Bash Back!, a radical gay-rights group ("radical" meaning that they've crashed the RNC and the HRC dinner and distributed barf bags with "Corportate Pride Makes Me Sick" at gay pride events) has completely freaked out the Catholic League after they interrupted a church service in Mount Hope, MI.  The Mount Hope, an Assembly of God place of worship found their morning service interrupted after members of the group pulled a fire alarm, handed out pamphlets and yelled at parishioners. The Lansing City Pulse reports:

"The “action” began early Sunday morning at the Northstar Center on Lathrop Street in Lansing where a group of around 20 protesters gathered. Pink bandanas, signs, a rainbow-colored “Bash Back!” flag and a pink, wooden cross were distributed among about half the group — the “outside team.” The rest — “inside team” — were dressed in conservative clothes and carried Bibles and stacks of fliers, intending to blend in to the church‘s 11:30 a.m. “contemporary-laid back service.”

City Pulse was alerted to the Bash Back event through a press release and had no prior knowledge of where the “action” would take place or what it would entail.

“We’re having an action today,” one of the organizers told this reporter at the Northstar Center. “You’re in for a treat.”

Bash Back began picketing outside the church doors soon after the 11:30 service began. The group also handed out fliers, which were much calmer in tone and targeted more at the curious than the angry."

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The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center is suing the city for shutting down its production of the popular musical revue, Naked Boys Singing. From the AP:

"Larry Dupuis, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which is handling the case, said the city's enforcement seemed unusually zealous, even given the musical's content.

"I think the title made it kind of controversial," Dupuis said. "But of course, `The Full Monty' has nudity in it, and that doesn't get it threats to shut it down."

The lawsuit, filed Monday, says the city ordinance is unconstitutional because it gives officials "unbridled discretion" over when permits must be obtained and how applications will be handled. It also says the law could be used to restrict certain viewpoints.

Eileen Force, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Barrett, declined to comment on the lawsuit, and a call to the office of City Attorney Grant Langley rang unanswered Monday afternoon."

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Stare in awe at the latest in disgusting GOP race-baiting.

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A Wisconsin voter got all sorts of riled at a John McCain rally today.

Telling the Republican presidential candidate that he's "mad" at the "socialist taking over our country." The man then went on to blast those "hooligans" Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. The crowd at it up - and so did McCain, who concluded, "Well, I — I think I got the message. Could I just say, the gentleman is right. The Democrats have been in the majority for the last two years. Have we seen any improvement?" The crowd replied with a boisterous "no."

Yet again, McCain allows questionable language to be released at one of his events.

[via TPM]

Being unnecessarily litigiousness can cost you. Just ask Reverend Grant Storms.

The anti-gay preacher man filed a defamation lawsuit against gay rights group Action Wisconsin after they highlighted his homophobic sermons, which they claim advocated offing gays.

A court dismissed Storms' suit back in 2005, but the tenacious pastor wouldn't quit and took his case all the way to the state's Supreme Court. The court, however, wasn't having it and upheld the 2005 ruling.

Storms, who had preached about shooting gays, must now pay about $87,000 for what the court described as a "frivolous" lawsuit.

Hot on the heels of California's gay marriage victory, a Wisconsin court will hear a case hoping to abolish that state's ban on same-sex nuptials and civil unions.

The gay marriage argument, set for a week from Friday, will hinge on the amendment's language:

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor William [McConkey] originally said the ban violates the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution – an argument Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Ness rejected last fall. The judge did leave the door open to McConkey’s claim that the state amendment illegally addressed more than one issue.

McConkey’s lawyer said the 2006 ballot question actually asked two questions: whether gay marriages should be banned, and whether anything “substantially similar” to gay marriage should be banned.

But the state Justice Department defended the amendment’s language, saying it was all meant to do the same thing.

Because, duh!, constitutional procedure doesn't matter when you're coming down on the queers!

Some Wisconsin parents are bent out of shape after a health teacher told her students she's bent:

Some parents of middle school students in Eau Claire are complaining about a teacher's decision to talk about her sexual orientation during health classes.

School district officials confirm South Middle School teacher Stephanie Rowe told her five health classes last week that she is gay.

Parent Karen Peikert says Rowe is an outstanding teacher, but shouldn't be discussing her sexual preference with her students. Peikert says Rowe should stick to the curriculum.

God forbid kids get some real education. Don't these people have lives?!

Social conservatives have no sense of fun! Or, really, sense.

The Christian Right in Wisconsin raised a stink last week after hearing that Reedsburgh's Pineview Elementary had encouraged kids to cross-dress as party of a special "Wacky Week," during which the kids dressed in various costumes. Apparently dressing as a member of the opposite sex crossed a line, because radio program Voice of Christian Youth America interrupted its Friday shows for a special announcement decrying Pineview and its "error." Said station manager Jim Schneider:

We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students. Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error.

Pineview principal Tammy Hayes pointed out that parents had been informed of the special day long before the radio hysterics, while administrator Tom Benson justified the school's shenanigans: "The promotion of transgenderism — that was not our purpose. Our purpose was to have a Wacky Week, mixing in a bit of silliness with our reading, writing and arithmetic." Silly Benson, don't you know silliness has no place in the classroom? If we were to let all of our young Americans dress in drag, well, we'd have an entire generation of Rudy Giulianis. And nobody wants that!

By the way, it was the kids who suggested cross-dressing as part of the "wacky week." We're not sure if that's a good or bad thing…