Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Dwyer Talks

We first met Don Dwyer at the 2005 CRC Hatefest. An anti-gay cell in Montgomery County, Maryland, called itself ironically the Citizens for Responsible Curriculum, held a kind of conference with nationally known speakers to stir up sentiment against LGBT people. It was the kind of event where you felt you needed a shower afterwards, it made you want to go home and hug your children. It was creepy.

Don Dwyer was the worst of the speakers. He is a state Delegate from Anne Arundel County, and his speech was chilling. He barked from the podium, "If you don’t know about it, I’ve been accused of spreading hate and fear among the churches throughout the State of Maryland. Guilty as charged. I am spreading hate and fear. I am spreading the hate of the homosexual activist and I’m spreading my fear of what’s going to happen to this great state and our great nation if people of this world do not take a stand." You can listen to his speech at the link above, or read the transcript.

This past August he wrecked a speedboat on the Magothy River, injuring nine people, while he was drunk. A five-year-old girl's skull was fractured, seven victims went to hospitals, including four adults and five children. And while I guess there is nothing literally hypocritical about being a destructive drunk while trying to keep people who love each other from marrying, it does seem to take away from his message of pure Christian virtue a little bit.

I guess the Maryland Gazette must have published some articles critical of him, and he complained, so they sent a reporter out to interview him and let him tell his side of the story.

Turns out Delegate Dwyer was drinking a lot last summer, and he had two reasons:
First, he separated from his wife in November 2011.

Second, he felt “betrayed” by longtime allies in the State House.

“I felt a tremendous amount of pressure in my family,” he said. “You take those personal issues (and) add betrayal on the professional side, and it really gets to be overwhelming.” Dwyer opens up on his drinking and recovery
Is it just me, or is there something weird about proponents of "traditional marriage" who can't stay married? My parents weren't very religious but they took the "till death do us part" thing seriously. So what's up with all these guys waving Bibles around? At the CRC Hatefest, Dwyer even opened his oratory with a prayer. Divorced and drunk, now there's a real Christian for you.

When he says he was betrayed by longtime allies, what he means is that some Republicans voted to allow same-sex marriage in Maryland.
Pressures at home were met with challenges in the State House.

Dwyer says he felt sold out when Dels. Tiffany Alston, Wade Kach and Bob Costa voted for same-sex marriage, an issue he spent years crusading against. Dwyer told reporters one day before the vote that he had enough support to block the bill.

Kach, a Republican from Baltimore County, and Alston, a former Democrat from Prince George’s County, voted against the bill in committee. But Kach changed his vote after hearing testimony from gay couples. Alston shifted her vote after her amendment was adopted.

Kach and Costa, of Deale, were the only two House Republicans to vote for the bill. It passed the House by two votes in February.

“I had no time to do anything,” Dwyer said. “Had I known earlier, I could have taken some action.”

It was petitioned to the November ballot and passed by 52 percent of voters state wide. Voters in Dwyer’s district, however, rejected it.

“That betrayal really affected me,” he said. “I was physically ill. You pour your heart into an issue like that and it’s devastating.”
Dwyer was so upset that gay people would be able to marry in Maryland that he went out and got drunk and sent seven people to the hospital.

It seems to me that some people have a warped sense of what is right and wrong.


18 Comments:

Blogger Priya Lynn said...

A classic example of just how immoral and destructive these people are who claim to be campaigning for the good of society. What a grotesque hypocrite.

January 16, 2013 4:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

why is this a relevant topic?

Jim, everything the gay agenda wants it's been getting in Maryland

but years later,you're obsessed with doing whatever you can to denigrate this guy

who's the hater and who's the hatee?

you planning on picketing his funeral?

January 16, 2013 10:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"A classic example of just how immoral and destructive these people are who claim to be campaigning for the good of society. What a grotesque hypocrite."

it's a deadly prejudice of socialists that they think they are somehow less hypocritical than anyone else

he got drunk and crashed his boat?

how immoral and destructive

at least he didn't crash a dirigible while stoned, like so many TTFers do!!

January 16, 2013 10:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don Dwyer said "I’ve been accused of spreading hate and fear among the churches throughout the State of Maryland. Guilty as charged. I am spreading hate and fear."

Now he's a perfect example of reaping what you sew.

January 17, 2013 8:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Michelle Obama!

January 17, 2013 9:40 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Bad anonymous said "you're obsessed with doing whatever you can to denigrate this guy who's the hater and who's the hatee?".

Right, because pointing out that someone who's devoted his life to harming 10% of the population has himself done evil things is so hateful, unlike actually devoting your life to harming innocent people.

Bad anonymous said "he got drunk and crashed his boat? how immoral and destructive".

Right, because driving under the influence, crashing, injuring, and almost killing innocent people isn't immoral or destructive. A same sex couple marrying and supporting and caring for each other - there's your real immorality and destruction people. Look how Canadian society has collapsed and been consumed by natural disasters since accepting marriage equality.

Bad anonymous said "it's a deadly prejudice of socialists that they think they are somehow less hypocritical than anyone else".

Right, because saying "I'm protecting society." while harming innocent people isn't hypocritical. Saying "People at the Pentagon should be working, not surfing" while everyday you shirk your work duties to surf the internet isn't hypocritical. Now saying "Do whatever you want but harm no one" and crticizing those that harm innocent people, well, it just doesn't get any more hypocrtical than that.

Bad anonymous said "Jim, everything the gay agenda wants it's been getting in Maryland".

What happened to your bold assurances that gays couldn't win because they were only pretending to want marriage? Let me guess, the same thing that happened to your bold assurances President Huckabee was gong to do your bidding in 2009 and the same thing that happened to your bold assurances November 5 that the popular vote would be "Romney 52, Obama 48".

January 17, 2013 3:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A group of DC-area citizen activists aged 12 to 85 convene to push for stronger gun laws

WHAT: The March on Washington for Gun Control

WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon

WHY: In response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the March is designed to support common-sense legislation to place reasonable limitations on gun ownership to protect all of us. Specifically, March organizers call for these policy changes:

· Reinstate the assault weapons ban
· Ban high-capacity ammunition magazines
· Enforce a 28-day waiting period, as well as required background checks
· Require gun-safety training
· Outlaw bullets that shatter in the body

WHERE: Beginning at Union Square (between 3rd St NW and the Reflecting Pool just west of the U.S. Capitol), the March will proceed west on Pennsylvania Avenue to Constitution Avenue, concluding with speeches and performances at the Washington Monument.

WHO: Organizers: Led by Molly Smith, Arena Stage’s artistic director, and Suzanne Blue Star Boy, American Indian activist, this group of several dozen DC-area citizen activists also includes a Chicago-born, African-American actor, Paul Oakley Stovall, who was a gun-violence victim at age 21; Peggy Engel, the Newseum’s former managing editor; an 85-year-old grandmother; a 12-year-old videographer who posts to the group’s YouTube site; etc.

Announced Speakers/performers: Include D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollin, actress Kathleen Turner, Virginia Tech shooting survivor Colin Goddard and One Million Moms for Gun Control founder Shannon Watts. More to come.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GunCtrlMarch
Donate: www.rally.org/marchonwashingtonforguncontrol
Web site: www.guncontrolmarch.com
Tweet: @GunCtrlMarch
Watch: youtube.com/gunctrlmarch
Shop: www.cafepress.com/whenwestandtogetherwestandachance

January 18, 2013 10:31 AM  
Anonymous svelte_brunette said...

It’s a small, small world Jim. I clicked on the link to the Dwyer article to find out that he ran in to one Randy Harbin and his family. After checking with one of my colleagues, I learned that it’s the same Randy Harbin I used to work with in Germantown back in the ‘90s.

I hadn't seen or spoken to him in years, but this article gave me the chance to reconnect with him. Fortunately he’s doing o.k. When I knew him in the 90’s, he was one of those friendly, gregarious, jovial kind of guys that everyone likes to be around. I hope this terrible incident hasn’t diminished that.

I truly hope the Dwyer gets a handle on his mental health issues before he injures another Maryland family. I can’t help but wonder if he had spent more time at home focused on his own wife and family, rather than running around the state generating animus towards gay people and their families, if he wouldn't still be married.

I guess we’ll never know. Sometimes karma sucks.

Have a nice day,

Cynthia

January 18, 2013 10:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey, Jim

I seemed to remember you posting something about the Led Zeppelin concert at the Wheaton Youth Center at some point.

FYI, this is the 44th anniversary of that event and there's a documentary on the event at the Silver tonight, bargained priced at $5.

January 20, 2013 8:47 AM  
Blogger JimK said...

It is a kind of legendary event that I think I mentioned once here. Nobody seems to have saved a ticket stub or anything, but a lot of people seem to remember it. The movie ought to be interesting -- let us know what they discover, if you see it!

JimK

January 20, 2013 9:37 AM  
Anonymous svelte_brunette said...

Happy Inauguration Day / Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

I bet for Mitch McConnell, "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to (only be a two)-term president."

Bahhhaaa hhaaahaahahha!!

Have a nice day,

Cynthia

January 21, 2013 11:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dwyer's peeps, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, celebrate Obama's second inauguration here in DC

January 21, 2013 2:20 PM  
Anonymous All men are created equal said...

President Obama’s speech for his second inauguration broke new ground in inclusiveness, with the first use of the word “gay” in reference to sexual orientation and a call for LGBT equality.

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said.

He also invoked the Stonewall riots of 1969, which marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, as a milestone in civil rights history. “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” the president said.

Gay CNN reporter Anderson Cooper commented on the historic nature of the speech. “For a president who only recently, to use his word, evolved on the issue of same-sex marriage, he made very forceful statements in this inaugural address, actually, historic statements on equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans,” Cooper said.

The Reverend Luis Leon, who delivered the benediction, or closing prayer, also sounded a message of inclusiveness, saying, “We pray for your blessing because without it, we will see only what the eye can see. But with the blessing of your blessing we will see that we are created in your image, whether brown, black or white, male or female, first generation or immigrant American, or daughter of the American Revolution, gay or straight, rich or poor.”

The inaugural poem was delivered by Richard Blanco, a Latino man who was the first openly gay poet selected for the job.

January 21, 2013 8:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

isn't it interesting you never heard anything about the political affiliation of these folks on the news.... do you think that would have been the case if their party affliation was Republican ?

Evidence shows that maybe only guns registered to Democrats should be confiscated.
We know who they are they're registered:

... Ft Hood
Registered Democrat - Muslim

Columbine
Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals

Virginia Tech Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff - Registered Democrat

Colorado Theater
Registered Democrat; staff worker Obama campaign; Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal

Connecticut School Shooter
Registered Democrat; hated Christians,

Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive, liberal Democrats.
Not one NRA member has been involved with any mass murder. I wonder if Piers Morgan will mention this.

January 22, 2013 2:02 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Of course, its bad anonymous with the tired old trick of listing a few mass killers who are Democrats and pretending that means most mass killers are Democrats. The reality is the overwhelming majority of mass murderers are Republicans:

Poll finds 80% of serial killers vote Republican

“Across the board, serial killers are predominantly conservative in their political leanings. Gary Ridgeway, Dennis Rader, and probably the biggest name of all, Ted Bundy, were all active in the Republican Party at some level. Quizzing other killers showed the same thing, that the vast majority vote Republican,” said lead pollster David Quick. “We gain no analysis from this, it garners us no insight into the workings of the minds of conservative politicians or serial killers, but it is an overwhelming majority. Because serial killers come from diverse backgrounds and possess vastly different IQ’s they appear to have nothing in common save their conservative ideals and their desire to butcher people. It’s compelling data to be sure.”

January 22, 2013 5:28 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Bad anonymous said "Not one NRA member has been involved with any mass murder.".

Of course that is a lie just like there are 20,000 gun laws in the states (there's about 300 using a generous definition of what is a different law).

Mass murderer's who were NRA members (a partial list)

JT Ready
Timothy Mcveigh
Daryl Benway
Joey Mcullen

And Son of NRA president David Keene was convicted of attempted murder in 2002 when he attempted to shoot another driver.

January 22, 2013 6:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Priya.

seriously you are going to ask these folks what political affliation they are and expect to get an honest answer ? no details on how the "poll" was conducted.
a better indication is there voters registration....


Ft Hood
Registered Democrat - Muslim

Columbine
Too young t...o vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals

Virginia Tech Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff - Registered Democrat

Colorado Theater
Registered Democrat; staff worker Obama campaign; Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal

Connecticut School Shooter
Registered Democrat; hated Christians,

Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive, liberal Democrats.

January 22, 2013 7:46 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Right...Because there's such a strong incentive for someone on death row or in jail for life to lie about who they voted for. Idiot.

Face the facts, the overwhelming majority of psychos are Republicans.

January 22, 2013 8:47 PM  

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