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Mass GOP Exodus: Alabama Senator Becomes Fourth To Announce Retirement

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Richard Shelby is the fourth Republican Senator to announce his retirement since Joe Biden was elected president. His longtime opposition to LGBTQ rights makes his retirement something to be grateful for.

The mass exodus of Republicans from the U.S. Senate continues, with Richard Shelby of Alabama announcing Monday his retirement at the end of his term. He’s the fourth in the GOP caucus to do so so far, following Richard Burr (R-NC), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Rob Portman (R-OH).

“Today I announce that I will not seek a seventh term in the United States Senate in 2022. For everything, there is a season,” Shelby said in a statement, as The Washington Post reports. “I am grateful to the people of Alabama who have put their trust in me for more than forty years. I have been fortunate to serve in the U.S. Senate longer than any other Alabamian.”

Republican Senator Shelby, now a hard-core conservative, was first Democratic Congressman Shelby in 1978. In 1986 he ran for and won a seat in the Senate, and in 1994 became a Republican.

Shelby has a virulently anti-LGBTQ record. He voted for a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage and for the unconstitutional federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA.) He also voted against adding sexual orientation to the definition of hate crimes and no on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.

Most recently, Shelby voted against Pete Buttigieg’s confirmation as Transportation Secretary.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image: DoD Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann via Flickr and a CC license

Franklin Graham Claims He’s Not ‘Bashing People Because They May Be Homosexual’

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“If you want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you,” evangelical pastor Franklin Graham has said. But in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, he swears he’s not homophobic.

Franklin Graham is doing some public relations work for his Samaritan’s Purse conservative Christian non-profit after the organization was met with great concern and warnings for requiring its medical professionals and even its volunteers working at its Central Park coronavirus field hospital in New York City to sign a document agreeing to support Graham’s anti-LGBTQ beliefs.

After Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who has an ugly history of anti-LGBTQ and white nationalist remarks, announced on-air Wednesday that she was sending Samaritan’s Purse a “significant” donation, she asked Graham why the left is concerned about his anti-LGBTQ policies.

“We have a statement of faith, Laura,” Graham said, as Media Matters reports (video below).

“We believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And that’s — that goes back to the beginning of time to the first man and woman that God created,” Graham claimed. “And this is our standard, and so for people that we hire — we are a Christian organization. We are a religious organization, so we want to hire people of like mind, and we have a statement of faith that we require our employees to sign. And in that is ‘a marriage is between a man and a woman,’ and this is very offensive to some people and the gay community.”

It’s also very offensive to the majority of Americans. Last year Gallup found nearly three out of four Americans (73 percent) believe same-sex relationship should be legal, and more than six in 10 (63 percent) believe marriages of same-sex couples should be legal.

“And listen,” Graham continued. “I’m not homophobic, and I’m certainly not going around bashing people because they may be homosexual.”

Graham literally is going around bashing people because they are gay.

“I believe in that God loves all of us. He created us all, but we also are sinners, and our sins separate us from God. And I want people to know how they can have a relationship with God, and that’s through faith in his son Jesus Christ. So, I don’t bash homosexuals. I want homosexuals to know the truth, that God does love them.”

Graham also wants gay people to know “the truth of the Gospel,” he has said, but as he preaches it.

“I’m not afraid of homosexuals, I’m really not — matter of fact, I love them,” Graham has said. “I love them enough to care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you.”

Last year Graham infamously warned Pete Buttigieg he will suffer “eternal damnation” if he does not “repent” his homosexuality.

“God’s Word defines homosexuality as sin,” Graham added, criticizing the former Indiana mayor for kissing his husband in public. It’s “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised, or politicized.”

Graham’s use of the Bible as a weapon is very selective, as NCRM reported last year.

In 2018 he claimed now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attempted rape was just something “he did as a teenager” – apparently no repentance required – unlike being gay, according to Graham.

He has also called an alleged child abuser (the details are horrific and sickening) a “great patriot.” Apparently no repentance required there, either.

And Graham has defended Trump’s affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels as “nobody’s business” — although he insisted in 1998 that Bill Clinton’s “sins are not private.”

Watch Graham and Ingraham on Fox News via Media Matters:

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Rush Limbaugh Says Trump Told Him Not To Apologize For Anti-Gay Comments About Buttigieg

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“The president … is such a nice guy,” says recent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and longtime right-wing radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh, who recently was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, days later turned around and made nasty, homophobic comments about Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and his marriage to his husband Chasten.

According to the 69-year old Limbaugh, who has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, President Trump quickly heard his remarks, or heard of them, and called him to tell him to not apologize.

“Hell, the president even called me about this,” Limbaugh told listeners of his syndicated radio show on Monday, as Media Matters reports. “The president checks in every now and then to see how I’m doing. He’s such a nice guy. And he called. It’s uncanny. I’m — Do I respond to him? Yeah. No, I try to reply to all of them, Dawn. I’m not going to be able to, but he calls, and yeah — powerful, influential member of the media, folks. I have got the White House private number in my phone, so when the White House calls, it says there on my phone,” Limbaugh said, making sure his supporters know just how “powerful” and “influential” he is.

“And so, invariably, it’s uncanny. He calls when I am moments away from commencing a medical procedure,” Limbaugh continues. “And I had to tell doctors, ‘You’ve got to give me a half-hour, the president’s calling.’ ‘OK, we’ll wait a half-hour.’ Then I told the White House, “Look, I’ve got a medical procedure in 10 minutes. Can you have the president call me back in 35?’ And they did. So, he called back, and he said ‘Rush, I just got to tell you something. Never apologize, don’t ever –‘ and I said, ‘For what?’”

Of course, the timing doesn’t seem to add up. If the doctors gave him a half hour for a “medical procedure” why would he tell the White House to have Trump call him back in 35 minutes? Also, the level of gall is tremendous – who tells the President of the United States to call them back later?

But the point is clear: Trump supports anti-LGBTQ hatred and bigotry – according to Rush Limbaugh, Medal of Freedom honoree.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Tennessee Government Official Makes Racist, Homophobic Attacks On Democratic Presidential Candidates

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This is who we’re up against, folks.

A Tennessee county commissioner during a public meeting on Monday used an anti-gay slur and racism to attack a Democratic presidential candidate, then insisted, as he put it, that he’s “not prejudice.”

Commissioner Warren Hurst, while advocating for a proposal to make Sevier County a “gun sanctuary city” launched into a homophobic and racist diatribe that’s caught national attention.

“We got a queer running for president, if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get,” Commissioner Hurst said, according to WVLT. “Look what we got running for president in the Democratic party. We can go over here to Hoss’s jail [Sevier County Sheriff] and get better people out of there than those running for Democratic to be President of the United States.”

After his homophobic outburst Hurst was not yet finished.

“I’m not prejudice [sic], a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day,” Hurst claimed, which is false.

When he was done some in the audience laughed and applauded. One woman stood up, denounced Hurst’s comments, and left.

Although he did not mention which candidate he was referring to, Commissioner Hurst likely was speaking about twice-elected South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg is a Harvard graduate who went on to earn a a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford. He also served in Iraq as an intelligence officer with the rank of lieutenant, in the United States Navy Reserve.

The Tennessee Holler posted video of Hurst’s remarks:

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via screencap

Check Out the First Campaign Ad From Openly Gay Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg

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Pete Buttigieg’s fundraising efforts have paid off well over the past few months, and now he’s ramping up his presidential campaign in Iowa with his first TV ad.

As the first openly gay candidate for President to garner serious popular support, Pete Buttigieg has led a campaign for the Democratic nomination that has been surprisingly strong in light of his current position as the mayor of the fourth most populous city in the 17th most populous state of the union. Now he’s stepping things up in Iowa, the first state that will vote on which candidate they’d prefer to be the Democratic nominee, by launching a TV ad that will cost his campaign over $200,000 in the next year and a half.

The ad, entitled “The Only Way,” begins with a shot of Mayor Pete in military uniform, as he speaks in voiceover about his experience as a veteran and a mayor. His main talking point in the video is that our highly divided country needs leadership that will bring it together rather than continuing to forge further divisions. As for specific issues, Buttigieg mentions climate change, rising health care costs, and ongoing school shootings as problems he wants to solve. He also mentions that “solutions, not more polarization” is key, in his view, to defeating Donald Trump in 2020.

Watch the ad here:

In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Buttigieg acknowledged that his campaign’s current goal is to distinguish him from other Democratic candidates in the field, and specifically acknowledged that other candidates are further to the left than he is. “It’s not just a matter of style, it’s also a matter of approach,” Buttigieg told Colbert. “It’s why I’m not making the same promises that some of the candidates to my left are.”

The ad buy has come at a time when Buttigieg’s campaign is also ramping up its on-the-ground involvement in Iowa. Over the past week, Buttigieg opened 20 new campaign field offices in Iowa, and hired 30 more staffers to bring his Iowa-based staff total to over 100. While Buttigieg currently lags behind the top candidates in the Democratic field — Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and former Vice President Joe Biden — he led in campaign financing over the previous quarter, pulling in over $24 million. Now he’s using those funds both in Iowa and New Hampshire, opening 12 new field offices in the New England state who holds the second primary of the 2020 election last week.

A recent poll of Iowa voters by YouGov showed Buttigieg in fourth place, behind Biden, Sanders, and Warren, with 7 percent support. Will this ad buy ramp up support for the first (serious) openly gay candidate for President of the United States? We’ll soon see.

Top Image via Facebook

Buttigieg Says He’d Like to See Pence ‘Evolve’ on LGBTQ Rights – and Not Use Religion ‘To Harm People’

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Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic Party’s first openly gay presidential candidate, has been pushing back against Vice President Pence’s anti-gay agenda throughout his campaign.

2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg is responding to attacks from Vice President Mike Pence, who says the South Bend, Indiana mayor’s belief that God makes people gay infringes on his First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The Vice President is “entitled to his religious beliefs,” says Buttigieg, who has been mayor since 2012, which includes Pence’s tenure as Governor of Indiana. “My problem is when those religious beliefs are used as an excuse to harm other people,” Buttigieg explained on CNN Tuesday.

Buttigieg reminded viewers that Pence “advanced a discriminatory bill in 2015, under the guise of religious freedom, that said it was lawful to discriminate, provided you invoked religion as your excuse.”

“This isn’t about him as a human being,” Buttigieg added, apparently pushing back against Pence’s false claim that Buttigieg has attacked him personally.

“This is about policies that hurt people, policies that hurt children,” says the South Bend mayor, who would turn 39 the day before being sworn in to office should he win the Democratic nomination and beat Donald Trump.

Buttigieg charges that “to this day” the Vice President “hasn’t brought himself to say that it shouldn’t be legal to discriminate against people in this country because they’re LGBT.”

He notes that Pence “seems to be OK” with allowing LGBTQ people to be denied housing and services, and to be fired because they are LGBTQ.

“I would love to see him evolve on that issue,” Buttigieg said, noting that it’s “part of faith, that all of us can evolve and can grow better.”

Buttigieg, who served in the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant in Afghanistan, also accused Pence of being against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because “he felt it was too pro-gay. He wanted to make sure that even closeted members couldn’t serve.”

He also called on Vice President Pence to “clear up” his positions against LGBTQ equality and civil rights.