I get email... from "family" "values" advocates, again!

Our good friend Eugene Delgaudio decided to grace my inbox with another one of his infamous anti-gay diatribes.  I thought that I had unsubscribed from his mailing list, but perhaps he doesn't understand that no means no.

In case you missed the last episode, you can read the first email here and my play-by-play rebuttal mockery of it here.

I was going to do another sarcastic play-by-play of this one, but LazyJay over at A Different Music beat me to the punch.  Instead, I'll give you an executive summary of what's wrong with Eugene's latest drivel, and you can read the original email (rendered in purple Comic Sans for my amusement) below.

Image credit: Austin Cline

This time, Eugene is trying to warn me of the dangers of HR 998 and S 555, a pair of bills that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT students in public schools that receive federal funding, including a requirement that they not tolerate gender- or sexuality-based bullying.  A reasonable request, though some may debate the federal government's role in policing this.

From Eugene's delusional point of view, this somehow entails requiring teachers to encourage heterosexual students to engage in homosexual acts (huh?), as well as giving students impunity for sexual assault if the victim is a member of the same sex (what?!?).  I'm not sure where he gets this special knowledge about the "gay agenda", but I do wish he'd share his sources.

He also expresses alarm at the fact that students in California will be required by state law to read about positive role models who happen to not be heterosexual.  The horror!

Eugene also has special knowledge he'd like to share about Kevin Jennings' evil plan to teach kindergarteners at private schools to have gay sex, a claim which he supports using a handful of unsourced quotations with no context given.  It should be noted that these quotations are only linked to the issue of homosexuality by Eugene's own paraphrasing.

Finally, Eugene asks for money, and offers a few suggested donation denominations.  It saddens me to know that there actually are plenty of people in this country who don't have anything better to spend it on.

The email text is below the jump.

My response to Eugene Delgaudio's email

Yesterday I received an email from Eugene Delgaudio, President of anti-gay group Public Advocate.  Here's what I sent as a response:

I get email... from "family" "values" organizations!

As a birthday present from the blog fodder gods, I found this piece of rubbish in my inbox yesterday morning: an email from Public Advocate President Eugene Delgaudio.  At first I was confused as to why I received it, but then I remembered that I took a survey hosted by his organization that PZ Myers had selected for Pharyngulation.  Apparently my votes in favor of the so-called "gay agenda" constitute signing his petition.

I'll post the email in its entirety below the jump, along with some choice illustrations I've added in.  I'll post my response in a separate entry due to length.

Disingenuous fearmongering about the "gay agenda"

(Cross-posted on Skeptic Freethought)

I was recently alerted to this video's existence via a Facebook post by a conservative Christian associate of mine.  It was created by CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family affiliate.

It's more of the same message we often see from social conservative "pro-family" organizations: that "parents" (read: heterosexual Christian parents) should be "concerned" (read: alarmed) about "homosexual indoctrination" (read: teaching kids that they shouldn't regard gay people as horrible, immoral monsters) in schools.

For what it's worth, I know that there are at least a handful of gay activists out there who do have a disdain for heterosexuals and do want special treatment for their orientation.  With a little bit of dressing up, this fringe element serves as a handy strawman for anti-gay activists to reference in videos like this.  Don't be fooled.  The vast majority of homosexuals just want to be who they are without being treated like freaks.  That's your real "gay agenda".

If you don't want to sit through the whole thing, skip to 6:48 for the part that really made my blood boil.

". . . it is clear that these kids are struggling."

Around the 7-minute mark the show's host plays a clip from a "tolerance" video promoted by a gay advocacy group.  In the clip we see teenagers giving their candid perceptions of their own gender identities, followed by the host and her guest reacting with thinly veiled disgust.  They no doubt picked this clip thinking that it represents the worst of the gay indoctrination that students face, and I personally saw nothing wrong with what that clip depicted.  What exactly is wrong with boys not acting masculine?  Girls admitting that they're not 100% feminine?  More importantly, what evidence is there that these kids are "struggling" any more than any other teenager struggles with life?

Of course, that's a rhetorical question.  I know that the people who are alarmed by the blurring of boundaries between gendered behaviors feel that way because it demolishes two immutable categories that they've constructed in their minds.  "Men and women are fundamentally different, even without counting the genitals and physiological differences, and should always behave as such, and you'll never convince me otherwise!" says my social conservative strawman.

What's really damaging is the idea that there can't be middle ground in gender issues, that you're either a manly man, a womanly woman, a girly gay boy, or a butch lesbian.  No room for bisexuals, or even heterosexuals who exhibit personality traits of both genders, exists in this mindset (let alone trans- or intersexuals!).

An admonition for conservatives who aren't anti-gay

I understand that there are plenty of economic conservatives out there who don't have a problem with anyone's sexual orientation or gender identity so long as they're productive citizens. I understand your sentiment that gay advocacy is intruding on public school curriculum with programs like those described in the video, and likewise that lawsuits for the same cause are frivolous and that government intervention on it is excessive. I don't completely agree with that sentiment, but I understand where it comes from.

What secular conservatives should understand is that much of the left-wing sentiment backing this type of aggressive advocacy was forged by the backlash from social conservatives against those homosexuals who have "come out" over the past few decades. Gay rights activists built up this momentum while fighting a culture war for their right to exist in society. Tell the religious zealots who have hijacked the Republican Party to stop fighting culture wars and focus on the economy, and you won't have to listen to this senseless debate any longer.

Recap Post: pop stars for science, Straw Poll, the faaabulous Ann Coulter, femShep beauty pageant, and godless Christians!

While I'm brainstorming, kicking around, and shooting down ideas for future posts, here's a weekend fluff digest post to tide you loyal readers over. Some highlights of the past week or so:

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"Science is rock and roll." Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am is doing something that lifts my hopes for this country (my opinion of his music aside). He's teaming up with other popular musicians in a video campaign to promote scientific curiosity and encourage improvements to science education, leading up to a one-hour TV special to air on Sunday evening. I'm willing to let slide the obvious fallacy induced by celebrity endorsement because science needs positive publicity in America.

(via Culture of Science by Sheril Kirshenbaum) #science

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The Heathen Republican didn't quite have the budget of Michele Bachmann's campaign, but still made an effort to garner votes at the Straw Poll, complete with deep-fried hors d'oeuvres. Unfortunately he didn't have quite the turnout that other candidates enjoyed; I wonder why? "For ethical reasons, I instructed my campaign not to pay for any of the attendee’s tickets, so we only had a few people show up. I didn’t realize conservative votes could be purchased for as little as $30."

#atheism, #politics

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Ann Coulter is a gay icon, at least as far as right-wing gay lobbyist group GOProud is concerned. It shouldn't be surprising that she's the best they could dig up: "The organization, though branding itself as a gay rights group, generally views gay marriage as a states' rights affair—a stance famous for working out awesomely for interracial couples in Alabama before the mid-'60s."

(via Mother Jones) #politics, #lgbt

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Canadian game developer Bioware held an online poll to decide the appearance of the female version of Commander Shepard to be used in ads for Mass Effect 3. Flamewars and fanboy rage ensued over matters of hair, eye, and skin color.

Finally a feminist gamer chimed in and asked why it was even happening. "BioWare took one of the small handful of non-sexualized female heroes in gaming and put her on stage for the world to judge on appearances alone, aka a f**king beauty pageant. . . No male hero has ever been or ever would be dragged into the limelight and forced to defend himself like this."

(via my brother Josh, and Penny Arcade) #gaming, #feminism

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It appears that a few reverends in the Netherlands are rethinking the God Question but still keeping the faith nonetheless. "'God is not a being at all... it's a word for experience, or human experience,'" proclaims one reverend.  According to the BBC article, "[his] book Believing in a Non-Existent God led to calls from more traditionalist Christians for him to be removed. However, a special church meeting decided his views were too widely shared among church thinkers for him to be singled out."

I think that this story raises an intriguing question: are people like this being intellectually dishonest by identifying with a faith while not believing its theology, or are they facilitating the evolution of Christianity into a philosophy that will survive in the increasingly secular future?

(via fellow humanist Derrick S.) #Christianity #atheism

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That's all for now.  A post about the WTC "cross", a potential political rant, and a potential blogging-related announcement coming soonish.

Ghana is reportedly staging mass arrests of homosexuals

Via Blag Hag:

If this article is accurate, it appears that Ghana's government is taking notes from the Inquisition, colonial-era witch hunts, and fascism:

Ghana’s Western Region Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo MP has ordered the immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the country’s west.

Aidooo has tasked Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations and security forces to round up the country’s gay population and has called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspect of being homosexuals.

Never mind everything that's wrong with arresting adults for consensual relations with other adults; encouraging citizens to rat each other out like this will create an environment of fear among the people there. Will a quarrel with a neighbor lead him to accuse you of homosexuality? Should you accuse him first out of self-preservation?

They won't notice it coming until the undesirables are all gone and they have no one left to despise but each other.

While looking for other articles on this matter (I tend to be skeptical of stories that can only be traced back to a single news source), I stumbled across this opinion piece:

Ghanaians are first and foremost Afrikan people and must be proud and respect their Afrikan culture and value systems AND MUST NOT allow themselves to be hoodwinked into accepting something that is alien to their culture and value systems.

I've seen this kind of rhetoric before, and not just from the Christian and Muslim hardliners. Even African-American atheists have promoted this view that tolerance of homosexuality is an affront to the "Afrikan" way of life.

Sorry, but human rights aren't culturally relative. Celebrate your heritage all you like, but your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of another person's nose.

Marriage equality in NY: at last, a glimmer of hope from the Republican Party

With the aid of four reasonable Republicans, New York's legislature has officially legalized same-sex marriage in the state.

Photo credit

The law includes an exemption for religious institutions, specifying that they don't have to recognize same-sex unions as marriage.  Good for them; they're entitled to their own beliefs and can exclude anyone they want to from religious services.

I'm happy to see that at least some of them have realized that fighting culture wars is a waste of taxpayers' time and money.  Last time I checked, same-sex couples in loving and committed long term relationships weren't causing an economic crisis; shouldn't politicians focus their energy on bigger issues instead of trying to preserve archaic discrimination against this minority group?

It would be nice to see Republican legislators around the country (and on Capitol Hill) take note, but that's wishful thinking.  Fanning the flames of anti-gay sentiment is an all to easy way to distract their constituents from the fact that they aren't doing anything to trim down government spending.

At least four in New York got it right.