The Salvation Army's History of Anti-LGBT Discrimination

In recent years, the Salvation Army has come under fire for its lengthy history of anti-LGBT political maneuvering and other incidents. The church has publicly articulated its belief that homosexuality is unacceptable, stating:

Scripture opposes homosexual practices by direct comment and also by clearly implied disapproval. The Bible treats such practices as self-evidently abnormal. ... Attempts to establish or promote such relationships as viable alternatives to heterosexually-based family life do not conform to God's will for society.

While such statements were recently removed from the Salvation Army's website, the church has yet to repudiate any of its explicitly anti-gay beliefs. And though these positions may seem to be limited to the group's internal doctrines, they've become a persistent element of the church's overtly political activities -- activities which have negatively impacted the Salvation Army's ability to provide charitable services, and have aimed to limit the rights and benefits of LGBT citizens in multiple nations.

More by Zinnia Jones at Huff. Post

Ukraine Chooses Homophobia Over Europe

On Nov. 10 the Verkhovna Rada refused to pass a law that would have allowed Ukrainian citizens to have the long-awaited privilege of visa-free travel in the European Union. The reason behind the legislation’s resounding defeat? A provision preventing discrimination against gays in the workplace. This provision, which is a precondition for visa-free travel set by the EU, ignited a vociferous outcry, and ultimately turned into a red line which the Rada refused to cross.

“As a country with a thousand-year-old Christian history, we simply cannot allow this,” is how Rada deputy Pavlo Unguryan, a member of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s own party, explained it after a previous attempt to pass the legislation on Nov. 5 failed.

This isn’t the first homophobic news to come out of Ukraine this year: On June 6, members of the ultranationalist group Right Sector attacked Kiev’s gay pride parade, brutally injuring numerous marchers as well as police. In July, when a pair of gay activists decided to test the extent of Ukraine’s new Western values by holding hands in the middle of Kiev, they were quickly assaulted by thugs. On Nov. 2, the Kyiv Post profiled Mykola Dulskiy, the founder of a vigilante group called Fashion Verdict, whose mission, according to the article, is to “sweep promiscuity, gambling, sexual offenders and homosexuality from the streets of Ukraine’s cities.” The “verdict” is delivered in a rather straightforward manner: Members of the organization track down and beat anyone they deem degenerate.

More at Foreign Policy and Kyiv Post

It Gets Better

New York City Fire Department (FDNY)

Kim Davis: Kentucky's Martyr For Bigotry

Crazy Right-Wing American Preacher Says Confederates Will March On The North And Win This Time

Oh, Pastor James Manning, you’re the gift that just keeps on giving. This guy is the one who put up a sign telling black women that gays would take their men. That Obama has released the “homo demons.” That Starbucks was putting semen in their lattes. I seriously worry about this man’s mental state. Perhaps if he acted on those gay urges he’s admitted to, he’d get it all out of his system.

This time the head of the ATLAH World Missionary Church in the Harlem area of New York City is gearing up for a new Civil War. Not metaphorically. No, he means a real, honest-to-god, marching-Confederate-troops-in-uniforms Civil War. To “rescue the North.” Yeah.

“Surely the Confederates and the South will win this time. There’s no doubt about it. They will win this time. Now the nation must be rescued from the liberal God-haters and Constitution-haters and those that are pushing this sodomy agenda. America will be rescued and the rescuers will be the Confederates, the Southerners, those that have been the blood-washed, Bible-believing, locked-and-loaded. I’m James David Manning and I want to be one of them. I’m the Lord’s servant.”

Addicting Info

Orthodox Jews Can’t Protest Gay Pride Parade, Hire Mexicans Instead

Some of the most curious costumes worn along the parade route belonged to protesters. Behind a barricade, a group of men wore the fringed Jewish prayer garment known as the tzitzit and held up anti-gay signs bearing the logo of a group calling itself the Jewish Political Action Committee. “Judaism prohibits homosexuality,” one sign read.

But the men were not Jewish. They were Mexican laborers, protesting because they were paid to protest, said one of the men, who would not give his name. Heshie Freed, a member of the political action committee, an Orthodox Jewish group based in Brooklyn, said that the men were supplementary troops, filling in for the Jewish students who would normally be called upon to demonstrate.

“The rabbis said that the yeshiva boys shouldn’t come out for this because of what they would see at the parade,” Mr. Freed said.

The New York Times

Man trolls ISIS at LGBT pride event with fake penis flag — and CNN thinks it’s real

A man trolling the violently homophobic Islamic State at a London gay pride event got extra troll points Saturday for duping CNN.

CNN reporter Lucy Pawle was at the event when she stumbled upon that man, who to her bewilderment, everyone seemed to be ignoring. Turns out his fake “ISIS flag” was made up of images of dildos, Mediaite discovered.

Pawle tells CNN anchors that she was leaving work when she happened upon the annual London Gay Pride festival. She was shocked to see a man dressed in black and white carrying what she called “a very bad mimicry” but a “very clear attempt to mimic the ISIS flag.”

More at RawStory.com

US Woman Files Lawsuit Against Gay People…ALL OF THEM

“An overachieving bigot in Nebraska reached an impressive new level of intolerance this week, filing a lawsuit against “Homosexuals”—as in all of them, everywhere—in a U.S. District Court. In the handwritten petition, 66-year-old Sylvia Driskell claims to be acting as ambassador for the plaintiffs, “God, and His, Son, Jesus Christ.” Appropriately titled Driskell v. Homosexuals, it asks U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard to rule whether homosexuality “is a sin, or not a sin.”
Despite the suit naming hundreds of millions of defendants, however, the court’s docket notes no summons were issued.”
Read more at gawker.com

God Loves Uganda

A group of white bread, fundamentalist Christian missionaries go from America to Uganda to spread the word of God and preach the gospel.

America Celebrates Gay Pride at Home and Exports Anti-Gay Hatred Abroad

Uganda has one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world (81 countries have laws against homosexuality, fyi. That's Oliver; always instructing as he entertains—and rants.) And while the African country was already good at hating and persecuting homosexuality, it was the influence of American evangelicals, and insanely homophobic preacher Scott Lively who amped up the hatred, and the law, to new, murderous heights.

Alternet

In Brunei the ‘Stone the gays’ law is to be phased in

The Sultan of Brunei has confirmed that a law calling for homosexuals to be stoned to death will be phased in from tomorrow. The law was announced earlier this month, and replaces the maximum ten-year prison sentence for homosexuality with death by stoning. It was condemned by the UN, and a host of celebrities including Stephen Fry, Ellen DeGeneres and Sharon Osbourne, who targeted the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection for boycotts.

The sweeping law was initially due to come into effect on April 22, but was postponed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. Despite the delays, the Sultan today confirmed the law, which will apply to both Muslims and non-Muslims, will be phased in over a two-year period from tomorrow. He said: “Today, I place my faith in and am grateful to Allah the almighty to announce that …, Thursday 1 May 2014, will see the enforcement of Sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.”

According to the Brunei Times, the first phase of the sweeping law will increase fines and prison sentences for various crimes. Phase two, which restores corporal punishment including amputations for thieves, will come into effect within 12 months, and phase three, which introduces the death penalty, will come into effect within 24 months. Under the law, the death penalty can be applied for rape, adultery, sodomy, extramarital sexual relations for Muslims, insulting any verses of the Quran and Hadith, blasphemy, declaring oneself a prophet or non-Muslim, and murder.

Pink News

First Gay Hug (A Homophobic Experiment)

Defending Uganda's Anti-Gay Laws

"The right-wing women's group Concerned Women for America (CWFA) expressed outrage on Sunday that President Barack Obama condemned a Ugandan anti-LGBT bill that would punish homosexual behavior with lifetime imprisonment.
According to the Joe My God blog, CWFA spokesperson Janice Shaw Crouse said that the president's "arrogance is breathtaking" for saying that Ugandan government should stop imprisoning and torturing men it suspects of being gay.
On Sunday, Obama released an official White House statement condemning Uganda's proposed law outlawing same sex marriages and imposing lifetime prison sentences for repeated homosexual acts."

The Young Turks - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signs anti-gay bill (BBC)

US State Senates Approves Bill to Allow Businesses to Refuse to Serve Gays and Lesbians

The Arizona Senate this week passed a Republican-backed bill that would allow people and businesses to refuse to serve homosexuals, for religious reasons.

Democrats and civil rights groups, including the ACLU, said Senate Bill 1062 would hurt Arizona's economy by, for instance, causing groups to cancel conventions and hold them elsewhere. Sponsor Steve Yarbrough of Chandler told the Arizona Republic, "This bill is about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith." The people living out their faith, presumably, would be the businessmen and -women who disapprove of the way other people have sex.

More on Alternet – Arizona Daily Star

We are Most Amused

Elena Klimova, the journalist and creator of the " Children 404", is prosecuted under Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code

Elena Klimova, the journalist and creator of the "Children 404", is prosecuted under Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code ("Promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors") by the Russian Interior Ministry in Nizhny Tagil.

Elena is blamed for "the creation of the group in social Russian internet network VK , which promotes non-traditional sexual relations." In March 2013 she published a series of articles on the situation of adolescents who aware of their homosexuality. After this publication she began to receive a large number of responses from these adolescents. They talked about their experiences and the challenges they faced. Elena launched the project "Children 404", where these letters were published, and it eventually became the meeting place for LGBT teens. "If it is closed, LGBT teens lose the only place where they can talk openly about themselves and get advice to help them live. It would be a disaster," - says Elena Klimova.

Elena had her first questioning on January 17 this year. Then "propaganda" had not been seen in the Klimova’s project. What was the reason for the change of the decision remains a mystery. Last report doesnt specified, on what basis made officers decided that she had created the group "promoting unconventional sexual relationship."

Российская ЛГБТ-сеть - Olympic protests of Russian anti-gay laws (Wikipedia)

Russia Arrests Gay Rights Activists on Opening Day of Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

"One of Russia's leading gay activists was arrested on Friday while taking part in a protest shortly before the opening ceremony of the £30bn Winter Olympics. Anastasia Smirnova was one of four activists detained in St Petersburg on the opening day of the Sochi Games as the group photographed a banner citing the Olympic Charter's words against discrimination. Further arrests were later made in Moscow where 10 people were arrested, two of them believed to be Swedish. The arrests came amid international concern at Russia's treatment of gays, especially newly enacted laws which make gay "propaganda" among minors and offence. Calls to boycott the Games have largely been ignored but some athletes are understood to be planning to hold up six fingers when the cameras are on them to bring attention to the Olympic Charter's Principle 6...".* Cenk Uygur, Dave Rubin (host, The Rubin Report), Ben Mankiewicz (co-host of What The Flick?! and TYT Sports) and comedian Jimmy Dore break it down on The Young Turks.
Read more here from Lewis Smith / The Independent:

The Young Turks

Channel 4 Goes Rainbow For The Day To Wish Good Luck To Everyone At Sochi Winter Olympics

British TV station Channel 4 has made a proud statement in time for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, beginning today.

With the world debating the rights and wrongs of the Olympics taking place in a country where a law banning gay education was recently passed, and activists opposing the ban are treated harshly by the state, the UK television station has made its feelings known.

In addition, they've produced this striking new trailer - 'Gay Mountain' - to wish good luck to ALL athletes competing at the Games – gay or straight – with the message “good luck to everyone out in Sochi”. Bravo!

Huff. Post

There Are No Gay People In My City, Says Sochi Mayor

Young and Gay in Putin's Russia

Other parts of this series on YouTube