Molotov Mitchell's Gay-Bashing Follies

Molotov Mitchell has issues with the mere existence of homosexuals -- after all, as ConWebWatch detailed, his straight-edge punk-inspired extremist Christian movement claims to embrace "sexual purity through ... the abolition of homosexuality."

Now, he has endorsed one method of achieving such abolition -- literally, through capital punishment. Mitchell's Dec. 23 WorldNetDaily video was dedicated to defending a proposed draconian anti-gay law in Uganda. that would, among other things, make homosexual acts punishable by life in prison at minimum or the death penalty for those caught engaging in it more than once. It even punishes knowledge of homosexual activity with a prison sentence.

But that's cool with ol' Molotov. He complained that pastor Rick Warren finally came out against the law "after a week of merciless taunting from some lesbian chick at MSNBC" (accompanied by an image of Rachel Maddow). Not only is killing gays endorsed by the Bible, Mitchell claimed, "our founding fathers also made homosexuality a capital offense. Mitchell even found further justification for the law, claiming that in the 1800s, the country "was oppressed by an evil homosexual king, King Mwanga."

Besides, Molotov lectured, "Uganda is a sovereign, democratic nation that's free to make its own laws." Despite his admission earlier in the video that the law would make homosexuality a capital offense, Molotov goes on to claim: "They don't want to kill the homosexuals; they just want them to stop practicing homosexual acts." That follows in the footsteps of anti-gay activists who attempt to separate homosexual behavior from homosexual orientation.

The glossing over of that unpleasant killing-gays stuff, the claim that a democratic state should be free to make its own laws and the invoking of King Mwanga all parallel the misleading defense of the law promoted by Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid.

Leave it up to Mitchell to equate killing people you don't like with "character."

What may be even more shocking (or not) than Mitchell's embrace of such a draconian law is that he concluded his video by quoting Martin Luther King: "The moral arm of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He adds: "Ugandans, stay on the right side of history."

Molotov must be wetting himself at the prospect of achieving some honest-to-goodness "abolition of homosexuality," even if it is only in Uganda.

Perhaps his enthusiastic support came on a bit too strong for people around him, for two weeks later, Mitchell made a video in which he went the some-of-my-best-friends-are-gay route. Mitchell's stance might be taken a bit more seriously if he wasn't mocking those so-called "friends" in the process.

Mitchell began by insisting that because he knows "the data" and "some of the scientists," as well as because "I have personally worked with ex-gays for years," he has concluded that "there's absolutely no evidence to support the gay activists' claim that same-sex attraction is genetic, and it's definitely not immutable." He adds: "When I say I'm against homosexuality, I mean I'm against a self-destructive lifestyle that is both unnecessary and dangerous."

Of course, Mitchell isn't just "against homosexuality"; he favors the "abolition of homosexuality." He did not directly explain how he wants to see such abolition to occur, but his enthusiastic support for the Uganda law is one big honking clue.

Related articles on ConWebWatch: WorldNetDaily's (Mostly) Anti-Gay Agenda Meet Molotov Mitchell Cliff Kincaid's International Gay-Bashing

Mitchell then declared he has "gay friends." This led to a story from his days of working in "actor circles," when he was confronted at a party by a "flaming homosexual" who asked him -- as Mitchell lapses into stereotypically fey, limp-wristed mannerisms and lisping voice -- if he's going to hell for being gay. "I smiled, looked him in the eye, and I said, 'Yeah, it looks like you are headed for hell.'"

He claimed this confrontational behavior went on for several weeks until a going-away party for the "flaming homosexual," during which, according to Mitchell, he was told by the "flaming homosexual" that "you're my only friend because you told me what I always knew." He added: "And then he started sobbing, and I grabbed him and I hugged him, and he just cried into my shoulder." The lesson Mitchell imparts to his viewers: "Faithful are the wounds of friends."

Mitchell concluded: "Over the years, I've had lots of homosexual friends, and I've been straight with all of them about my aversion to their sexual lifestyle. A few have walked away, sure, but for the most part, they've all stayed close, because they knew I really loved them."

But will they love him when they find out he wouldn't object to seeing them punished or even killed by the government for their "lifestyle"? Mitchell hasn't said anything about how his "gay friends" have reacted to his endorsement of the Uganda law, so we may never know.

Mitchell managed to stay away from the issue over the next couple months. But his anti-gay nature came roaring back in his March 10 video, in which he praised Lauren Ashley, the beauty queen who followed in Carrie Prejean’s footsteps by criticizing same-sex marriage. the on-screen text: "Another hot homophobe."

Molotov goes on to reference "Uganda’s democratic right to abolish homosexuality" and says he’s gotten "a lot of support" from "thoughtful Christians" for his position supporting it. He adds, “If liberals pass laws based on their religion, so should we.” This is accompanied by a screenshot of various liberals – Obama, Gore, Pelosi – with signs that read “cap and trade,” “socialized healthcare” and “gay rights.” He then says:

Don’t buy the leftist hype. I wouldn’t flip some magic switch and kill all the gays. Neither would Ugandan Christians or Lauren Ashley. But if they've got the votes, free people should have the right to ban activities they don’t like -- drug abuse, suicide or homosexuality.

Mitchell conveniently failed to mention that the Ugandan law as currently written would permit the death penalty for mere homosexual behavior. That, in effect, is Mitchell's "magic switch" that would almost certainly kill at least some homosexuals if the law is approved in its current form. Given that Mitchell previously highlighted Ashley's statement that "the Bible prescribes the death penalty for homosexuals," he's being a tad disingenuous when he says he doesn't want to "kill all the gays." That's exactly what he says his religion is telling him to do.

Mitchell's focus on how a majority of citizens “have the right to ban activities they don’t like” is strange -- demonstrating that he would like his "magic switch" to spread. Somehow, we suspect that ol' Molotov would not be so accepting of a the will of a "free people" who voted to ban something he liked -- say, Christianity. We'd be hearing a bit more about the tyranny of the majority.

(And how, exactly, does one effectively outlaw suicide? It's not like you can prosecute anyone who commits it, being that they would be dead and all. And prosecuting an unsuccessful suicide doesn't exactly instill the poor "criminal" with the will to live. Unless Molotov wants to prosecute the dead...)

Having thus failed at displaying any sort of moderation in his views on homosexuality, Mitchell then took a stab at rebutting ConWebWatch, albeit not directly.

Mitchell's March 24 video was a response to a letter from "Erin, a proud liberal," who wrote him after she "read about you in Huffington Post and seen several of your disgusting videos." It seems that Erin read a HuffPo article on Mitchell that was adapted from an earlier ConWebWatch article, for she repeats a couple claims we made in it rebutting previous Mitchell videos: "Obama's grandmother never said she was born in Kenya," and "the study you used to support your claim that straight people live longer than homosexuals is from the '80s before HIV treatment had been developed."

On the former claim: "But Erin, according to Kenyan witnesses, that's exactly what she said. Here's the link, check it out." The link he displayed was to an August 2009 WND article by Jerome Corsi repeating the claims of Ron McRae, a Anabaptist minister who claims Sarah Obama said that during an interview he conducted with her. But Corsi doesn't tell the entire story. As ConWebWatch has detailed, McRae's claim has been discredited by a translator during the phone call between McRae and Sarah Obama, who pointed out that the grandmother misunderstood the question McRae was asking. Once it was clear to her that McRae was asking if Barack Obama was born in Kenya, she answered in the negative. Further, McRae is a major Obama-hater, having spread discredited claims and cited "common knowledge" -- not any actual, verifiable facts -- to back up his claim that Obama was born in Kenya.

As to the latter charge, Mitchell first claimed "I just like everything from the '80s," then scrounged up another study: "A study in 2005 confirmed the 20-year life expectancy gap between homosexual men and straight men. Here's the link, check it out." The link goes to the abstract of a study by Paul Cameron, based on obituaries published in a gay newspaper, the Washington Blade. But as the Box Turtle Bulletin points out, Cameron's methodology is flawed:

• The Blade doesn’t have a general community obituary section. The obituaries they cover are mostly limited to the more well-known members of the local community or prominent national figures. Many gay newspapers do not accept obituaries about just anyone unless they are likely to be known among its readers.
• And even if they did, surviving family members aren’t likely to be aware of the gay press, and they may not think to place an obituary in the local gay paper.
  Closeted gays and lesbians would not appear in the gay press simply because nobody would know about them.
• Older gays and lesbians are more likely to be closeted than younger generations.

Further, the Southern Poverty Law Center describes Cameron as an "anti-gay propagandist" who runs a "one-man statistical chop shop" that "churns out hate literature masquerading as legitimate science. Cameron dresses up his "studies" with copious footnotes, graphs and charts, and then pays to publish them in certain journals."

Curiously absent from Mitchell's response is any mention of his endorsement of the anti-gay Uganda bill that permits the death penalty for mere homosexuality, which another HuffPo blogger highlighted -- and is the main reason Erin would have been aware of Mitchell's rantings in the first place.

Mitchell then delivered a mini-lecture: "Sweet, sweet Erin, I do not despise you, I pity you. You are a victim of public education, liberal mythology, indoctrination. I prescribe that you stop reading the Huffington Post and start reading 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis, for starters."

Of course Mitchell doesn't want people reading HuffPo (or, for that matter, ConWebWatch) -- that's how people learn he's relying on unreliable haters and charlatans to back up his claims. Name-checking C.S. Lewis doesn't change that fact.

UPDATE 4/2/2010: Mitchell took another stab at explaining the Uganda law in his March 31 WorldNetDaily video -- and hid the facts again. Mitchell asserted that there is "a deliberate disinfo campaign" claiming that "Ugandans want nothing short of gay genocide." He said he "decided to look deeper":

This isn't my opinion, this isn't Rick Warren's opinion, this isn't even MSNBC's monolithic gay opinion. This is what's in the bill.

Uganda's anti-gay bill formally extends the death penalty to homosexuals who commit pre-existing capital crimes. They are as follows: 1) pedophilia or sexual abuse of the handicapped; 2) knowing that you are HIV-positive yet continuing to spread it to others; and 3) using positions of authority to coerce others into performing sexual acts. That is it. That's as far as the genocide goes.

[...]

You can argue about other aspects of the bill, but you cannot argue that this is a death sentence for being gay. Unless, of course, your version of gay involves intentionally spreading HIV, raping the handicapped and using political clout to cover it up. And you know who you are.

Molotov is wrong. As ConWebWatch detailed when Kincaid made the same claim, the bill as it currently stands provides for the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," which is defined not only as the definitions Mitchell cited but also being a "serial offender," which the bill defines as "a person who has previous convictions of the offence of homosexuality or related offences." In other words, if you were convicted of previous homosexual behavior -- or even one of the "related offences" such as "failure to disclose" homosexual acts or "conspiracy to engage in homosexuality" -- and were convicted of it again, you could be put to death.

Mitchell also name-checked Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa (who has also been cited by Kincaid) as someone who has "called" him "the other night" to complain about how "old colonialization had once again raised its ugly head." Ssempa may be even more anti-gay than Mr. Abolition of Homosexuality himself: Apparently, he runs around Uganda showing gay porn in chiurches in order to whip up anti-gay sentiment, like the anti-gay bill.

Ol' Molotov hasn't stooped to that level -- yet. But Ssempa may have given him some ideas.