So how's that rebranding effort working out for you, Reince? Maybe instead of hoping this guy will resign from the RNC, someone could fire him instead.

Michigan Republican Refuses To Resign, Stands By Anti-Gay Facebook Post:

The Republican official in Michigan embroiled in controversy over an anti-gay Facebook post said Friday that he won't be heeding the calls to step down and he stands by the content of the inflammatory article.

Dave Agema, a Republican National Committeeman and former Michigan state representative, told Newschannel 3 that he has no intention of resigning, despite calls from members of his own party to do so. On Wednesday, Agema posted an article on his Facebook page in which homosexuals were described as "filthy." The article contained "some statistics about the homosexual lifestyle," such as: "50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals (10)" and "Homosexuals account for 3-4% of all gonorrhea cases, 60% of all syphilis cases, and 17% of all hospital admissions (other than for STDs) in the United States (5)." A screen grab from the Facebook post can be viewed here.

While Agema distanced himself from the "filthy" characterization, he was quick to highlight the statistics on the gay "lifestyle and what it causes."

"They quoted as what somebody else said and attributed it to me; I didn't say that," Agema told the news station. "So, do I agreewith everything that that guy and the way he said it in the article, no. But he gives a lot of statistics on the results of the health and mental and physical health of the lifestyle and what it causes."

Cenk Uygur did a really nice job of pointing out in the clip above that if Agema didn't want what was in the article attributed to him, then maybe he should have thought twice about posting it and endorsing what was in it, and that he still agreed with the better part of the article, which is frankly, just bullshit made up statistics.

Pam's House Blend has more on why it's important to be paying attention to the lies being pushed by the religious right and then parroted by anti-gay bigots like Agema here: Gay community wasting good opportunity in Dave Agema controversy:

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Someone plugged this guy's brain into a "wrong outlet." Sweet Jesus someone please save us from these so-called "Christian" bigots. From our friends over at Right Wing Watch, it seems these televangelists just can't quit carrying on about sex in general and especially those "evil" homosexuals who are doing things that remind them of something blowing up.

Jeffress: Homosexuality Like Plugging a TV into the Wrong Outlet and Blowing It to Smithereens:

Jeffress, who has a history of using virulently anti-gay rhetoric, argued that homosexuality violates God’s design for sex.

“Think about this one time in heaven God was sitting up there with his sketch pad and he said, ‘you know I’m going to design human beings and would it be fun of they started doing this together with one another,’” Jeffress explained. “God dreamed up sex, He thought it up for our enjoyment, He gave us the equipment to enjoy it with.”

He went on to claim that homosexuality is like plugging a TV into a 220-volt power outlet rather than the recommended 120 outlet “because those are antiquated instructions” and “it’s my TV and I can do whatever I want to with it.”

“Well it is my TV to do what I want to with it but I’m going to blow that TV into smithereens if I put it in a 220 outlet,” Jeffress said.

Put me on the list of people who will not be surprised or shocked one iota if we would find out later that Robert Jeffress is taking a page out of George Rekers' playbook and caught with some escort from Rentboy.com.

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Bill Maher took a few shots at the religious right and Focus on the Family during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday evening and had this question for them: “If you’re doing God’s work and God is perfect, how come you’re always wrong? Is the problem that you can't follow instructions, or is Jesus just dicking you around?"

Maher went through a list of predictions that they got wrong if heaven forbid "we elected that evil Count Chocula as our President." And kudos to Maher for calling that group exactly what they are, which is nothing more than "an anti-gay lobbying group disguised as a church, basically the God-hates-fags guys crossed with Bain Capital."

Maher asked if we might ever expect to get an apology out of the group for having gotten so many of their predictions wrong, and as he noted, we haven't gotten one from them yet, or a host of others who have also been wrong with their predictions of doom and gloom if the Democrats were elected. He wrapped things up by telling his viewers, "as Joe Biden says, just use your common sense." Bill forgot that other rule when it comes to there being no punishment for Republicans constantly being wrong -- IOKIYAR.

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After the story broke earlier in the day with Mitt Romney's former Cranbrook prep school classmates recalling the "viscous" attack on one of their fellow students who they believed to be gay, the Romney campaign is in full damage control mode and not doing a very good job of it.

Romney appeared on Fox's Your Word With Neil Cavuto and attempted another "apology" when asked about the incident:

ROMNEY: First of all, I had no idea what that individual’s sexual orientation might be. Going back to the 1960′s, that wasn’t something we all discussed or considered. So that’s simply just not accurate. I don’t recall the incident myself but I’ve seen the reports and not going argue with that. There’s no question that I did some stupid things when I was in high school and, obviously, if I hurt anyone by virtue of that I would be very sorry for it and apologize for it.

Here's more from Romney's other non-apologies that he gave earlier the same day: Romney apologizes for hurtful high school pranks:

Mitt Romney repeatedly apologized Thursday for pranks he played in high school that may have offended or hurt other students, even though he said he does not remember them. The apologies in interviews throughout the day began in a Fox News radio interview that host Brian Kilmeade said was lined up because Romney wanted to discuss a Washington Post story about the incidents.

The Post story led with a vivid description of Romney repeatedly clipping the hair of a young man - presumed by other students to be gay - while other classmates pinned him to the floor, as the victim screamed for help and his eyes filled with tears. "I don't remember that incident," Romney told Kilmeade. "I tell you I certainly don't believe that I ... thought the fella was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s. So that was not the case. But as to pranks that were played back then, I don't remember them all but again, high school days - if I did stupid things I'm afraid I gotta say sorry for it."

Phillip Maxwell, an attorney in Michigan, confirmed to CBS News that the incident with John Lauber is accurately described in The Washington Post piece. Maxwell was one of the Post's four on-the-record sources. A fifth asked not to be named. Maxwell says the only thing not accurate is that the Post reporter said the incident occurred in a dorm room, but it happened in a common room.

"Mitt was a prankster, there's no doubt about it. This thing with Lauber wasn't a prank. This was, well, as a lawyer, it was an assault. It was an assault and a battery. And I'm sure that John Lauber carried it with him for the rest of his life," Maxwell told CBS News.

The Post's article details Romney's teen-age years spent at Cranbrook, a prestigious prep school in Michigan, and focuses on the many pranks played by the future presidential contender. Several were harmless but others are remembered as cruel, insensitive or frightening to the victims.

Maxwell, who is not a Republican and wasn't planning to vote for Romney, says "this isn't a politically motivated thing for me. I got asked questions by [Post reporter] Jason Horowitz and I responded honestly to him. I didn't decide to bring this thing up. But I think it probably is relevant."

"I've carried this story with me a long time. It was very disturbing. I think that view is shared by everyone involved in it," Maxwell says. "It just was a black mark on my character that I didn't stop it."

The hair-cutting incident, according to The Washington Post, was confirmed by five of Romney's classmates who described the event as "senseless, stupid, idiotic" and "vicious." Candy Porter was the victim of a well-known prank in which Romney and his Cranbrook friends posed as cops, complete with fake siren and badges, and pretended to bust some friends and their dates. Porter told the Post she was "terrified."

Romney was also remembered as having shouted "Atta girl!" when another closeted gay student tried to speak up in the classroom.

Romney said he did not recall that incident. "You know there are a lot of times, my guess is at a boys' school when one of the boys do something and people say 'hey atta girl,'... I had no idea that he was gay," Romney explained when asked about the comment. He again apologized for having offended anyone, saying no harm was intended.

When you start a statement with the words, "if anybody was hurt or offended" as though you don't know already that they were, it's not an apology. Romney is making himself look ridiculous claiming he had no idea the classmate was gay and it's completely contradicted by the statements made by the five other classmates quoted in the Washington Post article.

The larger problem for the Romney campaign is it paints a picture of him that many people had in their minds already, which is that he's a person who is incapable of feeling empathy and who doesn't mind picking on or abusing those who are weaker than he is.

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After the passage of the dreadful North Carolina Amendment One this Tuesday, CNN's Piers Morgan brought in the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins to discuss it. Why we can't seem to have a discussion in our corporate media on the topic of gay marriage or gay rights without someone giving this bigot some air time is beyond me, but if they're going to do it, they should be pointing out that his group has been designated as a hate group and why.

The Family Research Council (FRC) bills itself as “the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,” but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science. The intention is to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

To make the case that the LGBT community is a threat to American society, FRC employs a number of “policy experts” whose “research” has allowed FRC to be extremely active politically in shaping public debate. Its research fellows and leaders often testify before Congress and appear in the mainstream media. It also works at the grassroots level, conducting outreach to pastors in an effort to “transform the culture.” [...]

The FRC also strongly promotes the “ex-gay” movement as a way to combat LGBT civil rights measures, though professional organizations have repeatedly called so-called “reparative therapy” (which seeks to turn gays and lesbians into heterosexuals) into question and issued statements that don’t support it. For instance, the American Psychological Association issued a report in 2009 reviewing studies of “ex-gay” therapy. The report found that, “contrary to the claims of practitioners and advocates, recent research studies do not provide evidence of sexual orientation change as the research methods are inadequate to determine the effectiveness of these interventions,” according to Dr. Judith Glassgold, the lead author.

There's a lot more in their report and all of it ought to be hung around their necks for all to be made aware of any time someone from Perkins' organization comes on the air. Transcript below the fold where Perkins was again spreading the dangerous lie that people can choose their sexuality or that it's a result of the environment they've been brought up in.

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If anyone needed any more proof that the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer is more than just a little bit nuts and that he really hates Mitt Romney, you need look no further than his latest attack on the Republicans' presumptive presidential candidate, where he blasted Romney for taking his advice and ousting his openly gay spokesman, Richard Grenell.

Here's some background for anyone who hasn't been following this story. First we had Fischer going after Romney for hiring Grenell because he's openly gay: Bryan Fischer Launches Full-Scale Attack on Romney Campaign's Gay Spokesman:

As we noted earlier today, Bryan Fischer is positively livid that Mitt Romney's campaign hired Richard Grenell to serve as its foreign policy and national security spokesman because Grenell is openly gay.

So it was no surprise that Fischer dedicated a segment to discussing the issue today on his radio program, where he began by asserting that most gay men have hundreds, if not thousands, of "random, frequent, and anonymous sexual encounters and that becomes a significant issue when we're talking about appointing somebody to a post as sensitive as a spokesman for national security and foreign policy":

Later Fischer brought up the fact that the LDS Church opposes homosexuality and demanded to know whether Romney agreed with that position and, if so, explain why he would appoint an openly gay man to serve on his campaign. If Romney said he didn't agree with that position, then Fischer said there would be no reason for social conservatives to vote for him:

Then on May 1st, Fischer gets his head on a plate and Grenell resigns: Romney’s Openly-Gay Spokesperson Resigns After Facing Pressure From Anti-Gay Right Wing:

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As Scott Rose over at Pam Spaulding's site noted -- “Beat-Your-Gay-Kids” N.C. Pastor Sean Harris can’t even keep his excuses straight:

As word spread — and shocked outage grew — that North Carolina Pastor Sean Harris has been instructing parents to beat their children if the children seem homosexual and/or non-gender conforming, Harris and his Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina are too stupid to get their damage control straight.

Harris the baby beater told the Fayetteville Observer that he was “joking” when he told parishioners to break their gay son’s limp wrists.

But the Berean Baptist Church’s Business Manager Carinda Kerr told this reporter that when Pastor Harris instructed parishioners to beat their gay and/or gay-seeming children, it was “hyperbole.” Kerr explained: “Jesus said, 'if the right eye offends you, pluck it out.'”

Isn’t that helpful? The gay-bashing preacher claims he was joking, while his church’s business manager says he was acting in the spirit of Jesus!

Good as You originally posted the audio of Harris's remarks and the transcript which you can read below the fold:

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