Gay rights groups hurt their cause by supporting anti-religious bullying

Today's press release from the Family Foundation:

LEXINGTON, KY--A spokesman for The Family Foundation said today that he thought that it would hurt the gay rights movement to continue to support anti-religious bullying. "If groups like the Fairness Alliance continue support the aggressive bullying of religious people who are just trying to mind their own business and live out their religious beliefs, they're going to lose some of the sympathy they've been able to gain in recent years," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for the group.

"To use the LGBT label to mask a malicious vendetta against religious people is not going to help you win friends and influence people. These groups need to start practicing the tolerance and diversity they are always preaching."

"The live and let live philosophy they espouse does not go well with their search and destroy tactics when it comes to dealing with religious people who disagree with them," said Cothran. "To threaten people's livelihood and even send them to jail when they can't force them to deny their religious beliefs is just not a good PR strategy for their movement."

The comments came after an aggressive campaign by The Fairness Alliance and the ACLU to oppose Senate Bill 180, which would ensure that businesses owned by religious individuals are not forced to provide a service that would directly involve them in an activity that violates their religious convictions.

Cothran said the Fairness Alliance had blatantly misrepresented the bill in its public statements, say the bill. "The leaders of these groups need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask whether it's really worth distorting the truth to prevent the passage of a bill that protects just a small handful of businesses that just trying to do the right thing."

"We need to stop anti-religious bullying," he said. "SB 180 will do that."

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Surprise, Surprise: Herald-Leader story on SB 180 repeats Fairness Alliance propaganda.

Most of the news stories on Senate Bill 180 were pretty good, but the Herald-Leader story by John Cheves could have been written by the Fairness Allliance, whose commitment to truth and accuracy on its pet issues is, shall we say, tenuous:

A Senate committee approved two “religious liberty” bills Thursday, one to legally protect businesses that don’t want to serve gay, lesbian or transgender customers because of the owners’ religious objections, and the other to protect religious expression in public schools.

The first measure, Senate Bill 180, would prohibit the government from compelling services or actions from anyone if doing so conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs. The bill expands the state’s 2013 Religious Freedom Restoration Act to clarify that businesses could not be punished in such cases for violating local ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Um, hold on there, Pardner.

 

Under this description, a reader could infer that someone coming into a restaurant could be denied service by a waiter because he was gay. This is, of course, part of the Fairness Alliance's propaganda. The problem is that it isn't true.

The bill only those cases in which, because of the nature of the service, the service provider is essentially being asked to participate or endorse the activity for which the service is being requested. It does not apply to the vast majority of business situations. We're talking only about those cases like the Oregon baker and the New Mexico photographer who are essentially being asked to participate in an event to which they have religious objections. Not the waiter at Shoney's or the cashier at Wal-Mart.

A Jewish restaurant owner should be required to serve everyone, but he shouldn't be required to serve pork.

The fact that the Herald-Leader is willing to serve as the mouthpiece for the Fairness Alliance isn't all that surprising, of course. It sold its soul long ago. The problem is that newspapers that sell their souls start selling fewer papers, which is one reason why few people are crying many tears about the demise of liberal big city newspapers like the Herald-Leader.

 

Cheves, incidentally, is the same reporter who wrote about a couple of people at the rally for the Marriage Amendment in 2004 holding signs saying "God Hates Fags" and conveniently forgot to mention that the crowd shouted them down.

The first shot in the war to defend French literature from the new breed of anti-humanities conservatives

My son Tim testified in the Senate Education Meeting yesterday in favor of Senate Bill 75 alongside bill sponsor Sen. Dan Seum (R-Louisville). The bill would impose a moratorium on state university tuition increases for four years. 

What I liked was the incidental remark in his testimony about the fact that, as a philosophy student at the University of Kentucky, he reads French literature, a reference to Gov. Matt Bevin's recent statement that "All the people in the world that [sic] want to study French literature can do so, they are just not going to be subsidized by the taxpayer."

The Governor's unfortunate remark is just one example of the new breed of conservatives who like to hate on the humanities and who don't see the importance of passing on Western civilization.

We'll be taking up arms here at Vital Remants in defense of French literature in the coming weeks. My son's remark could be the shot heard round the state.

 

Vive la littérature Française!

Family Foundation calls proposed law, "Religious Discrimination Act of 2016"

Below is today's press release from The Family Foundation on HB 155:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 14, 20165

LEXINGTON, KY—The Family Foundation today announced its opposition to House Bill 155, a gay rights bill which the group says will worsen the problem of discrimination against people of faith in the Commonwealth. The group called HB 155 the "Religious Discrimination Act of 2016."

"This bill will be used as a club to punish Christian business owners whose religious beliefs prevent them from towing the liberal party line on gender issues," said Martin Cothran, spokesman for the group. "This bill will sacrifice Christian-owned businesses on the altar of Political Correctness."

Under the guise of civil rights, the bill would force Christian-owned businesses to violate their religious principles when in hiring employees and could force some Christian-owned businesses out of business altogether, said Cothran.

He said that similar local laws in Kentucky have already been used to force Christian business owners to participate in events that violate their religious beliefs. He pointed to a Lexington T-shirt company that a local human rights commission prosecuted when the Christian business owner refused to take part in the promotion of a gay rights event. "The Religious Discrimination Act of 2016 will further worsen the targeting of Christians who just want to mind their own mind their own business and go about their lives without being persecuted for their religious beliefs."

HB 155 has been posted for passage in the House Judiciary Committee.

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Academic Freedom Bill passes State Senate

Yesterday's press release from The Family Foundation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 6, 2016

LEXINGTON, KY— A bill that would protect student political speech and religious expression in schools passed the Senate today 31 to 2.  Part of the impetus for the bill came from the censorship of a student performance of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by a Kentucky school superintendent in Johnson County.  The school censored the part of the play in which Charles Schulz's character Linus quotes the Gospel of Luke.

 

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Albert Robinson (R-London), also covers the general freedom of expression of students on matters of religion and politics in speech and on school assignments.

 

"We stand with Linus," said Martin Cothran, spokesman for The Family Foundation, which supports the bill. "When schools start seeing a cartoon character quoting the Bible as a threat, then things have obviously gone too far. This bill provides protections students from the virulent secularism that increasingly threatens First Amendment freedoms in our country."

 

The bill now goes to the State House of Representatives.

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