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Why Are Top Anti-Gay Activists Holding A Meeting In A US Senate Building Today?

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Located in Washington, D.C., the building above is the Dirksen Senate Office Building. It was named after Everett Dirksen, who served first in the U.S. House, from 1933–1949, and then in the Senate, from 1951-1969. The Republican Minority Leader, Dirksen helped to write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sadly, a grotesque act is about to take place in the building that bears the name the of civil rights champion.

Today, top anti-gay activists will be meeting not just with U.S. Senators and their staff, but will be holding that meeting — which is open to the public — for U.S. Senators and their staff in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to further their agenda of hate.

“The Family in America” is the name of a symposium which “will be held from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562,” a press release states. Of course, in order to book a meeting and a room in a Senate office building, you need the support of a U.S. Senator. No word yet on which Senator is sponsoring the event, but “The Family in America” is a project of the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, and its protégé, the World Congress of Families.

UPDATE #1:
The meeting space has been pulled. No word on if the meeting has been moved.
Anti-Gay Meeting Of Radical Religious Right Group Canceled By Sen. Mark Kirk
UPDATE #2:
John Boehner finds them a meeting space.
Boehner To The Rescue — Of International Anti-Gay Organization Promoting Russia’s Policies

What will they be discussing?

This:

While the current U.S. administration persists in its efforts to redefine marriage and family, other nations are seeking a reaffirmation of the natural family. Australia has just elected a conservative government and given the largest budget area to Kevin Andrews, long-time defender of the family and World Congress of Families supporter; Russia recently banned the propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” to minors; and across Europe and Africa, nations are concerned with life issues, shrinking populations, and the disintegration of the natural family. Here in America, what can our pro-family legislators learn—positively and negatively—by studying our colleagues’ actions abroad?

Yes, they would like to model U.S. law and policy on Russia’s laws that essentially make it illegal to be gay, or to “promote” homosexuality.

Remember earlier this year when Vladimir Putin signed the law that made any discussion of homosexuality a crime in Russia? Remember just before that, when National Organization For Marriage (NOM) president Brian Brown traveled to Russia — but kept his travels a secret — and now stands accused of breaking federal law? Brown spoke with Russian lawmakers, reportedly to urge them not only to continue to ramp up their war on gay people but to remove children from same-sex couples and LGBT parents.

Who was behind Brown’s conversations with Russian anti-gay lawmakers? The World Congress of Families.

Who is holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today? The World Congress of Families.

Remember last month, when Tea Party leader Rick Scarborough called for a class action lawsuit against homosexuality? Scarborough runs a group called Tea Party Unity. Who is on Tea Party Unity’s steering committee? Don Feder of the World Congress of Families. (Feder is the author of a lovely little article titled, “Top 10 Ways Democrats Are Like Nazis.”)

Who is holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today? The World Congress of Families.

Now, do the names Austin Ruse, Janice Shaw Crouse, or Steven Mosher ring a bell? If you’re a close follower of the religious right’s anti-LGBT and so-called “pro-family” work, they do. Those three happen to be the main speakers today at the World Congress of Families’ symposium.

“These shameful individuals represent the worst of America, and it’s an outrage that they will now bring their vitriol to the United States Capitol,” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “After spending years exporting their hate to other regions of the world and contributing to a culture of anti-LGBT violence in Russia, these zealots should be condemned by all Americans and especially by our elected leaders.”

Ruse, an occasional Breitbart contributor, is the president of the virulently anti-gay Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). In September, Ruse and over 100 anti-LGBT activists and organizations signed a letter supporting Russia’s anti-gay laws and Vladimir Putin‘s war on gays.

(Yes, more evidence of America’s religious right working to make homosexuality illegal in Russia.)

Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America offers a particular brand of anti-gay hate and ignorance. She has claimed the Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA will lead to a “bleak future” including “imprisonment” for Christians — no date set – and claimed that gay people die 20 years younger, commit suicide three times the average rate, are prone to syphilis and anal cancer, and cannot maintain long term relationships.

Griffin notes that Crouse, “celebrated a proposed law in Uganda that would make being LGBT punishable by death. Crouse called it a, ‘biblical and cultural stand against the radical homosexual agenda.’”

Steven Mosher is President of the Population Research Institute, which Equality Matters calls “a far-right anti-contraception organization.” Author of Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, Mosher is a proponent of the anti-women scare meme developed by the religious right, called “demographic winter,” which claims that abortion and contraception should be banned because Muslims supposedly make babies at a higher rate than Christians.

It was turned into a “documentary” in 2008.

Unsurprisingly, NOM cofounder and former chair, Maggie Gallagher, is a subscriber of this farcical scare tactic.

In 2011, Mosher, who is the father of nine children, delivered a short speech (you can listen to it and you should) on his “demographic winter” ideas and admitted he was headed to Russia in 2012, to help them figure out how to make more babies.

More evidence of America’s religious right working to make homosexuality illegal in Russia?

Is it a coincidence that this crowd believes that gay people and same-sex marriage are antithetical to their main goal of populating the world with more conservative Christians in a race against Islam?

Here’s a look at their craziness:

//www.youtube.com/embed/3NfuWba9RR8

 

So, we have several of America’s top anti-gay activists, intent on populating America and the world with more Christian babies, holding a meeting organized by the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society and the World Congress of Families.

The World Congress of Families just happens to have strong ties to Vladimir Putin. They’ll be holding their next conference in Moscow next year.

And they are holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today.

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

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‘Lied Through His Teeth’: Senator Warns RFK Jr. Undermining Vaccine Will ‘Kill’ Kids

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May 16, 2025

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U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is accusing Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of lying during his Senate testimony this week, and warning that the HHS chief’s efforts to destroy faith in the measles vaccine will lead to children dying.

“It’s not a small thing that Trump’s Cabinet thinks Congress and the American people are so dumb that they can tell brazen lies over and over. We can’t normalize this,” Senator Murphy urged.

“The way in which Trump and Trump’s cabinet lie through their teeth, unapologetically and brazenly, to Congress and the American people, is outrageous,” Murphy said in video (below) he posted online Friday. “And I really worry that we risk normalizing it by not calling it out when it happens.”

He called the exchange he had with RFK Jr. “maddening” and “heartbreaking,” and said the HHS Secretary “essentially says that he’s no longer recommending that families get the measles vaccine. That’s going to kill hundreds, if not thousands of kids in this country.”

Murphy then played a clip from Kennedy’s testimony (which NCRM covered earlier this week), and, he said, caught Kennedy in a lie.

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“By the way,” Kennedy told Murphy, “I said at the [House] hearing this morning that I was recommending the measles vaccine,” and told him to “look at the transcript.”

“So guess what I did?” Murphy says. “I went and checked the House transcript. It’s hours of testimony. I and my staff watched all of it, and guess what? Nowhere, nowhere in that transcript does he say he recommends the measles vaccine.”

“He lied through his teeth, and he did it because all of these MAGA sycophants have gotten used to lying. Donald Trump does it all the time, so they think they can do it as well. But we can’t normalize this because you can’t run a country if your leaders are lying to you every single day,” the Connecticut Democrat warned.

“RFK Jr. doesn’t support the measles vaccine, and he shouldn’t pretend that he does. He undermines the vaccine on a daily basis and whether we like his conspiracy theory positions or not, he should just be honest with the American people. They should all be honest with the American people, and none of us should normalize or get used to this amount of lying.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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‘It Meant Assassination’: Trump Blasts ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey for ‘8647’

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President Donald Trump is attacking the FBI Director he fired, Jim Comey, who is reportedly under investigation  over a photo of sea shells formed into the numbers 8647. Top Trump law enforcement and intelligence officials claim it is a call for the assassination of the 47th President, although “86” is generally understood to mean “reject” or “eject,” and, since the 1930s, in restaurant parlance, has meant a menu item is unavailable.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” President Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that will air Friday evening. “A child knows what that meant.”

“If you’re the FBI Director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination.’ And it says it loud and clear,” Trump alleged.

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“Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant, and he did it for a reason, and he was hit so hard because people like me, and they like what’s happening with our country. Our country’s become respected again,” the President claimed. “And he’s calling for the assassination of the president.”

Baier interjected, saying: “Obviously, he apologized and said he —”

“Well, he apologized because he was hit,” Trump also claimed. “Look, he’s a very bad —”

When asked what he wants to see happen to the former Director of the FBI, Trump said he did not want to weigh in, and would let his Attorney General handle it.

“I don’t want to take a position on it because that’s gonna be up to Pam [Bondi] and all of the great people, but I will say this. I think it’s a terrible thing. And when you add his history to that, if he had a clean history, he doesn’t.”

“He’s a dirty cop. He’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency. But I’m going to let them make that decision.”

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Trump Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News on Thursday night she thinks Comey should go to prison for posting the “8647” photo.

Asked, “Do you believe Comey should be in jail?” Gabbard replied, “I do.”

“Any other person with the position of influence that he has,” she added, “people who take very seriously what what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be?”

“I’m very concerned for the president’s life. We’ve already seen assassination attempts,” she continued. “I’m very concerned for his life, and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.”

But others commenting via social media were quick to point to a number of “86” posts apparently made by right wing influencers and even a former member of Congress, as well as T-shirts for sale during the Biden years.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Image via Reuters

 

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‘Mad King’: Trump Teases ‘Fourth’ Term to U.S. Troops Overseas

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May 15, 2025

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During a rally-style appearance before uniformed U.S. troops in Qatar on Thursday, President Donald Trump—serving as their Commander-in-Chief—floated the idea of a “fourth” term and falsely claimed victory in the 2020 election he lost. The appearance drew swift criticism for blurring the line between military service and political theater.

“As you know, we won three elections, okay?” Trump told the largely silent troops (video below). “And some people want us to do a fourth. I don’t know—I’ll have to think about that.”

“You saw the new, the new hat. The hottest hat is, it says, ‘Trump 2028: We’re driving the left crazy.'”

“When you see that. We didn’t need that hat, but, uh, it was it’s been an amazing period of time,” he concluded.

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Noting that Trump was speaking “at the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East,” CNN reported that the President “thanked the U.S. troops for political support.”

“There’s – nobody been stronger than the military in terms of backing us, nobody,” Trump said. “So, I just want to thank you all very much. Great honor. Thank you very much.”

CBS News national security coordinating producer Jim LaPorta, who has reported extensively on the military, wrote: “If this was a rally, the president’s remarks would be fine. But in front of service members who are expected to be apolitical, many Defense Department officials would find these remarks inappropriate.”

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The Bulwark’s Sam Stein observed: “Treating the troops like they’re at a campaign rally and sowing doubt about the past and future of American elections — all in one soundbite.”

Democratic pollster and strategist Luke Martin called it “especially jarring to see Trump flirting with blowing a hole in the Constitution in front of an entire crowd of people who literally swore an oath to protect it with their life.”

Independent journalist Mike Rothschild noted: “Making a statement like this in front of active duty troops would have generated months of scandal, hearings, and resignations in years gone by. Now it’s just another Thursday with the Mad King.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Image via Reuters

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