Boy Scouts may Remove Ban on Gays

MEDIA STATEMENT Boy Scouts of America
Monday, Jan. 28, 2013
Attributable to: Deron Smith, Director of Public Relations

“For more than 100 years, Scouting’s focus has been on working together to deliver the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Scouting has always been in an ongoing dialogue with the Scouting family to determine what is in the best interest of the organization and the young people we serve.

“Currently, the BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation. This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs. BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their families.

“The policy change under discussion would allow the religious, civic, or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue. The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents. Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs.”

~~~ ~~~

Scout Oath:

On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
                ~~~ ~~~ Sexual orientation is not a “moral” issue, it’s an intrinsic part of the human condition. However, to designate that part of the human condition to be immoral for some and not others IS immoral.

Be “morally straight,” as your oath puts it, and do the right thing on this, BSA.

Gays are the biggest bullies in America

[Via Right Wing Watch]

--

-Brian Fischer of the American Family Association:
 

“Big Gay" is the biggest bully in America.”

In other words, and with subtext:

“How dare the ‘shit-eaters’ of society even consider themselves worthy of demanding to be treated equally let alone at all levels and in all sectors of society?”
---
If we’re the "biggest" threat to their sense of superiority…

♪ Looks like we made it… ♪

Obama LGBT Stance 2.0

January 2013 Presidential Inauguration
--
It’s like a refined version of the Donnie McClurkin fiasco we went through the first time around.

Then: Ex-Gay Watch:

In reaction to the initial controversy, Obama sought to deflect charges of antigay bias by including a gay Christian representative in the tour.

Now: Huffington Post:

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has selected the Rev. Luis Leon, an Episcopal priest in Washington, to deliver the benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21, replacing the Rev. Louie Giglio, the Atlanta pastor who bowed out after controversy erupted over an anti-gay sermon he gave in the mid-1990s.

Re: “the removal of Rev. Louie Giglio from President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony”

Evangelicals confuse ‘freedom’ with free rein to insult others

By Wayne Besen
Founding Executive Director, Truth Wins Out

Janice Shaw Crouse, executive director of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Times titled, “Obama Committee’s Slap in the Face of Religious Liberty.”
…
Crouse and other evangelicals routinely confuse freedom with having free rein to insult and demonize others without suffering consequences. They simply can’t comprehend that the “untouchables” they used to bully with their Bibles are no longer remaining silent and refuse to accept their inferior place in society.

40% homeless youth LGBT

Thank you, Cyndi Lauper -- advocate extraordinaire.



Forty to None Project: America's Next Generation

In America, it is estimated that up to 1.6 million youth are homeless each year and that up to 40% of them identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Cyndi Lauper and youth from the True Colors Residence, The Door, Safe Space and Green Chimneys in New York City share why we all need to get informed and get involved in bringing an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth homelessness. It is time that we stand with America's next generation, so they can stand on their own. Share this video and be a part of the Forty to None Project!

Visit us at http://www.fortytonone.org to learn more.

Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fortytonone

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fortytonone

Family Research Council: Obama Inauguration Needs More Hate

FRC = Family research Council

TWO = Truth Wins Out

Money quote:

Peter Sprigg (FRC): The world we live in is increasingly marked by the enforcement of intolerance in the name of tolerance, exclusion in the name of inclusion, and forced uniformity in the name of diversity. It’s contradictory, it’s down right Orwellian, and yet people actually make theses statements with a straight face.

Wayne Besen (TWO): Peter, I find it ironic that you’re embracing diversity. You called for the imprisonment of gay people and said we should export homosexuals out of the united states and suddenly you’re for tolerance? I’m a little confused here.

Peter Sprigg (FRC): Well, this is about Pastor Giglio and President Obama, it’s not about me.

Carol Costello (CNN): Wayne is right about that, Peter.

---
For more on this visit Media Matters:

CNN Hosts FRC's Peter Sprigg To Discuss Anti-Gay Pastor's Withdrawal From Obama Inauguration

The other side of why conversion therapy should be banned for minors -- when the kids want it and the parents don’t.

The ex-gay meme alive and infectious in Australia.

But we begin with the latest on the subject matter in California.

LA Times: Brown appeals injunction against gay-conversion law
January 2, 2013 | 3:06pm

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday appealed a court injunction that has blocked enforcement of a new law [SB 1172] that prohibits providing gay minors with therapy aimed at converting them to being heterosexual.

The notice of appeal was filed on behalf of Brown and the Medical Board of California by state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided Dec. 21 to block the law that took effect Jan. 1 pending a decision on its constitutionality.

A small group of therapists and religious groups argued that the law infringes on their rights to free speech, but Harris has called conversion therapy “unsound and harmful.” [emphasis added]

The first Amendment argument could also be made in regard to driving, alcohol, cigarettes and a host of other minor-related regulatory laws.

The “free speech” that these therapists and religious groups argue for almost cost these parents the life of their son.

From Australia’s The Project news org.

Partial transcript:

Ben Gresham: Growing up I’d always been told that homosexuality is wrong. That if you are gay or lesbian that you can’t be part of the Church, you don’t get into heaven and that it’s a sin. … I would pray every night that God would take my attraction to other men away from me.

Narrator: But praying didn’t work. At just 16, he turned to a church leader for guidance. … The church helped Ben enroll in an online conversion program, aimed at turning him straight.

Phyllis Gresham [sitting with husband, Michael]: We had no idea, honestly, that Ben was going through the ex-gay program. He went to church meetings, we thought they were just church meetings. We do feel angry that the church did not notify us. Certainly if we had known what was happening we would have stopped him from doing them.

Narrator: Ben tried three conversion programs in three years, all failed. At 19, he tried to take his own life.

Ben: Because, for me, I couldn’t imagine a life without God. I couldn’t imagine a life without my faith, without my church, without my family, and that’s what I thought would happen.

Phyllis Gresham: It’s taken me a long time to forgive myself that I didn’t know what was happening.

Michael Gresham: Yeah.
---
Ben, like many gay kids, got the message that the state of being homosexual is sinful, and thus, are in an unwitting perpetual state of unrepentantce.

The anti-gay-ex-gay solution is a denial of homosexuality as a state of being for the promise of a virtually non-existent hope of becoming heterosexual.

Either look forward to hell, or look forward to a life of hell.

~~~

therapists and religious groups argued that the law [banning underage conversion “therapy”] infringes on their rights to free speech

And in doing so, they also argue that they should have the right to indoctrinate minors into the anti-gay-ex-gay lifestyle without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

A precise and additional reason why ex-gay therapy should be X rated.

(Thanks to Flourish&Bloggs for inspiring this post.)

Australian LGBT anti-bullying PSA

Well done, we could use more of these here in the U.S.

　

http://www.notohomophobia.com.au/

Exodus International 2012 Blooper Reel

“My flannel is blousy.”  -Randy Thomas
---
I have to say they deserve credit for posting this... A LOT of credit.