#1 homophobe in NE Senate manfully assaults his Obama dolly in new campaign ad

Above: Sen. Beau "I'm on a horse!" McCoy

The bad news: McCoy, running for governor against four other GOP aspirants, is being supported by $50,000 in ads from one of the country's biggest dark money organizations, Iowa's American future fund. The good news: the same group is running $130,000 in attack ads against NE AG Jon Bruning, also a vitriolic homophobe.
     In 2012, McCoy tried to ban all municipal LGBT anti-bias legislation in Nebraska with LB912, which never made it out of the Judiciary Committee. Earlier this month, McCoy and Imperial Senator Mark Christensen led a filibuster to kill LB485, an LGBT employment bill outlawing LGBT bias in hiring by introducing 22 amendments to it.
     McCoy, a homeschooled global warming denier, is regarded by some as not much smarter than the fence post off which he knocked an Obama doll, which did not amuse Nebraska Democrats:

     “Beau McCoy hit a new low in his ad, where he is seen striking the president off a fence post,” said Dan Marvin, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.
     “No matter what party you belong to, the depiction of violence displayed in McCoy's ad is completely disrespectful to the office of the presidency and sends the wrong message to our children.”
     Vince Powers, state Democratic chairman, called on McCoy to pull the ad.

Failed cloture vote to end discussion means LB485, Unicameral LGBT antibias bill, is dead this session; Sens. Beau McCoy and Mark Christensen introduced 22 amendments during their filibuster

Senators Mark Christensen (left) and Beau McCoy, architects of LB485's defeat

Above: the 22 senators who voted against a cloture vote to end discussion
(and a filibuster) against LB485, a bill to extend bias protection in the
workplace to LGBT Nebraskans

After eight hours of debate over three two days, supporters of Danielle Conrad's bill to outlaw anti-LGBT bias in employment in Nebraska lost, 26-22 (with 33 votes needed), a cloture vote to end a filibuster on the measure.
     That filibuster was led by the two Unicameral senators proven most reliably antagonistic to the legitimate aspirations of LGBT Nebraskans, Imperial Senator Mark Christensen and Elkhorn Senator Beau McCoy, author of a failed 2012 measure, LB912, to outlaw all municipal ordinances in Nebraska which bestowed protected-class status on LGBTs.
    McCoy is currently running for governor in a GOP primary field crowded by five other candidates
     Together the two heaped 22 amendments, including one kill measure proposed by McCoy, on LB455 during the filibuster they led.
     The cloture vote means the measure is almost certainly dead for now, as the legislature is unlikely to return to consideration of the bill with four days left in this year's session.

      "I think it’s unfortunate that the senators in the state are taking the time and energy to basically block discussion on something that’s a really important matter for Nebraskans,” said Pat Tetreault, director of the LGBTQA Resource Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
     Tetreault was one of several members of the LGBT community gathered at the Nebraska State Capitol to show support for LB485 on Monday. She said many people don’t realize that unless discrimination is prohibited, it isn’t illegal.

    “Currently, the current state of Nebraska condones and supports discrimination, which is why it is so challenging trying to get a bill passed,” she said.
     In 2012, the Lincoln City Council voted 5-0 to pass a city ordinance comparable to one in Omaha that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, opponents of the ordinance received enough signatures on a petition that would either require repeal by the city council or require citizens to vote.
     The council never acted in the matter.
     Not having this kind of legal protection for gay and lesbian citizens is placing our community under scrutiny and puts Lincoln and surrounding areas at a disadvantage,” said Carl Eskridge, a member of the Lincoln City Council, at a 12:30 p.m. press conference in the Capitol Rotunda before the vote to end debate failed. “We want the sign on Lincoln’s front door to be open. In short, the sign on Lincoln’s door cannot say ‘open for business, but with exceptions.’”

The bill's sponsor, Danielle Conrad, pointed out that 20 states and 180 communities already have approved measures similar to LB485, and that most Nebraskans support the bill. (Beau McCoy of Elkhorn, recently annexed by Omaha, claimed his mail was 95% against LB485.)

     “In the workplace, people should be judged on merit, qualifications and performance,” Conrad said. “It’s time for Nebraska to move forward and send a message across this country that we’re open for business to all who are willing to work hard and play by the rules.”
     Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy [as responsible as any for the defeat of the bill] said it would "force employers to tolerate lifestyles that their religions condemn."
     “Our state government should not be in charge of telling small business owners who have religious objections to check their religious faith at the door of their homes when they leave for work in the morning,” he said.

LB485: anti-LGBT filibusterers explain their motives in opposing NE bill to outlaw employment bias against LGBTs

Excerpts from Deena Winters' excellent Nebraska Watchdog report on last Thursday's debate and filibuster over LB485. It's the most comprehensive account AKSARBENT has seen so far of the proceedings. Click the link and read the whole thing.

     ...64 percent support the bill. According to a memo provided by her [sponsor Danielle Conrad] office, the Anzalone Liszt Grove Research conducted a statewide survey of 600 likely voters by telephone in January. The poll was paid for by a coalition of supporters of the bill, including Equal Nebraska and Human Rights Campaign.
     ...The bill – which will be Conrad’s last as a lawmaker – was passionately supported by Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford, who got choked up while recalling how his mother “kicked me out of bed and said, ‘Now you get down there and you fight for LB485.’
     ...Sen. Mark Christensen, R-Imperial, admitted he was launching a filibuster, saying his constituents oppose the bill.
     “Christ tells us to love the person but hate the sin,” Christensen said. “He didn’t tell us to love the person, love the sin.”
     He said he didn’t want to get into an ugly debate over the issue, and then quoted from a study of identical twins that concluded homosexuality is not genetic but can be caused by “non-sharing events” or exposure to pornography, sexual abuse and common environmental factors.
Conrad said all major medical associations reject that point of view, and warned those watching the debate they “may hear a lot of hate” and “junk science” but assured them “that will be nothing more than a dark footnote in a chapter on our civil rights.”
     ...Sen. Bill Avery, D-Lincoln, said 95 percent of the emails he’s received on the bill have been supportive.
     Sen. Ernie Chambers, I-Omaha, who has introduced similar bills over his 40-plus-year career, accused opponents of the bill of “hiding behind religion.”
     “These are people, and that ends the discussion,” he said.
     Sen. Beau McCoy, R-Omaha, said all the lawmakers are opposed to discrimination and “believe in loving our fellow man,” but the bill would force Nebraskans to violate tenets of their faith.
     “Similar laws have been used not as a shield against discrimination, but a sword to punish business owners and people of faith,” he said, noting that when Conrad first introduced the bill in committee last year, she said businesses don’t have the same rights as individuals.
     “That troubles me a great deal and I dare say it would trouble an awful lot of Nebraskans to hear that,” McCoy said.
     But Conrad defended the premise, saying a Taco Bell doesn’t have the same standing as an individual. She said Nebraska can offer as many tax incentives as possible, but will never “attract a big fish like Facebook or Google” if it’s not inclusive.
     ...Sen. Jim Smith, R-Papillion, said while he appreciates Conrad’s compassion and the spirit in which she brought the bill, he opposes the bill because it would be another burden on businesses.
      He said most businesses with 15 to 100 employees don’t have a human resources department and will have to spend more money on legal counsel.
     But Sen. Burke Harr, D-Omaha, an attorney, said if it’s a burden not to discriminate,
“that’s a burden we should be willing to take,” noting that “not one person has been sued” since Omaha passed its ban.
     “This is good business,” he said. “Society is changing. You can fight it, but you’re on the wrong side.”
     Sen. Bill Kintner, R-Papillion, accused supporters of the bill of trying to shame people who support religious freedom.
     “If you’re a Christian bookstore, you want people that reflect your Christian values,” he said.
     He also questioned how people would know someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity and called the bill “an attorney’s dream” that might dissuade people from expanding their businesses to more than 15 employees.
     Conrad, an attorney, offered Kintner “a little free legal advice” –  “Don’t fire someone just because they’re gay.”

Back from the dead: LB485; LGBT employment discrimination bill to be debated by full Nebraska Unicameral

The Judiciary Committee has apparently changed its collective mind. The Omaha World-Herald explains what happened (links added by AKSARBENT):

In February, the bill generated only three yes votes in the Judiciary Committee, two short of the majority needed to advance it to debate by all senators.
     But on Monday, the vote was 5-1 to move the bill.
     Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, who was not present in February, voted yes. So did Hyannis Sen. Al Davis, who voted no in February, citing several emails from constituents who opposed LB 485.
     Davis said he’d given the proposal a lot of thought since then and concluded that people should not be discriminated against for matters he considers “biological.”
     “I finally decided you have to do the right thing,” he said.
     Also voting yes were Sens. Brad Ashford and Ernie Chambers, both of Omaha, and Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln. Hastings Sen. Les Seiler voted no, and Sens. Colby Coash of Lincoln and Mark Christensen of Imperial were not present.

     As God is his witness, home-schooled climate change denier and steadfast homophobe Sen. Beau McCoy of Elkhorn has vowed to filibuster the bill, after which he shall never go hungry again.



Below: Sen. Chambers' AMAZING rant during a pre-session Unicameral Judiciary Committee hearing on the effect of DOMA in Nebraska last fall:

NE DOMA hearing: Atheist Sen. Chambers' half-hour pro-gay rant: drops gay f-bomb, calls state backward, says that like Jefferson, Henry and Washington, he likes black women too; rips fellow senator for possibly outing rural neighbor; impatient hetero supremacists revolt
     Caught in a four-way crossfire between Sen. Chambers vs.Sen. Christensen and Sen. Ashford vs. angry heterosexual supremacists tired of waiting to testify was one Brian something-or-other, a polite, cute and, at times, vaguely alarmed tax attorney who will probably think twice before ever again agreeing to testify before the Nebraska Unicameral.
     Highlights:

• 3:30 Mail-order minister and self-declared atheist Chambers trolls for lawyers to help him find a gay couple to marry so he can sue Nebraska for not granting a marriage license
• 3:44 Calls Nebraska backward, among other things
• 4:38 Recounts his lawsuit to get chaplain out of legislature
• 7:18 Sen. Christensen rises to the bait, expounds on "homersexuals"
• 10:26 Chambers talks about Thomas Jefferson and statutory rape, notes that like Jefferson, Patrick Henry and , he too, likes black women. (Chambers is black.)
• 13:22 Chambers drops the gay F-bomb
• 16:14 Chambers gets the tax attorney to crack a smile by characterizing Catholic Church's indulgence of Michelangelo's same sex tendencies by claiming their position was "We got a little sugar in our britches sometimes also; we understand things like that"
• 17:37 Sen. Christensen gets some payback from Chambers, who never forgets anything, over a stray comment he made at a previous hearing about a gay neighbor
• 22:20 Impatient hetero supremacists revolt, fearing that they won't get to testify by the 2 pm cutoff of the five-hour hearing, as there is no end in sight to Chambers' monologue; Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Ashford quells the insurrection

LB485, LGBT antidiscrimination bill, stalls in NE Unicameral; here's who voted against it

Voting against LB485: (l-r) Colby Coash (402-471-2632), Mark Christensen (402-471-2805),
Les Seiler (402) 471-2712 and Al Davis (402-471-2628)

Advancing the bill required 5 of 8 Judiciary Committee votes. The vote was 4-3 against.
     Voting for the measure were Amanda McGill, Ernie Chambers, Brad Ashford and the bill's sponsor, Danielle Conrad.
     Against were Les Seiler of Hastings, Colby Coash of Lincoln, Al Davis of Hyannis and Mark Christensen of Imperial.
     Steve Lothrop, of Omaha, missed the vote.
     Lobbying against the bill were the Nebraska Family Alliance and Jim Cunningham of the Nebraska Catholic conference who, according to the Omaha World-Herald, said it would be “hard to tell” if religious groups would be exempt based on the wording of the amendment.
     The measure may come up again this session.

Wingnut antigay NE state senator to try again to force state's teachers to obtain concealed carry gun permits

Imperial, NE State Senator Mark Christensen
Photo: Nebraska Unicameral

Christensen says his new proposal would include even more stringent requirements than a failed earlier version of such a bill he sponsored in 2011.
     From WOWT:

The new measure would first require teachers to hold a concealed-carry permit. They then would have to take additional training, possibly with a simulator. After that, the local school board would have to approve them to carry the weapon.

Previously in AKSARBENT:
Christensen was the sole Judiciary Committee vote against LB385, allowing gay foster parents. Christensen introduced two bills limiting the rights of Nebraska property owners. Christensen introduced an antiabortion "justifiable homicide" bill creating a defense for violent attacks on abortion providers. In the video here  at the 17:25 mark, Christensen was accused by a fellow senator of possibly outing a rural gay neighbor during a legislative hearing, and at the 7:47 mark Christensen accused Sen. Ernie Chambers of talking about the "bad genetics" of "homersexuals." Chambers, a fierce defender of gay civil liberties never used such a phrase.

Oh look, there's a Sen. Mark Christensen in Hawaii's legislature too

And the name of the doppelgänger is Mark McDermott, the Christian hate-group-aligned freakshow who seems to be the ideological (and intellectual) twin of Nebraska's Sen. Christensen...
     One difference: to our knowledge McDermott has never been accused of possibly outing a rural neighbor without his consent in a public hearing before a state deliberative body, which puts him one up on Christensen.
     Last Friday, during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the effects of the repeal of the federal DOMA law on gay couples in Nebraska, Sen. Christensen opined that homosexuality seemed (to him) to be a choice and not the result of the "bad genetics" he said fellow senator Ernie Chambers mentioned in comments earlier in the hearing.
     One slight problem: Chambers never used that phrase or anything similar in his remarks about the genetic nature of anyone's sexual orientation.
     Maybe Christensen was confusing Sen. Chambers' remarks with something he read in Mein Kampf? 




Above at about 7:16: Mark Christensen says "homersexuals" aren't that way because of
"bad genetics" (a phrase he falsely attributed to Sen. Chambers) — just bad choices apparently.

LB385, bill allowing gay foster parents, is weakened but advanced in NE Unicameral

Antigay refusenik, NE State Senator Mark Christensen, who
once introduced a "justifiable homicide" antiabortion statute.
Despite his conservative stance, Christensen has twice tried to
pass legislation limiting the rights of Nebraska landowners.

To keep his bill alive, sponsor Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha had to significantly narrow its scope, which originally would have ended Nebraska's prohibition of openly gay couples or unmarried couples as foster parents.
     The revised bill will only allow gay couples to serve as foster parents if they are relatives or have had a previous "significant" relationship with the minor.

     Nordquist characterized his bill as a “common-sense” policy change recognizing that foster children are better off living with relatives or other people they know.

     On a 5-1 vote, with two senators absent the bill was advanced by the Judiciary Committee and will be taken up in the 2014 legislative session. The sole "nay" vote, predictably, came from Senator Mark Christensen, of Imperial, who has a history of antagonism toward legislation benefiting LGBTs. 

     Christensen said he was concerned that opening this door to gays and lesbians will lead to other changes.
     Nordquist said he will not attempt to broaden LB 385 beyond its current scope.
     But Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he would like to see the Legislature consider doing more to end all discrimination against gays and lesbians.
     “It's coming. It's coming faster in other states,” Ashford said. “We need to have a healthy debate.”
     He called LB 385 “a very, very small step.”

Two bills limiting rights of Nebraska property owners introduced by State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial

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Mark Christensen (Photo: Nebraska Unicameral)

The first, LB520, would legalize trespassing by surveyors, as Ben Gotschall sharply noted.
     The language of Christensen's bill would, for example, allow surveyors engaged by a pipeline or oil company — or anyone else — access to a farm or ranch without a permit and without the permission of the landowner.
     The second, LB335, would take away rights of business owners to restrict firearms on their property by authorizing visitors to conceal weapons in their vehicles in private parking lots open to the public — even allowing loaded assault rifles in the parking lots of day care centers or public schools.
     Christensen's bill also specifies situations in which business owners can be sued by people they have forbidden to bring weapons onto their property. His bill makes them responsible, in such situations, for the legal costs of the people suing them.

Animal cruelty: three NE lawmakers sponsor Ag-Gag bill (LB204) to hide animal abuse, jail whistleblowers

LB240, introduced by (l-r) O'Neill Sen. Tyson Larson (Dist. 40) and now cosponsored by
Omaha Sen. Scott Laughtenbaugh (Dist. 18) and Ogallala Sen. Ken Schilz (Dist. 47)

They're called "Ag-Gag" bills and they've been introduced (and sometimes passed) all over the country by stooges of ALEC, the Koch Brothers-funded syndicate which distributes marching orders (in the form of "model" legislation) to compliant state legislators who represent corporate interests first and those of their constituents second or not at all.
     The first part of Larson's bill follows the ALEC template to a "T" — it requires anyone who observes "cruel mistreatment" of an animal to file a report (including the reporter's name and phone number)  to the "entity or entities that investigate such reports in that jurisdiction" within 24 hours.
     This seems reasonable and even humane — but it's a trick intended to deprive whistleblowers of time necessary to document illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws.
     Tyson Larson's clear intent is to keep whistleblowers from gathering enough evidence of systemic, intentional abuse in order to enable successful prosecution of the abuser.


More ABC News Videos | ABC World News
      Larson's Statement of Intent for LB204 would also "require the person making the report to turn over any evidence of the incident, including video, photographs, or audio collected" to authorities (even if the whistleblower knows they won't do anything to prosecute.)
     There's more: "LB204 would also create penalties (up to a class III felony!) for an individual who makes a false statement or representation as part of an application to be employed at an animal facility with the intent of damaging or interfering with the operations of that animal facility. This includes the individual causing economic damage to the facility and its operations..."
     So if a member of the Humane Society gets a job at the facility of a notorious animal abuser and conceals his/her intent on the application, then documents the abuse over, say, a month, then posts a video which goes viral and causes McDonald's and Wendy's to stop buying from the facility, causing "economic damage..." well, you can see where Tyson Larson's scheme is going, can't you?



     Below is some verbiage from Peta (which is lobbying against this, as is the Humane Society) that you can drop into an email to your senator or the members of the Unicameral's Judiciary Committee. Be sure to tell your state senator that you want to be updated on the disposition of this pending bill  and how s/he voted:

Subject line: Please oppose LB204

Dear Senator _____________

I am writing as your constituent to urge you to vote "No" on L.B. 204. If passed, this bill would require that suspected cruelty witnessed on factory farms, in laboratories, and in other facilities that abuse animals be reported to law-enforcement authorities within 24 hours, making it difficult for whistleblowers and undercover investigators to secure evidence of a pattern of routine, systemic cruelty that police and prosecutors demand. The bill could force the premature exposure of those efforts, and it is a clear attempt to hide from consumers and the public at large the grim realities of factory farming and animal experimentation.

Consumers all across the country are demanding better treatment of animals, not for the agriculture industry to cover up illegal cruelty, which is why similar bills have died in Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota, Florida, New York, and Illinois. Please help show that our state has nothing to hide: Vote "No" on L.B. 204! 

Thank you for your attention and for all that you do for Nebraskans.

Pick up the phone and call!

Brad Ashford (Chair)
Steve Lathrop (Vice Chair)
Ernie Chambers
Mark Christensen
Colby Coash
Al Davis
Amanda McGill
Les Seiler

bashford@leg.ne.gov
slathrop@leg.ne.gov
(no email address)
mchristensen@leg.ne.gov
ccoash@leg.ne.gov
adavis@leg.ne.gov
amcgill@leg.ne.gov
lseiler@leg.ne.gov

402-471-2622
402-471-2623
402-471-2612
402-471-2805
402-471-2632
402-471-2628
402-471-2610
402-471-2712

Here's an overview of how Ag-Gag laws really work, from the Humane Society:

Anti-whistleblower bills effectively block anyone from exposing animal cruelty, food safety issues, poor working conditions, and more, by way of the following:

• Banning taking a photo or video of a factory farm without permission,
• Banning possession and distribution of such photos or videos,
• Essentially making it a crime for an investigator to get work at a factory farm, or
• Requiring mandatory reporting with impossibly short timelines so that no pattern of abuse can be documented.

Oh, look — NE Sen. Mark Christensen has a sweater vest stand-in who isn't Rick Santorum (but could be)

This post is a follow-up to this one, if you're scratching your head.

(H/T: Kent Goertzen comment in Bold Nebraska's FB page)

Sen. Mark Christensen, of Imperial Nebraska, bravely protecting the Cornhusker State from the menace of granting legal ties to gay families

Don't keep this story to yourself. Tell your friends via the Facebook,
Google+, Reddit, Twitter, or email buttons at the bottom of this post.

ALSO: Christensen's two bills which limit the rights of Nebraska property owners.

Nebraska State Senator Mark Christensen, of Imperial (Dist. 44), has already made known his hostility to LB485, legislation which would extend employment and public accommodations protection to gay Nebraskans — he told Alissa Skelton in an AP story that he won't support the bill and he "suspects" there will be a filibuster if it makes it to the floor.
     “We have protections for things people can’t change like race,” he said. “Sexuality is a choice.”

Photo: Nebraska Unicameral

     AKSARBENT could run down the reasons why sexual orientation is NOT, for overwhelming numbers of gay and straight people, a "choice," but in 2013, people like Christensen, who exemplify the static cling of baseless, anachronistic stupidity, appear to be beyond the redemption of even the common sense of asking any five heteros or homos whether they "chose" their sexual orientation.
     At last week's LB380 hearing to allow second parent adoption, Christensen and fellow traveler Colby Coash tag teamed each other in raising hypothetical scenarios in which they suggested that Sara Howard's bill to allow second partner adoptions in Nebraska (which mostly affects straight couples and is long overdue) might place kids in the care of unmarried partners who don't live together, which is totally ridiculous.
     At one point Sen. Coash stepped far enough off the metaphorical curb to ask (with a straight face) if he and Christensen could adopt a kid. Sen. Sara Howard diplomatically disabused him of that notion (he lives with his wife, not Sen. Christensen), although it probably wasn't a genuine concern in the first place.
     When Mark Christensen was asked if he had anything to add, he said he wasn't going to "go there," amid hearty laughter mostly from the troglodyte faction of the Judiciary Committee hearing room.
     While kids with two moms or two dads may be a big joke to Senators Colby Coash and Mark Christensen, the legal needs of those kids — and the couples raising them — are not funny to the Sara Howards of this world, who are trying to ensure that such families get the legal protection in Nebraska that they deserve.

Mark Christensen:  mchristensen@leg.ne.gov — 402-471-2805
Colby Coash:  ccoash@leg.ne.gov — 402-471-2632

     Below is an example of the kids and the situations that Coash and Christensen evidently don't give a damn about.

LB380 video: NE State Sen. Colby Coash trolls Judiciary Committee, asks if he and Sen. Mark Christensen can adopt a kid together

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Share it via the Facebook, Google+, Reddit, Twitter, or email buttons at the bottom of this post.



First Coash, BFF of Ted Nugent, asked Sen. Sara Howard, sponsor of LB380, which would allow second parent adoptions in Nebraska, this: "Could you and I adopt a baby?"
     At that point Howard patiently explained to Coash (who was choreographing his "confusion" with flailing hands) that the language of her bill requires compliance with statutory procedures required for adoption (living together, background check, home visit, etc.)
     Presumably, Coash could have read this in the bill before the hearing. Apparently he didn't, and also didn't pay attention to Howard's spoon-fed explanation either, because a few minutes later he reasked the question in an even more inanely provocative manner: "I'm not married to Sen. Mark Christensen either. Could we adopt a kid?"
     (Coash and Christensen sit next to each other at the Judiciary Committee, if that carries any weight.)
     Howard again explained: "You two would have to live together..."
     At this point it was crystal clear that Coash was grandstanding.
     It's sad that the voters of District 27, comprising a large swath of west, downtown and south Lincoln, whom Coash putatively represents, haven't yet dumped him at the ballot box in favor of a better steward of their interests in the Unicameral.

Video: Nebraska State Senator asks "ex-gay" at hearing if he enjoyed the gay sex; two outbursts by Christian opponents of LGBT antibias laws prompt Cmte Chair to threaten to clear the room

NOTES:

• audio on this is much clearer if you use headphones;
• share this via the buttons at the bottom of the post;
• see all AKSARBENT coverage of yesterday's hearing by clicking the label "2012 NE LGBT antibias bills" at the bottom of this post.
• Also: Harvard-educated MD: gay males are sluts, so Nebraska shouldn't approve antibias measures benefiting lesbians
• Dave Bydalek of Family First Nebraska brazenly lies to KETV about LB380, LB385 and LB485
• LB380 video: NE State Sen. Colby Coash trolls Judiciary Committee, asks if he and Sen. Mark Christensen can adopt a kid together

The first outburst at yesterday's Unicameral Judiciary Committee hearings on LB485, LB385 and LB380 came after Sen. Chambers asked a purportedly ex-gay Lincoln realtor (at about the 4:30 mark): Did you enjoy the [gay] sex that you had?
     This prompted a hearing room disturbance by opponents of LGBT antibias legislation, which elicited the following response by Senator Chambers:

We have a lot of Christians in this room and they do not respect the rules, as they should.

     Chambers' question was one of several intended to demonstrate that the person offering testimony against the bill was actually not an "ex-gay" but a bisexual.

     The second outburst came during Chambers' questioning (at about the 8:27 mark in the video above) of psychologist Dr. Edward Stringham, of Lincoln, who has urged the Board of Mental Health Practice to allow those psychologists who refuse to treat gay patients to be able to also refuse them referrals.
     At that point, Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Ashford of Omaha, threatened to clear the room.
     The Omaha World-Herald reported that one person shouted that Chambers was filibustering the bills and eating into the time allotted for opposition testimony. (The Judiciary Committee actually spent more time listening to opponents, probably because more questions were asked of them.)
     Chambers, who represents District 11 in Omaha, also uttered what was probably the funniest line at the hearing, below at the 1:58 mark, after assuring the person testifying (at the 1:09 mark) that he had "not a corpuscle of religion in my body."

Nebraska senate debates LGBT rights: No, Senator Christensen, polygamy is not a sexual orientation

Coming video: Sen. Chambers asks a "former homosexual" if the sex he had back in the gay was enjoyable, causing the Christers in the hearing room to erupt in anger; when they did so a second time, Committee Chairman Brad Ashford threatened to clear the chamber. 

First, one of the two most hostile members of the Nebraska Judiciary Committee, Colby Coash (BFF of Ted Nugent), recited the trendy new talking points advanced by antigay Christians, about LGBT people not conforming to the definition of a protected class in the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 and therefore not a fit group to be designated a protected class in today's thoroughly modern world.
     Senator Ernie Chambers patiently explained (for the obvious benefit of Coash) why the U.S. Civil Rights Act definitions need not and are not the controlling authority for classes that Nebraska is allowed to protect, to whit (emphasis added):

...Nobody could argue and be taken seriously that the legislature cannot not due what is being undertaken now.

     Following that, Sen. Mark Christensen, who represents District 44 and the NRA, was dumb enough to reiterate Sen. Coash's conflation of polygamy with various sexual orientations, (thinking apparently that he would score some points with the Bible thumpers), but LB485's sponsor, Danielle Conrad, efficiently dismissed Christensen's bizarre delusion. 

This Thursday (3/14/13), Nebraska Unicameral holds hearings on 3 bills affecting rights of LGBT residents

Location of hearing room 1113, inside
Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln.

Update: Barring anything unforseen, we shall carry the 3 hearings live on Thursday. Surf to AKSARBENT at 1:30 CST.

For more details on the bills, go here and click on the bills. You can count on the usual suspects (like the Nebraska Family Council and Family First) to be at Thursday's hearing pitching the same lies and bathroom fables against LGBT civil rights legislation that they did before the Lincoln City Council.  
     These are some of the arguments that the Nebraska Family Council and others will be making. Google the issues (split up the work) and find the appropriate responses! Be in Lincoln, do your homework, and be prepared with effective oral testimony and written documents to submit to the committee.
     Especially be prepared to refute the Regnerus Study, the scholarly merit of which has been questioned by 200 PhDs and MDs, and which was concocted to influence the gay marriage debate before the Supreme Court and which was called "bullshit" by an editor of the very journal that published it, Darren E. Sherkat, who was assigned to audit the study after the uproar it caused.
     The Regnerus Study, contrary to virtually every other authoritative, peer-reviewed study, calls into question the parental fitness of same sex couples.  The prestigious American Sociological Association ripped apart the junk science of the Regnerus "research" in a Supreme Court brief on pages 15-22, here.

Contact the Nebraska Judiciary Committee members below (Ernie Chambers doesn't do email) and ask them to vote for LB380, LB485, and LB385. Colby Coash, (BFF of fundraiser Ted Nugent) seems disinclined to vote for LB380, so calls to him are especially needed, particularly if you live in his Lincoln area district.
     A note about LB380 (from ProgressiveOasis):

---

LB380... will allow qualified unmarried couples to adopt. The bill will also allow second parent adoptions.  Contrary to some discussions online, this bill does not mention sexual orientation and gender identity, so don’t even use it as a talking point.  It is strictly an adoption bill allowing unmarried couples and second parents to adopt.  Nebraska has no statute covering these issues and courts have rejected adoptions challenged in court because of the lack of statute. Forward Equality has a sample email and letter you can use to send to members of the Judiciary committee to urge them to pass this bill.  Mika Covington of Forward Equality has done a stand up job of research and petitioning for this bill.

---

Pick up the phone and call!

Brad Ashford (Chair)
Steve Lathrop (Vice Chair)
Ernie Chambers
Mark Christensen
Colby Coash
Al Davis
Amanda McGill
Les Seiler

bashford@leg.ne.gov
slathrop@leg.ne.gov
(no email address)
mchristensen@leg.ne.gov
ccoash@leg.ne.gov
adavis@leg.ne.gov
amcgill@leg.ne.gov
lseiler@leg.ne.gov

402-471-2622
402-471-2623
402-471-2612
402-471-2805
402-471-2632
402-471-2628
402-471-2610
402-471-2712

Nebraska agnostic who sued god says Catholic Church has lower standards than mafia because if mafiosi were 'raping children, they'd off them'

Ernie Chambers, 75, Nebraska's longest serving state senator, self-described agnostic and self-described most hated man in Nebraska, is back in the saddle after a term limit timeout, filibustering a bill to expand prison work programs to provide labor to any "charitable, fraternal or nonprofit corporation that provides a public benefit."
     Chambers gained national notoriety in 2007 when he sued god to ridicule lawsuits he considered frivolous, asking for a permanent injunction enjoining God from making terrorist threats against his constituents in Douglas County, an appropriate venue, he claimed, because of god's alleged omnipresence.
     Deena Winter of Nebraska Watchdog described Chambers' current filibuster, against Sen. Mark Christensen’s bill allowing a McCook prison work camp to provide labor to charitable, fraternal and nonprofit groups.

...While burning up time trying to talk Christensen’s bill to death, Chambers talked about attending a fundamentalist church where, as a child, he claimed children were terrorized and made to feel they were headed for Hell. He called Bible stories “fairy tales” that he outgrew...
     He said preachers who enter the legislative chambers are entering “my territory” to “do their damage.” He accused senators of not heeding those preachers’ calls to “do the right thing,” which he said “brings condemnation on you.”
     While on the subject of Christianity, Chambers noted that Jesus “looked more like me than you all.” Despite his claims he doesn’t believe in God (though he sued God once), Chambers demonstrated that he knows the Bible (which he derisively calls the “Holly Bibel”) well, telling his fellow senators that you can judge a society by how it treats its children, elderly and enemies...
     Finally, Chambers said the Mafia has higher standards than the Catholic Church hierarchy because if their members were “raping children, they’d off them."

AKSARBENT: if you vote for these people, you must have, as Ann Landers said, a "clinker in your thinker"

Pere Ubu, Flickr

You can print this page, cut out the electioneering headline and this paragraph and take with you to the polls the list of candidates below who we wouldn't recommend to any voter. Click on each link to see why we think they should take an early retirement from "public service," or be blackballed from it in the first place.

Iowa:
Steve King
Tom Latham
Al Ringenberg

Nebraska:
Deb Fischer
Lee Terry
Jim Smith
Tom Carlson
Beau McCoy
Ken Schliz
Mark Christensen 
Jean Strotheart

Omaha Roman Catholic, suburban evangelical, Black churches join to attack city's LGBT anti-bias ordinance

In today's Omaha World-Herald, reporters Juan Perez Jr. and Erin Golden provided new details about the scope of the conservative Christian petition assault on Omaha's new LGBT anti-bias law.



        At the forefront are large evangelical West Omaha churches like Christ Community Church (weekly attendance 3500), whose pastor, Mark Ashton (above), refused to speak to the World-Herald, but hammered his congregation for 39 minutes in an Aaron-Shock-lavender shirt about how repealing recourse for artbitrary discrimination against gay Omahans would somehow honor the biblical Esther and demonstrate their faith and told them that other churches, including Westside (4,000 members), King of Kings, Lifegate and Salem Baptist were also promoting the signing of petitions to set aside gay legal protections in Omaha or put them to a popular vote.
     King of Kings' senior pastor Rev. Mark Zehnder wouldn't talk to the World-Herald either; neither would representatives from Lifegate nor Salem Baptist churches. Also cheerleading the effort is Omaha Trinity Hope Foursquare Church, 42nd & Redman, whose pastor, James Patterson testified against the law before the city council last spring.
     Said Ashton (in sermons reviewed by Perez and Golden since he wouldn't be interviewed by them):

"People of God are called to resist their government at key crossroads...Every signature makes a difference in the future of our city."
“This ordinance makes it a crime to publicly hold a Christian viewpoint on sexual morality in the marketplace environment,”

TalkingPointsMemo graphic of quote from p. 24 of Heritage
Proclamation signer Phillip G. Kayser's paper
Is the death penalty just?

     A group organized specifically to bowdlerize the measure is the Omaha Liberty Project, a project of the Christian Couples Fellowship International. The Heritage Coalition, an umbrella group of religious opposition to gay employment and public accommodation rights in Nebraska, said, in a February letter to the council, that the law would “force many of our congregants who own businesses to give special treatment to those who make certain sexual choices.”
     In an otherwise even-handed article, the World-Herald once again quoted Heritage Proclamation verbiage claiming that signatories "condemn violence" against gays, which isn't true.
     Nebraska's only statewide newspaper still has not told its readers about signatory 183 of the Heritage Coalition Proclamation (#172 back in March) — Rev. Phillip G. Kayser, Omaha's death-to-gays preacher, who is so notorious that MSNBC did a segment on him embarrassing the Ron Paul campaign, and so offensive that his venue, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Center, has been the site of repeated protests. YouTube video of one of those protests has been seen almost 1,000 times, but apparently not by anybody who works for the World-Herald (or any of Omaha's TV stations or by the UNO campus newspaper, The Gateway, which, as far as we can tell,  has been willfully or negligently deaf, mute and blind to the controversy in its own backyard for almost a year.)







Ken of ProgressiveOasis.com Riter says UNO Chancellor Christensen told him in an email that the Thompson Alumni Center isn't part of UNO's campus. This seems rather disingenuous in light of the fact that the video shows the university's proprietary logo on the sign identifying the center and a manned UNO security truck parked steps from its door.
     Aside from apparently enjoying free security from UNO to shield its most virulently homophobic customers from the inconvenience of confronting the people they villify, the posh, tax-exempt Thompson Alumni Center also enjoys an advantage for its "country club" banquet facilities that most of its public venue competition doesn't: an exemption from Omaha's 2.5% dining tax. In fact, the center is quite aggressive about promoting itself as a means of escaping that tax, levied to pay for fire and police funding shortfalls. Sweet deal! http://unoalumni.org/thethompsoncenter/catering

Papillion 'Family Values' Sen. Jim Smith sponsors law to make it easier for foreign oil company to condemn land of rural Nebraska families under eminent domain

Sen. Jim Smith, of Papillion, sponsor of
LB1161, which helps TransCanada trample
property rights of Nebraska ranchers and
farmers through abuse of eminent domain.
Smith's law exempts oil companies that apply
during 2012 from complying with Nebraska's
new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act. Smith
claims, with a straight face, that his law
wasn't unconstitutionally written
specifically for TransCanada.

LB1161 would exempt the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline from Nebraska's new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act for a year and would let the company condemn farmer and rancher land under eminent domain without a federal permit for its pipeline.

    Smith is the Nebraska State Chairman of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group funded by the extremist right-wing billionaire Koch brothers, to get bills written by corporate lobbyists passed in state legislatures.

     Smith's bill lets TransCanada dictate terms, conditions and compensation to landowners and if they don't like it — tough luck. Here's the language:

...desiring or requiring a right-of-way or other interest in real estate and being unable to agree with the owner or lessee of any land, lot, right-of-way, or other property for the amount of compensation for the use and occupancy of so much of any lot, land, real estate, right-of-way, or other property as may be reasonably necessary for the laying, relaying, operation, and maintenance of any such pipeline or the location of any plant or equipment necessary to operate such pipeline, shall have the right to acquire the same for such purpose through the exercise of the power of eminent domain...

Above: citizen testimony in May of 2011 about TransCanada's deplorable treatment of Nebraska farmers and ranchers, which would now be aided and abetted by Sen. Jim Smith's pending legislation. (The bills at the end of the video are no longer pending.)

Here's what Bold Nebraska said about LB1161 on March 28th:

This bill IGNORES the laws we just passed during the Special Session and fast-tracks a route approval (before they submit their federal application). Worst of all, LB 1161 grants TransCanada immediate eminent domain authority versus them having to get their federal permit before taking Nebraskans' land which is our state law now.

Despite Jim Smith's ridiculously dishonest denials, the law is obviously boutique legislation to benefit a foreign oil company. Look at the shamelessly specific language in his bill:

...The Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act shall not apply to any major oil pipeline that, prior to January 1, 2013, has submitted an application to the United States Department of State pursuant to Executive Order 13337 or, prior to January 1, 2013, has applied for or is granted international border crossing authority pursuant to federal law.

Ben Gotschall of Bold Nebraska on the LB1161 hearing:

Another frequent phrase used during the hearing by Sen. Christensen was that Nebraska needed to “hold up our end of the deal” with TransCanada. Well, Sen. Christensen, in the Special Session you and the rest of our lawmakers made two deals: one with Nebraskans (LB1), and one with TransCanada (LB4). TransCanada’s deal fell through when their permit was denied. Now, Sens. Christensen and Smith, among others, want to bow out of their deal with Nebraskans and instead stand with a foreign pipeline company, while telling Nebraskans we have to foot the $2 million bill to study their pipeline under the DEQ process.

Reaction from the Nebraska Chapter of the Sierra Club:

The vote by a majority of the Natural Resources Committee to advance LB 1161 disregarded the Nebraska Constitution, the rights of Nebraska landowners and the wishes of all the Nebraska citizens who testified at the committee hearing,” said Ken Winston, Nebraska Sierra Club spokesperson. “The committee had been given a legal memo that raises serious questions about the constitutionality of LB 1161, but disregarded that opinion. They had heard testimony from landowners that the rights of Nebraska landowners needed to be strengthened against eminent domain threats by private pipeline companies, yet they advanced this bill that weakens landowner rights. And every Nebraska citizen who testified on LB 1161 opposed it, yet the majority of the Committee ignored their testimony.

Unicameral Natural Resource Committee members:

• Sen. Chris Langemeier, Chairperson
• Sen. Tom Carlson
• Sen. Mark Christensen
• Sen. Annette Dubas
• Sen. Ken Haar
• Sen. Beau McCoy
• Sen. Ken Schilz
• Sen. Jim Smith