Pastor Odious

Image:  Facebook

Allow me to introduce you to Jackson Lahmeyer, megachurch minister.

The founder of Pastors for Trump, Lahmeyer has ended his bid for a congressional seat from Oklahoma, thanks to a report in the Daily Mail tabloid. It seems the married Lahmeyer exchanged thousands of racy text messages with a former beauty queen who worked on his campaign.

In one message, the father of five says he "enjoyed those lips." In another, Lahmeyer tells her of going to a strip club after leaving Mar-A-Lago.

Just another fundamentalist minister who moonlights as a hypocrite?

Not quite. Lahmeyer previously claimed that "witchcraft-practicing lesbians" started Black Lives Matter. And he posted that the "Antichrist will be a HOMOSEXUAL of Jewish descent."

Lahmeyer's sexting scandal won't land the two-faced HETEROSEXUAL bigot in nearly enough trouble for my taste. If you ask me, the witchcraft-practicing lesbians have shirked their duty by not coming up with a spell for these occasions.

He's Generous That Way

 

Pride Pledge

The Trashy Trinity

 

Full-Court Press

Image:  Facebook

On this Transgender Day of Visibility, the Supreme Court decided free speech trumps queer kids' right to be themselves.

The justices sided 8-1 with a Christian counselor who claimed Colorado's law banning conversion therapy violated her First Amendment right to tell gay and trans youth that they're going to spend eternity in the fires of hell. (Okay, I presume she didn't put it that way.)

This means that the bans on conversion therapy enacted by bunches of states are up in the air. So brace yourself for the return of "Christian" therapy aimed at changing teens' sexual orientation or gender identity. To be followed by guilt, depression, and suicidal ideation.

On the upside, we all know of cases where a gay kid goes to conversion camp and meets his first boyfriend.

Making a Meal of It

Image:  Facebook

Each year the Vatican holds a lunch for the poor, and in 2023 Pope Francis invited transgender women to the event. In 2023 and 2024, two of the women were chosen to sit at the pope's table.

What, queer Catholics and their supporters wondered, would the new pontiff do in 2025? On LGBTQ matters, Pope Leo XIV has so far played it close to the vest. Or vestment.

At the lunch yesterday, some 1,300 people dined on lasagna and chicken cutlets. The guests were migrants, disabled folks, homeless people—and 48 transgender women. They made the cut. However, none ate with the pope.

Vatican observers dissected the lunch as though they were Hedda Hopper at the Brown Derby.

"That he’d mingle, that he [sat] close to [us], that’s a good sign, right?" said a trans woman who attended. A liberal priest who ministers to transgender women said they weren't able to meet the pontiff, but they were seated "very, very close to the pope."

Success as measured in terms of feet and inches. This is Europe, so make that meters and centimeters.

Another trans woman admitted to some disappointment that none were included at the pope's table. "But we still received a sense that the church is not going to close the door that it opened," she said.

Who can say? If, in 2026, the transgender women are again invited but need binoculars to see the pope, we'll know the door is closing. Likewise if they're served one olive and an arugula leaf.

A Memorable Meetup

Image by Kat Love from Pixabay

I had one of those community experiences on Sunday that left me kafoozled.

That's a synonym I just created for dazed, confused, and aggravated.

I attended a Seattle Meetup for lesbians over 55, and since I've gone several times, I thought I knew what to expect. But this one turned out differently.

I found myself sitting next to a new participant, a 70-year-old transgender woman. I'm well aware some lesbians argue that trans women aren't women, so they can't be lesbians, but I don't hold that view.

A few others and I chatted with R for a bit. When she asked why people were protesting at the "No Kings" rallies the day before, and noted that she thought Trump's tariffs were a good idea, I sensed the woman across from me shift and face the other way, not to mention build a brick wall and rig up an alarm system.

I don't know if transphobia was involved, but she clearly was in no mood to listen to a potentially conservative queer wax ignorant, so I knew I was on my own.

I have an old habit, good or bad depending on your point of view, of being obliging to the socially awkward. So I listened for an hour as R told me that she's lived all over the country, worked at 27 jobs in the defense industry, and been in an unconsummated marriage for over 30 years.

It didn't take an expert to see that R was on the autism scale. That can make a person lonely, so my ears soldiered on. I asked about the Israeli patches on her jacket, and I learned that in her time she's been everything from Episcopalian to Russian Orthodox to, now, Jewish.

It was all adding up to someone who's tried and failed a million times to belong. With some trepidation, I asked about her being transgender. R said she made the gender switch to increase her chances of employment in an industry that's overloaded with men.

I was aghast, but still polite. I reframed the question, hoping R would speak of a long yearning to be a woman. Nope. It was a career move. Like bringing Dunkin' Donuts to a meeting.

Fearful she could be Exhibit A for our transphobic overlords, I wondered if I should poison her coffee.

What do you do when you run into a person in the LGBTQ community who's a conservative Christian's nocturnal emission? A person who actually embodies some of the wildest things they say about us?

I didn't poison her coffee. But boy howdy, I wished I was drinking something other than hot chocolate.

Righteous and Wrong-eous Indignation

Image:  Kevin Payravi at Wikipedia

Author Stephen King caught hell for posting that the late conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk "advocated stoning gays to death." King apologized. I don't understand why. He was right.

Last year, children's You Tuber Ms. Rachel had the audacity to claim that the biblical admonition to "love thy neighbor" should apply to gay people. On a podcast, Kirk reacted by saying "by the way, Ms. Rachel, you might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser reference, part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18, is that 'thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death.' Just saying."

He concluded that ol' 18 "affirms God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matters."

So Kirk didn't say gay folks should be stoned. He said God did. He passed the buck.

That people like Sen. Ted Cruz reacted to King with indignation and insults baffles me. It certainly sounds like Kirk was all in on the stoning notion.

What a case of splitting hairs. I bet King's next horror novel will be titled "Splitting Hares," and be about a Bugs Bunny impersonator who loses control whenever someone splits an infinitive.

Another One Gone

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In case you missed it, one of the fiercest opponents of gay rights died last week. James Dobson was 563 years old.

Okay, he was actually 89. Not a preacher but a child psychologist, Dobson was without doubt one of the most powerful figures in the Christian right. He founded Focus on the Family, which pushed an ex-gay ministry, and the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classified as an anti-LGBT hate group.

Dobson claimed the Sandy Hook mass shooting was God's judgement on a nation that accepted abortion and gay marriage.

Now God has called him home. I'd like to think He's having a word with him.

The Warrior's Achilles' Heel

Image:  Wikipedia

It feels like this was inevitable.

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is in hot water. Two members of the state's education board accuse him of having porn on a screen during a meeting.

Why do I bring this to your attention? Hang on.

Walters has been described as Oklahoma's "top culture warrior." A MAGA Christian nationalist, Walters last year directed all public schools to incorporate the Bible and Ten Commandments into their curriculum. He denies the very existence of transgender and non-binary people, and when non-binary student Nex Benedict died after a fight at school, advocates accused Walters of creating a dangerously intolerant atmosphere.

Walters was on Donald Trump's shortlist to be education secretary. Last fall, he wanted to require schools to show students a video of him praying for Trump.

In short, Walters is such an extreme Christian he'd even piss off Jesus.

Walters often railed against "sexual material," and now it's gone and turned up in his office. There can't be a single gay person anywhere in the country who's surprised, since we're so accustomed to this sort of screaming hypocrisy on the part of religious zealots.

I guess I'm a little surprised that it was naked women on his screen and not naked men, given his vocal anti-queerness. But Walters isn't a closet case. He's just an asshole.

The King Thing

Image:  Wikipedia

A few days ago I treated you to the story of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Indianapolis, whose members are calling for gay people to commit suicide or be executed by the government.

No doubt they preach the love of Jesus in between.

Something has been niggling at me about these Westboro-wannabes, and I realized what around 10:30 last night when my historical gaydar finally kicked in.

While researching this delightful bunch, I'd read that they base their beliefs entirely on the King James Bible, which is called that because it was King James I of England who commissioned this translation.

Most recent historians believe King James was either gay or bisexual. 

Please, please, please, may I be the one to tell them?

For the Love of God

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At Sure Foundation Baptist Church, a storefront affair in Indianapolis, it was "Men's Preaching Night."

Since women aren't allowed to preach, the name strikes me as redundant.

Anyway, on June 29, church member Stephen Falco offered a sermon tied to Pride Month. "Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate faggots? Because they attack children,” he ranted."They’re coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they’re proud about it!"

Falco then declared gays should shoot themselves in the head. The Farce is strong with this one.

A few days later, the church responded to the ensuing criticism—by doubling down. 

"The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites (homosexuals) deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God," said a Facebook message signed by Evangelist Justin Zhong.

So now it's the government that should kill us. Saves me having to buy a gun.

It's safe to say that Christian love isn't motivating these fellas. I suspect they preach violent homophobia and post it on YouTube because they want more than the 35 folks they get on an average Sunday.

For I believe it was Jesus who implored, "Don't hide your hate under a bushel."

Exit Stage Right

Image:  Facebook

Jimmy Swaggart, who died today at age 90, wasn't as virulent on the subject of homosexuality as fellow televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

In 2004, well after he was caught cavorting with female prostitutes, Swaggart spoke of his opposition to same-sex marriage. "I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry," the Pentecostal preacher told his congregation.

"And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died," he said to laughter.

Swaggart later apologized. But gay men were understandably offended that he threatened murder. Other gay men were offended at the idea that they could be so lacking in taste as to hit on him in the first place.

Law of the Jungle

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

In this final week of its term, the Supreme Court has been very good to Donald Trump and his fellow travelers.

Today the Court decided that school systems must allow parents to pull their kids from class when course material conflicts with their religious views. Translation: If a book has LGBTQ characters, Junior is outta there.

Religion as an excuse to demonize a minority group is exceedingly tiresome for us, but I'll wager some of the most tired people on the planet right now are the Court's three liberals. Those women must feel they're the nation's last defense against presidential power grabs and right-wing cruelty.

No pressure or anything.

Jumbo Depreciation

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Today is National Elephant Appreciation Day, so let's think of all the things we can appreciate about that political party whose symbol is an elephant.

Yup, I got nothing. Quite the challenge these days.

If Donald Trump and JD Vance weren't enough to swear off political pachyderms, now we have Mark Robinson, the Black Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, whom Trump called "better than Martin Luther King."

Robinson, currently the Tar Heel State's lieutenant governor, was already known as extreme, having described gay and transgender people as "filth" in a church speech, and posting on Facebook that abortion was about "killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down." (Turned out he wasn't responsible enough to keep his dick in, having paid for an abortion years earlier.)

But now blockbuster reporting from CNN reveals that Robinson isn't just a run-of-the-mill conservative hypocrite. The dude is demented.

Before becoming a politician, Robinson frequented a porn site called Nude Africa. On its message boards, he referred to himself as a "black NAZI" and said he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama. He expressed support for bringing back slavery. He denounced King as "worse than a maggot." My favorite bit is that the transphobe said he enjoyed transgender pornography.

Queer people are as familiar with this particular type of hypocrisy as we are with Cher lyrics.

Robinson denies everything, and refuses to leave the race. CNN points out he's joining a list of fatally flawed candidates Trump endorsed after they showered him with praise.

Being led by a narcissist is certainly part of the Republican Party's problem. I believe another is that the GOP gets so giddy at the prospect of running minority candidates that it leaves off proper vetting.

You're African-American? Come on down! You're a homo? George Santos, you're our gay guy!

Yet I'm Still Here

 

Theologically Sound

 

Cornfed

 

Celestial Observer

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Speaking at a gathering of influential evangelical Christians, Donald Trump endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in schools.

Speaking at a heavenly gathering, Moses said, "This from the man who broke most of them?"

Kansas City Chafes

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You've probably heard about the commencement speech the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs gave earlier this month at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. If he meant to provoke, Harrison Butker hit it right between the uprights.

The obviously conservative Catholic referred to "the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it." He railed against "dangerous gender ideologies," as well as "the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion." Butker denounced abortion, and urged female graduates to embrace the role of homemaker and beware the "diabolical lies" about career ambition.

The NFL distanced itself from Butker's speech like Jerry Rice separating from a cornerback. Derision poured down on the kicker, who'd even managed to piss off Taylor Swift fans by misinterpreting her lyrics.

But here's my favorite part of the story:  An order of nuns affiliated with Benedictine College took to Facebook to (metaphorically) slap his hand with a ruler.

"The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker's comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested," declared the women religious.

"One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God's people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers."

Owie, that smarts.

An NFL defensive line is formidable, but Butker now faces angry queer people, nuns and Swifties, and that's scarier.