The day after Christmas we were one of the first to report on Fred Phelp’s, the founder of the Westboro Church and godhatesfags.com, calling Lady Gaga a slut and saying that she will go to hell.  A statement issued by the church said:

“Her claim to the title of ‘Lady’ is sound only if she tacks on ‘of the night.’ Does the simple slut truly think she can change God’s standards by seducing a generation of rebels into joining her in fist-raised, stiff-necked, hard-hearted rebellion against Him? Get real!”

The Topeka, Kansas based hate group group disguised as a church planned to picket her concert tonight at Fox Theatre in Missouri.  They ended up calling off tonights protest due to inclement weather.  They were, however, anxious to protest.  Megan Phelps, granddaughter of Fred, posted this photo to her Twitter account:

In response to Westboro Church’s planned protest, a St. Louis based gay group called Show Me No H8 scheduled a counter-protest that was also cancelled.  The gay group planned to rile up the Westboro Church folks by having a kiss-in as part of their protest.

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(Photo courtesy Megan Phelps Twitter)

Westboro Church Cancels Lady Gaga Protest originally appeared on Gay Vantage on January 7, 2010.

As the 30-day Congressional review period runs out on the DC gay marriage bill that was passed by the city council and signed by the mayor, 39 members of Congress are going through the back door in hopes of putting the issue up for vote by DC residents.

All Republicans, the 39 members filed a joint amicus brief with the D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday regarding putting the issue up to resident vote.  The filing was in response to the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics ruling that same-sex marriage should not and would not be put up to popular vote.

Signers of the brief are:
Senators James Inhofe (Oklahoma) and Roger Wicker (Mississippi) with U.S. Representatives. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Todd Akin (Missouri), Michele Bachmann (Minnesota), J. Gresham Barrett (South Carolina), Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), John Boehner (Ohio), John Boozman (Arkansas), Eric Cantor (Virginia), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), John Fleming (Louisiana), J. Randy Forbes (Virginia), Virginia Foxx (North Carolina), Scott Garrett (New Jersey), Phil Gingrey (Georgia), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Wally Herger (California), Walter Jones (North Carolina), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Steve King (Iowa), Jack Kingston (Georgia), John Kline (Minnesota) Doug Lamborn (Colorado), Robert Latta (Ohio), Don Manzullo (Illinois), Michael McCaul (Texas), Thaddeus McCotter (Michigan), Patrick McHenry (North Carolina), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Washington), Jeff Miller (Florida), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Randy Neugebauer (Texas), Mike Pence (Indiana), Joe Pitts (Pennsylvania), Mark Souder (Indiana), and Todd Tiahrt (Kansas).

Related: DC Tries to Have Lawsuit Over Gay Marriage Dismissed, Congressman Vows to Fight DC Gay Marriage Law, Will Bob King Kill Gay Marriage in DC?

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(Photo courtesy jsmjr’s photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsmjr/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

39 Members of Congress Fighting DC Gay Marriage originally appeared on Gay Vantage on January 7, 2010.

One of the big arguments that those who are against gay marriage like to make it that marriage is about procreation.

Another argument is that it will lead to incest, pedophilia and a bunch of other undeseriable things.  None of which are true.

The interesting thing is that while only five states currently allow gay marriage, twenty one states allow marriage between first cousins — no questions asked — and an additional six states allow it under certain circumstances.

For the states that only allow marriage between first cousins under certain circumstances, one of those conditions is often that the couple is already unable to reproduce.  There goes the procreation argument!

The fact that states even allow marriage to first cousins throws out the incest argument.  It also makes the West Virginia jokes kind of not-funny since marrying your cousin is not even permitted in that state.

Marrying your first cousin is completely legal in California.  You would have thought that the Prop 8 folks would have put a ban on marrying your first cousin along with the ban on gay marriage.  Their argument is that they want to protect marriage — and that banning gay marriage is not done out of hate — but apparently marrying your cousin does not destroy the institution of marriage as long as you’re straight.

Perhaps if we try to ban first cousin marriage the response will be “but they didn’t choose to be cousins!”  Because you know, we choose to be gay.  I made the choice to be gay at around age 5, because that is when I was first attracted to another boy.  Plus, by choosing to be gay, I chose the much easier path in life. [/sarcasm]

The rundown:

States where marrying your first cousin is legal: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

States where you cannot marry your first cousin: Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming

States where you can sometimes marry your first cousin: Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Utah, Wisconsin

States where two non-related people who are in love and not related can get married tomorrow: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont

The really progressive states where you can marry your same-sex cousin: Connecticut, Vermont

It sure would be interesting if pro-gay marriage lawyers used these arguments in the court cases going on around the country.  Better yet, if there is a proposition added to the ballot to ban marriage between first cousins in California, just like the guy the guy that wants to ban divorce in that state.

Corrections: Maine was originally listed as a state where same-sex couples (and cousins) could marry.  This has been corrected and we apologize for the error.

(Photo courtesy Scubaben’s Flickr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/scubavagabond/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

More Gay Marriage Hypocrisy Exposed originally appeared on Gay Vantage on January 2, 2010.

Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, best known for picketing the funerals of deceased soldiers and trying to deny equal rights to gays and lesbians, has turned his attention and PR machine to pop culture by calling Lady Gaga a ’slut.’

The Daily Telegraph out of Australia reports that Phelps said that Lady Gaga is going to hell for her rebellion against God.

A release issued by the church says:

“Her claim to the title of ‘Lady’ is sound only if she tacks on ‘of the night.’ Does the simple slut truly think she can change God’s standards by seducing a generation of rebels into joining her in fist-raised, stiff-necked, hard-hearted rebellion against Him? Get real!”

The group even plans to picket her concert at Fox Theatre in Missouri on January 7th.

Westboro turned their focus towards Gaga after a speech she gave at the National Equality March, which she ended with “Bless God and bless the gays.”

As a side note, can an organization really be considered a church when their website is godhatesfags.com?  Last time we checked, God is all about love.

Fred Phelps Calls Lady Gaga a Slut originally appeared on Gay Vantage on December 26, 2009.

Early Saturday morning, outside of a nightclub on Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis, four men attacked a group of gay patrons from another bar that shared a parking lot with theirs.

Jacob Piwowarczyk says, “I have a soft tissue bruise on my elbow. I have six stitches in my eye and I have a mild concussion.”

Jason thinks it was a hate crime, as the men were calling them faggots.

He says, “We kept telling them please leave us alone, we’re fine. From there, the one kid didn’t like what we told them and decided to punch me in the eye and I fell to the ground. And at that time my friend was laying on the ground and they started kicking him in the face.”

Police are saying its too early to classify it as a hate crime.

Read the full story.

St. Louis Gay Bashing – Yelled “Faggots” originally appeared on Gay Vantage on November 30, 2009.