Yesterday, one of the great moments at the Senate DOMA repeal hearing was when Al Franken obliterated Tom Minnery from Focus on the Family. I know I posted the video yesterday, but it's so good, I'm posting again.
Yeah, Minnery got so busted.
Alvin McEwen wants us to know that the misinformation provided FOF's Minnery wasn't a fluke. It is standard operating procedure for the anti-gay religious right types. He's done a post documenting similar lies from Maggie Gallagher and Peter Sprigg from the designated hate group Family Research Council. Alvin includes cites to 11 researchers who have complained about their work being misused. Definitely worth reading Alvin's post. He relentlessly tracks the rhetoric and lies from the religious right.
Here's Alvin's conclusion:
These are the reasons why many of us are celebrating Franken's dressing down of Minnery. It revealed to so many what a lot of us in the gay community have known about the religious right for years - that all of their talk about "morals" and "values" and "personally held religious beliefs" are a dodge. They are a smokescreen which these organizations use to hide their deceptions.Be great if more legislator and the traditional media would actually call out the lies instead of letting the haters get away with them.
When it comes to the gay community, the vast majority of religious right studies and data have been fallacious distortions designed to exploit fear, not educate.
It's not unintentional. These folks - Maggie Gallgher, Peter Sprigg, James Dobson, et. al. - know that when they misrepresent studies, particularly in front of Congress, they are committing fraud but they don't care as long as they can get away with it.
After today, however, it will be more difficult for them to get away with it.
