Trump Supporters: Racists, Closet Cases, Nazis And Anti-Semites... Just Vile

More hog than human, Trumpist Pamela Taylor is being led away to a pen

I think everyone-- other than die-hard members of the Trump base-- can agree that Pamela Taylor is the worst piece of dog shit passing herself off as a human being. This woman defines "garbage" who should never have been born. You don't remember the name? Pamela Taylor was the West Virginia goon who referred to Michelle Obama on Facebook as an "ape in heels." After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, Taylor posted, "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels."

Michelle Obama happens to be the most beloved woman in the world. And Pramela Taylor? Dog shit lady is going to prison for stealing money from America. Last week the vile Trumpist freak confessed to illegally applying for FEMA disaster benefits after catastrophic flooding in 2016 that killed more than 20 people in West Virginia. She claimed her home was damaged by the flood and swore she was forced to move into a rental property. Turns out an investigation found that she was lying and that nothing happened to her home, where she is still living. She could get 30 years in prison, which would be some awesome.

Are all Trumpists like Pamela Taylor? Well, there may be a few exceptions-- but very few exceptions. Trump fans, more than anything else are low-life racists. On Tuesday, one of Trumps' neo-Nazi appointees, Leif Olson, was fired from the Department of Labor. Why?

A recently appointed Trump Labor Department official with a history of advancing controversial conservative and faith-based causes in court has resigned after revelations that he wrote a 2016 Facebook post suggesting the Jewish-controlled media “protects their own.”

...Olson, 43, started at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division Aug. 12 as a senior policy adviser, after being cleared for the job by the White House. He was part of a team of political appointees working to finish a series of deregulatory actions that are pivotal to the White House employment agenda. They include rules that would narrow corporations’ shared liability with affiliated companies and clarify time-and-a-half overtime pay calculations.

Olson, an unsuccessful GOP candidate in 2012 for a Texas district court judgeship, fired off a series of late-night posts on his personal Facebook page three years ago that started as a sarcastic quip about former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s blowout primary victory. They then devolved into an exchange referencing two anti-Semitic tropes: that Jews control the media and that they look out for members of their own faith.

...Olson also was known in Houston-area legal circles for his appellate work challenging the rights of same-sex couples after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled gay marriage is legal; intervening to block defrauded consumers from receiving $10 million that Target Corp. had agreed to pay in a class settlement; and urging the high court to invalidate the Obama administration’s policy giving certain illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

Predator by Nancy Ohanian

And speaking of Trumpist homophobia, ever hear of McKrae Game? I hope not. Game is a religionist hustler who founded and enriched himself with the gay conversion operation in South Carolina "Hope for Wholeness." [South Carolina Republican politicians, by the way, seem gayer than any other demographic in the world; weird.] At least Game has admitted-- two years after he was fired-- that he was wrong and then apologized-- and admitted he was another Republican closet queen the whole time. "I was a religious zealot that hurt people," he said. "People said they attempted suicide over me and the things I said to them. People, I know, are in therapy because of me."





The video above was McKrae Game in 2013 doing an ad for his conversion therapy operation. Ted Lieu, then a California state Senator, wrote and passed the first legislation in the country to ban gay conversion therapy. At his town-hall meeting last week he told his constituents that "one of the top priorities of my career has been to combat conversion therapy. Providers of conversion therapy charge large sums of money for services that are ineffective and may have serious side effects, including depression, self-harm, and family rejection. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, nearly 700,000 LGBT adults in the United States have been subjected to conversion therapy. 10,000 LGBT youth living in states with bans on the practice have been spared conversion therapy from licensed health care professionals." Ted has introduced the same sort of legislation in Congress. H.R. 3570, the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act classifies for-profit conversion therapy as unlawful conduct and prohibits advertising that claims a conversion therapy practitioner can successfully change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It also provides the Federal Trade Commission with the authority to enforce violations of the law and provides the Department of Justice and state attorneys general with the authority to enforce violations of the law. There are already 100 co-sponsors (GOP closet cases like Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Jason Smith (R-MO), Adrian Smith (R-ME) are other closet cases in Congress are not backing the bill.

When I asked Ted Lieu about the legislation he told me that ""So-called conversion therapy is in reality nothing more than abuse and fraud. Those who pretend to be able to 'convert' others are selling snake oil. This is why as a state legislator I passed the first-ever law in the nation to curtail this harmful practice, and why I continue to introduce federal legislation to classify it for what it is: fraud."


 

In Honor Of Pride Day: A Compendium Of Mike Pence Memes

-by Noah

As I write this, today is Pride Day. By the time you read this, it will be over, however, that does not mean we shouldn’t spend some of our time reflecting on what it says about America that a vile, hate-filled homophobe named Mike Pence is our Vice President and 69 Million Republicans endorsed him and his severely mentally ill boss with their votes.

Here In New York, where I live, there’s one helluva large parade in support of the LGBTQ community. The parade began in 1970 as a way to commemorate the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Inn rioting which galvanized the gay rights movement.

The parade is now the focal point of a whole week of gay pride and gay rights and heritage events. And, you don’t have to be non-hetero in any way, shape, or form to join in. I’m pretty sure that Mike Pence was nowhere to be found.

I even woke up this warm, muggy Sunday morning thinking of Pence. I know that’s a horrible way to start the day, but, it is what it is. So, instantly thinking what little thing a rapidly aging senior like myself could do about Pence, I made up a list… and chose one of the legal things.

As might be expected of me, I chose derision and snark, proudly. They are weapons that come naturally to me. I feel that one little thing we can all do for America is heap as much mockery and derision upon enemies of humanity as we possibly can. I do it in hopes of at least waking a few people up. The only other thing we have is the ballot box but that’s a ways off and I’m sure Putin is no friend of the LGBTQ community.

Since Mike Pence has such a virulent phobia in regards to so many of our fellow citizens, what better way to, as I say, legally, deal with such a malformed, horrid little man, a man who is the nation’s foremost supporter of torturing gay people with his Republican Party-endorsed sadistic dream of “gay-conversion therapy,” a man who soils the ground with every step he takes, a man who, because of that, was chosen for the VP slot by the orange fascist himself. Republicans have a very narrow idea of what a man or woman is after all.

When it came to choosing Pence and what he stands for, the Republican Party could not have stooped any lower but that’s who and what they are. Even now, in 2017, well into the 21st century, President Trump and his trusty sidekick are even being so petty as to “consider”, as apart of a review of the status of national monuments named in the last 21 years, particularly those named under President Obama, an effort to remove the landmark status of New York’s Stonewall Inn, a powerful symbol regarded as the flashpoint of the gay rights movement. Such a heinous act would be yet another in the endless expressions of hate for LGBTQ folks by Republicans. It would be no different than a political party (present or future) removing the cracked Liberty Bell from its display in Philadelphia and finishing the job, then melting down the pieces.

In the case of The Stonewall Inn, nothing should surprise us, not even Trump ending buying the property, tearing it down, and erecting another one of his gold-topped penis-compensating towers. But, I digress…

So, here’s to you, Mike Pence. It’s not giving you a dose of your own “medicine” but it will have to do. Not all of the memes below deal with your hate for gays but you have sooo many issues. Since there is so much speculation about you being a serious closet case yourself, I’ve even included a meme with a fictional quote about you and your own personal home “gay-conversion” machine. It is fictional, isn’t it?

Ending Barbaric Anti-Gay Conversion Therapy

Last year when Blue America endorsed Ted Lieu for the open congressional seat on the West Side of L.A. (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Venice, Malibu, Westwood, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance), Alan Grayson sent a letter to his own supporters asking them to consider supporting Ted Lieu as well. Grayson had plenty of reasons to get behind Lieu's progressive vision of governance, but the one he focussed on was Lieu's heroic-- and highly successful-- fight against anti-gay conversion therapy.

Right-wing cranks and fools haven't come up with a "cure" yet for stupidity, greed, paranoia, bigotry, hypocrisy or even laziness. But they do think that they've come up with a "cure" for something that requires no cure: homosexuality. It's called "conversion therapy," and here's how it "works":

In one form of conversion therapy, they attach live electrodes to your genitalia, they start showing you gay porn, and then they turn on the juice.

In another form of conversion therapy, they feed you an emetic, they turn on that gay porn (is it OK to use the phrase "turn on" here?), and then they wait until the emetic takes hold, and you puke all over the floor.

Here's another method: prayer. Or as they call it, "spiritual intervention." They try to pray the gay away. The Religious Right has set up "counseling clinics" for gays, or rather against gays, that purport to "cure" homosexuality.

Who would be so stupid and cruel as to think that conversion therapy is a good idea? Or, more specifically, which spouse of which Member of Congress would be? That would be Rep. Michele Bachmann's husband Marcus. Marcus Bachmann who runs a Christian counseling clinic in Minnesota that indulges in conversion therapy.

And the U.S. of A. is not the only land in which you find such things. If you're curious, you can look up the case of Pitcherskaia v. Immigration and Naturualization Service, 118 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 1997), and see how it's done in Mother Russia. There, gay students are beaten up-- not only by other students, but also by the school principals. Gay students are incarcerated in mental institutions, and they are "treated" with shock therapy. When released, they are required to continue such "treatment" at outpatient clinics. Other attempted "cures" include hypnosis and sedatives. All of this came to light when Ms. Pitcherskaia, a lesbian, sought political refuge in the United States. Fortunately for her, she was not required to undergo "conversion therapy" with Marcus Bachmann as a condition of entry.

The American Psychiatric Association has unequivocally condemned any psychiatric "treatment" based on the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder. The Attorney General has written that "a growing scientific consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable." The World Health Organization has said that "sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder." And yet in the United States, gay teenagers have been held in isolation for months, and forced to attend this "conversion therapy."

Except in California. Thanks to Ted Lieu.

In 2012, State Senator Ted Lieu wrote a bill to prohibit conversation therapy for minors in California. That bill passed in the California Legislature, and was signed into law. Ted Lieu made California the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors, but hopefully not the last. That was a very important accomplishment.

Now Ted Lieu is running for Congress, and he needs your help. He is seeking the seat of Rep. Henry Waxman. Henry has served for 40 years in Congress, and yet he kept his seat last time with only 54% of the vote. It's a difficult district, it's a close race, and we need Ted Lieu in Congress... He had the guts to take on the Religious Right when it was the Religious Wrong, and he rescued countless children from the bigoted lie that their sexual identity was a "disease" that demanded a quack "cure." Ted Lieu deserves our support.

California may be way out ahead of most of the country on this, but last week President Obama introduced ending conversion therapy as a national issue. "President Obama," wrote Jonathan Capehart, "did something rather extraordinary Thursday. He came out in favor of banning so-called conversion therapy. That’s the psycho-quackery inflicted on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people that attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity."

“The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm,” wrote Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.” With that, the president threw his support behind efforts to enact a nationwide “Leelah’s Law.” Jarrett called the organizers of the petition in advance of the public announcement. “I wanted to tell them directly,” she told me.

The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a “mental disorder” in 1973. The organization officially opposed “any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy” in 1998. Only California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia ban such therapies. In a statement upon signing his state’s prohibition, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, “[E]xposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate.” Risks such as depression, decreased self-esteem and suicidal thoughts. Christie and Obama don’t agree on much. But when they do and their agreement is on a controversial issue such as this, you know it’s serious.

Lieu is calling for a national ban similar to the one he passed in Sacramento (S.B. 1172). "So-called gay conversion therapy, which seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, is a dangerous but often overlooked form of discrimination against LGBT Americans," said Lieu. "I was elated to hear of President Obama’s support for a permanent ban. Conversion therapy has critical medical and ethical flaws that can be seriously damaging to the physical and mental health of those who are compelled to undergo it. Minors, who may not be empowered to make their own health decisions, are especially at risk.

“California’s ban on conversion therapy has survived several court challenges by anti-LGBT groups and has inspired the passage of similar bills in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. I applaud the President’s decision to fully support state-level initiatives that make the use of these practices on minors illegal. However, I believe that a federal ban is the only way to completely protect young people from the harmful effects of conversion therapy and to ensure that they are celebrated, not shamed, for their identities. I look forward to working with the Administration and my colleagues in Congress to pass a national law that forbids this destructive and discriminatory pseudoscience once and for all. In the meantime I will seek to block any federal funding from supporting this discredited and cruel practice." Lieu spoke with the Southern California LGBT weekly Frontiers about moving the ball down the field.

“I am ecstatic that the leader of the free world has called for an end to gay ‘conversion’ therapy. And I commend President Obama for recognizing ‘reparative’ therapy for the crappery that it is,” Lieu said in a late phone interview.

Lieu says he had already directed his staff to look at legislation that would create a nationwide ban. But, he says, “there are some issues because states primarily do the licensing of mental health professionals. We’re looking at the mechanics of how a nationwide ban would work.”

However, Lieu says his staff is working on a simultaneous parallel track to craft a bill that would cut federal funding to therapists who engage in the practice.

“At a minimum, no federal funding should be going to places that engage in ‘reparative therapy.’ Remember-- Michele Bachmann’s husband received Medicaid funding for his clinic that performed gay ‘conversion’ therapy,” Lieu says “So it’s my hope that Congress immediately shuts down any federal funding to any mental health professional that engages in ‘reparative’ therapy.”

Lieu sits on the House Budget Committee and is currently fighting over the federal budget but he thinks this is an issue that will cross partisan lines. “I do believe that we can get bipartisan support for stopping federal funding for ‘reparative’ therapy,” he says, “and so that’s an issue I hope will happen soon-- in the next few months.”

Lieu says that it’s “very helpful that the president came out and made the statement that he did,” adding that “with the LGBTQ civil rights in general, you’re seeing a very quick shift in American society towards embracing the LGBTQ community. And that’s terrific. And I believe that with every passing month, it is my hope that Congress actually catches up with where the rest of the American public already is.”

Lieu says he thought what the conservative Indiana legislators tried to do with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was “horrendous.” But he also thinks the intense backlash in Indiana and Arkansas was a hopeful sign. “I think what you’re seeing, really is the last gasp of virulent discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” he says.

After Lieu introduced SB 1172 in the California State Legislature, he held hearings and worked with Equality California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights and other organizations to get it passed. But even after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill on Sept. 29, 2012, SB 1172 faced a series of lawsuits from religious conservatives who argued that the bill stifled the free speech of therapists and the rights of parents to make decisions on their child’s behalf.

But Lieu was not intimidated. Lieu, a Lt. Col. in the Air Force Reserves and former military prosecutor-- a graduate from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, after which he clerked for Judge Thomas Tang on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals-- looked at every angle of the bill from the perspective of law, science, and called the practice “psychological child abuse” to minors.

“Federal funding is not based on religious beliefs,” Lieu says. “In terms of banning conversion therapy, the way we were able to do it in California was to convince not just the legislators and governor but the judges that this was a law based on science and all the medical evidence, as well as all the medical professional associations have come out and said that ‘reparative therapy’ does not work and when you try to do it, it causes great harm to your patients. And religion does not give you any freedom to engage in what amounts to psychological child abuse.”

After the California State Assembly passed SB 1172 on Aug. 29, 2012, Lieu said: “It’s heartening to see the majority of the Assembly agrees that this kind of so-called ‘treatment’ essentially is psychological abuse of children. Even the person who brought any legitimacy to this kind of psychological technique, Dr. Robert Spitzer, renounced his study and apologized to the LGBT community. Even professionals agree that this quackery needs to stop.”

Alan Grayson Guest Post: Conversion Therapy, Russian Style

We extended the Fleetwood Mac/Ted Lieu contest we're doing for 24 hours at the request of Alan Grayson. He has something to say about why he's backing Ted Lieu for Congress and why the two of them will be campaigning for Ted in CA-33 on September 19 and 20. So the contest is over today at 12 noon (PT). Here's where you go to be part of it. And below is the message Congressman Grayson sent out to his supporters last night. "Pray the Gay Away"? he asked. And he answered: "No."

Right-wing cranks and fools haven't come up with a "cure" yet for stupidity, greed, paranoia, bigotry, hypocrisy or even laziness. But they do think that they've come up with a "cure" for something that requires no cure: homosexuality. It's called "conversion therapy," and here's how it "works":

In one form of conversion therapy, they attach live electrodes to your genitalia, they start showing you gay porn, and then they turn on the juice.

In another form of conversion therapy, they feed you an emetic, they turn on that gay porn (is it OK to use the phrase "turn on" here?), and then they wait until the emetic takes hold, and you puke all over the floor.

Here's another method: prayer. Or as they call it, "spiritual intervention." They try to pray the gay away. The Religious Right has set up "counseling clinics" for gays, or rather against gays, that purport to "cure" homosexuality.

Who would be so stupid and cruel as to think that conversion therapy is a good idea? Or, more specifically, which spouse of which Member of Congress would be? That would be Rep. Michele Bachmann's husband Marcus. Marcus Bachmann who runs a Christian counseling clinic in Minnesota that indulges in conversion therapy.

And the U.S. of A. is not the only land in which you find such things. If you're curious, you can look up the case of Pitcherskaia v. Immigration and Naturualization Service, 118 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 1997), and see how it's done in Mother Russia. There, gay students are beaten up-- not only by other students, but also by the school principals. Gay students are incarcerated in mental institutions, and they are "treated" with shock therapy. When released, they are required to continue such "treatment" at outpatient clinics. Other attempted "cures" include hypnosis and sedatives. All of this came to light when Ms. Pitcherskaia, a lesbian, sought political refuge in the United States. Fortunately for her, she was not required to undergo "conversion therapy" with Marcus Bachmann as a condition of entry.

The American Psychiatric Association has unequivocally condemned any psychiatric "treatment" based on the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder. The Attorney General has written that "a growing scientific consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable." The World Health Organization has said that "sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder." And yet in the United States, gay teenagers have been held in isolation for months, and forced to attend this "conversion therapy."

Except in California. Thanks to Ted Lieu.

In 2012, State Senator Ted Lieu wrote a bill to prohibit conversation therapy for minors in California. That bill passed in the California Legislature, and was signed into law. Ted Lieu made California the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors, but hopefully not the last. That was a very important accomplishment.

Now Ted Lieu is running for Congress, and he needs your help. He is seeking the seat of Rep. Henry Waxman. Henry has served for 40 years in Congress, and yet he kept his seat last time with only 54% of the vote. It's a difficult district, it's a close race, and we need Ted Lieu in Congress.

And to give you an extra little nudge, Blue America PAC has extended its drawing for Ted Lieu contributors through noon tomorrow. One lucky contributor to Ted Lieu's campaign will receive the RIAA-certified Quadruple Platinum Award for Fleetwood Mac's album The Dance.

So I'm asking you to click here, and show your support for Ted Lieu. He had the guts to take on the Religious Right when it was the Religious Wrong, and he rescued countless children from the bigoted lie that their sexual identity was a "disease" that demanded a quack "cure." Ted Lieu deserves our support.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

Fleetwood Mac is part of the rich sound of CA-33. Several of the members live there and their music is embedded into the culture and the fabric of life there. Enjoy these two live versions (below and up top) from the recording of The Dance and please consider joining Congressman Grayson, Henry Waxman and Blue America in making sure Ted Lieu is the next congressman from the district. You can see the platinum award plaque and contribute to Ted's campaign right here.

Yes, The Supreme Court Actually Did Something Good Yesterday-- Bye-Bye Republican Conversion Therapy

Ted Lieu-- leading the way, not following safely from behind

Yesterday, in light of the horrendous rulings against organized labor and against a woman's right to Choice, was a strange day for a progressive to congratulate the Supreme Court. California state Senator Ted Lieu didn't agree with either of those decisions, of course. He found himself very much in accord with the statement issued by the Congressional Progressive Caucus right after the decision was handed down on Hobby Lobby:

"Today’s decision is a step backwards for women’s rights in America. The Roberts’ Court consistently rules in favor of corporations and today’s decision allows executives to interfere with a woman’s health care decisions.

"A woman's personal health choices, including family planning, are not her boss’ business. Denial of contraceptive coverage will require women to pay more for health care-- nearly 60% of women who use birth control cite non-contraceptive reasons for taking it.

"While the ruling accepts the importance of other medical care screenings, it neglects the importance of family planning and the rights of women to make choices without interference from employers. Employee health decisions should never be made by corporate executives, no matter what the circumstance."

No that was certainly not why Ted was praising the Supreme Court yesterday. It was another matter, one that most people aren't aware of but that is crucial in the lives on some: the Republicans' sick gay reparative conversion therapy. Ted wrote and passed the first bill in the country banning it-- and the far right sued and went to the Supreme Court. Yesterday the justices told them to stuff it, agreeing with the 2013 decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding Ted's Senate Bill. His model legislation, which is being looked at by Democrats all over the country now and has already passed the New Jersey legislature, prohibits mental health professionals and therapists from engaging in so-called "conversion therapy," which, as Ted described it, "was the baseless attempt to change the sexual orientation of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender children." Ted:

"The Supreme Court has cement shut any possible opening to allow further psychological child abuse in California. The Court’s refusal to accept the appeal of extreme ideological therapists who practice the quackery of gay conversion therapy is a victory for child welfare, science and basic humane principles. Those who oppose letting children be what they were born to be can no longer claim that the law infringes the free speech rights of therapists who wish to engage in these dangerous and long-discredited practices."

"My law can now be fully enforced as passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Today we once again reaffirm the truth that being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender is the beautiful realization of what it means to be a human being.

"I look forward to more states joining California and New Jersey in adopting similar pro-family measures and helping to protect our children."

Ted isn't a big tooter of his own horn and his astounding record of accomplishments in the California Assembly and state Senate aren't known outside of the state. Like the banning of conversion therapy, his bills to protect consumers from mortgage banksters and to protect us all from unconstitutional NSA spying have been model bill across the country. If you'd like to help make sure Ted gets into Congress-- instead of the Republican that Sheldon Adelson is heavily financing-- please consider contributing here.

No, G.K. Chesterton Was Not Gay-- But Ralph Reed Was

Bill Maher had some fun with right wing hustler and hypocrite Ralph Reed on his show Friday night. Reed, the head of the so-called Faith and Freedom Coalition, a GOP front group dedicated to electing right-wing Republicans to office by suckering paranoid and superstitious rubes, will host well-known libertine and glutton, Chris Christie at their annual conference on June 20. Others playing patty-cake with Reed are GOP presidential and vice presidential aspirants, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.

But Maher didn't want to debate Reed about politics, about whether Republican conversion therapy helped him overcome his lust for men's penises or about his shocking career of grotesque corruption. He wanted to talk about how silly religion in general-- and the Bible in particular-- are. Reed's career is inexorably tied to religionism and exploiting and fleecing the flock. Long before he founded the Faith and Freedom Coalition, he was ripping off the Christian Coalition, from which he resigned in disgrace to become a political consultant, an even sleazier occupation than a religious huckster. He wound up ripping off American Indian tribes with Jack Abramoff and managed to escape without the prison sentence Abramoff was given.

Still, the interview is pretty funny and worth the 8 minutes-- even if Maher didn't ask him about how own personal experiences with reparative therapy.


UPDATE: Ammosexuals

Bill Maher's wake up call to old white Republican men: "Clint Eastwood Is Directing Jersey Boys Now."

As The GOP Doubles Down On Homophobia, Do Gay Republicans Have A Role To Play Any Longer?

Right wing hedge fund operator and vulture capitalist Paul Singer may be best known as one of the money bags behind Mitt Romney but the ardent defender of the prerogatives of the one percent and their right to rule without interference from government (he's been on an anti-Dodd Frank jihad, for example) is also one of the biggest supporters of bombing Iran and of gay equality inside the reaches of the Republican Party and its right-wing satellite groups. Odd combination? His son is gay and married his husband in 2009 and Singer is a Zionist... and a billionaire. Its all about him-- always.

Just under two years ago, late simmer, 2012, Singer gave his last check to GOProud, the extreme right-wing-- and very divisive-- gay organization he had been funding. As the Republican Party digs in its heels on gay reparative therapy, GOProud, which unofficially died when Singer pulled the financial plug, has now made it official. A group backing equal right for the LGBT community can't thrive among the bigots and hate-mongers that utterly dominate the right-wing of the Republican Party.

Although sane states have followed the lead of progressives like California state Senator Ted Lieu in banning the quackery of conversion therapy, no one has been able to get a straight answer if gay Republican political elites themselves have undergone conversion therapy. Since the Texas GOP is lining up behind it, maybe someone should ask closet case Rick Perry for an answer. Other tragic Republicans who may or may not have undergone conversion therapy who should comment on its effective include the two U.S. senators from South Carolina, lifelong gay bachelors Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, not to mention Wyoming's John Barrasso, Mark Kirk, Miss McConnell and a dozen House members from gay wingnuts Aaron Schock (R-IL), Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Adrian Smith (R-NE).

Under the new proposed plank, the Texas GOP would "recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle."

The American Psychological Association and other major health organizations have condemned such counseling, which generally try to change a person's sexual orientation or to lessen their interest in engaging in same-sex sexual activity. The groups say the practice should not be used on minors because of the danger of serious psychological harm.

But trying to strip the language from the Texas GOP platform could set off a contentious fight and result in altering the language even more. The therapy phrasing survived a key committee vote late Thursday, but hardliners had sought to change "homosexuality" in the platform to "sexual sins."

Also on the table is removing decades-old language that states, "homosexuality tears at the fabric of society." Davis said that was the only language his group sought to change at the convention, and that he still wanted to go home with that win.

The therapy language was inserted at the urging of Cathie Adams of Dallas, leader of the influential tea party group Texas Eagle Forum and a onetime chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party.

Adams, whose group backed tea party outsiders who dominated Texas Republican primary races this year, said she simply promoted language proposed by a man she said was helped by such therapy, which has been defended by some smaller groups, including the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

"He knows what he's talking about. He is one of those who has benefited," Adams said. "I think the majority of Texans feel that way too. It's not like this is mandatory. This is only a voluntary program."

Yesterday, Tim Mak, writing for the Daily Beast, covered the sad, messy GOProud implosion. "The decline of GOProud," he writes, "is a prime example of what happens to an organization that rises to prominence through confrontation-- and never bothers to do the grunt work needed to sustain the outfit, once the outrage dies down. It was feisty and controversial-- a Tea Party, of sorts, to the more establishment-minded Log Cabin Republicans." They may have decided to make it "official" this week, but what was left of the organization has been moribund since Singer, who had given them close to $600,000-- informed them they'd better find a new sugar daddy. Thegroup's founders, Christopher Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, quit.

In the summer of 2013, LaSalvia and Barron sold GOProud’s brand name, one of the organization’s computers, a contact list, and some posters to three former interns, and stepped away from the day-to-day management of the group.

Matt Bechstein, now the executive director of what is left of GOProud, said they purchased it for less than three figures. Barron said it was a nominal amount, $1. “It certainly wasn’t fair market value,” Barron said.

In a way, GOProud had already died last summer. The former interns only filed the necessary paperwork to organize “GOProud 2.0” in January 2014. Bechstein had purchased a brand that was in bad shape.

“There was donor discontent, the organization was broke, they were having difficulty raising money, and they ruined just about every relationship possible,” Bechstein said, referring to the former management.

The future of GOProud, once a leading voice for gay conservatives, looks bleak. The organization still exists in theory, but it now faces the possibility of shutting down, changing its name, or changing its organizational type. “There’s high amounts of chaos and confusion,” he said, since any remaining donors have been spooked by reports that the group is closing down.

There’s no love lost between the former leadership and the current leadership.

“Most people assume GOProud died a year ago. GOProud was constantly part of the conversation, shaking things up. Over the last year… I never heard from GOProud. Quite frankly, I don’t know what they’ve done over the past year. I’ve seen nothing,” Barron said.

Countered Bechstein, “They’ve been antagonistic to me since Day One… we came to be the antithesis of Jimmy and Chris, who ruined the organization.”

GOProud first elbowed its way into the conservative movement in the spring of 2009, but struggled in its early days as a startup. Really, it was nothing more than Barron and LaSalvia and a Twitter account, crammed into a Capitol Hill basement office for which they paid $800 a month. The group’s first acts were small. Fundraising during its launch netted only about $3,000, LaSalvia said.

But GOProud’s prominence really emerged in 2010, after conservative activist Ryan Sorba denounced them from the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“I’d like to condemn CPAC for bringing GOProud to this event,” Sorba told the audience at the annual conservative gathering, to a smattering of boos. “The lesbians at Smith College protest better than you. Bring it.”

LaSalvia, sitting outside the room, looked down at his phone. Just moments after Sorba’s rant, a $500 donation came into GOProud’s account. Many major news outlets at CPAC, eager to write about something other than the typical rotation of politicians coming up to speak on stage, covered Sorba’s outburst.

“That’s really when we got famous,” LaSalvia said. Momentum flowed from controversy. They spent their last few hundred dollars on a trip up to New York City, obtaining donor commitments that kept them alive.

That summer, they held a prominent event with Ann Coulter and some 150 supporters at the New York City apartment of billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel, which attendees nicknamed “Homocon.” Months later, GOProud targeted four congressional districts with an ad parodying the television show Real Housewives, targeting gay men and women on Bravo and Lifetime, even running the ad during the Project Runway finale.

The 2012 presidential cycle smothered GOProud, LaSalvia argued, saying that the organization’s endorsement of Mitt Romney was a low point. The support of a candidate who opposed same-sex marriage-- and the noise of the presidential campaign-- combined to make them feel sidelined.

“We were following, we were falling in line… no one was out front that year,” he said.

The highlight of that year, LaSalvia said, was when more than 900 people showed up to GOProud’s 2012 Republican convention party in Tampa Bay, at a gay bar.