Box Turtle Bulletin

Friday Silliness – Gay Fathers

Often those who seek to condemn gay men and women without reverting to quoting Scripture will argue that homosexuality is not a benefit to society because it does not result in procreation. Well, I’ve seen some of their children – running through the restaurant screaming. And I’m not all that convinced that they are such a benefit to society.

However, I do know of some fathers who were homosexual – or at least not heterosexual – whose progeny did benefit society. I’ve listed just a few. Feel free to add more fathers to the list. And mothers are welcome too:

• Socrates – Father of Philosophy
• Aristotle – Father of Biology (perhaps)
• Leonardo Da Vinci – Father of Flight
• Luco Pacioli – Father of Accounting
• Isaac Newton – Father of Modern Physics
• Nikola Tesla – Father of Radio
• Alan Turing – Father of the Computer

and a whole host of others whose children, though not flesh and blood, continue to live and benefit society long after they are gone: Michelangelo Buonarroti, EM Forster, Noel Coward, Alexander the Great, and the list goes on and on…

International Hate Machine: Hutcherson, Lively and Ledyaev’s “Watchmen On the Walls”

Last July 1st, Satendar Singh, a 26-year-old Fijian of Indian descent was beaten to death at Lake Natoma near Sacramento by Russian-speaking immigrants two picnic tables away. They singled Singh out from among his party, saying “We just want your faggot friend.” He was bashed in the head and died the next day of a brain hemorrhage. Two men, Andrey Vusik, 29, and Aleksandr Shevchenko, 21 were charged with hate crimes in connection with Singh’s death. Vusik fled to Russian in July and is being sought by the FBI.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report has a very informative article by Casey Sanchez about the growing Russian, Ukrainian and Latvian immigrant communities in the Western U.S., and the increasingly violent threat they pose to gays and lesbians in the region.

A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in the Sacramento Valley is centered among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking immigrants. Many of them are members of an international extremist anti-gay movement whose adherents call themselves the Watchmen on the Walls. In Latvia, the Watchmen are popular among Christian fundamentalists and ethnic Russians, and are known for presiding over anti-gay rallies where gays and lesbians are pelted with bags of excrement. In the Western U.S., the Watchmen have a following among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Members are increasingly active in several cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

…Slavic anti-gay talk radio hosts and fundamentalist preachers routinely deliver hateful screeds on the airwaves and from the pulpit in their native tongue that, were they delivered in English, would be a source of nationwide controversy.

Kenneth Hutcherson, Scott Lively, and Latvian megachurch pastor Alexey Ledyaev.

These Slavic groups aren’t operating in a vacuum however. They are actively supported and encouraged by two key American anti-gay extremists, Rev. Kenneth Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington and Scott Lively, author of the holocaust revisionist book The Pink Swastika. Together, they have formed an alliance called “Watchmen on the Walls” with Riga, Latvian pastor Aleksey Ledyaev.

That alliance operates not only among Slavic evangelical churches here in the U.S. but in Russia, Ukraine, and Latvia as well. Hutcherson and Lively traveled to Latvia last spring to speak at pastor Ledyaev’s New Generation Church in advance of that country’s contentious Pride celebrations. Lively told that audience:

God gave Kenneth Hutcherson and me to see that [New Generation pastor] Alexei [Ledyaev] is the very man God placed to direct this battle, and church should support him in all respects. We are going to help you consistently and effectively to fight those who violate Christ’s rights and target his ministers for their insults.

Lively’s book, The Pink Swastika, claims that Hitler was gay. He go further and claims that the Nazi Party, World War II and the Holocaust were the products of a vast gay conspiracy. That book as found an eager audience among a population that suffered horrendously from Nazi aggression during World War II. Casey Sanchez reports:

The Pink Swastika has become Lively’s passport to fame among anti-gay church leaders and their followers in Eastern Europe, as well as Russian-speaking anti-gay activists in America. Lively frequently speaks about the book and his broader anti-gay agenda in churches, police academies and television news studios throughout the former Soviet Union.

Lively credits the popularity of Russian-language translations of The Pink Swastika to the support of Pastor Alexey Ledyaev, the head of the New Generation Church, an evangelical Christian megachurch based in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. New Generation has more than 200 satellite churches spread throughout Eastern Europe, Argentina, Israel and the United States.

Sacramento, Calif., editor Vlad Kusakin; Vadim Privedenyuk, who runs an anti-gay church in Springfield, Mass.; Kenneth Hutcherson; and Alexey Ledyaev.

Sanchez also reports on the standard rhetoric coming form Hutcherson, Lively and Ledyaev’s alliance. The rhetoric is chilling:

In a speech given after Riga’s first gay pride parade in 2005, Ledyaev told his international congregation: “Homosexuality is a … dangerous and contagious disease. The contagious should be isolated and treated. Otherwise, an epidemic will sweep through the entire community.”

Lively echoed his Latvian ally’s comparison of homosexuality to disease in a 2003 letter to the editor published in The Washington Times. “The homosexual movement in a society is analogous to the AIDS virus in the human body,” Lively wrote. “It is not benign but destructive; it thrives at the expense of the host, and you’re most likely to get it by saying yes to sodomy.”

The Watchmen portray the battle against gay rights as nothing less than a biblical clash of civilizations. “The homosexual sexual ethic” and “family-based society” are at war, Lively proclaimed in his letter to The Washington Times. “One must prevail at the expense of the other.”

That sort of militant rhetoric is standard among Watchmen followers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Speaking to his American counterparts in a Watchmen video, a Latvian anti-gay activist intones: “Your generation beat the Nazis, and our country beat the Communists. Together we will defeat the homosexuals!”

This may explain why, when Lively and Ledyaev were contacted for comment on Singh’s death, they refused to condemn the murder.

The rhetoric emanating from this group is extremely dangerous and violent. It’s hard to imagine how people who consider themselves to be good and faithful Christians can continue to maintain any connections with the Watchmen.

But some not only nurture those connections, they value them tremendously. Kenneth Hutcherson was a featured speaker at last summer’s Exodus Freedom Conference. Exodus president Alan Chambers and vice-president Randy Thomas glowingly introduced “Hutch” as their person friend. And unlike any other speakers, Hutcherson spoke not just once, but twice in featured prime-time spots before the whole conference — once in the evening, and once again the following morning. And throughout his talks, he proclaimed his love for homosexuals and how precious they were in God’s sight — or at least the “strugglers” who were in the audience that night.

Kenneth Hutcherson, speaking at the 2007 Exodus Freedom Conference.

And yet when he’s away from Exodus International’s warm embrace, Hutcherson is actively collaborating with an international organization which is spreading a dangerously violent and deadly message throughout the world and here in America. If Alan Chambers really wants to talk about what an “evil agenda” looks like, he need look no further than his own stage.

See also:
From Novosibirsk To Lynnwood

DiFatta: Yet Another Republican Bathroom Scandal

Stop me if you’ve heard this story: A married Republican elected official goes into a public bathroom…

This time it’s Joey DiFatta, a councilman in Louisianna that had been running for state Senate. Those plans have been terminated because of “health issues”.

Per the Times-Picayune DiFatta was stopped twice but not arrested. One incident:

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy’s stall and tapped the deputy’s foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.

The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy’s leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, “What do you want?” according to the report, and he replied, “I want to play with you.”

Children entered the department store bathroom and the officer terminated the sting.

In a depressingly familiar way, Joey’s profile is hardly shocking:

Joey is the father of two sons and he has three grandchildren. He is a taxpayer in St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes and he is a concerned citizen. Currently, Joey Di Fatta is serving as Chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council. He was elected as Councilman-at-Large 2004-2008.

Although DiFatta’s campaign and interests seemed focused primarily on recovery from Hurricane Katrina and other economic issue, his Plan for Louisianna does include

Defend our conservative values from attacks by extreme liberal groups

And so councilman DiFatta joins Senator Craig and Representative Allen in the club of “not gay” values defenders who seem unable to refrain from inappropriate behavior in public bathrooms.

Log Cabin Republicans Attack Ad Against Mitt Romney

What do you think about this?

I really had to scratch my head over this one. Yes, I get it, Mitt Romney is a shameless flip-flopping opportunist who shouldn’t be trusted. He for abortion rights before he was against them. He was for gun control before he was against it. And he was for gay rights before he was against them. Heck, he even promised to out-Kennedy Sen. Kennedy when he was running for governor of Massachusetts.

Oh, wait. That last part isn’t in the commercial.

It seemed really strange to me that a national gay political group would put out a TV ad like this without mentioning the massive pink elephant in the room. During his 1994 campaign against Sen. Edward Kennedy, Romney sent a letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans promising to be a stronger supporter for gay rights than Kennedy. And the Massachusetts LCR returned the favor by supporting Romney.

Romney went back to the Massachusetts LCR in 2002 to ask for their support for his gubernatorial campaign, promising that if he won he would respect that state’s high court pending decision on same sex marriage and not launch a fight either way. Again LCR endorsed Romney. And the rest, as they say, is history, with Romney leading the fight to try to amend the Massachusetts constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Romney’s positions on an awful lot of things have changed over the years, and LCR naturally is feeling betrayed. And so they’re fighting back by bringing up lot of things that Romney has flip-flopped on.

But the issue of gay rights remains unmentionable. That had me puzzled at first, but after several rounds of emails, I think I understand what’s happening. Think about it. Imagine the howls of protest if LCR had used Romney’s previously-admirable stand on gay rights to tell anti-gay voters not to trust his his current stand on gay rights.

So okay, I get it. The Log Cabin Republicans are letting it be known that no candidate can court the gay Republican vote and accept gay Republican money one year and turn around later and bash gay Americans later in the political careers when it suits them. Revenge can certainly be sweet, and good for LCR for exacting theirs.

But what’s that about “Massachusetts Values” at the end? Ever since same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts three years ago, we’ve heard nary a word about “Taxachusetts.” So I doubt that’s what springs to mind among conservative voters when they hear “Massaachusetts Values.” So what did they mean by that? Are “Massachusetts Values” supposed to be anything like “San Francisco Values”? After all, we all know what that means.

Maybe LCR managed to talk about the big pink elephant after all.

Jenna Bush Advocates Safe Sex to Prevent HIV/AIDS

Last month, BTB contributing author Timothy Kincaid mentioned Jenna Bush’s new book based on the life of a young woman in Latin America living with AIDS. Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope also represents a key break from official White House policy on HIV prevention:

Safe sex is encouraged through-out her new book, even though the Bush administration’s hotly contested HIV-prevention campaign was built around a staunch “abstinence only” message. “In Africa my dad’s policies are pretty much in line with mine, but not domestically,” says Bush, referring to her father’s ABC (abstain, be faithful, use a condom) policy in Africa. “But it’s a personal decision. All of us want our kids to be safe, and there’s no doubt that condoms make our kids safe. And many girls don’t have the choice—they are exploited sexually. It’s important they stay protected and protect others.”

The First Family’s rowdier twin was once known for her hard partying ways. Now it seems that she’s taking a hard look at the world around her and drawing her own conclusions — as are many others of her generation.

Judge Denies Sen. Craig’s Petition to Withdraw Guilty Plea

This just in from Reuters:

A Minnesota judge Thursday refused to let U.S. Senator Larry Craig take back the guilty plea he made after a sex sting arrest, making it likely the Idaho Republican will resign his Senate seat as planned.

Update: Sen. Craig vows to complete his term and not step down.

Dobson’s NYT Op-Ed: We’re Not Splintered. Honest.

Focus On the Family’s James Dobson wrote an op-ed in today’s New York Times in which he discusses some of the outcomes of the uber-secret Council on National Policy meeting that took place in Salt Lake City last Saturday. While saying that the conferees aggreed that “If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate,” support for forming a third party was mixed.

While media reports suggest that the religious right is fractured over who to support for president, Dobson contends “if the major political parties decide to abandon conservative principles, the cohesion of pro-family advocates will be all too apparent in 2008.”

But if that’s true, it may be another example of trying to win a battle while loosing a war. If the religious right really wants to build a coalition for the ages, they need to figure out how to address the plummeting drop in the esteem for Christianity among the next generation.

One area they might want to address is the uber-secret conferences (whose name and membership must not be mentioned) which lend support to the notion of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” — and one that includes Paul Cameron as one of their members.

Evangelical Christianity’s Image Problem

According to David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Christianity is facing a severe image problem. And the problem is best exemplified by Evangelical Christianity’s stance toward gays and lesbians.

Kinnaman and Lyons’ new book UnChristian explores how attitudes toward Christianity have changed over the past decade. Kinnaman’s organization, the Barna Group, conducted a poll in 1996 which found that 83% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, and that fewer than 20% of non-Christians held an unfavorable view of Christianity.

Since then, the Barna Group conducted two more polls, in 2004 and 2007, of young people between the ages of 16 and 29, and found a decidedly negative impression  emerging in the next generation:

Nine out of ten outsiders found Christians too “anti-homosexual,” and nearly as many perceived it as “hypocritical” and “judgmental.” Seventy-five percent found it “too involved in politics.”

…

Churchgoers of the same age share several of the non-Christians’ complaints about Christianity. For instance, 80% of the Christians polled picked “anti-homosexual” as a negative adjective describing Christianity today. And the view of 85% of non-Christians aged 16-29 that present day Christianity is “hypocritical — saying one thing doing another,” was, in fact, shared by 52% of Christians of the same age. Fifty percent found their own faith “too involved in politics.”

Kinnaman spoke about Christianity’s relationship with the gay community in an interview with Time magazine:

A majority of Americans continue to believe that homosexuality is inappropriate. And the Christian biblical perspective is that it is not consistent with Christian discipleship. But non-Christians regarded it as our biggest negative, and most of the Christians we sampled agreed. Many Christians say, “That’s not something we’re willing to negotiate on.” And, certainly, this is based in historical Christian convictions and scripture. But they need to guard against not wanting to grapple with the complexity of homosexuality, against trying to give very simple answers to very complex stories, and against feeling they can solve some of these deep issues without personal friendships with gay men and women. … The two sides ought to have some respect for each other — and the responsibility should be on Christians to lead by example instead of just shouting at others through the ballot box or talk shows.

More conferences like the Family Impact Summit, where leading participants talk about the “evil agenda,” will only reinforce such impressions. By the way, that Summit’s poor attendance provides some more evidence for the problems that far-right politically active Evangelicals face.  Focus On the Family is facing cutbacks, and many are speaking openly of abandoning the GOP, now that the GOP’s current front-runner for the presidential race, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is not deemed sufficiently socially conservative. With moves like that, the Evangelical right’s descendancy is likely to continue.

Hat tip: Jonathan

Trans HRC Board Member Resigns

I’ll be honest, I’m unsure about the feasibility of passing an inclusive ENDA. The purpose of this post is not to discuss that. The purpose of this post is to highlight how specifically HRC has betrayed a commitment made less than a month ago by president Joe Solmonese to the trans community.

“We absolutely do not support and in fact oppose any legislation that is not absolutely inclusive.”

Which of course we have video of: (hat tip Mike Rogers for pointing this to me in a discussion last night)

Here’s some of former HRC board member Donna Rose’s resignation statement:

In 2004 the HRC Board voted to support only fully-inclusive Federal legislation. That decision paved the way to my participation with the organization, and was a significant step in the healing process. [snip] Less than a month ago HRC President Joe Solmonese stood before almost 900 transgender people at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta to pledge ongoing support and solidarity. In his keynote address he indicated that not only would HRC support only a fully inclusive ENDA, but that it would actively oppose anything less. That single pledge changed hearts and minds that day, and the ripple affect throughout the transgender community was that we finally were one single GLBT community working together. Sadly, recent events indicate that those promises were hollow.

[snip]

I hereby submit my resignation from my post on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign effective Monday Oct. 8, 2007. I call on other like-minded board members, steering committee leaders, donors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers to think long and hard about whether this organization still stands for your values and to take decisive action as well. More than simply a question of organization policy, this is a test of principle and integrity and although it pains me greatly to see what has happened it is clear to me that there can only be one path. Character is not for compromise. I cannot align myself with an organization that I can’t trust to stand-up for all of us. More than that, I cannot give half-hearted support to an organization that has now chosen to forsake the tenets that have guided my efforts from day one.

Via Pam’s House Blend

All Or Nothing ENDA – Consider For A Moment

The debate among gay activists on ENDA has on occasion come somewhat unhinged with things said like “no ENDA is better than an ENDA that excludes trans protections” while one blog went so far as to accuse dissenters of “abandoning” our trans allies.

One could argue, were transgenders “abandoned” in California, Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Washington DC which all passed sexual orientation protections before gender identity?

Information and adapted graphic from the Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

See also:

Trans HRC Board Member Resigns

God’s Judgment?

Most credible religious figures have disavowed the notion that AIDS is God’s judgment against gay men. But from a television preview column out of London comes a tidbit of information of which I was unaware:

Stephen Fry: HIV and Me BBC Two, 9pm

This invaluable programme sheds light on the ignorance and prejudice that continues to surround HIV. There are now three times as many people with the virus in Britain as there were ten years ago, and heterosexual sex has overtaken homosexual sex as the most common route of transmission.

I am assuming that this is discussing HIV transmissions in the UK. We’ve long known that global HIV transmissions are predominantly via heterosexual sex.

Nonetheless, here in the States we continue to see HIV and AIDS used as an excuse to oppose equality, freedom, or even support for gay youth. While I certainly don’t hope for more HIV transmissions for anyone, heterosexuals included, I do hope for the day when a cure is found for all of those who suffer from this insidious virus be they gay, straight, American, British, or African.

Entrepreneur.com Predicts Gay Bars Face Extinction In 10 Years

Entrepreneur.com recently listed “gay bars” as one of ten business types facing extinction in ten years citing (but failing to link to) a recent Orlando Sentinel article.

Although gay bars no longer serve the same purpose as in decades past I highly doubt they’re going away anytime soon. Frankly it’s human nature to want to socialize with people we share things in common with. Although I enjoy going to gay-friendly and mixed venues I don’t believe anything can take the place of a bar where I don’t have to look at someone and wonder if they’re gay or not. In the next ten years I believe many more places will become gay-friendly or mixed and more straight people will continue to visit traditionally gay bars but I find it absurd to suggest gay bars are going extinct.

Hat tip Faggoty Ass Faggot (gotta love that name)

Family Impact Summit “Attendance Less Than Hoped”

The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow reports on the dismal turnout for last weekend’s “Family Impact Summit” held in Brandon, Florida. The final tally was only about half of what they had hoped to achieve:

By Friday evening, just over 100 people had registered to hear speakers that included Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and the American Family Association’s Don Wildmon.

A workshop on grass roots activism drew a handful of people — and one was a spy, an activist for Americans United for Separation of Church and State researching the opposition.

Well, there was more than just that one “spy” there. There was also Cathy James, whose calm and measured demeanor brought low the mighty during a question and answer session. And of course, there was yours truly.

But I can vouch for the low turnout, especially during the morning and afternoon sessions. It often felt as if there were more volunteers, exhibitors and speakers milling around than actual attendees. Only during the evening hours would the audience swell to three hundred or so. On the last night of the event, the turnought might have approached four hundred to hear the much-anticipated stars of the event, Ken Blackwell and Tony Perkins. By the way, the evening events were generally free of charge to the public.

I often overheard a few speakers and volunteers grumble about the attendance during breaks and over dinner. The disappointments weren’t limited to this event either. A few complained about how difficult it was to get a decent turnout at even larger, better funded and more heavily advertised events as well.

Is this a harbinger for things to come?

What’s Best for the Children

Anti-gays often justify bigotry with the claim, “I want what’s best for the Children”. This is generally played as some trump card intended to show that they are moral and superior and concerned about the interests of those who are weak and vulnerable and that gay people are selfish and hedonistic. This supercilious remark is trotted out for all sorts of nastiness from opposing family protections, banning adoptions, and censoring literature.

Naturally, much of the results of such bigotry serves to do just the opposite. It often causes hardships in the lives of real living breathing children – about whom anti-gay demonstrate little care.

One such instance is reported in the Utah Daily Herald. Utah has a law that requires those who adopt or are foster parents to either be married or to live alone. Oh, and gay couples cannot marry. It’s for the children, you know.

[Michael Valez and Michael Oberg] were surprised three weeks ago when the children’s birth mother [Valdez’ niece] asked them to take care of her children while she dealt with drug-related criminal matters. It was no small task, but they wanted to help, said Oberg. The kids are aged 11, 6 and 2 years, and 10 months. The children’s fathers aren’t able to take them, at least not now.

So the kids went to stay with their uncles and a cousin where they were known and loved and, though it was difficult, they could be together. But the state wants to take the children away from their uncle and put them in the foster system where they will most likely be broken up. At present a judge is allowing Valdez to retain custody of the kids, but it is against the wishes of the DCSF lawyer.

And those who support Utah’s anti-gay law that seeks to take these young children away from family members, break them up, and give them to strangers no doubt justify their callousness as being Best For The Children.

Living Waters Ex-Gay Ministry In Montreal

Peterson Toscano has learned that the Living Waters ex-gay ministry will be giving a twenty-five week “healing program” at a conservative Anglican church in Montreal, Canada. Headed by Andrew Comiskey, a former president of Exodus International, Living Waters has been expanding aggressively, with a presence in Canada and Europe. Former ex-gay leader Vonnie Pits issued an apology for her role in a Living Waters-based program she set up in New South Wales, Australia.  Peterson observes:

Often Living Waters uses extreme methods that involve forms of exorcism (deliverance/healing prayer) and rely on teachings that believe that people become gay through demonic influences and the sins of ancestors. This is a simple explanation of what they believe, but you get the idea. This is a group that is far far off the radar and not based in science or reality. They also charge for their services.

Read the stories of Christine, Eric, Euguene and Tom (a former Living Waters leader) to find out a little about their times at Living Waters programs.