Extreme Evangelical Fanatics in Fort Lauderdale Claim They Are ‘Maligned Victims’ When Gays Protest Homophobic Violence and Hate Speech

Here we go again . . .

Extreme Evangelical religious right fanatics are now commonly referred to by young Americans as the ‘Hate Churches’. Is there a good reason for this?

Dateline Fort Lauderdale, Summer of 2007:

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle makes wild claims that gay men are (to paraphrase) having sex in public and threatening the ‘innocent’ streets of Fort Lauderdale and putting Broward County children at great risk, etc. (Lest we forget the hateful anti-gay Anita Bryant campaigns in the 1970s)

The Evangelical ‘Hate Churches’ line up to support Naugle, but the rest of the Broward county commission, Tourist officials and most citizens of South Florida denounce Naugle and predict that his hate-filled rhetoric could lead to hate crimes and violence.

Fast forward to February 2008. In one week, a young gay black boy dressed as a girl is murdered in downtown Fort Lauderdale while standing on the street; a couple days later a gay couple is having breakfast at an outdoor cafe when they’re attacked and beaten by a pick-up driving criminal shouting how he’s going to ‘break faggot necks’.

Are the combination of hateful preachers and politicians followed by tragic violence against gays a ’set of unrelated coincidences’? Hardly.

[Pictured above: In spite of homophobic 'hate speech' from isolated politicians and religious fanatics, Fort Lauderdale still attracts millions of gay tourists every year, and the local economy depends upon the 'Pink Dollar'.]

Broward County Welcomes Gay Tourists From Around the World

And then this week during the annual Winter Party in Miami Matt Foremen of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a respected national GLBT spokesman opened a solemn ceremony of the new Gay Heroes Memorial with a speech condemning hate speech, whether it comes from politicians, fanatical preachers, or other bigots.

This sent the trained ‘attack dogs’ of the extreme, fanatical religious right into immediate attack formation, and as could be expected, one Mr. Cass of a dubious ‘Anti-Christian Defamation’ group claimed that Foreman was a “radical homosexual activist”.

Broward County Gay Fun Maps

According to the Sun Sentinel Broward politics blog:

“‘Foreman is guilty of gross Christian bashing, the very kind of bashing he says he opposes against homosexuals,’ Cass said.”

“Cass is head of the Fort Lauderdale based Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. He is best known as former executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, the now-closed organization that was affiliated with the late Rev. D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries.”

Broward Politics Blog

There’s more:

“In a statement he released this afternoon, Cass commented on a video report (at left) on the Thursday evening event that’s on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Web site.”

“Cass’ take is that Foreman is declaring that the pulpits of Broward County are teaching hatred of homosexuals, inferring that Christian ministers are in some way responsible for the murder of Simmie Williams Jr., who was found dead in Broward County on a sidewalk dressed as a woman.”

And here’s what Cass said:

“Radical homosexuals like Foreman are quick to exploit this tragic situation for their own political purposes and in order to bash Christians,” Cass said in his press release. “Matt Foreman owes the ministers of Broward County an apology.

So what is Mr. Cass doing here? Well, as I see it, we’ve seen this ploy before by the ‘Hate Churches’ spokesmen:

Cass is trying to turn reality upside down and tell us all that the sky is green and the grass is blue, when we all known neither are true.

Of course the extreme religious rhetoric spewing from local some local pulpits contributes to hate crimes, and this is going to have to be exmained, and Cass fears this scrutiny.

So his tactic is to attack first. Cass hopes to put the mainstream Americans on defense about their support for tolerance and diversity and guaranteed personal safety for sexual and gender minorities.

So Cass chooses ‘radical’ the same way NAZIs called the innocents Jewish merchants ‘radicals’ and the historic use of inflammatory terms by both Hitler’s hoods and Cass is not lost of informed readers.

It is preposterous on its face for Evangelical Christians who are the MAJORITY in many parts of America to frame themselves as a persecuted minority, somehow harmed when gays demand equal rights and simple physical safety on our streets.

Shame on you Mr. Cass and all your ‘Hate Church’ followers! Many other churches preach tolerance and love - why don’t you listen to them for a while?

Mr. Cass wants everyone to think he speaks for ALL Christians, when in fact he is isolated and speaks only for a truly ‘radical’ minority.

Cass wants to convince people that Ellen Degeneres and Will & Grace and Elton John and Melissa Ehteridge aren’t a welcome and celebrated part of ‘mainstream’ American culture, when in fact they are.

Here’s what Ellen had to say about another needless, shameful death of another gay youth in California:

Ellen DeGeneres Discusses The Recent Tragic Death

Gay American Heroes Memorial

Cyndi Lauper Official Website

Be sure to visit the memorial website to learn more about supporting and visiting the new memorial — and you were just about to ask yourself, ‘Could a gay vacation to South Florida get any better?’