Anti-gay Bill Donohue: My 'Straight Is Great' banner would have overwhelmed Gay Pride Parade

Catholic League President Bill Donohue came unglued recently when the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade lost sponsors for not allowing openly gay men and women to march in the parade. Apparently, the gays can march only if they "blend in."

As part of his outrage, he threatened to apply to march in the NYC Gay Pride Parade with his own banner saying "Straight Is Great." Well, lo and behold, the powers that be at Gay Pride said "please come be a part of our parade."

But when Donohue was told someone from his contingent would need to attend a training session that instructs every group about safety issues and other practical matters, he used that as his excuse to back out. Watch the clip from Right Wing Watch below. He makes fun of the safety training session and alludes that it's "gay training."

The day before Catholic League head and anti-gay activist Bill Donohue announced that he wouldn’t participate in the NYC Pride Parade even though organizers accepted his application to lead a “Straight Is Great” parade contingent, Donohue told conservative talk show host Steve Malzberg that the parade organizers are maneuvering to keep him out of the parade because they are afraid his “Straight Is Great” message will catch on and flood the parade: “They know what they’re opening the door to: what if instead of getting 100 people, what if I get 3,000 people? What if we begin to overwhelm their parade and vetoes their message?”

Donohue said that he withdrew from the parade because he didn’t want to attend required training sessions for all group leaders. “Quite frankly, as a straight guy, I don’t go to gay training sessions,” Donohue said. “I think I’m pretty much an untrainable guy when it comes to this thing.”

(via Right Wing Watch)

Catholic League announces boycott of Guiness Beer over St. Patrick's Day Parade sponsorship

Anti-gay Catholic League president Bill Donohue has called for his promised boycott petition against Guinness beer for their pulling sponsorship of the St. Patrick's Day Parade over LGBT exclusion.

From the Catholic League website:

Gays have never been barred from marching in any St. Patrick’s Day parade—they simply cannot march under their own banner. Neither can pro-life Catholics. The message of the St. Patrick’s Day parade is simple: it is to honor St. Patrick. It is not about any other cause. That’s why we have parades that celebrate other causes: it’s called respect for diversity. In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to sustain the right of private parade organizers to determine their own rules for participation. If this ruling were otherwise, then groups that seek to veto the message of any parade would be allowed to march, thus undercutting the purpose of the parade. This would effectively kill freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Guinness is showing its disrespect for diversity, its support for intolerance, and its contempt for the First Amendment rights of everyone associated with the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Make no mistake about it, Guinness chose to boycott this parade because of its quintessentially Catholic nature: radicals who hate the moral teachings of the Catholic Church fingered this parade because of its religious significance. If Guinness reinstates its sponsorship of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, this campaign will end. Until it does, I support the Catholic League’s boycott of Guinness.

I doubt Guiness is shaking in their boots.

Remember - when the haters pull out their boycotts it's standing up for morals. When gays decide to boycott, we're "bullies."

Right...

GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis looks forward to marching in NYC Pride Parade with Bill Donohue

GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis underscores the invitation extended by NYC Pride to Catholic League president Bill Donohue to march in the 2014 NYC Pride parade.

"As a fellow Irish New Yorker, I'm hoping Bill will march with me at NYC Pride. I look forward to the day when I can march openly with Bill in the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade, and not be turned away because of who I am."

Catholic League President Bill Donohue invited to march in NYC Gay Pride Parade

Recently, Catholic League mouthpiece Bill Donohue had applied to march in NYC's LGBT Pride parade carrying a "Straight is Great" banner in a challenge to its inclusiveness following controversy over gay exclusion from the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Now, NYC Pride has happily invited Mr. Donohue to march in the :

In response to email communications from Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, NYC Pride representatives provided instructions for the March’s online registration system.

“Mr. Donohue and his group are free to participate in the 2014 March. His group’s presence affirms the need for this year’s Pride theme, ‘We Have Won When We’re One.’ Straight is great – as long as there’s no hate,” said David Studinski, March Director of NYC Pride.

Chris Frederick, Managing Director of NYC Pride, added, “Straight allies are great. We have thousands of straight people participating in the Pride March, including Catholic groups, who support LGBT youth, families and married couples.”

On February 27, 2014, Donohue gave a video interview with World Over with Raymond Arroyo in which he stated, "If I wanted to get into their gay pride parade with my own float with big banners saying 'straight is great,' they would have a right to feel put-upon and I wouldn't do that to them."

You can watch Donohue talk about the idea of his marching in the LGBT Parade here.

You'll note he immediately assumes we would want to bar him from being in our parade. And thus the difference between Donohue and his ilk. Once again the LGBT community shows our inclusiveness in happily allowing people to join us in our celebration.

It's a shame that Donohue can't learn the same lesson of inclusion himself.

Mr. Donohue has been an outspoken opponent of legal recognition of LGBT people, loving LGBT families, the science of sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS education.

He continually refers to marriage equality as "crazy" and "one of the most bizarre ideas in human history," and he has equated the marriage equality movement with the "minority of people in South Africa who took away the rights of Black people."  On multiple occasions, Mr. Donohue has referred to AIDS as "self-inflicted" and due to going against “natural order.”

And yet, in spite of all that, aren't we gays great?  WE want to include everyone, even our haters.

Yay us!

See you at the parade Bill!

Bill Donohue needs to 'see' gay discrimination before he will believe it exists

Catholic League's Bill Donohue sat down with CNN's Chris Cuomo to talk over the governor of Arizona's veto of the "License to Discriminate" bill.

Donohue began by accusing President Barack Obama’s administration of “encroaching on the rights of people of faith” in a variety of areas. “Gays as individuals, I’m with you on that Chris, let’s protect them in the workplace, let’s protect them as individuals,” Donohue insisted. “What my concern is, and I think I speak for a lot of people of faith, is the institution of marriage. That’s a separate issue altogether.”

“Where are the examples of gays being discriminated against?” Donohue asked. “If they’re being discriminated against, how come they make more money than straight people on average?”

“Is somebody being denied at Applebee’s getting a hamburger? Where are these examples?” he followed up.

“Under the law in Arizona, there is no special protection of the LGBT community, so a business member, if he or she wanted to or she wanted to, could discriminate without violation,” Como said. “That’s why the law was unnecessary. Do you get that?”

“Can you enumerate for me examples of gay people in Arizona who are having their right violated by people of faith?” Donohue asked.

“Can you point out a business that was made a substantial burden religiously because of what they had to do vis-a-vis a gay person?” Cuomo shot back.

In this clip, Bill Donohue either proves he doesn't have a firm grasp of the issue of equal rights for gays OR he is once again demonstrating his talent for obfuscating the truth.

(via Mediaite)

Catholic League Prez Bill Donohue - "Marriage has nothing to do with love"

Current TV's John Fugelsang spars with Catholic League President Bill Donohue over gay marriage, the Catholic League's feud with Bill Maher and the priest sex abuse scandal.

Just one little gem from Donohue:
"This idea of two men getting married is the most bizarre idea in human history... Christians have an obligation, particularly Catholics to follow natural law. The whole purpose of marriage is to have a family.  It's not about making people happy.  It's not about love."