GetEQUAL To Tony Perkins: Where Were You When Our People Got Shot, Bullied, Beat Up?
GetEQUAL last night released a statement condemning Wednesday’s shooting of a guard/building manager at the Family Research Council (FRC), but, unlike most other responses, GetEQUAL didn’t put on kid gloves when writing it. The GetEQUAL statement balances their condemnation of violence with a strong message holding FRC president Tony Perkins accountable for decades of his organization’s anti-gay rhetoric and actions.
GetEQUAL’s “mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and our allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way.” Their statement fulfills that mission, as they ask Tony Perkins:
Where was Tony Perkins when two members of our community were left for dead in the bushes of Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas? Where is Tony Perkins’ condemnation of the thousands of LGBT youth being bullied, beat up and laughed at in the halls of our schools? Where was Tony Perkins when North Carolina pastor Charles Worley declared that all gays and lesbians should be rounded up and put in camps surrounded by electric fences, and left to die?
Here, in full, is GetEQUAL’s Statement on FRC Shooting:
Wednesday’s shooting at the Family Research Council’s (FRC) headquarters is a stark reminder of the fragility of life. GetEQUAL condemns the shooting and wishes the officer a speedy recovery.
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s events, it would benefit us all to consider the impact of the continued discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans face on a daily basis. For decades, LGBT Americans have endured ridicule, stigmatization, demonization, physical abuse — often at the hands of our own families, classmates, co-workers and neighbors — and blame for countless natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina…all in the name of “family values.â€
At a Thursday afternoon press conference, and despite no evidence to substantiate his claim, FRC president Tony Perkins laid the blame for Wednesday’s shooting at the feet of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), stating that by labeling the FRC a “hate group,†the SPLC had contributed to this horrible and violent tragedy. To be clear, the SPLC has worked for decades to track incidents of violence and intolerance in an effort to prevent just such an attack, laboring tirelessly to provide reliable information on hundreds of groups across the country that demonize groups of people simply for who they are — whether that’s based on race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation and gender identity.
We stand side-by-side with the Southern Poverty Law Center — a group born out of the civil rights movement over four decades ago — and support their work to track incidents of hatred and intolerance directed toward the LGBT community and other marginalized communities across the country. Despite Mr. Perkins’ attempts to paint himself and the FRC as victims, it is groups like the Family Research Council that regularly and routinely use deceptive practices and intolerant rhetoric to create a dangerous environment for LGBT Americans. It is for this very reason that the SPLC has, accurately, labeled the FRC as a hate group.
While Tony Perkins places the blame for Wednesday’s shooting at the feet of the SPLC, we must ask: Where was Tony Perkins when two members of our community were left for dead in the bushes of Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas? Where is Tony Perkins’ condemnation of the thousands of LGBT youth being bullied, beat up and laughed at in the halls of our schools? Where was Tony Perkins when North Carolina pastor Charles Worley declared that all gays and lesbians should be rounded up and put in camps surrounded by electric fences, and left to die?
We all know the answer — Tony Perkins is and has been silent. Mr. Perkins has time and again advocated against the humane treatment of LGBT Americans and against any legislation that would protect LGBT people from discrimination or attack. Decades of paid work focused on marginalizing and demonizing LGBT Americans has resulted in tacit endorsement of violent acts and the spread of false information about LGBT Americans. Through his ongoing campaign of discrimination and insistence on pursuing a radical right-wing agenda, Mr. Perkins has advocated for the reinstatement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,†an amendment to the Constitution that would forever outlaw marriage equality, and state laws that would continue to keep LGBT Americans as second-class citizens.
As GetEQUAL is committed to fighting against injustice and for equality by using non-violent civil disobedience, we condemn Wednesday’s shooting even as we also ask the Family Research Council (and organizations that share its views) to think about the environment they have created by marginalizing a minority group and making family members, neighbors, and friends into scapegoats for society’s challenges. GetEQUAL never condones or advocates for violence, and believes wholeheartedly that when violence is used we all lose. There is no power in violence; our power comes by coming together as a community, standing shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters and refusing to be moved under the weight of discrimination, prejudice, and intolerance. Even as we hope for the recovery of the security guard who suffered violence on Wednesday, we also hope for an end to the Family Research Council’s tactics of division and fear-mongering that have created such a toxic environment within our homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, and workplaces.
Telling the truth about a group’s hateful message is not the same as advocating violence. We pray, with all people of good will, for an end to violence as a means of expression.
(For highlights from Tony Perkins’ anti-LGBT record, visit: http://www.glaad.org/cap/tony-perkins.)
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U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, is under fire after praising University of Mississippi students, some wearing American flag outfits, mocking a Black woman protester by making monkey sounds and shouting, “lock her up.”
“Counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi made racist remarks — including monkey noises and comparisons to Lizzo — towards a Black woman who was part of a planned protest against the war in Gaza,” Los Angeles Magazine reported Friday.
Collins, who tried to defund Vice President Kamala Harris’ Office in November, declared his support for the counter-protesters at “Ole Miss,” as the University is called.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” he wrote on social media, atop the video (below).
The counter-protesters, as evidenced in the video, appear to be mostly white.
A large number of users on the social media platform X responded, accusing the Congressman and the counter-protesters of racism.
“When is the inevitable ‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body’ tweet coming,” wondered Rewire News Group editor-at-large Imani Gandy.
“Which part is your favorite, Mike?” asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. “Is it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like she’s a threat? I’m trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?”
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Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo responded to the Georgia GOP congressman, “Thanks for confirming you’re a massive racist piece of sh*t.”
Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman wrote: “Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, praises a video showing a University of Mississippi frat boy dancing like a monkey and making monkey noises near a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine while other frat boys chant ‘lock her up.'”
In a separate post describing a separate video taken of the same group Pittman wrote: “Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, ‘Lizzo! Lizzo!’ and shout, ‘F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch’ at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine. Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews?”
Journalist John Harwood did not mince words, writing, “Congressman proud of the racism.”
“Okay, Mike. We get it,” wrote podcast host, documentary director, and author W. Kamau Bell. “You want to be famous for being a racist. Fine. I’ll help you become a famous racist. You’re welcome.”
The original video is here.
See Rep. Collins’ post and the video below or at this link.
Caution: the video is disturbing.
Ole Miss taking care of business. pic.twitter.com/JiL9hs2pHz
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 3, 2024
READ MORE: Noem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
Amid more damning revelations from her soon-to-be released book, embattled South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem will head to Mar-a-Lago this weekend as ex-president Donald Trump auditions potential vice presidential picks in front of high-dollar donors. Noem was also slated to attend a Republican fundraiser in Colorado this weekend but it was canceled over alleged safety concerns after news broke she had bragged about shooting her 14-month old dog.
While Noem’s shooting to death of her wirehaired pointer, Cricket, which she detailed in the book, is still making headlines overnight a new revelation made news: Noem falsely claims in her book she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
A spokesperson for Noem “seemed to concede that the Kim story was false Thursday night,” and notified her publisher, Politico’s Ryan Lizza reported in his exclusive.
But less noticed appears to be the actual text of Noem’s false story, in which she brands children she ministered in church “little tyrants,” and compared them to the murderous North Korean dictator.
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“Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee,” Noem wrote, according to Politico, “I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”
CNBC reported this week Trump “will mingle with potential vice presidential running mates and wealthy Republican donors at the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat. The meetings are likely to act as informal tryouts for a short list of politicos in the running to join the Trump ticket.”
The list of Republican “special guests” includes U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Also expected to attend are House Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and other elected Republicans along with RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
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NBC News, which says Rep. Donalds is also under consideration, on Friday added there will be “a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session” for potential vice presidential running mates.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson County, Colorado Republican Party chair announced a fundraising dinner Noem was slated to attend was canceled after threats were made, The Denver Post reports.
“We understood there was a planned organized protest outside of the hotel, led by Progress Now,” Nancy Pallozzi said. “I felt that our event would be negatively impacted, and we could not take the risk that those who made threats would cause physical harm.”
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York – a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
“That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” The Daily Beast reported Friday. “It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the Constitutional Coalition of New York State (CCNYS) on its page of anti-government groups. Political Research Associates, which detailed the high proportion of January 6 residents arrested and charged, included the Constitutional Coalition of New York State in its February report on “The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York.”
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“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” Kennedy told attendees at the CCNYS fundraiser, The Buffalo News reports.
“CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” The Daily Beast noted. “Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmen’s founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions.”
One of Kennedy’s goals in traveling to New York was to get on the ballot for the November presidential election. Various polls show him taking votes from both President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump, but Kennedy currently has only qualified to be on the ballot in three states, Utah, Michigan and Hawaii, the newspaper reported.
But The Washington Post on Thursday reported The American Independent Party of California, which has a history of “far-right ties,” and “backed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace in 1968, nominated Kennedy for president.”
Kennedy “said this week that he has qualified to be on the ballot in California and will accept the nomination of the American Independent Party, which has a history of associating itself with far-right figures and individuals who have expressed racist views.”
Some news reports and RFK Jr. himself say the Trump campaign was actively courting Kennedy, attempting to convince him to consider being the ex-president’s 2024 vice presidential running mate.
“That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry,” The Daily Beast also reported.
“’They can only blame themselves,’ a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, ‘because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.’”
Watch WIVBTV’s report on Kennedy’s trip to New York below or at this link.
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Congressman Pummeled for Praising Students Mocking Black Protester With Monkey Sounds
Noem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
RFK Jr., Embracing Far-Right, Spoke at Fundraiser for Anti-Government Group With J6 Ties
Election Denialism Embraced by ‘Large Proportion’ of Trump’s Followers: Report
Trump Won’t Commit to Accepting Election Results if He Doesn’t Win State He Falsely Claims He Won
News2 days agoCongressman Pummeled for Praising Students Mocking Black Protester With Monkey Sounds
News2 days agoNoem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
News2 days agoRFK Jr., Embracing Far-Right, Spoke at Fundraiser for Anti-Government Group With J6 Ties