And not from what Olivia St. John is concerned about, as I see it. A resident WorldNetDaily gadfly (to use a relatively polite term), St. John is at it once again this morning (“Homosex in a public park near you“) over “the homosexual agenda,” longtime staple fare at WND …

But in the midst of all this, the reality is that children are at serious risk as the homosexual agenda proliferates in our nation’s public schools and continues invading our public space. The homosexual movement does not view moral people as friends, but our children are strongly desired, and they represent a hub around which the homosexual movement spins.

…

Those influenced by the “rulers of the darkness of this world” are doing their best to “call evil good and good evil” by using the public airwaves, public parks and public schools to push deviant sexual practices into the faces of our innocent children.

An entire generation is at risk.

Talk about fiddlin’ while Rome burns, I wish the Ms. St. Johns out there paid more attention to what the “rulers of the darkness” are leaving for future generations — 4,000 down and a helluva payback. Yup, nevermind death and taxes, let’s worry about “transsexual sex in public parks.” Sheesh …

British actor Paul Scofield, renowned for his stage and screen portrayal of Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” died yesterday. Mr. Scofield, the New York Times noted …

… made his debut as Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” on the school stage. “I had to wear an embarrassing blond wig,” he said. “But it was a turning point, because thenceforward there was nothing else I wanted to do.”

The Thomas More Law Center was also in the news yesterday. The TMLC has frequently been at odds with trans people, including …

• Opposing transsexual marriage in Kansas
• Opposing legislation against discrimination based on gender identity in Michigan
• Opposing trans-inclusive sex education in Maryland

Would Jesus approve of baring false witness against transgender people? Is that what conservative Christians now support — baring false witness to make “Christian” points?

Well, if you’re Theresa Rickman of the Citizens For A Responsible Government, it’s apparently okay to bare false witness against transgender people. If you’re a professional Christian like Matt Barber or Martha Kleder — both with the Concerned Women For America (CWA) — it’s apparently okay to use pejoratives like “she-male” (Matt: here; Martha: below) — and suborn baring false witness by not pointing out that your podcast guest created a media stunt, specifically to slander transgender people with false allegations of bad behavior in bathrooms and locker rooms.

In the breathless words of Martha Kleder: “Oh my goodness!”

Here’s a partial transcript of the recent CWA Podcast, surrounded by some commentary by JimK of TeachTheFacts.org’s Vigilance Blog:

But here’s the interesting part. A while back, a man in a dress went into a gym at Rio. He signed in, went to the ladies locker-room, and came out again. Channel Seven responded immediately with a breathless account. We found out later that Theresa Rickman was actually in the lobby of the gym when this happened, but the Citizens for Whatever have consistently denied that the event was staged.

Until now.

MARTHA KLEDER: Well Theresa, I also heard that someone tried to test this. Was there some event where a transgender or a shemale or someone tried to use the opposite sex bathroom?

THERESA RICKMAN: Yes, at Rio Sport and Health up in Germantown. A guy dressed as a girl went into the ladies bathroom. And, ah you know, essentially what uh, that was meant to get some media attention, you know, and the guy left immediately apparently, I mean but there was, this is the Rio Sport and Health Club, you know and Sport and Health has steam rooms, and there are ladies changing in those locker rooms, people in various stages of undress [laughing] all the time, so there’s lots a guy can see.

Yes, that is just what we were saying: this was meant to get some media attention. Greta Kreuz from Channel Seven sent an email saying she was “offended by suggestions that this incident was fabricated by this group and that Channel 7 got sucked into reporting it as part of an ‘agenda.’” We don’t know if she was fooled by it, or if she was part of the plan in the first place, but Channel Seven was the only outlet to tell their public about this “test of the new law.”

Well well well. Wasn’t that some seriously Christian behavior on Theresa’s, Martha’s, and Matt’s part now, eh?

I would call again for organizations like the American Family Association, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, or Focus On The Family/CitizenLink to renounce the CWA for their use of the “she-male” pejorative, as well as now for the CWA suborning the false witness baring of Theresa Rickman, but I won’t bother. Frankly, I doubt any religious right organization will look past their hate of LGBT people to condemn the bad public behavior by one of their peer “Christian” organizations.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* Good As You: Audio: But what about your bath? Is that off-limits also?

~~~~~
Related:
* When It Comes To Transgender People & Civil Rights, It Really Is Always About The Bathroom
* The TVC & CWA Dump On Dana Beyer; Amy Contrada Warns Of The Transgender Apocalypse
* Apparently, Transgender People Are Many Bad Things
* Tired
* It Looked Like Sh*t, It Smelled Like Sh*t, And By Golly It Apparently Was Sh*t
* This Story Smells A Little Foul
* Group seeks to repeal Maryland county gender identity and expression protections

This story is probably going to anger The Catholic League, the California Catholic Daily, Focus on The Family (CitizenLink), the Pacific Justice Institute, and the freepers — since these groups have already jumped on how wrong a transgender woman’s lawsuit over breast enhansemnt surgery was in the first place — but Seton Medical Center has just backed down on their use-of-facility denial of for a transgender woman’s plastic surgery. It seems that California requires that if you offer a type of surgery to some people, you can’t deny others surgery based on their being a member of California’s protected classes (i.e. race, religious creed, disability status, gender, etc.)

Seems that a denial of plastic surgery services that would be available to anyone else in at Seton’s facility is against the law — likely due to the changes that took effect with AB 1400 (The Civil Rights Act Of 2005); a change to California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (California’s public accommodation law).

The Catholic League proudly proclaimed in early January that “No Catholic Right to Transgender Surgery!“, and the California Catholic Daily proclaimed to this transgender woman God Made You A Man. It’s nice to see California considers these organizations, from a public accommodation perspective, wrong — I have to admit I’m pleased Seton is changing their policy, and these Catholic religious right organizations are functionally eating their words.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* Who is Catholic League president William Donohue?

~~~~~
Related:
* This And That: This Week In Gender Identity And Expression
* Chocolate Jesus, Eat Your Heart Out

Even the Rev. Albert Mohler can be right about some things, such as calling …

“the gift of gender … part of the goodness of God’s creation.”

So, be thankful and proud of your gift of gender.

Of course, it would have been nicer if that was all Mohler had to say, but … as you can read for yourself in this “under the radar” news story, it wasn’t.

Well! Exodus International and Focus On The Family have let us know — in CitizenLink‘s piece Gay Activists Unveil Their Agenda for the New Year — who exactly has the master copy of the “nefarious” Homosexual Agenda®.

For those of you who wanted to know, it’s Lambda Legal!!!

Homosexual and transgendered activists are planning 2008 forays into every sector of society — business, health care, schools, the courts, the military and more. That’s according to an online report from Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the pro-gay Lambda Legal.

Hate-crimes laws, which grant special protection to homosexuals, are part of the agenda. So is legislation to give gay employees — including transgendered individuals — special rights.

Randy Thomas, executive vice president of Exodus International, said those are just the priorities the activists admit to.

“They’re not talking about what they’re doing inside of individual states,” he said. “There’s a lot of specifics that are not being pointed out.”

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, said: “It is a very nefarious agenda, and we have to be on our guard.”

Okay then! I expect Kevin Cathcart to mail out a copy of the document marked Homosexual Agenda® everyone who identifies as LGBT by the end of next week, otherwise my peers and I won’t know what “nefarious” activities we’re supposed to get involved with this coming year.

ProudParenting is pleased as punch. Equality California and the GSA Network are pretty pleased too. The Student Civil Rights Act Of 2007 – SB 777 –survived an attempt at repeal by referendum. As 365Gay is reporting:

A conservative Christian group has failed to collect enough signatures to force a vote to repeal a California law protecting students from discrimination, harassment and bullying in publicly-funded schools.

But a legal challenge to the law is still before the courts.

Save Our Kids, the organization that spearheaded the referendum effort says it collected over 350,000 signatures to overturn the law – far short of the required 434,000 signatures that had to be turned in on Friday.

The Student Civil Rights Act, passed and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, mandates that teachers and school administrators fully understand their responsibilities to protect LGBT youth.

Various California laws have prohibited discrimination in public education on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, religion, race, disability and gender for a number of years.

But in some instances school administrators have been unclear about all the laws and what they need to do to fight bullying. The Student Civil Rights Act updated the existing Education Code to bring all the discrimination laws under one section.

Religious right organizations are attempting to put a good face on this defeat, and perhaps it’s not completely spin.

WingNutDaily is reporting War over indoctrination moves to initiative arena; Pro-family groups seeking to overturn ‘gay’ mandates.

The battle in California over a new state law that would mandate a positive – and no other – portrayal of bisexuals, homosexuals, transgenders and others choosing alternative sexual lifestyles in public schools has moved into a campaign for an initiative.

Officials with Save Our Kids made the announcement yesterday after confirming that their effort to obtain 434,000 signatures for a referendum fell short, coming up with 350,000 names.

[Save Our Kids and Focus On The Family comment/report on efforts to peal back protections for LGBT youth after the fold]

Read the rest of this entry »

How quickly the lessons regarding how the Democratic Congressional Leadership managed to publicly divide the LGBT community over ENDA — how much energy and resources were wasted by LGBT civil rights and other LGBT non-profit organizations battling over the “real or perceived gender” language that was first in, then out of ENDA — have been apparently lost on Sen. Kennedy.

The Washington Blade reported this morning in their article Kennedy favors ’08 Senate vote on ENDA; Leaked HRC memo suggests putting measure on hold until next year:

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is expected to push for a Senate vote in 2008 on the same gay-only version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that the House of Representatives passed in 2007, a Kennedy spokesperson said this week.

Kennedy stated on the Senate floor on Nov. 8, one day after the House passed ENDA by a vote of 235 to 184, that he hoped the Senate would follow suit by passing the employment protection bill in the current Congress, which lasts through 2008.

But until this week, Kennedy’s office had not stated publicly where Kennedy stood on the demands by many gay and transgender organizations that Congress should withhold any action on ENDA unless it includes protection for transgender persons.

“Although Sen. Kennedy strongly supports protections against job discrimination for transgender workers, inaction won’t advance justice for anyone, and will just make it harder to pass any version of ENDA in 2009,” said Kennedy spokesperson Melissa Wagoner.

“We will most likely work to move the House-passed bill, rather than introducing a separate Senate bill,” Wagoner told the Blade by e-mail. “Because the same legislation must pass both the House and Senate, now that the House has acted, the only realistic way to get a bill to the president’s desk this Congress is to have the Senate pass the House bill.”

Further into the Blade piece, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he’s in favor of an ENDA vote in 2008 — he’s looking for a bipartisan “super majority” to protect the gay-only ENDA from a filibuster.

Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Frank, and Rep. Miller were surprised by how grassroots LGBT activists organized and fought against the sexual orientation only version of ENDA. Senators Kennedy and Reid should be under no such illusion — what Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Reid are contemplating is a prescription for dividing the LGBT base for a second time in the same presidential election cycle. A sexual orientation-only Senate ENDA bill will also likely expose Democratic Senators to preexisting backlash on this controversial issue; it will expose Senators Obama and Clinton in particular to either voting for a civil rights bill that intentionally leaves parts of the LGBT community behind, or vote against a bill that would increase the protections of most LGB people — a no win vote. Secondly, presenting a gay-only ENDA for will provide a fairly significant distraction for LGBT activists at a time when the community is trying to focus on the 2008 presidential election.

[More on Senate sexual orientation-only ENDA, and the Gov. Huckabee/Evangelical/Social Conservative Christian factor]

Read the rest of this entry »

For Sunday …

#1 – No surprise (Franco is dead!), I guess, that the reparative therapy business is international …

Two Spanish clerics, one Protestant, the other Catholic are under fire by gay rights organisations for their homophobic views.

Protestant minister Marcos Zapata is to face an investigation by the Galicia regional government into the organisation he runs that claims to helps troubled youth. It is claimed that he recently hosted a seminar called “How to Raise Heterosexual Children”.

According to media at the seminar, Senor Zapata likened homosexuality to alcoholism and claimed it was an illness that could be healed through family therapy. He advised the audience to “hug your sons as much as you can, because if you don’t, perhaps another man will”.

The regional government has said it is firmly against “any type of proselytising or homophobic attitudes.”

“After so many legal victories in this country, and for the first time people are talking openly about homosexuality in schools, we have to deal with fundamentalist groups which take us back to the Franco dictatorship,”Toni Poveda, the president of the National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals told The Guardian. “And of course we are going to try to stop this from happening. Sexual orientation is innate and there’s no way to change it.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic bishop of the Canary island of Tenerife claimed in an interview that “homosexuality harms society, and we will pay for it.” He also compared homosexuality to paedophilia and drug addiction.

Spanish clerics to face investigation over gay “cure” speech

#2 – In Canada, a she said, he said …

A Quebec City trans activist and lawyer says the NDP dumped her from her candidacy in a federal Quebec City riding because of her gender identity.

“I was a very attractive candidate when I was chosen to run for the NDP but now, nine months later, it seems I have lost all of my sex appeal,” Micheline Anne Montreuil told Xtra.

Montreuil, who has been involved with the NDP on and off since the late 1970s, says Raymond Guardia, cochair of the party’s Quebec electoral planning committee, contacted her with a list of reasons for dumping her that included a desire by potential candidates in other ridings to not have their names associated with hers. She says the suggestion that she doesn’t work well with others couldn’t be further from the truth.

…

An NDP spokesperson says Montreuil’s gender identity is not the reason she was given the boot.

“She can say whatever she likes but she knows our reasons and she knows that her gender identity is not one of them,” says Matthew McLauchlin, copresident of the NDP Quebec section’s LGBTT commission. “Essentially the reason we couldn’t retain her candidacy is because of her behaviour toward other NDP activists.”

…

McLauchlin says there are no hard feelings toward Montreuil.

“I don’t want to diminish her victories as a trans activist,” he says. “That’s what attracted the NDP to her as a candidate in the first place. I hope her work for trans rights continues, as ours will.”

Montreuil’s victories include a decision last year by The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that the Canadian Forces discriminated against her because of her sexuality when it passed her up for a job. She won a similar case against the National Bank in 2004.

Turfed trans candidate speaks out

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that transgender issues are part of the Radical Homosexual Agenda®, I should probably mention at the start here that my Radical Homosexual Agenda® item for today was making a lower fat tray of lasagna. To lower the fat, I used ground turkey breast, non-fat feta, and low fat ricotta. Also, I used whole wheat lasagna noodles to well, put healthy whole grain goodness into the dish. Y’all should be taking notes.

But more seriously, here in my home state of California, Focus on the Family Action is grousing about the Homosexual Agenda® wasting of California’s education resources:

Lynne Fishel, spokeswoman for the California Family Council, said the homosexual agenda is using up valuable instruction time and resources.

“The Legislature continues to pass legislation that affects schools, but are really peripheral to basic education,” she told Family News in Focus.

Finn Laursen of the Christian Educators Association said the solution is to get back to core curriculum.

Egads! Apparently, I and the rest of my homosexual agendaists want students graduating out of California’s schools to be dumber than a box of rocks! But, we apparently want the rocks to be gay friendly. Go figure.

Well, as a transwoman, I’m concerned that the victims of school bullying can also suffer academically — for example, Tamara Lange, a staff attorney for the ACLU told the Contra Costa Times that there is a 27 percent dropout rate among transgender students.

And, on top of that…

- More than one-third (36 percent) of GLBT undergraduate students have experienced harassment within the past year, as have 29 percent of all respondents.

- Those who experienced harassment reported that derogatory remarks were the most common form (89 percent) and that students were most often the source of harassment (79 percent).

- Twenty percent of all respondents feared for their physical safety because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 51 percent concealed their sexual orientation or gender identity to avoid intimidation.

And, beyond that…

…the 2004-06 California Healthy Kids Survey shows that 27 percent to 30 percent of middle and high school students have reported being harassed because of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

Yeah, teaching basics will solve everything.

Oh, and Ms. Fishel — read this from the Lompoc Record:

Veteran activists credit the political participation of gay youth, their straight friends and children of same-sex parents with a string of recent legislative victories…

…the most effective spokespeople are not necessarily gay youth, but the straight students who joined with them to form more than 2,500 high school gay-straight alliance clubs across the country since the early 1990s.

Carolyn Lamb, director of California’s Gay-Straight Alliance Network, estimates that up to 40 percent of the 400 high school and college students recently bused to Sacramento for Queer Youth Advocacy Day were not gay, lesbian or transgender.

“Most of the adult-driven (gay) civil rights work doesn’t have such large numbers of straight allies who see it as a civil rights cause,” she observed.

* sigh * I’m so tired of Focus on the Family Action‘s stupid Christian Dominionist Agenda®.

~~~~~
Related:
* The Homosexual Agenda
* Latest Attacks Of Teh HomoSEXual Agenda’s Transgenderededs’s Bullet Points

As promised, here’s a “link farm” of thoughts on ENDA, broken up into a section of LGBT organization comments, a section of religious right organization comments, a section of editorials and commentaries comments, and a section of congressmember/politician comments. By no means is this comprehensive article list, but it’s meant to give a pretty wide cross-section of viewpoints on the recent passage of ENDA.

[Btw, there is a video up of the Congressional ENDA passage press conference here.]

LGBT Civil Rights and Non-Profits

National Center For Transgender Equality: Mara Keisling, NCTE’s Executive Director writes…

Human Rights Campaign: U.S. House Takes Historic Step by Passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Lambda Legal: ENDA: Aim Higher

The Gay & Lesbian Task Force: Task Force, Inc., responds to House passage of non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act and One Community. One Enda. On To 2009.

People For The American Way: Jorge Mursuli on ENDA: “A cause for celebration”

PFLAG: PFLAG Commits to Increasing Congressional Education Efforts on the Need for Gender Identity Protections in the Workplace

National Stonewall Democrats: Statement on Passage of HR 3685

San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center: The Center Calls ENDA Passage ‘A Mixed Bag;’ Expresses Profound Disappointment At President’s Indication Of A Veto

Religious Right Organizations

Concerned Women for America: First Amendment Trampled With ENDA Passage

Liberty Council: Veto will likely be needed to defeat ENDA – H.R. 3685 Passed House 235 to 184

OneNewsNow / American Family Association: Family advocate says ENDA vote shows ‘arrogance’ and POLL: Readers want end of ENDA

Illinois Family Institute: U.S. House Passes ENDA

Focus On The Family: Republicans Switch Over to Pass Dangerous ENDA Bill

Lifesite: Conservatives React Against Pro-Gay ENDA Measure Dismissive of First Amendment

CNS News: Republicans Say ENDA ‘Takes Dead Aim at Religious Freedom’

Newsbusters (Robert Knight): See No ENDA, Hear No ENDA, Speak No ENDA

Editorials and Commentaries

New York Times Editorial: An Overdue Step for Equal Justice

Windy City Times: Views: Symbolism or Substance in ENDA Debate?

Chillicothe Gazette [OH,USA] Editorial: ENDA a victory for those who believe in equality

Gay City News: What Does Victory Mean?

The Nation: What’s Next For ‘ENDA With No Gender’?

Southern Voice: Bloggers react to ENDA

Washington Blade: The House makes history

Congressmembers/Politicians

Rep. Roy Blunt: The Majority’s ENDA Problem: Freedom of Religion, Meet Free Flow of Litigation

Sen. Edward Kennedy: Kennedy On ENDA

Rep. Barney Frank: Congressman Frank Speaks Out Against The Republican Motion To Send The Employment Non-Discrimination Act Back To Committee

Rep. Tammy Baldwin: Statement On House Passage of H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007

Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean: Howard Dean Applauds House Passage of ENDA

Our Wednesday and Thursday, 100% more news edition …

#1 – Inside Indonesia looks beyond the stereotypes in this profile of the country’s transgender (waria) community …

Before she even opens her mouth, the petite, jilbab-wearing and refined looking Shuniyya Ruhama Habiiballah has already gone a long way towards achieving one of her driving missions in life: to challenge the dominant stereotype of Indonesia’s large transgendered community, who describe themselves as waria, a term for transgendered people derived from the words wanita (woman) and pria (man).

As Shuniyya says in her softly spoken, decidedly feminine voice: ‘People see the waria as sex workers on the side of the streets at night, dressed in mini-skirts, with silicone-inflated breasts as large as watermelons. They see the show business drag queens who perform on stage and on television. They see these waria and think that they know what a waria is. They don’t. The waria they see are just the most obvious and easy to identify, and the ones the straight community are most likely to meet.’

…

Defining waria

#2 – As Oakland Park has become the latest Florida community to protect its transgender employees and residents from discrimination, Palm Beach and Broward counties may be next to do so …

Transgender is quietly becoming a protected class in South Florida as cities vote to prohibit discrimination against a group that faces tremendous challenges fitting in.

Palm Beach and Broward counties may extend the protection next, which could leave the broadest imprint by affording civil rights to people for their gender identity or expression. The movement accelerated with the March firing of Largo City Manager Susan Stanton, who transitioned from male to female this year.

“It shined a light on what this discrimination is,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Stanton’s attorney. “It really underscored how important it is to have these ordinances.”

Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Tequesta and Oakland Park have approved nondiscrimination clauses this year either covering city employees or all residents. Oakland Park was the latest last week and Wilton Manors may consider adding transgender as well.

County ordinances would go further by outlawing discrimination in the workplace and housing in all cities and unincorporated areas. Thirteen states and more than 90 cities and counties already have such laws, with the first passed more than 30 years ago. Advocates hope local ordinances will lead to a statewide law, health insurance coverage for sexual reassignment surgery and greater acceptance.

…

Transgender community works to gain protections in South Florida

(You can vote in the Sun Sentinel’s “Transgender poll” here. The Sun Sentinel, by the way, does not support this legislation.)

#3 – Candis Cayne appears Wednesday evening in the debut of ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money.

#4 – Some reading from the “dark side” …

Homosexuals and cross-dressers may in fact be a lot of things, but an oppressed minority they are not. And I, for one, resent their temerity in suggesting that a rejection of their chosen lifestyle is in any way equivalent to what truly oppressed peoples in this country went through for the right to vote, sit at a lunch counter and/or stay in the hotel of their choice.

Homosexuals are not immutable – there is a difference between refusing to change one’s behavior and being unable to change the color of one’s skin. They are no more economically deprived than others, and they certainly do not have a history of political and historical powerlessness. Ergo, sexual orientation is not a civil right. Homosexual activists represent one of the most powerful lobbies per capita in the country. But I digress.

Homosexuality is not a civil right

The conflated logic of the ACLU’s bathroom briefs seems to be that someone entering a public restroom intending to use it for traditional purposes has no protection either from the gender sign posted at the door or from the otherwise vaunted right to privacy. Someone entering a public restroom intending to solicit and engage in sex, on the other hand, is protected by both the First Amendment and the right to privacy.

What else would you expect from a group that embraces an ideology that holds that partially born babies have no right to keep their skulls intact?

Get the ACLU Out of Our Bathrooms

ENDA would “strike at the very heart of our American liberties,” said
Doug Napier, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. It’s
especially threatening to businesses that are already “regulated to
death,” Napier said. “And now we’re going to tell you who you can hire
and who you can’t fire, based on a category of protection that is not
based on an immutable characteristic, but a choice of lifestyle.”

Tom Strohbar, an expert in stockholder interests in Dayton, Ohio, said
the workplace is the wrong place for this issue, where it is
inappropriate – even illegal – for employers to inquire about workers’
sexual activities or orientation.

“Really, what they should be asking employees is that when they come
to work, they don’t talk about their personal sexual interests and
activities,” Strohbar told Family News in Focus. “And if they don’t
talk about these things, the issue is completely moot. We don’t need
the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.”

ENDA: Workplace is the Wrong Place for Sexual Politics

#5 – The Boston Globe had an op-ed piece yesterday about the some of the deceitful disinformation being aimed at the Matthew Shepard (Hate Crimes) Act pending in the U.S. Senate …

AMERICANS who understand basic principles of justice have no problems with the hate crime bill known as the Matthew Shepard Act. This legislation, now awaiting a vote in the Senate, would finally protect the many citizens who are targeted for violence simply because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, and it would provide law enforcement the necessary resources to investigate bias-fueled brutality.

Unfortunately, some clergy across the nation have joined together to oppose this bill in an aggressive and divisive manner. For instance, conservative African-American leaders – most notably Bishop Harry Jackson of Maryland’s Hope Christian Church – have been inundating the media and faith communities with the message that this legislation will allow police to storm into worship services and arrest clergy if they speak against being gay. They make the incendiary allegation that the bill will create “thought crimes” by punishing people for thinking ill of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The truth is that the Matthew Shepard Act protects all First Amendment rights. And, although that is a given, this bill goes out of its way to protect the free speech of ministers. Those pastors who wish to continue condemning and dehumanizing the gay community will be free to do so.

The hate crimes bill provides resources for the investigation of violent actions – not beliefs, thoughts, or words. The proposed federal statute does not punish nor prohibit free expression of one’s religious beliefs. As University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone recently concluded, “The argument of the pastors that the proposed legislation in any way threatens their right to preach their version of the Gospel is, to be frank, ridiculous.”

…

Fabricated fears about hate crime legislation

#6 – Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who’s visiting the U.S., has claimed that his country does not have a gay problem …

At Columbia University on Monday, Mr Ahmadinejad said homosexuality did not exist in Iran. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” he told a questioner who accused his government of executing gay people. “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you that we have it.”

(Nature abhors a vaccum.)

While Mr Ahmadinejad may want to believe that his Islamic society is exclusively non-gay, it is a belief undermined by the paradox that transsexuality and sex changes are tolerated and encouraged under Iran’s theocratic system.

Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country in the world besides Thailand.

Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. Whereas homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure.

While the government seeks to keep its approval quiet, state support has increased since Mr Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. His government has begun providing grants of £2,250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy. It is also proposing loans of up to £2,750 to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.

Maryam Khatoon Molkara, leader of the country’s main transsexual organisation, said some of those undergoing operations were gay rather than out-and-out transsexuals.

…

Sex change funding undermines no gays claim

#7 – Christine Daniels writes about going to Southern Comfort and … talking football …

When I say Southern Comfort played a big part in my recent vacation, I don’t mean I went on a five-day whiskey bender — although it’s fair to say I spent the time surrounded by some high and lively spirits.

Southern Comfort, held annually in Atlanta, is said to be the largest transgender conference in the country, which is a much more substantial claim today than it was when the event debuted 17 years ago. The map and the calendar are now dotted with such events: Be All (Chicago), California Dreamin (San Jose), Colorado Gold Rush (Denver), Esprit Gala (Port Angeles, Wash.), Fantasia Fair (Provincetown, Mass.), IFGE (Tucson next spring) — just to name a half-dozen. They are all examples of a North American transgender community continuing to grow, wanting to connect and needing to educate.

…

Southern Comfort (plus refreshments!)

#8 – Sad to say, Holly Woodlawn has seen better days …

“Holly came from Miami F-L-A,
Hitchhiked her way across the USA,
Plucked her eyebrows on the way,
Shaved her legs and then he was a she …”

That’s how Lou Reed made Holly Woodlawn, the Warhol Factory superstar and legendary drag queen, famous in his 1972 song Walk on the Wild Side. Here’s Woodlawn’s expanded version: “I was 15 years old and failing at high school in Miami Beach because I was too busy partying. I was supposed to go to summer school to catch up and really didn’t want to, so I joined some of these Cuban queens to go to New York. I hocked some jewellery and we made it all the way to Georgia, where the money ran out and we had to hitchhike the rest of the way.

“Atlanta, Georgia, of all places – you could expect to be tarred and feathered and murdered in those days! But we survived and I remember the first time I saw New York: the Emerald City. I thought the sidewalks were made of diamonds because of the specks of mica in the asphalt. It was 1962. Marilyn had just died. I lived on the streets like everyone does when they run away. I met some girlfriends who took me in and we found a place in Queens. I was really lucky. I met this guy who fell in love with me and asked me to be his girlfriend. I started taking hormones for a sex-change and lived as his wife, working in the days as a clothing model at Saks Fifth Avenue. Oh, the things I did! And for six or seven years they never knew I was a boy. Not a clue!”

…

‘Oh, the things I did!’

#9 – Over in Oregon, where the usual suspects would like to repeal the pro-GLBT legislation passed this spring, Byron Beck writing in Willamette Week passes on this advice …

Be Nice to Your (Republican) Neighbors. When chatting up your holier-than-thou neighbors, don’t preach about how your rights are about to be yanked out from under you. That didn’t work on Measure 36 in ’04, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to work four years later. Just smile and let them prattle on about how nice it is to have neighbors who care as much about their lawns as they do. Pretend not to be offended when they say, “The gays have great green thumbs.” But for godsakes, take notes, make lists, and by all means videotape any behavior that can be construed as even the tiniest bit homophobic—there are bloggers out there just waiting for your link to YouTube.

…

Best Friends, Worst Enemies
It’s the time for queers to go back in the closet.

#10 – Finally, some upcoming events. On Thursday …

Attempts by Republican Senator and Presidential hopeful John McCain to block new legislation that would extent hate crimes to cover LGBT people will come to a head tomorrow with a crucial vote.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid has filed a cloture motion on the hate crimes bill, a procedural move to overcome Senator McCain’s objection to bringing the amendment to the floor.

…

US hate crimes law faces key vote in Senate

And, on Friday on the Oprah Winfrey Show …

What would you do if your 7-year-old daughter said, “Mom, I should be a
boy.” Meet guests who say they were born in the wrong body. Their stories on
facing the world transgendered.

Born In The Wrong Body

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a poignant commentary about waiting for equality in his I Have A Dream:

…It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have waited a long time an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) — for federal LGBT civil rights legislation. Transpeople have waited a long time too. Let’s be clear though — the LGBT wait has been decades, and not the centuries Black America waited. That’s a good thing, to be sure. There is a fresh urgency of the moment with regards to LGBT civil rights, and there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality in the air for the LGBT community.

And yet, my transgender peers and I haven’t forgotten that with regards to gay, lesbian, and bisexual, and transgender civil rights, it wasn’t until a few years ago that national LGBT civil rights and other LGBT non-profits banded together and said “We won’t support an ENDA without transgender inclusion.” It was monumental.

Soon after the LGBT civil rights organizations and non-profits banded together in 2004 on the ENDA decision for trans inclusion, Chris Crain, then Executive Editor of Window Media, wrote an editorial entitled ENDA gets trans-jacked.

…it is mind-boggling that HRC has caved into trans activists and other groups — including the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and PFLAG — and is now insisting ENDA should be passed only if it also includes protections for transgendered people.

IF HRC AND these other groups have their way, workplace protection for gays and bisexuals will be held hostage until a majority in Congress (and the president) agrees to protection for transgendered employees.

This “trans-jacking” of ENDA is wrong politically, legally and even morally. And it’s the latest sign that the groups at the supposed helm of the movement for gay civil rights are out of touch with their constituents and sadly adrift when we need them the most.

…It would be wrong and immoral for us to expect others to be treated unfairly until we are treated equally. And it is just as wrong and just as immoral for transgendered people and their P.C. allies in gay rights groups to expect the same.

Mr. Crain didn’t say it directly, but he certainly implied it — there are those against employment non-discrimination for LGBT folk that will specifically highlight trans inclusion to make a case against ENDA as a whole.

And, that’s happening now; anti-transgender ENDA talking points are now currently making the rounds in the religious right press. Matt Barber of the Concerned Women for America wrote about trans inclusion in the most hideous of terms just last week. The Illinois Family Institute add transgender inclusion to their talking points when they too wrote about ENDA last week:

Practically, how would ENDA be applied?
- A male teacher comes into work dressed as a woman because it is his ‘gender preference’ that day. He must be allowed to teach, talk with the children about why he’s dressing this way, and even use the women’s restroom…

And this week, just so far this week, the California Catholic Daily and Focus On The Family’s CitizenLink have highlighted ENDA’s trans inclusion in ENDA as a reason to reject the bill. From the California Catholic Daily:

The bill would claim a federal right to prohibit “employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity” by invoking congressional powers to “enforce the 14th amendment to the Constitution, and to regulate interstate commerce and provide for the general welfare.” It would make it unlawful for an employer to discharge or refuse to hire any individual based on his or her “actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.” Such individuals would be protected from any employer’s actions that “would adversely affect” their status as an employee. The bill covers not only employers, but employment agencies, labor organizations, and training programs.

The bill defines “gender identity” as the “gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.” An employer under the bill is “any person engaged in an industry affecting commerce” who has 15 or more employees for each working day for 20 or more weeks a year.

Though not stating the matter in so many words, the bill seems to classify as discrimination an employer forbidding anyone access to bathrooms or dressing facilities because of his perceived gender identity. The bill exempts “denial of access to shared shower or dressing facilities in which being seen fully unclothed is unavoidable” – but, in such cases, the employer must provide “reasonable access to adequate facilities that are not inconsistent with the employee’s gender identity.” But what of situations where employees are not “fully unclothed”? The bill does not say.

From Focus On The Family’s CitizenLink:

If Congress passes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA – HR 2015), stories like the following could become commonplace across America:

– A transgender podiatrist sued St. Luke’s Hospital of Allentown, Pa., claiming she was fired because “she” had stopped being a “he.” Terms of a court settlement were not disclosed, but the hospital said it agreed to add “gender identity and expression” to its patient bill of rights and educate hospital staff on gender identity and sexual orientation issues.

– A California software maker paid a settlement and legal fees totaling more than $1 million because the company did not promote a man who had come to work dressed as a woman. It did not matter that the company did not even know the “woman” was a man. The “victim” sued under California’s “sexual orientation” law. To cover for the settlement costs, eight employees were laid off, with the number eventually growing to 20.

ENDA would “strike at the very heart of our American liberties,” said Doug Napier, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. It’s especially threatening to businesses that are already “regulated to death,” Napier said. “And now we’re going to tell you who you can hire and who you can’t fire, based on a category of protection that is not based on an immutable characteristic, but a choice of lifestyle.”

Trans inclusion is giving the religious right anti-ENDA talking points.

And yet, regarding transgender inclusion in ENDA, Matt Forman, Executive Director of the NGLTF wrote of New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in his 2004 piece ENDA As We’ve Known It Must Die:

Ultimately, a constituency has the right to decide what kind of legislation is advanced on its behalf. I believe now that if we had insisted on trans-inclusion years back, it would have happened, maybe not immediately, but it would have happened.

The LGBT community has, at the core of its activism on civil rights, decided that including the T in LGBT means something more than just lip service. As a transwoman, I’m very thankful that the public attitudes towards ENDA trans inclusion by national LGBT civil rights organizations and non-profits changed in 2004.

But, one can’t deny that Chris Crain had a point: Adding the T to ENDA has garnered additional talking points for arguing against the ENDA’s enactment. Crain believes that ENDA may be delayed because of trans inclusion; whereas Foreman essentially agreed, but felt any delay in enacting ENDA because of trans inclusion would be worth it.

This, apparently, for the LGBT community is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off, nor is it apparently the time to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. It’s all or nothing on trans inclusion.

So to my LGB peers, as well as all of the T community significant others, friends, families, and allies — my personal thanks for taking the extra religious right crap on behalf of my transgender peers and me with regards to ENDA. Thanks for making real the promises of democracy and equality within the broader LGBT community; there really is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality in the air.

We will have ENDA. We may have to wait until a new presidential administration to have it on the books, but we will have ENDA soon. And, the ENDA that becomes law will include transpeople in its protections.

~~~~~
Further reading:
* Elizabeth Birch, former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign ENDA & the Transgender Community (2003)
* Chris Crain: ENDA gets trans-jacked (2004)
* Chris Crain: ‘Trans or bust’ is still a bust (2005)
* Donna Rose: ‘Trans or Bust’ is still a bust – A Response (2005)

Some of the trans-related news we’re reading today, Wednesday …

#1 – The Nigerian cross-dressers (Nigerian men could face death penalty for ‘gay marriage’, Transvestite Court Drama Stuns Nigeria, Mob Tries To Lynch Men Awaiting Sentencing For Homosexuality, Cross-dressing trial stalls in Nigeria sharia court) are in the news again …

The 18 men accused of dressing up as women in a Shaira court have been rearrested and recharged.

The men were granted bail by a Tudun Alkali Sharia court judge last month. Yesterday they were remanded in custody in a court session that was closed to the public.

The case has been transferred from the state ministry of justice to being prosecuted by the Police CID, lawyers said.

Parading the suspects before the upper Sharia court one the police prosecutor Mohammed Baba Sarki told the court that the police charged the suspects with “idleness and vagabond, organizing unlawful society gathering, criminal conspiracy, and indecent acts”

…

Nigeria: Bauchi Cross-Dressing Men Re-Arrested, Served Fresh Charges

One would hope for their sakes that “indecent acts” does not include sodomy, for which — should they be convicted — sharia law evidently prescribes a penalty of death by stoning.

#2 – Two stories of interest from Australia today, both involving marriage and official documents …

A transsexual who transitioned from male to female in 2002 has been handed a difficult choice by Australia’s Federal Court – either divorce your wife or keep your male designation of official documents.

The woman, known only in court documents as AB, had been married for several years before she felt comfortable enough to accept her transgenderism. With the support of her wife she began transitioning and completed her surgery in April 2002.

Three years later she applied to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the state of Victoria to have her sex changed from male to female on her birth certificate.

Her request was rejected on the grounds she was married.

The registrar cited Australia’s ban on same-sex marriage as the reason.

In 2004 the Australian government passed legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman and Prime Minister John Howard has refused to consider national civil union legislation.

AB took the case to court.

Her lawsuit claimed the registrar discriminated against her on the grounds of marital status and because she is a woman. She also claimed the decision contravened the national Sex Discrimination Act.

Her case was dismissed by a Federal Court justice and AB appealed.

Now, a three justice panel again dismissed the case.

The situation faced by AD and her wife is the second slam taken recently by transsexuals in Australia. The federal government will not permit transitioning transsexuals to have their corrected sex indicated on passports.

Last month a transsexual preparing to leave for sex reassignment surgery in Thailand said the government is endangering her life by refusing to give her a passport identifying her as female. (story)

Australian Transsexual In ‘Catch 22′

and …

The Federal Government has refused to issue a post-operative trans woman a female passport on the basis that she is married to a woman.

Grace Abrams last week appealed the decision by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Abrams, who married her long-term partner Fiona Power using her male birth certificate, will have a legally recognised same-sex marriage if she wins the case.

Abrams, born Gregory Anthony Abrams, began a relationship with Power in 2000. Between 2001 and 2005, Abrams underwent the transition to female, officially changing her name to Grace in 2002.

Abrams married Power in 2005, before obtaining an interim passport in her intended sex to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Thailand.

On returning to Australia as a female, Abrams applied to the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages to register the change of sex. A female birth certificate was refused on the basis she was married.

Shortly after, Abrams armed herself with documentation that proved she was a woman, including medical certificates and statutory declarations, and lodged an application for an amended passport through the Australian Passport Office.

Not only was her valid interim female passport destroyed, Abrams was told she could be issued with a passport in the male gender only. She was later informed she could not be issued with a valid passport in the female gender because she could not provide a birth certificate showing the gender of reassignment.

All Australian citizens, including Abrams, are entitled to a passport if they can prove their identity and citizenship.

Abrams’s lawyer David Shoebridge said if a trans person is not married, the Department of Births Deaths and Marriages would issue a birth certificate in the new gender.

“The Minister relied upon the failure of Grace Abrams to provide an amended birth certificate as the reason for refusing her application,” he said.

“That is purely a policy position taken by the Passport Office and is not founded in any legal requirements.”

Lawyers acting on behalf of the government told the Tribunal that Abrams could not be issued with a female passport because she did not have an amended birth certificate. They said the Minister was not satisfied Abrams was a woman.

However, it was acknowledged in the government’s Statement of Facts that the Minister was not bound to the policy.

Abrams said it was not fair to force trans people to choose between having their marriage or post-operative gender recognised.

“It is inhuman and unjust,” she said.

The verdict will be handed down in about two weeks.

Passport Snub ‘Unjust’

#3 – In another document-related story, the City of San Francisco may be looking at issuing ID cards …

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano introduced an ordinance Tuesday to give every person living in San Francisco the option of obtaining a city-issued identification card …

San Francisco would be the second U.S. city to implement such a card. New Haven, Conn., began issuing city cards earlier this summer.

The proposal also has the support of activists in the transgender community – as the card would not include a specified gender – and from advocates for homeless people.

Identification card measure intended to help ‘invisible’ immigrants

and …

While this law would greatly help undocumented immigrants, the municipal ID’s would be available to all San Franciscans. This is intentional, said Ammiano, because we do not want immigrants targeted because they have these ID’s. Moreover, other groups have difficulty with ID’s – seniors who no longer drive, homeless who need services, and transgenders who may not have their status recognized and suffer from harassment.

“It is a gesture to bring all folks out of the shadows,” said Kristina Wertz of the Transgender Law Center, a non-profit group that assists transgenders with various legal problems. “ID’s that accurately reflect one’s own gender and one’s name are important. We thank Supervisor Ammiano and his staff for including the trans community.”

San Francisco Values: Municipal ID Cards

#4 – The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has released its sixth annual Corporate Equality Index …

The Index is used by the LGBT rights organisation to rate employers on a scale from 0 to 100 percent on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.

The 195 businesses that met all of the criteria employ more than
8.3 million workers.

When the Index was first released in 2002 only 13 companies, employing 690,000 workers, received the top rating.

…

The movement in corporate America toward equality in the workplace has prompted a coalition of corporations and civil rights groups to form the Business Coalition for Workplace Fairness aimed at leveling the playing field by enacting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

ENDA – which is scheduled to be considered by the full U.S. House of Representatives later this month – would ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“In the next few weeks, Congress will vote on federal legislation that U.S. employers have already overwhelmingly embraced,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “It’s the right thing to do for our economy and for our country.”

…

Ratings are based on factors like non-discrimination policies, diversity training and benefits for domestic partners and transgender employees.

Among the findings of this year’s report:

For the first time, a majority of rated firms – 58 percent – provide
employment protections on the basis of gender identity.

…

Corporate America ready for ENDA

#5 – The quote of the day belongs to “Citizen,” commenting on a story, “Job Bias Bill Privileges Gays Over Faithful, Warn Christians,” in The Christian Post …

“Calling discrimination “religion” does not lessen the pain of people subject to it. Your right to swing your fist and call it a religion ends at my nose.”

It’s kinda strange to watch.  The Thomas More Law Center, which describes itself as…

The Thomas More Law Center is a not-for-profit public interest law firm dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. Our purpose is to be the sword and shield for people of faith, providing legal representation without charge to defend and protect Christians and their religious beliefs in the public square. We achieve this goal principally through litigation, seeking out significant cases, consistent with our mission, where our expertise can be of service to others. We also defend and promote faith and family through media and educational efforts. Above all, the lawyers of the Thomas More Center seek to meet the highest moral and ethical standards of our Christian faith and our legal profession.

…wrote an article about the recently adopted Montgomery County (in Maryland just outside of Washington DC) School’s sex education guidelines.  To give y’all an idea of how this organization impacts the talking points of the conservative Christian media and many conservative Christian organizations, here’s a excerpt from the Thomas More Law Center‘s article…

 A public school district’s program promoting anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestitism as normal sexual variations was recently approved by the Maryland State Board of Education despite strenuous opposition from several pro-family groups. Montgomery County Public School’s controversial sexuality curriculum for eighth and tenth grade students is the result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.

…and how it was quoted elsewhere:

LifeSiteNews.com:

A public school district’s program promoting anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestitism as normal sexual variations was recently approved by the Maryland State Board of Education despite strenuous opposition from several pro-family groups. Montgomery County Public School’s controversial sexuality curriculum for eighth and tenth grade students is the result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.

Focus On The Family’s CitizenLink:

Under a decision by the state Board of Education, Maryland students soon will learn that homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism are normal sexual variations. They also will be taught that anyone who holds traditional religious or moral beliefs about homosexuality is “homophobic.”

WorldNetDaily.com:

A public school district board’s decision to teach homosexuality is innate and anal sex is just an alternative will be challenged in court after officials in Maryland refused to address concerns raised by parents.

…

The pro-family groups had raised objections to the material on several issues, including the teaching that homosexuality is “innate,” even though that’s an unproven theory. They said it also teaches students anal sex is just another option without warning about the increased HIV/AIDS risk, and it labels as “homophobic” children who hold traditional religious or moral beliefs about homosexuality. It also teaches transgenderism is just another “orientation,” even though that has been classified as a mental disorder.

Spero News:

The Maryland State Board of Education approved plans by the Montgomery County Public Schools to include teaching about anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestism as normal sexual alternatives to 8th and 10th graders.

A public school district’s program that would teach anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestitism as normal sexual variations was recently approved by the Maryland State Board of Education despite strenuous opposition from several pro-family groups. Montgomery County Public School’s sexuality curriculum for eighth and tenth grade students is the result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.

I guess we know what organization is doing the thinking for the conservative Christian organizations and media on this story.