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Environment
Cities Waffle on Incinerator proposals
Short on landfill space and keen to find novel ways of generating electricity, cities nationwide have begun considering a new wave of incinerator plants designed to be cleaner and more …
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55 Colleges Face Federal Sex Assault Investigation
Some of the 55 colleges and universities facing federal investigation for their handling of sexual abuse allegations say they're cooperating with the U.S. Education Department, though few are offering details …
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Gunfire, Blasts in Insurgent-Held Ukraine City
Gunfire and blasts were heard early Friday around an eastern city in Ukraine that has become the focus of an armed pro-Russian insurgency, whose leaders claimed that government troops had …
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Drugs in Botched Oklahoma Execution Leaked from IV
Some of the three drugs used in a botched Oklahoma execution this week didn't enter the inmate's system because the vein they were injected into collapsed, and that failure wasn't …
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State
Twister: Scores of Dead Chickens on One Miss. Farm
There's nothing left of the poultry farm owned by Charlie and Cindy Wilkes save for splintered wood, twisted metal and scores of dead chickens pungently rotting on the land.
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Botched Execution Could Renew 'Cruel' Challenges
The botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate is certain to fire up the debate over what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment—the phrase written into the U.S. Constitution and defined by …
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North Korea: New Kind of Nuke Test Still an Option
North Korea says it may still go ahead and test a new kind of nuclear device following U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Seoul, but is keeping analysts guessing as …
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Israeli Leader Pushes for Jewish State Legislation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he plans to promote legislation that will enshrine the country's status as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Entry
The Back Story on the Anti-Gay Alliance Attacking Mississippi's "If You're Buying" Campaign
By Donna LaddThis falls in the can't-make-it-up column.
Most of you know that Mitchell Moore of Campbell's Bakery, who is straight, and Eddie Outlaw of William Wallace Salon, who is gay, and others started the amazing "If You're Buying, We're Selling" campaign. They want Mississippi business owners to put stickers in their windows to indicate that they don't discriminate, in response to SB 2681, Mississippi's version of the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act." (See lots of business owners with the icon in their ads in this week's JFP, too.)
So, the religious right is apparently not happy with the international media coverage the campaign is getting -- and from Mississippi, which is supposed to be their wheelhouse, you know. They really didn't like it when Emily Pettus of the AP (the JFP's next-door neighbors) did a story about this that was picked up by many outlets.
In response, they went on a PR tear to take back the messaging. Greg Scott, who tweets at @adfmedia, led the way, tweeting this week in response to the AP story: "Sticker folks protest imaginary law .@AP bows false narrative, RFRA not "vaguely written," no threat to "=treatment" http://bit.ly/QEU2El
Curious, I did some research. Turns out, Scott is the VP for media communications for Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund), a nonprofit group founded in 1994 by extreme-right and vocally anti-gay leaders including James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. (Interestingly, Mississippi's Judge Charles Pickering is also on the board.)
Not to be outdone, the American Family Association, an alliance co-founder, also blasted the sticker campaign on a Christian "news" site, which is part of the American Family News Network, which is part of the ... American Family Association. "It's not really a buying campaign, but it's a bully campaign," said Buddy Smith, executive vice president of Tupelo-based American Family Association, "and it's being carried out by radical homosexual activists who intend to trample the freedom of Christians to live according to the dictates of scripture."
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the alliance (and AFA) on its list of a dozen groups that drive the "religious right's anti-gay crusade." On its website, it brags that its "attorneys have successfully defended marriage as the union between one man and one woman in over 40 cases nationwide."
SPLC indicates that the alliance was established in the early 1990s in response to gay-rights battles in the courts—which it clearly believes is the "principal" threat to religious freedom. ADF President Alan Sears and Vice President Craig Osten wrote " The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom," which ties homosexuality to pedophilia and other "disordered sexual behavior."
SPLC states: "The ADF has also mounted legal challenges to gay military service, marriage, adoption and foster-parenting, as well as to domestic partner benefits around the nation. It trains other attorneys 'to battle the radical homosexual …
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Bryan's Rant
The NBA’s Big Problem
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The Slate
These NBA Playoffs have been entertaining during the first round. Top seeded teams are getting all they want from lower seeds.
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Music
No Flaws to be Found in ‘Forcefield’
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Style
Welcome, Amigos
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Best of Jackson
Pop-Up Ballot: Swift & Sporty
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Cover
Mississippi Mother Diane Bass’ Testimony to Her Church After Learning Her Son, Lance, Was Gay
This is an excerpt of a letter Lance Bass' mother, Diane, wrote to her church about her son's homosexuality.
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Lance Bass on God, Being Gay and Loving His Sweet Mama
Two years after I graduated from high school in 2004, Lance Bass came out of the closet on the cover of People Magazine. His revelation struck a chord for me …
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Cover
Advice From Laverne Cox: Talk About It
As the first transgender performer to have a recurring spot on a television series, Laverne Cox plays Sophia, a transgender woman who is in prison for credit-card fraud, in the …
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City & County
And LGBTQ Rights March On: The Who, What, How in Mississippi
Although there is growing support for equal rights in both Jackson and the state, legislation like SB 2681 has the potential to encourage and legalize discrimination, harking back to Jim …
