You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Terri Schiavo's autopsy reveals that there was no way she was ever coming back to lead a normal life. This finding exposes the GOP's cruel, invasive charade as a the dishonest bullying that it truly was. "Dr." Bill Frist should have his license revoked for incorrectly diagnosing her long distance. If not actual medical malpractice, it was certainly political malpractice.
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Mel "S&M Christ" Gibson is now ranked, according to Forbes, as the number 3 celebrity in the world. Personally, I boycott Mel Gibson movies. After witnessing his brutal, twisted beating of Jesus for two solid hours, I've had enough of Gibson's passion for pain and pandering to the right wing fringe.
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I am very excited about speaking at a Gay Pride event in El Paso on Saturday evening, sponsored by Rio Grande Adelante. The group also put up an amazing billboard to celebrate Gay Pride month. Congratulations to Rio Grande Adelante for doing such great, inspiring work!
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(Zach - One of Love In Action's Many Teen Prisoners)
Gay activists are picketing Love In Action, an "ex-gay" ministry based in Memphis. They are protesting the hate group's barbaric practice of incarcerating gay kids against their will to make them heterosexual (It Doesn't Work). Love In Action's abusive tactics came to light when a brave 16 year old boy named Zach chronicled his story on his blog.
"They [Zach's parents] tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they 'raised me wrong.' I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears, joinin [sic] the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs and I can't help it," Zach wrote. "I've been through hell. I've been emotionally torn apart for three days... I can't remember which days they were ... time's not what it used to be," the teen wrote in his last blog entry on June 3.
Let's hope that young Zach does not harm himself. It has happened before at this mockery of a ministry. I also know there is a 16 year old lesbian who is (was) trapped at the boot camp a few months ago.
Here is a history of the group's follies and failures:
** Love in Action was founded in 1973 by John Evans, a gay man, and Rev. Kent Philpott, a heterosexual preacher
** In 1974, Philpott wrote an influential ex-gay book called "The Third Sex?" featuring the testimonies of six people who said they had prayed away the gay. It later turned out that none of the people whose stories were featured had changed.
** Soon after The Third Sex? is published, key Love in Action participant Jack McIntyre commits suicide because he was unable to change from gay to straight. In his suicide note he writes, "To continually go before God and ask forgiveness and make promises you know you can't keep is more than I can take."
** After McIntyre's death, co-founder John Evans drops out and renounces the group as a sham. He dedicated his life to helping people escape the ex-gay trap.
** Love In Action's Director John Smid admits his group is useless. "I am not totally healed from homosexuality. It is part of my emotional, physical and spiritual history," Smid wrote. "It will not be erased as though it did not exist. I still struggle at times...I still shut down with my wife at times. I periodically have sexual thoughts regarding men."
** In 2000, Love In Action's youngest graduate and spokesman Wade Richards, comes out of the closet and condemns ministry as a fraud. Today, he is a gay activist today and appeared in the wonderful (Five Stars) movie, Fish Can't Fly.
** On Sept. 19, 2000, Love In Action's most famous graduate and ex-gay poster boy John Paulk is photographed in a gay bar in Washington, DC
As we can clearly see, Love In Action may be taking Zach's parents to the bank and looting their account. But they can bank on the fact that Zach will not be made into a heterosexual.
The GOP is doing everything it can to kill PBS because of supposed liberal bias. Here is what we can expect in the near future:
1) The Cookie Monster switches to communion wafers 2) Big Bird goes to Oregon and beats the shit out of a few liberal spotted owls. 3) National Public Radio changes its name to National Partisan Radio. 4) Sean Hannity takes over the News Hour 5) The show the "Electric Company" is revived and produced by former Enron head Ken Lay 6) Buster sends postcards from Focus on the Family's headquarters in Colorado Springs. Eventually the show changes names to "Prayers for Buster".
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The Heritage Foundation came out today with a bogus new study with "glaring errors" that falsely claims that "Virginity Pledges" lower STD rates.
Mr. David Landry, a senior research associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, also criticized the Heritage team's reliance on self-reports of sexually transmitted diseases among those who took the pledge, saying that group would be less likely to report them. "The underreporting problem is so severe that it makes that data highly questionable," Mr. Landry told The New York Times.
The way these Neo-Puritan groups distort research is so disgusting I feel like I need to bathe after I read their reports. Groups like Heritage Foundation disrespect their members when they produce such garbage. What they are really saying is, "Our members are too stupid to know real research from propaganda."
What bothers me the most about this right wing "study" is that it was partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why on earth are federal dollars being used to have a blatantly ideological and partisan organization conduct a study on sex? Did anyone truly think there was a snowball's chance in Hell the outcome of this reactionary research would not back abstinence? What a total waste of the public's money. What next, public funds for an Operation Rescue study to show that abortion is traumatic for women?
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If you have ever wondered why we are quickly losing ground to the extremists, please read this New York Times article about the Heritage Foundation's internship program.
This summer, 64 interns are each paid a 10-week stipend of $2,500, and about half are housed in a subsidized dorm at the radical group's luxurious compound in DC. These "dorms" even come with a complete fitness room, which means not only are they winning policy debates, but they will soon have better abs! Liberal groups, in contrast, have no such comparable program and are getting flabby intellectually.
"There's no question that the right wing over the last 25 years did a much better job of creating a farm system," said Ralph G. Neas, the president of People for the American Way.
Once again, the right is fighting a cultural war, while we we think a culture war is debating whether ballet is better than opera. Folks, it is time to wake up, or we will lose the support we have gained from the next generation. We are getting outworked, outfunded and now we are out of power.
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Spokane Mayor Jim West was known as one of the most anti-gay politicians in Washington State. That was until he recently was caught trolling the Internet for young men. He was also accused of molesting young boys when he was a Boy Scout leader - a charge that he claims is false.
In an effort to salvage his shredded reputation, West is following the lead of countless scumbags across America. When one has destroyed his life and that of those around him, he can always be Born Again! It is kind of like declaring bankruptcy (before the Republicans overhauled the law). This is not to take away from the sincere experiences of millions of Christians. But it is clear that West and others of his ilk are total phonies who are using the compassion of others to create confusion.
Get a load of the way Jim West is trying to fool people into believing he is reformed. This is from an e-mail written by West and obtained by the Spokesman-Review newspaper.
"I've decided to fill the emptiness in my life that I was trying to fill through other means with a relationship with God. I'm reading a proverb and three psalms a day and am attending church on a regular basis for the first time in my life and it's been wonderful and I've felt very welcomed. I also meet weekly with a few pastors and they are very supportive."
One would think that no person would be shit stupid enough to believe such hollow and shallow nonsense. But remember this: Rev. Jimmy "I have Sinned" Swaggart has a growing congregation in Louisiana. Yes, people really are that gullible.
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(D. James Kennedy Wants To Reclaim America For Christ)
While the stock market may be down, the soul market is bullish. Morally compromised minorities can now guarantee success and reap a stream of profit by agreeing to sell their people down the river. Sure, it is a deal with the devil, but no one ever said a partnership with Lucifer isn't lucrative.
Vice President Dick Cheney attacked Howard Dean this weekend on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes in a Republican led effort to silence one of the only strong Democratic voices remaining.
"So far, I think he's probably helped us more than he has them," Cheney said. "I really think Howard Dean's over the top. And more important I think many of his fellow Democrats feel the same way. I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does. He's never won anything, as best I can tell."
As usual, Cheney lied. Dean was elected governor of Vermont five times between 1992 and 2000. What Cheney really dislikes about Dean is that he is not afraid to tell the truth about the modern Republican Party. Cheney prefers neutered Democrats who are too timid to take on the GOP. They want to destroy Dean and undermine his credibility because he is speaking in a way that resonates with average Americans.
Look, I've been a harsh critic of Dean when he said some dumb things during his campaign. But when he recently described the GOP as "pretty much a white, Christian party" and claimed that many Republicans have "never made an honest living", he is speaking the truth. Even the Republicans acknowledge this reality when they repeatedly refer to white neo-Puritans as "The Base".
It is also true that many of the self-proclaimed, "self made" Republicans inherited their fortunes. This is why they so ardently oppose the Estate Tax and want tax cuts to go to the wealthiest one percent. Sorry, but looting the poor to have enough money for another yacht is not an honest way to make a living. The only reason that the GOP has been able to bilk the common folk, is because they have been successful in getting people to focus on divisive social issues, such as denying gay people the freedom to marry.
Unfortunately, instead of rallying around Dean, many Democrats are attacking him. When they undermine their own party chair, they allow the him to become the center of attention, and thus take heat off of Bush, who is sinking in the polls. Democrats should show some guts and party loyalty and defend Dean. Until other Democratic leaders speak in the same strong voice, the party will remain stuck in the minority. The party will continue to get us "deals", like the recent one in the Senate that allowed Bush to ramrod through his hand-picked right wing judges.
Instead of emasculating Dean, Democrats should emulate him.
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