Anti-Gay

ABC 13 in Lynchburg, VA interviewed Lisa Miller's friends and supporters, who claim that they have no idea where she and Isabella have gone but says that they completely support her actions, noting that offers to hide Miller have come in from as far away as Israel.

They say Miller's kidnapping of her daughter and disappearance, calling it a necessary act of civil disobedience in the face of an unjust law and likening it to using the Underground Railroad to escape slavery: 

Friends of Lisa Miller say they don't know where she and her seven-year-old daughter are, but they say they support her decision to leave.

A Vermont court ordered Miller's ex-partner Janet Jenkins custody of their daughter in May, and now it's been six months since Miller's friends say they've had any contact with her.

The case has drawn national attention and has strong ties to Lynchburg. Liberty Counsel is working on filing an appeal to the latest court order, which included handing over Isabella.

Her friends say they understand why she decided to go into hiding. Miller's friends here may have had the last known contact with mother and daughter.

It was January 1 when Linda Wall said she knew for sure her friend Miller and her seven-year-old daughter Isabella had gone into hiding.

"Unbeknowing to any of us... she was doing something behind the scene," Wall said.

Wall has known the mother and daughter since 2004. She had been getting involved as a conservative Christian activist and a self described "former homosexual."

"I was able to leave homosexuality through a miraculous encounter with the Lord," Wall said.

She says about two years ago, she began talking to Lisa Miller about what would happen, if she was ordered to give up custody of Isabella. "Just knowing Virginia law wasn't going to defend her."

That school year Miller taught at Liberty Christian Academy. Wall says, while offers came in from as far away as Israel to hide Miller and Isabella, friends say Thomas Road Baptist church didn't play a part.

"There is nothing more outlandish than that," TRBC Pastor Tipton Killingsworth.

"I am supposed to be the number one suspect because I was so involved in this and I don't know where she is," Wall said.

Lisa Miller's friend Janet Stasulli also has no idea of her whereabouts. "We have no idea where she is."

The last time Wall says she had contact with Miller was in late September. Up to that point, she believes Miller was working behind the scenes on her escape. It’s a decision they support.

"I do support what she's done," Wall said. "When the law is wrong, what's a person to do?"

Likening the situation to the underground railroad during slavery, “Was it Harriet Tubman who risked her life for the underground railroad for the black community? Maybe I am committed to this for the children I might be that one voice."

When Ken Cuccinelli was running to become Virginia's Attorney General, he made it quite clear that he was a hard-core right-winger who didn't like gays:

"My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."

So I guess it comes as no surprise that now that he is in office, he's using his position to press his anti-gay agenda:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has asked the state's public colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing in a letter sent to each school Thursday that their boards of visitors have no legal authority to adopt such statements.

In the letter, Cuccinelli (R) wrote that only the General Assembly can extend legal protections to gay state employees -- a move the legislature has repeatedly declined to take, including as recently as this week.

"It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly," he wrote.

Colleges that have included such language in their policies -- which include all of Virginia's leading schools -- have done so "without proper authority" and should "take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia," Cuccinelli wrote.

Last month, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a decree taking away protections for gay and lesbian state workers in Virginia, so things are really looking up for equality in Virginia under its Republican leadership.

Religious Right activists are predictably upset that Congressional Republicans didn't make more of an effort to prevent Washington, DC's marriage equality law from taking effect:

"I'll be straight with you: I think they could have done more," Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, said of Republican leaders. "We needed a vote, and we didn't get one."

...

"I haven't seen any effort by Senator Bennett to push the legislation, or by the Senate [Republican] leadership," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council Action.

There are obviously various reasons for why this happened, but Bill Donohue blames it on the fact that Republicans become "jittery" and inarticulate when it comes to speaking out against gays .... go figure: 

William Donohue, the president of the New-York based Catholic League, questioned the party's commitment to a traditional marriage agenda. "They have an inarticulateness about homosexuality that they don't have on economic issues," Mr. Donohue said. "They can talk on and on about the free market, but when it comes to gays, they're jittery."

You know who Republicans could learn from in overcoming their jittery inarticulateness when it comes to attacking gays?  Bill Donohue:

Honestly, is anyone surprised that a conservation between Pat Robertson and Bill Donohue discussing how "intellectually, morally, and spiritually bankrupt" liberals are trying to "tear down society" consists entirely of a five minute rant from Donohue declaring "we're not going to allow gay people to adopt children, that's against nature, it's against nature's god," saying that the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal was due entirely to gays, and finally asserting that those who don't share his views are nothing but "termites" who are "no more Christian than the Man on the Moon"

Last week we noted that an episode involving the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins having his invitation to speak at a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base rescinded was big news on right-wing outlets, with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association even going so far as to declare it proof that the Constitution is on the verge of collapse and likening it to Dred Scott and McCarthyism.

The issue continues to outrage the Right and appears as if it is becoming one of those stories that right-wing media outlets will work covering diligently until they can blow it up into an all out "scandal ."

For instance, CNS News has a long article noting that conservative activists are livid about it which quotes no less than six separate leaders voicing their outrate, including Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center (which just so happens to be the parent organization of CNSNews,) Ron Robinson of Young Americans for Freedom, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Alfred Regnery of Regnery Publishing, Elaine Donnell of the Center for Military Readiness, and Gary Bauer of American Values.

But it also quotes several Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Mike Pence who vows that Republicans will "be making appropriate inquiries" about the decision

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNSNews.com that he’s “disappointed” the Air Force would “un-invite” Perkins because of his positions.

“These actions are out of line with the caution that the heads of the military branches have expressed with regards to this policy,” Inhofe said.

“Each one of them has indicated that it would be best for the Pentagon to finish its review before addressing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a manner that disrupts readiness and recruitment. I wonder if Tony Perkins would have received the same treatment if his views on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had matched those of President Obama.”

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, was outraged.

“I think many members (of Congress) are outraged,” Kingston told CNSNews.com. “The mainstream media hasn’t given this as much coverage as they would if they agreed with Perkins. This is something that I think that people will be asking a lot of questions--a harbinger of what may be out there to come, you know, if on a high-profile captain like Tony Perkins, they reject him. They may (start) doing it to everybody else."

Kingston said he thought the Air Force was "using" the incident to send a message to its own chaplains about what they could and could not say from the pulpit.

“(W)hat they were doing is using him to drive a message--that your brand of sermon is no longer welcome in the U.S. military,” he said.

He added: “I think it probably does go beyond the Air Force. They knew there would be a backlash to this, and I think they had a design about that: ‘OK, you know, we want other (chaplains) to understand and pipe down on your personal views on this biblical view, and you believe it, just keep it mellow; we want watered-down messages.’”

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference, said he would be looking into the incident more deeply.

“I hold Tony Perkins in the highest regard, as do pro-family Americans across this country,” Pence said. “And I would hope that the change in the speaking roster had nothing to do with his stated positions on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But we’ll be making appropriate inquiries,” Pence said.