NEW ORLEANS: Anti-Gay Hate Groups Infest Annual Astroturfing Convention

This week in New Orleans, hundreds of conservative lawmakers from around the country gathered for the annual American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convention, where lobbyists from the nation's largest corporations issue their marching orders on which big business-friendly bills they expect to see passed. Think Progress reports that this year's event featured the distribution of vicious and lie-filled anti-gay propaganda from Christianist hate groups.

Among the materials handed out to every attendee were anti-LGBT pamphlets from the Family Research Council, including the “Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality” and the “Top Ten Harms Of Same-Sex ‘Marriage’”. The supposed myths included “people are born gay,” “sexual orientation can never change,” “homosexual conduct is not harmful to one’s physical health,” and “homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals.” In its second pamphlet, the FRC told conference-goers that expanding marriage to include same-sex couples will somehow mean “fewer people would marry,” “fewer people would remain monogamous,” and polygamy will soon result.

Think Progress notes that convention rent-a-cops assaulted two of their reporters and illegally confiscated their cameras.

New From TX Gov. Rick Perry

CPAC To GOProud: Don't Come Back!

All of the last year's toadying and boot-licking has been for naught. GOProud will not be allowed to return to CPAC, the annual convention of right-wing hate groups. (You may recall that GOProud used CPAC 2011 to publicize the presidential aspirations of Donald Trump.)

World Net Daily exults:

It's been confirmed. GOProud, the "conservative" organization that has homosexual "rights" at the top of its agenda, is out for the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference. The event, organized by the American Conservative Union, is one of the largest conferences for conservatives held anywhere in the United States each year. But it had faced the loss of some participants over the past several years specifically because of its inclusion of GOProud.

Some of the organizations whose leaders have raised concerns in recent years have included heavyweights such as the Heritage Foundation, Media Research Center, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America. But word of the change came today when WND obtained access to letters mailed to GOProud as well as the John Birch Society, which also was left on the chopping block by the new procedures that Al Cardenas, the chief of the organization, announced he would implement when he took over.

GOProud whines:

“We have received no notification from ACU. An ACU Board member told me this afternoon that they were unaware of such a decision and that to the best of his knowledge no decision had been made. I certainly hope that is true. The last thing the conservative movement needs right now is a unnecessary, ugly and divisive fight. The stakes in 2012 are too great. GOProud’s number one goal is defeating Barack Obama. That should be the goal of every conservative organization.”

Exposing Andrew Breitbart

A new clip by famed voice-over artist D.C. Douglas.

Quote Of The Day - Pamela Geller

"There is only a single and insignificant reference to me in Breivik's manifesto. The 55 references to Spencer are mostly quotes from Muslim scriptures. But Breivik cites LGF numerous times, in a very different way. He includes a long diatribe against Charles Johnson, whom he clearly admired until he felt betrayed enough to snap. The killer speaks about Charles Johnson obsessively and wrings his hands about Johnson's turn to the left. Could this perhaps have been the provocation? Could this have been what caused him to snap?" - Ranting xenophobe and Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller, deflecting the news that Norway's terrorist was a fan of her site.

NOTE: Geller is referring to Little Green Footballs blogger Charles Johnson, who famously abandoned right wing ideology two years ago.

PROMO: Anti-Gay Hate Fest 2011

Good As You notes that the Family Research Council has begun promoting this year's Values Voters Summit, the annual hate group confab at which major GOP personalities arrive to suckle the teats of the religious right.