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Opinion: NOM Shill Mark Regnerus’ Long History Of Using Religion To Attack Gays

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In its dirty War Against Gays, the National Organization for Marriage never has hesitated to tell lies, more lies, and even more lies towards perpetuating the absolute evil of sexual orientation apartheid.

So it came as no surprise whatsoever that NOM’s co-founder Robert George — who has a history of publishing anti-gay lies in supposed scholarly journals — went out and found a willing theocratic shill in Mark Regnerus, to pump out, and then to promote heavily a hack propaganda “study” that does not at all measure same-sex-headed households, in order to communicate to the public the anti-gay hate speech message that same-sex parents are dangerous to children.

READ: Why Is Princeton University’s President Shielding NOM’s Founder?

The message is not far from the NOM specialty of inciting people to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia.

One of the oddest things about Regnerus’s anti-gay hate study is that it asked potential study subjects if, between their birth and the time they left home, one of their parents had ever had a same-sex romantic relationship.

Anybody who said yes, qualified to take the rest of the survey.

That is suspicious on its face, as not every parent has had an affair, and not every parent who has, has talked about it with their children.

Do you talk with your parents about their supposed extra-marital affairs? Then too; Regnerus alleges that he had to ask such a question, because through to the 1990s, there were no gay adults raising children. That is false, actually. There were, for example, through to the 1990s, gay uncles and lesbian aunts who took guardianship of children after the children’s heterosexual parents passed away. And, with the $785,000 funding that NOM’s Robert George secured for Regnerus to do a study, Regnerus could have focused on finding such families to evaluate them, instead of carrying out his malicious anti-gay hit job.

Regnerus was raised in a viciously anti-gay ambiance and is himself a theocratic heterosupremacist.

In one strikingly peculiar revelation, Regnerus wrote: “My father, a minister, told me that he’d rather ‘bury people than marry people.'” We must not ignore that Regnerus’s writings often have been used in the past by anti-gay groups to promote anti-gay ideas. In an article sub-section titled “Changing Ideals,” Regnerus wrote: “Our Creator clearly intended for male and female to be knit together in covenantal relationship.”

READ: Opinion: How Anti-Gay Regnerus ‘Study’ Was Corrupted By NOM From Beginning To End

In that connection, everybody must take note that the “Social Science Research” editor James Wright, who published Regnerus’s study simultaneously with another anti-gay parenting study by the theocrat propagandist Loren Marks, has published books promoting “Covenant Marriage.” Wright furthermore has, in his published academic papers, written about the supposed “threat of gay marriage as a potentially destructive influence on the institution of marriage.”

Regnerus is a 1993 graduate of Trinity Christian College; even today, that school’s diversity statements say nothing about sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. Regnerus later taught at Calvin College, which is one of the most resolutely and aggressively anti-gay schools in the country.  The Calvin College Board of Trustees only recently issued an edict that “advocacy by faculty and staff, both in and out of the classroom, for homosexual practice and same-sex marriage is unacceptable.”

As part of the gay-bashing promotional blitz of his hack job that Regnerus has been coordinating with his NOM funders, Regnerus has been lying his head off. On the evangelical website Patheos, Regnerus held a Q&A with himself, to promote his study, and his and NOM’s faith-based anti-gay hate, in which he fraudulently alleged that his personal religious viewpoint had nothing to do with his study. Meanwhile on his Trinity Christian College alumnus biography, Regnerus says:  “After I graduated, I went to seminary.” Regnerus goes on to say: “As Christians, our lives should reflect our relationship with God and our desire to glorify Him. I’ve noticed that some Christian professors see a disconnect between their faith and their profession. I believe that if your faith matters, it should inform what you teach and what you research.” Regnerus further says: “When I teach . . .  my worldview colors what I do in the classroom.”  He also says: “I want my students to recognize the connection between my faith and my work.”

Which religions does Regnerus follow, incidentally? The University Of Notre-Dame profile of him reports this: “his academic interest in family formation trends and processes had arisen while still an evangelical and his recent entrance into the Catholic Church has shaped his own thinking about fertility and family life.” Pope Benedict, the erstwhile member of the Hitler Jugend, has fraudulently alleged, in an anti-gay hate-mongering outburst, that the entire future of humanity depends on banning same-sex marriage. Arch-bigot Timothy Dolan sent President Obama a letter threatening a church state conflict of unprecedented proportions over gay rights.

Meanwhile, the NOMzi theocrat gay-bashers are pushing, pushing, pushing Regnerus’s faith-based contempt for gay people. NOM ratfink Thomas Peters posted about the Regnerus theocratic poison, on CatholicVote.org using this title: “5 Reasons the Kids-of-Gay-Parents Study Means Its (sic) Time for Gay Marriage Supporters to Revisit Their Assumption.”

Peters is a Robert George protege in political gay-bashing; in his post, he articulates Robert George’s motives in hiring Regnerus as a NOM shill: “My particular hope in all of this is that individuals who originally changed their views about marriage because of previous misleading research about child outcomes display the intellectual honesty to revisit their support of same-sex marriage now that we have more conclusive evidence to the contrary.”

Got it?  The NOMzi-Regnerus theocrats are using blatant lies about gay people to push their demands that gay people not be given their inalienable rights. And to boot, the NOMzis are using, as anti-gay propaganda, a “study” that did not measure gay parenting, to say that gay rights supporters should now use that same defamatory study to apply “intellectual honesty” to their positions.

That is a typical twisted NOMzi incitement to anti-gay hate.

Regnerus himself is promoting his study to incite to anti-gay hatred and discrimination, though exactly what he says about the study depends on the venue to which he is giving an interview. Consider what he told The National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Regnerus told Lopez that his study confirmed that married heterosexual parents provide the “gold standard” for child rearing. Where in Regnerus’s study does one see anything about a supposed “gold standard”? Did peer review perceive any “gold standard” in the data showing that a married heterosexual mother and father produces “Gold Standard Children” and that married gay and lesbian couples produce something else, maybe, for example, a silver or bronze standard? Is that what Regnerus’s research data prove? Regnerus is telling right-wing interviewers that his study proves a “gold standard” in parenting, when it absolutely does not. Regnerus studied adult children of heterosexual — perhaps bi-sexual parents — one of whom allegedly had had a same-sex affair.

Regnerus is telling the right wing media dirty gay-bashing lies about what his study says, when his study does not say those things at all. Further prior evidence of his manifest contempt for gay human beings and their rights can be found in many places on the internet.

NOM very actively is demonizing all gay parents on the basis of the Regnerus study it got funded; Regnerus is doing nothing to demand that NOM stop misrepresenting his work.

In this context, we must not forget that NOM tells its followers that gays are not human, and are “worthy to death.” During an all-day anti-gay hate symposium at Liberty University, NOM’s William C. Duncan led a session titled: “Homosexuals or Homo Sapiens; Who Deserves Protected Class Status?”

That is the level of hatred that the LGBT community is dealing with during the 2012 elections. Here, you can see Mitt Romney’s signature on the NOMzis’ gay-bashing “pledge.”

Mark Regnerus is a despicable, gay-bashing, duplicitous theocrat NOMzi shill. He has knowingly taken $785,000 to produce anti-gay propaganda for NOM’s Robert George, with a premeditated intent to demonize gay human beings in an election year, when their rights hang in the balance of who wins the election.

 

New York City– based novelist and freelance writer Scott Rose’s LGBT– interest by– line has appeared on Advocate .com, PoliticusUSA .com, The New York Blade, Queerty .com, Girlfriends and in numerous additional venues. Among his other interests are the arts, boating and yachting, wine and food, travel, poker and dogs. His “Mr. David Cooper’s Happy Suicide” is about a New York City advertising executive assigned to a condom account.

 

Related:

Anti-Gay Parenting Study May Support Gay Marriage, Some On The Right Say

LGBT Groups Unite Against Flawed Conservative-Funded Anti-Gay Parenting Paper

NOM Founder And Mormon Church Tied To First Report Of New Anti-Gay Parenting Paper

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Christian Nationalist Group Working to Get Its ‘Biblical Worldview Spread Across the Nation’

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Last week, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation prohibiting transgender people from using public school facilities that match their gender identity. That legislation was crafted by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a right-wing organization that seeks to elect “godly leaders in our nation at every level” and then use them to “restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.”

Following the signing of this legislation into law, Jason Rapert, a longtime religious-right activist and ardent Christian nationalist who founded the NACL, took a victory lap, crediting his organization for the law and celebrating its success in pushing back “against the things of the devil in our country.”

As Rapert reported, this legislation had first been proposed by Arkansas school board member David Naylor during an annual NACL meeting and then brought to the Arkansas state legislature by state Rep. Mary Bentley, who serves on the board of the NACL.

On Friday, Rapert interviewed Bentley on his “Save The Nation” program, where she celebrated the NACL’s efforts “to get our biblical worldview spread across the nation.”

“Thank goodness we’ve got some common sense left here in Arkansas,” Bentley said. “[It was because of the NACL] that we were able to get that passed as model policy and bring it forth. I just love seeing grassroots come together and school board members coming to the capitol and going to the governor’s desk and just seeing it all work and flow just exactly how we want to. So, for the folks that are supporting NACL and what we’re doing, this is what we want to do across the country.”

“This is an example of the power of the NACL’s ability with model legislation,” Rapert replied. “This was brought by one of our members, and this policy actually could be immediately adopted by school boards in every school district across this country. If the school board wanted to adopt it, this is the model that they can utilize. And in addition to that, just like you did, go and pass it for the state so that this is going to apply to all the school boards in your state.”

Rapert and Bentley agreed that Arkansas has now blazed the trail on this issue, thereby making it easier for legislatures in other states to enact the same law.

“That’s what happens when you can be a leader,” Bentley asserted. “Once you make a trail, it’s a lot easier for people to follow once you get that trail made.”

“Thank you again for being a part of the NACL,” Bentley declared. “It’s just what we need in this nation right now to have it moving forward, to get our biblical worldview spread across the nation.”

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

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Pence Ordered to Comply With Subpoena, Testify Before Special Counsel’s Grand Jury

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Mike Pence, the ex-vice president, must testify before Dept. of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection, a federal judge has ruled, rejecting his claims of executive privilege.

The judge is requiring Pence to answer questions about his conversations with Donald Trump leading up to the insurrection, and to answer any questions related to any possible illegal acts Donald Trump may have committed, according to ABC News’ senior investigative reporter Katherine Faulders and CNN’s Abby Phillip.

Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, “outright rejected Trump’s executive privilege challenge, but ruled more narrowly on Pence speech and debate challenge,” Faulders adds.

The judge, apparently citing Pence’s “speech and debate clause” claim, said “that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election,” CNN reports.

READ MORE: ‘We’re Not Gonna Fix It’: TN Republican Says Congress Can Do Nothing to Stop Gun Violence – Calls for Christian ‘Revival’

NBC News reports Judge Boasberg “did, however, grant Pence a partial victory as to his argument that he was shielded from having to testify about Jan. 6 because of his constitutional role as part of the legislative branch.”

In what some legal experts dismissed as a faulty argument, “Pence’s legal team had argued that the Constitution’s ‘speech and debate’ clause should prevent special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors from eliciting any testimony about communications or activity related to Pence’s role as president of the Senate in presiding over the certification of the election results.”

Overall CNN calls it “another win for special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the Trump-aligned effort to subvert the 2020 election. Smith subpoenaed Pence for testimony and documents earlier this year.”

Pence can still appeal.

Watch MSNBC’s report below or at this link.

This is a breaking news and developing story.

This article has been updated to add video.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Taking Guns Away Is Not the Answer’: Scalise Encourages Prayer After Nashville School Mass Shooting

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The official line from House Republicans on Monday’s mass shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville is to encourage prayer and making schools “safer,” but “taking guns away is not the answer.”

GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-most powerful Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, on Tuesday encouraged prayer, waiting for more facts, and looking into mental health option, despite his record of voting against them. Six people, including three nine-year olds and three adults, were shot to death after a shooter shot through the doors of Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School.

“The first thing in any kind of tragedy I do is I pray,” Scalise told a reporter Tuesday when asked if there’s anything Congress can do to reduce gun violence and deaths. “I pray for the victims. I pray for their families.”

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) also encouraged prayer over action. “We’re not gonna fix it,” he declared point-blank, while calling for a Christian “revival.”

READ MORE: Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

Scalise was shot in 2017 in a rare act of left-wing gun violence by a man angry at then-President Donald Trump. He and House Republicans have repeatedly used that attack to target Democrats and their policies.

“I really get angry when I see people trying to politicize it for their own personal agenda,” Scalise continued, referring to shootings, “especially when we don’t even know the facts. There are facts coming out.”

“It looks like the shooter originally went to another school that had real stronger, much stronger security and ultimately went to this school,” Scalise said, which is false. According to a CNN report, the shooter had previously “scouted” a second location but had a detailed plan and maps of The Covenant School.

“Let’s get the facts,” Scalise insisted, suggesting no action should be taken before any investigations into this shooting are complete.

The Washington Post in a continually-updated report notes, “There were more school shootings in 2022 — 46 — than in any year since at least 1999.”

It adds, “There have been 376 school shootings” since Columbine, in 1999, and, “More than 348,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine.”

But Scalise urged Americans to “work to see if there’s something that we can do to help secure schools.”

READ MORE: New WSJ Poll Is Devastating for DeSantis and His ‘Anti-Woke’ Policies

And he insisted reducing the number of guns in America, currently believed to be over 400 million – more than the total population of the country – is “not the answer.”

“We’ve talked about things that we can do, and it just seems like on the other side, all they want to do is take guns away from law abiding citizens, before they even know the facts. The first thing they talk about is taking guns away from law abiding citizens. And that’s not the answer, by the way. So why don’t we number one, keep those families in our prayers and see if there were things that were missed. Along the way, we’ve talked about the need to improve mental health in this country, and that’s been a driver of a lot of these shootings as well.”

But just last September, Scalise, along with all but one House Republican, voted against a bill that would “increase access to mental and behavioral health care.”

He also skipped a vote one week earlier on the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022.

Watch Scalise’s remarks in this clip, below or at this link.

 

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