FollowUp 6: Eugene Delgaudio Lies About Legislation Again

Dear Some,

So begins the latest lie from Eugene Delgaudio.  This time it is a lie regarding potential litigation.

Another attack came sooner than even I feared.

I have just found out the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is launching another attack on myself and Public Advocate as a whole.

No.  The Southern Poverty Law Center is not launching an attack.  They are responding, yesterday in the linked blog post, to Mr. Delgaudio's appropriation and modification of copyright materials without attribution or payment.  They are responding to Mr. Delgaudio taking that material, an engagement photograph, a shot of love, and turning it into a tool for hate.  It is Mr. Delgaudio who launched the attack.  The Southern Poverty Law Center is the defender of what is right.  The following in bold is from the linked site.

It was supposed to be a reminder of one of the most special days shared by Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere – their engagement photo.

The black-and-white photograph shows the two men kissing with the New York City skyline in the background. The picture was one of several that Edwards posted on his blog to allow friends and family unable to attend the couple’s wedding to share their joy. But what was supposed to be a symbol of the life-long commitment between two people in love was hijacked by an anti-gay hate group.

Recently, the men discovered their photo had been taken from the Internet and used in an anti-gay mailer to attack a political candidate in Colorado. The city skyline had been removed from the background and replaced with snow-covered trees one might find in Colorado. Bold words, on a red background, were added: “State Senator Jean White’s idea of ‘Family Values?’” White supported Colorado’s civil union legislation.

“This photo represented our love and commitment and the many challenges we have overcome in order to share our lives together,” Edwards said. “When I first saw how our photo had been publicly destroyed and used against gay and lesbian families, I was shocked, heartbroken and livid. I don’t want this to happen to another gay or lesbian couple.”

Neither the couple, nor the photographer, knew about the doctored photo until a friend of the couple informed them. The mailer was the work of Public Advocate of the United States, a Falls Church, Va., organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as an anti-gay hate group.

Today, the SPLC sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group and Eugene Delgaudio, its president. The letter, sent on behalf of the couple and photographer Kristina Hill, warns that the SPLC is investigating the unauthorized use of the copyrighted photo and demands that Delgaudio, Public Advocate and anyone acting on their behalf immediately stop using the photo. It asks Delgaudio to confirm within 10 days that he and Public Advocate have stopped using the photo.

The rest of the article, including the original and the doctored photographs, can be seen at the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Mr. Delgaudio's e-mail continues.

Last week I sent you several emails warning that the SPLC was determined to destroy our organization and our cause.

Together, you helped me raise a decent amount of money for the coming fight, but I must admit that we fell short of my goal...

And with the enemy so suddenly upon us, I am very worried.

So, again, Mr. Delgaudio is after money.  He enriches himself at the expense of the happiness of others.  Evil.

This attack is forming quickly -- I have not even received anything in writing, but they have already leaked it to the press.

Leaked it?  No.  Released it.  A leak implies that there is something to keep secret.

They again claim that Public Advocate is a “hate group” simply because you and I refuse to embrace the Homosexual Agenda.

No.  You don't need to embrace anything and you will not be labelled a hate group.  Mr. Delgaudio makes money by encouraging hate and working actively against equality.

And they are demanding I “cease all operations” in this fight.

Almost.  This is close to true.  The Southern Poverty Law Center's cease and desist letter calls on Mr. Delgaudio to "immediately cease and desist any further unauthorized use of Brian and Tom’s images and likenesses, and any further unauthorized use of Kristina’s copyrighted photos or other intellectual property."  It would be good if they could call upon Mr. Delgaudio to cease all operations, but that's not what's happening in this particular case.  Mr. Delgaudio chose to start this fight and the Southern Poverty Law Center is attempting to end it.  That is what a cease and desist letter is all about.

Public Advocate could soon be facing a serious legal battle for supposed “hate crimes” against the Homosexual Lobby.

The particular cease and desist letter is about intellectual property rights, not hate crimes.  Mr. Delgaudio is, again, imagining future scenarios.  (He is a liar).

My lawyers have warned me not to go into anymore details, but I can assure you this:

As long as I am able, I will continue to fight for the Family.

That is to say, he is going to continue to fight against my family, against the family of Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere, and against all other LGBTQ families.  The supposed warning from his attorneys does not make sense.  Any reasonable attorney would simply tell him to stop using the copyrighted material.

I will send you more information once I receive their letter and my legal team has a chance to review it.

He received it by e-mail before he sent his letter to everyone on his mailing list, begging for more money.

Your public advocate,

Eugene Delgaudio
President, Public Advocate of the United States

P.S. Please prayerfully consider chipping in with a donation of $10 or more to help Public Advocate fight for traditional values.

Sorry to remove the link where he begs for money.  That is Mr. Delgaudio's obvious goal.

Because Public Advocate of the U.S. is a non-profit, charitable organization that fights the radical agenda of the homosexual Lobby, contributions are not tax deductible for IRS purposes. This email was not produced or emailed at taxpayer expense. Public Advocate's phone number is (703) 845-1808, its address is 5613 Leesburg Pike, Suite 17 Falls Church, VA 22041, and its website is http://publicadvocateusa.org/.

It is obnoxious that his hate is not taxed.

19 December 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.
11 January 2012, FollowUp 1.
14 January 2012, FollowUp 2.
16 February 2012, FollowUp 3.
15 March 2012, FollowUp 4.
13 June 2012, FollowUp 5.

Praise: Tom Casady and Ben Gray of Nebraska on LGBTQ Legislation

Mr. Casady, who served seven years as the Chief of Police, is now Safety Director of Lincoln, Nebraska. He is the first two and a half of testimony and another two minutes is question and answer.

The rest of the seventeen minute video is Mr. Gray, a city councilman of Omaha, Nebraska.  He is largely responsible for the similar legislation in Omaha.  Mr. Gray's testimony begins at 4:17 and runs for about five minutes with the rest of the clip being question and answer.

This discussion of why the LGBTQ Community should have legal protection from harassment is something that I wish could be heard by those who continually claim that they are "protecting the family".  This was an important part of more than seven hours of a public hearing yesterday in Lincoln. 

Part of the discussion involves a decision made a few days ago by the Attorney General of Nebraska, Jon Bruning, that local municipalities "are not authorized to expand protected classes beyond the scope of the civil rights provided for in state statute."  The question was asked by Nebraska State Senator Beau McCoy, the author of LB 912, a bill that failed in committee, that would have prohibited local communities from creating hate crime laws.

Brilliant and well thought out answers by both Director Casady and Councilman Gray.  Many thanks to Aksarbent for making this available.

Repudiation: Matt Barber on Hate Crimes

One News Now of the American Family Association reports that Matt Barber of Liberty Council is upset because the media focuses more on hate crimes against gays and lesbians than hate crimes against people for religious reasons.

After analyzing the numbers in the FBI's Hate Crime Statistics report for 2010, Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, concludes that there is a clear bias against religion.

"There were fewer hate crimes committed against people based on an animus toward their sexual behavior than there were committed toward people based on religion," he reports. "So that is to say there were more hate crimes committed against people because of anti-religious bias than there [were] for anti-homosexual bias."

Since Mr. Barber includes links, I decided to dig into this just a little and see what is going on with the detailed numbers.

At the top level, religion and sexual orientation are nearly tied in numbers as reasons for bias in hate crimes.  Race accounts for more than the sum of these.  If one groups ethnicity/national origin with race, then there is a clear majority that is neither religion nor sexual orientation.

The FBI provides some more detailed figures.

Racial bias

Among the single-bias hate crime incidents in 2010, there were 3,949 victims of racially motivated hate crime.  A closer examination of these victim data showed that:

• 70.0 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-black bias.
• 17.7 percent were victims of an anti-white bias.
• 5.1 percent were victims of an anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias.
• 1.2 percent were victims of an anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias.
• 6.0 percent were victims of a bias against a group of individuals in which more than one race was represented (anti-multiple races, group).

Religious bias

Of the 1,552 victims of an anti-religion hate crime:

• 67.0 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
• 12.7 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias.
• 4.2 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias.
• 3.0 percent were victims of an anti-Protestant bias.
• 0.5 percent were victims of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias. 
• 9.1 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion).
• 3.5 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).

Sexual-orientation bias

Of the 1,528 victims targeted due to an offender’s sexual-orientation bias:

• 57.3 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-male homosexual bias.
• 27.5 percent were victims of an anti-homosexual bias.
• 11.8 percent were victims of an anti-female homosexual bias.
• 1.4 percent were victims of an anti-heterosexual bias. 
• 1.9 percent were victims of an anti-bisexual bias.

Ethnicity/national origin bias

Hate crimes motivated by the offender’s bias toward a particular ethnicity/national origin were directed at 1,122 victims.  Of these victims:

• 66.6 percent were targeted because of an anti-Hispanic bias.
• 33.4 percent were victimized because of a bias against other ethnicities/national origins. 

Disability bias

Of the 48 victims of a hate crime due to the offender’s bias against a disability:

• 24 were victims of an anti-mental disability bias.
• 24 were victims of an anti-physical disability bias. 

Liberty Counsel is known for its Christian and anti-gay focus, a hard-line anti-gay group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.  So, it is interesting that Mr. Barber is focused on religious bias when those hate crimes against Christians (both Catholic and Protestant) add up to only 7.2% of the 20% of hate crimes that are religious in nature.  Most hate crimes are of an anti-black bias.  Most religious hate crimes are of an anti-Jewish bias, with second place being anti-Muslim.  The numbers provide the real story.

Barber adds that the leading basis for hate crimes was race, followed by religion. Even so, "It seems the only thing we hear the media talking about are alleged hate crimes against people because they are considered gay or lesbian."

Perhaps the problem is that Mr. Barber is so focused on homosexuality that he misses the media coverage of other hate crimes.  Perhaps there is a bigger story of why we still have more than eight thousand documented victims of hate crimes in 2010.  Perhaps a part of that story is the responsibility of hate groups like Mr. Barber's Liberty Counsel who continue to deride minority groups and depict them as second class citizens, not worthy of the same respect as white Christians.