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Category Archives: SSM

Freedom of Religion is NOT Freedom to Discriminate

30 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by Liz in Christian, GLBT, justice, LGBT, LGBTQ, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Scripture, SSM, Synchroblog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christian, discrimination, Freedom, religion, Same Sex Marriage, scripture

The August 2018 synchroblog topic invited bloggers to write about something that Christians do not necessarily always agree on. I decided to write about religious freedom laws and same sex marriage.

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50+ years ago religious freedom arguments that are being made today to discriminate against LGBT people were being used to justify the discrimination of people of color and interracial relationships.

At that time scripture was misused to support the exclusion and oppression of people of color and interracial couples. Today, once again, people are misusing scripture in a similar way to justify the exclusion and oppression of LGBT people and same sex couples.

Most Christians have never taken the time to study what scripture says about same sex relationships for themselves. Most Christians read scripture with preconceived ideas that have been formed by believing what they have been told by someone else.

If anyone is willing to set their preconceived ideas aside and take the time to study original language while also taking historical context into consideration they will be able to comprehend that there is nothing in scripture that clearly condemns a loving, healthy same sex relationship. NOTHING!

I know!, because as a parent of a gay son I was diligent in my effort to find out FOR SURE what scripture did and didn’t say about same sex relationships. I loved my son enough to go to the trouble. Do you love anyone enough to go to the trouble? If you do, I would be glad to help you.

In fact, there is more evidence in scripture to support slavery than there is to support the condemnation of all same sex relationships.

Scripture also doesn’t put forth the idea that marriage is to be only between one man and one woman or that it has anything to do with people falling in love. Those who claim that scripture dictates that marriage should only be between one man and one woman are making scripture say more than it actually says.

Scripture proves one thing about marriage … that marriage has been changing since the beginning of time. As society progresses, learns and improves, our institutions change.

Traditionally marriage was not between one man and one woman. The idea of marriage as a sexually exclusive, romantic union between one man and one woman is a relatively recent development. In the ancient world, marriage served primarily as a means of preserving power, with kings and other members of the ruling class marrying off their daughters to forge alliances, acquire land, and produce legitimate heirs. The purpose of marriage was primarily the production of heirs. Often times peasants wouldn’t even bother with marriage since they had no property or position to worry about.

The church didn’t even get involved in marriage until the 5th century. It wasn’t declared a sacred sacrament until the 12th century. And it wasn’t until the 16th century that weddings were performed publicly by a priest and with witnesses. A license to be married wasn’t commonplace until the 17th century which was around the time when romance began to have some involvement. As the middle class formed in the 19th century only then did young men begin to select their own spouses and start marrying without the consent of their parents. The idea of women having rights and not being a subordinate to their husband didn’t become common until the 20th century. It was 1965 before the Supreme Court ruled that a wife could be raped by her husband. Until then husbands who forced themselves on their wives were not guilty of rape, since they were legally entitled to sexual access.

The institution of marriage has always been in a constant state of evolution.

“Marriage, like transportation, has always been a part of human existence. But riding a donkey is very different from flying in a jet, and modern marriage has only superficial similarity to what went before. Just as we embrace each new mode of travel that enhances human welfare, no one should mind adapting marriage to the needs of modern people.” – Steve Chapman

Extending matrimony to same-sex couples advances the same interests cited in support of heterosexual marriage. Legalizing same sex marriages encourages stable commitments that offer a framework for procreation and upholds the interest of children in a legally protected family.

The evidence before us is that same sex marriage offers the same benefits to individuals and society that opposite sex marriage does.

And finally, there is nothing in scripture that would support the idea that Christians should not sell their services or products to someone who is, in their eyes, sinning. In fact, that would go against the very tenets of Christianity.

Any use of Christianity to justify discrimination is evidence of a misunderstanding about who Jesus was and what his good news was meant to convey to and about humanity.Discrimination and exclusion were not values of Jesus and are in conflict with the precepts of the Christian faith.

Oh – and one last point – the First Amendment does not guarantee us the right to discriminate based on our religion, it instead guarantees us the right not to be discriminated against based on our religious beliefs. Many Christians who have been led by their Christian faith to become affirming of same sex relationships are finding themselves to be “discriminated against” based on their religious beliefs and that is certainly unconstitutional.


Be sure and check out the other contributions for this month’s synchroblog:

What God May Really Be Like – Why Can’t Even God-Followers Get Along?

Wesley Rostoll – Why did God accept Abel’s offering and not Cain’s?

Jeremy Myers – Three Views on Hell (and a fourth view I hold)

Liz Dyer – Religious Freedom is NOT Freedom to Discriminate

Jordan Hathcock – Let’s Get Dirty

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Fighting For Freedom & Equality

23 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Liz in Affirming, Ally, Children, Christian, Equality, GLBT, Inclusion, It Gets Better, LGBT, LGBTQ, Parent, Same Sex Marriage, sexual orientation, SSM, Transgender, Youth

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Equality, Freedom, Heroes, LGBT, LGBTQ, Synchroblog

This post is part of the July Synchroblog: Freedom.

Bloggers were invited to write about whatever came to mind when they thought about Freedom.

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As someone who is passionate about making the world a kinder, safer, more loving place for LGBTQ+ people the subject of Freedom immediately had me thinking about people past and present in the fight for the LGBTQ+ freedom.

Every movement has its heroes, and the push for equality and freedom for the LGBTQ+ community is no exception.

There are too many to list all of them so I’ve picked 12 to share with you today.

1) Edie Windsor

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In her ninth decade, she started a judicial odyssey, fighting a battle she never expected to wage—let alone win. Now she’s the matriarch of the gay-rights movement. Edie Windsor is the woman whose lawsuit forced the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage. She filed the lawsuit that helped bring down section 3 of DOMA. After the death of her late wife, Thea Spyer, Windsor was faced with the unfairness of a bill for $360,000 in estate taxes. That injustice won’t happen to others because Windsor brought the case United States v. Windsor to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the section was unconstitutional.

2) Janet Mock

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Janet Mock is an American writer, transgender rights activist, author and the former staff editor of People magazine’s website.

Mock creates transgender-specific programs and education for the LGBTQ youth center of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which operates the Harvey Milk High School, a high school for LGBT teens in New York City. She was the person who started the Twitter hashtag #GirlsLikeUs to empower transgender women and is the author of Redefining Realness in which she details her journey as a transgender woman.

 

3) Cleve Jones

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Cleve Jones is an LGBT rights and AIDS awareness activist who cofounded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983. In 1985 he held a memorial for Harvey Milk where he started the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a community project that honors the lives of people who died of the disease. Today he is an organizer for Unite Here!, a union that represents workers throughout the U.S. and Canada in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, and airport industries.

 

4) Jesse Tyler Ferguson

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Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC comedy Modern Family, started a nonprofit charity with his husband Justin Mikita. The organization goes by the catchy name “Tie The Knot” and sells fashionable neckties and bow ties. The funds raised by “Tie The Knot” go to support marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Here is what Jesse and Justin have to say: “Tie The Knot was founded to combine all of our favorite things: humor, style, individuality, fashion, art, and equality. Founded by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita, the goal of Tie The Knot is clear: to advocate for the civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans throughout the United States & beyond, and to look damn good while doing it.”

 

5) Ross Murray

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For news junkies, Ross Murray is the man to follow. Murray is the Director of News at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). At GLAAD, Ross’ role is to amplify pro-LGBT voices of faith, shape the public conversation about LGBT people and faith, and to respond to anti-LGBT faith-based messages. Ross is also the Director of The Naming Project, a faith based LGBT youth group that runs an LGBT teen camp every summer. In all Ross does, he strives to help people cultivate a holistic identity. Murray’s background is in youth ministry.

 

6) Frank Kameny

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Few people who set out to change the world actually succeed, Frank Kameny was one of those few. You most likely have never heard of him. But for gay Americans, he’s a founding father of the historic movement that pulled LGBTQ+ people out of the closet and into greater acceptance in the United States. What made Kameny a hero was that he demanded equity and fairness when it was literally him against the world. He was 86 and lived in Washington.

Kameny was fired from his job with Army Map Services in 1957 for being gay and was denied future job opportunities in the United States Civil Service. After being turned down by lower courts, Kameny filed a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, arguing that being fired for his sexual orientation was equivalent to being dismissed because of race or gender. Kameny’s petition, the first civil rights claim based on sexual orientation, was denied. In 1971, Kameny became the first openly gay politician to run for Congress and remained an activist for Gay rights for all of his life.

Kameny was known for wearing a “Gay is Good” button back when few gay people had the courage to be out and proud. By his example, perseverance and sacrifice, he showed us what courage looked like. We are a better nation because Franklin Edward Kameny set out to make us so.

 

7) Craig Rodwell

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American gay rights activist Craig Rodwell founded the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop (the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors, which has spawned many others since), and was the organizer of for the very first Gay Pride Parade. He facilitated a community gathering place with his bookshop and conceived some the first gay rights protests, preceding the Stonewall riots.

8) Chad Griffin

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In 1992, at age 19, Chad Griffin became the youngest White House staffer ever to serve as press office manager, under President Bill Clinton. In 2008 he founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which helped fight California’s Proposition 8. In March 2012, Griffin became the President of the Human Rights Campaign.

Griffin, who is gay himself, often cites the elevated rate of suicides among LGBT youth as his motivation and has stated that he would especially like to extend his work to advocate for young people in states like Arkansas, where he was born and raised.

Since joining HRC as president in 2012, Griffin has steered the organization into an exciting new era in the fight for equality. From spearheading record-breaking investment in the 2012 elections that enabled unprecedented victories from coast to coast, to historic advocacy around the Supreme Court’s rulings striking down Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act in June of 2013, Griffin has brought renewed passion and energy to a fight that is inspiring Americans—LGBT and straight—all around the country.

 

9 & 10) Danniele Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo

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A key component in the fight for LGBTQ+ freedom and equality is protecting youth and educating parents of LGBTQ+ kids and that is why I am including Dannielle Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo, the co-founders of Everyone is Gay and The Parents Project.

Everyone Is Gay is an award winning LGBTQ youth organization that provides advice, tours schools, and creates change while keeping everyone laughing and The Parents Project was created as an extension of Everyone Is Gay to answer the many questions they were receiving from parents whose children had recently come out to them.

Recently Dannielle and Kristin also authored This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids which is a question & answer guide for parents whose kids have recently come out to them!

Dannielle resides in Los Angeles, and has been working with LGBTQ young people for over four years as the co-founder of Everyone Is Gay. She has worked extensively in the world of social media and has used that experience to create a digital presence for LGBTQ+ youth and their parents.

Kristin resides in Brooklyn and has been working with LGBTQ young people for over 6 years, first volunteering at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in NYC, and then co-founding Everyone Is Gay in 2011.

 

11) Laverne Cox

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Laverne Cox plays transgender inmate Sophie Burset on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She was recently featured as the first openly transgender person on the cover of Time magazine.

In her Time interview, Cox said, “We are in a place now where more and more trans people want to come forward and say ‘This is who I am.’ Social media has been a huge part of it and the Internet has been a huge part of it, where we’re able to have a voice in a way that we haven’t been able to before.”

She is particularly interested in focusing on the intersection of race, gender and class as she advocates for the Trans community.

 

12) Harvey Milk

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Harvey Milk was our country’s first openly gay elected official. Milk was elected in 1977 to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he not only represented the concerns of the city’s LGBT citizens but took up issues like affordable housing and child care. He was tragically shot and killed the year after he took office, but his message of hope and openness lives on to this day.

 

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I’m sure you are thinking of others who should be mentioned. I’m doing the same thing. I’m thinking I should have added Dan Savage and Terry Miller, who started the It Gets Better Project to tell gay kids across the world that life can change after high school and Zach Wahls, a straight young man who stood up in front of the Iowa Supreme Court and so eloquently spoke for the equal rights of his family led by two mothers. And how could I leave out Captain M. Matthew Phelps, a gay U.S. Marine who, after “don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed, proudly took a male date to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball or Judy Shepard who through her quiet dignity after the loss of her gay son helped the Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed and founded The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Who would you add?

Be sure and check out the other synchroblog posts about Freedom:

 

  • Jerry Wirtley – Liberty …
  • Bobbi Ann Allen – My Allegiance Has Changed
  • Justin Steckbauer – The Topic Of Liberty
  • MinnowSpeaks – The Talk
  • Jeremy Myers – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?
  • Carol Kuniholm – Liberty and Constraint
  • K.W. Leslie – Why I Don’t Want Go To Church: No Freedom
  • Jesus Without Baggage – Where The Spirit of The Lord Is, There Is Liberty
  • Glenn Hager – Rebel
  • James Carter – The Law of Liberty
  • Mallory Pickering – Don’t Give Up
  • Liz Dyer – Fighting For Freedom & Equality
  • Leah Chang – Free To Be

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If you are the mom of an LGBTQ+ kid please join you are invited to join our Facebook support group, Serendipitydodah for Moms. The group is for open minded Christian moms who have LGBTQ kids and want to develop and maintain healthy, loving, authentic relationships with their LGBTQ kids. Please send an email to lizdyer55@gmail.com if you are interested in joining the Facebook support group.

 

Busting The Myths

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Liz in Anti-Gay, GLBT, language, LGBT, LGBTQ, Lies, Love, Same Sex Marriage, sexual orientation, SSM, Truth

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Anti Gay Myths, Facts, LGBT, LGBTQ, Lies

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In my everyday life I want to do what I can to make the world a kinder, safer, gentler, more loving place for lgbt people.

One of the ways I do that is taking the time in my everyday life to bust anti-gay myths whenever the opportunity arises.

Here is a piece by Evelyn Schlatter and Robert Steinback from the Southern Poverty Law Center site that has helped me inform others when they are believing one of the many anti-gay myths about lgbt people:

10 Anti Gay Myths Debunked

Ever since born-again singer and orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant helped kick off the contemporary anti-gay movement more than 30 years ago, hard-line elements of the religious right have been searching for ways to demonize gay people — or, at a minimum, to find arguments that will prevent their normalization in society. For the former Florida beauty queen and her Save Our Children group, it was the alleged plans of gay men and lesbians to “recruit” in schools that provided the fodder for their crusade.

But in addition to hawking that myth, the legions of anti-gay activists who followed have added a panoply of others, ranging from the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientation is a choice, to unalloyed lies like the claims that gay men molest children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalization of bestiality and necrophilia. These fairy tales are important to the anti-gay right because they form the basis of its claim that homosexuality is a social evil that must be suppressed — an opinion rejected by virtually all relevant medical and scientific authorities. They also almost certainly contribute to hate crime violence directed at the LGBT community, which is more targeted for such attacks than any other minority group in America. What follows are 10 key myths propagated by the anti-gay movement, along with the truth behind the propaganda.

MYTH # 1
Gay men molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals.

THE ARGUMENT
Depicting gay men as a threat to children may be the single most potent weapon for stoking public fears about homosexuality — and for winning elections and referenda, as Anita Bryant found out during her successful 1977 campaign to overturn a Dade County, Fla., ordinance barring discrimination against gay people. Discredited psychologist Paul Cameron, the most ubiquitous purveyor of anti-gay junk science, has been a major promoter of this myth. Despite having been debunked repeatedly and very publicly, Cameron’s work is still widely relied upon by anti-gay organizations, although many no longer quote him by name. Others have cited a group called the American College of Pediatricians to claim, as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council did in November 2010, that “the research is overwhelming that homosexuality poses a [molestation] danger to children.”

THE FACTS
According to the American Psychological Association, “homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are.” Gregory Herek, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is one of the nation’s leading researchers on prejudice against sexual minorities, reviewed a series of studies and found no evidence that gay men molest children at higher rates than heterosexual men.

Anti-gay activists who make that claim allege that all men who molest male children should be seen as homosexual. But research by A. Nicholas Groth, a pioneer in the field of sexual abuse of children, shows that is not so. Groth found that there are two types of child molesters: fixated and regressive. The fixated child molester — the stereotypical pedophile — cannot be considered homosexual or heterosexual because “he often finds adults of either sex repulsive” and often molests children of both sexes. Regressive child molesters are generally attracted to other adults, but may “regress” to focusing on children when confronted with stressful situations. Groth found that the majority of regressed offenders were heterosexual in their adult relationships.

The Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute notes that 90% of child molesters target children in their network of family and friends. Most child molesters, therefore, are not gay people lingering outside schools waiting to snatch children from the playground, as much religious-right rhetoric suggests.

Some anti-gay ideologues cite the American College of Pediatricians’ opposition to same-sex parenting as if the organization were a legitimate professional body. In fact, the so-called college is a tiny breakaway faction of the similarly named, 60,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics that requires, as a condition of membership, that joiners “hold true to the group’s core beliefs … [including] that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children.” The group’s 2010 publication Facts About Youth was described by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association as non-factual. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, was one of several legitimate researchers who said Facts misrepresented their findings. “It is disturbing to me to see special interest groups distort my scientific observations to make a point against homosexuality,” he wrote. “The information they present is misleading and incorrect.”

MYTH # 2
Same-sex parents harm children.

THE ARGUMENT
Most hard-line anti-gay organizations are heavily invested, from both a religious and a political standpoint, in promoting the traditional nuclear family as the sole framework for the healthy upbringing of children. They maintain a reflexive belief that same-sex parenting must be harmful to children — although the exact nature of that supposed harm varies widely.

THE FACTS
No legitimate research has demonstrated that same-sex couples are any more or any less harmful to children than heterosexual couples.

The American Academy of Pediatrics in a 2002 policy statement declared: “A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with one or two gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual.” That policy statement was reaffirmed in 2009.

The American Psychological Association found that “same-sex couples are remarkably similar to heterosexual couples, and that parenting effectiveness and the adjustment, development and psychological well-being of children is unrelated to parental sexual orientation.”

Similarly, the Child Welfare League of America’s official position with regard to same-sex parents is that “lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents are as well-suited to raise children as their heterosexual counterparts.”

MYTH # 3
People become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents.

THE ARGUMENT
Many anti-gay rights proponents claim that homosexuality is a mental disorder caused by some psychological trauma or aberration in childhood. This argument is used to counter the common observation that no one, gay or straight, consciously chooses his or her sexual orientation. Joseph Nicolosi, a founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, said in 2009 that “if you traumatize a child in a particular way, you will create a homosexual condition.” He also has repeatedly said, “Fathers, if you don’t hug your sons, some other man will.” A side effect of this argument is the demonization of parents of gay men and lesbians, who are led to wonder if they failed to protect a child against sexual abuse or failed as role models in some important way. In October 2010, Kansas State University family studies professor Walter Schumm released a related study arguing that gay couples are more likely than heterosexuals to raise gay or lesbian children.

THE FACTS
No scientifically sound study has linked sexual orientation or identity with parental role-modeling or childhood sexual abuse.

The American Psychiatric Association noted in a 2000 fact sheet on gay, lesbian and bisexual issues that “no specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse.” The fact sheet goes on to say that sexual abuse does not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual than in children who grow up and identify as heterosexual.

Similarly, the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization notes on its website that “experts in the human sexuality field do not believe that premature sexual experiences play a significant role in late adolescent or adult sexual orientation” and added that it’s unlikely that someone can make another person gay or heterosexual.

With regard to Schumm’s study, critics have already said that he appears to have merely aggregated anecdotal data, a biased sample that invalidates his findings.

MYTH # 4
LGBT people don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.

THE ARGUMENT
Anti-gay organizations want to promote heterosexuality as the healthier “choice.” Furthermore, the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physical and mental health of gays and lesbians are often offered as reasons why they shouldn’t be allowed to adopt or foster children.

THE FACTS
This falsehood can be traced directly to the discredited research of Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute, specifically a 1994 paper he co-wrote entitled, “The Lifespan of Homosexuals.” Using obituaries collected from gay newspapers, he and his two co-authors concluded that gay men died, on average, at 43, compared to an average life expectancy at the time of around 73 for all U.S. men. On the basis of the same obituaries, Cameron also claimed that gay men are 18 times more likely to die in car accidents than heterosexuals, 22 times more likely to die of heart attacks than whites, and 11 times more likely than blacks to die of the same cause. He also concluded that lesbians are 487 times more likely to die of murder, suicide, or accidents than straight women.

Remarkably, these claims have become staples of the anti-gay right and have frequently made their way into far more mainstream venues. For example, William Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan, used Cameron’s statistics in a 1997 interview he gave to ABC News’ “This Week.”

However, like virtually all of his “research,” Cameron’s methodology is egregiously flawed — most obviously because the sample he selected (the data from the obits) was not remotely statistically representative of the LGBT population as a whole. Even Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has called Cameron’s methods “just ridiculous.”

MYTH # 5
Gay men controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust.

THE ARGUMENT
This claim comes directly from a 1995 book titled The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams. Lively is the virulently anti-gay founder of Abiding Truth Ministries and Abrams is an organizer of a group called the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, which came together in 1994 and included Lively as a member.

The primary argument Lively and Abrams make is that gay people were not victimized by the Holocaust. Rather, Hitler deliberately sought gay men for his inner circle because their “unusual brutality” would help him run the party and mastermind the Holocaust. In fact, “the Nazi party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history,” the book claims. “While we cannot say that homosexuals caused the Holocaust, we must not ignore their central role in Nazism,” Lively and Abrams add. “To the myth of the ‘pink triangle’ — the notion that all homosexuals in Nazi Germany were persecuted — we must respond with the reality of the ‘pink swastika.'”

These claims have been picked up by a number of anti-gay groups and individuals, including Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, as proof that gay men and lesbians are violent and sick. The book has also attracted an audience among anti-gay church leaders in Eastern Europe and among Russian-speaking anti-gay activists in America.

THE FACTS
The Pink Swastika has been roundly discredited by legitimate historians and other scholars. Christine Mueller, professor of history at Reed College, did a line-by-line refutation of an earlier (1994) Abrams article on the topic and of the broader claim that the Nazi Party was “entirely controlled” by gay men. Historian Jon David Wynecken at Grove City College also refuted the book, pointing out that Lively and Abrams did no primary research of their own, instead using out-of-context citations of some legitimate sources while ignoring information from those same sources that ran counter to their thesis.

The myth that the Nazis condoned homosexuality sprang up in the 1930s, started by socialist opponents of the Nazis as a slander against Nazi leaders. Credible historians believe that only one of the half-dozen leaders in Hitler’s inner circle, Ernst Röhm, was gay. (Röhm was murdered on Hitler’s orders in 1934.) The Nazis considered homosexuality one aspect of the “degeneracy” they were trying to eradicate.

When the National Socialist Party came to power in 1933, it quickly strengthened Germany’s existing penalties against homosexuality. Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s security chief, announced that homosexuality was to be “eliminated” in Germany, along with miscegenation among the races. Historians estimate that between 50,000 and 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality (or suspicion of it) under the Nazi regime. These men were routinely sent to concentration camps and many thousands died there.

In 1942, the Nazis instituted the death penalty for gay men. Offenders in the German military were routinely shot. Himmler put it like this: “We must exterminate these people root and branch. … We can’t permit such danger to the country; the homosexual must be completely eliminated.”

MYTH # 6
Hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices like bestiality and necrophilia.

THE ARGUMENT
Anti-gay activists, who have long opposed adding LGBT people to those protected by hate crime legislation, have repeatedly claimed that such laws would lead to the jailing of religious figures who preach against homosexuality — part of a bid to gain the backing of the broader religious community for their position. Janet Porter of Faith2Action was one of many who asserted that the federal Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act — signed into law by President Obama in October 2009 — would “jail pastors” because it “criminalizes speech against the homosexual agenda.”

In a related assertion, anti-gay activists claimed the law would lead to the legalization of psychosexual disorders (paraphilias) like bestiality and pedophilia. Bob Unruh, a conservative Christian journalist who left The Associated Press in 2006 for the right-wing, conspiracist news site WorldNetDaily, said shortly before the federal law was passed that it would legalize “all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or ‘paraphilias’ listed by the American Psychiatric Association.” This claim was repeated by many anti-gay organizations, including the Illinois Family Institute.

THE FACTS
The claim that hate crime laws could result in the imprisonment of those who “oppose the homosexual lifestyle” is false. The Constitution provides robust protections of free speech, and case law makes it clear that even a preacher who suggested that gays and lesbians should be killed would be protected.

Neither do hate crime laws — which provide for enhanced penalties when persons are victimized because of their “sexual orientation” (among other factors) — “protect pedophiles,” as Janet Porter and many others have claimed. According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation refers to heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality — not paraphilias such as pedophilia. Paraphilias, as defined by the American Psychiatric Assocation, are disorders characterized by sexual urges or behaviors directed at nonhuman objects or non-consenting persons like children, or that involve the suffering or humiliation of one’s partner.

Even if pedophiles, for example, were protected under a hate crime law — and such a law has not been suggested or contemplated anywhere — that would not legalize or “protect” pedophilia. Pedophilia is illegal sexual activity, and a law that more severely punished people who attacked pedophiles would not change that.

MYTH # 7
Allowing gay people to serve openly will damage the armed forces.

THE ARGUMENT
Anti-gay groups have been adamantly opposed to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces, not only because of their purported fear that combat readiness will be undermined, but because the military has long been considered the purest meritocracy in America (the armed forces were successfully racially integrated long before American civilian society, for example). If gays serve honorably and effectively in this meritocracy, that suggests that there is no rational basis for discriminating against them in any way.

THE FACTS
Gays and lesbians have long served in the U.S. armed forces, though under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that governed the military between 1993 and September 2011, they could not serve openly. At the same time, gays and lesbians have served openly for years in the armed forces of 25 countries, including Britain, Israel, South Africa, Canada and Australia, according to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Palm Center report concluded that lifting bans against openly gay service personnel in these countries “ha[s] had no negative impact on morale, recruitment, retention, readiness or overall combat effectiveness.” Successful transitions to new policies were attributed to clear signals of leadership support and a focus on a uniform code of behavior without regard to sexual orientation.

A 2008 Military Times poll of active-duty military personnel, often cited by anti-gay activists, found that 10% of respondents said they would not re-enlist if the DADT policy were repealed. That would mean some 228,000 people may leave the military in the wake of the 2011 ending of that policy. But a 2009 review of that poll by the Palm Center suggested a wide disparity between what soldiers said they would do and their actual actions. It noted, for example, that far more than 10% of West Point officers in the 1970s said they would leave the service if women were admitted to the academy. “But when the integration became a reality,” the report said, “there was no mass exodus; the opinions turned out to be just opinions.” Similarly, a 1985 survey of 6,500 male Canadian service members and a 1996 survey of 13,500 British service members each revealed that nearly two-thirds expressed strong reservations about serving with gays. Yet when those countries lifted bans on gays serving openly, virtually no one left the service for that reason. “None of the dire predictions of doom came true,” the Palm Center report said.

MYTH # 8
Gay people are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol.

THE ARGUMENT
Anti-gay groups want not only to depict sexual orientation as something that can be changed but also to show that heterosexuality is the most desirable “choice” — even if religious arguments are set aside. The most frequently used secular argument made by anti-gay groups in that regard is that homosexuality is inherently unhealthy, both mentally and physically. As a result, most anti-gay rights groups reject the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. Some of these groups, including the particularly hard-line Traditional Values Coalition, claim that “homosexual activists” managed to infiltrate the APA in order to sway its decision.

THE FACTS
All major professional mental health organizations are on record as stating that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.

It is true that LGBT people suffer higher rates of anxiety, depression, and depression-related illnesses and behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse than the general population. But studies done during the past 15 years have determined that it is the stress of being a member of a minority group in an often-hostile society — and not LGBT identity itself — that accounts for the higher levels of mental illness and drug use.

Richard J. Wolitski, an expert on minority status and public health issues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, put it like this in 2008: “Economic disadvantage, stigma, and discrimination … increase stress and diminish the ability of individuals [in minority groups] to cope with stress, which in turn contribute to poor physical and mental health.”

MYTH # 9
No one is born gay.

THE ARGUMENT
Anti-gay activists keenly oppose the granting of “special” civil rights protections to gay people similar to those afforded black Americans and other minorities. But if people are born gay — in the same way people have no choice as to whether they are black or white — discrimination against gay men and lesbians would be vastly more difficult to justify. Thus, anti-gay forces insist that sexual orientation is a behavior that can be changed, not an immutable characteristic.

THE FACTS
Modern science cannot state conclusively what causes sexual orientation, but a great many studies suggest that it is the result of biological and environmental forces, not a personal “choice.” One of the more recent is a 2008 Swedish study of twins (the world’s largest twin study) that appeared in The Archives of Sexual Behavior and concluded that “[h]omosexual behaviour is largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors.” Dr. Qazi Rahman, study co-author and a leading scientist on human sexual orientation, said: “This study puts cold water on any concerns that we are looking for a single ‘gay gene’ or a single environmental variable which could be used to ‘select out’ homosexuality — the factors which influence sexual orientation are complex. And we are not simply talking about homosexuality here — heterosexual behaviour is also influenced by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors.”

The American Psychological Association (APA) acknowledges that despite much research into the possible genetic, hormonal, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no evidence has emerged that would allow scientists to pinpoint the precise causes of sexual orientation. Still, the APA concludes that “most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.”

In October 2010, Kansas State University family studies professor Walter Schumm released a study showing that gay parents produced far more gay children than heterosexual parents. He told a reporter that he was “trying to prove [homosexuality is] not 100% genetic.” But critics suggested that his data did not prove that, and, in any event, virtually no scientists have suggested that homosexuality is caused only by genes.

MYTH # 10
Gay people can choose to leave homosexuality.

THE ARGUMENT
If people are not born gay, as anti-gay activists claim, then it should be possible for individuals to abandon homosexuality. This view is buttressed among religiously motivated anti-gay activists by the idea that homosexual practice is a sin and humans have the free will needed to reject sinful urges.

A number of “ex-gay” religious ministries have sprung up in recent years with the aim of teaching gay people to become heterosexuals, and these have become prime purveyors of the claim that gays and lesbians, with the aid of mental therapy and Christian teachings, can “come out of homosexuality.”Exodus International, the largest of these ministries, plainly states, “You don’t have to be gay!” Another, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, describes itself as “a professional, scientific organization that offers hope to those who struggle with unwanted homosexuality.”

THE FACTS
“Reparative” or sexual reorientation therapy — the pseudo-scientific foundation of the ex-gay movement — has been rejected by all the established and reputable American medical, psychological, psychiatric, and professional counseling organizations. In 2009, for instance, the American Psychological Association adopted a resolution, accompanied by a 138-page report, that repudiated ex-gay therapy. The report concluded that compelling evidence suggested that cases of individuals going from gay to straight were “rare” and that “many individuals continued to experience same-sex sexual attractions” after reparative therapy. The APA resolution added that “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation” and asked “mental health professionals to avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts by promoting or promising change in sexual orientation.” The resolution also affirmed that same-sex sexual and romantic feelings are normal.

Some of the most striking, if anecdotal, evidence of the ineffectiveness of sexual reorientation therapy has been the numerous failures of some of its most ardent advocates. For example, the founder of Exodus International, Michael Bussee, left the organization in 1979 with a fellow male ex-gay counselor because the two had fallen in love. Alan Chambers, current president of Exodus, said in 2007 that with years of therapy, he’s mostly conquered his attraction to men, but then admitted, “By no means would we ever say that change can be sudden or complete.”

Rainbow Hospitality

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Liz in Affirming, Ally, Bible, Christian, Church, Equality, GLBT, Inclusion, LGBT, LGBTQ, Same Sex Marriage, sexual orientation, SSM

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Christian, church, Inclusion, LGBT, LGBTQ, Reverent Karen Brau

“The glory of God is a person fully alive.”  – Irenaeus

I wonder how we become fully alive if we are not who we really are in all realms of life?  – Reverend Karen Brau

Over decades of ministry the congregation at Luther Place Memorial Church has talked about and then lived out a specific type of welcome called “biblical hospitality.”

The Rev. Karen Brau, serves as Senior Pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church on Thomas Circle in Washington, DC. Rev. Brau arrived in DC after leading Lutheran congregations in the inner city of Baltimore for 18 years. She has a heart for God and people and seeks ways to creatively make real God’s message of love, compassion and justice for the world.

“I am a big fan of rainbows. I look for them after every storm, and rainbows have showed up in my life in tough times and in times of celebration. For their wonder, power and beauty, rainbows are an appropriate sign of the GLBTQ community. As a biblical symbol, they remind us of God‘s promise to love us always and to never abandon us, even when the storms seem unrelenting. Put rainbows and biblical hospitality together and you get, Rainbow Hospitality!”  – Reverend Karen Brau

You can read Reverend Brau’s post here

This is a big deal!

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Liz in Affirming, Bible, Christian, Church, Inclusion, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, SSM

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affirming, Christian, church, evangelical, Same Sex Marriage, same sex relationships, Steve Chalke

chalke

Steve Chalke, one of the most prominent and well known evangelical pastors in the UK, endorses same sex marriage.

You can read an article he wrote for Christianity magazine here.

You can watch a short video of Chalke sharing his thoughts here.

This is a big deal!

We Don’t Live In A Theocracy

08 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by Liz in Christian, Equality, LGBT, SSM

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Christian, Hypocricy, LGBT, Same Sex Marriage

 

lesbians-839875_640
There is a good article at USA today by Kirsten Powers entitled “Hypocrisy shrouds the gay marriage debate”

Powers points out that we don’t live in a theocracy, therefore, the bible is not a governing legal document of the United States  – the constitution is. She goes on to say that if Christian’s really wanted to use the bible as agoverning legal document they should consider fighting for laws that ban divorce and sex outside of marriage.  And then she clearly points out the apparent hypocrisy:

“Has anyone noticed that there is this special little area carved out where the Bible’s teachings must be enshrined in U.S. law, but only when it applies to others, i.e. gay people?

It seems as if Christians have enough issues to deal with in their own community on the issue of promoting marriage.

Perhaps Christian leaders such as Warren and Dobson should spend less time trying to prevent a tiny percentage of the population from having the right to marry, and help Christians get their own house in order.”  (go here for the whole article)

Maggie Gallagher Meets St. Peter

09 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by Liz in SSM

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Maggie Gallagher, Same Sex Marriage

Who Gives A Damn?

19 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by Liz in Equality, GLBT, SSM

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Cyndi Lauper, Equality, Give A Damn Campaign, GLBT, SSM

Who gives a damn?

Cyndi Lauper gives a damn.

She gives a damn about advancing support for the GLBT community, she gives a damn about getting laws passed that protect the GLBT community, she gives a damn about public awareness and education regarding GLBT equality, she gives a damn about GLBT youth who endure bullying, are homeless because they have been rejected by their family and who end up contemplating suicide because of being assaulted for who they are.

“I grew up in the civil rights movement in the ‘60s where I saw a large group of people treated in a way no human beings should ever be treated. But what I also saw was white people standing with black people saying this is not right and it has to end,” Lauper said. “I learned then that we all have to stand up for those in the minority,we all have to stand up for the underdog. Right now that underdog is the gay community.”

Because Cyndi gives a damn her True Colors Fund launched the Give A Damn Campaign to spur straight support for GLBT equality.

“In my life I’ve crossed paths with many different people and I’ve seen firsthand what it means to be discriminated against,” said Cyndi Lauper, True Colors Fund co-founder. “I’ve come to realize equality means a lot to people who don’t have it and that, as a straight person, I have a responsibility to stand up for gay and transgender people each and every day. We all have to get involved; we all have to give a damn.”

“Our focus is to open a dialogue with everyone, especially the straight community, who may not be fully aware of the inequality facing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. The Give a Damn Campaign will help bridge that gap,” said True Colors Fund Executive Director Gregory Lewis. “’Equality for all is the basis upon which this country was built and it can only be achieved if we all get informed and get involved.”

IF YOU GIVE A DAMN check out the Damn Blog, which is updated daily to keep readers informed on breaking news and ways to get involved, Personal Stories, where visitors can read about why other people support equality and how inequalities have affected their lives and Damn Issues, where visitors can learn about the issues that matter most to them.

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