Via The Daily Beast: National Hockey League player Ivan Provorov opted to forego part of the Philadelphia Flyers’ annual Pride Night on Tuesday, skipping warmups over a disagreement on rainbow attire, as well as rainbow-colored sticks and pucks to be auctioned at the end of the night. Provorov claimed a religious exemption, citing being Russian Orthodox. He went on to help his team notch a 5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks, wearing his usual uniform rather than a jersey with a rainbow number on the sleeve. “I respect everybody. I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov told reporters.
This is the same Russian Orthodox Church that supports Invading a sovereign country killing innocent children and destroying countless lives.
The Philidelphia Flyer’s should have taken a stand and benched or fined him. #ThatIsAll
In the early 1950’s, the entire country was in the grips of the Red Scare as Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy was conducting his witch hunts. One of his main platforms would be the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees. While McCarthy’s main targets were imaginary Communists in the State Department, gay employees were also seen as “subversives” in need of rooting out.
Both homosexuals and Communist Party members were seen as subversive elements in American society who all shared the same ideals of antitheism, rejection of the middle-class morality, and lack of conformity. In the eyes of the Government they were seen as scheming and manipulative and, most importantly, would put their own agendas above others in the eyes of the general population. McCarthy also associated homosexuality and communism as “threats to the ‘American way of life’.” Homosexuality was directly linked to security concerns, and more government employees were dismissed because of their homosexual sexual orientation than because they were left-leaning or communist. George Chauncey noted that, “The specter of the invisible homosexual, like that of the invisible communist, haunted Cold War America,” and homosexuality (and by implication homosexuals themselves) were constantly referred to not only as a disease, but also as an invasion, like the perceived danger of communism and subversives
Among the more high-profile targets was Samuel Reber, a twenty-seven year career diplomat who announced his retirement in May of 1953 after McCarthy charged that he was a security risk — which was a barely-concealed code for homosexual. By then, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had already responded to McCarthy’s witch hunt by signing an executive order mandated the firing of all federal employees who were deemed guilty of “sexual perversion,” whether proven or not. Eisenhower also announced a re-organization of the State Department. Rep. Charles B Brownson, an Indiana Republican with his own lesser-known witch hunt underway in the House Government Operations Committee, asked the State Department for a progress report in rooting out homosexuals.
Two years before the Stonewall Riots on March 7th, 1967, CBS Reports presented an hour-long broadcast “documentary” about homosexuality hosted by Mike Wallace called “The Homosexuals”
Taking three years to make, principal filming took place starting in the fall of 1964 and continued through early 1965. Gay men were interviewed in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Charlotte and New York City. The identities of several of the men were obscured, either in shadow or, in one instance, behind a large potted palm tree.
Also interviewed were psychiatrist Charles Socarides, who strongly advocated the position that homosexuality is a mental disorder, and fellow psychiatrist Irving Bieber, who shared Socarides’ opinion of homosexuality as pathology. Interspersed with these interview segments was footage cinema verité style, of the inside of a gay bar along with shots of hustlers working a street corner and of all things a gay teenager being arrested in a public sex sting..
Charles Socarides, said when he was he interviewed ‘There is no such thing as a happy homosexual’; ‘these homosexuals are by nature unable to form steady relationships, rather their prerogative is a series of one-night-stands and hookups’. Socarides was one of many professional homophobic bigot psychiatrists of the day who earned virtually their entire living by promoting homophobia. (In a sublime irony of history, Socarides’s son, Richard Socarides, is openly gay; he served as a public policy advisor in the Clinton White House.)
And almost all of Mike Wallace’s commentary echoed Socarides disparaging views of homosexuals.
The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one–chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city — the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship.
For his part, Wallace came to regret his participation in “The Homosexuals”. “I should have known better,” he said in 1992. Speaking in 1996, Wallace stated, “That is — God help us — what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that’s what we heard from doctors — that’s what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame.”
LGBT activist Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out labels the broadcast “the single most destructive hour of anti-gay propaganda in our nation’s history. ” and that “The Homosexuals’ not only had a devastating effect on public opinion at the time but also was a nuclear bomb dropped on the psyches of gay and lesbian Americans, who, prior to this show, had never been represented as a group on national television.”
The anti-gay arguments made in “The Homosexuals” in 1967 are still used today by right-wing extremist and “Christians” who seek to harm and destroy the LGBT Community today.
“The Homosexuals” is a must watch for anyone interested in LGBT history and how the past still affects the present and our equality to this very day.
A Utah teacher was removed from class after going on a homophobic rant about a fifth-grade students’ gay dads.
An 11-year-old boy who was in the foster care system reportedly said that he was thankful that he was “finally going to be adopted by my two dads.”
The teacher to fire back at the student that “that’s nothing to be thankful for,” and then went on a 10-minute rant about her own views, telling the class that “homosexuality is wrong” and “two men living together is a sin.”
The teacher, a substitute at Deerfield Elementary School — who wasn’t identified — was ultimately escorted out of the building after three girls in the boys class stood up for the boy and repeatedly asked her stop and when she didn’t they went to the principal’s office and complained.
“She also tried to blame our son,” said one of the boy’s dads, Louis van Amstel, who is a dancer on the television program Dancing With The Stars, “and told him that it was his fault that she went off.”
Alpine School District spokesman David Stephenson said he cannot speak about personnel issues but noted that “appropriate action has been taken.”
The leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka The Mormons) released a statement Monday morning opposing the Equality Act which would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect LGBT Americans over concerns regarding their “religious liberty”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply concerned that the ongoing conflicts between religious liberty and LGBT rights is poisoning our civil discourse, eroding the free exercise of religion and preventing diverse Americans of good will from living together in respect and peace. Lawmakers across the nation, including members of Congress, are working to enact or strengthen laws that ensure LGBT persons fair access to important rights, such as nondiscrimination in areas like housing, employment and appropriate public accommodations. The Church is on record favoring reasonable measures that secure such rights.
At the same time, we urgently need laws that protect the rights of individuals and faith communities to freely gather, speak out publicly, serve faithfully and live openly according to their religious beliefs without discrimination or retaliation, even when those beliefs may be unpopular. This includes the right of religious organizations and religious schools to establish faith-based employment and admissions standards and to preserve the religious nature of their activities and properties.
This does not represent a change or shift in Church doctrine regarding marriage or chastity. It does represent a desire to bring people together, to protect the rights of all, and to encourage mutually respectful dialogue and outcomes in this highly polarized national debate.
Conflicts between rights are common and nothing new. When conflicts arise between religious freedom and LGBT rights, the Church advocates a balanced “fairness for all” approach that protects the most important rights for everyone while seeking reasonable, respectful compromises in areas of conflict. The Church affirms this as the best way to overcome sharp divisions over these issues. The Church supported the 2015 “fairness for all” legislation in the Utah Legislature that successfully protected both religious freedom and LGBT rights in employment and housing and that has helped facilitate greater understanding and respect.
The Equality Act now before Congress is not balanced and does not meet the standard of fairness for all. While providing extremely broad protections for LGBT rights, the Equality Act provides no protections for religious freedom. It would instead repeal long-standing religious rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, threaten religious employment standards, devastate religious education, defund numerous religious charities and impose secular standards on religious activities and properties. The Church joins other religious organizations that also strongly oppose the Equality Act as unbalanced, fundamentally unfair and a path to further conflict.
The Church calls upon members of Congress to pass legislation that vigorously protects religious freedom while also protecting basic civil rights for LGBT persons. It is time for wise policymakers to end this destructive conflict and protect the rights of all Americans.
What the LDS Church fails to or “forgets” to mention is that religious discrimination is already protected under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion (or lack of religious belief) in hiring, firing, or any other terms and conditions of employment. The law also prohibits job segregation based on religion, such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or feared customer preference. But they have no problem by wanting religious organizations and religious schools to discriminate by establishing faith-based employment and admissions standards.
Pence, who has been facing criticisms of his own religious views recently, warned graduates that they have to stay strong against the challenges they’ll get from Hollywood, the media and the secular left. “Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” Pence said. “Be ready.”
“Throughout most of American history, it’s been pretty easy to call yourself Christian,” Pence said. “It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.”
Pence referenced the Biblical figures of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is warning graduates that they are going “to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture.”
They are not ridiculed for being christian, they are being ridiculed and called out for for using their religion as a shield for their bigotry.
I’d bake the poor extremist snowflakes a cake, but they’re christian, so…
Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins:
In recent years, efforts by LGBT activists to insert “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (“SOGI”) as specially protected categories in the law have continued at the state and local levels, but they have not made much progress in Congress.
With Democrats taking over the House in 2019, that may change. We can expect a renewed push for the sweeping and extreme bill called the “Equality Act.” Some members of Congress may even respond by proposing an ill-conceived compromise, dubbed “Fairness for All,” that combines a SOGI law with limited religious liberty protections.
In anticipation of these debates, FRC has already produced a new publication with a concise explanation of Why “Sexual Orientation” and “Gender Identity” Should Never Be Specially Protected Categories Under the Law.
For example, the paper distinguishes constitutional rights — which belong to every citizen equally — from the special protections granted by “non-discrimination laws.” Such laws always increase government interference in the free market, and SOGI laws do so for the sake of characteristics completely unlike those found in Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Because they involve a large element of chosen behavior, “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” differ from traits that are clearly inborn, involuntary, and immutable, such as “race, color,” and “sex.” And unlike “religion,” they have no foundation in the text of the Constitution.
Hit the HATE LINK below to see the disgusting paper written by Family Research Council’s Peter Sprig that claims that federal non-discrimination laws: ” could mandate the employment of persons who identify as homosexual or transgender in inappropriate occupations ” and other crazy hateful statements written with tax free money because the FRC is a 501{c} tax exempt organization
A Jacksonville man Randal Coffman had a rude surprise this Christmas when he found out that his landlady Jackie Cooper was kicking him out of the apartment he rented from her because he is gay.
Coffman had only moved into the apartment on December 1st. Two weeks after that, Cooper told Coffman he wasn’t allowed to have girls over late at night. Coffman responded that this wouldn’t be a problem as he’s gay.
“After that, the harassment for being gay started,” says Coffman.
“My friends have only come maybe 3 times,” said Coffman. “I actually made a guest list of who would come and visit me. I put my mom and dad and actually printed out pictures of everyone’s cars and put them next to their name.
Cooper later came back to Coffman and insisted that he move out. Once he’d heard that, Coffman picked up his phone and started to record the argument.
While Jacksonville, Florida, does have a Human Rights Ordinance that protects tenants from being evicted due to their sexual orientation it does not extend into Clay County where Coffman’s apartment was located.
There is however hope for Randal Coffman to get some restitution for Cooper’s bigotry. There is a law stating that homeowners can only deny housing to renters working under a month to month agreement, like Coffman, if the landlord gives 15 days notice before the removal date. Cooper notified Coffman short of the 15-day rule.
It must be noted that Randal Coffman’s problem like many others who face bigotry and hate of this kind would never have happened if LGBT protections would finally be added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A fight for inclusion that has been going on since 1974
Stuart Dinenno a landscaper and owner of Botanica Atlanta Landscape Design in Atlanta, Georgia, refused service to a gay couple because according to him their marriage is “perverse and foolish” and a “delusion.”
The homophobic bigot Dinenno actually had the nerve to reply to to the review on YELP saying: “Yes, this is an accurate description of what happened. When doing a large landscaping project it is necessary to work with the homeowners closely over several months through the design and installation phases. I can’t do that, all the while going along with the delusion of two men calling themselves a married couple, with one man referring to the other man as his husband. It’s very perverse and foolish, and needs to be called out as such.”
Georgia has some of the weakest civil rights protections for our citizens in the nation. Georgia has no law that prevents private employers from discriminating on the basis of an employee’s race; no law that prevents local businesses from refusing service to patrons because of their religion; and no law preventing landowners from refusing to rent or sell to our citizens based on their sexual orientation or gender identity
David Cooley founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay hotspot, The Abbey. was flying from New York to Los Angeles with his boyfriend yesterday when his partner was instructed that he had to move from his Premium seat to coach to make room for a straight couple that wanted to sit together.. It was either that or leave the plane.
Said Cooley:
I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. I was removed from an Alaska Airlines flight # 1407 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to LAX to give preferential treatment to a straight couple.
After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together ‘I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together. He was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane.
We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave.
We will never be flying Alaska Airlines or their recently purchased Virgin Airlines Group ever again. Thank you to Delta Air Lines for getting us home safe. If you are an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an LGBT friendly airline like Delta.’
Alaska Airlines confirms the event took place and is investigating what happened and released the following statement:
When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium Class in the Main Cabin.
We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.’
Alaska Airlines did not say what if any restitution would be made.
