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The director of issues analysis of the fundamentalist anti-LGBT American Family Association (AFA) on Wednesday refused to answer a "simple yes or no question" about whether he had ever had a "gay impulse."

Liberal radio host Alan Colmes pointed out that AFA's Bryan Fischer could set an example for gay men and lesbians by explaining when he had chosen to be straight.

"Have you ever had a gay impulse?" Colmes asked.

"Alan, I am not going to talk about that," Fischer laughed. "Alan, I'm not going to go there! Give it a rest!"

"It's a simple yes or no question," Colmes observed.

"We're not going to talk about that," Fischer insisted.

"Because maybe if you've been able to overcome your gay impulses and you've been successful in doing it, you could be a model for other people you'd like to see act the same way," Colmes pressed.

"The focus here, Alan, is that everybody experiences sexual impulses that if they acted on those impulses, it would destroy them," the anti-LGBT crusader declared.

"Well, can you give me an example from your own life? What would be some of yours?" the liberal host wondered.

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During what was otherwise a week of really good news when it comes to the LGBT community gaining acceptance and equal rights in states across the country, Rachel Maddow took another shot at PolitiFact during the final segment of her show this Tuesday evening -- for once again ruining the term "fact-checking."

Tennis star Martina Navratilova appeared on Face the Nation this Sunday and discussed the fact that twenty nine states still allow someone to be fired just for being gay, or if their employer believes they are gay, which is true, but PolitiFact decided to rate her claim as only half-true due to other protections or some "exceptions to the rule" as they called them.

As Rachel pointed out in her rant, that doesn't make what Navratilova said "half-true."

MADDOW: And this is why the very important concept of fact-checking has become pointless at a time in our country when we really need it to mean something. Because PolitiFact exists and has branded themselves the generic arbiter of facts and the paragon of fact-checking, and they are terrible at it.

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Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday defended an Ecuadorian preacher's homophobic comments and said that LGBT people could change their "orientation," just like God could change murderers and rapists.

The Huffington Post reported earlier this year that evangelical preacher Nelson Zavala had his political rights revoked after he said that homosexuality was "immoral" while he was campaigning for president.

"For somebody to say that a homosexual can change is somehow a hate crime -- it is a hate crime to say that somebody can change their sexual preference, that that's a hate crime?" Robertson opined on Monday. "That's what's going to happen, ladies and gentlemen. Mark that down and fight for freedom because that man's freedom of speech is being taken away."

"And the idea that anybody who has ministered to thousands of people -- as undoubtedly he has and others have in that church in Ecuador -- know very well that the power of God can change people's orientation. A murderer can change, a rapist can change, a thief can change. That's what the gospel is all about. It's not a hate crime."

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday said that the debate over rights for LGBT people was "one sided" because Catholics were also being oppressed.

During a panel discussion on NBC's Meet the Press about gay NBA player Jason Collins, Gingrich quickly tried to change the subject from equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans to religious discrimination.

"I haven't heard you say if you think a Republican nominee for president can support gay marriage," NBC host David Gregory asked Gingrich.

"I doubt it," the former House Speaker replied. "I think that's up in the air, because I do think things are changing."

"But what I'm struck with is the one-sidedness of the desire for rights," Gingrich continued. "There are no rights for Catholics to have adoption services in Massachusetts, they're outlawed. There are no rights in D.C. for Catholics to have adoption services, they're outlawed. This passing reference to religion -- 'We sort of respect religion.' Well, sure. As long as you don't practice it."

"I think it will be good to have a debate over -- beyond this question of are you able to be gay in America, what does it mean? Does it mean that you actually have to affirmatively eliminate any institution which does not automatically accept that?"

The Grio Managing Editor Joy Reid pointed out that Catholic charities in Massachusetts had made the decision to halt all adoptions to prevent same sex couples from becoming parents.

"They withdrew them because they were told that you cannot follow Catholic doctrine, which is for marriage between a man and a woman," Gingrich insisted.

"I think the point is that you don't have the state telling religion what to believe," Reid observed. "If they oppose the idea of gay marriage within their religion they have the absolute right to do so. The question is whether or not religious institutions can make public policy."

"If the church is going to make our public policy, are we any longer a secular state?"

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Televangelist Pat Robertson used a portion of his Tuesday 700 Club broadcast to defend an ESPN reporter who said that NBA player Jason Collins was "walking in open rebellion to God" for announcing he was openly gay.

After Collins came out in a Sports Illustrated column published on Monday, ESPN reporter Chris Broussard said that he did not believe that an NBA player could be both openly gay and a Christian.

"If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, whatever it maybe, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ," Broussard explained. "So I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I don’t think the bible would characterize them as a Christian."

On Tuesday, Robertson insisted that the ESPN reporter had been correct because "fornication is a sin."

"Somehow we've said if it's heterosexual fornication, it's bad; if it's homosexual fornication -- that used to be called an abomination in the Bible -- now it's a protected civil right," he continued. "And so somebody that says that that kind of conduct is sinful is now being pilloried in the press. He's telling the truth! This is what the Bible says!"

The TV preacher pointed out that "these media types" who were criticizing Broussard had chosen "a lifestyle that takes them outside the protection of God."

"You can't tell them if they want to go to hell or heaven, that's their business," he declared. "But don't tell somebody that he can't speak specifically about what the Christian faith says about certain conduct. There isn't anything bigoted about that."

"So, our hat's off to somebody who's brave enough to say it. But, whew, let's hope the people at ESPN will man up and defend their guy for speaking what is truth."

In a statement on Monday, ESPN said that the network regretted "that a respectful discussion of personal viewpoints became a distraction from today’s news."

"ESPN is fully committed to diversity and welcomes Jason Collins’ announcement."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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A gay man was arrested at a hospital in Missouri this week when he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, and now a restraining order is preventing him from any type of visitation.

Roger Gorley told WDAF that even though he has power of attorney to handle his partner's affairs, a family member asked him to leave when he visited Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Tuesday.

Gorley said he refused to leave his partner Allen's bedside, and that's when security put him in handcuffs and escorted him from the building.

"I was not recognized as being the husband, I wasn’t recognized as being the partner," Gorley explained.

He said the nurse refused to confirm that the couple shared power of attorney and made medical decision for each other.

"She didn't even bother to look it up, to check in to it," the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.

In a 2010 memorandum, President Barack Obama ordered hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding to allow visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners.

For its part, Research Medical Center insisted that it does not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

"We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process," the hospital said in a statement. "And, the patient`s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance."

Gorley cannot currently visit his partner at all due to a restraining order issued after his arrest on Tuesday.

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A disgraced former Navy chaplain explained on Monday that Jesus Christ was effectively a "biologist" because he knew that "three women and a dog" can't make a baby.

In a Monday interview, Internet talk show host David Pakman asked conservative former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt if he acknowledged that there was a trend in the United States toward the legalization of LGBT rights, decriminalization of marijuana and support of reproductive rights for women.

Klingenschmitt explained that there was a "polarization" between some Americans becoming more liberal and some churches that were becoming more conservative.

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The archbishop of the Washington diocese said Easter Sunday that he was concerned that Catholics would be shunned for opposing same sex marriage -- and that it was gay and lesbian Americans who need to "make room" for the very people discriminating against them.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Cardinal Donald Wuerl how the church would react to gay and lesbian members who wanted to get married if the U.S. Supreme Court found that state and federal bans on same sex marriage were unconstitutional.

"The Catholic Church also reminds all of us there is a moral law, they are the commandments of God and we have to do our best to live by them," Wuerl insisted. "The church is probably -- with 20 centuries of experience -- the most understanding of the human condition of any institution. But at the same time, it does remind not only gay people but heterosexual people, straight people, you're not supposed to be following a moral law apart from what Christ has said to us."

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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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Abyssinian Baptist Church Pastor Calvin Butts on Sunday called on the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize same sex marriage because it was part of "the freedom God has given you."

"It's something that we don't believe in, in terms of what we have learned from the Bible," Butts told ABC's George Stephanopolous. "But in terms of men and women having their rights as citizens and human beings, we certainly affirm that."

"You should have every right as a citizen of this nation and every right as a human being to enjoy the freedom that God has given you. The choice is yours. And I should not stand in the way of you making that choice."

Butts added that even though his religion did not teach that "marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is God's divine imperative," it would be wrong for him to oppose marriage equality for all Americans.

"And I think that the Supreme Court should not stand in the way of that," the pastor explained. "I have to support that in a civil society because, otherwise, I would not be a good citizen of our great nation and a participant of this great experiment in democracy."

"However, I choose to believe the book upon which I build my life."