GOP’s anti–gay marriage amendment heads to 2012 ballot

Yes, go ahead and cement the falseness of religion and your rejection of the reality of homosexuality for future generations to reap and applause, minnesota

Let them pass the bill and then it will be rejected by the supreme court. wonder why the republicans have not pressed anything to the Supreme Court? They know they will lose. It will be Minnesota that will get it to SCOTUS.

What a great state.

I will never be able to figure out what is so wrong with letting gays get married. It’s just not that big of a deal. It seems that people just fear what they don’t understand, and try to ban it. We’re all equal, let them get married. You’re not going to see any more gay people than you already do.

Pretty sad. What happened to republicans’ promises to concentrate on the economy instead of these divisive issues? Last time I fall for their lies. 

Also, I wonder when these right wing/Christians in name only are going to stop picking and choosing the parts of the Bible they want to follow? When are they going to put their money where their mouths are and pass an anti-divorce piece of legislation? I seem to remember reading in the Bible how God is not too happy about divorce.  That would be truly protecting the institution of marriage, instead of going after a minority group and limiting their rights. I won’t be holding my breath on people being as supportive of that kind of legislation regulating their own marriage freedoms as they are attacking gay rights.  What a bunch of hypocrites!  

To those who don’t want the courts to decide this issue, and want majority rule, you all need to brush up on constitutional law.  The constitution was actually written so there are protections for minorities from the majority.  I imagine these same people would probably have voted to eliminate Jewish people’s rights during WWII or voted to keep interracial marriages illegal in the 1960′s if they had had the chance.  And before you claim being gay is a choice, I guess you know that as a fact, because at some point in time, you were attracted to both sexes and made your decision to now only be attracted to the opposite sex.  Thank goodness you made the “right” choice, so society would leave you to make your own decisions instead of the majority voting to eliminate your rights.  

And yes, to all those legislators who voted yes on this, your children will be ashamed of you some day that you put a minority group’s rights up for a vote by the majority. They will be ashamed of your lack of US constitutional protections knowledge, but even more so of your vote promoting bigotry. 

Love beats H8!

Prop 8 opponents in California were far too polite. Those who would rob others of their civil rights do not deserve courtesy or respect.

Praise Jebus, God hates a free nation, Amen.

Of the 70 legislators who voted for this amendment, only one would speak out in favor of it. The rest are complete cowards who do not deserve their post. The voters will remember this at the same time we’re voting down this amendment!

The anti-family, anti-Minnesota values industry has thrown the gauntlet at us. We must respond in kind; this is no time to show the usual “Minnesota Nice” – and yes, that applies to you, the Reitan family, too! We shall fight back against injustice, lies and distortions that will come up in the next 18 months with nothing but plainly speaking the truth – and voting against all GOP amendments that make it to the 2012 ballot as well as restoring control of both chambers to a properly chastened DFL Party who can no longer take the people for granted with the right-wing extremists (Republicans, MFC and other so-called family-values hate groups, the Roman Catholic Church and other such religious authorities) consigned to the trashbin of history to be forever condemned with all the loathing that they deserve! Enough is enough! We deserve better than this for ourselves and for our children that will follow us.

Those 69 “yes” representatives that did not contribute to last night’s debate did so because they had nothing defensible to say, that they were afraid of revealing the anti-gay animus that drives them so.

The MFC, an offshoot of the hate group FRC use the very deliberately twisted and discredited fiction of one very disturbed and dishonest man Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute. This is also the same twisted crackpot that Bradlee Dean bleats as credible.

Paul Cameron Bio and Fact Sheet

See Dr. Herek’s blog
for updates. Paul Drummond Cameron was born November 9, 1939, in Pittsburgh (PA)

He received his BA from Los Angeles Pacific College in 1961; his MA from California State University, Los Angeles, in 1962; and his PhD from the University of Colorado in 1966. His dissertation was titled Age as a determinant of differences in non-intellective psychological functioning.1

He was affiliated with various colleges and universities until 1980. They include Wayne State University (1967-68), University of Louisville (1970-73), Fuller Graduate School of Psychology [part of the Fuller Theological Seminary] (1976-79), and the University of Nebraska (1979-80).

On his curriculum vitae, he describes himself as a “Researcher/Clinician.” According to the web site of the Nebraska Department of HHS Regulation and Licensure, his license as a Psychologist has been “inactive” since 1995.

He is chairman of the Family Research Institute, PO Box 62640, Colorado Springs, CO, 80962-2640. Telephone: (303) 681-3113. Fax: (303) 681-3427. E-mail: pdcameron@juno.com

APA letter to Paul Cameron 12/2/83

In the mid-1980s, the gay press labeled Paul Cameron “the most dangerous antigay voice in the United States today.”2,3,4 Here are some important facts about him.

* On December 2, 1983, the American Psychological Association sent Paul Cameron a letter informing him that he had been dropped from membership. Early in 1984, all members of the American Psychological Association received official written notice that “Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists” by the APA Board of Directors.5 Cameron has posted an elaborate argument about his expulsion from APA on his website, claiming that he resigned from APA before he was dropped from membership. Like most organizations, however, APA does not allow a member to resign when they are being investigated. And even if Cameron’s claims were accepted as true, it would be remarkable that the largest professional organization of psychologists in the United States (and other professional associations, as noted below) went to such lengths to disassociate itself from one individual.

* At its membership meeting on October 19, 1984, the Nebraska Psychological Association adopted a resolution stating that it “formally disassociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality.”6

* In 1985, the American Sociological Association (ASA) adopted a resolution which asserted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” and noted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research.”7 The resolution formally charged an ASA committee with the task of “critically evaluating and publicly responding to the work of Dr. Paul Cameron.”

At its August, 1986 meeting, the ASA officially accepted the committee’s report and passed the following resolution:

The American Sociological Association officially and publicly states that Paul Cameron is not a sociologist, and condemns his consistent misrepresentation of sociological research. Information on this action and a copy of the report by the Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, “The Paul Cameron Case,” is to be published in Footnotes, and be sent to the officers of all regional and state sociological associations and to the Canadian Sociological Association with a request that they alert their members to Cameron’s frequent lecture and media appearances.”8

* In August, 1996, the Canadian Psychological Association adopted the following policy statement:

The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality.

* Cameron’s credibility was also questioned outside of academia. In his written opinion in Baker v. Wade (1985), Judge Buchmeyer of the U.S. District Court of Dallas referred to “Cameron’s sworn statement that ‘homosexuals abuse children at a proportionately greater incident than do heterosexuals,’” and concluded that “Dr. Paul Cameron…has himself made misrepresentations to this Court” and that “There has been no fraud or misrepresentations except by Dr. Cameron” (p.536).9

Footnotes

1Biographical information obtained from various sources, including Cameron’s curriculum vitae, Who’s Who in the West, 26th Edition, 25th Edition; Who’s Who in America, 52nd Edition, 51st Edition, 50th Edition. (return to text)

2Walter, D. (1985, October 29). Paul Cameron. The Advocate, pp. 28-33. (return to text)

3Fettner, A.G. (1985, September 23). The evil that men do. New York Native, pp. 23-24. (return to text)

4Pietrzyk, M.E. (1994, October 3). Queer science: Paul Cameron, professional sham. The New Republic, pp. 10-12. (return to text)

5Notice: Persons dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association. (1984). Internal communication from APA to all members. (return to text)

6The full NPA resolution read as follows:

The science and profession of psychology in Nebraska as represented by the Nebraska Psychological Association, formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality. Further, the Nebraska Psychological Association would like it known that Dr. Cameron is not a member of the Association. Dr. Cameron was recently dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists.

[Nebraska Psychological Association. (1984, October 19). Resolution. Minutes of the Nebraska Psychological Association. Omaha, Nebraska: Author.] (return to text)

7A copy of the full ASA resolution in Acrobat PDF format can be downloaded. It read as follows:

WHEREAS Dr. Paul Cameron, a psychologist, was dropped from membership in The American Psychological Association for violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists;

WHEREAS Dr. Paul Cameron has been presented in the media as a sociologist;

WHEREAS Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism;

WHEREAS Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research;

WHEREAS the American Sociological Association is on record as opposing oppressive actions against lesbians and gay men and affirming its commitment to their civil rights;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: THAT the Association reaffirms its opposition to efforts to undermine the civil rights of lesbians and gay men through the distortion of sociological concepts and the falsifying of sociological research; and

THAT the Association articulates this opposition by charging the Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology with the task of critically evaluating and publicly responding to the work of Dr. Paul Cameron.

[Sociology group criticizes work of Paul Cameron. (1985, September 10). Lincoln (NE) Star.] (return to text)

8 The ASA Task Force findings were described in ASA Footnotes (January, 1987, p. 4). The final resolution and the committee report were published in ASA Footnotes (February, 1987, page 14). Available from the American Sociological Association, Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, 1722 N Street, NW, Washington DC 20036. (202) 833-3410. (return to text)

9On page 536 of his opinion, Judge Buchmeyer noted the following examples of misrepresentations by Cameron to the Court:

“(i) his sworn statement that “homosexuals are approximately 43 times more apt to commit crimes than is the general population” is a total distortion of the Kinsey data upon which he relies – which, as is obvious to anyone who reads the report, concerns data from a non-representative sample of delinquent homosexuals (and Dr. Cameron compares this group to college and non-college heterosexuals);

(ii) his sworn statement that “homosexuals abuse children at a proportionately greater incident than do heterosexuals” is based upon the same distorted data – and, the Court notes, is directly contrary to other evidence presented at trial besides the testimony of Dr. Simon and Dr. Marmour. (553 F. Supp. 1121 at 1130 n.18.)”

[Baker v. Wade, 106 Federal Rules Decisions 526 (N.D. Texas, 1985).]

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_sheet.html

Thank you Wendy for your posting. Lane, carl–agreed.

The same mentality that drives the Christian right worldview is the same one giving evidence of itself in the debate about this amendment–deeply ignorant, anti-intellectual to the core, incurious and lacking in empathy for the lives of others, driven by mean-spiritedness and villainous bigotry.

Is that putting it a little too strongly? I don’t think so. How else are we supposed to characterize the impulse to deprive a class of people of fundamental rights?

This is KKK-level stuff, but directed at GLBT people. In our state. A kind of political violence stage managed by right-wingers and religious fundamentalists. In our state. A creepy historical atavism that eternally learns nothing from history. In our state.

We all need to vow to ourselves and ask decent people to do the same: get involved in whatever way you can with defeating these GOP cretins in 2012 and their cowardly, hate-fueled amendment. And when the change comes, and there’s no way in hell it won’t, we must demand the DFL forever close the door on legalized discrimination in our state.

Be sure to explore the ‘older links’. All of NOM and Minnesota Family Councils material are based on these known falsehoods by this man posted on their website, as well as Bradlee Deans “My War” who even cites him in the credits.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/paul-cameron

http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2011/05/noms-minnesota-partner-gays-engage-in.html

Wow!! It’s nice to see that a majority of our legislators are Sooo frightened to maintain their own heterosexuality that they have to pick on the queers.. Joblessness, Health Care, Education, Sports Stadiums and OH YEAH !! I am soo afraid I might get TURNED ON by a gay guy rubbing up my against my leg that I gotta STOP IT!! LORD PLEASE Keep the Homo Sexual Demons outta my pants.. I might get aroused…

Jeez guys, grow up it’s the 21 century.
Cheers, Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace, CT USA

The ONLY thing this Attempt to Change the Constitution to add a HATE Ammendment will do is:

-Pit neighbor against Neighbor
-cause hurtful feeling that will NEVER heal
-Cost MN MIllions and for what? MILLLIONS that could actually HELP the poor from these so-called religious nutz will just Give MN a Bad reputation, make it seem like an un-welcoming place…..and forever, put it on the WRONG side of History….and you won’t be able to escape THAT Legacy.
-Its 3yrs since prop 8…..and CA still hasn’t healed……some people who USED to be friends, no longer speak to one another…….nice legacy huh?

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
– Wendell Phillips

Fair-minded readers, please remember to stay classy as we fight back this injustice.

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