NCAA yanks Focus on the Family ad amid concerns

(Denver) Weeks after scoring a publicity coup with a 30-second Super Bowl ad featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is at the center of another marketing tug-of-war – this time involving the major governing body of college sports.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association removed …

Evangelical leader Dobson leaving radio show

(Denver) James Dobson, the voice of conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, will no longer host its flagship radio broadcast and is cutting formal ties with the organization that he founded more than 30 years ago, the evangelical group said Friday.

Dobson, 73, and the board of directors both agreed …

Evangelical group faces ’serious’ shortfall

(Denver) A “serious budget shortfall” at Focus on the Family has prompted the conservative Christian group to issue a special fundraising plea, and contributed to a decision to cede control of its contentious “Love Won Out” conferences about homosexuality to another religious organization, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Focus on the …

Conservatives want Bruno banned

A Christian group wants Bruno banned for “pornographic, offensive content.”

Christian group sues for right to burn gay teen novel

n a scene which appears to have been lifted straight out of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a group of Christians in Wisconsin has launched a legal claim demanding the right to publicly burn a copy of a book for teenagers which they deem to be “explicitly vulgar, racial [sic], and anti-Christian”.

The offending book is Francesca Lia Block’s Baby Be-Bop, a young adult novel in which a boy, struggling with his homosexuality, is beaten up by a homophobic gang. The complaint, which according to the American Library Association also demands $120,000 (£72,000) in compensatory damages for being exposed to the book in a display at West Bend Community Memorial Library, was lodged by four men from the Christian Civil Liberties Union.

Their suit says that “the plaintiffs, all of whom are elderly, claim their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library,” and that it contains derogatory language that could “put one’s life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike.”

“The word ‘faggot’ is very derogatory and slanderous to all males,” the suit continues. “Using the word ‘Nigger’ is dangerously offensive, disrespectful to all people. These words can permeate violence.” The suit also claims that the book “constitutes a hate crime, and that it degrades the community”.

“They’ve filed a claim against the city of West Bend and the city has to decide if it is valid,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, acting director of the ALA’s office for intellectual freedom. “Their insurance company is evaluating the claim, but I would be very surprised if they found any merit in it … Should they find any merit in this claim, we would certainly support the library in fighting it.”

The legal challenge follows a lengthy campaign by some West Bend residents to restrict access to teenage books they deemed sexually explicit from library shelves, which was eventually thrown out at the start of June.

“Obviously we were really pleased with the outcome to that – there was a unanimous vote to keep the books in the library and we thought the matter should be over,” said Larry Siems, director of the Freedom to Write programme at PEN America.

Siems said there was clearly “a bit of theatre” in the lawsuit which followed. “They’ve filed a lawsuit which has little possibility of going forward legally, and they’re asking for damages which include the right to burn a book. It does seem more to gain publicity than a real serious challenge.” But, he said, PEN remained very concerned about the impulse behind the claim. “This is a group of people trying aggressively to rid the library of these books and that’s very serious – it needs to be fought.”

The claimants, he said, “have a right to continue to express their views, and this in a way is a creative attempt to express those views”. But it’s “also a dangerous game when you’re talking about something like book burning, calling on the law to burn books. It’s certainly completely un-American, and if they paused, I think they would agree.”

It was not possible to reach the Christian Civil Liberties Union for comment.

See Christian group sues for right to burn gay teen novel guardian.co.uk

* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/christian-gro…

Self-proclaimed ‘Christian’ group asks to fight suit on gay marriage

A self-anointed ‘Christian’ group that raised – and spent – pent more than $37 million in leading the campaign to pass Proposition 8 is now seeking to formally fight a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning California’s gay marriage ban.

The Alliance Defense Fund filed court papers Thursday asking U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to allow it to defend the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Did you ever wonder how mnuch money they raised for ‘fighting gay marriage’ went to pay their own saleries?

See Christian group asks to fight suit on gay marriage San Jose Mercury News* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/self-proclaim…

Group Begins Ad Blitz Against Same-Sex Marriage

The National Organization for Marriage, a conservative Christian group that has fought efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in California and in the Northeast, has set its sights on New York with its latest media campaign.

Beginning Thursday in the New York City and Albany markets, the organization will run a 30-second television commercial that warns of unanticipated social consequences if the state allows gay couples to marry.

Echoing a theme that was used in turning public opinion against same-sex marriage in California in a vote last fall, the commercial suggests that children will be taught about homosexuality in schools.

“And it’s not just kids who face consequences,” the narrator says over foreboding music. “The rights of people who believe marriage means a man and a woman will no longer matter. We’ll have to accept gay marriage whether we like it or not.”

The commercial closes with a shot of the Capitol as the number for the State Senate switchboard flashes on the screen. The Senate must act in the next four weeks if it is to pass a same-sex marriage bill before the Legislature adjourns. The Assembly passed the bill this month, and Gov. David A. Paterson has pledged to sign it.

The National Organization for Marriage said its initial ad spending, which includes the television commercial and a radio spot, was just over $100,000. That campaign will run through Sunday.

The group said it hopes the commercial, which is intended to raise doubts about an argument made by advocates for same-sex marriage — that allowing gay couples to marry is simply a matter of fairness and equality — will give opponents a louder voice in a debate that has been dominated by the other side. See

Group Begins Ad Blitz Against Same-Sex Marriage New York Times

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/group-begins-…

Moscow Police Smother Rally for Gay Rights as It Begins

MOSCOW — Police officers in Moscow quickly suppressed a gay rights demonstration on Saturday, detaining dozens of protesters who hoped to showcase discrimination in Russia ahead of the Eurovision song contest final on Saturday evening.

The approximately 40 people rounded up face misdemeanor charges for trying to hold what a police spokesman, Anatoly Lastovetsky, called “unsanctioned” demonstrations.

Such demonstrations have become an annual headache for the Moscow authorities, who refuse to grant permission to organizers to hold the events despite constitutional guarantees protecting freedom of assembly. At previous gay rights events, police officers have often stood by as neo-fascists and radical Orthodox Christian groups attacked protesters.

While there were no reports of violence on Saturday, the crackdown on this year’s protest could prove an embarrassment as thousands of European visitors enter the city for the Eurovision final, a huge pop music spectacle that Moscow is hosting for the first time after Dima Bilan, a Russian pop star, won last year’s contest in Serbia. See Moscow Police Smother Rally for Gay Rights as It Begins New York Times