Liberty Counsel Rep Declares Public School Sex Education "Satanic"

Without even the limited sex education in public schools, where would young Americans learn the basics about human sexuality and sexual health?

From their parents? #NotGonnaHappen

Which makes a recent appearance by Mary McAlister of the virulently anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel even more dangerous as she declared sex education in schools to be "satanic."

From Right-Wing Watch:

Mary McAlister, who is senior litigation counsel for the anti-LGBTQ organization Liberty Counsel, appeared on Cliff Kincaid’s “USA Survival” program yesterday, where she declared that sex ed programs in public schools are satanic.

McAlister and Kincaid were discussing the upcoming “Sex Ed Sit Out” effort being organized by Religious Right activist Elizabeth Johnston, who is better known as the “Activist Mommy,” which encourages parents to remove their children from school to protest what she sees as “graphic, gender-bending sex education.”

“It’s evil,” McAlister replied. “It’s absolutely evil. God has made us all in his image, he has set out for us rules for living that enable us to live rich and full and healthy lives and all of this that is going on now is directly aimed at tearing all of that down. Well, we know who does that. That’s the Enemy, that’s Satan and his minions.”

Watch the exchange below.

News Round-Up: March 23, 2018

Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy & Beemo

Some news items you might have missed:

• Bonus National Puppy Day pic - Gus Kenworthy's South Korean pup, Beemo, has her own Instagram page and already has 70K followers. Deservedly so, I should add.

• A new study shows 92% of young gay men want to get married.

• Robbie Rogers and director Greg Berlanti bought out two movie theaters so young LGBTQs could see Berlanti's new movie, Love, Simon.

@gberlanti and I have been so emotionally affected by the reactions to @lovesimonmovie that we have decided to buy out two theaters. We’ve partnered with local LGBTQ organizations in Jackson, MS and Louisville, KY. Our hope is that young LGBTQ people in these cities that might not have the opportunity to see @lovesimonmovie now will have the chance. Thank you everyone for supporting such an important beautiful movie! Scroll for more info... #lovesimon #pflag

A post shared by Robbie Rogers (@robbierogers) on Mar 22, 2018 at 8:04pm PDT

• The anti-gay hate group Liberty Counsel has pulled its support for the anti-LGBT bill The First Amendment Defense Act because it's not anti-gay enough.

• Craigslist has shut down its personal ad section after the U.S. Senate passed Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). Some say shuttering these ads is dangerous for the sex workers it purportedly protects as sex workers advertising online are not soliciting work on the streets, where they are more likely to encounter dangerous situations.

• Comedian Jim Carrey has been sharing his artwork of late relating to the Trump regime, if you will.

The latest shows Donald Trump in flagrante delicto as allegations of sexual relationships with porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal dominate the headlines.

Fifty Shades of Decay pic.twitter.com/aurfm22ru6

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 23, 2018

CBS News: Liberty Counsel Is Behind Anti-LGBT Hate Laws In At Least 20 States

LGBT activists have known the names Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel for years. Staver and his cronies have spent years working to subvert the rights of LGBTs in the areas of marriage and public accommodation.

But now, CBS News has not only put Staver and company in the spotlight, but revealed in no uncertain terms the true nature of their mission: to control the "fire" of LGBT rights.

Demonstrators against the so-called bathroom bills were out in force in South Carolina -- their chants echoing those in other states where they say legislatures have have enacted laws enabling bigotry.

But while they protested, the conservative group, that's helped author many of those measures protecting religion over sexual orientation, was working at its Orlando area office on new ways to uphold what it says is really at stake.

"It is only about being free to pursue your faith," said Mathew Staver. "We have no interest in discriminating against anyone."

Staver is the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which has affiliated attorneys in all 50 states -- drafting bills, advising lawmakers and defending clients in what they believe to be the great cultural clash of our time.

CBS News first met Staver when he defended a Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis who said it was against her religion to hand out marriage licenses to homosexuals. Lately, Liberty Counsel has been helping to draft legislation for conservative lawmakers in at least 20 states.

Their bills began cropping up in state legislatures soon after the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage last year.

An objective observer could conclude that they want to push back against that ruling.

"Well I certainly want to push back against that ruling," Staver said. "It was a wrong ruling. It has no basis in the constitution."

Where are they going with this?

"The Supreme Court in the 5-4 opinion on marriage in 2015 lit the house on fire," Staver said. "All we're trying to do is control the fire at this point in time."

And he is unfazed by corporate threats to pull out of states in protest against his work.

"They're not gonna follow through," Staver said.

So it's a bluff?

"It's a bluff. They're not leaving," he said.

Kim Davis' Law Firm, Anti-Gay Liberty Counsel, Called Out By Associated Press

Mat Staver, of the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel

Finally, a mainstream media source - the Associated Press, no less - has exposed the Liberty Counsel for the anti-gay, hate mongering organization that it is.

Kim Davis’ lawyer stood onstage in a Washington D.C. hotel and pointed to a photo on the screen. It showed 100,000 people packed into a Peruvian soccer stadium, Mat Staver told the crowd, all there to pray for the Kentucky clerk battling against gay marriage.

The crowd erupted.

It wasn’t true. Staver’s firm, the Liberty Counsel, which revealed Davis’ secret meeting with Pope Francis, has been accused by advocacy groups of peddling misrepresentations in the past. Yet it has become the main source of details about the controversial pope meeting.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Liberty Counsel as an anti-gay hate groups for spreading false information. “A group that regularly portrays gay people as perverse, diseased pedophiles putting Western civilization at risk are way, way over the line,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center.

The Liberty Counsel has connected homosexuality to higher rates of promiscuity and incest, Potok said, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

The firm opposes laws banning hate crimes and supports discredited conversion therapies that purport to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals.

Staver once declared that the Boy Scouts would become a “playground for pedophiles” once it allowed gay troop leaders.

Staver said the meeting with the pope validates his arguments about Davis’ rights to conscientious objection. He rejects even the suggestion he might wake up one day and discover himself on the wrong side of history.

Last week, he showed the crowd at the Values Voter Summit the photo of the imaginary Peruvian prayer rally and declared its significance in the battle against Christian oppression. “That, my friends, is happening around the world,” he said. “When one person stands it has an impact and Kim Davis will continue to stand for her lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

Read the full expose here.


Quite enjoyable reading, I must say.

(h/t JMG)

Chris Hayes Slaps Down Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver

I always find it interesting when someone not only refuses to answer a direct question in a TV interview, but also can only keep repeating the same, single talking point.

Liberty Counsel director Mat Staver, who is representing Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, is like a dog with a bone here repeating and repeating his own issue while completely ignoring the questions being asked by MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

Best line is when Hayes ask Staver point blank how his fundraising is going in light of the press his firm is getting by being in the thick of things with Davis.

New Jersey: Liberty Counsel Loses For Second Time Over "Ex-Gay" Torture Ban

Mat Staver and his Liberty Counsel have failed for a second time in attempting to repeal the ban on so-called "conversion" therapy for minors in New Jersey.

By a 3-0 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban did not infringe the First Amendment rights of minors and their parents to receive information and exercise religion, or the rights of parents to decide how to raise their children.

The challenge came from a 15-year-old boy known as John Doe, who claimed to suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, self-hatred and suicidal thoughts as he struggled with his sexual identity, and his parents, who said they had sincere religious beliefs that homosexuality was sinful and harmful.

The family plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said their lawyer, Mathew Staver.

“It is a tragedy when people who are not in the counseling room try to dictate what the client wants to receive and what the counselor is allowed to offer,” Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a phone interview.

Signed by Republican Governor Chris Christie in August 2013, New Jersey’s law bans licensed counselors from trying to convert homosexual minors into heterosexuals.

The law was upheld last Sept. 11 by the same 3rd Circuit panel after counselors claimed it violated their free speech rights.

On April 8, President Barack Obama called for an end to gay conversion therapy for children, citing “overwhelming scientific evidence” that it was “neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.”

The American Psychiatric Association in 1973 declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. Some conservative and religious groups have said sexual orientation can be changed.

This follows three failed attempts by Liberty Counsel to overturn a similar ban in California.

(via Reuters)

Liberty Counsel Files Petition Demanding Alabama Probate Judges Cease Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Mat Staver of the anti-gay hate group Liberty Counsel

Mat Staver and the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel have filed a petition with the Alabama state Supreme Court demanding that the entire bench of judges instruct all state Probate Judges to cease issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Via press release from Liberty Counsel:

“Many Alabama probate judges are acting lawlessly,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.

“Alabama probate judges do not have discretion to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Neither the Searcy nor the Strawser Injunction requires Alabama probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” Staver pointed out.

“The only remedy to this lawlessness is mandamus relief, an order from the Alabama Supreme Court to command probate judges to perform their ministerial duty not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” Staver concluded.

Actually, the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution specifically states that Federal law trumps State law. Federal Judge Callie Granade has ruled Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court have been asked and passed on staying the ruling.

Haters would want to stop embarrassing themselves sooner than later.

Liberty Counsel To Anti-Gay Magistrates: Stay On The Job So We Can Sue

Mat Staver of homophobic Liberty Counsel 

I recently reported on six magistrates in the state of North Carolina who resigned their positions rather than marry same-sex couples now that marriage equality has come to the state.

Now, however, Mat Staver of the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel is urging homophobic magistrates to stay on the job so they can sue the state:

"Stand your ground. Do not voluntarily resign your post when confronted with this intolerant agenda.” Staver made these comments after several magistrates in North Carolina resigned because they refused to preside over a same-sex marriage.

“I appreciate the conviction of these magistrates, but rather than resign they should remain at their post. Liberty Counsel will represent them, but once they resign there is not much we can do to help,” said Staver.

“Where would the Civil Rights movement be if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., voluntarily went home when he faced opposition? Where would we be today if Rosa Parks had voluntarily moved to the back of the bus? The quest for religious freedom was the reason American was born. We cannot voluntarily give up this unalienable right,” concluded Staver.

The fact of the matter is this really seems like Staver looking for work for Liberty Counsel folks. Liberty Counsel hasn't won against gay rights in a long time.

And in a case of civil servants (magistrates) refusing to fulfill their duties based on discrimination, they would lose here, too.

(h/t Good As You)

Mat Staver says a new American Revolution is coming because GAY

Mat Staver, of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel, recently appeared on the "Light of the Southwest" Christian television program on God's Learning Channel where he warned, yet again, that America is headed toward a second American Revolution led by conservative Christians over the issues of gay marriage, abortion, and religious liberty.

"We're seeing the beginning groundswell of a potential new American Revolution," Staver said, asserting that if the government continues to trample on religious liberty, the nation will soon "run into that decision point of persecution and/or revolution."

Comparing Christian resistance to gay rights to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, Staver said that, just as Martin Luther King preached non-violence, he hopes that the next revolution will follow that same path.  But adds a very ominous, "but you never know what happens":

(from Right Wing Watch)

Matt Barber & Mat Staver: You are a crime against nature

Staver - "At the time of the founding of this country no one even thought that two men and two women would be wanting to marry."

Randy Report - They didn't know about AK-47's either but folks fight for those today.

Barber - "Yeah, the aberrant sexual behavior, the twisting of normal human sexuality that would be involved in order to consummate a so-called same-sex marriage in all 13 of the original colonies was a crime."

Randy Report - Yes - and slavery was legal. We changed our view on slavery, so...?

On and on it goes. This is the kind of crap that gets fed people every day by the Liberty Counsel.

Lord have mercy on these sad men.

(via JMG)