas. Keller says he is certain Romney will have his wife and five children with him while he gives his speach, and his delivery will be peppered said Romney continues to deceive and mislead people with a steady dose of words such as “God,” “Jesus,” and “The Bible,” even though the god and Jesus of Mormon theology is not the same as the God and Jesus of the Holy Bible. In fact, says Keller, Mormons believe the bible is a flawed and incomplete book.

In the speech, Romney stated that “he believed Jesus to be the Son of God,” failing to mention that according to his churches theology, Jesus is also the spirit brother of Lucifer and NOT and a created being, NOT DEITY, the key tenet of the Christian faith.

Keller concludes that this upcoming speech will simply be is simply Romney’s most recent attempt to try to deceive people into thinking he is a Christian, when in fact Mormon theology that he refused to address is totally inconsistent with biblical Christianity.

“In the end, Romney will try to demonize anyone who has the guts to hold him accountable for his deception, calling them religions bigots and other names,” says Keller. “But I refuse to be silenced since, for me, this is not – and never has been – about politics. It’s about the eternal souls of men who will be lost if they follow the false teachings of a Mormon cult.”

Hate Crimes Bill is Officially Dead

Anti-gay Activists can now rejoice that violent hate crimes against gay persons will continue to be ignored by the federal government.

Bashers, haters, and anti-gay activists can now celebrate together.

The Last Acceptable Bigotry?

Gary Cass used to be the Executive Director of D. James Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America. Now he has founded a new organization he calls the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. His latest press release from Christian Newswire touting his new book, Christian Bashing and the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, carries the title:

Christian Bashing: The Last Acceptable Bigotry

As you can imagine, I would beg to differ. I suspect that in this campaign season, GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney might have a thing to say about it too. Here’s another press release from the Christian Newswire earlier today:

Expert Guest/ Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing But a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney Is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

I would normally link to that press release, but it appears to have gone missing from the Christian Newswire’s web site. Here’s a screen shot though in case anyone’s interested. Just click on the image to see it full size.

No, I’m afraid there’s plenty of bigotry to go around.

Here’s the text of the press release:

Expert Guest/ Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing But a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney Is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 5 /Christian Newswire/ — Bill Keller, founder of www.liveprayer.com – the first national Christian leader to call into question Mitt Romney’s Mormon background with his now infamous “A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan” message – is predicting Romney’s upcoming speech on Thursday will be “Nothing but a big lie.”

So certain is Keller, who sends out a daily devotional to over 2.4 million opt-in subscribers worldwide, that he has pre-written his devotional for Thursday morning critiquing Romney’s speech as deceptive and misleading.

Keller states that if Romney were planning to be honest, he would be giving his speech in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, rather than at the George Bush Presidential Library in Houston, Texas. Keller says he is certain Romney will have his wife and five children with him while he gives the speech, and that his delivery will be peppered with a steady dose of words such as “God,” “Jesus,” and “The Bible,” even though the god and Jesus of Mormon theology is not the same as the God and Jesus of the Holy Bible. In fact, says Keller, Mormons believe the bible is a flawed and incomplete book.

Keller concludes that this upcoming speech will simply be Romney’s most recent attempt to try to deceive people into thinking he is a Christian, when in fact Mormon theology is totally inconsistent with biblical Christianity.

“In the end, Romney will try to demonize anyone who has the guts to hold him accountable for his deception, calling them religions bigots and other names,” says Keller. “But I refuse to be silenced since, for me, this is not – and never has been – about politics. It’s about the eternal souls of men who will be lost if they follow the false teachings of a Mormon cult.”

Availability: Immediate availability nationwide for radio and television

About Bill Keller:
In 1999, Keller launched LivePrayer.com, which has become the most successful online faith outreach in history. Since its inception, LivePrayer.com has responded personally to more than 60 million online requests for prayer. And Keller’s Live Prayer devotional is received daily by more than 2.5 million email subscribers. For information on where to watch Live Prayer in your area, visit www.liveprayer.com. The Live Prayer program is about to go on worldwide internet (live streaming broadcast). Visit the website for details.

Anti-Gay Policies Endanger Children

For many years, anti-gay activists have strived to convince the American public that gay people are inclined to molest children. They create fraudulent “statistics” that define every man that molests a male child as “homosexual”, even though this man may be married to a woman, have also molested many female children, and have no interest whatsoever in adult men.

It is true that some gay men are predators, as are some heterosexual men. But there is no clear evidence that gay men are any more likely to molest children than straight men.

Nonetheless, parents and other good intentioned people can fall victim to this anti-gay propaganda. And, seeking to protect innocent and vulnerable children, they can be swayed to take anti-gay actions that do not in any way benefit children. Often these actions can result in quite the opposite, direct harm to kids.

Take, for example, the Boy Scouts’ policy of excluding gay scouts and leaders. I believe that this policy, while it may feel to some parents as though it is a protection, actually places children in greater harm.

It does this in two ways. First it provides a false sense of security. Parents may believe that no one is going to be sexually interested in their children because there are no gay men involved. And any unusual behavior or undue attachment may be overlooked.

Second, those kids who are experiencing same sex attractions have no roll models or confidants with whom they can talk. They are left at the mercies of whomever is willing to listen. And this is a pedophile’s dream.

Sadly, the harm of this anti-gay policy is illustrated today.

In 1997, the city of Berkeley stated that it could not subsidize organizations that exclude residents based on sexual orientation or religion. Leader Eugene Evans led the charge – all the way to the Supreme Court – to fight for free berthing. The Sea Scouts did not win their battle, but Evans did become a darling of anti-gay activists. And surely parents felt safer knowing that their children were sailing with a man who was an anti-homosexual warrior.

But now Evans has been arrested for molesting at least four of the boys under his charge.

This sad example makes clear two things. First, identifying as gay or as anti-gay are not indications of pedophile tendencies or behavior. Parents should not fear gay men more not place greater trust in anti-gay activists. Second, policies that exclude gay men and women add no further level of protection and may, indeed, serve to lower a parent’s guard.

Unfortunately, there will still be those who are willing to sacrifice the innocence or protection of children to advance their anti-gay goals.

Hat tip Pam’s House Blend

Why We Have A LaBarbera Award

Peter LaBarbera invited the world to attend a news conference at the National Press Club today to premiere his documentary on the Folsom Street fair. Fewer than ten people showed up, and most of them appeared to know LaBarbera or Concerned Woman Matt Barber. There were maybe two journalists, one of whom was the Washington Blade’s Rebecca Armendariz. Amazingly, Rebecca lived to tell about it. This part was my favorite:

And Peter REALLY hates the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who were a prevalent force at Folsom Street. …LaBarbera, though, said that even though the Sisters do charity work, “We wouldn’t tolerate a Nazi charity fund.” NEWSFLASH: The Nazis killed millions of people. This gay rights organization raises money for AIDS research, breast cancer and the arts, among countless other charities. When he made that comparison, my mouth dropped.

You see, statements like that are why we have a LaBarbera Award. There are many imitators and pretenders, but Peter’s the real deal.

FRC’s Charmaine Yoest Joins Mike Huckabee’s Campaign

The Family Research Council sent out this notice that Charmaine Yoest, the FRC’s vice president of Communications and frequent guest on several national news programs, is taking a leave of absense to join Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign:

I am pleased to welcome Dr. Yoest to our team,” said Governor Huckabee. “She brings with her an in-depth knowledge of the issues and policy expertise, as well as over two decades of experience in the conservative movement. Her addition represents increased strength both substantively and organizationally. She joins us at an important juncture as we are working to communicate our policy agenda for the future.

The various leaders and organizations which make up what we often call the “religious right” have had a great deal of difficulty coalescing around a single candidate for the GOP nomination. While many of them were sympathetic to Gov. Huckabee’s platform, few of them were willing to spend much political capital on a candidate who wasn’t seen as viable. But recent polls in Iowa have placed Huckabee’s campaign into serious play and the religious right appear to be re-evaluating their earlier assessment of his chances of winning the GOP nomination, and many are beginning to come on board. With this latest announcement, I suspect that trend will accelerate.

Australian Capital Territory to Consider Civil Unions

UPDATED: See Below

The Australian Capital Territory is that area in which the federal Austrailian government is conducted. Like the District of Columbia, it has self-governance but its decisions can be overruled by federal authority.

In 2006 the ACT legislated for civil unions for gay couples. This action was overturned by the federal government. Overturning ACT decisions is not a common practice.

A new government has been voted into power, and part of their campaign was on providing some form of recognition to same-sex couples. However, the Rudd government is not in favor of marriage or of civil unions. They propose that states offer registration of couples and provide benefits similar to de-facto relationships.

The ACT government does not view relationship registers as an adequate response to either the commitment or the needs of same-sex couples. They are proposing a slightly watered down version of their previous efforts of enacting civil unions. From ABC News (not the US one)

The ACT’s Attorney-General, Simon Corbell, plans to re-introduce a Civil Partnerships Bill, which would grant legal recognition to same-sex unions. He will push the case at a meeting with the new federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, on Friday.

“I think that’s an important courtesy to extend to the Federal Government, given there has been a change of government, and the opportunity now to progress an important piece of law reform for people in the ACT,” he said.

Anti-gay factions have already voiced threats over the action. It will be interesting to see if quashing gay recognition is a priority of the new government.

UPDATE

The Age is reporting that the federal government will not override the ACT’s decision to provide civil unions.

Video: Inside “Love Won Out”

A few years ago, Warren Throckmorton popularize the phrase, “I do exist” through a video which highlighted the testimonies of ex-gay individuals. The idea behind the video was to provide proof to counter the argument that nobody really changed their sexual orientation. (Just last January, the video’s lead spokesperson, Noe Gutierrez, withdrew his support for the project, but that’s another story.)

That title, “I Do Exist,” is the theme for our next video, where Jim Burroway objects to the one-sided presentation at Love Won Out of what it means to be gay.

The “Love Won Out” Series:
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word “Change” Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For “Change”

Discrimination at the State Department

In 2001, Colin Powell was the Secretary of State and George W. Bush was settling into his administration. Those of us looking for signs of progress were encouraged when the President selected Michael Guest, an openly gay career State Department diplomat as ambassador to Romania, a post-communist country seeking to enter NATO. We were even happier to see the Secretary of State acknowledge Guest’s partner, Alex Nevarez, at his swearing in ceremony.

As Guest was the first openly gay ambassador confirmed by the Senate, and as Nevarez was encouraged to move with Guest to Romania, some of us hoped that perhaps the administration might be supportive of equality, at least in employment, and the administration’s lack of response to anti-gay protest seemed promising. That was 2001.

By all accounts, Guest performed his duties admirably during a time of significant change and ended his term in 2003 with Romania sharing a closer friendship with the United States, a member of NATO, and well into establishing European contacts that would eventually lead to inclusion in the European Union.

But much has changed since 2001. The President stopped appointing gay people – or even gay-supportive people – to positions of authority. And after failing to meet expectations on the foreign front, his handlers decided that he reelection message would focus on a greater threat to the nation: committed gay couples.

Ultimately this administration went from cautiously supportive to blatantly hostile to gay persons with the threat of a veto over a non-discrimination policy that is overwhelmingly supported by the populace. There are currently no efforts to lift discrimination against gay citizens that are not vehemently opposed by this President.

Subsequent to his ambassadorship, Guest has served the Department as Dean of the Foreign Service Institute’s Leadership and Management School. But now, after 26 years of service, Guest is calling it quits. And he’s not shy about sharing the reasons why. Per the NY Times,

“Most departing ambassadors use these events to talk about their successes . . . But I want to talk about my signal failure, the failure that in fact is causing me to leave the career that I love,” said Mr. Guest, 50, whose most recent assignment was dean of the leadership and management school at the Foreign Service Institute, the government’s school for diplomats.

“For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees. Absolutely nothing has resulted from this. And so I’ve felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner — who is my family — and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary’s leadership and a shame for this institution and our country,” he said.

Among the inequities cited by Mr. Guest and other gay diplomats: unlike heterosexual spouses, gay partners are not entitled to State Department-provided security training, free medical care at overseas posts, guaranteed evacuation in case of a medical emergency, transportation to overseas posts, or special living allowances when foreign service officers are assigned to places like Iraq, where diplomatic families are not permitted.

The Secretary and the administration share the shame of their behavior towards those who, like Michael Guest, make personal sacrifice to serve their nation. And not only gay people but our Nation as a whole is victim to these policies that are hostile to our best and brightest.

Disputed Mutability on “Love Won Out”

The blogger Disputed Mutability finally got around to posting some of her impressions about the Love Won Out conference in Indianapolis last October. This is the start of a series of posts I’ve been looking to for a long time. She identifies as ex-gay (“until a better label comes along”) and is supportive of the ex-gay movement, (“in the deepest, truest, and purest sense”), she is often critical of many of the culture-war aspects of ex-gay ministries. She is also one of the smartest and wittiest observers of the movement I’ve come across.

I had several pull-quotes set aside that I was going to repeat here, but DM isn’t one to be pull-quoted or soundbit. Just read her review and go with the flow. It’s wonderfully rewarding.

Okay. One quote, which has almost nothing to do with the rest of her post. I just wanted to highlight it because I couldn’t agree more:

Driving in, we saw a small cluster of protesters in the dark (Indianapolis at 7:45 am on the day before the end of Daylight Savings is pitch black!), no more than 15 I’d say. The only sign I could make out then was “PFLAG.” There were no protesters when we went out for lunch. We counted 12 on our drive out at the end of the day–I tried to make eye contact and smile and give a friendly nod to each as we drove slowly by, but mostly got blank stares from dour faces. One guy finally did grin back at us and wave; we waved back of course. I was shocked at how somber they all seemed–they wore the same vaguely constipated looks of solemn judgment that the quiet brand of antigay protesters wear. I understand they must have been saddened by the goings-on inside the church, but to me it seems like a poor way to change hearts and minds. It wasn’t very seductive.

This has really bothered me about most responses to Love Won Out. I had similar thoughts at the Palm Springs event in 2006. I mean, we’re supposed to be, like, gay, aren’t we? LWO tells everyone at the conference how miserable and angry we are, and then when the conference is over they look at us as they drive off and we’re standing there confirming everything they heard about us. I mean seriously, I thought we were supposed to be more creative than that.

A Conservative Supports Marriage

Howard Lurie is an old-fashioned conservative who writes occasionally for the Philadelphia Daily News. And being opposed to governmental interference, he finds himself logically on the side of same-sex marriage.

To let government restrict the selection of a spouse on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation is to let government intrude on one of the most intimate decisions we can make. Conservatives should be the first to deny government that authority.

Sometimes the only ones who can speak to conservatives are those who know their language.

Are Some Islamic Leaders Becoming Less Homophobic?

We seldom cover Islamic issues here at Box Turtle Bulletin, mostly because we have little familiarity with Islam and because it seldom is a significant social force in the United States. But the general impression is that those who are most devout in this faith, as well as those geographic regions most under its sway, are harshly homophobic and supportive of extreme punitive responses including execution.

However, a report out of South Africa (via ukgaynews) gives us some small hope for change.

The International Consultation on Islam and HIV/AIDS had spent several days denouncing the evils of homosexuality. An outsider might find this an unusual tactic for approaching “HIV prevention among hard-to-reach vulnerable groups like sex workers, street children, injecting drug users, and men who have sex with men.” But for religious Muslims in the third world, this seemed the only acceptable approach.

Then Suhail AbualSameed stood to speak.

“As a gay Muslim, I feel unsafe, unloved and unrespected in this space,” he said.

“Were I to become HIV-positive, the first thing I would lose is my Muslim community. I couldn’t come to you guys for support.”

After his speech, AbualSameed was surprised to hear apologies and words of support from many who sported the beards or the veils of the very religious. He was more surprised to hear an official response from organization.

Conference spokesperson and IRW head of policy Willem van Eekelen read their collective statement, saying that although Islam does not accept homosexuality, Islamic leaders would try to help create an environment in which gay people could approach social workers and find help against AIDS without feeling unsafe.

While I doubt that executions will diminish or that Islam will soon open its arms to its gay children, I am happy to report any steps of progress.