Reprinted from Mike Malloy
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ABC News has more:
It's Church Night, Truthseekers, and tonight we ask the burning question ... Why are Republicans so concerned with people's private parts? From the demand to examine Bill Clinton's penis in the Paula Jones debacle, to the nature in which gay folks express their sexuality, to the widespread obsession over the entire female reproductive system, they are abnormally intrusive where it concerns our naughty bits.
Let's take a look at recent events in Houston Texas as an example. Last May, an anti-discrimination ordinance passed that allowed transgendered persons to use whatever public restroom they desired, regardless of their particular chromosomal composition. It's simply called HERO: the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
Many in the conservative community were outraged by this blatant acceptance of homosexuals (!) and demanded that the ordinance be repealed. Local churches held signature drives to get enough names on a petition to force a ballot initiative, but city Attorney David Feldman determined there weren't enough signatures on the petition to force a vote to repeal the ordinance, and that's when the bathroom brawl got down and dirty.
A lawsuit against the city was filed in August by a conservative christian activist group claiming that Feldman falsified the signature count or otherwise "wrongfully determined" that there were insufficient signatures. Angry protestors stormed city hall.
Got it so far? Remember, all this drama is about picking a particular bathroom. Seriously.
Here's where the story rises to national attention -- the lawsuit is in the disclosure stage and Houston lawyers have issued subpoenas for certain sermons given by conservative preachers in which they asked their congregations to oppose the HERO law (just an aside -- these Christians are preaching intolerance and bigotry -- gotta stop and savor the hypocrisy) and urged them to sign the contested petitions.
Churches that engage in politics or electioneering are in danger of losing their tax exempt status. Separation of church and state and all that rot. Fox News, Brietbart, and the usual conservative media outlets are salivating over this horrendous breach of free speech. Again, take a moment to ponder the doublethink here. ...
ABC News has more:
"'For a city government to step into churches and ask pastors to turn in sermons, it's gone too far. This is not what America, the nation is about,' he [Feldman] told Eyewitness News. The fight over the anti-discrimination ordinance that passed in May has included protests and petition drives. Thousands of signatures were deemed invalid, which led to the lawsuit. Some signatures were acquired at churches which make the sermons fair game, according to City Attorney Dave Feldman. 'If they choose to do this inside the church, choose to do this from the pulpit, then they open the door to the questions being asked,' Feldman said."
And these subpoenas do place First Amendment progressives in a precarious predicament. It does seem, admittedly, like the city is breaching a primary constitutional freedom -- ironically -- in an attempt to guarantee the constitutional freedom of equal protection under the law for homosexuals and transgendered persons.
Remember, this is about bathrooms. Just bathrooms. What is it about bathroom business that is so attractive to these Neocons? Remember the illicit "foot contact" under an airport bathroom stall that brought down Republican senator Larry Craig?
It's insane. For a party that claims to be about less government interference, they sure spend a lot of time peeking through keyholes, through bathroom doors and under our skirts.
Houston, do we have a problem?
