President Obama issued the following statement last night regarding hate crimes legislation which goes before the Congress today.

“This week, the House of Representatives is expected to consider H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance – legislation that will enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association. I also urge the Senate to work with my Administration to finalize this bill and to take swift action.”

It’s not too late to to contact your congressman and urge passage of HR 1913.

Watch the proceedings live on C-Span today.

On Twitter follow the #fighthatenow hashtag.

Maine’s judiciary committee voted today to push a gay marriage bill into the State Senate.

From the  Portland Press Herald…

Eleven members voted in favor of the bill, two voted against it, and one voted to send it to referendum.

The vote was briefly interrupted when a woman began yelling at legislators because she wanted them to reject the bill. Elaine Graham of Farmington was escorted from the Statehouse by Capitol Police, but will not face charges.

The bill will now move forward to the full Senate for consideration.

It remains unclear if the Governor John E. Baldacci will support the bill.

The Rock Church of San Diego, which counts Carrie Prejean—also known as Miss California—as one of its members, is using discredited sources and junk science to link homosexuality with pedophilia.

The Rock Church founded and pastored by former San Diego Charger Miles McPherson, established the linkage in a sermon about Sodom and Gomorrah back in 2004.

Consequences of a Homosexual Lifestyle

God’s Word tells us differently and He provides us of the evidence that homosexuality is not natural or normal. There are physiological repercussions from homosexual behavior; male homosexuals are 430 times more likely to contract HIV than a heterosexual, while heterosexuals have a 1-in-750,000 chance of contracting the virus responsible for HIV, a male homosexual has a 1-in-165 chance of getting HIV. A 20 year old gay male has a 30% chance of either dying or contracting AIDS before the age of 30. They are also 23 times more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases than a heterosexual.

There are also moral repercussions stemming from homosexual behavior as evidenced by the fact that one third of all sexual crimes against children are committed by homosexuals even though they are representative of only one percent of the population. Pedophilia has even been called central to the gay lifestyle. The agenda of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is to lower the age of consent so that sex with children will be legal.

Emotionally people suffer from homosexuality. Gays are five times more likely to commit suicide than a straight person. They are suffering depression because of God’s judgment and their alienation from Him. So God not only tells us what is right and wrong but that by continually doing what is wrong there will be consequences and this is all evident to us so we have no excuse in suppressing the truth.

The outrageous claim that 1/3 of all sexual crimes are committed by homosexuals comes from Paul Cameron, a discredited researcher known for distorting other people’s  research to further his own anti-gay agenda. Cameron is also founder of the Family Research Institute which is listed as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

A video of the sermon is available below, and is a huge treasure trove of the typical anti-gay and intelligent design pablum.

Not surprisingly, the Rock Church and McPherson were active and vocal supporters of Proposition 8 last November. Watch McPherson deliver a sermon on Prop 8 in the video below. I wonder if Prejean is somewhere in the audience…

McPherson was also a part of a Protect Marriage Simulcast targeting church leaders, young people, and congregations in the run up to the election, which was sponsored by none other than ProtectMarriage.com

It’s clear now that much of the blame for Carrie Prejean’s infamous answer at the Miss USA pageant falls squarely at the feet of Pastor Miles McPherson and the Rock Church of San Diego Church.

Thanks to Americablog via Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

Opening at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this week, OUTRAGE is a new gay- themed political documentary by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick. As described on the film’s website…

A searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community, OUTRAGE boldly reveals the hidden lives of some of our nation’s most powerful policymakers, detailing the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans, and the media’s complicity in keeping their secrets.

And from an early review of the film.

Where Dick’s film truly succeeds is in laying consequences at both men’s feet. For [Ed] Koch, it was silence during the exploding AIDS crisis… [Charlie] Crist, who has shown himself to be a moderate, or even liberal-leaning, Republican on a variety of issues – as well as a craven opportunist – is shown backing both a gay marriage amendment as well as that state’s unique law prohibiting adoption by gay parents.

Set against both men’s stories, Dick, working with his editor Doug Blush, unleashes a succession of news reports detailing hate crimes against gays and lesbians, ending with a 14-year old shooting a 15-year old at Oxnard High School in California.

It’s here that the film makes its powerful, and frankly compelling, closing argument – as Kirby Dick draws a line from the DC political closet to the death in Oxnard.

Watch the trailer.