“But, whatever its flaws, [the West] has raised more people out of indigence, misery, superstition, and intolerance than any other civilization in history. Today, it is laudably cosmopolitan and largely free from grotesque forms of discrimination and bigotry. An ideology which fails to recognize this, which insists that racism and sexism are woven into the fabric of everyday life, will probably alienate more people than it convinces and will unfairly malign and misrepresent the state of Western society.”More below:
A Win for Freedom
More. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission was headed for another probable 7-2 loss before the Supreme Court, given that some of its members had shown the same religious animus against baker Jack Phillips that they had the first time around.
SCOTUS overturns Colorado Civil Rights Commission on grounds it showed religious animus. Later, in new case against same person, CCRC members say "we think those comments SCOTUS thought showed animus are actually fine and we endorse them."
— PresidentialHarassHat (@Popehat) March 6, 2019
And THAT'S what clients are like.
As The Federalist reports, Phillips’ attorneys:
found current commissioners publicly agreeing with 2015 comments from commissioner Dianne Rice that compared Jack’s Christianity to the ideologies motivating slavery and the Holocaust. Rice’s comments were specifically singled out by the Supreme Court as evidence of the commission’s bias.
That bias aimed to jettison Jack’s constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association, and free expression of religion, all over a cake that could be had from any number of nearby shops. Yet when the commission discussed the Supreme Court ruling in summer 2018, two commissioners openly supported Rice’s comparison of Christianity to Nazism and racism. …
Faced with this evidence of their persistent animus against Christians, the commission folded its second case against Jack. But it still maintains the power to do this to anyone at any time, even still based on anti-religious bigotry so long as they keep that to themselves.
Related: Washington Post, The Senate just confirmed a judge who interned at an anti-LGBTQ group. She’ll serve for life.
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A Movement Unmoored
As Andrew Sullivan wrote recently (second item):
It is even transphobic, I am now informed, for a gay man not to want to sleep with a trans man who has a vagina. In response to my recent column on the subject, I was told by Sue Hyde, a woman who is at the very heart of the LGBTQIA++ movement, to, yes, give it a try: “Maybe Sullivan … would give [a handsome trans man with a vagina who uses a dildo as a penis] a toss in the hay and next day, be singing a different tune about category woman/girl >>> category man/boy persons’ capacities to uphold and expand the experiences and meanings of homosex.” Maybe. Or maybe I’ll sleep with whomever I want — you know, something we used to call sexual freedom.
But this is how deep the ideology runs. It wants to control not only the public discourse, and language, and rig sports contests, but also insinuate itself into the most intimate areas of an individual’s sex life. Once upon a time, the religious right would tell me that I should sleep with women because I might find the right one and finally be happy. Now the intersectional left is telling me something almost exactly the same. What has happened to this movement? Where on earth has it gone?
Where, indeed. Having achieved the decriminalization of homosexual relations and, shortly thereafter, legal equality for marriage and LGB military service—the two areas where discrimination was government enforced—the LGBTQIA++ movement has become unhinged from any kind of objective reality. Witness GLAAD’s declaration, noted earlier, that to even question Jusse Smollett’s deeply suspicious (and now unraveled) hate-crime story was evidence of racism and homophobia. Or HRC’s near-total dismissal of the Trump administration’s initiative to seek the worldwide decriminalization of homosexual relations.
Other than the mean-spirited misuse of state power to force religiously conservative service providers to craft messages in support of same-sex marriage, and promoting the false narrative that biological sex is irrelevant in light of self-professed gender identity, there’s not much left of a movement that was once devoted to extending the promise of liberty and legal equality to gay people.
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Schism Would Be a Blessing
More. Live by identity politics, die by identity politics: Conservative African Methodist Denounces the Racism of Progressive American Bishops.
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Lesson Learned? Don’t Bet on It
“Jussie Smollett was victimized first in a hate-motivated and violent attack in Chicago and has since been doubly victimized as the subject of speculation by the media industry and broader culture,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, said in a statement. … “GLAAD joined with Color of Change to condemn the racism and homophobia that fueled the physical violence against Jussie and today we double down on that stance, while also calling out a culture where LGBTQ people of color are too often the last to be believed.”
A host of liberals are bleating about conservative “gloating” over the Smollett debunking. What they seem to sincerely not understand is that their instant acceptance of the story and their instant condemnation of anyone who voiced skepticism over it was an act of oppression. “You must care!” “You must believe!” There is no safe harbor. No right to skepticism or even reflection.
Related: A list of hoax hate crimes in the Trump era.
More.
This LGBT activist's house was burned down. Police now suspect he set the fire himself. https://t.co/Nqgp82TTxv
— reason (@reason) February 25, 2019
Liberal LGBT activist burns down own home in hoax hate crime because “he had been frustrated the controversy over gay rights had died down with the passage of the nondiscrimination law.”
— Gregory T. Angelo (@gregorytangelo) February 25, 2019
The need for some to be perpetual victims is all too real. https://t.co/yCGyQd9aPH
In the last few seconds of this vid protestor says to the speaker that “quite a few trans people were beaten up last time you spoke on campus.” Speaker says he’s never spoken on campus before. Protester shrugs and admits he made it up. https://t.co/4TFQVO6wp1
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) March 6, 2019
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P.C. vs. Art
“Homosexuality and disease and the closet isn’t the point, suffering and victimhood is not at their center, and ideology is pushed back in favor of simple storytelling. These are films in which a character’s sexuality doesn’t become the whole pathetic reason for the movie to exist. This is, remarkably, in American movies, a new thing.”
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If Trump Is for It, the LGBTQ Left Is Against It
THANK YOU to @realDonaldTrump and the entire administration for standing with the worldwide LGBT community and for launching a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexuality.
— LogCabinRepublicans (@LogCabinGOP) February 19, 2019
We stand with you and are here to help in any way we can!https://t.co/QRQBsE85D4
Are you freaking kidding me?!? Progressive LGBT media is an absolute joke. https://t.co/ZbZuSTSKP5
— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) February 20, 2019
HRC thread here. Takes until tweet 6 before it gets to their reaction to the day’s news, and even then doesn’t quite manage to reach the “begrudging and lukewarm” threshold. https://t.co/jsBgQIfWTT
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 20, 2019
This is how a “non-partisan” “advocacy” organization with no clout, no relationships with Republicans, and absolutely zero pull with the White House reacts to what should be welcome news to anyone. https://t.co/VyKPY1pwVU
— Gregory T. Angelo (@gregorytangelo) February 19, 2019
I am delighted to see that my article on US government campaign to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe is currently the 4th most read article on @Jerusalem_Post website. @RichardGrenell is spearheading the campaign. https://t.co/uDOz3uvpJf
— Benjamin Weinthal (@BenWeinthal) February 20, 2019
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Martina’s Thought Crime
Martina is a beloved & respected athlete.She was a fearless defender of gay rights in early 80’s when it was career endangering. By denouncing & excommunicating her you weaken your cause. Plus, it’s not necessarily transphobic to worry about impact of trans men on women’s sports. https://t.co/0KnD7Cf7rE
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) February 19, 2019
How dare the greatest female tennis player of all-time imply that biological men would have an advantage over women in professional sports? Destroy her! Take away her records! Send her to the gulag! pic.twitter.com/ZPMtRyTRoY
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 20, 2019
there are almost 2,000 males in the US alone who are faster than the fastest woman in the world. This includes boys as young as 13 or 14. The fact that such stats even need to be compiled shows how bonkers the world has gone on the issue of biological sex https://t.co/e4yM7M0Qe3
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) February 19, 2019
It's problematic to suggest that a person's biological sex may be correlated to differences in athleticism ? pic.twitter.com/KXzqaxOasI
— The Safest Space (@TheSafestSpace) February 24, 2019
More. Andrew Sullivan writes (second item):
If you take this argument seriously — that biology is entirely a function of gender identity — then the whole notion of separate male and female sports events is in doubt. A trans woman should, in my view, be treated exactly as a woman — unless, as in this case, it clashes with biological reality. There aren’t many contexts in which this really counts, but sports is one of them. Yes, it sucks. But denying reality is stupid, can easily backfire, and will alienate countless otherwise sympathetic people. And note that if the Equality Act were to pass — a priority for Nancy Pelosi — it would be illegal to bar a trans woman from competing against biological females, as it is already in many states.
It is even transphobic, I am now informed, for a gay man not to want to sleep with a trans man who has a vagina. In response to my recent column on the subject, I was told by Sue Hyde, a woman who is at the very heart of the LGBTQIA++ movement, to, yes, give it a try: “Maybe Sullivan … would give [a handsome trans man with a vagina who uses a dildo as a penis] a toss in the hay and next day, be singing a different tune about category woman/girl >>> category man/boy persons’ capacities to uphold and expand the experiences and meanings of homosex.” Maybe. Or maybe I’ll sleep with whomever I want — you know, something we used to call sexual freedom.
But this is how deep the ideology runs. It wants to control not only the public discourse, and language, and rig sports contests, but also insinuate itself into the most intimate areas of an individual’s sex life. Once upon a time, the religious right would tell me that I should sleep with women because I might find the right one and finally be happy. Now the intersectional left is telling me something almost exactly the same. What has happened to this movement? Where on earth has it gone?
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To be Young, Gay and Conservative
It’s an old story but young gay conservatives are discovering it anew.
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Jussie Smollett: Truth vs. Narrative
Two law enforcement sources say Chicago Police believe actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to orchestrate an assault on him that he reported last month. A spokesman for Chicago Police says they are waiting to hear back from Smollett, @Ryanyoungnews reports. https://t.co/FaKHkITXbd pic.twitter.com/RmYkJuB7Kj
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) February 17, 2019
I’m sure there’s some nasty stuff out there. But wasn’t there also some downright giddiness in the reactions to the initial report from progressives who thought it validated their “MAGA hats = white hoods/Nazi armbands” assumptions? and wasn’t that also pretty gross? https://t.co/2ZIfM42Nwc
— Cathy Young (@CathyYoung63) February 17, 2019
I don’t share this “real hate crimes won’t be believed now” concern
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) February 17, 2019
Real hate crimes are just that- real. They sound that way. They’re plausible. The facts add up. And they’re heinous.
But this was -always- obviously fake. It has no effect on what’s real. It changes nothing.
Cruisin’ Cory Booker is going with the “factually incorrect but morally right” defense of Jussie Smollett’s hoax. https://t.co/rhXiU1uZp6
— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) February 17, 2019
The Washington Blade seems to be doing the same.
“This is MAGA country” is something that someone who is terrified of Trump voters- but doesn’t know any Trump voters- would think that Trump voters would say
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) February 17, 2019
“This is MAGA Country,” said no one ever in downtown Chicago.
— Jeff Giesea? (@jeffgiesea) February 15, 2019
The #JussieSmollett thing has been an obvious scam from the start, and the media & Democrats bought it hook, line, and sinker. The sick thing is, they wanted it to be true. Embarrassing.