Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Anti-Gay Hate Groups Protest Southern Poverty Law Center—For Intolerance!

Anti-gay hate groups and a few Black pastors protest outside SPLC offices last week.

Montgomery, Alabama – A dozen African American ministers and representatives of anti-gay hate groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) picketed and protested in front of the justice organization’s headquarters in Montgomery, according to a post by the SPLC.  Stung by being listed publicly as anti-gay hate groups because of many documented instances of spreading falsehoods and demonizing gay LGBTQ people, these groups are hitting back at the respected civil rights watchdog organization, calling its Intelligence Report campaign to expose anti-gay bigotry “lies” and part of a “liberal plot” to undermine the American family. Black Entertainment National News (BET) reported that the participation of African American pastors protesting the civil rights organization was “ironic.”

Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber, a well-financed cadre of right-wing attorneys affiliated with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist University and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, said: “The SPLC has moved from monitoring actual hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis to slandering mainstream Christian organizations with that very same hate group label.” Barber went on to charge that “billions” of Jewish and Christian people were being “smeared” by the SPLC as hateful because they teach traditional Judeo-Christian values.  Members of widely-known anti-gay hate organizations such as AFTAH, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, and Abiding Truth Ministries also spoke.  The themes they and their African American clergy supporters sounded at a press conference related to the protests included charges of unfairness, hating God, and spreading lies about these groups, all as instruments of “pro-gay politicking.” 

SPLC’s Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, swiftly refuted the accusations of attacking these hate groups for their Christian or Jewish faith. Potok said, “Our listing of anti-gay hate groups is completely unrelated to religion, Christianity or the Bible. These groups are listed because they repeatedly lie in an effort to defame LGBT people, an exercise they’ve been extraordinarily successful at. The idea that we are criticizing these groups because they represent Judeo-Christian morality is simply ludicrous.”  Examples of the efforts to stigmatize and defame LGBTQ people by these groups include trumped up charges that gay men are largely pedophiles who prey on the young, are sex-addicted, and instigated the Holocaust against the Jews of Europe.

Abiding Truth Ministries founder, Scott Lively, who has actively sought to foment anti-gay attitudes in nations of the former Soviet Union and Sub-Saharan Africa, sent a written appeal to God to eliminate the SPLC.  Lively’s statement, read at the protest press conference, said, “My prayer, as one who really does hate irrational prejudice, is that the Lord by His sovereign power will remove this dangerous, hate-spreading organization from our nation and cause its leaders and members to repent for their wickedness. … I want to make clear that I am asking God himself to destroy their organization.”  Box Turtle Bulletin, a blog founded to monitor news affecting the LGBTQ community worldwide, maintains a massive dossier on Scott Lively’s hate mongering activities and statements, which can be accessed here.

The SPLC’s Winter 2010 issue of the Intelligence Report lists 18 anti-gay hate groups and their propaganda.  The award-winning  quarterly magazine gives comprehensive research updates on hate groups to law enforcement agencies, the media, and the general public. According to its Intelligence Files, “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians has been a central theme of Christian Right organizing and fundraising for the past three decades – a period that parallels the fundamentalist movement’s rise to political power.”

In response to the threat of divine retribution for labeling anti-gay hate organizations for what they are, the SPLC said that if the firebombing by the Ku Klux Klan did not destroy the organization, it is doubtful that anti-gay hate groups will have any better luck.

January 23, 2012 Posted by | Alabama, Anti-Gay Hate Groups, GLBTQ, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, KKK, LGBTQ, Protests and Demonstrations, Social Justice Advocacy, Southern Poverty Law Center, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Combatting Church Homophobia in Toledo with Love: Equality Toledo’s “Born This Way” Event

Rev. Cheri Holdridge, Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, and Rev. Ed Heilman at Equality Toledo Event Monday (Kurt Young photo).

Toldeo, Ohio – A packed auditorium heard an out gay Baptist scholar from Texas challenge the Toledo Christian Community and the LGBTQ and Allied Community of Northwest Ohio to move toward reconciliation on Monday night.  Dr. Stephen Sprinkle of Brite Divinity School, and Theologian in Residence of Cathedral of Hope, Dallas, the world’s largest LGBTQ predominant congregation in the world, spoke on “Born This Way: Why faith communities are welcoming LGBTQ people.”  Dr. Sprinkle is the founder of http://unfinishedlivesblog.com and the Unfinished Lives Project which seeks to tell the stories of hate crimes victims in the United States. A coalition of progressive Christians and Muslims, as well as Equality Toledo responded to homophobic signs posted around Toledo by a mega church in Maumee pastored by a well-known detractor of the LGBTQ community.  In April 2011, a small open and affirming United Methodist Church collected money enough to put up a large billboard proclaiming, “Gay Is A Gift From God.” The purpose according to the leadership of Central United Methodist Church was to start a conversation in Toledo about healing and inclusion at a time of dire economic crisis and social stress.  Then, in September, the 2,500 member Church on Strayer, pastored by Evangelist Tony Scott, decided to bombard Toledo with nine billboards countering, “Gay is NOT a Gift from God,”  with the word “NOT” in scare-caps and blazing red.  Adweek called this “a church ad battle over God and Gays.” The Toledo Blade reported that Scott believes sexual orientation is a choice, and an evil one.  But Central UMC’s members were not discouraged by the homophobic mega church attacks. Lynn Braun, chair of the Methodist Church’s lead team said to the Blade: “I’m somewhat surprised it didn’t happen earlier. We felt it important to express our faith this way. I think people have the right to express their faith the way they see fit, and I think it helps the community to know where churches stand.”

In a bold move, progressives reached out this week with a positive response to the attacks.  Fox News Toledo led its evening news with the story, “Controversial Billboards Spur Positive Response.”  Fox interviewed Rev. Cheri Holdridge, pastor of the Village Church in Toledo, and one of the organizers of the University of Toledo event.  She countered the homophobia with an affirming message of God’s love.  “Two churches put billboards up and one particular church feels that it is the word of God that gay people are not welcome in churches,” Holdridge said to Fox News. “We wanted to be clear to the people of Toledo that there are many churches that do welcome gay people and that we don’t believe it is a sin to be gay.” Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, an openly gay faculty member at Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School told Fox, “There is a spiritual movement afoot that includes everyone. Including LGBTQ people. There are literally hundreds of thousands of faithful people who are gay or lesbian or transgenders, who have come out in their congregations’ lives and we’re not going back in the closet again,” Dr. Sprinkle went on to say. “Because of that, then, there is a conversation about what the role of faith communities needs to be towards us.” Joni Christian, a member of the United Church of Christ who attended the event at UT, said she was thankful for the message of truth and reconciliation at the meeting.  Speaking to Dr. Sprinkle, she said, “Thank you for your message in Toledo. You brought it in such a way that we should remember WWJD (What Would Jesus Do).”

The last word on homosexuality and Christianity has not been delivered in Toledo, yet.  The leadership of the Church on Strayer will surely load up and shoot back.  But Dr. Sprinkle said, “They are shrill in their condemnation of LGBTQ people because they know they have lost the cultural and moral argument about inclusiveness and diversity.  Homophobia is still potent in the Midwest and throughout America.  But the balance is tipping toward justice for marginalized people, the sorts of people Jesus himself was most comfortable around in his own day. Equality Toledo is on the right track,” Sprinkle added. “Answer hate with love.  We do not have to treat our adversaries as they have persecuted us. We have a God who turns enemies into friends.”

October 25, 2011 Posted by | Anti-Gay Hate Groups, Bisexual persons, Cathedral of Hope, Central United Methodist Church Toledo, Equality Toledo, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Homosexuality and the Bible, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Media Issues, Ohio, Public Theology, religious hate speech, religious intolerance, Social Justice Advocacy, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Larry King’s Teen Murderer Refuses to Testify in His Own Defense

Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California – Seventeen-year-old Brandon McInerney was not put on the stand by his defense team on Monday, the last day of testimony for the defense, in the closely watched trial of straight-on-gay teen murder.  The Los Angeles Times reports that his chief attorney, Scott Wippert, told the court that McInerney declined to take the stand. Now that the defense has rested, closing arguments are expected to commence immediately.  The facts of the case are not in dispute: McInerney, 14 at the time of the February 2008 homicide, killed his fellow eighth grade student, Lawrence Fobes “Larry” King, a gay, bi-racial 15-year-old, in their first period computer class at E.O. Green Middle School in Oxnard.  McInerney’s defense hinges on a version of the discredited “gay panic” defense that has long been employed by defendants in cases of anti-gay murder.  His defense team is gambling that they can create sympathy for McInerney by claiming he was in a severe “dissociative state” because of King’s gay mannerisms, dress, and affectation–that McInerney interpreted King’s speech, dress, and acts as “sexual harassment,” and killed him because of it.  A psychologist for the defense testified that McInerney “snapped” at the time of the shooting, according to ABC News 7. When employed to justify the violence perpetrated by mature adults, the gay panic defense seeks to play on the latent fears of jury members to cloud the verdict they would otherwise render, or, barring that, to soften the punishment for the crime because of “mitigating circumstances” and “states of mind.”

The prosecution built its case on testimony and physical evidence of skin-head, Neo-Nazi and white supremacist loyalties McInerney held.  The motive for McInerney’s deadly crime, the prosecution contends, was deep-seated hostility toward gays and transgender people.  Prosecutor Maeve Fox pointed repeatedly to the premeditation it took the defendant to plan the slaying, conceal the murder weapon, restrain his attack until first period class was in session, and then shoot his victim not once but twice in the back of the head, execution-style.  McInerney announced his intention to kill King well ahead of the deed, according to testimony rendered in court.  Evidence of premeditation prior to the trial in large part caused a judge to rule that McInerney would be tried under California criminal law as an adult, even given his youth.

If the defense succeeded in convincing the jury that young Larry King was responsible for his own murder at the hands of an innocent, straight boy who snapped under the strain of “unwanted sexual advances,” then the gay panic defense will have a new lease on life in courtrooms throughout the United States where perpetrators will make the argument that their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender victims in some sense “made them do it.”  If, on the other hand, the prosecution turns aside this latest version of the gay panic defense, and convinces the jury that a murdered boy cannot be guilty of his own death, then the venerable and disreputable gay panic defense will be dealt a severe blow in American juris prudence.

August 23, 2011 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-Gay Hate Groups, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Bisexual persons, Blame the victim, Bullying in schools, California, Character assassination, death threats, gay bashing, gay men, gay panic defense, gay teens, Gender Variant Youth, GLBTQ, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Neo-Nazis and White Supremacy, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, trans-panic defense, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Progressive Houston Clergy Oppose Gov. Perry’s So-Called “Day of Prayer”

Rick Perry wants to be Governor PrayPal

Houston, Texas – Governor Rick Perry is beating the hate drum in Houston again, under the guise of a Christian prayer rally.  Perry, in partnership with a known anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association, plans to pack out Reliant Stadium on August 6, 2011, in a crass attempt to camouflage a rightwing, anti-gay, anti-choice agenda.  Hitching his political ambitions to evangelical Protestant and conservative Roman Catholic religion is a well-worn strategy of Perry’s.  In 2005, he launched a political campaign by a showy signing ceremony for a bill curtailing abortion practices in Texas at Fort Worth’s Calvary Cathedral International, a large church pastored by a man who held anti-abortion views. Houston’s clergy are not taking this most recent charade of the Governor’s passively.  According to the Houston Chronicle, 24 local leaders, representing thousands of fair-minded Houstonians, issued an open letter to the Governor on Monday.  The full text of the letter follows, so Unfinished Lives Blog readers may see the full power of Progressive Religious leadership in opposition to this thinly-veiled attempt to co-opt Christianity for extremist right wing purposes.

June 13, 2011 As Houston clergy, we write to express our deep concern over Governor Rick Perry’s proclamation of a day of prayer and fasting at Houston’s Reliant Stadium on August 6th. In our role as faith leaders, we encourage and support prayer, meditation, and spiritual practice. Yet our governor’s religious event gives us pause for a number of reasons: We believe in a healthy boundary between church and state. Out of respect for the state, we believe that it should represent all citizens equally and without preference for religious or philosophical tradition. Out of respect for religious communities, we believe that they should foster faithful ways of living without favoring one political party over another. Keeping the church and state separate allows each to thrive and upholds our proud national tradition of empowering citizens to worship freely and vote conscientiously. We are concerned that our governor has crossed the line by organizing and leading a religious event rather than focusing on the people’s business in Austin. We also express concern that the day of prayer and fasting at Reliant Stadium is not an inclusive event. As clergy leaders in the nation’s fourth largest city, we take pride in Houston’s vibrant and diverse religious landscape. Our religious communities include Bahais, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Unitarian Universalists, and many other faith traditions. Our city is also home to committed agnostics and atheists, with whom we share common cause as fellow Houstonians. Houston has long been known as a “live and let live” city, where all are respected and welcomed. It troubles us that the governor’s prayer event is not open to everyone. In the publicized materials, the governor has made it clear that only Christians of a particular kind are welcome to pray in a certain way. We feel that such an exclusive event does not reflect the rich tapestry of our city. Our deepest concern, however, lies in the fact that funding for this event appears to come from the American Family Association, an organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The American Family Association and its leadership have a long track record of anti-gay speech and have actively worked to discriminate against the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. The American Family Association and its leadership have also been stridently anti-Muslim, going so far as to question the rights of Muslim Americans to freely organize and practice their faith. We believe it is inappropriate for our governor to organize a religious event funded by a group known for its discriminatory stances. As religious leaders, we commit to join with all Houstonians in working to make our city a better place. We will lead our communities in prayer, meditation, and spiritual practice. We ask that Rick Perry leave the ministry to us and refocus his energy on the work of governing our state.  Signed//: Members of the Houston Clergy Council

June 15, 2011 Posted by | American Family Association, Anti-Gay Hate Groups, bi-phobia, Bisexual persons, gay men, GLBTQ, Governor Rick Perry, Heterosexism and homophobia, Houston Clergy Council, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Politics, Protests and Demonstrations, Public Theology, religious intolerance, Resurrection MCC Houston, Social Justice Advocacy, Southern Poverty Law Center, Texas, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

   

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