Sunday, March 16, 2008

Bear false witness much?

ONE
"The [Day of Silence] event brings attention to anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools. Students observe the day in silence to echo the silence LGBT and ally students face every day."

—The dayofsilence.org web site. This year's Day of Silence will be held on April 25 in memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th grader who was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.

"By remaining silent, the intent of the pro-homosexual students is to disrupt the classes while promoting the homosexual lifestyle."
—Spiritual terrorism organization Mission:America, grotesquely distorting the function of Day of Silence in an inflammatory Internet alert last week. The alert further implied that it would be acceptable for parents to have their children call in sick on April 25 even if they were perfectly healthy. The group's page has since been changed to remove these two instances of outright calumny.

TWO
"What is truly outrageous here is that a Christian elected official can be vilified — even have her life threatened — over simply speaking about the Bible's view of homosexuality."
Gary Schneeberger, vice president for media relations at Focus on the Family Action, in response to public outcry over statements by Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern. In a clumsy, secretly recorded speech she made that has been broadcast all over the Internet, Kern trotted out much of the tired party-line slander the right wing regularly aims at gay people, including the concept of a "homosexual agenda," the supposed "deadly consequences" of being gay, and the ideas that gay people are "going after ... in schools ... two-year-olds ... so they can indoctrinate them" and "gays are infiltrating city councils." Kern further claims that homosexuality is "the biggest threat ... that our nation has ... even more so than terrorism." Contrary to Schneeberger's statements, Kern never once mentions the Bible in the recordings I've found.

"There are a lot of e-mails to the representative that say, 'You ought to die,' rather than, 'I am going to kill you.' I wouldn't characterize them as death threats."
—Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown. The OSBI was called to investigate after Kern alleged that she'd received death threats for her comments.

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