Does Xenu know no shame? The Church of Scientology, which is neither church or science, have obtained the medical records of protesters who have demonstrated against the cult and, after finding out that two of the regular protesters are HIV positive, are seeking a public ordinance that would prevent further protests because they would pose a health risk to cult members.
Because it’s a well established fact that HIV is transmissible only through loud chanting and speeches given on bullhorns.
Boston’s Edge Magazine explains:
“Worldwide pickets against Scientology have surged in the last year, and Scientology has been fighting to stop them, especially near the Hemet compound. According to the protesters, Scientology has used tactics ranging from physical attacks, false reports to police, and the emission of a loud organ note from loudspeakers in an attempt to drown out the protesters’ chants.
Attorney Graham Berry and activists who call themselves “Angry Gay Pope” (AGP) and “Happy Smurf” (a former Scientologist) are openly gay. Scientology, which policy states that homosexuals are “low on the tone scale” and should be “disposed of quietly and without sorrow,” has obtained AGP and Happy Smurf’s private records and discovered that they are HIV positive.
Scientology is lobbying for the passage of a county-wide ordinance in Riverside County that would result in restricting protesting at “Gold Base.” Scientology lawyers are advocating that the presence of the two HIV-positive men presents a threat to the well-being of the alleged 500 workers at the Base, and is seeking to restrict protests. “
And here’s a video of a “Gold Base” protest. The tone in the background is the Church pumping noise out on speakers to drown out protesters.
kevin
This is typical behavior of the cult. L Ron wrote that if anyone criticizes the cult that cult-followers must attack them without mercy, with visciousness, and with any means at their disposal, legal or otherwise.
And by the way, the cult is very much anti-gay. As anti-gay as Fred Phelps could hope to be.
marco
@kevin: That’s just your Thetan talking. Come to Clearwater, we can help you.
😉
The Milkman
It is illegal in the United States to access medical records without appropriate authorization. If this is indeed true, then the Scientologists have opened themselves up to an enormous federal lawsuit. I encourage the two patients involved to pursue legal advice immediately.
Michael J
@The Milkman: AMEN!
petted
@The Milkman: No kidding this severely messed up – someone should be fired over this cause I don’t know how they could even have located these records without a doctor or insurance provider helping them out which is specifically against HIPAA which everyone in a workplace who accesses those records has to sign.
mjf
This is a very serious violation of HIPPA. They should be sued. Further, if there was a member of their cult that worked for a health care provider that gave this information to the cult, they need to get ready for federal prison.
Here’s the article: US Justice Department defines when healthcare providers may be arrested and prosecuted for criminal violations of HIPAA.
Link: http://www.medlaw.com/healthlaw/Medical_Records/8_4/doj-issues-opinion-on-cri.shtml
This is an outrage. Who ever is responsible for this FEDERAL VIOLATION OF PRIVACY must be sued and/or prosecuted.
Timothy
If the Church of Scientology filed publicly available document disclosing the identity and HIV status of the protesters, they may have assumed a huge liability. I would LOVE to be on the jury that decides how large of a punitive penalty to assign.
JC
I assume private medical records of their cult members are equally open for review.
BobP
If this is true, and I hope it is, scientology has opened themselves up for civil suits and criminal charges. This is absolutely against the law, and the guilty parties are fucked. No ones medical records are open for review.
Anyone whose medical records were accessed, HIV+ or not, should get legal help and sue, sue, sue.
don myers
I am one of the protesters whose medically records were “outed” by Muriel Dufresne at the Gold Base protest covered by the LA Times. Not only did she tell the police I and another protester were HIV+ (which left the police puzzled and disgusted by the breach) but they also demanded the drivers license of the LA Times reporter. This was the first time in 20 years of reporting that his press pass was deemed “not good enough.” People are very angry over this but the harassment against me personally is usually much worse.
They followed me for two days, threw two nuisance lawsuits at me which were mostly thrown out, and hired a 275 lb. bald goon to take a punch at me during a Christmas parade.
Videos of all this and more are available at my website http://www.angrygaypope.com.
Louanne
Some of those links, especially the one with the most outrageous lies [8] claiming that Scientology would interfere in some political discussion about gay marriage or even give financial support in this area, are broken. No surprise because the claims are OUTRIGHT FALSE and made with the sole purpose to stir up hatred and unrest. Please consider the facts before you print something false and disgusting like this.
Fact: The Church of Scientology has never spoken out against homosexuality. Ever. The “link” supposedly proving this does not show that either.
Fact: Scientology does not interfere in homosexual affairs. To the contrary, the Church of Scientology deals with the spirit and not with sexual preferences. A third party source about this is here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_scie.htm
Fact: These picketers the article is talking about are three long-term and known anti-scientology haters who were part of a group that has spent days and days screaming and yelling in front of the bedroom windows of Scientology members in the past. Obviously for them Scientologists have no rights and they use “free speech” as an argument to intimidate and harass.
Fact: There are no “private records” about these protesters being HIV+. To the contrary, the two of them who complain about it did tell this to the media themselves. It is a blatant and prosecutable lie to say otherwise. “Happy Smurf” has been claiming that he has AIDS since at least 1997, and the “Angry GAY Pope” did “come out” all by himself in public.
Modemac
Fortunately for all, there’s already a Wikipedia article on the subject of Scientology and homosexuality that sheds more light on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Scientology
By the way, L. Ron Hubbard’s own son Quentin was gay. He committed suicide, though Scientology takes pains not to let people know this.
Louanne
Modemac, Wikipedia is the truth you write yourself…for those who want to uphold some illusions (Has it your (c) too?). Everyone else should concentrate on facts and scholarly sources like this one here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_scie.htm
Louanne
@don myers: talking about delusions. You that guy with the gold mask?
Louanne
@JC: logic, use it. Two of the whopping _three_ protesters were never members of the Church of Scientology. So what “files” would they have about them? Aside from that, see my other posting. The alleged medical information came from the “protesters” themselves, not Scientology. Nice propaganda trick, isn’t it.
Mary McConnell
@Louanne:
Oh, religioustolerance.org? Ha! That’s the Canadian Scientology backed site that I got removed from the US Navy Chaplain’s site (used by all armed services) last year because it promoted unscientifically based information about SCIENTOLOGY’s programs, like Narconon. All it was doing was acting as a front to promote scientology front groups. They removed it real fast when I used FOIA to get all the particulars on how that arrangement was set up.
Louanne, you can try all you want to try and dispell tha facts but you are obviously a newbie on this subject and you are dealing educated critics, many of whom are with former long time members of Scientology, including OT’s and highly classed auditors and Int management staff who left because of the hypocracy. Go back and re-read Science of Survival and you’ll see alot of what LRH wrote about homosexuality. The Gay and Lesbian communities are very familiar with Hubbard’s ‘tech’ on homosexuality and scientology’s designation of of them as low toned & degraded people. I stpped defending Scientology and you need to stop now because enough is enough with covering up the truth.
Louanne
@Mary McConnell: Hi Mary, you are talking trash. Sorry to be so harsh but why don’t you lift those shades off your eyes and read the link. These are facts backed by reality. What you say is prejudices backed by hate sites.
Louanne
@Mary McConnell: Hi Mary, you are talking trash. Sorry to be so harsh but why don’t you lift those shades off your eyes and read the link. These are facts backed by reality. What you say is prejudice backed by hate sites.
Mary McConnell
Thank you for writing about this terrible situation. I listened to the latest hearing and I didn’t see any accountability by the Riverside County Sheriff office in explaining why they did not put the church on notice to knock it off when they mentioned that 2 of the protesters were HIV positive. Instead the sheriff asked for ID from the 3 protesters and 1 LA times reporter and actually showed it to the church reproesentative who called 9211 for no reason in the first place. Provacy and civil rights violation such as this are common with scientology. Glad you are helping document it on the internet.
Louanne
Mary, are you paid to do this or what is the motivation for your work? Just asking.
catscone
louanne is clearly a scientology plant, seriously, no one apologizes for them unless they’re part of the cult. they have a very strong web presence and try to shout people down when dissenting opinions are voiced. she even posted a link to a fucking scientology-owned site. her entire argument is “HERE IS A LINK TO A SCIENTOLOGY SITE IT IS REALITY TAKE THE SHADES OFF WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!”
catscone
oh hey another thing they are taught to do is change the topic to the motivation and personal life of the person arguing against scientology to change the subject and attack ad hominem. just fyi you guys 😉
Louanne is Obvious
As a casual reader, I probably don’t need to point out, but there isn’t much value to others in arguing points with Louanne. She could, for all I know, be speaking the total truth and you guys could be horribly wrong, except, she simply isn’t believable. The credibility gap is too big in this debate.
catscone
heh looks like “she” backed off after i called her out *brushes off shoulda*
nymphae
religioustolerance.org is not and never has been a “third-party” source. 🙂
Scientology registers all sorts of vaguely positive-sounding domain names, but the text on them is copied and pasted from their other sites. lazy AND creepy.
Beenie
This is sickening. What the hell is this so-called “Church” thinking? Not only have they broken the law, they’re happy to wave the fact in the face of the police and the public, and expect a court of law to accept illegally obtained evidence? And haven’t they seen what happened to the Mormon Church after they funded section 8? Promoting discrimination and hindering free speech are not behaviours people see as becoming of a religious institution. And the internet shills like Louanne? This isn’t the first article I’ve seen covering Scientology that’s had one. Have they no idea how creepy and desperate that makes them look?
Louanne
What’s really sickening is that such blunt lies as this article actually find a forum. No Church of Scientology ever funded Prop 8 or anything like that. It’s just not true, period. religioustolerance.org has nothing to do with Scientolog, period. And so on. But you decide to believe lies or not. I can just give a choice.
Lednir
Scientology’s stance on homosexuality is very clear in their teachings; it is a perversion which should be cured or those “afflicted” should be killed. This is stated in Dianetics, the bible of scientology. Why bother claiming this to be false? It’s there for everyone to read about anyway. Also, everything in scientology that sounds even vaguely scientific is generally absolute rubbish, which can be backed up by a quick google search.
xenubarb
Louanne, can you read?
THEN READ THIS!
http://bstewart23.com/blog/yes-on-8-endorsers/
“…Church of Christ, Upland
Church of the Living Christ
Church of the Living God of Perris
Church of the Nazarene
Church of the Rock
Church of Scientology of San Diego
Community Counseling Services, Inc.
Community Christian Alliance Church
Core Christian Fellowship, Murrieta…”
David
The Scientology article on religioustolerance.org is co-authored by Al Buttnor, Director of Special Affairs of the Church of Scientology of Toronto.
Mary DeMoss
Louanne is a well-known Scientology shill.
She follows Google news, and at *any* negative mention of Scientology pops up in the comments section to try to deflect the criticism.
Most notably, she’s never, once, accepted even the smallest criticism of Scientology. Scientology is always perfect. Anyone who criticizes it is a liar. Blah, blah, blah.
Louanne — the organizations the donated to Yes on 8 are PUBLIC RECORD.
Scientology has a long and sordid history of privacy violations — and outright criminal activity.
Maliciously revealing someone’s HIV status is a serious offense. California’s Health and Safety code proscribes some very stiff penalties. The idiot at Scientology’s Gold Base who revealed the two protester’s HIV status to Sheriffs in order to impinge on their first at fourth amendment rights is going to be taught a very expensive lesson in “ethics.”
And whoever gave them the information is going to get reamed, thoroughly, for violating HIPAA statutes.
I hope the two protesters sue the living hell out of your cult.
“The most ethical people on the planet” MY ASS.
Casy
omg that’s LOW.
Louanne
This is PATENTLY REDICKULUS. Scientology has NEVRE DONE ANYTHING RONG EVAR! NAZI KKK LIARS!
BillA
Louanne probably believes the lies she’s spewing. The leaders of scientology wouldn’t dare tell their members the truth about what goes on behind closed doors. Louanne, I have every reason to believe your little COB is beating the crap out of one of his lackey’s at this very moment. He squirreled the tech, Louanne. BTW, he’s homophobic and everyone can pretty much guess why he’s homophobic. Louanne, remember what scilons love to say…”What you resist, you become.” 😉
Louanne
Billa: Funny, I think the same of you. You are actually believing this complete and utter bullshit that is said about Scientology and homosexuals. Tsk, tsk… Anyway, as a Scientologist I attest to the observation and experience and study of L. Ron Hubbard texts that do NOT have ANYTHING to say against homosexuality etc.
Xenubarb: False report. They got on that list without their knowledge. Churches of Scientology to not involve itself or interfere in LBGT issues. I always figured that someone like you registered “them” there to have something to talk about later. Fake. Lie. Not true. Get it?
Louanne
“Mary DeMoss” (you are impersonating a real person which is illegal): “Louanne — the organizations the donated to Yes on 8 are PUBLIC RECORD”
Great, so you are able to tell us the exact amounts then? I am really curious. A link will do.
Louanne
David, No. 30: Not the one I am linking to, see:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_scie.htm
But hey, can you imagine that someone who wants to write about Scientology actually ASKS a Scientologist? What a novel idea!
Louanne
@Billa
This:
“No. 35 · Louanne
@ BillA
I don’t have to listen to any of your NIGGER LIES!”
is a troll writing not done by me. I registered now, so you can see the difference.
– Louanne
catscone
hey louanne, heres a link
http://www.protectmarriage.com/endorsements/churches-endorsing
however, any time someone presents evidence contrary to what you believe you ignore it so i dont expect you to reply to it. youre defending literally the most laughable religion on the face of the earth (laughable because its so transparently man-made and without even the antiquity that lends some type of credence to other potential contenders) and you are never going to change anyone’s mind. anyone who googles ‘scientology’ is literally a click away from the truth no matter how hard you fucks try to prevent it.
Charles J. Mueller
@catscone:
I went to the link you kindly provided. This is what I found.
Missing Controller
Not Found
The page endorsements could not be located.
Do you think they took the page down?