Prime Example

of the kind of self-serving bullshit coming out of the anti-gay right: a piece by one Richard E. Barnes, Executive Director of the NYS Catholic Conference, defending Ruben Diaz. Actually, now that I look at it again, it's not defending Diaz so much as attacking anyone who dares to criticize him or his methods. This little essay is so grossly wrong in so many ways that I hardly know where to start. How about here:

Another religious leader in this state has, likewise, been preaching and organizing against homosexual marriage, and at the same time for respect and the dignity of all people. He is the Reverend Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.

No, Diaz has not been preaching for "respect and the dignity of all people" in any way. Here's a post by Tony Varona at PHB pointing out just one instance of Diaz' contempt for gays -- being gay is like drug addiction, according to Diaz. That's hardly preaching respect for people who were born that way. And Diaz goes on in that post to lie about the effects of same-sex marriage. So he loses points on honesty -- if he ever had any.

This one's choice:

We are unjustly called “haters” and “bigots” by those who have carefully framed their advocacy strategy. The entire campaign to enact same-sex marriage is conducted under a banner of acceptance, and equality and respect for others. Yet behind that banner of tolerance is another campaign – of intimidation, threats and ugliness.

Frankly, I can't see that calling the likes of Ruben Diaz and the Catholic hierarchy haters and bigots is at all unjust. They've earned it, in spades. As for "carefully framed" strategies, I think the shoe's on the other foot -- repeated campaigns of lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, all carefully designed to dehumanize gays, and many, if not all, funded at least in part by the Catholic Church. There's a phenomenon in psychology known as "projection," which means what it seems to: a person projects his or her own feelings or motivations onto others as a way of evading responsibility for them. It's a favorite tactic of the right. That, and claiming, as here, to be victimized by the very people they are seeking to marginalize.

I should say that seeing something like this from the Catholic hierarchy is no real surprise -- they have a long history of talking out of both sides of their mouths, and reality doesn't really apply in their universe. Any organization that claims to be preaching "respect and dignity" toward the very same people it has at the same time condemned as "intrinsically disordered" can't really be taken at face value. Coming to the defense of a vitriol-spewing professional homophobe is part of the game plan.

As for Diaz -- please. The man is vicious, he's a liar, and he has no respect for his oath of office. And to the Catholic hierarchy, he's a shining hero, unjustly accused of being exactly what he is.

Thanks to Clarknt67 for the alert.

Update:

Ruben Diaz aside, this is the kind of thing we're hearing from the right on gays, and same-sex marriage in particular, courtesy of The New Civil Rights Movement:

From a pastor in Harlem:

“If children start to believe it is okay to be gay, they will think it’s okay to be a pedophile or have sex with animals,” Ferguson says[.]

This is from a Teabagger congresswoman -- you know, that "grass roots" group that's only interested in the economy:

At least she didn't bring up marrying your dog. But then, she's not a former Senator from Pennsylvania. I am perennially amazed, however, at the propensity of the religious right to assume that if you change one little aspect of "The Rules," all bets are off and there will be no standards whatsoever. I also find it highly amusing that once again, an evangelical Christian is condemning polygamy, which has ample Biblical foundation.

But I digress. . . .

Another congresscritter, this time from Florida, winner of the Alabama of the 21st Century Award:

Because, you see, according to West, “The term ‘gay marriage’ is an oxymoron. Because marriage is a union and a bond between a man and a woman to do one single thing: the furtherance of society by procreation, through creating new life. Have you ever read the book America Alone by Mark Steyn? It’s about demographics. And if we continue with a cycle of debt and punishing our unborn then it just becomes a matter of time before you don’t have society.”

God told him so, I guess. It's sort of odd, the stretches these people will make to link together all their favorite evils, which basically have nothing to do with each other and make wild predictions on the basis of nothing. I guess it must be easy if you believe in black helicopters.

I could probably go on with this all day -- they're getting more and more deranged, and more and more entertaining -- except that someone is going to listen to these goofballs and pick up a gun and start shooting. That's not a prediction, that's based on past behavior.