The Family Research Council, established by James Dobson and headed up by Gary Bauer until Tony Perkins took the helm, is one of those of "family values" conservative lobbying groups whose membership the GOP clown car candidates have been courting so desperately. Perkins and his organization is on speed-dial at the Bush White House.
FRC gets my quote of the day award for this gem....
In Rhode Island, a same-sex couple married in Massachusetts is seeking a divorce; because their marriage was not recognized in R.I., when they filed for divorce, it is now in the courts to decide whether it can be dissolved there.
FRC decided to weigh in on the matter by filing a brief to argue that the marriage cannot be recognized (even though there is no law in R.I. banning same-sex marriage), citing this unhinged thinking:
"Following the logic of the appellants and their supporters, man/animal marriage and man/deceased woman marriage must be permitted under Rhode Island law simply because the General Assembly has not expressly prohibited it."
Tony and Co., when you are able to explain how animals and corpses can grant consent to enter a union of any kind, please let us know.
I'd love to hear the GOP candidates comment on this kind of rhetoric coming from one of its allies in the fight to restore family values to this great nation.
Perkins, by the way, gets bonus family values points for having paid $82K to David DuKKKe for his mailing list.
I just got an email update from our good friends at the Family Research Council (that would be the religious right Republicans). It's about the gay issues forum for the presidential candidates (only the Dems agreed to come). FRC is ticked that the Dems haven't agreed to show up at FRC's own presidential forum. Well, considering that you guys lie all the time about the Dems, and you're so partisan to the Republicans it isn't even funny, why should a single Dem show up? To wit: Note what FRC says in the same paragraph in which they whine about the Dems not agreeing to show to their little party.
If the Democratic contenders believe so strongly in their positions regarding same-sex marriage then why not attend our event and defend those beliefs?
Did you get how FRC implies, quite clearly, that the Dem presidential candidates support gay marriage? "Defend their beliefs" before FRC on gay marriage? But they don't support gay marriage (other than Kucinich and Gravel, and sorry but they don't count), so why would the Dem candidates have to "defend their beliefs" on gay marriage when their beliefs are in line with the FRC?
Answer: Because the FRC are liars. They want their members to think that the Dems are supporting gay marriage because that will help the Republicans get votes.
Note to FRC: Good Christians, real Christians, don't lie out their asses every time they open their mouths. You people are pathetic excuses for Christians. Think I'm being harsh? You bet I'm being harsh. I'm a Christian too, and you people make a mockery of Christianity with your hate and your lies. Has it ever struck any of you as to why you so often have to lie in order to espouse your supposedly-Christian point of view? We've documented the lies, over and over again - and they're not differences of opinion, they're flat out lies. Good Christians, good people, don't lie - don't NEED to lie - in order to prove their point. You people aren't either.
What will it take for these hateful extremists to stop promoting known hate groups? And how can Republicans in Congress, and the White House, stand to be associated with people who would promote an organization whose hate-writings "echo Nazi Germany?" And finally, why won't the media, who is all too happy to quote these groups, report on the fact that they are promoting known hate groups?
Hmmm... not sure that saying that labeling civil rights law protecting African-Americans as "special rights" that leave out millions of Americans like you and me (their words) is the wisest argument the religious right Republicans should be making in opposition to the hate crimes bill. Check it out for yourself, from a Family Research Council email alert sent out today:
This [hate crimes] bill creates a caste system within American society where those who fit a certain category - ranging from race, disability, gender to sexual orientation and transgendered - would be seen as deserving special legal protection. The bill is most notable for the millions of Americans it leaves out, meaning if you or I are a victim of a violent crime - we matter less.
And as an aside, check out the blatant lie from the Family Research Council. The hate crimes law wouldn't cover people like them, they say. News flash - the hate crimes law on the books ALREADY covers people like them explicitly. Religion is a category already in the existing federal hate crimes law. The religious right Republicans' problem with the hate crimes law being debated and voted on in the House tomorrow is that their little special right would have to be broadened to include more people.
They are just such liars. Un-Christian, un-Christ-like, liars.
UPDATE: More from Pam Spaulding on the Paul Cameron hate group here.
How sad that the far-right Republicans are now embracing known hate groups in order to further their homophobic agenda.
"CAMERON'S 'SCIENCE' ECHOES NAZI GERMANY"
Yes, they're now promoting extremists who have been labeled "hate groups" by THE expert on hate, the Southern Poverty Law Center. Amazing. SPLC lists religious right hatemonger Paul Cameron's Family Research institute as one of the lead hate groups in Colorado - SPLC lists Cameron's FRI alongside the Klan and white supremacists. SPLC says that "Cameron's 'science' echoes Nazi Germany." That's how bad it is. Here is SPLC's "hate group" map:
Now, why does the Southern Poverty Law Center label Cameron and his Family Research Institute a "hate group"? Look at what Cameron espouses, per the SPLC:
He told the 1985 Conservative Political Action Committee conference that "extermination of homosexuals" might be needed in the next three to four years. He has advocated tattooing AIDS patients in the face, and banishment to a former leper colony for any patient who resisted. He has called for gay bars to be closed and gays to be registered with the government.
(Note that Cameron made the speech at CPAC, the same conference at which Ann Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot" - nice long history of hate at the top conservative conference of the year.)
Uh huh, this is who the lead religious right organizations are using to buttress their anti-gay cause, to lobby Congress and the White House. This is how these self-proclaimed voices of God show their love for Jesus. By embracing someone who called for the extermination of gays - someone who was kicked out of the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for being an unethical extremist. And these people are in the senior ranks of the Republican party and the Bush administration.
FORMER FRC AND CWA EMPLOYEE PROMOTES HATE GROUP
But, oddly, Peter LaBarbera, a former employee of both the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America, is pushing Cameron's hate research to this day (LaBarbera was also, until recently, the lead "family values" advocate in the state of Illinois). In an online screed blasting the gay organization Human Rights Campaign, LaBarbera cites the research of Paul Cameron.
"THE HILL" CAUGHT PUBLISHING HATE SCIENCE
Even more troubling, far-right activist Armstrong Williams published Cameron's hate research on the respected inside-the-beltway publication "The Hill" - a publication not known for promoting the Nazi-esque science of known hate groups (well, at least not until now). The study Williams' cites is Cameron's most recent study that LaBarbera pushed above.
AFA, FRC, AND CWA ALL ARE CURRENTLY PROMOTING CAMERON AND HIS HATE SCIENCE
Equally sad, and disturbing, three top religious right organizations, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America all promote Cameron's Nazi-esque research on their Web sites (examples: AFA in 2005, FRC in Oct. 2006, and CWA in 2002 examples - there are many more).
We exposed AFA's promotion of this known hate group over a year ago, to no avail. AFA continues to promote the hate group on its Web site. It's one thing for the religious right to be a bunch of anti-gay bigots, but it's quite another to embrace science that echoes of Nazi Germany. It's time for the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and the Concerned Women for America to publicly rebuke Paul Cameron and their former employee Peter LaBarbera.
(More on Cameron here. And note that this is not the first time FRC's Tony Perkins has had a disturbing tie-in to white supremacists.)
I just got an email update from the far-right Republican activists at the Family Research Council, and I've been noticing a growing amount of gay-bashing in their literature of late. Their latest? Using the homophobic code "San Francisco values" to bash Pelosi. Now what are those "San Francisco values" the FRC is talking about? Baking Sourdough? What the FRC means is that San Francisco is full of fags. And why say that outright when they can turn it into some kind of subliminal bigoted slur.
In a later installment, we'll show you how the Family Research Council, the Concerned Women for America and the American Family Association are currently promoting a known hate group (we're talking a group akin to the Klan and white Supremacists). Not very Christian. Stay tuned.
Snap, snap! Nothing better than the gays lecturing the family values crowd on what it means to be a good Christian during Holy Week. It certainly doesn't mean violating the Ten Commandments because you're hateful bigots.
Family Research Council lies to members about hate crimes amendment, fails to disclose conflict of interest
WASHINGTON— The Family Research Council bore false witness against its neighbors at least twice this Holy Week when communicating with its members about the need for hate crimes legislation, said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
In an attempt to scare its members into believing that federal hate crimes laws will punish simple thoughts, the FRC asks in a new Web video (www.stopthoughtcrimes.com), "What will it mean in America if thought crimes laws are passed?" The assertion that America doesn't already have a federal hate crimes law is a flat out lie. The federal hate crimes law (18 U.S.C. section 245), covering race, religion, color and national origin, has been on the books since 1969.
[Here's a screen capture of the Web video]
“It's easy to understand why the Family Research Council would feel the need to lie about the hate crimes law's existence. The existing federal hate crimes law already covers the employees of the FRC under its "religion" provision,” said Solmonese. “That means the FRC is either against granting others the same protections it has already enjoyed for almost forty years under current federal law or it wants to repeal the existing hate crime law. Talk about special rights.”
Just as embarrassing, no critic of the FRC – or anyone else – has ever been thrown in jail for any supposed "thought crime" under the existing federal hate crimes law. The truth is that neither the current hate crimes law nor the expanded measure criminalize thoughts or speech; they onlycover crimes involving bodily injury or attempted bodily injury. The hate crimes statute is only invoked to allow a federal investigation and the prosecution of bias-motivated violence if – and only if – it is necessary to achieve an effective, just result. That only happens after a violent crime is committed, which debunks the "thought crimes" talking point.
As Congress once again attempts to add women, people with disabilities and members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to the existing federal hate crimes law, the FRC has demonstrated that it is willing to go to any length to stop this needed legislation – including lying. Similar legislation has already passed in recent years in both the Republican-led House and Senate. This year, the House bill, H.R. 1592, and its soon-to-be introduced Senate companion bill, will add gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the protected classes under 18 U.S.C, chapter 13, ensuring that the already-existing federal hate crimes law covers everyone.
