Russia Rejects LGBT Rights In G8 Statement 

Pink News UK reports:

Russia has formally distanced itself from endorsing LGBT rights, even going so far as refusing to recognise such rights, in a joint statement released by G8 foreign ministers.
The statement, which affirmed the fundamental rights to which people were entitled everywhere,  came after a meeting of the ministers in Washington on Thursday.
The chair of the meeting said in the statement: “The ministers reaffirmed that human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birthright of all individuals, male and female, including lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals. These individuals often face death, violence, harassment and discrimination because of their sexual orientation in many countries around the world.”
However, the statement had a footnote: “the Russian Federation disassociates itself from this language given the absence of any explicit definition or provision relating to such a group or such persons as separate rights holders under international human rights law.”
This morning, Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, went further. He said that “under the pretext of protecting the so-called sexual minorities, in effect there’s aggressive propaganda and the imposition of certain behavior and values that may insult the majority of the society.” According to him, there are no separate norms for the protection of people according to their sexual orientation or gender identity in international law.
Earlier this year, St Petersburg passed a law which would ban “homosexual propaganda” directed at minors. Two have already been prosecuted for displaying the sign “gay is normal” near a youth club. Other Russian regions have followed suit, and there have been calls for the law to be replicated at a national level.
The Wall Street Journal has noted that according to a recent poll by the Levada Center, almost three in four Russian consider homosexuality “an amoral mental deviation,” with less than half believing that gay people deserve the same rights as heterosexuals.

TENNESSEE: senate Passes Bill That Allows Schools To Teach Creationism

With the misleading wording of the bill of “protecting the right to an open discussion”, schools are now allowed to oppose evolution and climate change. I just can’t help but wonder about the future of the education system in America. All I know is that it ain’t pretty.

NBC’s WBIR reports:

Senators voted 24-8 to pass a bill that says schoolteachers cannot be punished for “helping students to understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories” taught in public schools. The measure has drawn strong opposition from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Center for Science Education and the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it is cover for teachers who want to teach creationism or intelligent design. Supporters said the measure would give teachers more guidance to answer students’ questions about science topics. “The idea behind this bill is that students should be encouraged to challenge current scientific thought and theory,” said state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson.

BREAKING: Out & Proud US Congressman Barney Frank To Retire

RELATED: GOProud’s “Moron Of The Week” Inductee Chris Barron reacts (via Joe.My.God.) :

You may recall that GOProud supported Frank’s 2010 opponent Sean Bielat, who opposed the repeal of DADT, opposed ENDA, and opposed just about every other aspect of civil equality for “average gay people.” GOProud also paid for homophobic ads that characterized Barney Frank as “catty” and compared him to one of the Real Housewives.

Iran Bans Grabby Soccer Players

BBC News reports:

The Iranian football federation has given indefinite suspensions to two players for “immoral acts” during goal-scoring celebrations, state TV says.

Footage posted online shows Persepolis defender Mohammed Nosrati squeezing teammate Sheis Rezaei’s bottom.
Another video seems to show Rezaei squeezing a teammate later in the 3-2 Persepolis victory over Damash Gilan.
The game was broadcast live to millions. Nosrati and Rezaei have said they did not intend to offend anyone.
The two “have been banned indefinitely from all football activities for committing immoral acts”, AFP news agency quoted Ismail Hasanzadeh, the head of the Iranian football federation’s disciplinary committee, as saying.
AFP said the two players have also been suspended by Persepolis and fined nearly $40,000 (£25,000) each.
The Islamic republic’s football federation has been trying for years to curb what it considers immoral behaviour on the field and foul language among players and spectators.

Inconclusive Results Of “Ex-Gay Study” Cause Dispute

The Advocate reports:

Many are disputing the results of a study conducted by two psychologists affiliated with religious universities who claim that people can change their sexual orientation after six or more years of reparative therapy.

Mark Yarhouse of Regent University and Stanton Jones at Wheaton College published a study in theJournal of Sex and Marital Therapy, documenting the progress of 98 people who sought to change their sexual orientation at Exodus Ministries, CNN reports. Before the end of the study, 35 people dropped out of the program, citing that they felt cured of all “homosexual inclinations.” At the end of the study, 23% of the remaining people said they were heterosexual, and 30% decided to turn to chastity. The study’s authors found those figures to be evidence that the study contradicts “the commonly expressed view that sexual orientation is not changeable.”

Though the American Psychological Association has condemned such therapies since 2005, other notable psychologists are weighing in on the new study. 

Eli Coleman of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s human sexuality program told CNN that any change from ex-gay therapy is superficial. 

“You can get behavioral changes, but that’s not orientation change,” he said.

Jack Drescher of New York Medical College said the study could be confusing sexual orientation, which refers to the types of people a person finds attractive, with sexual identity, which refers to a person’s feelings and expression on his or her orientation.

That’s just brain-washing. And of course those people are gonna say it does work, they are related to religious groups that want them to say so! The only thing they can accomplish with that is to make people hate themselves and push them into committing suicide. What kind of credibility can they possibly have if the only thing they’ve got is their bigoted faith and blood in their hands?

The View: Hot Topics - “Is My Son Gay?” App

AIDS-Denying Foo Fighters Counter-Protest Phelps’ Cult

Towleroad reports:

When the Westboro clan showed up to picket a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, lo, the Foo Fighters themselves pulled up in the back of a truck and gave them a performance of “Keep It Clean,” which includes the lyric: 
I’ve got a hankering for something, think I’m in the mood for some hot man-muffins.
Nice gesture, yes. But let’s not forget that the Foo Fighters have vigorously promoted AIDS denialism. Mother Jones reported in 2000: 

• The multimillion-album-selling alternative rock outfit has thrown its weight behind Alive and Well, an “alternative AIDS information group” that denies any link between HIV and AIDS. In January, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel helped organize a sold-out concert in Hollywood to benefit the group.

 
How many infected people at that Hollywood concert forwent meds? How many ended up dead? It throws the counter-protest into a new relief, doesn’t it? On the one side, the church that insists almost everyone on Earth will burn in hell because of the gays. On the other, an alt-rock band that propagandizes for a lethal superstition - that AIDS is akin to the common cold. Clowns to the left, jokers to the right. 

Yes, Dave Grohl supports Marriage Equality, but if indeed the whole band is behind this shit, besides their music, there’s yet another reason why I dislike them.

Moron Of The Week: Randy Thomasson 

For thinking, as many christians do, that all we gays want is to indoctrinate children into our super-gay lifestyle.

Creation Ministries International: Question Evolution!

I wonder what would happen if they all start questioning their faith? Would this kind of bullshit get to an end?

Muscular Christianity - Christianity With A Nazi Touch

And here’s why.

American Family Association Calls For Recriminalization Of Homosexuality

Right Wing Watch reports:

On his radio show Focal Point yesterday, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer called on all fifty states to criminalize homosexuality. In 2003, the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas overturned anti-sodomy laws in the fourteen states that had them on the books and reversed the Supreme Court’s prior decision Bowers v. Hardwick. Fischer’s opinion should come as no surprise as the AFA filed an amicus brief in support of Texas’s anti-sodomy law and condemned the court’s decision, calling the decision tantamount to “tyranny.” Fischer said that since for most of American history “homosexual activity was a felony offense,” there is “no reason why it cannot be a criminal offense once again.”

• Fischer: Both of the cases that went to the United States Supreme Court that dealt with the issue of whether states should criminalize sodomy, and of course they still ought to be able to do it, every state in the union criminalized sodomy until 1962 and then forty nine states until 1972, then they began to fall like dominoes. But by the time of the founding until the late 20th Century, homosexual activity was a felony offense in the United States of America, there is no reason why it cannot be a criminal offense once again, absolutely none.

Catholic Group: Galileo Was Wrong

Joe.My.God. reports:

A bizarre sect of wingnut Catholics is back in the news for their long-running claim that Galileo was wrong about heliocentrism. Because it says so in the Bible. And according to the Chicago Tribune, the group’s membership is growing.

Those promoting geocentrism argue that heliocentrism, or the centuries-old consensus among scientists that Earth revolves around the sun, is a conspiracy to squelch the church’s influence. “Heliocentrism becomes dangerous if it is being propped up as the true system when, in fact, it is a false system,” said Robert Sungenis, leader of a budding movement to get scientists to reconsider. “False information leads to false ideas, and false ideas lead to illicit and immoral actions — thus the state of the world today.… Prior to Galileo, the church was in full command of the world, and governments and academia were subservient to her.” There is proof in Scripture that Earth is the center of the universe, Sungenis said. Among many verses, he cites Joshua 10:12-14 as definitive proof: “And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its foe.… The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course.”

Even the Vatican has ridiculed the group. A spokesman for the Creation Museum, however, hedged his bets, saying the Bible says nothing either way. 

Picture Caption: A Geocentric model. That, if you believe the Earth is rounded, of course.

Well, they are right by saying that the Church once had complete control over the [known] world. It was called the “Dark Ages”!

Focus On The Family: If Prop 8 Trial Is Aired, Christians Might Be Murdered By Homosexuals

Joe.My.God. reports:

Next week a judge will decide whether recordings of last year’s Prop 8 trial may be broadcast. According to Focus On The Family, that will put Christians “once again” in danger of being murdered by radical homosexuals.

Many pastors and other Prop. 8 supporters found themselves targeted by radical homosexuals during the campaign and afterward, prompting many to hire personal security guards in the wake of credible death threats. “Just because the trial’s over doesn’t mean that threat isn’t still there,” said CitizenLink Judicial Issues Analyst Bruce Hausknecht. “Judge Walker himself promised the parties to the lawsuit that only he, Walker, would ever look at the video, and only during his deliberations. That’s obviously being violated just by the request. “Why is this judge even considering this request, given that both the trial judge and the Supreme Court have already spoken?”

By “credible death threats,” they mean anonymous comments left on the internet. (Unlike the Christianists who proudly use their full legal name when threatening to murder gays and atheists.) And I don’t recall hearing about anybody hiring “personal security guards.” 

Those fuckers shouldn’t mess with us. The “Gay Mafia” is worse than the Italian Mafia & Mexican Cartels combined. 

Rabbi Yahuda Levine: Gay Marriage Caused The Earthquake

You knew it. I knew it. Some religious batshit was about to come little after the earthquake hit the US East Coast (which by the way, wasn’t even a big deal. It was an 6.0 of magnitude! Sorry if I don’t care much about the National Cathedral).

So, as always, bigoted assholes end up blaming the gays. Who wouldn’t? 

More Lies From Matt Barber & The AFA

Joe.My.God. reports:

The above headline from the American Family Association is a completely outrageous lie currently being spread all over the Christianist blogosphere by Liberty Counsel liar-in-chief Matt Barber. Barber recently attended a conference on pedophilia which was organized by a tiny bizarre sect of weirdos called B4U-ACT. 

And since those freak show conference attendees mentionedthe APA guidelines on mental illness (according to Barber and the AFA), that means the APA is totally thinking about removing pedophilia from the list. Just like they were forced to do with homosexuality. In reality, of course, no such action is planned or will ever fucking happen in ten million years. 

Matt Barber, the American Family Association and their vile ilk scarcely even pretend to be telling the truth these days. They know very well that their audience is uninterested in anything that doesn’t viciously vilify and demonize gay people. 

How come bigots like them can say such horrible lies and get away with it? And when is gonna be the end of this disgusting comparisons between a sexual orientation (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual), sexual identity (transgender) and real perversions (pederasty)?