ANTI-GAY FORMER CHAPLAIN GORDON KLINGENSCHMITT WINS RACE FOR COLORADO HOUSE SEAT

Former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt will be taking his special brand of anti-gay nuttery to the Colorado State Capitol starting next year - having been elected to the state house in Tuesday's election. 

Klingenschmitt trounced his Democratic opponent, Louis Fornander, by nearly 40 percent in the race for district 15's seat. 

In response to Klingenschmitt's victory, Right Wing Watch has compiled a list of some of his more radical views. 

You can also check out the headlines for the past four Klingenschmitt-related stories to highlight how scary nuts this guy is:

• Gordon Klingenschmitt: Gay People 'Want You To Disobey God So You Go to Hell With Them"
• Gordon Klingenschmitt Warns Same-Sex Marriage Allows Gays to 'Recruit Your Kids'
• Gordon Klingenschmitt Warns Christians Are Being Forced to "Worship Sodomy"
• Gordon Klingenschmitt Says Rep. Jared Polis Wants to Behead Christians, Nominates Him in Ice Bucket Challenge

And while it's possible voters were unaware of Klingenschmitt's more incendiary anti-gay rhetoric, the scarier alternative is that perhaps voters were aware of all this insanity and honestly believe he's the best candidate to represent the district's 'values' in Denver...

Meet the Deranged Right-Winger Who Wants to Turn AP History Class into Tea Party Training Course

It’s not very often that someone earns a look from Megyn Kelly that asks, “How f@#$ing stupid are you?”

Julie Williams, the framer of the right-wing attempt to pervert Jefferson County, Colorado students’ education by revising and censoring AP US History classes, appeared on FOX News (where else?) to defend her attempt to “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and to discourage “civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.”

Williams and her two conservative cohorts on the school board, over the protests of thousands of students and hundreds of teachers, passed the controversial proposal with small modifications — a token inclusion of parents, students and administrators – in a 3-2 vote on Thursday that prompted parents and others present to demand the three resign so they can no longer harm the Denver area’s children.

Williams has previously cited the Texas Board of Education, which is known for its attempts to censor and revise US history to follow conservative talking points, as evidence that her idea isn’t the dumbest f@#$ing thing since Bubble Guppies.

“When it comes to history I believe all children graduating from an American school should know 3 things,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “American Exceptionalism, an understanding of US History, and know the Constitution.” Her suggestion makes sense: To most conservatives, knowing three things is a feat of intellectual prowess.

COLORADO: Baker Appeals Cake Ruling

Via the Associated Press:

A suburban Denver baker has appealed an order from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that requires him to prepare wedding cakes for gay couples. Jack Phillips on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeals to reverse the May ruling by the commission. Phillips was sued by a gay couple after he refused to make a cake to celebrate their marriage in 2012. Phillips has said he is deeply religious and that making the cake would violate the Christian principles by which he runs his Lakewood business, Masterpiece Cake Shop. An administrative law judge ruled against Phillips and the commission upheld that decision, finding that Phillips' refusal violated the state's public accommodation law that requires businesses to serve customers regardless of their sexual orientation.

Man Who Believes 'Obamacare Causes Cancer' Wins GOP Primary In Colorado

A conservative radio host who once declared that "Obamacare causes cancer" and said he believes a demonic spirit is possessing the president is on his way to becoming a Colorado state legislator.

Gordon "Chaps" Klingenschmitt won his Republican primary with 52 percent of the vote Tuesday night. In November, he'll face Democrat Lois Fornander to represent Colorado's 15th state House District, which is located near Colorado Springs.

"The voters are rising up with me to defend the First Amendment, religious freedom, smaller government, lower taxes and the right to life," he told The Colorado Springs Gazette after his win. "And those are the values I will fight for in Denver."

Klingenschmitt falsely claimed last year that the Affordable Care Act causes cancer, after he received a letter from a woman who defended the legislation. The woman's friend had recently died of cancer and had been unable to receive treatment because she didn't have insurance.

Earlier this month, he praised a bakery owner for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, proclaiming that anyone who supports gay rights is supporting "hate speech."

Demon-Obsessed Anti-Gay Nut Gordon Klingenschmitt Wins GOP Primary in Colorado House Race

Gordon Klingenschmitt, the former Navy chaplain who has made a career out of exposing (and exorcising) the “demonic” forces behind gay marriage and LGBT rights in general, has won the GOP primary in the race for Colorado’s heavily-Republican House District 15.

The Denver Post reports Klingenschmitt beat opposing candidate Dave Williams 52.6%-47.3% in the GOP race for the seat held by retiring Rep. Mark Waller.

Wrote Klinginschmitt on Facebook:

We won! Thanks to 35 volunteers knocking on doors and YOUR grassroots donations, I am now the Republican nominee for State Rep in Colorado Springs HD15. [...] 

However, we have some debt from the primary race. I just got a bill for $4,138 in printing costs and we have a few more bills outstanding, due this week. 

Can you please contribute to help us repay our primary debt for this election victory? Then we can start from a clean slate to run against a common-core anti-gun Democrat in Nov.

Klingenschmitt wins. Colorado loses.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper Comes Out for Marriage Equality

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper came out for marriage equality on Monday in a statement coinciding with a new equality campaign in the state, 9News reports:

In juxtaposition to Hickenlooper's support for civil unions, which he prominently announced as a legislative priority in his 2012 State of the State address, Hickenlooper's first public comment as Governor in support of same-sex marriage came in the form of a written statement toward the bottom of a press release from LGBT group One Colorado announcing the new legalization effort:

Governor John Hickenlooper: "We have advocated for equal rights for all Coloradans and we will continue to advocate for equal rights for all Coloradans. Last year, Colorado took a historic step forward when we passed bipartisan legislation recognizing civil unions. If all men and women truly have the inalienable right to pursue happiness, and if all people are created equal, then by extension of law, logic, and love, every adult couple should also have the freedom to join in marriage."

Up till now, Hickenlooper has expressed his  views that gay couples should have the same legal rights as straight couple, but has not explicitly mentioned marriage.

Conservatives are angry at Hickenlooper for not making a public statement and hiding his 'coming out' in a press release.

Nine Couples File Suit to Overturn Colorado's Gay Marriage Ban

On Wednesday Colorado saw the filing of a second lawsuit challenging its ban on gay marriage, the Denver Post reports: 

The lawsuit filed Wednesday names Gov. John Hickenlooper (pictured) and Denver City Clerk Debra Johnson as defendants. Currently Colorado permits civil unions between gay couples, but the Colorado constitution bans gay marriage.

"This denial of equal protection, due process, and basic fairness violates the Constitution of the United States of America," says the lawsuit filed by the law firms of Reilly Pozner, Law of the Rockies and Gutterman Griffiths.

Colorado's attorney general John Suthers told the Denver Post he will defend the state's ban.

The AP adds:

According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Denver District Court, four of the couples applied for marriage licenses in Denver in recent days, one pair on Valentine’s Day. The other five married in states where such unions are legal but live in Colorado, where “their valid marriages are reduced to second-class and unequal civil unions, which do not afford them the same rights, protections and security as marriage,” the lawsuit says.

Read the complaint here.

Last October, Dr. Rebecca Brinkman and her partner Margaret Burd filed a suit against Colorado seeking the freedom to marry.

Colorado Pastor Arrested For Kidnapping And Robbery Of Gay Man

A pastor for Set Free Ministries of Colorado Springs is likely looking at a future of proselytizing to inmates in federal prison after being arrested and charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and impersonating a peace officer.

Pastor Michael Abromovich set up a post on Craigslist as "Mike", advertising for gay sex at a local motel. When one man answered the ad and arrived at Abromovich's room, Abromovich slammed the man against the wall and handcuffed him, claiming to be a U.S. Marshall all the while holding him at gunpoint with what eventually turned out to be a paintball gun. Abromovich then searched the man and took his iPad, iPhone, cash, debit card, and car keys as "evidence" that would be "sent back to the lab."

Abromovich was eventually stopped in Phoenix for a traffic violation. When he flashed a badge to the officers, they became suspicious and investigated further, discovering that Abromovich was wanted in Colorado Springs. He has since been extradited to Colorado Springs and investigations continue into whether there were more victims.

It is suspected that some motivation for Abromovich's bizarre criminal behavior may be due in part to the sudden stress of a new baby in the family combined with being diagnosed with cancer last fall.

Court Rules That Bakery Broke The Law By Refusing Gay Customers

A Colorado judge today determined that the bakery unlawfully discriminated against the couple by refusing to sell them a wedding cake.

David Mullins and Charlie Craig visited Masterpiece Cakeshop last year, with Craig's mother, to order a cake for their upcoming wedding reception. Mullins and Craig planned to marry in Massachusetts and then celebrate with family and friends back home in Colorado.

Masterpiece owner Jack Phillips informed them that because of his religious beliefs the store’s policy was to deny service to customers who wished to order baked goods to celebrate a same-sex couple’s wedding. Full story here!

Colorado School Board Member: Trans Students Should be Castrated

A school board member from Colorado made headlines Monday after she said that transgender students should be castrated if they want to use the bathrooms that fit their gender identity, Colorado’s CBS-affiliated station KREX-TV reports.

Delta County School Board member Katherine Svenson’s controversial comments made during an October meeting, were recorded by KREX.

"I would like to pass out something that shows people what is going on in the rest of the country," Svenson said. "Massachusetts and California have passed laws relating to calling a student, irrespective of his biological gender, letting him perform as the gender he thinks he is, or she is. I just want to emphasize: not in this district. Not until the plumbing’s changed. There would have to be castration in order to pass something like that around here." Full story here!

Colorado’s House Republicans ask for flood relief after voting against Sandy aid

Four Colorado Republicans who voted against a $50 billion federal relief bill to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy have asked the president for emergency aid to help clean up their state after devastating floods.

President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration Sunday to help Colorado recover from the floods that continue to ravage many parts of the state.

Republican Reps. Mike Coffman, Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn and Scott Tipton joined the rest of their state’s delegation in asking Obama to send emergency funds to Colorado, reported Think Progress.

Those same four Republicans voted against the Sandy relief package in January, and Lamborn voted against a smaller billion relief package less than two weeks later.

All three of Colorado’s Democratic representatives voted for each of the Sandy relief packages.

GOP Fought To Cut Dam Maintenance Budget In Colorado – Now The Dams Are Breaking

The torrential rains in Colorado this week have resulted in flooding which has killed several people so far. This flooding is made worse by multiple dams which have already failed due to overfill, with dozens more at risk.
Why are they at risk? It turns out that state Republicans have blocked bills to deal with repair or maintenance on infrastructure throughout the state. These efforts, done in the name of fiscal conservatism, do not save money at all, and wind up costing far more than the money saved. Several bridges and dams had already failed before the flooding, which makes the added stress of the current conditions too much to bear. It is reported that over 100 bridges are unsafe while the number of dams nearing failure continues to climb, with over 300 dams listed as at-risk, and two dozen as of extreme risk.
The department tasked with managing the repairs for dams in the state is woefully understaffed and underbudgeted, and the state Republicans refuse to fund any repairs in their push for “small government.” This flies in the face of the reality of aging dam infrastructure across the United States, with 85% to be over a half-century old by 2020.

This is not a new scenario, of failure to maintain key infrastructure leading to disaster. In fact, it is a scenario the people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania know too well. In a wave of privatization in the late 1870′s, the state of Pennsylvania sold several key areas of the south fork river, including the South Fork Dam, to private interests. This eventually landed with a group of private developers, who used the land to found the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in 1881. It was host to notables such as Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and a few dozen other of the wealthiest men in America. It was said that letting private hands manage the dam, which held back the reported 20 million tons of water of Lake Conemaugh, would be more cost-effective than having the state manage it. Instead, the private hands sold off the drain management systems for the value of the iron scrap, making it impossible to regulate the lake water level, and the dam fell into disrepair as ‘turning a profit’ was more important than maintaining the earthen structure.
On May 31, 1889, after several days of hard rain, the South Fork Dam gave way. In the path of the 20 million tons of water, the town of Johnstown.
Read this first hand report by 6-year-old Gertrude Quinn Slattery, a victim of the Johnstown flood, to remind us of the horror which the Republicans seek to engineer on a nationwide scale:

Read More

State Patrol Must Pay $768K to Gay Ex-Trooper

The Colorado State Patrol must pay more than $768,000 to a former patrol captain who was denied re-employment after the agency learned he was gay.

The Denver Post reports State Senior Administrative Law Judge Mary McClatchey ruled Friday that former captain Brett Williams suffered and will continue to suffer from the patrol’s actions. The amount includes back pay with interest, and lost forward pay - totaling $768,268.

Civil unions not the same as marriage when it comes to federal benefits

Same-sex couples in a civil union will not be eligible for most federal benefits now available to married, same-sex couples. In a series of memos released last week, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that same-sex or other couples who are not legally married “will remain ineligible for most federal benefits programs,” although any existing benefits provided to domestic partners “will remain intact.”

The announcement means that the federal government will treat civil unions differently than legal same-sex marriages.

The action by OPM follows the June 26 decision by the Supreme Court which ruled Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. That section of DOMA prohibited the government from recognizing same-sex marriage for purposes of federal benefits programs.

In a memo to federal benefits administrators, John O’Brien, OMP’s Director for Healthcare and Insurance, outlined changes in the status of federal benefits as a result of the DOMA ruling, noting that guidelines will apply to all federal workers, regardless of whether they live in states that have banned same-sex marriage.

That means same sex couples living anywhere in the U.S. will qualify for federal-employee benefits as long as they hold marriage licenses from any of the 13 states or the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal.

The Supreme Court ruling and announcement by OPM invalidate the often used argument by lawmakers opposed to same-sex marriage that civil unions offer the same benefits as marriage, without the title.

Currently, Colorado, Illinois, Hawaii, and New Jersey allow same-sex civil unions.

 

OPM acknowledged Tuesday that treatment for benefits of same-sex couples and domestic partners outside the federal workforce, including with Social Security, tax and veterans’ benefits have not yet been established.

OPM has given legally married same-sex couples until August 26 to apply for federal-employee benefits and two years to change their status for retirement benefits.

Major Transgender Civil Rights Victory in Colorado as State Rules for 6-Year-Old in School Bathroom Case

First-grader Coy Mathis, who was barred from using the girls' bathroom at her Colorado school because she is transgender. She has male genitalia but has identified as a girl since 18 months and lived as a girl since age 4.

Now, transgender advocates are hailing a ruling by the state's civil rights division that could have a dramatic impact on future cases, the NYT reports:

In a sharply worded ruling, the division concluded that the Fountain-Fort Carson School District needlessly created a situation in which the student, Coy Mathis, would be subject to harassment when it barred her from the girls’ bathroom even though she clearly identified as female.

Telling Coy “that she must disregard her identity while performing one of the most essential human functions constitutes severe and pervasive treatment, and creates an environment that is objectively and subjectively hostile, intimidating or offensive,” Steven Chavez, the division director, wrote in the decision.

More on the ruling:

 It noted that while Coy’s birth certificate stated she was male — an argument made by the school district — more recent medical and legal documents identified her as female.

It was clear, the state said, that Coy had completely integrated into society as a girl — wearing girls’ clothing, standing in the girls’ line at school and choosing to play with girls.

But the state’s ruling went even further, saying that evolving research on transgender development showed that “compartmentalizing a child as a boy or a girl solely based on their visible anatomy, is a simplistic approach to a difficult and complex issue.”

Depriving Coy of the acceptance that students need to succeed in school, Mr. Chavez wrote, “creates a barrier where none should exist, and entirely disregards the charging party’s gender identity.”