CNN's Ashleigh Banfield Calls Homosexuality a 'Voluntary Lifestyle Choice', Tweets Clarification: VIDEO

At the end of a segment about Kansas Pastor Curtis Knapp, who made headlines this week over a sermon in which he said the government should kill gays, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield declared homosexuality "a lifestyle choice" that "is voluntary", Mediaite reports.

Said Banfield

Pedophilia is not by choice, last I checked. In his sermon, Pastor Knapp blamed the Bush administration for its tolerance of gay people. Says that he claims that set the stage, in fact, for the Obama administration to endorse same-sex marriage.

Like I said: they can’t make this stuff up. Unbelievable. Speechless, right? [...]

Again, we gotta outline here, when he says “they punish incest and pedophilia”… Please. Those things are often not by choice and are crimes. Homosexuality is a lifestyle choice by people; it is voluntary.

Watch the segment, AFTER THE JUMP...

Banfield later said, via Twitter,

"Need 2 clarify. Incest and pedophelia are CRIMES & victims have no choice. Being gay is not. Relatnshps r by choice. Way of life not crime...Being gay is not a choice. Being in consensual relationship is. I support LGBT people. I do not support pastor who says its a crime."

GLAAD tells Towleroad that Banfield will be addressing the remarks on her newscast tomorrow.

Marriage Equality Looms Large Over Obama's Minnesota Visit

President Obama takes his reelection campaign to Minnesota tomorrow, and analysts think both his overall popularity and gay marriage endorsement will help defeat a ballot measure that will further restrict marriage rights in the Northstar State.

From the Washington Post:

Minnesota’s[ballot measure] would toughen current limits on gay rights and etch the ban into the state constitution. Obama won 54 percent of the vote in the state and is expected to win it again this year, so opponents of the ban are hoping enough Minnesotans follow the president’s self-described evolution on gay marriage so they can defeat it.
…
John Murphy, an expert on presidential rhetoric at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said it’s not a stretch to think some Democrats previously unlikely to vote in favor of gay rights would be won over by Obama. When presidents take a new stand on a hot-button social issue, Murphy said, it can motivate dedicated party followers to change their own views and stay on the same page as their party’s leader.

“I imagine his newly unequivocal support for gay marriage is likely to convince at least some die-hard Minnesota Democrats to swallow personal qualms they might have in order to give their side a win,” Murphy said.

The discriminatory measure's defeat may also be aided by the fact Mitt Romney has yet to open an office in Minnesota, nor does he seem inclined to spend time and money in a largely Democratic state he lost to socialyl conservative primary rival Rick Santorum. Plus, it's unlikely Romney wants to get involved in a marriage fight when the majority of the nation supports recognizing same-sex relationships.

Obama, meanwhile, seems in it to win it. Hopefully he'll his use his clout to the best of his ability.

John Edwards Reacts To Not Guilty Verdict, Mistrials On 5 Other Counts: VIDEO

A North Carolina jury found john Edwards not guilty on one count of campaign finance fraud today and a mistrial was declared for the other five charges, all of which stemmed from accusations that Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign knowingly took illegal contributions to hide a pregnant mistress from his terminally wife.

The jury originally told the judge they were hung on the 5 counts, but she ordered them back into deliberations, leading to the 5 mistrials. Edwards, a former senator and White House hopeful, expressed both relief and shame during his post-verdict remarks.

"While I do not believe that I did anything illegal, or even thought I was doing anything illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong," he said. "There is no one else responsible for my sins."

"I am responsible. And if I want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins … it is me and me alone."

After thanking daughter Cate for her ongoing support and declaring his love for all of his children and his parents, Edwards told the gathered reporters, "I don't think God's through with me. I really believe he thinks there are still some good things I can do."

Watch Edwards' remarks AFTER THE JUMP.

 

Hate Crimes Against LGBTQ People Highest In 14 Years

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects today released a collective report on hate crimes against LGBTQ people.

Despite increased public and political acceptance of gays and lesbians, the number of crimes against LGBTQ people is the highest since 1998, the year they began tallying such attacks and also the year Matthew Shepard was murdered.

The amount of physical violence, rather than just verbal abuse, has also skyrocketed — and, not surprisingly, younger people, transgender people and people of color are targeted the most. From NCAVP:

This year’s report shows that LGBTQH youth and young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years old were 2.41 times as likely to experience physical violence compared to LGBTQH people age 30 and older.

As in the case of the murder statistics, transgender people and people of color were more likely to experience physical injury in a hate violence incident. The report found that transgender people were 28% as likely to experience physical violence compared to non-transgender people, and that LGBTQ people of color were two times as likely to experience physical violence compared to those who were not LGBTQ people of color.

These numbers are discouraging, yes, but there is a bit of good news: NCAVP found that mainstream media and the general public are now paying more attention to hate crimes of all varieties.

"In 2011, NCAVP members witnessed a critical shift in the national narrative on anti-LGBTQH hate violence. In the 2010 hate violence report, NCAVP analyzed person level data1 for the first time, which allowed NCAVP to examine the diverse and disparate impacts of hate violence on specific LGBTQH communities," they write in their report.

"As a result, journalists, advocacy organizations, policymakers, and LGBTQH community members began to focus their attention on how hate violence disproportionately impacted LGBTQH people of color, transgender people, and transgender people of color."

Unfortunately these reports based on media accounts and not all incidents are reported either to the police or by journalists, so there are likely many more cases going unnoticed.

Here's a PDF Download NCAVPHVReport2011 of the NCAVP 2011 hate crime.

Towleroad Guide To The Tube #1136

PICTURE PERFECT: Obamas and Bushes together for unveiling former president and first lady's official portraits.
'SPECTRUM:' Florence + the Machine release video for new track.
MORE IMBALANCE: Fox News ran what amounts to a 4-minute smear of President Obama yesterday.
SPIDER-CAT: Puss can walk down refrigerator.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

News: Barney Frank, Zombie-Proof Condos, Madonna's Costumes, Cardinal Dolan

Tyler Clementi's parents said that Dharun Ravi's pre-jail apology was "no apology at all." Rather, it was a "public relations piece."

The New York Times reports that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, an opponent of marriage equality, authorized about $20,000 in payoffs for priests accused of sexually abuse.

A gay couple in South Wales recently won a £1million lottery.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule left the International Space Station to head back home today.

A Kansas-based company transformed an old missile silo into a post-apocalypse compound. Yes, it's zombie-proof, but unfortunately all of the units have sold out. And just as the zombie apocalypse takes off.

Joey Lawrence just gets more and more good looking.

Most comic readers are speculating that original Green Lantern Alan Scott will be DC Comics' new gay character. As anticipation builds, Bleeding Cool dug up a since retconned incident in which Scott and fellow Lantern Kyle Ratner hit up a gay bar.

Rep. Barney Frank reflects on coming out 25-years ago.

Michael Fassbenger let his red beard fly at the Prometheus premiere.

A leading liberal Rabbi in London says that people who use the Bible to justify anti-gay politics might as well as endorse other scriptural extremes. "You are just doing a pick and mix job, and are driven not by religious beliefs but by gay prejudice," Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain said. “If you take this approach to scripture you should also not object to stoning rebellious children or nailing your slave’s ear to the door post.”

Publishing legend Hugh Hefner and runaway bride Crystal Harris have reunited and it feels so good - for them, at least.

A Kansas-based company transformed an old missile silo into a post-apocalypse compound. Yes, it's zombie-proof, but unfortunately all of the units have sold out.

A gay professor in Nigeria has been arrested after allegedly sexually harassing a student.

Starz today released a trailer for the second season of Kelsey Grammar's Boss, which is an excellent show and worth checking out.

Prince Harry's looking for love.

Jean Paul Gaultier, Jeremy Scott, and Arianne Phillips teamed up to create Madonna's costumes for the singer's latest world tour.

Today is the third anniversary of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a man targeted for providing abortions.

New Jersey Democrats have rejected the nomination of Bruce Harris, a black gay man Gov. Chris Christie recommended for the state Supreme Court. Democrats said they worried Harris, the Morris County mayor who has advocated for marriage equality, lacked the experience necessary to sit on the court.

NOM blogger taunts: "Think gay marriage is inevitable? Think again."

Introducing The Gay Travel Guide For Tops And Bottoms. "The book was able to determine which U.S. States had the best top and the best bottom gay male locals."

Facebook will receive some special recognition at the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco this weekend.