hatethepolicestate:

By Evelyn Schlatter

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Andy Dean Photography

This article was originally published by The Southern Poverty Law Center.


A New Hampshire lawyer who works with a virulently anti-gay Christian-right organization has been found guilty of child pornography charges after videotaping her own daughter having sex with two men on multiple occasions. Lisa Biron, 43, of Manchester faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison after a jury convicted her yesterday. The jury deliberated for less than an hour.

Biron, arrested by the FBI last November, was accused of eight felony counts involving the videotaping of men having sex with a 14-year-old girl who was identified by the Associated Press as her daughter. She also allegedly made a cellphone video of herself having sex with her daughter. Biron, who claimed on her Facebook page (which was taken down, according to the Concord Monitor) that the Bible was her favorite book, had worked with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, in defending a Pentecostal church in Concord in a tax fight against the city.

The Arizona-based ADF calls itself a “servant ministry” that seeks to transform the legal system and advocate “for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family.” The group issues dire warnings about “the homosexual agenda” and offers a book (available for a donation of $35) by its president, Alan Sears, and senior director Craig Osten, with that title. In the book, the authors claim that “the homosexual agenda” will destroy religious liberty and free speech. In one chapter, they claim that homosexuality on college campuses leads to pedophilia, and that homosexuality and pedophilia “are intrinsically linked,” a falsehood long perpetuated by the anti-gay right to demonize LGBT people.

In the wake of Biron’s arrest, the ADF removed all mentions of her from its website and Facebook page, and in a November “CBS News” report the ADF said that Biron was never an employee. The group has released no further statements on Biron. According to the LGBT blog Joe.My.God., the group continued to remove mentions of her from its Facebook page yesterday and banned anyone who posted anything about her.

Biron may not have been a formal employee of the ADF, but John Aravosis at Americablog found that she had been a member of the ADF “Honor Corps,” the group created to recognize allied attorneys who complete 450 hours of pro bono service for the group and to award and recognize “significant milestones” in service. Honor Corps attorneys also receive perks from the ADF like pro bono referrals and opportunities, job and résumé postings, invitations to their regional legal academies, and access to online resources and confidential updates and presentations. In March 2011, Biron was mentioned by the ADF as an “Allied Attorney Success Story.” The ADF website doesn’t list that anymore.

(via projectqueer)

nerdbutts:

The Atlantic published this article a couple of days ago called “In Defense of Eating at Chick-fil-A,” in which author Jonathan Merritt asks the question “Do we really want a country where people won’t do commerce with those who have beliefs different than their own?” …

My sister and her boyfriend went to get Chick-fil-a today and it pissed me off. But, I know that I’ll eventually break down and buy chicken minis, because I’m obsessed with them. Then I’ll feel guilty and hate myself, then donate some money to HRC to atone for my sins.

(via projectqueer)

projectqueer:

BY Lucas Grindley

The Bachmanns’ “ex-gay” friend went on the Dr. Drew show Monday and complained that more people like her aren’t on TV.

“Dr. Drew, you always have a tendency of putting people on your show that is against Christianity,” said author Janet Boynes. “Why don’t you, Anderson Cooper, and Ellen DeGeneres, Barack Obama put people on their show or bring them to the White House that [believe] change is possible. You never give us the opportunity to come on the show and really tell our side of the story.  It’s always one sided.”

Boynes is the author of Called Out: A Former Lesbian’s Discovery of Freedom, and several times she inferred that anyone who doesn’t agree with her on the possibility of praying the gay away is anti-Christianity. She claimed there are “thousands of people out there” like her.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper has examined whether the therapy she’s advocating works and uncovered tragic consequences in a 2011 series on discredited psychologist George Rekers.

Marcus Bachmann has had Boynes’s book on display in his Christian counseling clinic, which a hidden-camera sting by Truth Wins Out found to be offering to change patients’ sexual orientation through prayer — a practice that has been found to be damaging by the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association. California lawmakers are considering outlawing it for anyone under the age of 18.

But it isn’t just Marcus Bachmann who aligns with Boynes. While a state senator, his wife, Michele Bachmann, wrote a testimonial on the author’s website. Bachmann is quoted as saying, “Janet’s life is a powerful testimony of the changes that Christ can bring through His healing power from the bondage of sin.” She adds that everyone should meet Boynes and learn about “a deep relationship of forgiveness from the Father. I hope everyone listens closely to Janet’s compelling testimony.”

Boynes told Dr. Drew that she never had an intervention. “It’s not about an intervention,” she claimed. “My intervention was Jesus Christ.”

Boynes said anyone who was unable to change their sexual orientation just didn’t really want to in the first place. But a caller who had undergone so-called reparative therapy said he’d gone through it and witnessed the damage it caused.

Click the link above to watch the interview.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops said it will launch a formal inquiry into the Girl Scouts of America over the group’s associations with organizations that promote views opposed by the church.

About one-fourth of the Girl Scouts’ 2.3 million youth members are Catholic, and the bishops’ investigation will look into “possible problematic relationships with other organizations,” according to a letter Thursday sent by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne, Ind., to his fellow bishops.

The decision to scrutinize the Girl Scouts comes at a time when the 100-year-old institution has found itself under increasing pressure from conservatives for such moves as allowing a seven-year-old transgender girl to join a Colorado troop.

…

(Source: transfeminism, via projectqueer)