Every now and again we get a really good reminder as to why hatred is hatred, injustice is injustice, intolerance is intolerance, and they all need to be addressed, regardless of who the subject of the hate might happen to be this week. Bigots, racists, sexists, homophobes, their “cause” might vary from group to group and time to time, but the hatred is all the same, and the civilized, intelligent, moral community needs to gather together to speak out against it.

I really can’t explain the righteous anger more than I can share it with you:

A prominent member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is under fire for publishing an essay in which he argues that Africans were fortunate to have been sold into slavery, and the civil rights movement was “irrational.”

“There is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America,” writes Gerald Schoenewolf, a member of NARTH’s Science Advisory Committee. “Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle… Life there was savage … and those brought to America, and other countries, were in many ways better off.”

NARTH is a coalition of psychologists who believe it’s possible to “cure” homosexuality, a position rejected by the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. The controversy over Schoenewolf’s apology for slavery has battered the so-called “ex-gay” movement with accusations of racial bigotry for the first time. The movement’s leaders and their close allies at Christian Right powerhouses like Focus on the Family have failed to condemn Schoenwolf’s inflammatory arguments.

Titled “Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History,” Schoenewolf’s angry polemic was published on NARTH’s website. In addition to his outrageous historical claims about the conditions of life in Africa, he writes that human rights proponents are intellectually stunted. (Schoenewolf draws upon Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized four stages of intellectual development, with the most advanced stage consisting of abstract and complex thinking. “[F]ollowers in the Human Rights Movement,” have not reached this stage, according to Schoenewolf.)

Schoenewolf, a psychotherapist who lives in New York City, is director of The Living Center, an online therapy center for people in the arts. He has authored 14 books, among them The Art of Hating, in which he writes, “Many people talk about hate, but few know how to hate well.”

So some ignorant name-calling, revisionist history, and the classic hate speech that we’re all used to from these folks. Nothing new. The real problem here is that the Christian right allies of this organization belie their own hatred and trends towards not just homophobia but racism as well by not condemning Schoenewolf’s idiotic rant for what it is. Apparently no one has educated them to the point that silence, especially by these people, is generally observed as acceptance-unless that’s exactly the message they’re trying to get across, which demonstrates the urgency with which we as a civil society need to both educate the ignorant and hopefully purge this social cancer from our ranks.

When people speak of so-called “homegrown terrorists,” these are the people I think of.

[ 'Gay Curer' Psychologist Claims Africans 'Better Off' As Slaves ]
Source: The Intelligence Report (courtesy of AlterNet)

I’m not going to get too far into the scandal over Mark Foley, the Republican from Florida that’s been revealed as having sent wholly inappropriate and frankly incredibly disgusting instant messages and e-mails to underage House pages, and the subsequent controversy over how the Republican leadershup knew about his inappropriate behavior for years and covered it up in order to save face. That’s all been drilled to death in the media, and that’s fine, I’m not going to rehash it all here. I’m not going to make excuses for Foley, and I’m not going to even slightly condone him either, that’s not what this is about.

This is about how quickly the conservative right turned on one of their own, not when it turned out that he was a horrible slimeball, but when it turned out that he was a homosexual. Take these quotes, passed along by the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, from some conservative leaders about not just Foley, but well, everyone else they believe should take the blame for the scandal except Foley himself and the Republican party and leadership for letting it happen and covering it up:

Blame Tolerance and Diversity!
“It’s outrageous, it’s shocking. But it shouldn’t be totally surprising when we hold up tolerance and diversity as the guidepost for public life this is what you end up getting.”
– Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

Blame the Homosexuals!
“But neither party seems likely to address the real issue, which is the link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse.”
– Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

Blame the Left!
The Foley revelations are “an attempt to discourage Christian conservative voters and to get some percentage of them to stay home so that the Left can retake the United States Senate and the United States House.”
– Gary Bauer, Chairman, Campaign for Working Families

Blame….Planned Parenthood?
“There is never an acceptable excuse or rationale for the type of deviant behavior former Congressman Mark Foley has admitted to. Homosexuality is every bit a part of the culture of death as is abortion and contraception. Not surprisingly, Foley was an ardent supporter of both, representing the interests of Planned Parenthood 64 percent of the time thus far in 2006.”
– Human Life International

As a matter of fact, I actually heard one conservative activist, during an interview on “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio spout more vile hatred on the radio by saying something along the lines of “It’s a well known fact that Foley was a homosexual, and that homosexuals more often about sex than normal people,” or something to similar effect. The interviewer called him out on it, but this is the kind of ignorant, bull-headed, malicious hate that the rest of civilized society has an obligation and a duty to stand up against. It’s not about being politically correct, it’s about learning to abide by your neighbor and judge not, lest ye be judged. But the religious right, typically co-opting religion to advance their own agenda, has completely lost sight of even the most basic tenets of their own religion.

If this isn’t a clear example of which side of the line the hatred, intolerance, ignorance, bigotry, and malice lie on, I can think of fewer more appropriate examples. Still, several have appeared in the past to prove the same point, and I’m sure more will appear in the future-as they say, stupid is as stupid does.

[ Oh, There’s the Religious Right on Foley ]
Soirce: DefCon (Campaign to Defend the Constitution) Blog

The editors of Ms. Magazine have collaborated on a compelling piece about women who have had abortions, and look back at them knowing they made the right decision for themselves-regardless of whether the socially imposed sense of morality of the time gave them the liberty to make their own decisions or not. They share their stories of thinking for themselves, making their own hard decisions, and choosing their own path for themselves, regardless of what they’re told by legislators and politicians who want nothing more than to make the decision for them. They speak with honesty and integrity, and they stand for the kind of freedom and liberty and personal choice-the ability to guide the direction of one’s own life, that all pro-choice activists stand for and share.

In its 1972 debut issue, Ms. magazine ran a bold petition in which 53 well-known U.S. women declared that they had undergone abortions —despite state laws rendering the procedure illegal. These women were following the example of a 1971 manifesto signed by 343 prominent French women, who also had declared they had abortions.

Even then, to many it seemed absurd that the government could deny a woman sovereignty over her own body. It is even more absurd in 2006 to learn that an abortion ban has passed into law in South Dakota, although it has been stayed until an initiative to remove the ban is voted on this November. Whatever happens in South Dakota, 17 other states now have trigger laws or pre-Roe v.Wade laws that could automatically ban abortion if the Supreme Court were to reverse Roe. Experts believe that as many as 30 states could outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned. A myriad of restrictions already limit access to abortion in the U.S. for poor women, young women and women in the military.

We know it is time again for women of conscience to stand up and speak truth to power.

And with that, Ms. Magazine begins its second round of petition, starting with the brave women who signed the petition the first time. An excellent idea, and for any women in the list, you can add your name to the petition at the Ms. Magazine website: [ http://www.msmagazine.com/ ] The full story is linked below.

[ We Had Abortions ]
Source: Alternet