“They feel like we’re intolerant. So I guess we should wear that as a badge of honor.”
— Phil Burress of the Cincinnati-based anti-gay Citizens for Community Values on Ohio placing dead last in measures for civil equality for LGBT citizens. Burress is a board member of Exodus International, the exgay network.
Pam Spaulding spotlights an abundance of illogical, self-contradictory talk from Burress in an American Family Association article. Here’s the AFA text:
A pro-homosexual group calling itself Equality of Ohio recently published a nationwide study about so-called discrimination against “gays,” lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals. The study rated the state of Ohio dead last in protecting the “equality” of those groups.
But Phil Burress of the Cincinnati-based pro-family group Citizens for Community Values (CCV) says one has to understand what homosexual activists mean when they talk about equality. What they are really talking about, he asserts, is “special rights” for homosexual, bisexual and transgendered people.
“You would be surprised what it is that they really want,” Burress says. “What they call equality is for everyone to accept their behavior and for them to have access to our children at a very early age, promoting homosexuality as normal.” Opposing the homosexual activists’ agenda is “what they call intolerance,” he contends.
…”What they’re complaining about,” Burress asserts, “is … that they don’t have rights and privileges that override the rest of us who are average working families and people here in the state of Ohio. They want special privileges.”
Also, the pro-family advocate says, homosexual activists want access to the educational system and government sanction of same-sex marriage. “They want to have all the things that the people and the governments and the laws have said that they can’t have,” he says.
Burress complains that what homosexuals call equality is, in fact, equality: “for everyone to accept their behavior … promoting homosexuality as normal.”
Burress assumes that all heterosexual parents are on his side; equates tolerance with homosexual recruitment of children; implies that gay Ohioans don’t work for a living or have families; and calls it “special privileges” when homosexual activists “want to have all the things that the people and the governments and the laws have said that they can’t have.”
Straight from the mouth of the Exodus leadership.
“They want to have all the things that the people and the governments and the laws have said that they can’t have,” he says.
Why, how uppity of them homos. They remind me of when them Jews wanted to be allowed to live in Brentwood. Or like when them darkies wanted to sit in the front of the bus. They all just need to do what the people and the governments and the laws tell them to do and stop acting like they can have what we have.
🙁
Seems to me like some people never learn
Oh, and of course, *he’s* just an average working stiff, albeit one whose organization doesn’t have to pay taxes and who tries really hard to promote himself. Surely the “working families” of Ohio have more in common with him than with, say, a nurse and a bus driver with a child from a previous marriage…
Tim, if you look at the leadership of most of these anti gay organization.
They likely earlier in their careers actively never really accepted other minorities as equals either.
At the very least, never supported civil rights or equality for those minorities.
It’s a good bet they just sat around and let those groups suffer for their inaction.
These are not real heroes.
These are people who aren’t making any sacrifices or a stand except against an easy target.
Considering how long a lot of these cooters have been around, they aren’t on record for doing anything important or heroic, even for real families and children or civil rights.
And they are busy NOT doing the same thing now.
As a matter of fact, I just had the honor and pleasure of talking to former minister Jimmy Creech. (google his name).
It’s because of men like him and Morris Dees, Rep. John Lewis and my favorite Rabbis like Denise Eger and Marvin Haier…that I don’t stop.
You line them up side by side….and the folks in the AFA look like clueless wimps.
Regan,
Have you noticed that when the fundies oppose anti-discrimination laws their language could apply to racial discrimination as well along the lines of:
“the constitution gives us all the same rights so we don’t need special rights for certain groups” or “all crimes are hate crimes – there’s no need to make crimes against certain groups to be treated any differently than crimes against good hardworking families”
Haters are haters.
What I find interesting is that Burress is on the board of Exodus, which usually tries to distance itself from the AFA-style rhetoric…so what’s he doing having something published on their site?
The differences between the two groups are diminishing rapidly, I’m afraid.
As a Board member of Equality Ohio, we are already looking at how “intolerance = a badge of honor” can be used in our messaging. Perhaps some of you would like to use your creativity so that we can get the maximum impact from it.
May I encourage any of you who would like to know more about Equality Ohio to logon at
http://www.equalityOhio.org
Blessings. Personally, I was unaware of Burress’ position on the Exodus board…guess I still have lots to learn.