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Florida School Prayer Bill Stalls in Committee

By Lauri Lebo

…n violated the First Amendment. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, would allow the delivery of an “inspirational message,” including prayer, at “noncompulsory” middle and high school events. Student government would have to decide on giving such a message, which could only be delivered by students. School personnel would not be allowed to participate or influence the message. “There is no participation from the school board, the p…

Obamunism? The Traditional Values Coalition Coins a Term

By Bill Berkowitz

…eeks, or outright murdered, as in the case of the ongoing case in Hialeah, Florida. RD: Will 22 Weeks be shown in theaters around the country? Kristina Hernandez, the film’s publicist: The movie will be released on DVD and online starting January 21. RD: Have there been any pre-premiere showings at churches or for film critics? KH: Yes, the film was shown in Puerto Rico and will be shown in Washington DC and Orlando this week. Other screenings are…

“We (some of) the People” Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Tea Party

By Julie Ingersoll

…bridges and buildings; an idyllic center of insulated white privilege. The Orlando Sentinel describes it thus: Even the history here has a make-believe comfortable feel. A historical marker outside a grand old porticoed building identifies it as the former Grand Hotel, dating its history to 1855. But an employee of the real estate office there whispers, “Don’t believe everything you read. This was a vacant field seven years ago.” The retirees tool…

Mexico’s Religious Conservatives Seek Anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment, LGBT Activists Defend Secular Government; Cash From Qatar Funds ‘Traditional’ Family Activism Worldwide; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…y or enter civil partnerships…. Unlike the Netherlands, where the public influence of religion has long been limited, Catholicism plays a big role in the Dutch Caribbean. Religious leaders, such as Pastor Daniel Szpila, have led the way in opposing the move in Aruba. Their influence on voters makes it difficult for politicians to tackle the issue… Activists in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean alike are hopeful that a change in Aruba, the la…

The Islamophobia Election: How “Muslim” Became a Racial Identity

By Michael Schulson

…wed were on lists at airports. After 9/11, they would go to the airport to fly and all of sudden they couldn’t use the self check-in kiosk with their credit card. Muslim women were not on these lists. Muslim women who wear the hijab had different experiences. They were more likely in airports to be stopped and searched. Muslim women were treated as if they were violating cultural democratic norms—that they’re oppressed, that they’re being forced t…

The Shared Fantasy of Redemptive Violence Between ISIS and the Islamophobic Right

By Donovan Schaefer

…nt a refrigerated truck, arm himself with a few pistols and fake assault rifles, and begin his terrible rampage last week on the beachside promenade of Nice? For some people, of course, Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s motive is obvious. The 31-year-old Tunisian citizen was a radical Islamist terrorist, they insist. He answered the call for global Islamic jihad to shed the blood of “Crusader states.” By “some people,” I mean two very different groups, with see…

Indonesia Allows Abusive Sharia Laws to Stand; Kenyan Priest Joins Challenge to Anti-LGBT Laws; Dominican Republic Bishop Slams ‘Gender Ideology’ at OAS; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…le experience in prison and other detention facilities. In the wake of the Orlando massacre, the Journal of Human Rights special 2014 issue on local resistance to LGBT rights is being made available by its publisher free of charge for the next several weeks. Middle East: Twitter trolls reporting ‘atheist’ and LGBT girls and women to authorities The Daily Beast’s Ben Collins reports, “A band of Twitter trolls alleging to be from the Middle East spe…

Not All Muslims Are Terrorists, But All Terrorists Are Muslim

By Haroon Moghul

…just mainstream: A Muslim did it. After Omar Mateen’s horrific massacre in Orlando, the media piled on. He’d done it in the name of ISIS, which led many commentators to believe that the attack was orchestrated by the extremist group itself, an operation commanded from afar, as have recently struck Europe. Within a day, Donald Trump was gloating—only the Donald would see this as a morally appropriate response to violence—and renewing his call for a…

Baptist Resolutions Signal More Culture War

By Paul Harvey

…the attention focused on the convention’s resolution about the Confederate flag. Founded in 1845 as part of the antebellum dispute over slavery, the Southern Baptist Convention had long been wrapped together with the Confederate flag, both central to historic white southern identity. Southern Baptists historically represented a regional culture-religion that virtually defined the Bible Belt. Following the Civil Rights Movement, the energies of def…

(Ex-)Ex-Gay Activist Alan Chambers On His Prop 8 Epiphany and the Downfall of Christianity and Evangelicalism

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…on on some of the very real damage that ex-gay ministries such as Exodus inflicted on the LGBT community. You talk in the book about not being able to tell “success stories” from Exodus’ work with those who “struggle” with same-sex attraction, but it seems to me there would be no struggle if the church didn’t tell LGBT people that they were an abomination to God. I look at Exodus and I think the success of it was that it was the only thing for Chr…