“The Minnesota Marriage Minute videos are an exciting opportunity to promote a respectful dialogue about the future of marriage in Minnesota,” said John Helmberger, chairman of Minnesota for Marriage, in a recent statement announcing the videos.

“We especially want to thank Kalley Yanta, a veteran former news anchor and devoted mother for volunteering her time to make these important videos,” said Helmberger. “We are grateful for Kalley’s faithful commitment to preserving marriage in Minnesota and for her experience and poise in presenting the various topics. We are confident that she will be well received by Minnesotans across the State.”

The first video in the series is an introduction:

Yanta launched her new project with Minnesota for Marriage on Pastor Brad Brandon’s “Word of Truth” radio show on Wednesday.

“This is a big deal,” she said of the anti-gay marriage amendment. “People need to really pay attention to this.”

Yanta said they’ve taped 30 of the “marriage minutes” and are considering also creating radio and television spots. The Minnesota for Marriage group asked her to be the “face” of the effort, she told Brandon.

She also said she signed up for the project because of her own marriage and that fact that same-sex parents are harmful to children.

“I feel very, very grateful to have a good marriage,” Yanta told Brandon. “I want to be a part of … preserving that as our definition of marriage in Minnesota. … There are many efforts under way to tear apart the foundation of our society, which is the family.

“Thirty-one states across the nation have taken up this amendment and all have passed it, so if Minnesota doesn’t, we’d be the first not to, and that sets a precedent for the rest of the nation, and we don’t want to do that” she continued.

Yanta refuted the idea that same-sex parents can raise healthy, well-adjusted children, referring to a conversation she had with a “very prominent CEO of a major metropolitan hospital here in town,” who defended gay parenting.

“I have beg to differ with that opinion,” she said. “There are studies that are being conducted right now about how children are being raised and how that affects somebody in their psyche and in their self-esteem and in the various ways that that can affect a person being raised by either a man and a man or a woman and a woman. It’s not natural.”

Yanta also said that if the amendment doesn’t pass, Christian parents could be arrested.

“If marriage between homosexuals is legalized, what would some of the consequences be?” she asked rhetorically. “Parents who want to opt their kids out of the public school on the day that they’re teaching about homosexual relationships how it should be okay and accepted, and the parents are charged with discrimination and are hauled away sometimes in handcuffs. … We just can’t allow this to happen.

“We all need to have courage when it comes to speaking the truth,” she continued, noting that, so far, she hasn’t received any backlash from the videos.

But while Yanta may not have received backlash, the videos have.

Minnesotans United for All Families, a coalition of more than 100 groups, analyzed the images in the first video released and determined that not a single person in the video was actually from Minnesota.

“While this video is full of stock images, it is strangely lacking in real Minnesotans,” the group said on its Facebook page. “Perhaps they couldn’t find any real Minnesotans willing to support their divisive agenda?”

One image appears to have been taken by a French photographer of a French family, and another is being used on the website of an India-based health-care center.

Most of the images were purchased through low-budget stock-photo websites.

And it’s not the first time a group affiliated with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM is one of three groups that make up Minnesota for Marriage) used stock photos to misrepresent support for their cause. In 2011, the group’s New Hampshire affiliate used images from a rally featuring Barack Obama and passed them off as their own rallies.

The Minnesota for Marriage videos are not Kalley’s first foray into conservative Christian issue-oriented video production.

She has recently produced documentaries that express aimed her anti-abortion beliefs. In a November video, Yanta accuses Planned Parenthood of building “clandestine” and secretive headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota’s Midway neighborhood. The video compares the Planned Parenthood construction to the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp complex.

Yanta’s video also discusses “post abortion syndrome,” a controversial notion that women experience higher rates of mental illness following an abortion. The video portrays it as a real illness, despite recent scientific research to the contrary. A study in January 2011, for instance, showed that women do not have a higher risk of mental illness after having an abortion. In fact, studies that have shown a link often have neglected to assess the mental health of the women prior to them becoming pregnant.

Yanta courted controversy in the late 1990s, when as the anchor of KSTP-TV, a Minneapolis ABC affiliate, she had to cancel a speaking engagement with a group called Concerned Citizens for Action, an anti-abortion group that would later become Pro-Life Action Ministries, an entity that Yanta has worked with for several years. The station did not say why the news anchor had to cancel the appearance, but Yanta later told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the event created the appearance of bias for the anchor.

She’s also been involved in Total Life Care Centers, a network of crisis pregnancy centers in Minnesota, many of which are state-funded despite providing information that medical experts and reproductive rights advocates have called false and misleading.

Photo: Screen shot of Kalley Yanta anchoring “Minnesota Marriage Minute: Episode 1″ (Source: minnesotaformarriage.org)

In spite of the national condemnation, local media and the Kent County Health Department are standing by their reporting.

“In this extreme case, the challenge becomes to look beyond the sensational and focus on information that would be helpful to the public,” said Colette Seguin Beighley, a Grand Rapids resident and board member of the LGBT-advocacy group Equality Michigan, in an email to The American Independent. ”What may be most helpful would be to use this as an opportunity to provide information about the different ways HIV is transmitted along with accompanying infection rates. … It would also resist feeding into hysteria which vilifies and victimizes HIV+ people.”

While nearly every media outlet that has written or reported about this case has identified the Comstock Park man by name, it is TAI’s policy not to identify those alleged to be living with HIV in criminal matters such as disclosure cases, unless they are convicted or the individuals pursuing charges are identified by name either in interviews, court documents, or other publications or reports.

The background

Grand Rapids Police allege the man walked into their station on Dec. 22, 2011, and told detectives he was turning himself in for attempting to infect hundreds of people with HIV by sharing needles and having unprotected sex with them. Police claim he admitted to wanting to kill people with the virus.

The man was placed in psychiatric observation while police investigated his claims. On Dec. 24, he was arraigned on one felony count of the state’s HIV disclosure law. That 1988 law makes it a crime for a person with HIV to engage in sexual penetration, “however slight,” without first disclosing his or her HIV-positive status. On Dec. 28, police and prosecutors added a second disclosure-law felony. Officials say they expect to file more criminal charges as their investigation continues.

This was not the man’s first trip to psychiatric observation and care, nor would it be his last. Earlier in 2011, he was ordered by a court to a 90-day commitment to facility. On Tuesday, the court sent him to a state-run criminal psychiatric hospital in Ypsilanti, Mich., for evaluation on his mental fitness to stand trial.

Why the man was ordered to be hospitalized in 2011 is unclear, and health officials refuse to say, claiming they do not want to violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The press release

Following word of the arraignment on the first charge, the Kent County Health Department issued a press release (PDF), which was presented as a ‘Health Alert’ without noting that the health department has no actual legal authority to make such a declaration.

That release, experts interviewed by The American Independent say, was the source of the sensationalism in reporting.

“My concern with the press release distributed by the Kent County Health Department is its use of the term ‘victim,’ said Michigan Positive Action Coalition (MI-POZ) director Mark Peterson in an email. “This assumes the continuing criminalization of an individual who has HIV. Neither the press release or anything else I’ve read in the media about this case so far has asked if [the suspect's] partners asked him about his HIV status or knew or disclosed their own HIV or STI status.”

Peterson also expressed concerns that the press release failed to address transmission probabilities in a clear and concise way. While the press release noted that transmission rates vary based on which activity is involved, it failed to note exactly how low those probabilities are.

A 2011 Journal of AIDS study by Julie Fox et al. found that the highest probability of infection in a one-time sexual encounter with an HIV-positive person was 1.4 percent for receptive anal intercourse. The Center for HIV Law & Policy has created a comparative chart of infection probabilities comparing HIV, herpes, human papillomavirus (HVP), and gonorrhea. HPV and gonorrhea have staggeringly high transmission rates. HPV — which has been linked to several forms of cancer, including cervical, penile, throat, mouth and anal cancer — has a risk between 43 percent and 93 percent, while gonorrhea has a 25 percent to 50 percent transmission rate. Herpes’ transmission rates, however, are below a 10th of 1 percent, similar to most exposures to HIV.

Ignoring these realities about AIDS and HIV, Peterson said, feeds common misinformation about the disease.

“I think there are two important issues at play here in the media coverage thus far: the lack of concrete information about exactly how infectious HIV is, resulting in wild speculation and implication by media that everyone he contacted got infected, and this case highlights the lack of knowledge in the general public and from the media concerning HIV transmission, as well as feed the assumption that people living with HIV in general, are negligently transmitting HIV to others,” Peterson said.

He also told TAI that several studies have found that those living with HIV who know of their status are unlikely to be the source of new infections. Those studies, Peterson said, were written by Dr. David R. Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). In those reports, Holtgrave said infections caused by those who know they are living with the virus represent only 2 percent of the total new infections. Meanwhile, the 20 to 25 percent of Americans living with the virus and unaware of their infection are responsible for the remaining 98 percent of new infections.

“Hysterical, inaccurate reporting feeds hysteria and stigma against people with HIV,” said Beirne Roose-Snyder, an attorney with the Center for HIV Law & Policy. “The characterizations of HIV in the news articles and the press release encourage a view of individuals with HIV as toxic, irresponsible and predatory.”

The media frenzy

Activists told TAI that this poorly formed press release, which they say provided little factual information, resulted in a flurry of sensational reports. The Global Grind called the suspect “a total monster,” while in an interview with WOOD TV 8, NBC’s Grand Rapids affiliate, one anonymous woman who claimed the suspect infected her with HIV in 2008 called him a “sociopath” and “predator.” The headline from the Grand Rapids Press’ coverage of the man’s preliminary hearing is “Psychiatric exam slated for [name of suspect redacted] who is accused of intentionally spreading AIDS.” In a national blog written by an expert in criminal issues, the man is referred to as a “serial murder.”

In the interview with WOOD TV 8, the woman who alleged the suspect infected her in June 2008 was not challenged about her accusation, nor was she asked basic questions about the sexual encounter with the man (did she ask about his disease status? did she ask that he use a condom? had she previously engaged in risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex or sharing needles?). The WOOD interviewer noted — and did not challenge — the woman’s charge that the suspect told her he had attempted to infect as many as 3,000 people. The reporter did not question this allegation, in light of the suspect’s mental health issues, nor did he ask why the woman had not come forward in October 2008, when she was diagnosed, or later when he allegedly told her about his plan to infect people. The reporter also failed to note that determining direction of infection (who infected whom) is not scientifically possible.

The woman’s claims that the man attempted to infect 3,000 people were then used in subsequent reporting by the television station. But Grand Rapids Police and court documents say the suspect told police he tried to infect “hundreds” of people.

This kind of media coverage, activists say, increases stigma against those living with HIV.

“Is the coverage stigmatizing? Of course it is,” said Peter Kronenberg, communications director of the National Association of People With AIDS, in an email. “It doesn’t acknowledge that [suspect's name redacted] campaign to infect as many people as possible is way out in the ‘alpha tail’ of aberrant behavior, and that leaves readers (many of whom already have hang-ups about minority sexual orientation and HIV as a ‘gay’ disease) free to conclude that this is how all people with HIV behave. The only story we’ve seen so far that even mentions [suspect's name redacted] confinement for psychiatric evaluation is (here). The news coverage also fails to remind readers that it is the responsibility of both partners in a sexual act (or drug sharing) to protect themselves. With partners who know each other well, that means saying, I’m HIV-(positive/negative), what about you? With partners who don’t, it means assuming nothing, no matter what is asked or what is answered, and using condoms. Just because (s)he says (s)he’s negative doesn’t mean it’s true. Too many people don’t know their status, and some, regrettably, lie – out of fear of rejection.”

Sean Strub, co-chair of the Global Network of People with HIV/AIDS North America (GNP+), told TAI that this type of media coverage actually perpetuates the fear of HIV-positive people to disclose their status. A Kaiser Family Foundation report released in June of 2011 found that six in 10 Americans get their HIV information from news reports. That, activists say, is the reason the “sensationalist” reporting is particularly damning to HIV-prevention, -intervention and -care efforts.

“The media coverage makes those who truly fear they might have HIV more reluctant to find out, as it underscores the stigma, and it definitely makes it tougher for people who know they have HIV to disclose,” Strub said.

“Sensationalist reporting about HIV criminalization cases, including this one, are a serious hindrance to good HIV education,” said attorney Roose-Snyder. “It greatly skews the truth about how, how easily, and by whom most HIV is transmitted, since 1) most HIV transmission takes place during consensual sex between two adults who do not know their HIV status; 2) once most people know they are HIV positive they typically reduce their sexual risk-taking behaviors; and 3) most HIV-positive people who are aware of their status do not want to – and in fact do not – transmit HIV.”

Of concern for many of the activists TAI talked to was that the suspect’s mental health issues were barely, if ever, mentioned in the reporting. And the Kent County Health Department is holding the specifics of what illness the man is suffering from as a tightly guarded secret.

When asked why she failed to note the mental health issues in her press release or subsequent public comments, Kent County communications director Lisa LaPlante cited HIPAA concerns. When asked why revealing mental health information about the suspect was a violation of HIPAA but revealing his HIV status was not, LaPlante told TAI,”[His] HIV status was disclosed as two criminal charges, therefore a component of the press release.”

But the suspect’s two-day confinement in a psychiatric hospital following his alleged admissions was also part of the news, somewhat nullifying LaPlante’s HIPAA claims, activists say.

“The public fears people with HIV more than they fear people with mental health issues; in this circumstance it seems like the media and public health authorities are responding or playing to the public’s fear and biases rather than the real underlying issue with this individual,” Strub said. “Understanding mental health issues is more nuanced and complicated; it is far easier to play into the hysteria, ignorance and fear engendered by HIV.”

“While it’s hard to imagine what the motivation of any story is from a legal standpoint of the criminal case, it is common for one side to leak only that information which is beneficial to the case,” said Joshua Moore, an attorney who runs Detroit Legal Services, an HIV legal specialty clinic. “Here it would be beneficial for a prosecutor to have information leaked that did not include [the suspect's] mental illness so that the community would be biased towards his case.”

Sex vs. syringes

Also of concern with the reporting, from the standpoint of HIV/AIDS, is the focus on sexual exposure. The suspect allegedly told police he shared needles and had sex in an attempt to infect as many people as possible.

“Why does sex feature prominently in the story as reported and not the needle-sharing?” Kronenberg said. “HIV disease’s strange negative glamour comes directly from its having shown up first in gay men. The mixed fascination and repulsion some people feel about same-sex sexuality says a lot more about them than it does about gay people. Sex sells newspapers; if you haven’t seen it already, have a look at the coverage in the UK’s online tabloid Mail Online. This is the Mail Online’s kind of story.”

“My assumption here is that the issue of sex, especially anonymous sex via online interactions is more salacious then syringe-sharing,” said Peterson of MI-POZ. “It speaks more to our obsession with sex than it does our understanding of public health.”

Fittingly, Michigan’s HIV disclosure law does not require an HIV-positive person to disclose his or her status when sharing needles with someone. The focus on sexual transmission led then-state Sen. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) to tell the Michigan Messenger the current law “hasn’t been able to protect the public.”

Standing by the reports

The American Independent sent requests for comment to WOOD TV 8, the Kent County Health Department, and the Grand Rapids Press.

WOOD TV 8 News Director Rebecca Sapakie issued the following statement about her station’s news coverage of the case:

WOOD TV is proud of its in-depth reporting on this issue. When we first heard about the case, we contacted police, prosecutors and the health department to expand our perspective on the story. We used comments from the suspect himself to police, investigators, official court documents, victims and the health department to frame our stories. As we uncovered new facts, we followed the story in the days beyond our initial reports. News stories frequently deal with the unusual or rare cases. We pride ourselves in giving perspective to these stories and offering our viewers important information. This was a case where public officials believed it was appropriate to alert the public given the known facts. We are confident with our reporting on this story and we’ll continue to follow it if new developments are discovered.

Grand Rapids Press Editor Paul Keep did not respond to several emails seeking comment.

Bonnie Bucqueroux, a journalism professor at Michigan State University and former director of the Victims and the Media Project there, said she thinks criticism of the reporting is unfounded.

“I am always willing to criticize the press when I think they deserve it,” she told TAI. “I think most did a pretty good job.”

Lisa LaPlante from the Kent County Health Department said she stands by her press release and sees no need to revise it. She also added that the press has had an impact on testing for HIV.

“I feel confident that the information provided in the news release has been helpful to the community, as we have seen an uptick in free, confidential, anonymous client testing for HIV since [the suspect's] arrest,” she said.

But activists say the uptick is unlikely to be helpful in actually addressing the HIV epidemic in Kent County and beyond.

“No, an increase in testing does nothing if the community as a whole is ignorant to the disease itself,” said attorney Moore. “There are many individuals out in the community that I work with every day who are scarred to death that a family member or church member finds out their infected with HIV. These types of reports only feed that fear and stigma. The fear and stigma often prevent people living with HIV from getting the proper education themselves. The media has a responsibility to cover these types of stories with balance and offer a means for individuals in the public to get educated.”

Photo: Kent County, Mich. logo (www.accesskent.com)

Kent County Press Release December 27, 2011

The United West, an anti-Islamic organization led by Tom Tentro, will host an event in Tallahassee on the first day of Florida’s 2012 legislative session to honor members of the U.S. military who served in Iraq. The group has called for an investigation into U.S. Muslim organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations due to ties it alleges exist between them and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The first time I met Tom, he was with his original organization the Florida Security Council, showing The Third Jihad,” Hamze said. The Third Jihad is a movie about “radical Islam’s vision for America.”

Hamze added that GOP Senate candidate Adam Hasner “was there, promoting the movie, making blanket statements of Muslims.”

He told the Independent that the narrative that CAIR is a terrorist organization made by individuals like Trento, the United West and Adam Hasner is ridiculous. “There is no serious law enforcement agencies that take any of those people seriously,” he said.

“That is how they win their vote,” Hamze said. “Adam Hasner is going all over the state propagating this Muslim Brotherhood threat, that they are coming to take over the United States, but the reality is there is no Muslim Brotherhood in Florida. T hey are grandstanding and sensationalizing.”

Hamze added that “unfortunately right now to bash Muslims, or bash Islam, has become mainstream GOP strategy. You have quote after quote from Republican presidential candidates that are absolutely ludicrous and fringe. It’s unfortunate because if you take those quotes and you replace Islam with Judaism or Christianity, it is completely unacceptable, but for some reason it has become mainstream in the GOP to attack Muslims.”

“The traditional Republican values of conservatism is where I align myself, with the traditional Republican Party platform and not necessarily the mouthpieces of the GOP of today,” Hamze said. “You take fiscal issues, spending issues, foreign policy and I will got toe to toe with any Republican out there.” He added that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ron Paul are two of the very few GOP leaders who do not use anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Last night, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart aired an episode on the decision by the Broward Republican Executive Committee to reject Hamze’s application to become a member of the Executive Committee and create a Muslim Republican Club last September:

Petitions containing more than 200,000 signatures were delivered to Lowe’s corporate headquarters Tuesday, protesting the company’s recent decision to pull its ads from the TLC reality series All-American Muslim.

More than 42,000 signatures came from supporters of People for the American Way, which recently called on Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock to “reject the bigotry of right-wing extremists and reinstate its ads on the show.”

Earlier this month, Lowe’s (and several other companies) pulled ads from the program in response to pressure from the Florida Family Association, a group that objected to the show’s portrayal of American Muslims as “ordinary folks just like you and me.”

Michael Keegan, president of People For the American Way, issued the following statement earlier today:

Lowe’s set a dangerous precedent by caving in to a fringe group that preaches intolerance toward fellow Americans. The TLC program portrays Muslim Americans as the everyday people they are – people who go to work, go to school and pay taxes. Lowe’s should have rejected the Florida Family Association’s unhinged complaints – as do the vast majority of Americans.

Lowe’s caved in to bigotry, but other companies stood their ground in the face of bigoted attacks. Companies like Campbell’s Soup and Sears, among others, rejected bigotry and were outspoken in their support of all Americans. In this case, they have set the bar for responsible corporate conduct.

Photo: Lowe’s logo (via melissabargains.com)

A Saturday demonstration outside of a Lowe’s home improvement store in a Detroit suburb brought out more than 150 local residents and religious leaders and even one state representative — all of whom were protesting the chain’s decision to pull its ads from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim after receiving numerous calls to do so by the Florida Family Association.

The group demonstrated outside of the Lowe’s in Allen Park, a Detroit suburb adjacent to the city where All-American Muslim is filmed.

The protestors chanted and held signs that read, “Boycott Bigotry” and, “Remember, All-American Muslims Shop” during the rally, which was attended by Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups.

Via the Huffington Post:

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat and the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan Legislature, said it was “disgusting” for Lowe’s to stop supporting a show that reflects America – the conservatives, liberals and even “the Kim Kardashians” in the Muslim community, she said.

“We’re asking the company to change their mind,” said protester Ray Holman, a legislative liaison for a United Auto Workers local. He said he was dismayed that the retailer “pulled sponsorship of a positive program.”

A local rabbi extended his support to clergy at the protest and local Arab Americans, saying he and other Jews would have been at the protest had it not fallen during the Jewish Sabbath.

“I hope that they would likewise stand up and demonstrate should something outrageous like this take place against another religion,” Rabbi Jason Miller said in a statement.

Lowe’s spokeswoman Karen Cobb said Saturday that the company respected the protestors’ opinion.

“We appreciate and respect everyone’s right to express their opinion peacefully,” she said.

According to a press release sent out by People for the American Way,  a handful of counter-protesters — including armed members of the Michigan Militia — came out to defend Lowe’s.

Critics have blasted Lowe’s for pulling its ads, saying that caving to a fringe group like the Family Association sets a negative precedent.

In a press release sent out last week, in which the group called on a complete boycott of Lowe’s, People for the American Way said that Lowe’s “should have ignored the canned emails and gone about its business,” but instead chose to cave “to a group of fanatics who want to make everyone live in accordance with their narrow and rigid religious beliefs.”

(Photo: Flickr Getty Images/Dave Delay)

The movie, which premiered last week in Des Moines, promotes a strategy of pursuing federal legislation that would grant civil rights to fetuses, on the grounds that their equal protection rights are protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, an idea championed by current presidential contender Newt Gingrich.

In a recent article, two physicians argue that the film is problematic because, in medicine, physicians must learn to separate their personal feelings from those of their patients.

Via ReligionDispatches.com:

Dr. Anthony Levatino, interviewed at length in the film, is an OB/GYN who formerly performed abortions. Levatino and his wife had fertility problems and were seeking to adopt a child; at one point he describes his regret as he was performing a first trimester abortion while he and his wife were undertaking that process. They eventually adopted a child who was later tragically killed after being hit by a car. Levatino describes a second trimester abortion he performed after the death of his daughter, after which he concludes about his patient, “I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose and I didn’t see what a great doctor I was helping her with her problem pregnancy.”

The Gift of Life draws on Levatino’s personal tragedy to portray his decision to stop performing abortions as a policy answer, rather than an individual, understandable response to grief. Dr. Daniel Grossman, senior associate at Ibis Reproductive Health, told me, “It is true that abortion providers often have conflicting feelings about the work we do.” But, he went on, “most of us have those feelings and are able to separate our personal feelings from those of our patients and what they need and want to do with their current pregnancy.”

Dr. Douglas Laube, Board Chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, echoed this view, describing Levatino’s reaction as “normal” given his circumstances, but noting that his patient’s reaction was not discussed. “I see it as a disconnect,” said Laube. “It does not connect logically with a reason not to support the right to choose. It’s his feelings versus her right to choose.”

Laube goes on to argue that the film peddles several abortion falsehoods, such as a claim that all fetuses feel pain and that abortion providers attempt to maximize the number of abortion procedures they perform, in order to profit from them:

The anti-choice activist Carol Everett claims she once worked for an abortion provider that aimed to perform three to five abortions on 13-18 year old girls so they would be accustomed to using abortion as a birth control method into adulthood. Dr. Laube called these claims “pure nonsense,” “pure fiction,” and “really a stretch.” He noted that abortion comprises 3-5% of Planned Parenthood’s budget, and that abortion is “certainly not a money-maker. At best, it’s a break-even.”

The fetal personhood movement, which aims to define life from the moment of conception, has swept the country in recent years. Personhood initiatives have cropped up in many states — most notably in Mississippi, where a personhood amendment was recently rejected by voters despite support from state policy-makers. In Florida, personhood organizers have told The Florida Independent that they are currently working toward placing an amendment on the state’s 2014 ballot.

In an interview conducted last month, Laube told the Independent that attempts to define human life from the moment of conception “flies in the face of common sense” and could have “wide-reaching impact to access to women’s health: cancer treatment, fertility treatment, birth control.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (FLORIDA INDEPENDENT/ Cooper Levey-Baker) 

We would have benefited from Hitch’s take, for example, on the Colorado lawmakers who in the distinguished chambers propose babies be allowed to contract AIDs as a way to discourage women from drug use and promiscuity; who equate gay people with murderers and quote ancient Leviticus authors who recommended gay people be put to death for the grave sin of same-sex attraction; who discount anti-gay discrimination as fabricated because no such discrimination has been experienced by them; and who attempt to impeach judges for granting gay people equal rights as parents.

In writing on the “wide stance” that ended the career of U.S. Senator Larry Craig, Republican from Idaho, Hitchens described the telltale “extreme conservative postures” adopted in public by a certain kind of lawmaker, the shiny “breastplates of righteousness” that cry out for close inspection. Hitchens was borrowing from British author Laud Humphreys, who wrote about the “tearoom trade” in gay bathroom sex.

Here’s how Hitchens concluded his piece on men got up in breastplates of righteousness:

Next time you hear some particularly moralizing speech, set your watch. You won’t have to wait long before the man who made it is found, crouched awkwardly yet ecstatically while the cistern drips and the roar of the flush maddens him like wine.

Here is Hitchens on the grotesqueries of the contemporary U.S. politics of influence and personal enrichment, featuring the Clintons and Henry Kissinger:

It was apt in a small way that the first endorser of Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state should have been Henry Kissinger. The last time he was nominated for any position of responsibility—the chairmanship of the 9/11 commission—he accepted with many florid words about the great honor and responsibility, and then he withdrew when it became clear that he would have to disclose the client list of Kissinger Associates.

Here is Hitchens on Pope Benedict, or Joseph Ratzinger, as he insisted on referring to him, who in the post-9/11 era speechified against Islamic violence, quoting in a 2006 speech in Germany an alleged exchange between 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II and an unnamed Persian to make his point:

‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’ (On the face of it, not a very open-ended inquiry.) But, warming to his own theme, the purple-clad monarch of Constantinople allegedly added that ‘to convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.’

Now, you do not have to be a Muslim to think that for the bishop of Rome to cite this is the most perfect hypocrisy. There would have been no established Byzantine or Roman Christianity if the faith had not been spread and maintained and enforced by every kind of violence and cruelty and coercion.

Here he is on the Church-of-Rome/Church-of-Hollywood phenomenon that is Mel Gibson:

We live in a culture where the terms fascist and racist are thrown about, if anything, too easily and too frequently. Yet here is a man whose every word and deed is easily explicable once you know the single essential thing about him: He is a member of a fascist splinter group that believes it is the salvation of the Catholic Church.

This schismatic crackpot sect is headed by Mel Gibson’s father, Hutton Gibson, a nutty autodidact with a sideline in Holocaust denial.

A staunch supporter of the George W Bush invasion of Iraq, Hitchens later undermined the national security pretensions that led the U.S. to embrace torture by himself submitting to waterboarding, a feat none of the lawmakers pushing torture while quibbling over whether it was torture ever suggested they could match and never will. Hitchens wrote about the experience for Vanity Fair under the title “Believe me, it’s torture.”

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Lowe’s pulled its advertising from the show after the Florida Family Association complained that it depicted American Muslims “as ordinary folks just like you and me.” The group said the show is nothing more than “propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law.”

At least 60 companies have acceded to the group’s demands, but Lowe’s has born the brunt of most of the scrutiny — likely because of a public comment issued shortly after the ad pulls were announced. In a statement, Lowe’s reps said the company made the move due to “strong political and societal views” from many individuals and groups.

In a press release sent out Tuesday, in which they called on a complete boycott of the chain, People for the American Way said Lowe’s “should have ignored the canned emails and gone about its business,” but instead chose to cave “to a group of fanatics who want to make everyone live in accordance with their narrow and rigid religious beliefs.”

Participants in Saturday’s demonstration include: the African American Ministers Leadership Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Highland Park NAACP, People for the American Way Foundation, and state Rep. Tashida Tlaib.

The protest will take place at 11 a.m. Sat., Dec. 17, outside the Lowe’s in Allen Park, Mich.

The online travel website Kayak.com announced yesterday that it had also pulled its ads from the show. Though Kayak did receive a number of letters from Florida Family Association supporters, requesting that it ax its advertising, CMO Robert Birge said the decision was solely based on the quality of the show. “I watched the first two episodes,” said Birge, in a statement. “Mostly, I just thought the show sucked.”

Florida Rep. Daphen Campbell, D-Miami Shores (Photo: myfloridahouse.gov/Meredith Geddings)

Florida Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami Shores, has been inadvertently caught up in the ongoing controversy over the decision by home improvement giant Lowe’s to pull advertising from the TLC show All-American Muslim, a decision made due to pressure from the Tampa-based Florida Family Association.

After the move by Lowe’s, hackers associated with the group Anonymous targeted the website of the Florida Family Association, which had petitioned its supporters to call on companies that advertise during All-American Muslim to pull out of their advertising contracts.

On Monday, a hacker with the Twitter handle @ihazcAnNONz uploaded a list of the Florida Family Association’s email subscribers, a list that includes at least three accounts associated with state Rep. Campbell. Two of those email addresses were used during Campbell’s campaign for District 108.

But rather than lend her support to the Florida Family Association cause, Campbell says she had no idea she was on the subscription list and isn’t sure how she came to receive the group’s emails, according to an aide.

Lawmakers in other parts of the country have blasted Lowe’s (the only company  to publicly comment on its ad removal), arguing that the decision to pull ads from All-American Muslim is “bigoted”  and irresponsible. Some groups, like People for the American Way, have called for a boycott of the home improvement company.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy surrounding the show, it appears that advertising spots for All-American Muslim are becoming a hot commodity. Just yesterday, music and fashion mogul Russell Simmons tweeted that he had purchased the show’s remaining ad spots.

(Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/www.BackgroundNow.com)

The Florida Family Association successfully called for companies that advertise during All-American Muslim to withdraw their ads, saying the show is nothing more than “propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law.” Though more than 60 companies pulled their ads after FFA supporters sent letters, home improvement chain Lowe’s was the only company to comment publicly on why it did so.

Lowe’s reps have said the company pulled the ads due to “strong political and societal views” from many individuals and groups, but People for the American Way says the decision could have been avoided. “Lowe’s should have ignored the canned emails and gone about its business,” reads the group’s statement. “Instead it caved to a group of fanatics who want to make everyone live in accordance with their narrow and rigid religious beliefs.”

As in similar statements from others objecting to the ad pulls, People for the American Way says Lowe’s is “setting a dangerous precedent by meeting the demands of a fringe group” and should apologize and reinstate the ads in an effort to save face. The group also calls on Americans to “boycott hate” and “take their business elsewhere until Lowe’s rejects extremism.”

In a tweet sent out yesterday, hip-hop and fashion mogul Russell Simmons wrote that he had just purchased the remaining ad spots (which will advertise the Visa Rush card) for next week’s episode of All-American Muslim, adding that Lowe’s should “keep” its money: “Just purchased remaining spots for #allamericanmuslim for next week The show is now sold out! keep your money @Lowes and we will keep ours.”

Simmons also tweeted that he had gathered more than 16,000 signatures for a petition against Lowe’s, and will not stop until the company apologizes and reinstates its ads.

Read the full statement from People for the American Way:

Lowe’s is setting a dangerous precedent by meeting the demands of a fringe group, the Florida Family Association. Let’s be very clear about what happened.

TLC launched a popular reality show called ‘All-American Muslim’ about everyday Americans, who happen to be Muslim, going about their lives. They play sports, they go school, they go to work and pay their taxes. This was too much for the anti-Muslim fear mongers at the Florida Family Association, who were outraged that the show was depicting ‘Muslims as ordinary folks just like you and me.’ An article on the organization’s website suggests that the show instead depict ‘one of its secular, attractive nominal Muslims as he decided to get more serious about his faith, and ended up participating in jihad activity or Islamic supremacist efforts.’

The controversy should have ended there. Lowe’s should have ignored the canned emails and gone about its business. Instead it caved to a group of fanatics who want to make everyone live in accordance with their narrow and rigid religious beliefs.

Lowe’s should not base its advertising decisions on religion or the complaints of groups preaching intolerance. The company claims it is committed to diversity – it’s time to prove it.

There are millions of Americans who happen to be Muslim, and there are tens of millions more who won’t stand for religious bigotry. This holiday season, Americans should boycott hate. Lowe’s has taken the side of the bigots. I’m encouraging our members, and all liberty-loving Americans, to take their business elsewhere until Lowe’s rejects extremism and reinstates its advertising on ‘All-American Muslim.’