Peter LaBarbera

Oklahoma Republicans Cheer Anti-Gay Speaker

Submitted by Ezra on March 12, 2008 - 4:03pm

Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern became a national celebrity over the weekend, after the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund posted an audio clip of her expounding on the supposed “homosexual agenda”: “I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam,” said Kern.

According to Oklahomans for Equality, Kern has been expressing similar anti-gay views for years, and she apparently has no plans to change course:

Kern said Monday she plans to take this issue as far as it goes and will not apologize for her statements. "If it costs me my seat that's OK," she said. "I'm going to stand up for what is right."

And apparently Republicans in Oklahoma are behind her: Kern said she received a standing ovation from fellow GOP legislators in a closed meeting on Monday.

Religious-right activists have been pushing idea for years that there is a nefarious “homosexual agenda” behind political efforts for equal rights for gays and lesbians, usually taking the form of “indoctrinating” children or shutting down churches. So it’s no surprise that when pressed to back up her rant, Kern provided as “proof” links to statements by the usual far-right activists—such as Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality—claiming that politically active gays are part of a conspiracy to “gain power” and “promot[e] homosexuality among young people.”

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Romney's Christmas Present to the Gay Lobby?

Submitted by Kyle on December 27, 2007 - 1:05pm

Peter LaBarbera blasts Mitt Romney for "supporting pro-homosexual 'sexual orientation' state laws," saying "Mitt Romney's Christmas present to the homosexual lobby disqualifies him as a pro-family leader. Laws that treat homosexuality as a civil right are being used to promote homosexual 'marriage,' same-sex adoption and pro-homosexuality indoctrination of schoolchildren. These same laws pose a direct threat to the freedom of faith-minded citizens and organizations to act on their religious belief that homosexual behavior is wrong."

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More Praise for Huckabee

Submitted by Kyle on December 11, 2007 - 4:07pm

Peter LaBarbera, like Stephen Bennett before him, praises Mike Huckabee for saying AIDS victims should have been quarantined: "Mike Huckabee is right to reject the liberal media's talking points on homosexuality. We need more -- not less -- debate on why HIV/AIDS has been singled out as a politically protected disease, and why it gets such a huge percentage of taxpayer funding vis-à-vis other diseases."

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"A Gathering of Eagles"

Submitted by Kyle on December 4, 2007 - 3:42pm

Pass the Salt Ministries (yes, you read that right) has big news for right-wing activists in Ohio - a bevy of second and third-tier Religious Right leaders will be gracing their fair state later this month for "A Gathering of Eagles":

"A Gathering of Eagles" is taking place in Coshocton, Ohio on December 14-15 as some of America's finest Christian leaders are gathering for a Leadership Summit and Biblical Worldview Conference. Dr. Alan Keyes is confirmed as the keyniote [sic] speaker and will be joined by the likes of Rev. Flip Benham, Chaplain E. Ray Moore Jr. , Rev. Rick Scarborough, Peter Labarbera, and Pastor Ernie Sanders and others. This NON-POLITICAL event is designed to educate Christians about the great moral issues facing this country. Learn the truth from the front lines in the cultural war regarding issues such as The Gay Agenda, Abortion, Individual Liberty, Hate Crime Legislation, and the religion of Secular Humanism.

This doesn’t really sound like a “non-political” event at all. In fact, it sounds likes a distinctly political event designed to rally right-wing voters heading into the Republican primaries and general election. After all, Rick Scarborough has endorsed Mike Huckabee and is currently in the midst of an “all out effort to move Values Voters to vote their values on Election Day '08” while Alan Keyes is currently running for President (though you’d be forgiven for not knowing that.)

As for Pass the Salt, it is the brainchild of Dave Daubenmire:

[A] veteran 25 year high school football coach, [Daubenmire] was spurred to action when attacked and eventually sued by the ACLU in the late 1990’s for alledgedly [sic] mixing prayer with his coaching. After a two year battle for his 1st Amendment rights and a determination to not back down, the ACLU relented and offered coach an out of court settlement. God honored his stand and the ACLU backed off. Coach’s courageous stand, an inspiration to Americans everywhere, demonstrated that the ACLU can be defeated. As a result of the experience, Coach heard the call to move out of coaching a high school team, to the job of coaching God’s team.

Of course, the claim that ACLU “relented and offered coach an out of court settlement” is accurate only if you ignore the fact that Daubenmire was ordered to stop leading religious activities at school and the school board agreed to pay an estimated $18,000 settlement.

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Anatomy of a Right Wing Outrage

Submitted by Kyle on September 26, 2007 - 12:53pm

If you haven’t heard about the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco yet, chances are you will be hearing about it soon. As such, it provides a good opportunity to take a look at how the Right manages to create controversies and propel them into the media.

It starts off with a group like Concerned Women for America finding something it takes offense at – in this case, a provocative flyer for the Folsom Street Fair

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No Shows Found Guilty in Absentia

Submitted by Kyle on September 19, 2007 - 6:29am

Not content with rewording “God Bless America” and grilling second-tier candidates with questions about what they’d do to overturn Roe v. Wade and fight “the homosexual agenda,” the organizers of the Values Voter Presidential Debate made sure that everyone was aware that the four leading Republican candidates had snubbed the debate, leaving empty podiums on the stage and even reserving time during the program to allow panelists and special guests to direct questions at the candidates who declined to participate - even though they weren’t there.

And it is probably a good thing they skipped the event, since it is unlikely that Fred Thompson would have enjoyed being questioned by Mat Staver when he compared same-sex marriage to slavery, or that Mitt Romney would have liked being called a hypocrite by Peter LaBarbera, or that John McCain would have appreciated Janet Folger’s condescending tone, or that Rudy Giuliani would have been comfortable about being questioned by an “abortion survivor” demanding to know whether he “honestly believed that an abortionist had a right to kill me.”