Sometimes I’m shocked at the degree to which anti-gay activists will go to bring pain and harm to gay people. This is one of those times.
The State of New York overwhelming voted to allow domestic partners to make decisions relating to the burial of their loved ones. The Republican governor, George Pataki, signed the bill. This was not a partisan issue or even a controversial issue.
Today the AgapePress has an article about the act which claims it “damaged the roll of the traditional family”. They quote Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois Family Institute.
Knight:
Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute, however, says while that might seem compassionate on the surface, family is family.
“Family has been given preference for a reason,” says the pro-family leader. “And to say that grieving parents, for instance, just have no rights over what happens to their child’s body is a perversion of the law.”
LaBarbera:
The IFI director also seems a bit surprised by the fact that Pataki signed the bill. “If a Republican governor can assert the primacy of [so-called] homosexual ‘families’ over blood relatives, it’s a pretty scary sign,” he says.
It is inconceivable to me that there are truly activists who hate “the homosexual agenda” so much that they’ll try to stop people from deciding for themselves who will make decisions regarding their burial. This suggests to me that their hatred goes far beyond “the sin”, and shows its true face, a burning hatred against gay people that actively seeks to do them harm and cause them pain.
Good post Timothy. I’ve been thinking the same thing lately, especially given Alan Chambers’ current speech.
This isn’t about politics or morality, it’s about outright hostility and hate for some people. It sickens me the most that well-meaning people might fall for this garbage.
I guess LeBarbara and Knight would prefer to allow the family of the deceased that had disowned the person for decades make the decision over his or her life partner.
The fact that they can even try to make a claim like that makes me lose all respect.
Could be me, but doesn’t it seem like the issue of the ring wing anti-gay christian things is getting worse. Soon it will be illegal to be gay. Scares me.
I guess their is merit to the statement 2 forward one step back. Scary!
Hey people, let these insane psycho Christian Nazi’s continue on in their hate. Just keep a record of all of their tirades and legalistic hatred because all of these things can be used in a court of law and one day it will come back to haunt them severely. Also it is good to make these things as public as possible so the majority of Americans can see them in all of their hideous and sickening glory.
The things these ghouls are doing will fill volumes and will count against them and help the cause of freedom for GLBT people very soon.
Remember today the real meaning of Valentine’s Day….that St. Valentine married lovers whom the state and the forces of hate wanted to keep separate.
Let the Army of Lovers stand tall and proud and strong against these forces. We have won throughout history. We will again. We already are, when we take the long view.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Maybe one day, these people will get it, too.
I would also like to note how these “ministries” divide families that contain gay and bisexual adults through their hateful words and horrible advice. They point the finger at others and point three at themselves. Parents and partners *should* be on the same page during this stage of life. They should not have to be divided or try to force each other out of the picture.
I would also like to note how these “ministries” divide families that contain gay and bisexual adults through their hateful words and horrible advice. They point the finger at others and point three at themselves. Parents and partners *should* be on the same page during this stage of life. They should not have to be divided or try to force each other out of the picture.
I agree.
Keep records. Maintain quotes in full context and find out, if any, when these people from FRC or FOTF had any intimate acquaintance with gay parents, or PFLAG members or COLAGE members where they weren’t trying to disrupt anyone in those groups, but respectfully understood the motives for those groups to begin with.
The anti gay try to pretend that they are not haters, bigots or prejudiced. That’s it’s not THEM that matter in this or what they think, but what God wants and thinks.
They cannot attend to what they want on their own merits, so eliciting the government assures their wishes would be carried out.
Were this about God, the government wouldn’t even be in the picture, let alone lobbied.
Their faith in God would leave the task up to God to carry out his own wishes.
Their mission, as always, is to inflict pain and much fear on gay people and to make gay life as unlivable as possible.
And all the while, ex gays try to tell us they converted all on their own without coercion.
Yeah…right.
The tears of gay people are what give straight people their strength, didn’t you know that?
This suggests to me that their hatred goes far beyond “the sin”, and shows its true face, a burning hatred against gay people that actively seeks to do them harm and cause them pain.
Yes. There it is. Hate. And the way they just have to twist the knife in our hearts when we are in grief is where it really shines. Look at it.
And that kind of hate is more addictive and damaging to the soul then the purest heroin or crack. It takes everything fine and noble that a person could have once been away from them. Look at the carefree way they lie about us, about the lives we live, about the relationships we are capable of. Look at how they routinely lie about their successes treating homosexuality as though it were some sort of disease. It’s been observed over and over here how they’re just pulling their facts and figures out of thin air…they have to know they’re lying…and yet you never see the slightest shred of shame in them while they’re doing it. There’s a reason for that. Hate kills shame, just as it kills everything else inside a person that wants to raise them above the gutter. Hate wants it all, and eventually it gets it all.
In the end they’ll shed every moral and spiritual value they’ve ever held, anything that might demand of them the slightest shred of decency and honor in their pursuits, because to get their hands around our throats and their thumbs in our eyes, is all that matters. Hate. Hate.
And to say that grieving parents, for instance, just have no rights over what happens to their child’s body is a perversion of the law.
Excuse me, but how is that suddenly worse than when they (parents) have no rights to the same when their child marries a member of the opposite sex? Melodramatic nonsense. The truth is that any societal acceptance of gay rights of any sort is bad in their book, regardless of the pain and agony it may spare. This law reflects basic, common decency and that should be as obvious to them as it was to the Republican who signed it.
Ben Clark said:
Hey people, let these insane psycho Christian Nazi’s continue on in their hate.
I understand your feelings, but I’m not sure how productive that moniker is to the discussion.
Just keep a record of all of their tirades and legalistic hatred because all of these things can be used in a court of law and one day it will come back to haunt them severely.
I’m all for documenting these absurdities but how does this pertain to a court setting?
David
And the punishment will be the death penalty.
Bingo.
Just rambling here, but part of what allows legal discrimination against homosexuals, especially in marriage, is the banter that it’s “not discriminatory, it applies to everyone equally” or “they have all the marriage rights that a straight person has.” The same arguments used to keep interracial marriages illegal.
So it seems to me that quotes such as these might help to convince some judges otherwise–that it really is, and always has been, just about discriminating against gay people. We see how using their own words against them worked in Kitzmiller, for instance–it helped the judge decide that what they affirmed was their goal didn’t match with what they actually wanted. So, unlikely a scenario as that sounds, it could happen.
Maybe.
And to say that grieving parents, for instance, just have no rights over what happens to their child’s body is a perversion of the law.
Just to add – isn’t it also a perversion for a family that has rejected its GLBT child and cut off all contact to then step in when that child is ill or dying to reclaim their “rights”?
That is what this is really all about – we as gay and lesbian citizens have no way to disentangle ourselves from our families of birth, no matter how much they may reject and hate us (thank God mine are supportive), yet those same families have veto power over any and all decisions their child makes when that child becomes incapacitated.
This story reminded me of a dear friend who died in 1995, about six months before protease inhibitors might have saved his life. Mark was only 27. I stayed with him and his lover for the last month of his life.
Mark’s parents were as supportive as they were capable of being. Mark died at his home and Chuck was able to make decisions about Mark’s cremation and burial.
But the parents wanted a memorial at the church Mark grew up in and, of course, Chuck honored their wishes. Before he died, Mark had told his parents that he had made his peace with God and they accepted this and simply repeated it to the pastor of their church.
The pastor decided that a memorial service would be a good opportunity to warn against the evils of homosexuality. So while family and friends sat there grieving, the minister railed against Mark’s life and told the congregation that Mark had recanted his homosexuality (he hadn’t). One of Mark’s best friends left (loudly) but otherwise everyone just sat in shock.
This man was so determined to make some point about homosexuality, that he was willing to exploit the pain and grief of his parishoners, people who as a pastor he was charged to protect. Sometimes it takes unusual circumstances to see how shallow is the layer of “love” that covers a well of hatred.
Mark’s parents – to their credit – found another church to attend.
Timothy,This reminds me, again, about a definition of a religious crank:
Readers may be interested in a CWFA newsletter.Run down a little, and observe the CWFA-correct terminology.