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Pen Points
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Twisting the Truth: Rich Tafel and the Log Cabin Republicans
There I found a lengthy rebuttal from Tafel in which he claimed to have been misquoted by the Blade. It was at that point I made my mistake, Not being able to find the document that The Blade said they were quoting from, and although having serious political differences with the LCR, I decided to take Tafel at his word and give him the benefit of the doubt. Tafel had said in his rebuttal "A simple search on LCR's website for these alleged statements will turn up nothing, because they didn't exist." That seems simple enough, right? So low and behold this morning I woke up to find a copy of the very article which Tafel would have us believe didn't exist. Activist John Aravosis has located the article and posted it on his website. As Aravosis points out "Tafel should be thanking the Blade for selectively quoting him because his original article struck me as 100 times worse than the quotes the Blade chose." In the article Tafel uses a series of half truths and statements taken out of context to bolster his argument that ENDA is not needed. For example he says "...the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has pulled its support for ENDA as it is currently written." He would have us believe that NGLTF, too, sees no need for the legislation. The truth is a bit different though. Here is what the NGLTF website says about ENDA:
"Ironically, nothing makes the case more strongly against federal legislation, one might argue, than HRC's own press release about the hearing. It pointed out that the vast majority of major employers in America have non-discrimination policies now." I searched the HRC site for to see just what Tafel was referring to. The press release said nothing of the kind. I did find this elsewhere, which may have been what he is referring to: "As of Aug. 15, 2001, HRC WorkNet had identified 2,001 companies, colleges and universities, state and local governments and federal agencies that had written non-discrimination policies covering sexual orientation. This represents an increase of 293 employers, or 17 percent, in one year. This included 294, or 59 percent, of Fortune 500 companies. HRC WorkNet found 39 Fortune 500 companies added sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies during the period covered by the report, a 15 percent increase over the prior year." Of course the problem here is that the statement says "the vast majority of major employers". What Tafel doesn't say is that most Americans don't work for one of the Fortune 500 companies. There are nearly 24,000,000 businesses in the U.S. The figures of 2,001 schools and government agencies and 294 fortune 500 companies start to look pretty anemic in comparison. In his article Tafel asks "So, why all this energy on a bill that probably won't really change the lives of gay Americans?" How out of touch this man is. As I write this, today's lead story in GayToday is about a high school teacher who was fired once the rumor started that he might be gay. A sidebar contains story after story of similar firings, all recently in the State of Alabama, just one of the 38 states in which it is legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation. Mr. Tafel, as a child I was taught "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." I gave you the benefit of the doubt once. Never again. Thanks to John Aravosis for keeping us informed, and for providing many of the following links. You can read the original Blade article here: http://www.washblade.com/national/frames/section.htm You can read Tafel's angry response to the Blade article here: http://www.lcr.org/press/20020513.asp You can read Tafel's original ENDA-dissing essay, that kicked off this whole controversy, here: http://uspolitics.about.com/library/bltafel.htm You can read the NGLTF press release on ENDA here: http://www.ngltf.org/news/printed.cfm?releaseID=34 You can read the HRC press release on ENDA here: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2002/020227enda.asp You can find John Aravosis' website here: http://www.hatecrime.org/subscribe.html Paul Barwick Rev. Mel White Catches Up With the Wiccans
Rev. White calls for an end to debating with conservatives and participating in "studies" of lesbigay communities. Although it's a good plan the first thing Mel should have called for was an end to trying to adapt the Christian religion to include lesbigays. Quite frankly, the Christian Bible was written in specifics by both Emperor Constantine of Rome and King James of England to exclude homosexuality from every form of Christianity. Constantine and James shared one common vision, the concept that gay men were weak and feminine. They also served the notion that if women would lay in sex with anyone it should be for the purpose of procreation so that they could be popping out newborn warriors of future generations. Constantine became the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and legitimized a religion based on a small sect of Jewish people who believed that "Christ" had already made his first appearance on earth. He also held a strong Army within the Catholic Church to enforce Church rule over the nations that were converted to Christianity so he could remain in power over them and the Roman Empire would survive for all eternity not as a nation of proclaimed warriors but by maintaining control through proclaiming Rome as the direct spokesman of "God". King James was even more insidious. He took a document written in Latin and against the protests of the Priests in his court, ordered them to translate the Bible into English but to make it say what he wanted it to say. Legend has it that the Head Apostolate of his Court brought him the first of the translations. King James read it and made numerous marks to correct what was translated even though James knew no Latin. In a session before all the Priests he gave the corrections to the Head Priest who protested that King James' language was inaccurate to what the original Latin said. King James glared at the Priest and motioned his executioner over, beheaded the Priest and looked at the next in command and asked, "Doest thou have any further contradictions of thine King's divine decision?" Through the centuries almost all versions of the Bible have been re-translated using the totally inaccurate version of the King James bible. The glaring lies of that version were intensified as far as homosexuals were concerned. Constantine mildly despised homosexuality. King James detested those who practiced it and swore to kill everyone he found. The one thing that stood in the way of Christianity were the ancient Pagan religions. Through the centuries they were slowly made the enemies of the "Church", with women followers portrayed as having rituals where they either had sexual relations with the Christian "Devil" (The Pagan God Pan, turned from a God of Pleasure into the horned Prince of Darkness), or having sex with each other. The direct followers of King James looked for the absolute meaning in the Biblical writings and became puritanical followers of James' homophobia. If you don't believe this, just ask any Fundamentalist Christian about the King James Bible today. They will tell you that they believe that version is more accurate than the original Latin Bible only because it directs hatred of homosexuality and Wiccans in almost the same breath. If the Rev. Mel White were being absolutely sincere about his quest to join the ranks of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. he would also advocate the dissolution of Christian beliefs within lesbigay community. By trying to "adapt" the Christian religion to suit the spiritual needs of the lesbigay community, Rev. White is perpetuating the argument by encouraging our participation into a religion that was designed from the beginning to exclude and hate us. My first teacher in the Wiccan religion was the famous Sybil Leek who won fame when she predicted the assassination of President Kennedy. She lived in what was then a quiet Central Florida beach town very near where I was born and raised. I became friends with her and until her death in (which she predicted 5 years before it happened) 1974 she was my mentor and role model. In 1969 she told me that the Christian Church would one day return to it's history of Witch-burning and days of conquering gays and lesbians and nations that were non-Christian. At the time, although there was a soft undercurrent of religion within the American culture, there were no signs that the Fundamentalist Christians were comprised of much more than the less intelligent of our society and also the burned out Hippies that had one too many hits of blotter acid. 28 years after her death it seems that her predictions were very accurate. We're waging war with every non-Christian nation on earth. President Bush has gone on record as saying he doesn't believe that Wicca is a valid religion and has vowed to revoke the non-profit status of every Wiccan organization. The Christian fundamentalists have invaded every level of our government with high ranking judges of state Supreme Courts placing Ten Commandment tablets in the court house without permission or consent of the people while rendering decisions quoting King James Biblical scripture as a sole cause to remove all custody rights of a lesbian based on her sexual orientation. Reverend White, when you give up your crusade to force Christianity into a lesbigay mold, that is the day when I will join you. Meanwhile, in solidarity of my own beliefs and in honor of my mentor, I will continue to try and educate the ignorant and change their minds through example. Stephanie Donald Ronald Reagan and Divine Judgment
Flipping through TV channels last night, I heard some
televangelist thundering about "God's judgement."
It reminded me of the 1980's, when the AIDS epidemic was gathering hideous momentum, and scores of conservative religious-types smugly and cruelly told the public that AIDS was "God's judgement" on homosexuals for their disgusting sinful lives. Meanwhile as thousands of gay men sickened and died, often horribly, then-President Ronald Reagan utterly ignored the spreading pandemic. Reagan even forced his surgeon general to deliver his first press conference on AIDS from the driveway of the White House, forbidden from discussing the disease inside the Reagan White House. That's the same Ronald Reagan who is now entering his tenth year as a mindless victim of Alzheimer's disease, bedridden, soiling himself like a helpless infant, his brain a useless mush of short-circuited nerves, unable to recognize family or friends, a withered and decrepit and utterly helpless husk of what was once a man who sneeringly ignored the AIDS crisis -- after all, in Reagan-think, it was only those disgusting fags who were dying. Dying of a horrible and incurable disease that robbed the victim of all quality of life, that turned a once-healthy, hearty person into a frail weak husk, that ended often in dementia and hopeless wasting. I thought about Reagan, bedridden, lingering on and on and on helplessly enduring the suffering of the damned, that same Ronald Reagan who so cavalierly dismissed the lingering suffering of all those thousands of gay men with AIDS, now tortured hideously by Alzheimer's with no hope of a cure. Maybe there is truth to that theory of "God's judgement," after all. BuckcuB |
Rich Tafel: Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans 
The Rev. Mel White 
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