YOU really don’t want to be a-messin’ with a batshit-crazy Christian fundamentalist brandishing a bloody great sword, but US clothing company, Old Navy, appears quite unconcerned that hate-monger Tim Wildmon, President of the American Family Association, is spitting tacks over a T-shirt advocating love.
The company got Wildmon’s dander up by launching rainbow-hued gay pride T-shirts for men, women and children in 26 of its stores nationwide. Ten percent of the profits from these shirts will go to the It Gets Better Project, described by the Baptist Press as a “pro-homosexuality” campaign aimed at teens.
It is nothing of the sort. The project simply asks supporters to sign a pledge of respect aimed at stamping out all forms of teenage bullying. It reads:
Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I’ll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I’ll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that ‘It Gets Better’.
In a letter to more than 2.6 million supporters, Wildmon implored them:
To let Old Navy president Tim Wyatt know his decision to engage in corporate promotion and financial support of homosexuality is a bad idea.
Renate Geerlings, a media relations officer for Gap Inc, responded thus:
At Old Navy, we embrace inclusion and diversity. Our customers and employees are of many different ethnicities, faiths and lifestyles. This line of T-shirts is one of many examples of a limited edition T-shirt that we carry during certain months of the year.
Monica Cole, the director of AFA’s OneMillionMoms.com project, whinged:
We want our voice to be heard and our supporters’ voices to be heard. [Old Navy] will lose business from Christians and conservatives because of this campaign.
On the other hand she glumly admitted that Old Navy will probably gain many homosexual customers.
By the way, AFA and OneMillionMoms.com seem to think that “conservative Christian parents” are as dumb as a bagful of spanners. Cole expressed concern that godly guardians:
Will purchase these T-shirts without knowing that they are supporting ‘gay pride.’ The T-shirts read ‘Love Proudly: Pride 2011′ but do not give any indication of supporting the LGBT campaign.
Note: The sword Wildmon is brandishing is the Defender of Life Award presented to him in Texas for his work to defend the lives of unborn children. George W Bush has one just like it. One wonders how many other swivel-eyed Christian lunatics are rewarded with sharp, pointy objects for promoting their irrational and dangerous agendas.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 1st, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Business’s are pretty savvy, they don’t alienate potential customers and they don’t like losing money. These companies know that the old dinosaurs of the christian right are becoming history which is why they are courting the new generations that want nothing to do with the bigotry and hatred that the AFA represents.
July 1st, 2011 at 8:18 pm
So he works ‘to defend the lives of unborn children’ presumably until they turn out to be gay, non-believers or believe in the wrong version of the fairy tale.
July 1st, 2011 at 8:19 pm
They sure love to be offended. And what they hate most is anything remotely like free speech. Their attitude is think what I think and don’t do what I don’t like or I will make you suffer. However, it just’t that easy any more. They are increasingly recognisable religionuts and, like the rapture man, figures of ridicule that no mature and sensible person could take seriously.
July 1st, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Are these defenders of ‘the unborn’ the same people who shoot doctors? Maybe now they have nice big swords they will start using them instead of guns. Also, why the hell does G W Bush have an award for defending the unborn when he has been behind the slaughter of so many of those who were born, American, Arabic, English……?
July 1st, 2011 at 11:22 pm
It kind of goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway – to give a sword as a ‘pro-life’ award sums up the Christian Right in a single object.
July 2nd, 2011 at 12:10 am
I’m assuming their Defender of Abortion Award is a gold-plated coathanger (I would apologise for my bad taste buut these guys are way ahead of me)
July 2nd, 2011 at 1:26 am
On a related note, my baseball team just released a video in support of “It Gets Better”. They were asked to do it by a 12 year old fan, and they did.
http://www.boston.com/sports/b.....lease.html
July 2nd, 2011 at 1:26 am
Pity the twonk doesn’t fall on it.
July 2nd, 2011 at 7:13 am
If I had a chance I know where I would like to put that sword
July 2nd, 2011 at 7:16 am
@Pete H – RE: Red Sox video. Very commendable for sports stars to do this kind of thing. I like Fenway Sports group more now. (They took over my team last year – Liverpool FC)
July 2nd, 2011 at 8:15 am
I was just reading that the American Family Association is listed as a “Hate Group” by Southern Poverty Law Center.
Here’s the article I’m referring to: http://motherjones.com/mojo/20.....ns-allowed
And a link to SPLC: http://www.splcenter.org/
Brilliant article, by the way!
July 2nd, 2011 at 11:46 am
What an infeasibly unwieldy weapon. The term ‘penis extension’ springs to mind. I’d love to see the twerp try to swing it (the sword, not…ahem). Preferable from a distance, as something tells me there wouldn’t be a lot of control involved.
July 2nd, 2011 at 3:12 pm
That sword looks quite like a Zweihander, which was reportedly effective versus pikemen, since one good swipe could turn a dozen pikemen into a dozen men with sticks, at which point the man with an unwieldy sword was better armed.
They were used for about 25 years before strategies adapted and they became impractical once more. Yet again, an approach which only works in very specific circumstances gets adopted as tradition in circumstances where it is ineffective.
July 2nd, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I find it slighly annoying that Christian hate groups seem to like to use the word ‘family’ as if they are the sole defenders of the concept.
July 2nd, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Can’t argue with a defence of the unborn though. Here in the UK it’s permissible to murder your child up until the 24 week mark. By this time you have more than a ‘viable fetus’ in there. You have a mini human being with a voice drowned out by that of the pro-choicers. You don’t want a baby? Then put something on the end of it and don’t use abortion as a ‘contraceptive after the event.’
July 2nd, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Have you read this?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
July 2nd, 2011 at 7:46 pm
And this:
http://www.christiantoday.com/...../28244.htm
July 2nd, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Note: The sword Wildmon is brandishing is the Defender of Life Award
Satire is difficult in a world of Poe.
July 2nd, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Ivan1971: You don’t want a baby? Then put something on the end of it and don’t use abortion as a ‘contraceptive after the event.’
How do you feel about abortion in the instance of rape?
July 2nd, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Ivan1971:
Accidents happen, a lot. Would you rather a child to be forced to enter the world as the result of an unwanted accident; do you think that’s more kind?
If you think women use abortion as a casual means of birth control after the fact (expensive, annoying, and stressful), I suggest you lay off the Daily Mail and start asking around among your friends and neighbors.
July 2nd, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Ivan1971
The 24th week marks the time at which the baby would be considered viable (with very intensive care and much luck) if it were to be born. Prior to that, it would not survive. Seems a reasonable time to draw the line at to me.
You might also note that, ‘here in the UK’, the backstreet abortion is a thing of the past. It’s quite simple: Legalising abortion saves women’s lives. Prohibiting it does not stop women having abortions, no matter what your pastor tells you. It merely makes abortion more dangerous.
July 2nd, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Ivan
I disagree with you, but at least you’re not resorting to religious codswallop to back up your case. The abortion debate would lose a lot of heat, and gain some light, if the pros and cons were argued on purely secular and rational lines. I suspect, though, that the anti-abortion case loses a lot of steam if people can’t use the unfalsifiable argument that there’s a proper little immortal soul sitting there right from the moment of conception.
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:21 am
Ivan
You might not be able to argue with the Wildmon’s defence of abortion, but I can. As ever, religious fascists like him (and probably you, too) think they somehow have the right to tell other people what they can and can’t do. What’s acceptable and what isn’t. Wrong. If you’d rather bring an unwanted child into the world, get on with it and put up with the consequences. What goes on in other people’s relationships and lives has got nothing whatsoever to do with you, so stop your infernal, pious meddling and let the Law determine what’s right and what’s wrong.
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:37 am
I suspect, though, that the anti-abortion case loses a lot of steam if people can’t use the unfalsifiable argument that there’s a proper little immortal soul sitting there right from the moment of conception.
Got it in one! I have no objection to a rational debate on such a serious issue, but this is the reasoning behind most of the “pro-lifers”, who really object to abortion on any grounds, full stop, only they don’t dare come out into the open and say so. In the same way, they come up with all sorts of spurious arguments about homosexuality, single-sex marriage, and so on, whereas the plain truth is that they are opposed to it because it was condemned by a bunch of ignorant, godbothering goatherders around three thousand years ago!
July 3rd, 2011 at 9:01 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....NTCMP=SRCH
July 3rd, 2011 at 9:52 am
People like Ivan1971 just don’t understand that it is a woman’s right to determine what she does with her body, not a bunch of ignorant misogynistic religious fascists who want to keep women barefoot and pregnant. If it was men who got pregnant there would be abortion clinics on every street corner.
July 3rd, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Returning to the original topic – a T-shirt that promotes diversity and a godbothering boycott of your clothing sounds like a win- win situation for Gap. It would be like Marks and Sparks having their bedding department boycotted by the Ku Klux Klan.
Seriously, have you seen the shit fundies wear without irony? I’ve found that the easiest way to avoid ‘street preachers’ and other batshits is simply cross the street when you see an out of condition blob in poorly colour co-ordinated 100% polyester wobbling towards you with an armful of leaflets.
July 3rd, 2011 at 11:17 pm
In July 2010 Tim Wildmon circulated a boycott pledge over The Home Depot’s ‘financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America’s towns’. (Or to put it another way, some of its employees took part in a Pride parade).
Here for your amusement is how my fave blogger, the New Orleans-based author Poppy Z Brite, responded to the spam email she received and the automated follow-up days later thanking her for the ‘support’ -
Dear Tim,
Thank you for alerting me to Home Depot’s admirable policies and respect for other people. I’ll be sure to shop there more often than I already do, and I spent $500 there last week. I’ll also post this information on my blog, which has several thousand readers. You’ve just gained Home Depot a great deal of business.
————-
Dear Tim,
I feel that we’ve become friends during this e-mail exchange, and I hope I can speak to you honestly. I really think you’re getting a little too obsessed with these homosexuals. Is there something you’d like to discuss with me? I’m very nonjudgmental and will always keep your words in confidence. Also, I looked at my homosexual agenda for the next week and found nothing more sinister on it than “Go to rosary” and “Recycling.” I hope this knowledge eases your mind.
July 4th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Stuart: He does a lot of boycotting!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....n#Boycotts
During the summer of 1993 the AFA purchased full-page ads in such periodicals as The New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times denouncing the sexual and violent content of the upcoming ABC police drama NYPD Blue. It also urged ABC affiliates not to broadcast the program and citizens to boycott sponsors of Blue. About a quarter of the 225 existing ABC stations followed suit, but such affiliates were mostly in rural areas of the US. The AFA campaign increased hype for the show in larger American media markets, and Blue became one of the most popular shows of the 1993–1994 television season. In 1996, the AFA launched a boycott against Walt Disney Company when the company began giving benefits to same-sex employees in domestic partnerships. The AFA has claimed that Michael Eisner, the CEO of The Disney Company, “was involved in a media group that actively promoted the homosexual agenda” and was pushing the “gay agenda.” The AFA ended the unsuccessful nine-year boycott in spring 2005 after Eisner left the company. Tim Wildmon stated “We feel after nine years of boycotting Disney we have made our point.” Hahaha!!!