Backpedaling

It's interesting to note how many people have put their foot in it recently in regard to condemning gays.

First was the Mormon Apostle Boyd K. Packer, who had some pretty awful things to say about gays in a world-wide broadcast. His remarks were the usual combination of ignorance and religiosity (as quoted by Timothy Kincaid at BTB):

Some suppose that they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, he is our Father.

Paul promised that “God . . . will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” You can, if you will, break the habits and conquer an addiction and come away from that which is not worthy of any member of the Church.

Now, it seems, the LDS Church is trying to rewrite history:

Now the word “temptations” has replaced “tendencies” and the question about God’s motives has been removed entirely.

Packer, next in line for the LDS Church presidency, changed his wording as part of a routine practice after every General Conference, according to spokesman Scott Trotter, when speakers are given the opportunity to make “any edits necessary.”

“President Packer has simply clarified his intent,” Trotter said Friday in a statement.

While minor edits may be common, such substantive changes are rare.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the massive protests in Salt Lake City.

The other, of course, is nutjob NY gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, who managed to trash GLBTs while speaking before a group of Orthodox rabbis:



We must stop pandering to the pornographers and the perverts who seek to target our children and destroy their lives. I didn’t march in the gay parade this year, the Gay Pride parade this year. My opponent did. And that’s not the example we should be showing our children, and certainly not in our schools.

And don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie. My approach is live and let live. I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful in getting married and raising a family. And I don’t want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. It isn’t.

Now he's trying to defend and disown his remarks (at the same time), complete with the "I'm not a bigot" mantra:

“My feelings on homosexuality are unequivocal,” Mr. Paladino said on “Today.” “I have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. My only reservation is marriage.”

He added, “I have a lot of homosexuals working in my organization,” referring to his real estate business.

He's even hit the talk show circuit, although it doesn't seem to be helping. However, there's this:

Paladino again pinned the remarks on the rabbi who wrote his remarks, and apparently takes great pride in the fact that he wouldn't say one of the speech's lines, that gays are "dysfunctional." What a mensch.

Supposedly the speech was written for Paladino by Yehuda Levin, a violently anti-gay Orthodox rabbi. I'd just like to point out that if you have any moral fiber at all and you really are not a raving homophobe, you'd not have your speech written by someone whom you know is. But I suppose leaving out one line is progress, of a sort.

At least now the loons understand that they've got to backpedal on remarks like these, and that when they make these remarks in the aftermath of a rash of suicides by gay teens and hate crimes against gay men, there's going to be a reaction.

And there are those who would tell us that we should be grateful for this sort of progress. Umm, yeah, well. . . .

Keep pushing.