Religious Right’s latest lunacy: Change the Constitution to eliminate ‘myth’ of trans people

Christian conservative activists have staked out a possibly new front in the culture wars by suggesting a constitutional amendment to regulate gender identity.

Peter Sprigg and former NFL player Craig James, who are spokesmen for the Family Research Council, said Monday on the “Washington Watch” radio program that transgender rights were the next battlefield in the religious right’s ongoing battle with LGBT people, reported Right Wing Watch.

“I think the ideal policy for government with respect to [transgender rights] is that your sex is your biological sex,” Sprigg said. “My view is, that if your biological sex is unambiguous at birth — if your internal sex organs, your external genitalia, and your chromosomal makeup all are unequivocal in declaring you to be of one sex – then that is your sex for life, and that is your only sexual identity that the government will recognize.”

Religious Right’s latest lunacy: Change the Constitution to eliminate ‘myth’ of trans people

FRC Blog » Robin Williams, Rehab, and Reorientation

There is just so much wrong with this I dont even know where to start,,,

"Then just last month, news broke that Williams had again returned to rehab, this time at a Hazelden center in Minnesota. A spokesman for Williams said that he had not relapsed into substance abuse, but was “simply taking the opportunity to fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment [to sobriety], of which he remains extremely proud.” That was on July 1 — but six weeks later, he was dead."

First Sprigg, in a backhanded way, is stating the Williams' death is due to his return to drug/alcohol rehab; a mental health service that is for the most part a generally accepted (by consensus) form of treatment. He then continues to equate rehab to reparative therapy. Notice his choice of words, "sexual orientation change efforts."

"In light of this history, I have only one question for socially liberal political activists — why aren’t you trying to outlaw rehab?

"I ask the question because such activists are trying to ban a form of mental health treatment — not drug and alcohol rehabilitation, but “sexual orientation change efforts” (“SOCE”), also known as “sexual reorientation therapy.” Such therapy involves assisting people with unwanted same-sex attractions to overcome them."

What Spriggs leaves out, homosexuality has not been consider a mental disorder since 1973; and, reparative therapy as a whole has been debunked. (Seriously, do not even think for a moment that the Regnerus study lends any credibility to the FRC's stance.) Not only by ex ex-gay bigwigs but as Anderson Cooper points out in  his response to the Texas GOP's adoption of support for reparative therapy.

“It’s really just not accurate to say that doctors are evenly divided,” Cooper told state Rep. Bryan Hughes (R). “I could give you a list: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American School Counselors’ Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers. They represent half a million mental health professionals, [and] they all say this is not a mental disorder. It’s not something that needs to be cured.”

Personally I think Spriggs is a pissed off little man because their golden girl of the movement, Yvette Cantu Schneider told FRC to go fuck off

My snark aside, J. Bryan Lowder over at Slate sums up the reality of what Spriggs misses:

"The reason addicts seek or are referred to rehab for substance abuse is because addiction is clearly inhibiting their ability to live their lives. Meanwhile, the only thing inhibiting gay people from living openly and happily is people like Sprigg, people who suggest that homosexuality is anything other than a natural, perfectly healthy variation of human sexual expression. When critics of ex-gay therapy—including the large majority of the medical establishment—advocate for its elimination, it is not because we, as Sprigg puts it, are “holding such therapies to a standard of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘safety’ that is impossible for any mental health treatment to meet.” Rather, it is because we recognize that being gay is not a mental health issue in the first place.

This isn't the FRC stooping low, this is the FRC standing proud. This is what they are, and they're proud of it.

FRC Blog » Robin Williams, Rehab, and Reorientation

How To Make 'The Whole Homosexual Marriage Debate Go Away' | Right Wing Watch

Anti-gay activists can’t be happy that polling data shows that a majority of Americans support marriage equality, and are also displeased with libertarian and conservative leaders who think it might be time for the government to get out of the marriage business altogether.

In a WorldNetDaily article about the debate on “privatizing marriage,” Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said that while heterosexual marriage should remain a government-sponsored institution, he is “fine with privatizing homosexual relationships” since gay people haven’t proven how same-sex unions “benefit society.” Jennifer Roback Morse of the National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute agreed that removing a government role from marriage “capitulates” to the gay rights movement and harms children.

Herb Titus said the government should define marriage based on Leviticus and “screen out those people who were violating the rules the Bible laid down as to who could be married and who could not be married.”

But Matt Trewhella has a plan to end the debate over marriage rights once and for all.

Trewhella, the Religious Right activist who you may remember for his rant about how gays are “filthy people,” revealed that the only way to make “the whole homosexual marriage debate go away” is not through “privatization but the re-criminalization of sodomy.”

How To Make 'The Whole Homosexual Marriage Debate Go Away' | Right Wing Watch