LGBT Discrimination

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Imam calls gays to worship, marry

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

American stands in stark contrast to most in Islam

Nikki Kahn

Daayiee Abdullah, at the Light of Reform mosque in Washington, is thought to be the only publicly gay Muslim religious leader in the Western Hemisphere.

WASHINGTON -- Imam Daayiee Abdullah arrives by bus, sweaty and lugging a green bag stuffed with a Koran, two books of poetry by Persian mystic Rumi and three Islamic prayer rugs. Tonight, he's speaking to a room full of young, gay activists and progressi...

Pastor Scott Lively; Gays Blamed for Noah's Flood

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:01:00 +0100

"The last straw for God before he brought the flood was when they started writing wedding songs to homosexual marriage," says right-wing minister Scott Lively.

By pastor Scott Lively's history of the world, wedding songs at gay marriage ceremonies caused the great flood that had Noah escaping in the ark.

That's the latest theory he floated during a radio interview with the American Family Association, reported on by Right Wing Watch. But really, it's hard to know what Lively had in mind ...

NIGERIA: Two Gay Pastors Arrested In Lagos

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Two suspected gay pastors, Prince Ejimole, 26, and Lawrence Udo, 25, have been arrested and charged to court after they were allegedly caught having intercourse in a hotel room at Ijeshatedo, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria.

They are facing charges of having carnal knowledge of each other against the order of nature before the presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. O. Awogboro.

The pastors were arrested at a popular hotel at Ijeshatedo where it was alleged they usually lodged to do perform their act.

Sourc...

Will the Christian Right Hang Itself With Its Own Homophobia?

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

When teenagers, even many Christian teenagers, look at the Christian right's homophobia these days, it makes no sense to them. It just looks ugly.

With marriage equality battles in front of the voters in four states [3], the faithful are out in flocks to defend traditional wedlock. I don’t know exactly what traditional means in this context. It certainly doesn’t mean biblical, or it would include captive virgins and sex slaves [4] and fathering children for your deceased brothers....

Southern Decadence Arrests: 9 Anti-Gay Preachers Nabbed For Disrupting New Orleans Celebration

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:23:00 +0100

A number of Christian fundamentalists may have claimed that gay revelers in town for Southern Decadence somehow prompted Hurricane Isaac's dangerous weather in New Orleans last week. As it turns out, New Orleans has little tolerance for anti-gay rhetoric, too, as nine preachers were arrested for "suspicion of aggressive solicitation" on Saturday after yelling homophobic epithets during a Southern Decadence demonstration.

The New Orlea...

US evangelical Christians accused of promoting homophobia in Africa

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Thinktank says rightwingers are aggressively targeting the continent with an anti-abortion and anti-gay agenda

Ugandans demonstrate against homosexuality in the streets of Jinja and urge their leaders to pass a
strict anti-homosexuality bill that would make certain offences punishable by death.
Photograph: Trevor Snapp/Corbis

Christian evangelical groups in the US are attempting a "cultural colonisation" of Africa, opening offices in numerous countries to promote attacks on homosexuali...

KANSAS: Baptist pastor says government should kill homosexuals

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:48:00 +0100

The pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas says President Barack Obama has gone too far in supporting same sex marriage and it’s time for the U.S. government to begin killing gay men and lesbians.

“Terrorists are dangerous, the economy is a real and present danger,” Pastor Curtis Knapp told his congregation on Sunday. “But there is simply nothing other than the holocaust of the unborn which imperils the safety of our country or places our people in jeopardy...

NORTH CAROLINA: Pastor says 'Punch' Gay-Acting Children

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:11:00 +0100

Video Shows N.C. Pastor Sean Harris Clearly Has a Problem With Gay People

The complete video is out, but take an aspirin before listening to the angry diatribe of preacher Sean Harris.

The full hour-length sermon of North Carolina Baptist preacher Sean Harris was released Friday, and it shows him not only urging violence toward children, but also telling congregants to take to the polls to ban marriage rights from the state's gays.

In recent interviews, Harris claimed his sermon actually ...

NETHERLANDS: Dutch Chief rabbi reinstated after homosexuality row

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:52:00 +0100

Chief Rabbi Ralbag was suspended for co-signing statement which said homosexuality could be healed.

THE HAGUE – The Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam reinstated its chief rabbi, Aryeh Ralbag, on Thursday after briefly suspending him last month for having co-signed a statement in which homosexuality was described as an inclination from which one can be “healed.”

According to the board of the community, NIHS, Ralbag’s reinstatement came after he “acknowledged both verba...

NEW YORK: Women Rabbis Question Suggestive Tefillin Photo

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Was the winter issue of Kolot, the magazine of the Conservative movement, “stooping to sensationalism” or raising questions about women wearing tefillin?

Those were the questions asked in a letter to the editor by Conservative women rabbis in response to the magazine’s cover picture of two women holding hands while wearing tefillin. The letter called the photograph “disturbing and beneath the magazine that represents the unified voice of our movement.”

“As Conservative rabbis ...

MICHIGAN: Occupy Wall St Movement Inspires Pastor To Protest For LGBT Rights

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has been going strong for over a month now and recently it reached Holland, Michigan where a pastor was arrested after protesting for LGBT rights. Details after the jump.

The Rev. Bill Freeman, who says he was inspired by the ongoing OWS movement, was arrested on Wednesday “after refusing to leave Holland’s city hall in protest of the southwestern Michigan city’s decision not to expand its anti-discrimination ordinance” to include gays, lesbians, bisexuals...

NORTH CAROLINA: Pastor arrested for causing too much noise during gay pride

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Today, in North Carolina a reverend was arrested for violating a noise complaint while openly protesting a gay pride event in Charlotte. He claims the charge is a violation of his right to free speech, or the 1st amendment if you must.

The Charlotte Observer reports that thousands of people flocked to the Pride Charlotte festival over the weekend — which raised money for the city’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center — among them a dozen or so protesters, including...

MASSACHUTTES: Sex Offender Manager Of Pastor Scott Lively’s Coffee House Arrested

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0100

Pastor Scott Lively does not like lesbians and gays, but it appears that he has no problem with straight pedophiles such as Michael Frediani, the now likely former manager of Holy Grounds Coffee Shop in Springfield, Mass. Frediani was a volunteer manager of the coffee shop, which apparently took donations but did not actually charge for their coffee. He was arrested and jailed in New York for the sexual abuse of an eleven year old girl in 1995, according to the police, who have since arrested...

UGANDA: Pastor Martin "Eat Da Poo Poo" Ssempa Charged With Blackmail

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:00:00 +0100

Uganda's notorious Pastor Martin Ssempa, who infamously tells national audiences that the preferred sexual practice of gay men is eating human feces, has been charged with attempting to blackmail another pastor. Ssempa is accused of offering to pay another man to say that he had "been sodomized" by Pastor Robert Kayanja. A total of eight anti-gay Christian activists have been charged in the case.

Pastor Sempa is accused of hiring Robson Matovu to blackmail Pastor Kayanja. Court heard that Pa...

UTAH: Gay suicides and the Mormon Church

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0100

In July of this year [2010] – following the suicide of Todd Ransom, a 28-year-old gay man from Orem, Utah, who was reportedly struggling to reconcile his sexual orientation with his Mormon upbringing – horrifying statistics emerged regarding suicide, particularly among teenagers, in Utah.

Deseret News, a newspaper owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints revealed that:

Every 11 days a Utah teen commits suicide

Utah leads the nation in suicide among men 15-24

Utah has the 11th high...

BELGIUM: Archbishop: AIDS Is God's Will

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0100

The head of Belgium's Catholic Church is in hot water for saying gay men deserve AIDS for the "travesty" that is homosexuality and that pedophile priests should go unpunished.

A gay rights lawyer is threatening legal action against Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard -- a close friend of the pope -- for saying AIDS is "justice" for gay men.

Leonard's press spokesman, Juergen Mettepenningen, has quit over the remarks, saying, "Monsignor Leonard at times acts like a motorist driving on the wrong side...

UGANDA: Paper that published list of gay men ordered to shut down

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:10:00 +0100

A Ugandan newspaper that published names and pictures of what it said were homosexuals in Uganda and called on authorities to hang them has been ordered to cease publishing, a gay rights leader said Monday.

Frank Mugisha, chairman of the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMU), said his group had petitioned the high court to order Rolling Stone to stop work because it was exposing innocent people to discrimination, ridicule, intimidation and possible violence.

"I feel enormous relief and happiness becau...

GEORGIA: Megachurch Pastor Comes Out

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0100

The pastor of a megachurch in Conyers, Ga., told his congregation last week that he’s gay, saying that while he knows his announcement might ruin his career, the recent rash of suicides pushed him to speak out.

Jim Swilley, 52, founded Rockdale County’s Church in the Now 25 years ago. His wife, Debye, was the associate pastor, and together they had four children.

Swilley says he’s known that he’s gay since he was a boy, and his wife knew when they got married. Jim and Debye are now divo...

UGANDA: Newspaper Calls For The Hanging Of 100 Gays

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:17:00 +0100

The front-page newspaper story featured a list of Uganda’s 100 “top” homosexuals, with a bright yellow banner across it that read: “Hang Them.” Alongside their photos were the men’s names and addresses.

In the days since it was published, at least four gay Ugandans on the list have been attacked and many others are in hiding, according to rights activist Julian Onziema. One person named in the story had stones thrown at his house by neighbors.

A lawmaker in this conservative Afric...

GEORGIA: Accused pastor crusaded against homosexuals

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:53:00 +0100

Editor's note: CNN's John Blake first covered Bishop Eddie Long as a religion reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- As Bishop Eddie Long poked through a salad in his church office one summer day in 1999, he shot a weary look at a person ticking off his ministry's successes.

His Atlanta megachurch had already reached 25,000 members. He had been invited to the White House, built a global television ministry and drove around town in a luxury automobile.

But Long t...

16 Anti-Gay Extremists in Glenn Beck’s Creepy Christian Army

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:45:00 +0100

As he attempts to rebrand himself as a spiritual leader, Glenn Beck has surrounded himself with religious and secular figures who share a fervent opposition to the “homosexual agenda.”

1. David Barton

David Barton, founder and president of WallBuilders, spoke at Beck’s August 27 event, “Divine Destiny.” He also led the August 16 Glenn Beck Morning Prayer, one of a series of recorded prayers posted online in the days leading up to Beck’s rally.

Opposing military service by gay men...

Christian Right Bigots Are Hiding the Truth -- Early Christians Condoned Gay Marriage

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Many of the world's religions -- including Christianity -- supported same-sex unions, a reality obscured by modern-day shrill, conservative commentary.

Through much of history, especially prior to the Fourteenth Century, many Christians did not share the view that marriage was a reward for being heterosexual, nor that a same-sex union was objectionable.

An icon from St. Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai illustrates this point. It shows two robed Christian saints getting married. Their pro...

ITALY: Gay Priests Blasted For Leading 'Double Life' By Church

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:37:00 +0100

ROME — The Catholic Church in Italy, still reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal, lashed out Friday at gay priests who are leading a double life, urging them to come out of the closet and leave the priesthood.

The Diocese of Rome issued the strongly worded statement after the conservative Panorama newsweekly said in a cover story and accompanying video that it had interviewed three gay priests in Rome and accompanied them to gay clubs and bars and to sexual encounters with strangers, i...

UTAH: LDS Official Involved in Argentina Marriage Battle

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Despite claims from the Mormon Church that it was not involved with a group opposing same-sex marriage in Argentina, an LDS official joined other religious leaders there at a July meeting for a strategy session.

Carlos Aguero, LDS public-affairs director for Argentina and a former Area Authority Seventy, attended a July 7 meeting along with several leaders from conservative Christian churches, a Buenos Aires newspaper reports.

The LDS Church says Aguero’s involvement doesn’t mean the ch...

UNITED KINGDOM: Anti-gay preacher arrested for 'homophobic' election leaflets

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:47:00 +0100

A Christian street preacher has been arrested for distributing leaflets which allegedly said gay men and lesbians should be "locked up".

Paul Shaw, 62, of Duffield Drive, Colchester, stood as an independent candidate in May's general election, although he polled just 20 votes.

He did not specify his political beliefs or describe himself on the ballot paper but a member of the public complained to police after being handed one of his election leaflets.

According to the Colchester Daily Gazette, i...

UGANDA: Church Hoax? - Was: Gay rights activist decapitated

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:07:00 +0100

Was Uganda beheading a hoax?

By Celeste Lavin

07.07.2010 6:21pm EDT

We reported here on 365gay.com yesterday that a gay rights activist in Uganda was brutally beheaded. Reports are now coming in that the incident seems to be a hoax.

There was a murder and a beheading, however, it seems that the victim was not a gay activist.

Commenters speculate that the possible hoax was arranged by a church official in Uganda in an attempt to raise money or to discredit the Ugandan’s LGBT community ...

UGANDA: Arch-Conservative U.S. Christians Help Uganda 'Kill-the-Gays' Bill Stay Alive

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Uganda's anti-gay bill, which espouses the death penalty for homosexual acts, still lives -- with the help of the U.S. religious right.

It may have receded from the front pages of the nation's newspapers, but despite stern words from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, Uganda's extraordinary Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 -- which provides the death penalty for certain homosexual acts -- is still alive in the Uganda parliament, with the apparent blessing of Christia...

UGANDA: Bishop Says Some U.S. Christian Groups Are ‘Preaching A Gospel Of Hatred’ Toward ...

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:19:00 +0100

The Ugandan parliament is considering legislation that would impose the death penalty or life imprisonment for some homosexual acts (which are already illegal), require people to report every LGBT individual they know, and criminalize renting property to gay men and women.

As Rachel Maddow repeatedly highlighted on her MSNBC show, this anti-gay push in Uganda was inspired — and promoted — by the religious far right in the United States. In March 2009, three American evangelicals — whose ...

MASSACHUSETTS: Boston Archbishop Defends Hingham School Pastor

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, defended the pastor who prevented the son of a lesbian couple from enrolling at a Catholic school in Hingham, Mass. While saying that the pastor acted in what he believed was the best interest of the child, the cardinal also argued that Catholic schools do not exclude based on categories, a point he supported by likening homosexuality to prostitution.

As The Boston Globe reports, O’Malley said that the Catholic church does not exclude ca...

Gay Sex Scandal Rocks Christian Right ... Again

Sun, 09 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Come Out, George, Come Out

The Miami New Times recently broke the story about George Allen Rekers’ 10-day Europe vacation with a male escort, identified only as 20-year-old Lucian. The story has been picked up by the national media and turned this aging puffer into the butt of popular ridicule by Steve Colbert and Jay Leno. One can only shout: Come out George, come out of your closet!

Rekers is an upstanding, 61-year-old white Christian homophobic and has all the credentials of a great deceive...

Baptist Reverend Rekers Rent Boy Scandal Spreading Fast

Sat, 08 May 2010 13:09:22 +0100

Recent disclosures about how Religious Right leader Rev. Dr. George Rekers hired a rent boy to accompany him on a trip to Europe continues to send shock waves through the Religious Right and conservative politics.

National media coverage continues; the scandal is becoming an issue in the Florida gubernatorial race; Rekers' professional associations are distancing themselves from him, and if that was not enough, another rent boy has emerged claiming to have had Rekers as a client. For the recor...

EXPOSED: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:10:00 +0100

A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com and was caught in an airport with the escort by a Miami newspaper.

The escort said he had met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com. Rekers, when confronted, didn't deny that he'd met the callboy online, but said he ha...

EXPOSED: Christian leader caught with male escort is homosexual

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:10:00 +0100

Update: Escort tells paper Rekers is homosexual

The newspaper that busted a Christian leader with a male escort ran a follow-up story Thursday afternoon:

"The male escort hired by anti-gay activist George Alan Rekers has told Miami New Times the Baptist minister is a homosexual who paid him to provide body rubs once a day in the nude, during their ten-day vacation in Europe.

Rekers allegedly named his favorite maneuver the "long stroke" -- a complicated caress "across his penis, thigh... and h...

UK: Christian street preacher arrested for homophobic sermon

Mon, 03 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

In Great Britain street preacher Dale Mcalpine was charged with a public order offense, causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after disparaging homosexuals. Mcalpine was delivering a sermon atop a ladder, yelling at pedestrians and reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

Police officers allege that Mcalpine made the homophobic remarks in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with u...

UK: 'Religion has no basis in fact' rules judge

Sat, 01 May 2010 11:49:00 +0100

This week a British judge dismissed the case of 48-year old Gary McFarlane, an Evangelical Christian who lost his job as a relationship counselor after refusing in principle to offer sex therapy sessions to homosexual couples. After challenging his employer's decision at an employment tribunal and losing there, McFarlane took his case to court, alleging that forcing him to go against what he sees as the Bible’s teaching represented religious discrimination.

Lord Justice Laws threw out the c...

UK: Gay couple turned away from B&B by Christian owners

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:22:00 +0100

'Shocked and embarrassed' pair say they felt treated like lepers and reported matter to police

A gay couple were turned away from a bed and breakfast by its Christian owner who claimed it was against her convictions for two men to share a bed.

Michael Black and John Morgan from Brampton, Cambridgeshire, booked a double room at the B&B in Cookham, Berkshire, for Friday night.

When they arrived, Susanne Wilkinson and her husband Francis refused to allow them to stay. The owner said later that ...

MALAWI: Church leaders meet on gay rights

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:47:00 +0100

(Blantyre, Malawi) Church leaders say they have met in this fiercely conservative southern African nation to “understand the phenomenon” of same sex partners days ahead of a court verdict that could send two gay men to jail for up to 14 years.

Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe, head of the Malawi Council of Churches, says the leaders gathered Wednesday in the southern town of Mangochi to discuss homosexuality as an issue “most Malawians do not understand.”

Blantyre magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa i...

VIRGINIA: Attorney General orders colleges to stop protecting gays

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:27:00 +0100

Officials and student leaders at Virginia colleges are reacting mutedly, so far, to an order from state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that the schools stop protecting LGBT students.

In a letter (PDF) sent to the state's public colleges and universities and obtained by the Washington Post, Cuccinelli declared that the schools don't have the authority to uphold bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation when the state itself has no such ban.

"It is my advice that the law and publ...

COLORADO: Gay couple's child denied re-enrollment at Catholic school

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

BOULDER - A preschool student at a Catholic school in Boulder will not be allowed to return next school year because of what is going on at home.

The student's parents are two women and the Denver Archdiocese says their homosexual relationship violates the school's beliefs and policy.

According to teachers at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School, a meeting was held Tuesday to discuss the issue. The staff was told a student would not be allowed to re-enroll because of his or her parents' sexua...

VIRGINIA: Christian ignorance revives discrimination

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:04:00 +0100

Christian ignorance revives discrimination in Virginia. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday assailed a series of recent moves in Virginia under new Gov. Bob McDonnell, citing the rising influence of the Christian right in exacerbating "discrimination" against gays and women.

Maddow was dumbstruck by state legislator Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), who declared Monday that children born with disabilities are God's "vengeance" for abortion, quoting scripture to make his case.

"The number of children wh...

UGANDA: Lawmaker would kill gay son

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:59:00 +0100

A member of Uganda’s parliament – which is currently debating an anti-gay bill that would punish homosexuality with death – said Friday at a human rights forum he would kill his own son if he found out his son were gay.

The forum’s keynote speaker, Makau Mutua, immediately denounced MP Otto Odonga for his comment.

“I am baffled by the kind of hatred you spew against gay people, including your desire to be a hangman,” Mutua tod the forum, Xtra, a gay news source in Canada, reported. ...

UGANDA: Anti-gay pastor screens porn in church

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:36:00 +0100

A PASTOR seeking to bolster Uganda's anti-gay laws screened gay porn in a church in the capital Kampala overnight in a bid to gain support.

The screening in an evangelical church was attended by around 300 supporters after plans for a "million man march" were thwarted by police.

"The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business, but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?" pastor Martin Ssempa asked the crowd.

Pastor Ssempa then...

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Archdiocese ends foster-care rather than serve gay couples

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:11:00 +0100

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, DC has ended a foster-care program it has run for 80 years rather than work with same-sex couples. The problem began in November when the DC city council began debating legislation that would legalize same-sex marriages. Catholic Charities, which receives $20 million in support from the city, threatened to drop out of the program rather than license same-sex couples. The council signed the legislation in December and it is due to go into effect in just ...

CALIFORNIA: Fresno City College instructor giving anti-gay views

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:48:00 +0100

A Fresno City College instructor is wrongly presenting religious-based and anti-gay views as fact in an introductory health class, the American Civil Liberties Union charged Monday.

The organization outlined complaints against full-time instructor Bradley Lopez in a letter sent to City College President Cynthia Azari. The ACLU -- which requested a response by Feb. 15 -- demanded the campus ensure that health-science classes teach unbiased and medically accurate information.

Azari said officials...

VATICAN: Pope condemns gay equality laws ahead of first UK visit

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:29:00 +0100

Benedict XVI says legislation safeguarding rights of same-sex couples violates 'natural law'

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to "natural law" as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year.

In a letter addressed to the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, the pope praised Britain's "firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all".

However, he criticised UK legislation for creating "limitations on the freedom of religious commun...

CALIFORNIA: Prop 8 backer’s ‘child sex’ slur used against him in trial

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:45:00 +0100

Opponents of California's ban on gay marriage are using an anti-gay activist's claims against him in a landmark gay marriage trial taking place in San Francisco.

Lawyers working to have Proposition 8 -- California's ban on gay marriage -- overturned as unconstitutional played a videotape of William Tam, a leading proponent of Proposition 8, arguing that allowing gay marriage would lead to the legalization of sex with children.

Opponents of Prop 8, who launched the constitutional challenge, are ...

Pope calls gay marriage an 'attack on creation'

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:17:00 +0100

Pope Benedict XVI has called gay marriage laws an "attack" on the natural differences between men and women.

Speaking just after Portugal's parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage, the pontiff addressed the comments to the Vatican diplomatic corps in a message which focused on environmental issues.

This is not the first time he has used environmental messages to preach about the sins of gay people.

In an end-of year address in 2008, he said that the existence of gay people threatens hu...

MALAWI: Pastor disowns gay couple arrested for homosexuality

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The pastor of a Malawi church attended by two men arrested on homosexuality charges after they took part in a public engagement ceremony has disowned both of them and says they are unwelcome in the congregation.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were remanded in custody by a magistrates’ court on January 4 after chief magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa said he would not grant bail to the two men for their own protection.

“With the accused in custody, they are safe as of now. We are not sur...

KANSAS: Reverend Fred Phelps: 'God Hates Lady Gaga'

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The Reverend Fred Phelps hates fags (not to mention Jews), and Lady Gaga loves everything gay. So somehow by the transitive property, it makes sense that the Kansas pastor would declare that god hates Gaga.

Here's the Reverend's press release with info on where you can join him and the Wesboro Baptist Church to picket Gaga's concert on January 7:

"Thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed...Will He reserve HIs anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast...

No gay change for the Salvation Army

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:36:00 +0100

“Did you sign up to ring the bell?” a good-hearted friend asked.

She realized even before I voiced my answer that I had not volunteered to ring the bell outside our local supermarket to raise money for the Salvation Army.

And she regretted that she had volunteered to collect money for the Salvation Army, which has gone as far as lobbying the White House to obstruct efforts to treat gays and lesbians equally — as citizens and as employees.

Many, many good people — my friends and neighbor...

UGANDA: Anti-gay bigots plunge Africa into new era of hate crimes

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Uganda is likely to pass a law within months that will make homosexuality a capital offense, joining 37 other countries in the continent where American evangelical Christian groups are increasingly spreading bigotry

"Learned behavior can be unlearned," said David Bahati. "You can't tell me that people are born gays. It is foreign influence that is at work."

Bahati has just presented his anti-homosexuality bill 2009 to Uganda's parliament. The bill, which will be debated within a fortnight and i...

UGANDA: Anti-Gay Bill: Inspired by the U.S.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The late-November afternoon sun bore down on the park in downtown Kampala, and all along the benches, Ugandan office workers took their siestas. There could have been no less likely setting for criminal conspiracies to topple an East African state. Still, the doctor's voice dropped a notch when an office worker in a brown suit settled in close by. The medic shifted a battered fedora over his eyes. "I am the gay doctor," the physician whispered to me, making sure nobody around heard. He talked...

The Religious Right's Potty Paranoia

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:59:00 +0100

The next big culture war battle is about to be waged in an unlikely place: the restroom. After many years, Congress may finally have the votes to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The measure, which the Obama administration views as key to advancing gay rights, would ban workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgendered people. But Christian right groups are fighting the legislation—on the grounds that it would force businesses to allow transgendered and "t...

NEW JERSEY: Gay marriage issue divides clergy

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Gay marriage. It's either a slap in God's face or another form of a holy union, depending on which religious leader is asked.

As the state Legislature considers whether to legalize same-sex marriage … the state Senate's vote today was postponed … debate over the issue is simmering within religious circles. The clergy disagrees on whether a vote for what some call marriage equality is a vote against faith.

"It was a bit of a jihad, in a sense, on the Bible," Rabbi Noson Leiter said after a...

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Ted Cox posed as a gay man to infiltrate gay-to-straight therapy programs. What he found was equal parts shocking and tragic.

Over the course of the past two years, writer Ted Cox posed as a gay man. He attended weekly meetings for several months at two churches in California and a two-day camp at a ranch in northern Arizona in February, both geared toward one end: turning homosexual men and women straight. Last week, I sat down with my friend, Cox, to hear about his experience going undercover ...

Frank Schaeffer: Killing Gays for Jesus

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:23:55 +0100

Many on the religious right would consider Frank Schaeffer an apostate. The son of an important founder of the modern religious Right, Francis Schaeffer, Frank Shaeffer has moved from his previous positions and is now one of the worst enemies of the modern religious right, because he knows where the bodies are buried - and in some case, I wonder if that expression should be taken literally.

Shaeffer has a post over at Brad Blog, to which my spouse pointed me. It is devastating. Consider ...

NEW JERSEY: Orthodox rabbis take public anti-gay marriage stance

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:30:00 +0100

(Lakewood, NJ) The leaders in the local large Orthodox Jewish community go to great lengths to keep out the outside world, discouraging nonbusiness use of the Internet and encouraging strict filters to keep the ungodly out when members must use the Web.

But last month, several rabbis and other elders did something astounding for them: They took a public stand on a political issue, declaring their opposition to same-sex marriage in the state.

“This really hurts us,” said Rabbi Osher Lieberma...

UGANDA: Author: ‘The [Christian] Family’ behind proposed Ugandan law that would execute HIV+ men

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:28:00 +0100

The African nation of Uganda is weighing a bill that would impose the death penalty on HIV positive men who have committed what it calls "aggravated homosexuality."

As if that were not shocking enough, a U.S. author is claiming that a secretive group of American [christian zealot] politicians appear to be a driving force in seeing the proposal become law.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, heavily supported by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, was first read in October, triggering a wave of con...

CALIFORNIA: Vallejo Rumblings: Fallout Over Mayor’s Comments

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:46:00 +0100

The mayor of Vallejo has apologized for comments he made in a New York Times column by Scott James, a Bay area writer.

The column, about evangelical Christians gaining more power in the troubled city, quoted Mayor Osby Davis as saying of gay men and lesbians: “They’re committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven. But you don’t hate the person. You hate the sin they commit.”

Mr. Davis made his statement of apology in collaboration with Michael Wilson, a Vallejo City Council ...

Christian leaders issue 'call of conscience'

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:00 +0100

(Washington) More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms.

The 4,700-word document, called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.

While acknowledging that “Christi...

Bigotry on Parade: Christian leaders issue ‘call of conscience’

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:00 +0100

Bigotry on Parade

(Washington) More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms.

The 4,700-word document, called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.

While acknowl...

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

First they threatened to take down health-care reform over abortion coverage. Now they're threatening services to the sick and poor of Washington, D.C., over same-sex marriage.

They lead a church that claims to stand on the side of the sick and the poor, the meek who shall inherit the earth. But in the course of a single week, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed themselves willing to see health-care denied to millions of uninsured Americans, and to yank the social-service rug o...

Inventing Sin: Religion and Homosexuality

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0100

No matter their own scandals, religious institutions through history have a consistent scapegoat: homosexuals.

There they were, lined up in all their finery across the top of the front page of The New York Times of March 31, 2005, occupying perhaps the most prime piece of real estate in all of journalism: Sheik Abed es- Salem Menasra, deputy mufti of Jerusalem; the Rev. Michel Sabbagh, the Latin patriarch; Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem; Rabbi Shlomo Ama...

LGBT Discrimination

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Imam calls gays to worship, marry

American stands in stark contrast to most in Islam

Nikki Kahn Daayiee Abdullah, at the Light of Reform mosque in Washington, is thought to be the only publicly gay Muslim religious leader in the Western Hemisphere.

Pastor Scott Lively; Gays Blamed for Noah's Flood

NIGERIA: Two Gay Pastors Arrested In Lagos

Will the Christian Right Hang Itself With Its Own Homophobia?

When teenagers, even many Christian teenagers, look at the Christian right's homophobia these days, it makes no sense to them. It just looks ugly.

Southern Decadence Arrests: 9 Anti-Gay Preachers Nabbed For Disrupting New Orleans Celebration

US evangelical Christians accused of promoting homophobia in Africa

Thinktank says rightwingers are aggressively targeting the continent with an anti-abortion and anti-gay agenda

Ugandans demonstrate against homosexuality in the streets of Jinja and urge their leaders to pass astrict anti-homosexuality bill that would make certain offences punishable by death. Photograph: Trevor Snapp/Corbis

KANSAS: Baptist pastor says government should kill homosexuals

NORTH CAROLINA: Pastor says 'Punch' Gay-Acting Children

Video Shows N.C. Pastor Sean Harris Clearly Has a Problem With Gay People

NETHERLANDS: Dutch Chief rabbi reinstated after homosexuality row

Chief Rabbi Ralbag was suspended for co-signing statement which said homosexuality could be healed.

NEW YORK: Women Rabbis Question Suggestive Tefillin Photo

MICHIGAN: Occupy Wall St Movement Inspires Pastor To Protest For LGBT Rights

NORTH CAROLINA: Pastor arrested for causing too much noise during gay pride

MASSACHUTTES: Sex Offender Manager Of Pastor Scott Lively’s Coffee House Arrested

UGANDA: Pastor Martin "Eat Da Poo Poo" Ssempa Charged With Blackmail

UTAH: Gay suicides and the Mormon Church

BELGIUM: Archbishop: AIDS Is God's Will

UGANDA: Paper that published list of gay men ordered to shut down

GEORGIA: Megachurch Pastor Comes Out

UGANDA: Newspaper Calls For The Hanging Of 100 Gays

GEORGIA: Accused pastor crusaded against homosexuals

16 Anti-Gay Extremists in Glenn Beck’s Creepy Christian Army

1. David Barton

Christian Right Bigots Are Hiding the Truth -- Early Christians Condoned Gay Marriage

ITALY: Gay Priests Blasted For Leading 'Double Life' By Church

UTAH: LDS Official Involved in Argentina Marriage Battle

UNITED KINGDOM: Anti-gay preacher arrested for 'homophobic' election leaflets

UGANDA: Church Hoax? - Was: Gay rights activist decapitated

UGANDA: Arch-Conservative U.S. Christians Help Uganda 'Kill-the-Gays' Bill Stay Alive

UGANDA: Bishop Says Some U.S. Christian Groups Are ‘Preaching A Gospel Of Hatred’ Toward ...

MASSACHUSETTS: Boston Archbishop Defends Hingham School Pastor

Gay Sex Scandal Rocks Christian Right ... Again

Baptist Reverend Rekers Rent Boy Scandal Spreading Fast

EXPOSED: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage

EXPOSED: Christian leader caught with male escort is homosexual

UK: Christian street preacher arrested for homophobic sermon

UK: 'Religion has no basis in fact' rules judge

UK: Gay couple turned away from B&B by Christian owners

MALAWI: Church leaders meet on gay rights

VIRGINIA: Attorney General orders colleges to stop protecting gays

COLORADO: Gay couple's child denied re-enrollment at Catholic school

VIRGINIA: Christian ignorance revives discrimination

UGANDA: Lawmaker would kill gay son

UGANDA: Anti-gay pastor screens porn in church

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Archdiocese ends foster-care rather than serve gay couples

CALIFORNIA: Fresno City College instructor giving anti-gay views

VATICAN: Pope condemns gay equality laws ahead of first UK visit

CALIFORNIA: Prop 8 backer’s ‘child sex’ slur used against him in trial

Pope calls gay marriage an 'attack on creation'

MALAWI: Pastor disowns gay couple arrested for homosexuality

KANSAS: Reverend Fred Phelps: 'God Hates Lady Gaga'

No gay change for the Salvation Army

UGANDA: Anti-gay bigots plunge Africa into new era of hate crimes

UGANDA: Anti-Gay Bill: Inspired by the U.S.

The Religious Right's Potty Paranoia

NEW JERSEY: Gay marriage issue divides clergy

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

Frank Schaeffer: Killing Gays for Jesus

NEW JERSEY: Orthodox rabbis take public anti-gay marriage stance

UGANDA: Author: ‘The [Christian] Family’ behind proposed Ugandan law that would execute HIV+ men

CALIFORNIA: Vallejo Rumblings: Fallout Over Mayor’s Comments

Christian leaders issue 'call of conscience'

Bigotry on Parade: Christian leaders issue ‘call of conscience’

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor

Inventing Sin: Religion and Homosexuality

Nikki Kahn

Daayiee Abdullah, at the Light of Reform mosque in Washington, is thought to be the only publicly gay Muslim religious leader in the Western Hemisphere.

Ugandans demonstrate against homosexuality in the streets of Jinja and urge their leaders to pass a
strict anti-homosexuality bill that would make certain offences punishable by death.
Photograph: Trevor Snapp/Corbis