#brian camenker

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Who is MassResistance, the far-right group behind anti-marriage equality resolutions?

MassResistance one of the most virulently anti-LGBTQ+ groups out there, and it's looking to end marriage equality.

Trudy Ring at The Advocate:

Those resolutions being proposed in state legislatures urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality aren’t happening organically. Instead, they’re the result of an orchestrated campaign by MassResistance, one of the most virulently anti-LGBTQ+ groups in existence. It has often equated homosexuality and bisexuality with pedophilia and bestiality, and it has long demonized transgender people. The group hasn’t been in the news much in the past few years, but its presence has resurged with the anti-marriage equality resolutions. “MassResistance has drafted text for state legislature resolutions that call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling,” says a post on the group’s website. “That 2015 decision forced the idea that the U.S. Constitution requires states to allow same-sex ‘marriage.’” Yes, MassResistance is still putting “marriage” in quotes when it comes to queer couples. The resolutions have so far been introduced in five states — Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Idaho is the only state to pass one to date; the resolutions failed in Montana and South Dakota and remain pending in the other states. MassResistance expects one to be introduced in Iowa as well. They are nonbinding — it would take a case getting to the high court for it to reconsider the marriage equality decision — but MassResistance sees the measures as “an important public message” that “can create positive momentum across the country,” according to its website.

The beginnings of MassResistance

The organization now known as MassResistance was founded in 1995 as the Parents’ Rights Coalition. It’s based in Waltham, Mass. — yes, in one of the most liberal and LGBTQ-friendly states in the nation. It has chapters in numerous other states and has worked with anti-LGBTQ+ activists around the world. Brian Camenker has been its director since its founding. In 1996, as president of another group, the Interfaith Coalition of Massachusetts, he led efforts to draft a bill requiring that parents in the state be notified if their children’s schools are offering sex education. But MassResistance was just getting started. Things really ramped up in 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. The Parents’ Rights Coalition changed its name to Article 8 Alliance, a reference to Article 8 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, a part of the state constitution establishing the people’s right to recall elected officials. But the course opponents of marriage equality took was to try to amend the Massachusetts constitution to nullify the ruling, an effort backed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney. MassResistance refers to this period as the “‘gay marriage’ crisis.” At any rate, the state did not amend its constitution, and same-sex couples began marrying when the ruling went into effect May 17, 2004. “We adopted the name MassResistance in 2006 when our role as the true resistance to tyrannical government became clear,” the organization’s website says. “Since we were in the first state to see homosexual activism in the schools and ‘gay marriage,’ we thoroughly understood the threat of sexual radicalism, curtailed freedom of speech, uneven application of the law, judicial activism, and post-constitutional government.”

MassResistance, the far-right anti-LGBTQ+ extremist hate group from Waltham, MA, is behind the resolutions to overturn the 2015 Obergefell ruling by SCOTUS that granted nationwide marriage equality.

[wtffundiefamilies]

A controversial TV commercial this fall featured a teenage girl, undressing in a ladies locker room, while a hooded cisgender man leers at her from within a stall. As she unbuttons her top, the creepy guy reveals himself, and the message of this horrifying ad becomes clear: allowing trans people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity gives male sexual predators permission to prey upon women and children.

As it turns out, transphobic messaging like this — which links access to public bathrooms and locker rooms to the threat posed by sexual offenders — was “concocted,” according to a Massachusetts-based “pro-family activism” organization Mass Resistance. Its president, Brian Camenker, is believed to be the author of the group’s November 9th “Election Analysis” post, in which the organization (which is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) admitted its scary campaign to repeal a statewide Massachusetts nondiscrimination law was a lie.

“Our side concocted the ‘bathroom safety’ male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions. It worked in Houston a few years ago,” reads the post.

“But the LGBT lobby has now figured out how to beat it,” the Mass Resistance post continues. “Their lopsided victory in Massachusetts will likely be repeated everywhere else unless the establishment pro-family groups (and their wealthy donors) are willing to change their tactics.”

The blatant confession was also published on the conservative and anti-LGBTQ platform LifeSite on November 20th.

The post summed up conservatives’ sour feelings after November’s bitterly fought campaign to maintain non-discrimination protections for transgender people in Massachusetts resulted in a landslide victory for the trans community. But it also made it clear that the anti-trans ‘bathroom predator’ myth was created because conservatives knew that simply being discriminatory wouldn’t fly.

The post also links the current anti-trans movement to earlier fights against same-sex marriage.

“Over a decade ago when [the] LGBT movement took the ‘gay marriage’ battles into the state legislatures, and later into the federal courts, the major pro-family groups tried a similar strategy…they refused to argue that homosexuality was immoral…Instead, they concocted less offensive arguments such as, ‘Every child needs a father and a mother’ and ‘the word “marriage” is special’ – and used them almost exclusively. It actually worked for a little while,” reads the post.

Perhaps it’s that track record that has Mass Resisitance president Brian Camenker concerned. GLAAD notes that Camenker has compared gays to Nazis and claims anti-LGBTQ Christians are suffering like the Jews did during the Holocaust. As SPLC describes him, he “continually links homosexuality to pedophilia, violence and disease.” In a video his group posted to YouTube in April 2017, Camenker declared many parents joined MassResistance after their children were “not only indoctrinated but molested and propagandized on horrible things in their public schools.”

His group is so heinous even the Conservative Political Action Convention  (CPAC) booted him from this year’s annual convention. He’s also denied that LGBTQ students are bullied in school. “When they started the gay clubs in schools, they got a lot of reluctance from the schools to do it,” Camenker told the Washington Times. “They found that if they tied it into safety, they could claim that all these kids were being harassed, and they could get it in faster,” he said. “There are no legitimate surveys done because it’s a phony problem.”

Those lines about “tying it into safety” and “a phony problem” now appear prophetic regarding his favorite target, trans women, and his false claim connecting them to sexual predators.

[libamericaorg]

Hate Group Leader Whines About Being Called A Hate Group Leader (VIDEO)

Hate Group Leader Whines About Being Called A Hate Group Leader (VIDEO)

The religious right would have you believe that it’s only trying to give socially conservative Americans a place at the table. However, this is a sham. Whenever they think they’re in unguarded moments, their true extremism comes out. They don’t want you to know that, though. Whenever they actually get called on it, they scream and wail that those calling them out are the real bigots. We got a…

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

New Anti-Gay Group Launched with Smears, Conspiracy Theories, Attacks on Congressional Black Caucus and Civil Rights Hero John Lewis | Right Wing Watch

Imagine an anti-LGBTQ gathering that included remarks by a trio of aggressively anti-gay activists—Scott Lively, Peter LaBarbera, and Brian Camenker—and now imagine that none of them was the most ridiculous, obnoxious or extreme speaker.

Peter Montgomery at RWW: 

Imagine an anti-LGBTQ gathering that included remarks by a trio of aggressively anti-gay activists—Scott Lively, Peter LaBarbera, and Brian Camenker—and now imagine that none of them was the most ridiculous, obnoxious or extreme speaker. Such was the scene at the National Press Club on Tuesday afternoon, where a new group calling itself “Gone Too Far” introduced itself with tirades against the LGBTQ equality movement, the proposed federal Equality Act, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus who support it.

Three right-wing African American pastors—Randy Short, Stephen Broden and E.W. Jackson—are part of the group’s organizing committee, as are Lively, LaBarbera, and Camenker. (Notably, the latter three were all part of a group of Religious Right leaders who defended Rep. Steve King when he was punished by his House colleagues for his most recent racist comments.)  Additional organizing committee members include Arthur Shaper, head of the California branch of Camenker’s MassResistance; Paul Blair, president of Reclaiming America for Christ; and his Oklahoma clergy colleague, Dan Fisher. Blair is also a promoter of “nullification”–the notion that the individual states hold the power to nullify federal laws.

The press conference began with the blowing of a shofar, prayer, the singing of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and “God Bless America,” and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. When Short took to the podium, things went downhill quickly.

“Today is a day that we declare war on those who are ungodly, unbiblical and wicked,” said Short, who is from the D.C. area and who is listed as “coordinator” of Gone Too Far on a press release. “We are sick and tired of all the deviants, all the eugenicists, all the homophiles coming out of the closet to destroy this country.” Short was particularly outraged that members of the Congressional Black Caucus, with the exception of Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, have endorsed the Equality Act, which Short called “the pedophile bill.”

[tattooed-alchemist]

A controversial TV commercial this fall featured a teenage girl, undressing in a ladies locker room, while a hooded cisgender man leers at her from within a stall.

As it turns out, transphobic messaging like this — which links access to public bathrooms and locker rooms to the threat posed by sexual offenders — was “concocted,” according to a Massachusetts-based “pro-family activism” organization Mass Resistance. Its president, Brian Camenker, is believed to be the author of the group’s November 9th “Election Analysis” post, in which the organization (which is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) admitted its scary campaign to repeal a statewide Massachusetts nondiscrimination law was a lie.

“Our side concocted the ‘bathroom safety’ male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions. It worked in Houston a few years ago,” reads the post.

“But the LGBT lobby has now figured out how to beat it,” the Mass Resistance post continues. “Their lopsided victory in Massachusetts will likely be repeated everywhere else unless the establishment pro-family groups (and their wealthy donors) are willing to change their tactics.”

The blatant confession was also published on the conservative and anti-LGBTQ platform LifeSite on November 20th.

[juliosevero]

Maior conferência conservadora dos EUA bane organização cristã pró-família e aprova grupo homossexualista

Maior conferência conservadora dos EUA bane organização cristã pró-família e aprova grupo homossexualista

Julio Severo A Conferência de Ação Política Conservadora (CAPC), a maior e mais antiga conferência “conservadora” anual dos Estados Unidos, abruptamente baniu a organização pró-família MassResistance como expositor em seu encontro nacional para 21-24 de fevereiro enquanto ao mesmo tempo permitiu que o grupo homossexualista Log Cabin Republicans permanecesse. Log Cabin Republicans é uma ala de…

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[tiffanywillis]

Hate Group Leader Whines About Being Called A Hate Group Leader (VIDEO)

Hate Group Leader Whines About Being Called A Hate Group Leader (VIDEO)

The religious right would have you believe that it’s only trying to give socially conservative Americans a place at the table. However, this is a sham. Whenever they think they’re in unguarded moments, their true extremism comes out. They don’t want you to know that, though. Whenever they actually get called on it, they scream and wail that those calling them out are the real bigots. We got a…

View On WordPress

[tennesseewatchman-com-news-blog]

The Health Hazards of Homosexuality: An Important New Book from MassResistance (Part 2)

The Health Hazards of Homosexuality: An Important New Book from MassResistance (Part 2)

Last time I introduced the new and impressively researched book — The Health Hazards of Homosexuality, from MassResistance, which runs about 500 pages and adds another 100 pages of footnotes. These days when the meaning of the word “gay” has been radically changed by leftwing radicals, this book puts the lie to the idea that the word, as used, is a synonym of “happy.”

Social conservatives should 

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