Author Archives: Epluribusunum

Benefit for Ugandan LGBT rights in Sterling

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Crossposted at Equality Loudoun

Benefit Celebration for GLBT Rights in Uganda
with Rev. Mark Kiyimba
Music by Tom Teasley
Friday January 13th, 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Unitarian Universalists of Sterling
22135 Davis Drive, Sterling (map)

It’s illegal to be gay in Uganda, and has been since colonial times. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy the anti-gay fringe in America. Following a 2009 conference arranged by three American extremists, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan Parliament that would institute the death penalty for gay people under some circumstances, prohibit any form of advocacy or human rights work on behalf of gay people, eliminate confidentiality for health care providers and clergy, and even make it a crime to fail to turn in one’s own family members. Along with the bill a vicious pogrom has been unleashed against the gay community, leading to many Ugandans living in constant fear. The developing situation has been extensively covered by Box Turtle Bulletin.

LGBT activists in Uganda point to a virulently anti-gay March 2009 conference put on by three American Evangelical activists for inciting the latest round of violence and intimidation against the local LGBT community. Among the three were Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Lee Brundidge, who is a protege of ex-gay advocate Richard Cohen. Lively, who blamed gay men for the rise of Nazism and the Rwandan genocide, proudly declared his talk as being a “nuclear bomb” against LGBT advocacy in Africa.

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Waking up now?

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This is absolutely dead on, and what we’ve been saying to those people trying to either dismiss or defend Mr. Delgaudio for years now. Rob Tisinai does more than just point it out, though; he walks us through it, in detail both hilarious and sad. Sad, because Mr. Delgaudio is a fraud, which means that someone is being duped. This brief analysis of his financial records demonstrates it. Thanks to Rob for posting the link in comments.

Put it together with Mr. Delgaudio’s open admission to a colleague that he really doesn’t care, personally, about the so-called “homosexual agenda,” and what do you have? Some folks I have to feel a great deal of pity for, among other things.

Delgaudio has the public’s eye right now, and he’s working it. This might be a good time for him to step back from his cries of persecution and tell his donors exactly what it is he does with their money — besides using it to ask them for more money.

But why? They’ve shown no interest in that information thus far. I think that he just may have compiled a list of the stupidest people in America. And anyone defending him here in Loudoun, whether for their own personal gain or for any other reason, is helping this sociopathic little man to prey on them.

Does this look like hate speech to you?

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Update: See more photos from the Leesburg courthouse on Saturday, when four new displays were added. Just added: the text of the “Letter from Jesus” that was vandalized the evening of December 5.

Another update: The Beltway Atheists’ take on all this is up at their blog. They are quite right about this: “The NOVA display, like all of our previous displays, failed to trash christianity or to attack christmas.” The frequently repeated sentiment summed up by the opening line of this recent misguided letter to the editor – “The anti-religious courthouse lawn displays crafted by Rick Wingrove and the others were erected for one purpose only: to insult and provoke those who believe in God” – is a ridiculous kneejerk reaction to the expression of ideas with which those who are offended disagree. Disagreement does not equal insult, people.

On the other hand, I do think the author is dismissive of the spontaneous interpretation of the Skeleton Santa by those who didn’t have prior knowledge of its intended meaning (“That the christian community was absolutely wrong about the display did not alter their narrative, that it was an atheist attack on christianity.”) While that statement is certainly true, what those people saw conveyed hate to them. A little more sensitivity to the feelings of such people, even if it’s not mutual, would go a long way, IMO. The Christian community is not a monolithic group, any more than the atheist community is. Unfortunately, some of them responded in kind (trigger warning for those offended by hateful language and profanity, the author quotes from one of the emails sent to the group, and I can only hope that person doesn’t claim to be a Christian).

Does this look like hate speech to you?

Yeah, me either.

How to ruin a ‘positive statement of belief’

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You know, I pretty much agree with a sentiment expressed by the many people who wish the perennial courthouse unpleasantness would just go away. That sentiment is commonly expressed something like this: I uphold the right of anyone to express any belief, no matter how offensive, because that’s what the Constitution guarantees – but it would be more effective and neighborly if the way people chose to express their beliefs was limited to inoffensive ‘positive statements’.

Consider the campaign, spearheaded every year by the American Family Association*, to get store clerks and others dealing with the public to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” I personally don’t care what people say to me; if someone says “Happy Holidays” I don’t have any trouble understanding what they mean, and if they say “Merry Christmas” I don’t jump to the conclusion that they’ve intentionally dissed some other holiday. However, this detail is important to the supporters of this group, and they have every right to advocate via legal means for the changes they want. Their campaign involves (in part) distributing buttons and stickers that say “It’s okay to say Merry Christmas.” So far, so good; that sounds like a positive message expressing their belief.

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Federal court overturns Prop 8

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This (originally posted 08-4-10) is the funniest damn juxtaposition I have seen in a long time.

From closing arguments by Ted Olson, for equality:

The Supreme Court has said that marriage is the most important relation in life. Now that’s being withheld from the plaintiffs. Marriage, the Supreme Court has said again and again, is a component of liberty, privacy, spirituality and autonomy.

From closing arguments by Charles Cooper, against equality:

Marriage is to channel the sexual behavior between men and women into a procreative union.

A simple idea

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Yesterday in Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a brilliant, deeply compassionate speech in recognition of International Human Rights Day.

She begins by describing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted following the atrocities of World War II.

“It proclaims a simple, powerful idea: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. And with the declaration, it was made clear that rights are not conferred by government; they are the birthright of all people.”

All people. Those are such straightforward, easily understood words that it seems silly to discuss the fact that some people don’t understand them. “Because we are human, we therefore have rights.” There are still some among us who actually advance the argument that some people are not really people, and that insisting that they are amounts to conferring upon them “special rights.” There are some who would – seriously – claim that this declaration of our universal humanity is merely a matter of “opinion.”

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It’s not personal

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Students riot Nov. 9, 2011 in State College, PA. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

I think that must be what the rioting Penn State students and anyone else making excuses would say to the victims of child rapist Jerry Sandusky, if they felt the need to say anything to them at all. Sorry you were raped, but our team is winning national championships and that makes us feel good and we don’t want any interruptions. It’s not personal.

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This is what hate speech encourages.

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Photo credit: John Wright at The Dallas Voice

This is what hate speech gives people with violent inclinations license to do. When they are erroneously told, by someone like hate group leader Eugene Delgaudio, that gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people are threatening to something they value, such as their children or their right to worship freely, such people feel justified in resorting to violence. They are fearful, and feel that they are acting to protect something of great value.

Engaging in hate speech is not illegal. Lying is (usually) not illegal. But when hate speech is used to motivate people to make donations or to vote in a particular way, there are unintended (or perhaps intended) consequences. Anyone who engages in such behavior is unfit for public office, by definition. Such a person does not serve the public, by definition.

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A “new, dark legacy” that should be decisively rejected

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The following letter is online at Leesburg Today. It presents even more troubling information about the threatening political climate that came spectacularly into public view with the exposure of two violent images sent by Loudoun Republican leaders.

This is the first I’ve heard about the threatening phone calls to League of Women Voters members, or the harassment of the Electoral Board.

Where are our investigative reporters?

Like Sarah Palin’s bull’s eye on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s congressional district, the Loudoun County Republican Committee’s image of President Barak Obama with a bullet hole in his head adds to the violent imagery that has increasingly taken over public discourse in this nation.

This is not a single, anomalous event in recent Loudoun politics. A significant factor behind the Loudoun League of Women Voters cancellation of a candidate forum for this election was threats made to LLWV members by phone at their homes by advocates of concealed weapons, and the League’s concern about the cost and adequacy of security for what has been a regular voter education event.

Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio’s bloody handprint in literature denouncing homosexuality is another item to add to the pile.

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