News Round-Up: May 14, 2019

Dan Tai

Some news items you might have missed:

• Instagram: Dan Tai shields his eyes from the sun (...or is he just flexing for us?...) #InstaHunk

• NY Times: Donald Trump Jr. and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reached a deal on Tuesday for the president’s eldest son to sit for a private interview with senators in the coming weeks.

• Daily Telegraph: Former Newcastle Jets player, Andy Brennan, becomes the first Australian male soccer player to come out as gay.

• JoeMyGod: Televangelist Pat Robertson says God will destroy America if The Equality Act passes. Just like when she was going to wipe us out after marriage equality and Gay Days at Disney.

• Bloomberg: Trump Tower, the 36-year-old Manhattan residence, is now considered one of the least desirable luxury buildings in New York City. Over the past two years, sales of condo units in the building have taken losses of up to 20 percent.

• New digital series Model Boy explores "the lives of the wide-eyed young men lured into New York’s notoriously fickle high fashion modeling world."

Check out the first episode below.

GLAAD Denounces President Trump's Interview With Anti-LGBT Activist Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson

GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, blasted President Donald Trump’s one-on-one interview with Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist.

Robertson is infamous for calling for so-called “religious exemptions” to push a dangerous anti-LGBTQ agenda, accusing LGBTQ people of deliberately spreading HIV and AIDS, supporting so-called “conversion therapy,” and comparing the LGBTQ community to Satanists as well as thieves, rapists, and murders.

“Today’s interview with anti-LGBTQ activist Pat Robertson should be the last straw for anyone leaving hope that President Trump would be an ally to LGBTQ people,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD.

“Trump refused to speak out about LGBTQ Pride Month or against the atrocities facing gay men in Chechnya in favor of today using the office of the President to give credibility to a debunked TV personality with a long history of peddling vile inaccuracies and salacious insults that harm LGBTQ people. As anti-LGBTQ activists like Robertson get the red-carpet treatment at the White House, LGBTQ people must stay visible and fight back against all those seeking to erase our hard-fought progress.”

The CBN anchor also previously defended the widely panned Access Hollywood “Trump Tapes,” where President Trump bragged about committing sexual assault on women. Robertson said Trump was merely trying “to look like he’s macho,” further pushing the dangerous implication that groping women is a positive and normal way for men to elevate their masculinity.

This week’s interview comes at the same time as Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered remarks at a closed-door summit on “religious liberty” hosted by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The ADF is labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is currently representing Jack Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, which argues whether someone could use so-called “religious exemptions” to discriminate against LGBTQ people. The United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for the case later on this fall.

Hit the link above for several examples of Robertson's anti-LGBT attacks over the years.

Hypocrisy Of The Day

Pat Robertson criticized First Lady Michelle Obama for wearing a sleeveless dress.

But when naked photos of incoming First Lady Melania Trump appeared (and there are lots!),  Robertson called the nudes "pure art."

#hypocrisy

Pat Robertson On Drug Addicts: "Let'em Starve To Death"

"Christian" televangelist Pat Robertson told his TV audience today that drug addicts who won't work should simply starve.

Cause that's what Jesus would do?

Right Wing Watch has the details:

A viewer from Massachusetts cited a Boston Herald article about the strain that addicted and mentally ill “super-utilizers” are putting on Boston’s hospitals and Medicaid system and complained that she’s finding it hard to be charitable toward drug addicts who are intentionally overdosing and wasting resources that she is paying for with her taxes.

Robertson responded by citing 2 Thessalonians 3:10, which says that “if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat,” as justification for allowing addicts to starve to death.

“There are a bunch of people who are just bums and they’re trying to ride in on the charity of others,” Robertson said. “Tough love will say, ‘I’m not going to give you something.’ … If these people are out drugging themselves, let ’em starve to death. I know that sounds hard, but that’s the way it’s got to be.”

Pat Robertson: God Will Wreck U.S. Financial Markets Over Marriage Equality

I can't believe I'm quoting former Vice President Dan Quayle, but as he once misquoted the slogan of the United Negro College Fund: "It's a terrible thing to lose your mind."

That would seem to be appropriate here after watching Pat Robertson blather on about God's wrath against financial entities over same-sex marriage today.

The 700 Club's resident bigot flipped out saying that the United States is becoming Sodom. robertson predicted God will cause financial ruin in America over marriage equality and equal rights for transgender folks.

Via Right Wing Watch:

“Now it’s a constitutional right for sodomites to marry each other,” he lamented, warning that “the wrath of God is revealed against this stuff.” He explained: “I don’t want the wrath of God to hit this country, it’s a great country, I’d like to see America continue strong, but this is one way of weakening it. First of all, we’re going to have this financial collapse. We’re setting up for a massive financial collapse and I think if God is going to hurt this country that’s probably the way he’d do it.”

Can you believe this man was once considered to be a "moral leader?"

Pat Robertson Doesn't Understand How The Supreme Court Works

Wackjob Pat Robertson told viewers of The 700 Club that this summer's ruling from SCOTUS on same-sex marriage only affects a few couples who were involved in the actual case itself, and that unless Congress passes a law making marriage equality legal, it's not really the law of the land.

Via Right Wing Watch:

“In the legal system, party A sues party B over marriage, ‘I want to get married to them,’ and the court says, ‘Okay, you can get married,’” he explained. “That doesn’t mean that I’ve got to get married to homosexuals, it doesn’t mean that you have to nor does it mean that it’s the law of the land. Congress didn’t pass any law. Your state legislature didn’t pass a law. So you’re not under anything, it’s a decision of the court having to do with a couple of people. Now they would like to make it bigger than that but, in terms of the Constitution, it isn’t.”

Trust and believe, the Obergefell ruling struck down all the anti-gay marriage laws in the U.S. That IS how the law works here.

Pat Robertson: It's "Outrageous" That Gays Want To Bring Boyfriends To Holiday Dinners

Responding to a viewer's question about their gay grandson asking to bring his "friend" home for Thanksgiving dinner, the 700 Club's Pat Robertson called the request "outrageous," and likened the scenario to asking to bring a stripper home for the holiday feast.

Who knew Pat hates strippers?

Pat Robertson: Gays Want All Christians In Jail So Get Used To It

Televangelist host of "The 700 Club" Pat Robertson says that “the gays’” ultimate goal is to put rogue Kentucky County Clerk Davis and other gay rights opponents in prison for their stance.

So this whole thing is — putting her in jail and so forth — is nonsense. But it will happen and it’s just the beginning, it’s the warmup of this battle. And I want you to know right now, you’ve heard it here, the gays do not just want to be recognized, they do not want to be accepted, they do not want to have just freedom, they want everybody to agree with them and everybody who doesn’t agree with them and does not comport with their way of thinking, they want to be punished, put in jail, or fined. That’s the way they want it and you might as well get used to it.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Pat Robertson: "The Gays Want To Control Everything"

Today, Pat Robertson went on another of his anti-gay rants telling his audience "The gays want to control everything."

Via Right Wing Watch:

“This is part of the left-wing agenda,” he said, “to do away with Christian values and to substitute for Christian values the progressive concepts of morality.”

“You tell me if anybody, if you show me one couple that conceived a child through anal — through anal intercourse — just show me one in all the world, and I will say, ‘I agree with you and you are right.’ Show me one. There are 8 billion people, 7 billion, show me one time when a child was conceived by that kind of sexual activity,” Robertson said. “It is unnatural, I’m sorry.”

Pat Robertson: Gays Are Going To Make You Like Anal Sex

Right Wing Watch catches Pat Robertson at his divisive, gay-hating best in this clip where he literally says that gay people will force you to embrace anal sex and endorse sex with dogs.

“It doesn’t matter what custom you’ve got, it doesn’t matter what holy thing that you worship and adore, the gays are going to get it,” Robertson said. “They’re going to make you conform to them. You are going to say you like anal sex, you like oral sex, you like bestiality, you like anything you can think of, whatever it is. And sooner or later you are going to have to conform your religious beliefs the group of some aberrant thing. It won’t stop at homosexuality.”

Pat Robertson: Equal Treatment Under The Law For Gays Is A "Nail In The Coffin" For America

Pat Robertson tells a viewer of The 700 Club saying that laws that make it illegal for businesses to deny service to customers on the basis of sexual orientation amount are “an outrageous invasion of religious liberty and a trampling of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

“I think the courts that forced that, the officials that forced it, were dead wrong and it’s just one more nail in the coffin of the morality of this nation,” Robertson said.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Pat Robertson Says Treat Your Gay Son Like A Drug Addict

Via Right Wing Watch, in this video, Pat Robertson tells a mother to treat her gay son like a drug addict.

“You cannot go along and say, ‘I agree with your lifestyle,’” he said. “So don’t be an enabler, any more if he’s a drug addict, you don’t enable people to continue in their drug habits. But you let him know you love him.”

Pat Robertson Tells Parent To Skip Gay Child's Wedding

A viewer wrote in to Pat Robertson of The 700 Club today asking if they should skip their child's same-sex wedding...?

Robertson was quite clear in his advice.

"Shari" writes in:

My spouse and I are not in agreement as to whether or not we should attend the gay marriage of our child. One of us feels that it is totally against the Lord’s pan and our attendance would send (at very least) a mixed message, or at worse it would be like taking a stand for gay marriage. The other feels our attendance would show support to our child that is necessary for the future of our relationship and witness. What do you think we should do? Should one attend, while the other does not?

“You don’t agree with it. You’ve got to stand there and be a witness to it,” Robertson said. “By your attendance at the ceremony, you are agreeing with it … I just wouldn’t go. I would tell your child, ‘I love you but I cannot condone this. We will always love you but I don’t condone this activity.’”

Robertson also advised that neither parent should attend as it might send a signal that the gay marriage was "splitting" the parent's marriage.

Pat Robertson: Gays Will 'Die Out Because They Don't Reproduce'

A viewer asks televangelist nut-job Pat Robertson whether she should stay in a church whose members weren't allowed to date.

Robertson responds saying she should leave since that church is going to die out, just like those queers.

"You know, those who are homosexual will die out because they don't reproduce. You know, you have to have heterosexual sex to reproduce. Same thing with that church: it's doomed, it's going to die out because it's the most nonsensical thing I've heard in a long time."

It's laughable that Robertson doesn't make note of the fact that the world isn't full of gay folks because WE reproduce. Luckily, we all have our heterosexual parents to thank for being here.

That being said, tons of LGBT folks like my husband and I will keep on
trying to "conceive." You know the old saying, "If at first you don't succeed...."

Even Pat Robertson Thinks Sen. Ted Cruz Pulled A Bone-Headed Move

Well, hell must have frozen over because for once Pat Robertson is speaking with clarity about the shenanigans Sen. Ted Cruz pulled this past weekend regarding the Senate passing the CRomnibus bill to keep the government running.

Normally a bill has to "ripen" for several hours giving Senators a chance to read and digest what they are going to be voting on. But that waiting period can be waived if all 100 Senators agree. This would have allowed a faster vote on the already approved House bill. But Ted Cruz threw a wrench in the works voting against waiving the period because he wanted to have a vote on the Senate floor denouncing President Obama's executive order on immigration.

This opened a procedural door that allowed outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats the chance to pass over 20 nominations from the President that the Republicans have blocked for months.

One of those nominations that finally got passed after a year and a half hold was Vivek Murthy, a Harvard and Yale-educated doctor, whose nomination for Surgeon General had been on blocked based in great part by opposition from the gun lobby. Thanks to Cruz, he was approved by Senators 51 to 43 to confirm.

Christmas came early for the Dems thanks to the rookie move by Sen. Cruz.

And even Pat Robertson can see it.

Anderson Cooper Takes Down Pat Robertson Over "You Can Get AIDS From Towels" Comments

I recently wrote about the incredibly stupid warning Pat Robertson made about traveling "overseas" because you might get AIDS from towels.

Pause for a moment because - like ice cream "brain freeze" - the stupid just plain hurts.)

Well, I wasn't the only one to think Pat's idiocy stood out.

Well, Anderson Cooper took Robertson to task for the comments as he included the sad episode on last night's "Ridiculist."

Pat Robertson Calls Gay Advocates Are 'Terrorists, Radicals And Extremists'

Transcript from today's anti-gay rant by Pat Robertson:

It’s one thing to want to persuade somebody to believe like you do, that’s what Christianity is about, to bring the Gospel message and say this is good news and we’d like you to accept it. It’s something else to take the arm of the government to force somebody to do something that is against, contrary to their religion, and that’s what these homosexuals are trying to do. They are trying to force people who are Christians to marry them or else face jail, to make cakes honoring them or else go to jail and give their sermons over and divulge their innermost thoughts or go to jail, that’s the kind of thing we’re dealing with.

These people are terrorists, they’re radicals and they’re extremists. No Christian in his right mind would ever try to enforce somebody against their belief or else suffer jail. They did that during the Inquisition, it was horrible, it was a black mark on our history, but it isn’t being done now. There’s no Christian group I know of anywhere in the world that would force somebody to do something contrary to their deep-held religious beliefs or else face criminal penalties, but that’s what the homosexuals are trying to do here in America and I think it’s time pastors stand up and fight this monstrous thing.

If the gays want to go out and do their gay sex, that’s one thing, but if they want you to force you to accept it and solemnify it by marriage then that’s a different matter and it’s an infringement on people’s religious belief. What’s being done in Houston is a gay—the woman they elected is a homosexual, she’s a lesbian, and she’s trying to force pastors to conform to her beliefs. It’s wrong.

Part of the rant seems to reference the current news story about the wedding venue The Hitching Post in Idaho. It goes without saying that if you've read the news lately, NO ONE in Idaho is forcing anyone to marry same-sex couples at this point in time. No one has been threatened with jail time over forcing "ministers" to marry same-sex couples.

This is just more hyperbole by the extreme right wing to convince folks "the sky is falling."

And it's not.

Pat Robertson: Onslaught Of "Homosexual Behavior" Is Being Forced On US

Strange, I don't remember forcing anyone to have sex with me...

The increasingly erratic Pat Robertson says that the SCOTUS decision to not review same-sex marriage appeals is forcing an "onslaught of homosexual behavior" on the United States.

The clip below then goes into a report about a business in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which performs civil marriage ceremonies. The business has apparently refused to perform same-sex marriages even though marriage equality is the law of the land in Idaho now.

Being a "for-profit" business and not a church, the Hitching Post cannot claim "religious exemption" from the city public accommodation law which says businesses can't discriminate against LGBT folk.

Watch Pat run off the rails again as he tells the owners of the business to get out of Idaho.

Pat Robertson: You Can Get AIDS From Towels

On today's edition of The 700 Club, a viewer wrote to Robertson saying that God had called them to go on a mission trip to Kenya, but friends and family said it is too dangerous because of the recent Ebola outbreak. The writer wondered if the trip might be too dangerous due to disease like Ebola.

Robertson remarked that while there was not currently an outbreak of Ebola in Kenya, you could get AIDS.

From towels.

SRSLY.

“You might get AIDS in Kenya, people have AIDS, you’ve got to be careful,” he explained. “I mean, the towels could have AIDS.”

Pat Robertson Performs Faith-Healing Live on TV

Pat Robertson and sidekick Terry read letters from viewers who felt 'healed' by Pat via television faith healing.

They then proceed to 'heal' more viewers like someone who might have back pain. Can you imagine there might be someone watching who has back pain?

No doubt someone will be sending in a big check with a letter thanking Pat for the tele-heal.

To be clear, as regular readers of The Randy Report know, I'm not an opponent of folks being spiritual. But this kind of manipulative hokum harms far more people than it will ever help.

(h/t JMG)