Jeanne Manford and her son Morty

The founder of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Jeanne Manford, has passed away at age 92. In 1972, Manford accompanied her son Morty to a Gay Activists Alliance demonstration, where he ended up being attacked, leading her to declare in the New York Post, “I have a homosexual son and I love him.”

PFLAG National Executive Director Jody Huckaby paid tribute to Manford today:

Jeanne was one of the fiercest fighters in the battle for acceptance and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It is truly humbling to imagine in 1972 – just 40 years ago – a simple schoolteacher started this movement of family and ally support, without benefit of any of the technology that today makes a grassroots movement so easy to organize. No Internet. No cellphones. Just a deep love for her son and a sign reading “Parents of Gays: Unite in Support for Our Children.” [...]

All of us – people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight allies alike – owe Jeanne our gratitude. We are all beneficiaries of her courage. Jeanne Manford proved the power of a single person to transform the world. She paved the way for us to speak out for what is right, uniting the unique parent, family, and ally voice with the voice of LGBT people everywhere.

No doubt, PFLAG has been a crucial force in helping families learn to accept LGBT youth by connecting them with other families also doing their best to love and accept theirs. President Obama paid tribute to Manford and her efforts at a Human Rights Campaign dinner a few years ago. Watch it:

Blowhard Rush Limbaugh dedicated a lengthy diatribe on his radio show yesterday to the idea that there is a movement underway to try to “normalize pedophilia” by classifying it as a sexual orientation like heterosexuality and homosexuality. Limbaugh based his claims on an article in The Guardian that addresses questions science still has about the nature of pedophilia, but then he drew his own conclusions that normalizing same-sex marriage is similarly going to lead to normalizing the sexual abuse of children:

LIMBAUGH: There is a movement on to normalize pedophilia, and I guarantee you your reaction to that is probably much the same as your reaction when you first heard about gay marriage. What has happened to gay marriage? It’s become normal — and in fact, with certain people in certain demographics it’s the most important issue in terms of who they vote for. So don’t pooh-pooh. There’s a movement to normalize pedophilia. Don’t pooh-pooh it. The people behind it are serious, and you know the left as well as I do. They glom onto something and they don’t let go. [...]

What is their objective? They want us to all think that pedophilia is just another sexual orientation.  You know who’s gonna fall right in line is college kids, just like they have on gay marriage, just like they do on all other revolutionary social issues.  Their own definition of the cutting edge, civil rights, freedom, understanding, tolerance. So I’m just warning you here. You think it can’t happen. “Impossible!  Don’t be nutso and wacko on us, Rush.”

Listen to it:

But pedophilia is not considered a sexual orientation. It’s considered a psychiatric disorder and a paraphilia. The issue with pedophilia is that the target of the sexual impulse is children, who can be physically and emotionally scarred by such contact. Pedophilia, like other paraphilias, violates the consent of another entity, whereas sexual orientations do not. In fact, the moral condemnation of same-sex orientations is a judgment of who has the attractions, not who the attractions target. For example, a sexual orientation toward men can present in women or in men, but conservatives have only ever objected to men having that orientation. That judgment is based on religious dogma, not any intention to reduce harm to others.

Limbaugh’s tirade is dangerous and unnecessarily conflates homosexuality with pedophilia, as opponents of LGBT equality have done for decades. There is no way to compare two loving consenting adults to harming a child. If there were a valid reason to be concerned that society was no longer interested in protecting young people from sexual abuse, Limbaugh would have a compelling argument to make and many would surely rally around his cause. Instead, his words serve only to further demonize the LGBT community with archaic myths.

Though 18-year-old Ryan Andresen had completed all of the necessary requirements for his Eagle Scout badge, but his Scoutmaster refused to sign his application for the award because he was gay in violation of the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) policies. Andresen and his family took his story to the media, garnering over 460,000 signatures on a Change.org petition and an honorary recognition from the California State Assembly. The Andresens circumvented the hierarchy, and now the Mt. Diablo-Silverado Council is set to challenge the national policy on Ryan’s behalf.

Bonnie Hazarabedian chaired the review board that signed off on Ryan’s application and forwarded its recommendation to national headquarters last week. She believes he deserves the award because the anti-gay policy is “something out of the Dark Ages”:

HAZARABEDIAN: I don’t think sexual orientation should enter into why a Scout is a Scout, or whether they are Eagle material. We felt without a doubt he deserved that rank.

Though the BSA has not replied to questions about his application, spokesman Deron Smith said in October that Andresen’s membership with the organization had been revoked. The Andresens are celebrating the recognition of his accomplishments, but it’s still up to the BSA to determine Ryan’s fate.

Archbishop Mario Conti

Not expecting to be outdone by the many other bishops who’ve attacked same-sex couples already this month, Scottish Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti penned a letter this week to the Catholic journal The Tablet expressing his own opposition to marriage equality. In fact, he believes the Catholic Church’s stance must “surely be worthy of consideration” by the government because it helps “promote the moral well-being of society.” Here’s how Conti framed that position:

While it is true, certainly within Catholic social teaching, that governments are not required to make all immoral actions illegal, to many it is unhelpful, unnecessary and indeed profoundly unwise for political action to do quite the opposite, namely to attempt through the law, by equating homosexual unions with heterosexual marriage, to render moral what is in itself morally defective.

So far in 2013, members of the Catholic hierarchy have already referred to same-sex marriage as “morally defective” and an “immoral activity,” and claimed that gay people don’t really exist, but if they claim to, then God obliges them to a life of chastity. And Conti’s implication here isn’t just that he wants to prevent same-sex marriage, but that his preference would be to make homosexuality itself “illegal.”

Combined with Pope Benedict’s multiple malignant statements in December, the Catholic Church’s hierarchy has established itself as the archenemy of loving same-sex families in 2013. These religious leaders provide no argument against marriage equality except their own moral judgment, but then expect the governments of the world to cater to their whims when even their own followers largely do not agree. They imagine a universe where there is no such thing as gay people or same-sex marriage, but with each passing day that false reality becomes more delusional.

Blogger Alvin McEwen (Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters) has compiled a booklet highlighting the many ways anti-gay conservatives try to distort portrayals of the LGBT community in order to secure their arguments. Though many of these perspectives are familiar, the collection demonstrates just how insidious and long-founded the campaign against equality truly is. Here are a few of the portrayals McEwen lays out, including many blatant contradictions:

• Gays have dangerous sexual habits.
• Gays have diseases with which they infect the heterosexual community.
• Gays want “access” to children for the purpose of “recruiting” or molestation.
• Gays have a natural tendency toward violent behavior.
• Gays are sick, perverted, mentally ill people.
• Gays make lots of money.
• Gays are only a small part of the population.
• Gays “control” the culture.
• Gays “bully” all who oppose them.

McEwen also highlights numerous researchers who have rebuked such claims made using their publications, pointing out that such interpretations are false and harmful. Nevertheless, this propaganda is unfortunately given merit by the media because its purveyors successfully frame it as an expression of Christian faith, as McEwen concludes:

What needs to be taken away from this booklet is that religious right propaganda about the gay community is just that – propaganda. It is neither rooted in fact nor Biblical faith. The vile accusations that so-called family-oriented groups lodge against the gay community are no different than those lodged against African-Americans by white supremacists groups or accusations lodged against the Jewish community by anti-Semitic groups. They are all preconceived notions rooted in fear and lies. The only difference being that anti-gay propaganda is sometimes mistaken as “personal deeply held religious beliefs” and expressions of the Christian faith.

And this dodge is very successful.

McEwen’s booklet is an important new tool for helping individuals learn to debunk anti-gay propaganda. Click here to read it in full.