As reported earlier, Jimmy Dobson and his merry band of bigots are rolling into town in mid-September for a very special "Stand for the Family" hatefest as only the Christian wingnuts can muster ....

Never fear, however, for Pittsburgh's LGBTQ community is taking action and taking a stand.  Sayeth Marriage Equality organizer and Pittsburgh hometown girl Dana Elmendorf ...

Whether you are a glbtq person or an allie, it?s time for us to interrupt this rhetoric and show that our families are real. The only families being threatened are ours which lack the same civil rights protections as heterosexual married couples. We need to be visible and outspoken in refraiming this issue to reflect the reality that our families exist, are valued and that it is possible to follow one?s faith and spiritual journey while witnessing for compassion and peace for ALL families.

Multiple events are planned with the most prominent being rallies before and after the FotF event. 

You can get involved with the planning.  The first meeting will be Tuesday, August 29, 2006  from 7  - 9 PM at the GLCC in Squirrel Hill.   Just show up.

Some agree with the planned action, others think it feeds into the agenda of the bigots.  What's a given is that if we do nothing but stay home and complain, they win. 

Our girl and mistress of family-values flavored hate, Diane Gramley has mounted her high horse again and that's never a good thing.

Seems Big Mama D has figured out that three Pennsylvania Congressman have signed the non-discrimination pledge sponsored by Gender PAC.  She believes this opens the door to all sorts of hell ...

Three PA Congressmen Allow Men Dressed as Women to Come to Work . . . .

At least that's what their signature on the Gender PAC/Human Rights Campaign
Diversity Statement will allow!  

It has come to our attention that Congressman Robert Brady (D - 1st),
Congressman Mike Doyle (D - 14th) and Congressman Jim Gerlach (R - 6th) have
signed onto a Diversity Statement from Gender PAC and the Human Rights Campaign.

  These groups are two radical homosexual rights groups. 

You'll recall that this is the very same document our very own Rick Santorum signed and then unsigned, blaming the original signature on the work of someone in his office.  I'm sure he can count on Diane's vote.

Here's the source of Diane's concerns:

You may want to remind them that there was a situation in Carbon County, PA
where a male prison guard decided he was transgender and began coming to work
dressed as a woman.  He was fired, but because of the prison union being from
Allentown (which had added 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to their
Human Relations Ordinance in 2002), the guard sued and was reinstated.  Our news
release brought up the questions of strip searches, locker room and restroom
usage!

Diane must be hanging out in the same circles of some of my more saucy friends b/c those are frequent topics among them as well ...

This one is very amusing.  The Atlanta Braves combine baseball with the gospel in their second "Faith Day" event this year.    The event features a post-game speaker and performance by a Christian group, with sponsoring organizations setting up tables and all the usual special event stuff.  FotF participated in the July event along with Tocca Bible College and the Gospel Music Channel. 

But, at the Braves request, they ain't coming back for the August event.  No official word on why the Braves uninvited Jimmy and gang.  But speculation is that the Braves are troubled by the organization's comparison of homosexuality to alcoholism or drug addiction:

But the Braves may have been troubled that Focus on the Family was promoting its Web site http://www.troubledwith.com, in which the group gives its suggestions for dealing with myriad problems.

Under the heading "Love & Sex," homosexuality is listed along with items such as dating, miscarriage and post-abortion syndrome. The group debunks the belief that homosexuality is caused by genetics, saying that males are often influenced by incest, molestation, exposure to pornography and negative body image.

"No solid scientific evidence exists today that people are born homosexual," the Web site says. "Interestingly enough, genetic predeterminants have also been theorized for alcoholism or depression. Neither alcoholism nor depression is embraced as healthy. Rather, we try to help people who suffer from these tendencies to find relief and recovery."

In other FotF news, founder and chief-bigot James Dobson has stepped up to defend the architect of the Holy Grail of wingnut movies, Mel Gibson. 

Dobson said in a statement that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest."

"Mel has also indicated his willingness to seek help to overcome his alcoholism, and has asked the Jewish community for forgiveness," Dobson said. "What more can he do?"

Well, he can admit he is an anti-Semit rather than just a drunken lout.  AND he can admit he's a sexist asshole for using the phrase "Sugar Tits."  But, apparently, that little offensive slur gets all lost b/c no one cares about offending some uptight frigid feminist bitches, right?  Would Gibson call the Blessed Mother "Sugar Tits" or would he reserve that for Mary Magdalene?

Dobson is just posturing to defend his Christian porn flick from any nay-sayers. 

You know, I find it interesting that so many people who rant on and on in support of Gibson have no problem with his movies being made in foreign languages (Mayan?), but resent a guy who orders a cheesesteak in Spanglish. 

I wonder how you say "Sugar Tits" in Mayan?

Ledcat caught the ad in the morning Post-Gazette ... nearly a quarter page image of one of the Grand-Poobahs of Christian bigotry - James Dobson.  Dobson's organization, Focus on the Family, alternates between churning out right-wingnut hate-laced propaganda and browbeating people into injecting more Christian extremism into their lives (and their parenting).

But he's coming to Pittsburgh with his merry band of bigots ...are you excited?

Dobson's trail of evil slime has left its disgusting stench throughout the United States courtesy of his "Stand for the Family" tour.  Along with his own personal gay bashing message, he brings along a few other stellar examples of Christian perversion ...

Tony Perkins, founder of the Family Research Council.  Just this past spring, he equated Brokeback Mountain with the Matthew Shepard story because they are both "works of fiction."

Dr. Ken Hutcherson aka Dr. Blackman (I'm not making that up).  He's angry that gays are claiming the civil rights mantle.  He's not too fond of uppity women either.

Gary Bauer, President of American Values.  They protect life.  And marriage.  And family.  And faith. And freedom.  Bauer believes that gay marriage will make us just like hedonistic Europeans who have destroyed their families. 

Snarkery aside, these guys have power and a hell of a lot of money.  Pam's House Blend did a great post on the vast amounts of resources these organizations command in their unrelenting war on all of us progressives.   According to Pam, in 2005 these guys spent a half a billion dollars on anti-gay efforts. 

So they are rolling into Pittsburgh on Wednesday, September 20, 6:30 PM at the Mellon Arena.  You can get a ticket for $7.00. The first 500 people get free books so they can revisit all the hate-rhetoric later. 

I'm sure Santorum is frothing at the mouth to have the Mac-Daddy of Intolerance himself come to town and preach the Gospel of Rick.  Make no bones about it -- Jimmy D. and his minions want to do anything necessary to keep their boy in the Senate.  They will play all the cards AND spend millions of dollars if that's what it takes.

This really sucks.  Its bad enough when Tim McGraw or some other Froggy favorite takes over the stadium area with all his yinzer would be redneck manly men and the slack jawed women who love them.  Now we are going to have swarms of smarmy self-righteous men and the brainwashed helmet-haired women who love them running amok in Uptown.  Nothing says rush hour nightmare like yinzer suburbanites in minivans. 

Is a protest worthwhile?  If I have to walk past the feti images to get into the Dixie Chicks concert, why not stage our own stand for ALL families outside of Mellon Arena?  Who's with me?