Right-wing media begin homophobic campaign against Feldblum

Farah: The “database Obama uses to locate people like” Feldblum has “got to be Perverts.gov.” In his October 6 column, after referencing what he called “revelations about” Feldblum, WorldNetDaily editor and CEO Joseph Farah wrote:

I wonder what kind of database Obama uses to locate people like this? Is it Monster.com? That would be appropriate. Or is it FreaksUnlimited.com? Maybe Obamanations.com? No, it's got to be Perverts.gov.

I'm telling you, the entire federal government is going to have to be fumigated some day when these deviants and degenerates are finally sent packing.

WorldNetDaily: Feldblum is “an outspoken homosexual rights activist.” The right-wing website WorldNetDaily referred to Feldblum as “an outspoken homosexual rights activist” in two different October 5 articles. According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD) Media Reference Guide (7th edition), “Because of the clinical history of the word 'homosexual,' it has been adopted by anti-gay extremists to suggest that lesbians and gay men are somehow diseased or psychologically/emotionally disordered -- notions discredited by both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s.” Further, in one of the articles, WND sets off the word “gay” in quote marks when not directly quoting the word, as is WND style.

Catholic Online writer referred to Feldblum as a “practicing Lesbian” and a “homosexual activist lawyer.” In an October 1 article on the website CatholicOnline.org, Deacon Keith Fournier wrote of Feldblum:

Ms. Feldblum is a practicing Lesbian and an advocate for the Homosexual Equivalency agenda. She sees a conflict between the Religious “Free Exercise” constitutional claims of Christians and the “equal rights” claims of practicing homosexuals, at least as they are viewed by the Homosexual Equivalency movement.

[...]

This homosexual activist lawyer -- who will soon have a significant role as an enforcer of “Equal Rights” at the Federal level -- actually believes that the protections provided under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution have become outdated. ... [A]n analysis of her legal writing makes it crystal clear that she believes that homosexual paramours should be granted legally equivalent status to married heterosexual couples.

Catholic Online writer warned that Feldblum may let groups use “Police Power” to push “Homosexual Equivalency Movement.” Fournier also wrote of Feldblum's nomination:

I also thought of the well funded Homosexual activist group, The Human Rights Campaign, and how pleased they must be with her nomination. They are the leading public interest advocates of what I have long called the “Homosexual Equivalency Movement”.

I use that phrase intentionally to get the real issue across to people. This is not about discrimination against anybody. These folks I refer to as “homosexual equivalency” supporters insist that all Americans recognize a legal equivalency between true marriages and cohabitating practicing homosexuals or face legal punitive consequences. These folks are social and cultural revolutionaries. The Human Rights Campaign uses the Courts and the legislature to force this kind of new America on all of us. They want to have the Police Power of the State as the enforcer of their cultural revolution and Ms. Feldblum may soon make it possible.

Traditional Values Coalition makes anti-gay statement that Feldblum, a legal scholar, “wants the gay agenda to trump the First Amendment and religious freedom to impose the gay agenda on all Americans.” In a September 17 article on RightSideNews.com titled, “If You Hate America You Have a Lawyer -- Chai Feldblum,” the Traditional Values Coalition wrote:

Feldblum isn't known by most Americans but her career experience and employers make her a sort of general counsel to the Forces of Darkness. She has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign Fund and she founded something called the Moral Values Project, a “gender equity” group meant to sound like something conservative.

She is a lesbian and has played a major role in pushing the LGBT agenda in American culture for the past 20 years.

Feldblum is professor of law (gay studies) at Georgetown University. She is the primary author of the pro-gay/transsexual bill known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which is being pushed again in Congress. She is also a strategist for gay activists.

[...]

In short, she wants the gay agenda to trump the First Amendment and religious freedom to impose the gay agenda on all Americans -- including those with strongly held religious beliefs about homosexuality.

WorldNetDaily, Hot Air attack Feldblum's position that gay sex is morally equivalent to heterosexual sex

WND headline: " 'Gay' sex morally good, says Obama pick." In the October 5 article, WorldNetDaily wrote:

“Gay” sex is morally good and is as “wonderful” as heterosexual relations, according to Chai Feldblum, President Obama's nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“Gay sex is morally good,” she said. “Now you may think that might be a little crazy to go out there and say gay sex is good. But think a second. Society definitely believes that heterosexual sex is good. Right. Heterosexual sex within a certain framework -- marriage -- I mean, you can't get more dewy-eyed and romantic in this society about how wonderful that is.”

Continued Feldblum: “If you're not being cynical for the moment, I think that does reflect a correct understanding that sex is often a basic building block for intimacy and that intimacy and connections within couples and within families are integral building blocks for a healthy society.”

Feldblum is an outspoken homosexual rights activist and Georgetown law professor. She offered her sex remarks at a UCLA symposium on homosexuality available on YouTube.

Hot Air on Feldblum's remark: "[E]ven the most moderate of bible thumpers will generally have a problem with that." In an October 5 post on HotAir.com, a website founded by Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin, contributor “Laura” wrote:

Some interesting information about President Obama's pick for EEOC commissioner, Chai Feldblum, is coming out. She's been added to the “smear list” of the “right wing blast machine” which is committing the unpardonable offense of quoting her accurately. Just like we did Van Jones. Hey, is it our fault if what you say is wildly at odds with what all us mouth-breathing, snake-handling, inbred red-staters believe?

For example, “we want to revolutionize societal norms” and “gay sex is a moral good.” (video here)

You know, even the most moderate of bible thumpers will generally have a problem with that.

Conservatives target Feldblum for signing statement unrelated to EEOC commissioner duties

2006 statement, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage,” has no bearing on Feldblum's duties at EEOC. Right-wing media have attacked Feldblum for being a signatory to a July 26, 2006, statement titled, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage,” which states that “marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others,” and cites “Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner” along with “Single parent households” and “Adult children living with and caring for their parents,” among others, as people that “stand to gain from alternative forms of household recognition beyond one-size-fits-all marriage.” The statement is entirely unrelated to the duties Feldblum would have as an EEOC commissioner, which include enforcement of existing federal laws involving job discrimination and providing oversight of federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies.

Farah: “revelations about” Feldblum being “a signatory to an online petition.” In his column, Farah referenced Feldblum's signing of the statement, which he described as “a manifesto praising polygamy and arguing traditional marriage should not be privileged above other forms of union”:

Now come the revelations about his nominee to be commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- Chai Feldblum.

She signed a manifesto praising polygamy and arguing traditional marriage should not be privileged above other forms of union.

Another outspoken homosexual-rights activist -- it seems almost a prerequisite in the Obama administration -- she is a signatory to an online petition entitled “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision For All Our Families and Relationships.” Among the stated “partnerships” the petition seeks to protect is “households in which there is more than one conjugal partner.”

I wonder what kind of database Obama uses to locate people like this? Is it Monster.com? That would be appropriate. Or is it FreaksUnlimited.com? Maybe Obamanations.com? No, it's got to be Perverts.gov.

I'm telling you, the entire federal government is going to have to be fumigated some day when these deviants and degenerates are finally sent packing.

WND links statement to nomination. In an October 5 article, WND referenced Feldblum's signing of the statement in reporting on Feldblum's nomination:

President Obama's nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission signed a manifesto praising polygamy and arguing traditional marriage should not be privileged above other forms of union.

Chai Feldblum, an outspoken homosexual rights activist and Georgetown University law professor, is a signatory to an online petition entitled “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision For All Our Families and Relationships.”

The organization defines itself as “a diverse group of nearly twenty LGBT and queer activists [who] came together to discuss marriage and family politics as they exist in the United States today.”

The manifesto, first noticed by the Catholic News Agency, calls for a “new vision” for securing governmental and private institutional recognition of “diverse kinds of partnerships.”

Among the stated “partnerships” the petition seeks to protect is “households in which there is more than one conjugal partner.”

The petition laments what it claims are conservative attempts to push for “abstinence-only sex education, stringent divorce laws, coercive marriage promotion policies directed toward women on welfare, and attacks on reproductive freedom.”

Fox Nation: “Did Obama Nominee Praise Polygamy?” The Fox Nation linked to the October 5 WND article under the headline, “Did Obama Nominee Praise Polygamy?”:

Gateway Pundit: "[C]omplete nutbag ... signed this nutty manifesto." In an October 5 post on his blog, Gateway Pundit wrote that “Barack Obama's latest nominee for The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission signed a petition that praised polygamy. ... Feldblum is one of the many rightwing haters who signed this nutty manifesto." In writing his post, Gateway Pundit excerpted WND's piece on Feldblum.

Catholic News Agency: Nominee “signatory to a radical 2006 manifesto.” In an October 1 article, the Catholic News Agency discussed Feldblum's nomination in the context of her being a signatory to the petition:

A law professor nominated by President Obama to become a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a signatory to a radical 2006 manifesto which endorsed polygamous households and argued traditional marriage should not be privileged “above all others.”

Georgetown University Law Center professor Chai R. Feldblum, nominated as a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is listed as a signatory to the July 26, 2006 manifesto “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships.”

The manifesto's signatories said they proposed a “new vision” for governmental and private recognition of “diverse kinds” of partnerships, households and families. They said they hoped to “move beyond the narrow confines of marriage politics” in the U.S.

EEOC: Enforces existing laws, provides oversight

Feldblum's duties as an EEOC commissioner would be unrelated to her views on relationships. From the EEOC's website:

The Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination are:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;

• the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination;

• the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;

• Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments;

• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government; and

• the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces all of these laws. EEOC also provides oversight and coordination of all federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies.

Homophobic attacks on Feldblum follow similar attacks on Jennings

Media conservatives attacked Jennings with homophobic, extreme rhetoric. In their attacks on Jennings, numerous conservative media figures have resorted to thinly veiled homophobic appeals to paint Jennings, who is gay, as a “radical” “gay activist” with an “agenda” of “promoting homosexuality in schools.”

Fox News, others ran with falsehood that Jennings “cover[ed] up statutory rape.” Fox News and other media advanced the falsehood that Jennings, in the words of Fox News host Bill Hemmer, knew of a “statutory rape” and “never reported it.” While pushing this attack on Jennings, these media figures ignored evidence that the student who told Jennings about his relationship with an older man was of legal age, and Media Matters for America has since confirmed that the student was of legal age and that these smears of Jennings were scurrilous and false. The former student at the center of the Jennings controversy, whom Jennings has referred to as “Brewster,” provided Media Matters with a statement that he “was of legal consent at the time.” Additionally, Media Matters obtained a copy of the student's driver's license, which shows that he was 16 at the time -- the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.

Media manufactured Jennings-NAMBLA link. In addition to the statutory rape smear, the Fox Nation and The Washington Examiner linked Jennings to the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) based on a 1997 speech in which Jennings praised gay rights activist Harry Hay, who had spoken in support of the organization. But like many obituaries written about Hay upon his death in 2002, Jennings was touting Hay as a gay civil rights pioneer for his role in helping start “the first ongoing gay rights groups in America” in 1948, and Jennings' comments had nothing to do with NAMBLA.