Mike Pence to Accept GOP Nomination at RNC, Speakers Include Ted Cruz, Pam Bondi and Newt Gingrich

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who has made anti-LGBTQ animus a cornerstone of his political career, is poised to accept the nomination for vice president today, the third day of the Republican National Convention (RNC).  Featured as his opening acts are three politicians whose anti-equality bona fides mirror those of Pence, and presumptive GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump: Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Congressman Newt Gingrich, and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Here’s a recap of the anti-equality speakers on deck for Wednesday night.

Senator Ted Cruz

Whether the issue is marriage equality or critical protections from discrimination, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has consistently opposed equality for LGBTQ Americans. During his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, he ran a smear campaign against transgender Americans, releasing despicable transphobic ads and suggesting transgender people should “only use restrooms at home and avoid public facilities.”

Like Donald Trump, Cruz has also pledged to fight against nationwide marriage equality, promising to introduce a constitutional amendment preventing the federal government from recognizing the Obergefell decision. Cruz also voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), stood behind discriminatory Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, and said he would “absolutely” push for enactment of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) in his first 100 days in office.

Pam Bondi

Bondi fought marriage equality in Florida, arguing in court documents that recognizing marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states would disrupt existing marriage laws and  “impose significant public harm.”

Bondi was named “Loser of the Year” by the Tampa Bay Times in 2014 for her fight against marriage equality. “Bondi’s clumsy communication skills and relentless defense of Florida’s  ban on marriage equality have made her a modern-day Anita Bryant,” the newspaper wrote.

Two years later, nothing has changed. Bondi’s anti-LGBTQ record was on full display under questioning from CNN’s Anderson Cooper in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando. Watch the interview here.

Newt Gingrich

Gingrich opposed the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell, asserting, “First, as [Chief Justice John] Roberts warns, there are now no limiting principles to the establishment of new legal relationships and rights across a wide range of behaviors. He specifically notes polygamy as the next opportunity.”

Gingrich has long opposed marriage equality. In 2011, he said, “I favor adoption being between a man and a woman. Traditional families is what I’m in favor of. Period.” Gingrich — whose own sister is lesbian — has also said that people choose to be LGBTQ, in the same way that people can “choose to be celibate.”

The Trump-Pence Ticket

Pence became a national disgrace in 2015, for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people — and subsequently defending the bill over an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters. In a now notorious interview with ABC last year, Pence refused to answer eight separate times when asked whether businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Pence’s discriminatory bill had enormous consequences for the business and economic health of Indiana after a flood of companies spoke out against his bill. Indianapolis’s nonprofit tourism agency estimated that, Pence’s anti-LGBTQ bill cost the city alone up to 12 conventions and $60 million in lost revenue. Polling conducted by HRC after the 2015 fight found that 75 percent of Hoosiers said the debate was bad for the state’s economy and 70 percent of those surveyed said they opposed to the law.

Trump has reaffirmed his opposition to transgender equality, appeared alongside Tony Perkins — leader of SPLC-designated hate group the Family Research Council — and delusionally bragged about fictional support from the LGBTQ community in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. His false claims about his own support are belied by his own long record of opposing LGBTQ equality.

For more on Trump and Pence’s opposition to LGBTQ equality, click here.

www.hrc.org/blog/mike-pence-to-accept-gop-nomination-at-rnc-speakers-include-ted-cruz-pam-bo?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Powerful New HRC Foundation Video Features Proud Dads of Transgender Children Talking About Equality

Today, HRC Foundation released a first-of-its-kind web video exclusively featuring fathers of transgender children describing their experiences. The video also highlights the fear and hurt their families face due to anti-transgender prejudice and policies.

The fathers highlighted in video include JR Ford of Washington, D.C.; Joe Ghartey of New York; Wayne Maines of Maine, whose family’s story was also featured in a recent best-selling book, “Becoming Nicole,” and Keith Thomas, of North Carolina, a state that lies at the center of the debate over transgender equality following passage of the discriminatory HB2. The dads discuss their families’ journeys and the hopes and fears they have for their transgender children.

“Supportive parents can make all the difference in the lives and wellbeing of transgender children,” said Jay Brown, HRC’s Communications Director. “As a transgender man blessed with loving parents, including an amazing father, I know first-hand the comfort and courage these fathers bring to their children. In a world that so often hurls insults and condones bullying, these dads exemplify love of family and a steadfast commitment to the health and safety of the children they cherish.”

“As more and more people realize the humanity and dignity of transgender people of all ages, the mean-spirited and dangerous attacks we have seen from anti-LGBTQ activists and some politicians will grow increasingly unpopular and unsustainable,” Brown continued.

In an upcoming op-ed published in conjunction with the Dads for Transgender Equality video, one of the fathers, Wayne Maines, says, “transgender children and adults are the strongest and most courageous people I have ever met, but I worry about my daughter’s future every day. I worry because, to this day, transgender people are denied the same rights as their peers. I worry because transgender people face significant fear and discrimination. […] I worry because some Republican politicians have decided that it’s good politics to target a vulnerable group of people that includes my daughter.”

The emotional video of four dads comes during the Republican National Convention, where, earlier this week, delegates adopted the most anti-LGBTQ platform in their party’s history, including a plank opposing the transgender equality. HRC has joined with several LGBTQ advocacy organizations to support a national ad campaign detailing the personal harm imposed by anti-transgender legislation. The ad will appear during both the Republican and Democratic conventions.

In 2015, the HRC Foundation released another moving video, Moms for Transgender Equality, featuring four mothers of transgender children sharing their stories and explaining how their transgender children have enriched their lives. The Moms for Transgender Equality video and companion videos were viewed more than 7.5 million times over various social media platforms.

Watch the Dads for Transgender Equality video below:
 

www.hrc.org/blog/powerful-new-hrc-foundation-video-features-proud-dads-of-transgender-childr?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Log Cabin's New Ad Attacks GOP Platform, Isn't as Subtle as Before

The group’s leader says the ad was designed to “drag the platform committee through the coals.”

www.advocate.com/election/2016/7/20/log-cabins-new-ad-attacks-gop-platform-isnt-subtle

Gay Protester to Marco Rubio: 'You Have Blood on Your Hands'

The Florida senator is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention tonight.

www.advocate.com/politicians/2016/7/20/gay-protester-marco-rubio-you-have-blood-your-hands

Mike Pence’s Seven Most Vicious Homophobic Moments (There’s A Lot To Choose From)

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is a darling of the religious right, and with good reason. Over the course of his political career, he has been a crusader (in his white-bread way) for the right’s pet causes. Chief among these, of course, is stopping the “homosexual agenda.”

While Pence is best known for his bumbling attempt to rebrand antigay bigotry as religious liberty last year, that was hardly his first foray into the fields of homophobia. In fact, both as governor and as a Congressman, Pence took the lead in attacking legal equality. He is far and away the most antigay candidate to run on a national GOP ticket, which is saying a lot.

As he accepts the Republican nomination, here’s a roundup of some of his choicest moments. Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of them…

1. Supporting a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality

In 2006, then-Rep. Pence told 100 of his fellow Republicans that he supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex weddings. Or as Pence put it, supported “God’s plan” in the face of the destruction of civilization. “Societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family,” Pence complained.

2. Signed a bill to jail same-sex couples for applying for a marriage license

In an effort to make a bad idea even worse, as governor Pence signed a bill in 2013 that would jail same-sex couples in Indiana who applied for a marriage license. To prove that he wasn’t singling gay people out, Pence was also willing to jail marriage clerks who supplied a license or clergy who performed the wedding.

3. Wanted to divert funding from HIV prevention to conversion therapy

This one’s a two-fer: as a Congressional candidate in 2000, Pence wrapped two awful ideas into a single dreadful proposal. He wanted to ensure that “federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus.” So where should the money go? “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” In other words, conversion therapy.

4. Opposed repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Longing for the good old days of complete invisibility for gay people, Pence predictably ignored the preponderance of evidence in support of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Instead, Pence put himself out there as a leading opponent of the policy change. “There’s no question to mainstream homosexuality within active duty military would have an impact on unit cohesion,” Pence argued, dismissing the repeal as “some liberal domestic social agenda.”

5. Complained about the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill

In Pence’s ideal world, there would be zero protections. So it’s no surprise that he groused when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes bill was signed into law in 2009. Pence didn’t cite legal objections. Instead, he complained that it advanced a “radical social agenda” and would have “a chilling effect on religious expression, from the pulpits, in our temples, in our mosques and in our churches.”

6. Served on the board of an antigay group

Pence has had a close relationship with the antigay leadership in his state. He served on the board of the Indiana Family Institute, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, which has been in the forefront of attacks on LGBT rights in the state, including a state constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. Thanks to its connections to Pence and other Republicans, IFI has been the recipient of funding for the state’s “Health Marriage” program. The former head of IFI has served as an aide to Pence both in Congress and the state house and as a campaign consultant.

7. Argued that passing ENDA would ban Bibles from the workplace

Of course, in Congress Pence voted against federal workplace protections. What was unique was his reasoning, which was that ENDA would discriminate against Christians. To comply with the law, Pence claimed, “the employer has to ban employees from having a Bible at the workplace for their break time, or displaying Bible verses.” Foreshadowing the Indiana religious liberty law, he went on: “We must stand for the right of every American to practice their faith according to the dictates of their conscience, whether it be in the public square or in the workplace.”

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Ben Carson Has Some Thoughts About Being Transgender; Brace For Impact

We’re sure Ben Carson went to medical school? Because he really does not seem to understand how human bodies work. (As you’ll recall, this is the same guy who said that gay marriage leads to polygamy, as if straights have not been employing serial sexual escapades since time began.)

“For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is,” he drowsily droned to yet another group of rotten Republicans. “And now all of a sudden we don’t know anymore. Now, is that the height of absurdity? Because today you feel like a woman, even though everything about you genetically says that you’re a man or vice versa?”

Ugh, God, stop it stop it stop it stop it. First of all, “mankind,” blerg; at this point, using that word is just a deliberate middle-finger, and signal that yes, more inclusive words exist and no I’m refusing to use them.

But on to the substance of his argument: for thousands of years, humanity has understood that gender is a fluid, nonbinary thing. It is not hard to Google for examples of cultures all over the world that have blurred the lines between male and female over the last thousands years. But apparently Ben just believes that whatever he learned what he was a child always has been true and always will be.

Oh, but it gets worse:

Wouldn’t that be the same as if you woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan or reading some books and said, “You know what? I’m Afghanistan. I know I don’t look that way. My ancestors came from Sweden, or something, I don’t know. But I really am. And if you say I’m not, (then) you’re racist.”

No, Ben. You have fundamentally misunderstood, well, everything. Trans people do not see a movie and then decide the next day that they are trans. Just stop this “woke up tomorrow morning” garbage.

But there’s actually something ever-so-slightly (and accidentally) correct about his analogy. Changing your nationality is something that people can, in fact, do. If you move to a different country, and learn a whole new set of customs and behaviors, and learn about yourself, and fill out a ton of paperwork, and do a lot of soul-searching and difficult decision-making, and have a lot of conversations, then yes you can in fact become naturalized as a citizen of another country. So, yeah, that can change.

It’s not a perfect analogy — trans people generally consider themselves to have been trans their whole lives, and for their transition to have affirmed the gender that they always were. But this is a nuance probably much too deep for Ben Carson.

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Orlando Pulse Protester Confronts Marco Rubio: ‘You Have Blood On Your Hands’

A gay man confronted Marco Rubio at an event near the Pulse LGBT nightclub in Orlando as the Florida Senator attended an event to assist business traffic in the area following the mass shooting, the Orlando Sentinel reports:

“I’m really angry at you,” Moran said. “I don’t feel you’re doing anything to support the LGBTQ people. I need to know what is your relationship is with the NRA. Why are you talking with transphobes and homophobes like John Stemberger… all of you have blood on your hands,” Moran said.

Rubio responded, “I disagree with your assessment… Homophobia means you’re scared of people, I’m not scared of people. Quite frankly I respect all people. We probably have a disagreement on the definition of marriage.”

Moran interrupted again, “Your policies kill people. Your policies enable people to be murdered. You have to protect us. You’re not protecting us. We’re going to be gunned down.”

RELATED: Columnist Claims This Might Be a Photo of Marco Rubio at a Gay Miami Foam Party in the ’90s

The paper also reported that Rubio was often drowned out by a crowd of several dozen protesters who had gathered outside the event to demonstrate against Rubio’s inaction on gun control.

Watch video of the Rubio confrontation HERE.

Picketers gather at South Orange business to protest Marco Rubio comments on #PulseShooting aftermath pic.twitter.com/zOEXOBtESc

— Paul Brinkmann (@PaulBrinkmann) July 19, 2016

The post Orlando Pulse Protester Confronts Marco Rubio: ‘You Have Blood On Your Hands’ appeared first on Towleroad.

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There Was a ‘Gays for Trump’ Party at the RNC and It Was Absolutely Insane – VIDEOS, PHOTOS

The second night of the Republican National Convention saw a “Gays for Trump” rally that showcased a series of militant, xenophobic, anti-Islamic speakers who argued that the Republican party is the real friend of the LGBT community.

The event took place in a ballroom lined with images of scantily clad white twinks in “Make America Great Again” hats.

The wall art here is white… white: pic.twitter.com/RVdCxMSZjB

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) July 20, 2016

The title of the event was “WAKE UP” and billed as “The most fab party at the RNC.”

Photo via Carlos Maza/Twitter

The event’s headliners were notorious homocon and Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos and anti-Islam ‘activist’ Pam Geller.

Yiannopoulos appeared at the event after having just been permanently banned from Twitter for harassing SNL and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist tweets.

At LGBT for Trump party, Milo says he got banned from Twitter for fighting with “tertiary star of a fucking terrible feminist flop”

— Luke Brinker (@LukeBrinker) July 20, 2016

When Yiannopoulos took the podium, he appeared wearing a bullet-proof vest which he quickly removed. He went on to rail against Islam and at one point declared,  “Growing up gay wasn’t that f**king bad.”

The Washington Blade reports: 

Wearing a white tank top with the image of a gun in rainbow colors and the words “We Shoot Back,” Yiannopoulos said the time has come for the LGBT community to separate itself from the progressive movement to take on Islamic extremism.

In the aftermath of a shooting in Orlando at a gay nightclub by a follower of Islamic extremism, Yiannopoulos said while the left once supported gay people, that’s “no longer the case.”

“Growing up gay wasn’t that f[**]king bad, let’s be honest,” Yiannopoulos said. “But I still don’t see the reason why the left-wing press mollycoddles and panders to an ideology that wants me dead.”

Yiannopoulos announced at the event he would travel to Sweden next week to lead a Pride parade in what he called a “Muslim ghetto” in Stockholm. Yiannopoulos said he draws no distinction between Islam as a whole and Islamic extremism, although he acknowledged some in the audience may disagree with him.

RELATED: ‘Gays for Trump’ Homocon Milo Yiannopoulos Banned Permanently from Twitter for Racist Tweets at Leslie Jones

Yiannopoulos also said Trump is “the most pro-gay candidate in American electoral history.”

Denouncing the Democratic Party, Yiannopoulos added,

“You have done nothing for gays. While you were busy hectoring and bullying and nannying us about transgender pronouns, you completely forgot that politicians in this country, Democrat[ic] politicians who are welcoming in a religion that wants us dead. They were welcoming in movements and belief systems that are completely incompatible with the Western way of life, with modern, Western, capitalist, liberal democracies, the only systems under which gay people are happy and successful and have rights.”

When noted Islamophobe Pamela Geller (who created the infamous “Draw Mohammed” contest in Texas last year) took the mic, she decided to start with a joke. Said Geller: “A jihadi walks into a gay bar, and the bartender says, ‘What’ll you have?’ The jihadi says, ‘Shots for everyone!’”

FIRST JOKE: “A jihadi walks into a gay bar. Bartender asks what he wants. He says ‘shots for everyone.'”

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) July 20, 2016

Geller blasted the Democrats as well, saying the party takes advantage of the LGBT community. Via Rolling Stone: 

“The Democrats pay lip service, OK? And give out transgender bathrooms,” Geller says. “That is not gay rights in the 21st century. Gay rights in the 21st century is [about] the persecution, oppression, execution of gays living in Muslim countries under the sharia. That is gay rights.”

.@PamelaGeller enters “Gays for Trump” party with rainbow shirt that says “love will win.” pic.twitter.com/AlreT60gIV

— Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) July 20, 2016

Also present at the event was leader of the Dutch Freedom Party Geert Wilders who railed against Islam.

Some of his remarks via BuzzFeed: 

“It’s really so good to be back again in America all week at the convention of what you call the Grand Old Party,” Wilders, who is visiting the convention this week as a guest of the Tennessee Republican Party, told the crowd. Like the other speakers, Wilders spoke behind a lectern sporting a Trump-Pence sign and in front of a wall covered in photographs of half-naked young men wearing Make America Great Again hats taken by “Twinks for Trump” auteur Lucian Wintrich. “I’m not American but don’t blame me if I say I hope that Donald J. Trump will win the election.” Wilders was accompanied by several bodyguards who escorted him out immediately after he finished speaking, and organizers said Wilders was part of the reason security at the venue itself was so tight (attendees were wanded before going in).

As for what happened after the speeches concluded, it appears that the party devolved into a dance party. If you can call it that.

Exactly. What. You’d expect. pic.twitter.com/gztjF8sWpS

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) July 20, 2016

The post There Was a ‘Gays for Trump’ Party at the RNC and It Was Absolutely Insane – VIDEOS, PHOTOS appeared first on Towleroad.

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