By Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute; first published Feb. 25, 2009

Does anyone stop and think about why the government is involved in marriage at all? Some clarity on this issue may prevent the culture–destroying institutionalization of same-sex civil unions and their inevitable successor same-sex marriage–well, both clarity and courage will be necessary.

The government has one concern with marriage. The government seeks to support that institution that best serves the needs of the state. Our government, which reflects the collective wisdom and will of its citizenry, has rightly determined that the institution that best serves the needs of a healthy society is that which best serves the needs of children who are essential to the future success of any nation. And what best serves the needs of children is to be raised, when possible, by their biological parents.

As David Blankenhorn writes in The Future of Marriage, “In all or nearly all human societies, marriage is socially approved sexual intercourse between a woman and a man, conceived both as a personal relationship and as an institution, primarily such that any children resulting from the union are–and are understood to be–emotionally, morally, practically, and legally affiliated with both of the parents.”

The fact that marriage is inextricably bound up in contractual obligations, often pertaining to financial issues, reflects the government’s interest in protecting and preserving the natural family. The government has no legitimate interest in whether marital partners love each other. If the sole purpose of marriage were to publicly recognize, institutionalize, or solemnize sexual attraction and/or emotional affiliation, the government would have no business being involved with marriage at all. The government has no vested interest in whether marital partners love each other. If society is going to regain a proper understanding of marriage, citizens must be disabused of the notion that the government’s involvement in marriage has anything to do with sanctioning love.

If we continue down a path toward legalized civil unions or domestic partnerships, which are based on the fundamental error that the purpose of governmental involvement in marriage is to recognize love, we will end up with polygamy and polyandry. If we accept as true the erroneous claim that government is involved in marriage in order to publicly sanction love and that government-sanctioned marriage is only peripherally or incidentally concerned with procreation and child-rearing, then there is no justification for prohibiting any people who love each other from marrying.

What prompts this discussion is a New York Times op-ed piece co-written by David Blankenhorn, a Democrat and defender of traditional marriage, and homosexual activist Jonathan Rauch. In this article, they propose a compromise between marriage traditionalists and homosexualists who seek a complete redefinition of marriage. The compromise is this:

Congress would bestow the status of federal civil unions on same-sex marriages and civil unions granted at the state level, thereby conferring upon them most or all of the federal benefits and rights of marriage. But there would be a condition: Washington would recognize only those unions licensed in states with robust religious-conscience exceptions, which provide that religious organizations need not recognize same-sex unions against their will. The federal government would also enact religious-conscience protections of its own. All of these changes would be enacted in the same bill.

There are two critical problems with this proposal:

First, there is no reason for the government to provide institutional recognition to same-sex “civil unions” in that they contribute nothing beneficial to the common good. Do not misunderstand that statement: I did not say that those who self-identify as homosexual contribute nothing beneficial to the common good. They unequivocally do. Rather, homosexual unions per se are destructive to the common good. Even the tragic fact that homosexual couples are procuring children via ethically dubious means should not compel the state to redefine the institution of marriage to accommodate this perverse reality.

Second, homosexualists will not for very long accept this compromise. In fact, some will not accept it even in the short- term. Alex Blaze, managing editor of The Bilerico Project, which according to the The Washington Post is a “must read” “in the gay political blogosphere,” writes the following deeply troubling response:

How in the world is that a compromise? It sounds a lot more like rolling over on our backs and letting the Religious Right have 90 percent of what they want. . . . their proposal asks us to support civil unions under the condition that “robust” right of conscience protections are given to religious organizations.

Same-sex marriage is already the compromise position. Civil unions is [sic] a compromise between that and what the right wants: no recognition of same-sex couples at all. Throwing in the right of conscience exemption is just another way for the left on this issue to cave in to the right, moving the debate further in their direction. Moreover, right of conscience rules are a huge regression for liberals, not a step in the right direction.

Right of conscience rules exist already in many states so that doctors can refuse medical treatment to women based on their personal morality, and which the Bush Department of Health and Human Services further expanded towards the end of his lame duck period by allowing pretty much anyone who works in a clinic to refuse anything they deem to be abortion (which includes contraception).

These rules are based on the idea that the far-right is in the process of entrenching that if you really, really don’t want to follow a law, you don’t have to. And if you’re a church, the government shouldn’t be able to make you do anything. It’s a way of expanding their power and getting us all used to the idea that religious organizations (specifically their religious organizations) are above the law.

Blankenhorn and Rauch consider the possibility that without the religious-conscience exemption, “a church auxiliary or charity [may be told] it must grant spousal benefits to a secretary who marries her same-sex partner or else face legal penalties for discrimination based on sexual orientation or marital status,” to which Blaze responds:

OMFG [Oh My F-----g God] THE HORROR! A church might be expected to help someone get medical help. What kind of world do we live in where fine, upstanding religious folks are expected to take part in such filthy acts like paying for their employees’ families health care?

In a fit of pique, Blaze ends in a blaze of inglorious and discomfiting words about marriage traditionalists and compromise:

They’re homophobic and think that society will fall apart if homosexual relationships are recognized by the government. They’re also Randian, free market fetishists who like to keep us, and everything related to the decline of Rockefeller-esque nuclear families, as a scapegoat for everything wrong in society so that people don’t notice what rich folks are doing to shore up wealth.

And their followers are all too ready to fall in line. The best way to go is to push for civil unions first, as well as for the expansion of many of the rights of marriage to include many relationships outside of marriage.

But thinking that a right of conscience exemption has to come with civil unions is absurd. Even statistics Rauch and Blankenhorn cite show that support for civil unions is high enough to get them passed. There’s no need to further expand right of conscience rules and further normalize the idea that churches don’t have to follow the same rules the rest of us rubes have to follow.

There’s no need for this kind of compromise.

Oddly, Blaze and Illinois Family Institute [and Americans For Truth about Homsoexuality--Ed.] are in agreement: this portentous “compromise” should be uncompromisingly rejected.

This article was first published by the Illinois Family Institute. Laurie Higgins is the director of IFI’s Division of School Advocacy and a frequent contributor to Americans For Truth.

“There are over 200 weekend-long BDSM [bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, sadism & masochism] events that take place every year in America – we bring in a lot of revenue in these hard times. We like to stay at hotel chains where we have been welcomed when we’re traveling on personal or business travel.” – National Coalition for Sexual Freedom Alert sent out in response to AFTAH and pro-family efforts to stop a “Winter Wickedness” deviant-sex event at a Holiday Inn Hotel in Worthington, Ohio

Dear Readers,

We received an interesting email – our first ever from an “ex-sadomasochist” – which contained an e-alert from the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF), a group devoted to: normalizing “BDSM” (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, sadism & masochism); creating legal rights based on sadomasochism; and advocating for sexual “swingers” and practitioners of “polyamory” (multiple-partner relationships).

The NCSF message by spokeswoman Susan Wright blasted AFTAH as “religious extremist group” and rallied NCSF  followers to defend a sadistic, deviant-sex event called “Winter Wickedness” that was held at a Holiday Inn Hotel in Worthington, Ohio, Friday and Saturday.

Perversion Stimulus?
Taking advantage of tough economic times, Wright hailed the sadistic celebrations as good for the hotel business, saying that over “over 200 weekend-long BDSM events” take place annually across America.  Appropriating the tendentious language of homosexual and social left activists, she accused opponents of “Winter Wickedness” of “hate and ignorance.”

Below is the anti-NCSF message sent to Americans For Truth by “John Doe,” who sympathize with our efforts against the “Wickedness” event, followed by Wright’s NCSF Alert:

I am writing this e-mail to you as an insider who has recently turned their life around after being subjected to the horrifying world of BDSM. I am attaching a post and I will offer you further posts [on] this group. I hate this group. I want you to make [public the activities of this] group and others like it in [Ohio] because they are expanding.

__________________________________________

Following is an e-alert sent out by the sadomasochist advocacy group National Coalition for Sexual Freedom:

From: Susan Wright
To: ncsf-announce@ serve101.org
Sent: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 3:49 pm
Subject: NCSF Action Alert – Support Winter Wickedness Action Alert
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

Support the Holiday Inn Worthington, the Host Hotel for Winter Wickedness

Please make a phone call now to support the Holiday Inn Worthington, the host hotel for Adventures In Sexuality\’s (AIS) Winter Wickedness Event taking place February 6-8th (www.adventuresinsex uality.org/ wicked09. html). The religious extremist group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, along with a local religious radio station in the Columbus, Ohio, area are running a smear campaign against this pansexual BDSM event. Peter [LaBarbera] of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality calls the event \”a freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest\” and urges people to call the hotel\’s corporate headquarters to pressure them into canceling \”for the sake of decency and public health.\” (www.aftah.org).

Bob Burney, a religious extremist Talk Radio DJ, devoted an entire segment of his show slamming Winter Wickedness and attempting to link the event with non-consensual and criminal activities. He urged his listeners to call and mount a campaign against the hotel. (Tuesday, Part 3 starting at 10 min 42sec: http://www.home. wrfd.com/ WRFDInsiderPage. htm) It will only take a minute for you to help! It doesn\’t matter where you live or if you\’re not going to attend this event. Please call the Intercontinental Hotels Group Corporate Customer service line at 800- 621-0555, then press option 1, then option 5, and thank them for not discriminating against groups, and for being willing to face minor adversity for the sake of our freedom. You can also call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthingto n today at 614-436-0700 b they\’ll be very glad to hear a friendly voice to counter the hatred of the religious extremists.

Suggested points to make:

1. Thank you for upholding the Fair Accommodations Act and choosing not to discriminate against legal events.
2. Please don\’t let a small number of religious extremists manipulate you by drumming up fear with their misinformation campaigns.
3. There are over 200 weekend-long BDSM events that take place every year in America b we bring in a lot of revenue in these hard times. We like to stay at hotel chains where we have been welcomed when we\’re traveling on personal or business travel.
4. Organizers of BDSM events such as Winter Wickedness at The Holiday Inn comply with state and local laws prohibiting public sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual intimacy. Demonstrations, lectures and discussion groups as well as dinners and evening parties compose the variety of offerings to guests, nothing different from any of the other hundreds of conventions hosted by your franchisees on a weekly basis.
5. Thank you for standing strong against hate and ignorance. Please pass this on to your friends to call now! February 4, 2009

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory [multiple-partner] communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual expression. National Coalition for Sexual Freedom 822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127 Baltimore, MD 21202-3707 917-848-6544 media@ncsfreedom. org www.ncsfreedom.org

________________________________

From: Bob Knight
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 12:49 PM
To: \’+AMER HI [Holiday Inn]-Guest Relations (IHG [InterContinental Hotels Group])\’
Subject:  Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington, OH.

Thank you for your reply, and because it is completely unsatisfactory, I will no longer be using Holiday Inn for any of my overnight stay needs. I find it reprehensible that any responsible company or person would allow this type of an event to be held in one of their \”brand\” businesses. As well, I will be forwarding your response, including the original message that I sent to your office, to inform my friends and acquaintances about your lack of concern in regard to this situation.

Thank you,
Bob Knight
[Melba, Idaho]

________________________________________

From: +AMER HI-Guest Relations (IHG) [HI-GuestRelations@ihg.com]
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 12:17 PM
To: [Bob Knight]
Subject: Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington, OH.

Dear Mr. Knight,
Thank you for contacting InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) regarding the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington, OH. We appreciate the time you have invested to share your comments with us. The Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington is independently owned and managed by Alliance Hotels & Resorts (Alliance). The Holiday Inn brand did not endorse nor approve the reported activities associated with this group. Alliance has chosen, due to its understanding of its contractual obligations, to allow the group to maintain their reservation. Alliance has assured Holiday Inn that the property is taking every measure to isolate the group to a limited area within the hotel, the event will not be marketed in public areas of the hotel, and that all group events will take place in meeting areas that in addition to being isolated will also be inaccessible to those who are not part of this group. It is our understanding that the hotel has taken several other precautionary measures to manage the impact of this event, including hiring extra security guards. Also, all guests with existing reservations have been notified of this event and have been offered alternate accommodations at a nearby hotel, and the hotel’s inventory has been closed to incoming guests during the event. Once again, thank you for contacting us. I sincerely hope that this experience does not deter you from selecting IHG for your future lodging needs. ———————- Original Message as sent on 2/5/2009

________________________________________

From: Bob Knight
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2009
To: \’+AMER HI-Guest Relations (IHG)\’
Subject: RE: Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington, OH.

I would like to voice my deepest concerns about the event being held this weekend, called \”Winter Wickedness,\” which is set for the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington Hotel. This event, reportedly, is scheduled to feature classes “on \’gangbang\’ fantasies and various acts of sadomasochistic perversion and consensual sexualized violence, including subjecting fellow participants to hot wax torture, whipping, \’cutting\’ and needles, and being stapled with an electric staple gun.\” Frankly, I am utterly amazed that a hotel chain with the \”family reputation\” that the Holiday Inn brand has would even consider endangering their market base.

By allowing anti-family and socially unacceptable practices you are placing your clientele at harm’s risk. I recently read an article about a 22-month old child who found a used condom between the cushions of a couch in a hotel room. This took place somewhere in the Philadelphia, PA, area. This child proceeded to place the condom in its mouth and swallow the contents. The family is obviously horrified, not knowing if the contents contained any form of venereal diseases or AIDS virus — let alone just the mere thought of what an innocent child had just swallowed. The hotel is now facing [a lawsuit], and the suit contends that Homewood Suites and its subsidiaries, Hilton and Blackstone, put the boy at risk by leaving the \”life threatening\” item in the room and subjecting the boy to an increased risk of contracting a \”sexually transmitted disease, including HIV or AIDS, or some other, potentially life-threatening, potentially fatal illness.\”

Should the Winter Wickedness event take place as scheduled, you can rest assured that neither I nor my family will use the Holiday Inn or any of its subsidiaries for lodging again. As well, I have friends, family, and business acquaintances that I am sharing this news story with. Please carefully weigh the social, economic, and health risks that your company is entering into.

With sincere regard,
Bob Knight
[Melba, Idaho]

By Peter LaBarbera

Sometimes in advocacy work against sexual revolutionaries, you make arguments and inferences that you know are logical and sensible, but at the time they seem a bit theoretical, and it is easy to doubt yourself. The strange thing about the anything-goes world we have entered, though, is that the awful specter you predicted comes faster and more brazenly than you would have thought possible. It happened with “same-sex marriage” — an absurd mimicry of normalcy now embraced by many liberals — and it’s happening with other similarly bizarre concepts and sexual behaviors.

While homosexuals certainly cannot be blamed for the entire, sordid Sexual Revolution, the “gay pride” (GLBT) movement has paved the way for a perversion explosion among “heterosexuals.” For if it’s perfectly acceptable for men to sodomize other men in the name of “love” — and lesbianism and bisexuality and now transsexuality to be treated as OK (while it’s NOT OK to judge them as wrong) — then what on earth is stopping other perverts like Tristan Taormino (above left) from pursuing the same popularity and acceptance? And ditto for “poly rights” in the law.

In the case of Taormino, this is one of those rare instances in which calling someone a “pervert” seems like a quaint understatement. The author of a “lesbian erotic” book, she is also apparently the world’s biggest advocate of anal sodomy for women and also a champion of  “polyamorous” (or “poly,” i.e., multiple-partner) relationships. Taormino is also scheduled to speak at the “Winter Wickness” sadomaschistic event scheduled to be held tonight and tomorrow at the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Thousands of calls have poured into the hotel (614-436-0700) and its parent corporation, International Hotels Group (800-621-0555), from concerned pro-family Americans urging that the event be shut down — and from sadomasochistic activists urging the hotel not to block the event.

Below is her Amazon.com bio, showing her reach into pop and “mainstream” culture (say it isn’t so, Redbook!), followed by a “Poly Pride” keynote speech she gave in New York City.–Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, columnist, editor, and educator. She is the author of four books and editor of eighteen anthologies, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning series Best Lesbian Erotica. Her popular Village Voice column “Pucker Up” is nationally syndicated. Tristan has been featured in over 250 publications including The New York Times, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Details, New York Magazine, and Men’s Health. She has appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Loveline, Ricki Lake, and on HBO, CNN, MTV, and The Discovery Channel. She lectures at top colleges and universities and teaches workshops around the world.

___________________________________
Poly Pride Keynote Speech
Tristan Taormino
October 4, 2008; [emphasis added by AFTAH]

Thanks to Polyamorous NYC [New York City] for hosting this and all the other events this weekend in celebration of Poly Pride, and especially to Birgitte and Lyndell for inviting me to be here, and Antonia, Justen, Patrick, Rich, and Mark for their organizing efforts.

When I was researching my new book on open relationships, I read the classic 1973 book Group Marriage by Larry and Joan Constantine, which was based on interviews with people all over the U.S. who were living in group marriages. Back then, the Constantines found their first interview subjects through a very loosely organized group that published a newsletter called “The Harrad Letter” and held sporadic meetings somewhere in New England. From there, the couple tracked people down through word of mouth, even innuendo and gossip. They followed up every lead they got by writing letters to people asking them to participate in their study. Then, they packed up their Volkswagen Squareback and made six cross-country trips in three years to talk to these people. It’s pretty remarkable to think that they had the courage to literally drive to the homes of complete strangers, knock on their doors, and talk to them about something no one was talking about back then.

Thirty five years later, here we are in Central Park, and looking out into this crowd today, obviously a lot has changed. People interested in consensual non-monogamy have many resources at their disposal, and we no longer have to drive cross country to find each other. This is due in large part to the work of educators and activists within the growing polyamory movement. But while we can connect, network, and support each other, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about our relationships. Many of us cannot be open with our loved ones about our lives for fear of being ostracized or discriminated against. We face ignorance and hostility because we dare to challenge two intertwined institutions: marriage and monogamy.

Marriage as we know it is changing. Conservatives would say it’s under attack, under fire. I say it’s just under construction. And hopefully, this fall on Election Day, we can also say it’s under new management. Queer people are at the forefront of the movement to re-define marriage right now, and unfortunately—with typical divide-and-conquer tactics—the Right Wing has pitted queers and polyfolk against one another. Conservative Stanley Kurtz said “Among the likeliest effects of gay marriage is to take us down a slippery slope to legalized polygamy and ‘polyamory.’ Marriage will be transformed into a variety of relationship contracts, linking two, three, or more individuals (however weakly and temporarily) in every conceivable combination of male and female.” As if that is a bad thing? Celebrating more love and more commitments between consenting adults?

Some gays and lesbians have responded to the charge of the “slippery slope” by calling it ridiculous, but others have defended gay marriage by denouncing polyamory. What about those of us who are queer and poly? Queers and polyfolk have a lot in common, and we need to recognize the ways we can help each other. Queer people must stand up and say we believe in the rights of everyone to love, commit to, and marry whomever they want. We must not throw polyamory under the bus in favor of advancing queer marriage rights.

We need to listen to each other and learn from each other. The polyamory movement can learn a lot from the GLBT movement. The poly community must strive to be an INCLUSIVE community. We cannot turn our backs on poly swingers or solo polyamorists or that one really slutty poly friend we all have. We cannot shrug off monogamous folks who want to be our allies. We need to embrace all those people around us who are challenging monogamy in some way and who believe in the rights of people to protect their relationships, whatever form they take. And we need to find a way to change the climate in this country, by creating community to foster a larger awareness and understanding of multi-love relationships.

People ask me a lot, “What did you learn from the people you interviewed for Opening Up? What do they all have in common? What makes open relationships work?” There are some common principles. Honesty. Self awareness. Trust. Communication. Boundaries. Commitment.

And this may be what is scariest of all to our enemies: we practice what they preach. We have values. We have many of the exact same values they that they claim over and over we don’t. Values is such a loaded term, it has become laced with religion and morality and the conservative right wing has tried to equate values, like family values, with a heterosexual, 2-parent, married, nuclear family. We need to reclaim the word values. We need to rip it out of the hands of pundits and bigots and stand up to defend OUR polyamorous values.

Our society is poised to change dramatically in the next decade. Like other minorities before us, polyamorous people need to come out when it’s safe to do so and educate our loved ones, our neighbors, our doctors and others around us about our lives. We need to tell our stories. I’ve had the privilege to hear the stories of hundreds of people in non-monogamous relationships. Like Leslie from Minnesota whose two husbands supported her through chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with cancer. Or Cat in Oklahoma, who lost custody of her children for being polyamorous. Or a poly circle of four in the Pacific Northwest who have owned a house and raised their kids together for over fifteen years. We must speak our truths. If we don’t tell the world who we are, people are left to imagine, to fall back on stereotypes, to create fictions which don’t represent us.

Larry and Joan Constantine took a leap of faith thirty five years ago and started knocking on doors to find others like them. We need to take a cue from them and start busting down some doors of our own. If we join together, support each other, and increase our visibility, we can only get stronger. And we need our strength because WE are at the forefront of those who will redefine love, commitment, and family in this century.

[UPDATE:  Keep your protest calls coming!  We have heard that thousands of calls have poured into the local Holiday Inn hotel in question and also their corporate parent, Intercontinental Hotels Group: 800-621-0555. Also, the leading pro-sadomasochist organization, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, has denounced our effort (they call us "extremists"!) and is attempting to rally its followers to call Holiday Inn and IHG, urging them not to cancel this disgusting and dangerous event. -- Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org]

The Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington, at 7007 North High Street in Worthington, Ohio is scheduled to host a freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest called “Winter Wickedness” this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 6-7). TAKE ACTION: 1) call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington today at 614-436-0700 and urge them to cancel this event for the sake of decency and public health; and 2) call Holiday Inn’s corporate offices (the chain is owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group) by going to their website or by calling their guest relations department at 800-621-0555 ext. 1. Tell them that is wrong to profit off of degrading and dangerous perversions that could present a health hazard to hotel workers or other guests.

WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF PERVERSIONS THAT SHOULD BE KEPT OUT OF COMMERCIAL PUBLIC SPACES

By Peter LaBarbera

Americans For Truth has confirmed that the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington Hotel, at 7007 North High Street in Worthington, Ohio, is hosting a sadomasochistic celebration called (appropriately) “Winter Wickedness” this Friday and Saturday– featuring classes on “gangbang” fantasies and various acts of sadomasochistic perversion and consensual sexualized violence including subjecting fellow participants to hot wax torture, whipping, “cutting” and needles, and being stapled with an electric staple gun.

TAKE ACTION:  1) call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington today at 614-436-0700 and urge them to cancel this event for the sake of decency and public health. Pass this story on to your friends to call; and 2) call Holiday Inn’s corporate offices (the chain is owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group) by going to their website HERE or by calling their guest relations department at 800-621-0555 ext. 1. Tell them that is wrong to profit off of degrading and dangerous perversions that could present a health hazard to hotel workers or other guests.

A page on the “Winter Wickedness” website for “Play Space Rules & Guidelines” includes this, indicating the extreme perversions likely to occur at the hotel:

15) Single tail [whip] play, Wax, Medical, Cutting, Needle play, and FirePlay, must be performed in the designated areas only. Please onsult a PSM [Play Space Monitor] for the appropriate area if you are not sure.  Drop clothes, gloves, condoms, sharps containers, tarps, etc., must be used for this sort of play.

The same set of guidelines gives an indication of the extent of the deviance of “leather” practitioners in what it tells them they will NOT allow to occur at the Ohio event. What other conference imaginable would have to issue this shocking warning: “17) Gun Play, Golden showers (urine), Brown Showers (Feces) or Rainbow/Roman showers (Vomit) are not allowed in this venue.”

Another guideline discusses the need for a tarp or drop cloth to clean up after perverse “scenes”:

3) Toys placed on the wooden hangers are Community AIS [Adventures in Sexuality] Property.  Please return them cleaned after use. For everyone’s protection, we ask that you use the cleaning supplies located throughout the Play Space. If you do a wax or other messy scene, please use a tarp or drop cloth (in the designated area only). Please clean up after your scene. Leave all equipment free of sweat, bodily fluids, wax, lubricants, etc. Bring bodily fluid contamination to the attention of a PSM.

All 21 “Winter Wickedness” guidelines are at the bottom of this page. The location of the twisted event was uncovered by the Citizens For Community Values, a pro-family group in Ohio, with offices in Columbus and Cincinnati. A CCV staffer contacted the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington directly to confirm details of the conference. Staff at the hotel confirmed that the “Winter Wickedness” conference was scheduled for their facility. Registrations for the conference had to go through the sponsoring organization but the hotel would register conferees for their hotel rooms.

This writer also confirmed that “Winter Wickedness” is being hosted by the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington. A hotel staffer said the event started out smaller but has “grown to quite a lot of people,” selling out nearly all the 231 rooms in the hotel. He indicated that there would be guests staying this Friday through Sunday who are not part of the sadomasochistic event. Surely, those guests are in for a surprise unless the “wicked” sexual perversion gathering is canceled.

In addition, Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries, a Christian ministry based in Columbus, is preparing to confront the hotel for allowing such revolting activities to go on in pubic conference rooms at the hotel.

The featured speaker at “Winter Wickedness” is Tristan Taormino, the self-described “queer” author of The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and an advocate of “polyamory” — multiple-partner relationships (see below).

Flogging, Hot Wax, or Staples?

The following are the “Class Descriptions” of the Winter Wickedness event, reprinted from the event’s website:

BDSM [Bondage & Disciple, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochism] Anal Play – Tristan Taormino -
Writer/sex educator (author of The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and Down & Dirt Sex Secrets) leads you through the world of all things anal, covering a wide variety of topics,including:

• the ins and outs of anal penetration
• incoporating anal play into a scene
• extended butt plug wearing
• anal sex, D/s, and power play
• strap-on anal sex
• an introduction to enema play
• plus, an extensive Q & A — ask her anything!

Florentine Flogging – Arcane
‘Florentine” or ‘Double” Flogging as it is more commonly called, is the art of using two floggers at the same time, one in either hand. In this course we will learn two different patterns of varying complexity. The idea is to take home a new skill, so this will be a hands on class. If possible please bring either two fairly well matched floggers, or a limited amount of “trainer floggers” will be available for use.  You have to come to class to see what the heck a “trainer flogger” could possibly be.  If you have any questions contact arcane at arcane@arcanesattic.com.

Art Of Erotic Biting – Michelle Belanger -
Eager to sink your teeth into your play-partner? Before you bite off more than you can more than you can chew, let author Michelle Belanger explain the finer aspects of the erotic art of biting. Michelle teaches participants a number of different biting techniques that allow for intense but safe play. Learn when biting works in a scene and how to introduce a lover to the concept of biting. Finally, Michelle will go over the best locations for sinking your teeth into your lover.

Electric Stapling Sensation Play ~ Markher & The pennygurl
This is a staple gun demo.  Not medical staples, but an electric staple gun, using the same staples that we use to hang insulation in the rafters in the house.  Yes, you will hear the sound of the staple gun as the trigger is pulled and watch the pennygurl as she jumps at the bite of the first staple.  Yes, you will see the staple gun reloaded, maybe more than once, as staple after staple is shot into her lovely body.  But that is only half the fun; just wait until you see how those staples are removed.  And the sounds that come from her are just wonderful. So, if you want a new and different scene, one with a different power tool and the resulting impact play, make sure you take in this class.  We will walk you though each and every step in the process, taking you from the safety aspects, the prep work, the actual scene, and finally the clean up.  Who knows, you may even volunteer to be the next demo dolly…

Age Play – Who’s your Daddy? – British “Lucky” Paul
Info coming soon!

Crazy Glue Invisible Bondage and Infibulation – Dov
Crazy glue is steeped in the depths of urban legends of late night rushes to the emergency room to unglue hapless victims who didn’t heed the warning on the label: “WILL BOND SKIN INSTANTLY.”  This class is about demystifying this fun pervertible for mind[f---s]. We will discuss and demonstrate many wonderful perversions with this super-strength glue for bondage, on genitalia for infibulation, and temporary chastity. We will also cover safety issues, some theory/chemistry of its function, and its intended medical usage.

Dancing with Flame – Fireplay & Cupping – Brian the Pyrosadist
Fireplay is definitely edge play, for anything with fire is implicitly dangerous. But I have found that fireplay has a sensual eroticism and art to it that so many can relate to. Who among us hasn’t sat transfixed gazing into a fires light. And to feel and witness that same sensual flow of warm flame across our bodies, lapping over, then passing and leaving only a warm lingering touch. No experience is necessary for this class, some practice materials will be available for use. Both technique, safety, and sensual/art/erotic applications will be gone over in this class. Even if you might not think it’s quite your thing, you might be surprised by the sensual beauty and artistry of the flame.

[F--king] Machines While Suspended without Rope  – British “Lucky” Paul
Sadly Paul lacks levitation skills so none are taught in this entertaining and enlightening class. Instead, Paul focuses on dedicated suspension equipment rather than rope. Learn how suspension cuffs and steel hardware can combine a sexy aesthetic with speed and comfort to allow for hot scenes in the air. Find out how and where to buy suspension rated equipment and learn play ideas that take full advantage of their versatility.One of the most important reasons suspension makes for such hot scenes is the illusion of danger while maintaining a reasonable margin of safety.While no suspension scene is entirely risk free, following relatively simple rules makes it safe enough that most players consider the risk acceptable.

Did Someone Say “Gangbang?” – Rita Seagrave
Do you fantasize about getting tag-teamed [gang-raped]?  Want to run a train with your buddies? Does bukkake make you drool?  The appeal of gangbangs, for some of us, is to be the center of  attention. For others, it’s about losing ourselves in a crowd of  anonymous perpetrators. Whether pillow talk, porn, or real life adventure, gangbanging is the ultimate challenge in multi-tasking.  Let’s talk about the preparations, guidelines, and precautions for a  successful gathering. And why is it impossible to write this class  description without taking a masturbation break?

Journey Into Poly – Curt & Karen -
This class will explore basic concepts, practices and tools for journeying into the world of polyamory. Curt and Karen will guide you through a wide array of aspects of moving from monogamy to non-monogamy including initial conversations, negotiations, communication tools and real-life examples of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. They will offer an opportunity to share in an open discussion and explore the endless possibilities of living a non-traditional lifestyle in a traditional world.

Foiling the Escape Artist: Working with Body Mechanics to Remove Advantages – Dov
Preventing or delaying escape from rope bondage: This is a hands on workshop exploring various aspects of dealing with escape artist rope bottoms, and why just because you can tie a rope harness doesnt mean no one can escape it. We will be examining and working with various ties and strategies to understand how and why there are or aren’t effective and how to make your work more escape proof.

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Playspace Rules & Guidelines [reprinted from the "Winter Wickedness" website; emphasis added]

Please Read through the Rules.  By Purchasing a Ticket, you agree to these Rules!

**Adults only – AIS [Adventures in Sexuality] Members and party attendees must be 19 or older**

1) No alcohol,  illegal drugs,  illegal substances and/or firearms may be brought into the Event Space. Anyone who is
noticeably affected by either alcohol or drugs will be refused admittance or asked to leave by the Play Space Monitors (PSM).

2) You must maintain vanilla space and follow the grandmother rule outside of the COPE Area within the hotel.  Offenders
will be asked to leave.  During play space hours, there will be hangers and a clothes rack area within the COPE Social Area.

3) Toys placed on the wooden hangers are Community AIS Property.  Please return them cleaned after use. For everyone’s protection, we ask that you use the cleaning supplies located throughout the Play Space. If you do a wax or other messy scene, please use a tarp or drop cloth (in the designated area only). Please clean up after your scene. Leave all equipment free of sweat, bodily fluids, wax, lubricants, etc. Bring bodily fluid contamination to the attention of a PSM.

4) All attendees of the AIS event will be required to wear an armband and Name badge at all times. (The name badge may be removed for play – this is the only exception to this rule – so be sure not to remove either.

5) Smoking is prohibited in the Play Space. Smoking will be permitted only outside the hotel in the designated area.

6) Prostitution, solicitation, and negotiation of compensation for sexual services is ILLEGAL and will not be tolerated.  Any violator will be immediately ejected from the premises without refund, removed from AIS, and banned from further AIS Events.

7) Food and drink (with the exception of water) shall not be brought into the Play Space.  Food and drink is permitted in the social area.

No cameras or cell phones of ANY kind and no video or audio recording devices will be allowed in the Play Space (AT ANY TIME!). Any person seen with any such recording devices shall be immediately ejected from the premises without refund.(Even if the cell phone is not capable of taking pictures, all cell phones are banned from the Play Space.)

9) Normal Play Space etiquette is required. Do not intrude into a scene unless specifically and verbally invited by the participants. Do not touch anyone or anyone’s gear without permission.  NO MEANS NO.

10) Watching from a respectful distance is permitted while in the play space, but please keep all conversation, laughter and
comments to a minimum. DO NOT TALK TO or INTERACT WITH the players while the scene is progressing. (Unless specifically and verbally invited.)

11) Play Space Monitors must be obeyed at ALL times. If someone is breaching Play Space etiquette, your scene is being
disturbed, or you are being bothered unduly, please notify a PSM. (wearing orange safety vests)

12) Play Space Monitors have will have the final say in all activity within the play space. The PSM’s have the right to stop
any scene that they feel is unsafe, non-consensual, or too intense for this venue. If you are planning to do a heavy scene,
resistance play scene, or scene that appears non-consensual – Please discuss it with a PSM beforehand.

13) If you need medical assistance please locate a PSM immediately, we have medical supplies if you need them.

14) The universal safewords are RED and SAFEWORD. If either word is used, the scene will be stopped immediately.

15) Single tail [whip] play, Wax, Medical, Cutting, Needle play, and FirePlay, must be performed in the designated areas only. Please onsult a PSM for the appropriate area if you are not sure.  Drop clothes, gloves, condoms, sharps containers, tarps, etc., must be used for this sort of play.

16) There is a time limit on all equipment of approximately 45 min.

17) Gun Play, Golden showers (urine), Brown Showers (Feces) or Rainbow/Roman showers (Vomit) are not allowed in
this venue.

18) Humans only – must be over the age of 19. No real animals of any kind are permitted in any area of the COPE Event. However, animal and age related role-playing is perfectly acceptable.

19) If you are directly or indirectly responsible for any damage to Hotel Property, to include hotel equipment, structures, and miscellaneous hotel owned items, you are financially responsible for returning it to the condition in which you first encountered it.

20) Safety and discretion of the event participants is paramount. If there is any jeopardization of either, the offending person will be immediately ejected from the event and banned from further AIS events or functions.

21) No refunds will be given to anyone removed from any AIS event for violation of any of the above regulations

See our adjoining story: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Talks of ‘Moral Leadership’ while Honoring Homosexual S&M Pornographer

Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says her movement shows “moral leadership” to the nation — even as the Task Force presented its “Leather Leadership Award” to a homosexual pornographer. The Task Force’s “Creating Change” conference in Denver ran supportive workshops on: transsexuality; prostitution (“sex workers’ rights”), “polyamory/nonmonogamy”; and – most disturbing – pushing a “sexual freedom” (read: sexual license) agenda on youth.

Dear AFTAH Reader,

If you are reading this website, you are seriously concerned about the homosexual activist agenda.  So I have an assignment for you.  Please print out the enclosed “State of the Movement” speech by the Rea Carey, the new executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and read it all the way through (it’s about 8 printed pages with my introduction).  Now, why would a Christian pro-family organization send out a speech by a radical homosexual activist?  Because we need to know what our Culture War enemies are saying and this speech is very instructive for OUR cause of defending traditional morality and marriage in America.

If you can’t find time to read the whole “Creating Change” speech, at least read the parts of it that we have bolded below.  Note how Ms. Carey talks about “moral leadership” even as the Task Force gave its ‘Leather Leadership Award” to a hard-core homosexual pornographer at the same “Creating Change” conference.  (Talk about chutzpah!)  And note also how she refers to the Bush administration as the “Evil Empire” – Ronald Reagan’s famous description of expansionist Soviet Communism – just as Iraqi citizens were preparing to vote in another free election made possible by the U.S. liberation of their country from the grip of dictator Saddam Hussein.  Nobody lies like the Left, yet the liberal media rarely challenge groups like the Task Force on their many falsehoods and slanders.

Several observations about Carey’s speech:

• The sheer organization of the anti-Christian Left:  thousands of left-wing, grassroots activists attend these annual “Creating Change” conferences; there is no parallel on the social Right for this scale of people and groups working closely together toward common goals.  There are precious few organizing and political “how-to” conferences for pro-family conservatives.  The Left eats and breathes politics; the Right is more distrustful of government, worse at politics, but more oriented toward God, family and church (the latter is obviously a good thing).  All this helps explain why so much destructive social “change” has come to America, where political organization is rewarded in our democratic system.  (That said, we would not see such a progression of evil in our nation were our culture not so deceived, and its once-Christian character so worn down by faithless secularism.)  In the coming days, we will shed more light on the extremist Task Force agenda, which now includes sadomasochism, prostitution (“sex workers’ rights”), “polyamory/nonmonogamy,” and – most disturbing – pushing a “sexual freedom” (read: sexual license) agenda on youth;
• We must acknowledge homosexual-agenda “victories” before we can move forward:  the pro-family movement must take a sober look at where we are in the battle over homosexuality, and it’s not pretty.  While it is tempting to point to pro-marriage victories in November (California, Florida, Arizona) as evidence that our movement is healthy, underneath the surface we are losing the critical public-policy and cultural argument over the legitimacy of and government endorsement of same-sex relationships.  Homosexual activists are making steady, incremental advances, often with little pro-family opposition – e.g., passing “domestic partner” legislation like the bill currently moving through New Mexico’s legislature – as part of a longterm strategy for bigger victories ahead.  Many of the “gay” gains came in states targeted by homosexual moneymen like Tim Gill, who has successfully knocked out pro-family state legislators in Iowa, Colorado and other states.  This begs the question: why do such hardball efforts seem to succeed only on the Left and not the Right?  When will the pro-family Christian “Tim Gill” step forward to help our side?
• The dedication of evil:  if Christians were as devoted to defending God’s truth about sex and marriage as homosexual and transsexual activists are to promoting their destructive lies, we would be in a much better place.  The sad reality is that many Christians remain opposed to engagement in politics and public policy and are ambivalent about this cultural battle.  Some Christian leaders have made key concessions to pro-homosexualist ideology – or declared their neutrality on the issue – while they point judgmental fingers at the few groups that are trying to resist the “gay” juggernaut.  Meanwhile, there are no corresponding doubts on the Secular Left, which works unapologetically to radically redefine family and marriage and destroy the Judeo-Christian moral consensus that helped make this country great.  Ultimately, if the Left succeeds, Christians could see their faith-based freedoms to disagree with sexual sin disappear.
• Stealing “morality” (why not? The homosexual activists already stole the word “gay” and are trying to redefine “marriage,” “family,” “equality,” and “civil rights”):  Homosexual activists realize that to achieve total victory, they must separate Christianity from traditional (Christian) morality.  They aim to redefine right and wrong apart from God’s will for people’s lives, as clearly revealed in Scripture and nature with God’s beautiful, complementary design for man and woman united sexually in marriage to produce children.  “Queer” theologians are busy redefining the Bible and now brazenly claim that homosexuality is a “gift from God.”  The homosexual militants’ game plan is to reinvent Christianity by spouting religious-sounding yet subversive ideas for a nation that is still very religious, but largely ignorant of the Bible;
• The progression and unity of sexual sin … Face the evil:  at Americans For Truth, we’ve come face-to-face with homosexual extremism and have no problem labeling the overall GLBT movement as evil.  But many people are in denial about the nefarious homosexual agenda.  We need to admit that the media “soft sell” of homosexuality does not match what the GLBT Lobby has in store for our nation.  We ask: why does Rea Carey advocate for abortion (seemingly a non-issue for homosexuals) and against “useless” abstinence-focused education?   Why does the Task Force – which receives lots of corporate support — give an award to a purveyor of hard-core homosexual porn?  Why do they teach gender confusion (“transsexuality”) and “sexual freedom” to youth?  (The latter is a code term for no-limits sexuality including S&M.)  Why does the Task Force champion “nonmonogamy” even as it seeks to homosexualize “marriage”?  Because the Left unites around “mainstreaming” perversion and an anti-life, anti-nature, anti-God agenda.  Homosexuality.  Abortion.  Pornography.  Casual and deviant sex outside marriage.  The Task Force supports them all in its decidedly anti-moral quest.  This isn’t about “civil rights” but using the government to promote destructive, immoral and changeable behaviors.

Christians and moral traditionalists need to wake up: the other side is dead serious about “transforming society,” to quote Carey, and “imposing its morality” on us all.  It’s time for us to get serious in the Culture War, too.  God bless you.

Sincerely in Christ,

Peter LaBarbera
www.americansfortruth.com

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THE FOLLOWING IS THE SPEECH BY REA CAREY, HEAD OF THE HOMOSEXUAL “TASK FORCE”:

Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009
Subject: State of the Movement Address by Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
From: “The Task Force”  …

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey delivers State of the Movement address at 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change

DENVER, Jan. 30 — National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey presented the annual State of the Movement address today at the 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, where 2,000 activists have gathered to strategize on how to advance LGBT equality in this new political climate. What follows below is the text of her speech:

I know many of us may be questioning the state of our movement, and I’ll get to that in a bit, but first, I can’t resist saying that we now live in a country with a community organizer in chief and since the Task Force literally has the trademark on Creating Change, we know that our moment has arrived!

I am honored to serve as the executive director of the Task Force following my friend Matt Foreman. In fact, pretty much since I came out at the age of 16 here in Denver I have watched, learned from and been inspired by the Task Force, so I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate to be part of it. I have come up through this movement and many of my teachers are here with us today, including a couple of former Task Force executive directors — Urvashi Vaid and Lorri Jean.

You’ve already met Russell Roybal, and I want to call up to the stage my other new partner in running the Task Force — a woman who you will be hearing a lot from — our new deputy executive director, Darlene Nipper.

I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. These are incredibly tough economic times and the fact that you have spent your precious time and limited dollars to be here — to gather with your fellow activists and allies from across the country and others who have joined us — speaks to your commitment to social change, to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, and most importantly, to each other.

This gathering is the public square of the LGBT movement and our time together is made richer and more valuable because each of you is here.

First, let’s talk about the past year. You know, there are years when our movement for full equality jumps by leaps and bounds and other years when we toil to gain every inch of ground. This year has been a bit of both in which we made progress on the local and state level and our country elected its first person of color to the presidency! Yet our love for each other was attacked again by the majority at the ballot box; our right to marry was taken away in California; our transgender brothers and sisters were denied much needed protections; and federal policy continued to elude us under the evil empire — I mean the Bush administration.

It has been a bittersweet year, but the state of our movement is engaged!

This year, we made many gains — gains made because of your hard work, your strategic thinking, your long hours, and your dollars funding state and local efforts. With all of the attention paid to marriage, it would be easy to miss the progress made at the local and state level that improves the lives of LGBT people. And so much of this progress has happened not on the coasts, but in the middle part of the country.

This weekend we will invite you to text to screen all the accomplishments you’ve had this year but I will mention just a few of the many achievements for LGBT people in 2008:

Here in our host state of Colorado, Amendment 46, a Ward Connerly initiative that would have ended affirmative action in public employment, public education or public contracting was defeated.

In Arizona, voters rejected Proposition 202, which would have penalized businesses that hire undocumented workers. And in Oregon, voters rejected an English-only proposal.

In three states — California, Colorado and South Dakota — voters considered initiatives related to reproductive freedoms. And we won in every state.

Also, here in Colorado we expanded progress by passing a law protecting LGBT people from discrimination in housing and public accommodations.

Eight localities passed and held onto nondiscrimination laws: Gainesville and Broward County, Fla.; Columbus and Oxford, Ohio; Kansas City, Mo.; Detroit, Mich; Columbia, S.C.; and Binghamton, N.Y.

We also — with incredibly hard work — successfully defended one of our victories from last year: a transgender rights ordinance that passed in Montgomery County, Md., where the combined efforts of the Task Force, Equality Maryland, Lambda Legal and a host of other organizations came together to defeat the referendum and prevent it from even reaching the ballot.

In the area of family recognition, Connecticut joined Massachusetts in becoming a freedom-to-marry state and then beat back efforts that would have threatened it. Those of you from Connecticut and our great partners Love Makes a Family and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, congratulations and thank you.

We won marriage in California and over 18,000 couples are now legally married — and we plan on keeping them married. Even though we lost that right temporarily, our community and allies rose up in the days after the election to say, “Enough!”

We have with us today one of the founders of Join the Impact, Willow Witte, who along with her fellow organizer Amy Balliett, used the power of online organizing to fill the streets! We’re proud that some of the Join the Impact crew cut their organizing teeth at Creating Change in Portland, Ore., a few years ago and are now sharing their skills with thousands across the country.

Cities and towns in many states including Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Utah, established domestic partnership or similar registries in 2008. There were domestic partnership expansions in Washington state and Washington, D.C. Maryland established limited domestic partnership recognition and New York has decided to respect out-of-state same-sex marriages. Maine had an unprecedented year of victories in 2008 culminating in an Election Day action that surpassed their wildest dreams. After waiting in line for an hour to vote, voters were waiting in line to sign pro-marriage postcards. When EqualityMaine ran out of 30,000 postcards, voters signed scraps of paper, jotting their names and addresses down on anything they could find.

Building on the momentum, EqualityMaine and its coalition partners recently introduced a marriage bill and they have a solid plan for winning marriage in the Legislature in 2009 and then protecting it in the inevitable referendum campaign.

And finally, this last year’s accomplishments include a record 450 out [homosexual] elected officials serving in local, state and federal offices including Colorado’s very own Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man to run for and be elected to Congress, joining Reps. Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin in the House.

For each and every one of you in this room who contributed to any of those victories and the many others we had, thank you!

What we continue to accomplish as a movement is electrifying. And, yet, some of this year’s results were bitter — extremely bitter — pills to swallow.

At the outset, let me say that I tend to be a glass-half-full person, so I can’t help but see this year’s anti-marriage and anti-family ballot measures as deeply painful but temporary defeats that demonstrated just how far we’ve come. But, it isn’t just my gut feeling that this is temporary, it is based on the concrete progress we have made. For example, just four years ago, we lost 13 anti-marriage ballot measures by huge margins — by an average of 67 percent, and as high as 86 percent. In California alone, the last time we faced a similar anti-marriage measure, we lost by over 20 points. This year, we lost by less than four. I know it doesn’t feel like it sometimes, but this is progress.

However, this was a particularly painful year because we lost the fundamental right that we had worked so hard to secure — the right to marry in California.

In the days and weeks after the election, so many in our community were searching for a quick answer as to why we lost in four states. My fellow activists, there is no easy answer.

The days and weeks after the election were some of the most painful I’ve experienced in my 24 years in this movement. I know they were painful for many of you and for our colleagues around the country, particularly in California, Arizona, Florida and Arkansas.  It was hard and painful enough to have lost four statewide ballot measures. But pain turned the corner into agony when we all started lashing out at each other, our allies and our would-be allies and didn’t let up.

Did the other side run excellent, although lie-filled campaigns? Yes it did. Could we all have done more or done things differently that might have moved us closer to defeating the four measures? Certainly. We at the Task Force are a particularly analytical and reflective group and we’ve been taking a hard look at what we could have done better to fight against these measures.

But our winning on any of the four statewide measures was always far from being a slam dunk. We need to learn what we can from this last year and we must move forward, as we have before in times far worse than this.

I want to specifically address the blaming of African-American voters for the passage of Prop. 8.

Sadly, shamefully, an incorrect statistic was put forth in the media and many people both in and outside of our community ran with it. I want to be clear — the blaming of African-American voters was wrong, despicable and inexcusable.

The Task Force released a study with authors Ken Sherrill and Pat Egan that included actual voting data that showed that party affiliation, conservative ideology, frequent church-going and the voter’s age trumped all other factors in the Proposition 8 vote — including race. The Task Force was criticized by some for being “politically correct.”

It is not politically correct to conduct sound research. It is not politically correct to challenge racism.

Have we done enough as a community to deal with our own racism and to make sure that our movement is one that reflects the true diversity of LGBT people? We sure haven’t. But the finger pointing and scapegoating was an affront to the many people of color and others who worked on and with the campaign and to our allied organizations. Furthermore, it avoids the complexity of the work we still have to do to win equality.

I have had enough. WE have had enough. Let us dig deep in ourselves and show others that we will not stoop to scapegoating, we will not turn our backs on our allies, and we will not give up.  There is a big difference between blaming and learning. Let us be learners so that we may be leaders.

As we look back on this year, our confidence has been shaken and our anger has been roused — but now is the time to turn our anger into action and our action into long-lasting change. We must now refocus on regaining marriage equality in California and winning across the country. But we need to remember that these anti-marriage ballot measures are fundamentally about the larger right-wing assault on the ever-expanding diversity in the United States, our freedom to live openly and to create and define our sexuality, our selves and our families.

I urge us not look at our movement as if it is only about this last election or only about marriage equality. Let us recall that our movement for liberation and equality has created much change since the police brutality in New York and other cities gave rise to the Stonewall riots, the activism of black and Latino gay men, and the birth of the modern LGBT movement.

If we do not come together again to fight another day, we can’t win our full equality. As the magnet on my grandmother’s fridge says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight!”

The state of our movement is resilient and we will win!

So, where are we headed as a movement? In order to take a look at where we are headed as a movement, we must first take a look at the broader social and political context in which we work for full equality. This context has now shifted radically.

The most obvious change is that for the first time in our nation’s history, we have as president, a black man, Barack Obama.  Candidate Obama recognized and affirmed a grassroots hunger for change. This year saw record numbers of young people, people of color and progressive people coming out to vote and we are now a better country for it.

This does indeed feel like a new political era for our country and our movement.  I believe the power of this historic moment is the seismic shift in this country from a culture of “I” to a culture of “We.” Obama ran with a mantra of “Yes we can!” Obama didn’t say, “Yes I can” or “Yes YOU can.” He said, yes WE can.

This mantra, of course, carries on the organizing legacy of the United Farm Workers and Dolores Huerta. This unifying WE invites each of us into the work ahead; into the reclaiming of a government that has turned its back on so many; into challenging the long held beliefs and practices of who holds power; how power is used; and who benefits from the use of power.

Obama’s “WE” challenges the culture of “I” that has been so core to this country’s identity — the image of rugged individualism, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This imagery has been bolstered and perpetuated by scenes like Ronald Reagan riding his horse and by George Bush clearing brush on his ranch. This iconic imagery is finally being challenged. We are now off the ranch and have moved back into the WE of urban energy and creativity, the WE of close family ties and community in rural areas, the WE that has been at the center of the farm workers, civil rights, feminist and labor movements.

We are only just beginning to see the manifestations, the benefits of this cultural shift. And, our community — the LGBT community — is expert at showing the nation just what is possible when WE come together. This historic moment plays to our strengths.

After all, our community built an entire infrastructure of service and support for people with HIV when our own president did not have the decency to speak the syndrome’s name.  Our community overturned sodomy laws in a nation that possesses an intense fear of sexuality.  And our community put gender identity legislation and family protections on the political map.  WE have much to offer this country.

So, now it is our time to contribute again — to express moral leadership and creative fortitude. It is our time to hold steady as we are attacked at the ballot box and on the streets. To hold steady as we share our talents and ideas and are pushed back. To hold steady as we assert how we create family.

The state of our movement is expansive.  In fact, the success of our aspirations will only be limited by the expansiveness of our vision and the assertion of what is in our hearts. There are a few things we must do to make the most of this moment in history and to navigate the waters of this new era.

First, this moment calls for a new kind of leadership in the LGBT movement — not the leadership of one, but the collaborative leadership of many. Don’t get me wrong, the Task Force and I will assert leadership — but at the Task Force, we believe that strength comes not from hoarding power but by building power and sharing power and using power for good. It is why so much of our work is done through coalitions or convenings like Creating Change.

We are leaders in what is good and right and just in this country.  When we insist that LGBT people be involved in the policy conversations about the economy, about health benefits, about tax policy, about immigration — as we have been doing with the Obama transition team and administration — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we win marriage equality in Maine, Iowa, New Jersey and other states — and we will — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we pass a gender identity-inclusive ENDA — and we will — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we continue to work to get rid of useless abstinence only education, we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends in labor and women’s groups as the Task Force did yesterday morning at the White House for the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we promote, sustain and maintain people of color leaders — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

The second thing we must do is to think differently about who our playmates are. I was a Girl Scout when I was growing up and there was this song “make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold.”

We will certainly keep our LGBT organizational friends. But, it is time for us to make new, substantive and strategic friendships with non-LGBT organizations with which we share common concerns. The time for isolating ourselves as a movement is over. We will never win on our own.

So, in the coming years, you will see the Task Force partnering with some perhaps surprising organizations. We will ask them to show up for us and we will show up for them, as we have in our work with AARP on national policy and with Planned Parenthood and NAACP on ballot measures.

Third, so many of our straight friends and family are with us and we must find ways for them to make a difference in our pursuit of equality. They are near and dear to us. They’re willing to work with us; they’re wanting to work with us; they’re waiting to work with us. Among the most striking experiences for me in the last year have been my conversations with straight people across the country, not the least of which was with my own 92-year-old grandmother who has been my cheerleader and was crushed when she was not able to make it to our wedding.

Next week the Task Force will be a partner in launching a new campaign called, “Tell 3″ headed up by the ACLU and Join the Impact, along with other organizations. This campaign is simply about talking to the people in our lives about issues that matter to us as LGBT people.

We ask each and every one of you to go to our Web site next week and take part in what could be — with your help — the most massive friends and family education effort ever launched. If every one at Creating Change has meaningful, real conversations with three people about our lives, about the things we care about, we will have made progress in changing the hearts and minds of thousands of people — people who will be voting on our rights next year and the years after that.

Finally, organize, organize, organize — however you do it, walking door to door, talking to friends, going to meetings, sending tweets — I just did — connecting on Facebook or MySpace, or getting people elected.

Just organize!

For 35 years, the Task Force has been the home for people like you, like me, like hundreds of thousands of people across this country who know that we are part of a larger community of people reaching for full equality.

As you experience the Creating Change conference, you can’t help but see and hear and feel and know in your heart that the state of our movement is engaged, it is resilient, it is expansive and expanding, and it is stronger and more inspirational than ever before!  With all of us together –

We will win complete equality!
We will protect and defend our families!
We will change our communities and
We will transform society!

Thank you.

____________________________________________________________

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Leather Leadership, “Moral Leadership”? At its annual “Creating Change” conference for grassroots homosexual and transsexual activists, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force gave its “Leather Leadership Award” to Graylin Thornton, co-owner of a homosexual hard-core pornographic video company (see covered-up covers of videos below). Above is announcement in the Creating Change program. At the same conference in Denver, Task Force director Rea Carey extolled the “gay” movement’s “moral leadership.” The Task Force is heavily involved in promoting homosexuality and other deviancies to youth in the name of “sexual freedom.” Click on graphics to enlarge. 

By Peter LaBarbera

Homosexual activist “morality” is a strange concept indeed. At the same “Creating Change” conference where the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) presented a homosexual S&M pornographer with its “Leather Leadership Award,” Task Force Exective Director Rea Carey extolled the “moral leadership” of her  movement.

The Task Force presented Graylin Thornton, the co-owner of a company that sells homosexual porn videos, with its “leather” award at Creating Change, an annual conference for grassroots activists advocating the following sexual misbehaviors: male homosexuality; lesbianism; bisexuality; transsexuality; sadomasochism and other fetishes; prostitutes (”sex workers”); and “polyamory/nonmonogamy” (multiple-partner and open relationships).

Thornton runs Grey Rose Video Productions, which states on its website: “As active members of the BEAR, LEATHER, and AFRICAN AMERICAN communities, both Graylin and [business partner Chris Meister] are dedicated to continuing a standard of excellence in the production of videos featuring the hot, hung, hunky and hairy ‘real men’ that represent those communities.”

The porn company is selling videos with the following titles:

• Jake Mitchell’s [F--k] Buddies;
  
• JC Carter’s Sex Tape;
  
• This Bear Likes em Black;
  
• Beefy Boyz on the Road;
  
• Skin Tight and Busters Rubber Romp;
  
• Semenhole, Texas;
  
• Black, White and Hot
  

In her “State of the Movement” address Friday at Creating Change — which this year featured the innuendo-laden slogans “Power Is Sexy” and “Action Is Hot” — Carey touted the homosexual movement’s “moral leadership” (emphasis added):

We have much to offer this country.

So, now it is our time to contribute again — to express moral leadership and creative fortitude. … We are leaders in what is good and right and just in this country. When we insist that LGBT people be involved in the policy conversations about the economy, about health benefits, about tax policy, about immigration — as we have been doing with the Obama transition team and administration — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we win marriage equality [homosexual "marriage"] in Maine, Iowa, New Jersey and other states — and we will — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we pass a gender identity [transsexual]-inclusive ENDA — and we will — we assert our community’s moral leadership.

When we continue to work to get rid of useless abstinence only education, we assert our community’s moral leadership….

George Bush’s “Evil Empire”?

By giving a “leader leadership” award for “social justice” work to a homosexual porn entrepreneur, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is continuing its tradition of pushing the envelope as the most radical and leftist major homosexual organization. And not just on sexual issues: Carey jokingly referred to the George Bush administration as the “evil empire” – the words Ronald Reagan famously used to describe expansionist Soviet Communism. (Meanwhile, Iraqi citizens, benefiting from the American liberation of their country from despot Saddam Hussein, were preparing to vote in an another free election the day after Carey’s speech.)

Last year, Americans For Truth reported how the Task Force’s 2008 “Leather Leadership Award” recipient, Guy Baldwin, was an advocate of (consensual) “master-slave” sexual relationships — one of the bizarre subcategories within the BDSM (”bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism”) movement. One year, the NGLTF conference featured as a workshop speaker the webmaster of a “Cruising for Sex” website that lists places where men find anonymous homosexual “public sex.”

The trend towards ever greater perversions and gender radicalism continues. The Denver “Creating Change” conference featured the following workshops and caucuses:

• Fostering Communication with the Fetish Community;
• Sex Worker [prostitutes] Caucus;
• What a Pisser! The Politics of Transgender Bathroom Use
• Sexuality Education as a Tool for the Movement

Even so, the Task Force draws major corporate givers and political supporters, including the Democratic National Committee. Several Colorado VIPs including Senator Mark Udall (D) wrote welcoming letters that appear in the front of the Creating Change program.

Talking Sex with Youth

The conference also included workshops directed at youth, including some focused directly on sex:

• Gaydar 101: a Queer Teens guied to dating;
• A Dialog with Youth: Talking about Sex and Sexual Freedom;
• Mentoring Queer Youth
• Quit Passing Notes: Let’s Talk about Sex … in the Classroom

AFTAH will be writing more about the Task Force’s extreme agenda, especially that part of it that involves confused GLBT youth.

Honoree’s Perverse Press Release

Task Force “Leather Leadership Award” honoree Thorton’s pornographic company posted this perverted press release on its website. Note the sex allusions:

Grey Rose Productions Teams With Mack Studios

Gay Porn Titans Jake Mitchell And Mack Manus Hook Up … Literally

Great teams aren’t just born, they are formed. Take Abbott & Costello. Laurel & Hardy. Martin & Lewis. Perhaps the funniest of all, McCain and Palin. Okay, scratch the last one, but still — the point is two talented people coming together can form an unbeatable, winning combination.

Just such a combination — the meeting of two of gay porn’s most popular actors-turned-producers — has been established to take two strong entities, namely Grey Rose Productions and Mack Studios, to create an even stronger product.

Jake Mitchell is beyond excited about the new business arrangement. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Mack Manus. He is a visionary; he knows how to make a truly hot product. We share a similar style.” Plus Mitchell adds, with a laugh, “He is one [f--king] hot stud!”

That Mack is a hot stud aside, and one of the hottest commodities in European porn, the business arrangement makes complete sense. The studios have similar audiences. And their videos are similar in that they can feature scenes that range from rape to romance, without skipping a beat. Or [an erection]. Guys who like hot, sweaty, tough, hard core, dominant, passionate man-on-man action … daddy scenes, leather, body hair, bears. Both of these companies, of course, are considered at the top of their genres, Mitchell Stateside and Manus across Europe.

To that end, a great teaming is born. Says Mitchell, “We are going to start selling the terrific and very hot Mack Studios videos on the Grey Rose web site and we are also going to have his scenes available for members on my Jake Mitchell site, too.”

Mack Manus is equally happy to be working with Jake Mitchell. Through a translation of his sexy French accent with traces of his native German tossed in, he says: “I’ve watched and enjoyed the Grey Rose brand for some time. Jake and I both started our companies about the same time. We share a very similar philosophy about the men we hire.”

True that. Both companies have earned praise from critics and fans alike for not hesitating to hire hot men, regardless of age or physical appearance. No wussy, fem, straight, gay-for-pretend guys for these studios. Manus says he does not hesitate to cast actors of any age or physical appearance for a role. That was one of the reasons Mitchell also created his company in 2002: more diversity in porn.

Mitchell met Manus, this being the Internet age, via the Web. They started chatting (which is kind of difficult because Mitchell’s French is rusty and Manus doesn’t speak much English.) Still, a little language barrier can’t keep a great team from coming together. Mitchell was planning a trip to Paris and decided they should meet. Mitchell says, “Once he arrived at my flat — and I saw his sexy smile and eyes, wavy hair and beefy body — I knew that we would be able to get past our language barrier.”

Sounds like Mitchell and Manus did more than discuss business. Laughs Mitchell “Well, let’s just say before we signed on the dotted line we had to see if we were compatible in all ways!” That sounds pretty hot. “Me trying to speak French, and him trying to speak English, well, it’s also hysterical at times! But, definitely hot.”

Not only do Mitchell & Manus have similar styles, studios and video product, they also have similar taste in men. Look for their first scene together (they tag team hunky J.C. Carter) soon.

Mitchell & Manus did a meet-and-greet together at the recent IML [International Mr. Leather] in Chicago. Their respective fans are already salivating at the possibilities. It’s truly a great partnership…and just getting started!

We’ve covered up the photo of this fellow — apparently one of Gay Task Force honoree Graylin Thornton’s porn actors — found in the “gallery” section of his company’s website. How this for “moral leadership”?

X-rated homosexual sex columnist Dan Savage — who once engaged in “flu terrorism” against 2000 GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer — has a unique plan to save marriages and reduce the number of divorces….

Click HERE TO LISTEN to (or download below) my online interview today with Martha Kleder of Concerned Women for America in which we discuss: 1) “Call in Gay Day”; and 2) homosexual adoption activist Dan Savage’s advocacy of marital “nonmonagamy” (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Savage, who adopted a baby boy several years ago, sounded positively responsible and caring recently on CNN and the Michael Medved Show — but somehow his defense of his two separate “three-ways” with his homosexual “husband” Terry never came up.

Savage has already responded to CWA’s posting of this online interview on his blog, where he congratulates himself for encouraging straight couples to inject a little nonmonogamy into their marriages, too. You see, by helping to strike down that last vestige of puritanical extremism — “unrealistic expectations about lifelong fidelity” — Dan is doing his part to “save marriages, and protect our children.” What a guy. Yep, if only more American men and women could learn to loosen up a little on their preoccupation with their spouse’s faithfulness, marriages would be saved and divorces would plummet!

I can picture Philandering Phil — fresh from reading a “Savage Love” column — explaining his latest tryst to his wife: “But Peggy, I did it for the children. You want us to stay together, don’t you? Then I need a little outside sex if this marriage is going to survive. Work with me on this!”

Poor city-dwellers. I guess this brand of post-modern drivel is what you should expect when you get your sex advice from a homosexual activist with a massive chip on his shoulder against the Christian sexual ethic. More on Dan “Three-Way” Savage’s very queer responses to our posts later. Below is CWA’s description of the interview:

CWA writes:

Homosexual Activist Promotes “Nonmonogamy”

12/11/2008

In reaction to strong votes for traditional marriage across the country in November, homosexual activists are redoubling their efforts to influence the culture; even to impose their values on it. Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth, discusses two key news items that highlight that fact. LaBarbera discusses the upcoming “Call in Gay Day” where homosexuals are urged to stay home from work one day by calling in “gay.” The other involves homosexual activist Dan Savage’s attempts to make “nonmonogamy” more acceptable in the heterosexual community, just as he says it is in the homosexual community. Listen | Download

“Love, the Bible, and Homosexual Practice”: A 4-Hour 3-DVD Presentation by Robert Gagnon (2008)

… with excellent high-definition picture and sound, along with slides; taped professionally at Grace Chapel in Franklin, Tenn. on Apr. 12, 2008 for Mastering Life Ministries (see online sites at www.MasteringLife.org and www.purepassion.us/Home.asp), along with an hour-long CD. $35 plus $7 shipping and handling. To order click HERE or go to http://www.purepassion.us/OnlineStore.asp.

DVD 1: What’s at Stake & What Are the Closest Analogies (83 min.)

Treats why we disagree in the church about homosexual practice; what’s at stake in this debate; why the oft-cited, alleged analogies to Gentile inclusion, slavery, women in ministry, and divorce and remarriage are not in fact good analogies to the Bible’s prohibition of homosexual practice; what the main problem with homosexual practice is; why adult-committed incest and polyamory are the closest analogies; and responses to audience questions.

DVD 2: The Witness of Paul on Homosexual Practice (72 min.)

Treats the witness of Paul, showing how Paul opposed homosexual practice absolutely by looking at: echoes to the creation texts in Romans 1:24-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9; the meaning of Paul’s argument from nature in its historical context; the case for identifying Rom 1:26 with an indictment of lesbianism; the conception of caring homosexual unions in the ancient world; the condemnation of even such caring unions by some Greek and Roman moralists; and the case for identifying the terms for homosexual practice in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1;10 with homosexual practice per se.

DVD 3: The Witness of Jesus & the Old Testament on Homosexual Practice (76 min.)

The first 11 minutes completes the discussion of Paul by showing why the “orientation argument” (i.e. had NT authors known about sexual orientation it would have changed their view on homosexual practice) doesn’t work. The next 19 minutes are devoted to discussing the witness of Jesus; 8 min. to the witness of Genesis; 7 min. to Sodom and related texts (Ham & Noah, the sacred cult prostitute texts, Levite at Gibeah, commentary on Sodom in Ezekiel, Jude, and 2 Pet); 5 min. to the Levitical prohibitions and the problems with alleged analogies to menstrual law and cloth mixtures; 2 min. to David and Jonathan; and 23 min. to responding to questions from the audience.

CD: The Importance of Sexual Ethics in the New Testament (72 min.)

Also available: The three DVD presentations above on CD, along with the extra CD above, for $20 plus $5 shipping and handling. To order click HERE or go to http://www.purepassion.us/OnlineStore.asp.

If you live outside the U.S. you must order by phone. Call 1-615-507-4166. For more of Prof. Rob Gagnon’s excellent teaching resources, go to www.robgagnon.net.

The Open Letter below (emphasis added) is simply too informative not to pass on. Rob Gagnon is one of the world’s leading authorities on homosexuality and the Bible; Having heard him speak, I highly commend him as a visiting speaker at your church, synagogue or place of worship. The pro-homosexual theological revisionists — you know, the ones who make outlandish claims like that David and Jonathan in the Old Testament were “gay lovers” — are afraid to debate Rob. No wonder. You can learn more about Prof. Gagnon’s important work at www.robgagnon.net. — Peter LaBarbera
_____________________________

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Professor Rob Gagnon’s open letter to the President of the University of Toledo, who suspended Ms. Crystal Dixon, Associate Vice President of Human Resources at the University, for rejecting an equation of homosexuality with ethnicity

(WND news story at www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=63459; Lifesite story at www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08050605.html).

“I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.’ Here’s why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.” — Crystal Dixon

TAKE ACTION: Read this letter, send it to all your friends and associates to educate them on the homosexual issue, and contact University of Toledo President Lloyd Jacobs (UTPresident@utoledo.edu) at: President Dr. Lloyd A. Jacobs, University Hall, Room 3500, Phone: 419.530.2211; Fax: 419.530.4984

From: Robert Gagnon (rgagnon@pts.edu)

Sent: Tue 5/6/2008 5:04 PM

Dear [U. of Toledo] President Jacobs,

I have read of your action in connection with Ms. Crystal Dixon, Associate Vice President of Human Resources at the University of Toledo (www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=63459). Your suspension of Ms. Dixon for rejecting an equation of homosexuality with ethnicity constitutes, in my view, a gross injustice and an expression of the very intolerance that you claim to abhor. It is also predicated on a lack of knowledge and, as such, an abundance of prejudice.

Ms. Dixon is absolutely right that sexual orientation is not akin to race or sex. Unlike a homosexual orientation, race and sex are 100% congenitally predetermined, cannot be fundamentally changed in their essence by cultural influences, and are not a primary or direct desire for behavior that is incompatible with embodied structures.

Of course, generally people don’t wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll be a homosexual.” Yet that is different from arguing that homosexual development is always and only something “given” like race and sex. Even the Kinsey Institute has acknowledged that nine out of ten persons who have experienced same-sex attractions have experienced at least one shift on the Kinsey spectrum from 0 to 6 during their life; six out of ten experienced two or more shifts. The intensity of impulses, and sometimes even their direction, can and often do change over time.

Edward Stein, a scholar of law and philosophy, has challenged deterministic models of homosexual development. He posits instead a nondeterministic model that incorporates a significant role for choice–often blind, incremental, and indirect but choice nonetheless (The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999]). Like various forms of sexual impulses, the degree to which a homosexual “orientation” becomes fixed in an individual’s brain and the intensity with which it is experienced, at least in part and for some, can be affected by choices regarding fantasy life, responses to social and environmental factors in childhood and adolescence, the degree to which one acts on impulses, and the degree of self-motivation for change. This is what the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review had to say about Stein’s book: “A landmark book…. It so pulls the rug out from under biological arguments for lesbian and gay rights that anyone from now on who appeals to such arguments will have to answer to Edward Stein’s objections” (from back cover).

Without discounting congenital influences (which may create a higher risk factor for homosexual development, but nothing like a deterministic fait accompli), microcultural factors (familial and peer socialization) and macrocultural factors (societal incentives for or sanctions against homosexual practice) probably have a significant impact on the level of incidence of homosexuality in the population.

Consider the following:

1. Note the conclusion by the authors of the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey-still the best representative survey of sexual practices in the United States. The latter write that a relatively uniform distribution of homosexuality in social groups “would fit with certain analogies to genetically or biologically based traits such as left-handedness or intelligence. However, that is exactly what we do not find. Homosexuality … is clearly distributed differentially within categories of … social and demographic variables” (Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael, and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States [Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994], 307-10). “An environment that provides increased opportunities for and fewer negative sanctions against same-gender sexuality may both allow and even elicit expression of same-gender interest and sexual behavior.... There is evidence for the effect of the degree of urbanization of residence while growing up on reported homosexuality. This effect is quite marked and strong for men.” They also found that the relation of education to same-gender sexuality to “stand out for women in a way that it does not for men.” Women who were college graduates were significantly more likely to report same-sex partners, same sex desire, and homosexual/bisexual identity than were women who had only a high school degree or less. Laumann et al. attribute the difference in part to “greater social and sexual liberalism … and … greater sexual experimentation” that coincides with education. The fact that women are much less likely than men to be exclusively attracted to persons of the same sex and much more likely to vary sexual preference over time suggests that education is a cultural variable that can impact the incidence of homosexuality on some women.

2. A 1992 study of nearly 35,000 Minnesota junior and senior high school students concluded that “responses to individual sexual orientation items varied with age, religiosity, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status…. The findings suggest an unfolding of sexual identity during adolescence, influenced by sexual experience and demographic factors” (G. Remafedi, et al., “Demography of sexual orientation in adolescents,” Pediatrics 89:4 [Apr. 1992]: 714-21.

3. One of the best identical twin studies to date, done by J. Michael Bailey using the Australian Twin Register (rather than using biased sampling by advertising in homosexual publications, as he did in earlier studies), showed that only one out of ten times when one member of an identical twin pair self-identified as non-heterosexual (a Kinsey 3 to 6) did the co-twin likewise self-identify (J. Michael Bailey, et al., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sexual Orientation and Its Correlates in an Australian Twin Sample,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78 [2000]: 524-36; quotes from pp. 533-4).

4 . The Columbia and Yale authors of one twin study using an enormous and nationally representative sample of adolescents (30,000) concluded: “Less gendered socialization in early childhood and preadolescence shapes subsequent same-sex romantic preferences” (Peter S. Bearman and Hannah Brückner, “Opposite-Sex Twins and Adolescent Same-Sex Attraction,” American Journal of Sociology 107.5 [2002]: 1179-1205). They found no significant difference in concordance rates for non-heterosexuality among identical twin pairs (6.7%) and fraternal twin pairs (7.2%), even though the latter are no more genetically ‘identical’ than non-twin siblings. Moreover, they found that opposite-sex twins were twice as likely to report same-sex attraction as same-sex twins; and that males without older brothers among opposite-sex twins were twice as likely to report same-sex attraction (18.7%) than their male counterparts with older brothers (8.8%).

5. According to William H. James, “There is an abundance of data suggesting that male homosexuals and paedophiles report having experienced more sexual abuse (however defined) in childhood (CSA) than do heterosexual controls…. There are grounds for supposing that some of the reports are veridical [causally related], and there is support from a longitudinal study reporting a small but significant increase in paedophilia in adulthood following CSA. To summarize: most boys who experience CSA do not later develop into homosexuals or paedophiles. However, the available evidence suggests that a few do so as a result of the abuse” (”Two Hypotheses on the Causes of Male Homosexuality and Paedophilia,” Journal of Biosocial Sciences 36 [2004]: 371-374; the quotation is from the abstract).

6. Another study indicates influences from family structure: Morten Frisch and Anders Hviid, “Childhood Family Correlates of Heterosexual and Homosexual Marriages: A National Cohort Study of Two Million Danes,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 35.5 (2006): 533-47. Firsch and Hviid concluded that men were more likely to marry homosexually if their parents had divorced or cohabited for only a short duration, if parental cohabitation had been characterized by long periods of a father’s absence, or if paternal identity were unknown. Women were more likely to marry homosexually if their parents had a short marriage or if the mother had been absent during the child’s adolescence because of abandonment of death. For each extra year that one’s parents stayed married, the percentage of those who married heterosexually went up 1.6% among sons and 1% among daughters, while the percentage of those who married homosexually went down 1.8% among sons and 1.4% among daughters. The study also found that having older brothers increased the likelihood of marrying homosexually, a result that stands in tension with a Canadian study that found that the incidence of homosexuality increases with in proportion to the number of older brothers.

The above studies should suffice for demonstrating the error of comparing an impulse-related condition like homosexuality with race and sex, so far as origination is concerned. Nor can they be compared as behavioral conditions. The former is a primary desire for form of behavior that is structurally discordant; the latter are not. This leads to the next issue.

Why is homosexual practice wrong? One can point to the disproportionately high rate of measurable harm that attends male homosexual relationships and female homosexual relationships. The former exhibit markedly higher numbers of sex partners over the course of life and markedly higher incidence of sexually transmitted infections, even relative to homosexual females. The latter exhibit a markedly higher incidence of mental health issues and markedly shorter durations of sexual unions on average, even relative to homosexual males.

Many would like to attribute these higher rates of measurable harm primarily to societal “homophobia.” Yet such a supposition (for that is all that it is) is contradicted by two facts. First, these problems persist, at similar rates, even in the most homosex-affirming cultures, both within the United States, and in Canada and the most “liberal” parts of Western Europe. Second, societal “homophobia” doesn’t explain why the types of harm affect homosexual males and homosexual females at different rates and in ways that reflect male-female differences.

For example, significantly higher rates both of sexual partners over the course of life and of STIs is exactly what we would expect of all-male sexual bonds since, as cross-cultural (and even cross-species) studies have shown, males find monogamy more difficult than females. Put two men together in a sexual bond without the benefit of female socialization and the results are predictable. Similarly, the fact that homosexual females exhibit higher rates of mental health complications is a reflection of the reality that females generally experience higher rates than do males as regards quality-of-relationship issues (i.e., women invest more of their self-worth in such relationships, which creates a problem when the relationships fail), now ratcheted up in all-female unions. And female homosexuals experience shorter-term relationships on average, even in comparison to male homosexual bonds, because females generally put greater demands on the quality of the relationship in order to satisfy their own individual needs, which in turn puts higher stress on the relationship. Put two women together, each making the same high demands, and one will predictably get a relatively short union. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule but the exceptions don’t invalidate the rule.

Putting two (or more) people of the same sex in a sexual union does nothing for moderating the extremes of a given sex or filling in the gaps of a given sex. It rather exacerbates the extremes and highlights the gaps. That is the nature of a one-sex sexual bond. This measurable reality discloses the non-measurable problem of attempting sexual merger with someone who is not a true sexual complement. The disproportionately high rates of problems cited above, as bad as they are, are only symptoms of the root problem.

What is the root problem? The root problem is erotic attraction for, and the attempt to merge sexually with, what one already is as a sexual being. Those who claim exclusive orientation toward members of the same sex tacitly know that what they desire from a person of the same sex is something that they believe is unobtainable from a person of the other sex; namely, more of the essential quality of their own sex. A male wants more maleness, which he believes that he cannot obtain from a sexual bond with a female. Conversely, a female wants more femaleness, which she believes that she cannot acquire from a sexual relationship with a male, even a gender-nonconforming male.

It is axiomatic and undeniable that a male or a female is only one half of a complete sexual whole since, obviously, there are two primary sexes. The sexual complement to a man is not another man but a woman; and to a woman is not another woman but a man. The logic of a male-female sexual bond is that the two primary sexual halves are united into a single complementary sexual whole. The logic of a same-sex sexual bond is that each partner is only half his or her own sex, which unites to form a whole male or a whole female. Such a union dishonors the integrity and completeness of one’s maleness, if male, or femaleness, if female.

A homosexual person, despite what he or she may think, is not half of his or her own sex but half of the full male-female sexual spectrum. A person may be in need of “structural affirmation” from members of the same sex, but not “structural supplementation.” Merging sexually with another of the same sex does not make one “more” male, if male, or “more” female, if female. Rather, it has the opposite effect: regularizing the self-misperception that one can complete one’s own sex only by uniting sexually with someone of the same sex.

The closest parallels to adult-committed homosexual relations is not ethnicity or gender but rather adult-committed incestuous unions and adult-committed polysexual unions (i.e., sexual unions involving more than two persons concurrently). The root problem with adult-committed incest must be applicable even when the relationship will not produce children (e.g., when one partner is infertile or takes birth-control precautions; or when the union is a case of homosexual incest). That root problem is that two people who are too much alike on level of kinship and who are thus already members of the same “flesh” attempt to become “one flesh.” It is an instance of too much structural sameness, not enough complementary otherness. This is the same problem with homosexual bonds, only now the sameness is more keenly felt on the level of sex or gender. So adult-committed incest and adult-committed homosexual unions are analogically related.

As regards polyamorous unions of a committed sort (i.e. unions with three or more sex partners), the connection with homosexual practice is not analogical but foundational. That is to say, the restriction of validated sexual unions to two persons at any one time is ultimately predicated on the sexual dimorphism, or “twoness,” of the sexes. It is because a sexual union between a man and a woman so brings together the full range of human sexuality that a third party is neither necessary nor desirable. Once the importance of the twoness of the sexes is disregarded, there no longer remains a logical or nature-based reason for limiting the number of partners in a sexual bond to two, especially since many people experience an innate and intense polysexual orientation that is not of their choosing.

Nor can the counterargument be made that a person can only really love one other person concurrently. For parents don’t love their first child any less when a second child comes. Moreover, most people have many intimate (but non-sexual) friends, not just one. Yes, there is something special about sexual bonds that requires a limitation to two persons. But that “something special” is the fact that a man is the true sexual complement to a woman and woman to a man, on a holistic level: anatomically, physiologically, and psychologically. To disregard that obvious reality is to leave oneself without rational grounds for dismissing consensual and committed sexual unions involving more than two persons.

So, given your full affirmation of homosexual activity, you are left with Oprah Winfrey’s conclusion after meeting some economically upscale, adult-committed polygamists for a 2007 show: “The best part of doing this job … [is that] I come in with one idea and then I leave a little more open about the whole idea. And what I realize … is that in every situation there are people who give things a bad name. There are difficulties and then there are people who handle those difficulties differently” (”Polygamy in America: Lisa Ling Reports,” www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200710/tows_past_20071026.jhtml?promocode=ssend20071026TD; full video at http://video.aol.com/video-search/query/oprah%20winfrey%20&%20lisa%20ling).

Give America more exposure to upscale, adult-committed polygamous bonds (and adult-committed incestuous bonds) and America will learn to be more tolerant of such bonds, as Oprah has. Those who dismiss a polygamy analogy and an incest analogy on the grounds that polygamy and incest always produce “demonstrable harm” are simply responding out of their “polyphobia” and “incest-phobia.” And then you can suspend people who say critical things about such relationships, once you overcome your prejudices.

I hope as a president of a university you will provide your students with an example of thoughtful and rigorous reflection rather than the kind of harsh, knee-jerk response that you have thus far taken. Instead of suspending Ms. Dixon you should be singing her praises for her honesty and her courage of conviction.

Sincerely,

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of New Testament

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

www.robgagnon.net

____________________________

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The homosexual activist lobby is more arrogant than ever — and quite willing to shut down opponents’ speech (in the name of tolerance, of course). That’s why we need Americans For Truth. To make a tax-deductible donation to AFTAH, click on our online donation page (you can use your own credit card or PayPal) at: www.americansfortruth.com/donate.

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Edited by Bill Duncan, the Marriage Law Digest aims to provide readable summaries of key legal opinions affecting marriage and family life in the U.S., with links to the opinions themselves where possible.

Each month, the Marriage Law Digest will be available (free) online at www.marriagedebate.com. You can download this month’s edition here. If you don’t care to receive an e-mail notice when iMAPP’s Marriage Law Digest is published each month, please reply to joshua@imapp.org and indicate “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

But I think and hope you’ll find it as useful as I do each month.

Best,

Maggie Gallagher
Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (iMAPP)

In 1972 the National Coalition of Gay Organizations demanded
the ‘repeal of all legislative provisions that restrict
the sex or number of persons entering into a marriage unit;
and the extension of legal benefits to all persons who cohabit
regardless of sex or numbers.’

Would polygamy invite abuse of child brides,
as feminists in Muslim countries and prosecutors in Mormon Utah charge?
No. Group marriage could comprise any combination of genders.”

– Pro-homosexuality and pro-pedophilia author Judith Levine
in Stop the Wedding!: Why Gay Marriage Isn’t Radical Enough,
The Village Voice, published July 23-29, 2003
(cited by Robert Knight at Talking Points on Marriage)

“The agenda and vision that we must proudly articulate is that
yes, indeed, we intend to change society.”
–Matt Foreman, president of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Nov. 10, “Creating Change” conference

By Peter LaBarbera

When it comes to chutzpah, homosexual activists have it in spades. They work their lavender tushes off revolutionizing the age-old Judeo-Christian definitions of marriage and family; fight for “gay/straight” clubs in middle- and high schools, and homosexuality-affirming lessons for all students–even toddlers; lobby for open homosexuality in the armed forces; oppose marriage-preference adoption laws based on the absurd proposition that a child having two “gay daddies” is no worse off than one having a mother and a father; make outrageous claims that esteemed historical figures like Abe Lincoln were “gay”; and radically reinterpret the Bible to change homosexuality from an abomination to a “gift from God.”

Then they turn around and ridicule the idea that there is a “gay agenda.”

Here’s an entry from lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding:

“The Homosexual Agenda is an elusive document. We’ve been looking around for a copy for quite some time; the distribution plan is so secret that it’s almost like we need a queer Indiana Jones to hunt the master copy down. The various anti-gay forces are certain that we all have a copy and are coordinating a attack to achieve world domination.” –Pam Spaulding

Memo to Pam: you don’t have to risk being chased by a giant boulder in the Amazon to find a copy of that elusive agenda; just click this link for the 1972 Gay Rights Platform. Note the last two demands under “States” in the 1972 document: “Repeal all laws governing the age of sexual consent” and “Repeal all legislative provisions that restrict the sex or number of persons entering into a marriage unit.”

Or try this link for the 1987 (Homosexual) “March on Washington.” No agenda here, other than the calls for:

• “The government should provide protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, public accommodations and education just as protection is provided on race, creed, color, sex, or national origin”;
• “Anti-homophobic curriculum in the schools”;
• “The government should ensure all public education programs include programs designed to combat lesbian/gay prejudice … Institutions that discriminate against lesbian and gay people should be denied tax-exempt status and federal funding.”
• “A massive [federal] AIDS education and prevention program that is explicit, culturally sensitive, lesbian and gay affirming and sex positive”;
• “Public and private institutions should support parenting by lesbian or gay couples”;
• All people must have access to free abortions and contraceptives on demand regardless of age.” (Strangely, abortion advocacy has long been part of the homosexual activist agenda.)

The truth is that there are multiple homosexual agendas, with the unifying theme that they all endorse the normalization of homosexual perversion (they call it “orientation”) as a “civil right.” The most radical of the large national homosexual groups is the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force (NGLTF), which combines leftist ideology with grassroots organizing. At the NGLTF’s 2006 “Creating Change” conference held in Kansas City, MO, Nov. 8-12, Executive Direct Matt Foreman laid out a seven-point “gay agenda” for the Task Force:

1 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, that every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered person is protected from discrimination — no matter where they live or work. But our vision insists that companies like Wal-Mart — that yes, prohibit discrimination – cannot be allowed to make billions of dollars every year while leaving one out of every six of their employees with no health insurance at all.”

Translation: The Agenda includes federal ENDA (Employment Nondiscrimination Act) and “hate crimes” legislation–both top priorities for liberals in the new Democratic-led Congress. Note that Foreman makes no exceptions for churches, Christian or religious ministries (e.g., child care agencies), or religious-owned small businesses, although exemptions are written into the ENDA bill.

2 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, a country where a woman’s right to choose is inviolate and people’s sexual lives are their own business. But our vision is a country where sexual freedom is seen for what it is: a fundamental human right.”

Translation: The Task Force’s “gay agenda” is “anything goes,” including abortion, even though homosexual “couples” cannot conceive children. In one of the “Creating Change” break-out sessions, “sexual freedom” was defined, in part, as the right to signal one’s sexuality and to act on it without stigma.

At another “Creating Change” panel attended by an Americans For Truth reporter, a speaker asserted: “Choosing how many [sex] partners you have is a human right.” Thus the definition of “human rights” is expanded to almost complete sexual anarchy. Future articles on the “Creating Change” conference will reveal how the Task Force–through its alliances with even more radical groups–now embraces “sex work” (prostitution) as a “human right,” even for teenagers.

Don’t expect to read about that in the liberal media.

3 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, that all of us can serve our country openly in the military. But our vision is a country where none of the lives and limbs of our soldiers — whatever their orientation or identity — are wasted as fodder to advance empire and economic interests.”

Translation: The leftist Task Force’s “gay agenda” adds a twist to the usual homosexual call for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: contempt for the freedom-promoting aims of American foreign policy, thus trivializing the sacrifices of our men in uniform. The lives of the men and women who died serving their country in Afghanistan and Iraq were not “wasted,” Mr. Foreman.

4 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, that queer and questioning kids are protected from bullying, harrassment and violence in our schools.”

Translation: The Task Force Gay Agenda capitalizes on adolescent confusion by promoting the notion of “queer” kids. The “gay” movement talks about “protecting” these children, but balks at the idea of warning them about the massive health risks of homosexual sex–especially for males. And regarding those “questioning kids,” do you think the “gay” movement wants to expose them to the pros and cons of embracing homosexuality? Not a chance. “Diversity” as employed in the service of Sexual Correctness is a sham.

As our undercover writers discovered (the Task Force bans conservatives at its events), some of the “queer kids” attending “Creating Change” were exposed to very extreme behaviors and advocacy. America’s teenagers need guidance and moral standards to live by. They don’t need to be led into dangerous (and illegal) sexual behaviors–including “sex work”–in the guise of advancing “sexual freedom.”

5 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, the demise of America’s anti-gay industry and putting an end, once and for all, to their use of us and our families for cynical culture wars and political gains.”

Translation: That’s us, folks. This thinly-veiled slap at Christian and conservative groups betrays the intolerance that is at the core of the “gay” agenda. Homosexual activists are driven to verbally bash religious traditionalists because the latter stand in the way of the their goal of celebrating homosexual behavior and using the government to promote it. Again, don’t be naive: the same Task Force that compares Christian advocates of traditional sexual morality to racist fringe groups will have no problem one day pushing for laws that ban “hate speech” (e.g., Christian preaching against homosexuality).

6 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, unequivocally fighting for and winning the freedom to marry — with, as Evan Wolfson says, all of its rights, responsibilities, and social significance. But our vision is a country where a person’s healthcare, support in one’s old age, or access to other vital benefits and entitlements are not dependent on a person’s marital status.”

Translation: It is not enough for the Task Force to seek to legalize counterfeit “gay marriage”; they want to destroy any societal preference toward marriage, thus dishonoring genuine holy matrimony itself.

7 – “The floor of our agenda is, of course, a country that not only honors and respects the amazing and wonderful diversity of the families we have built against tremendous odds, but a country that honors and respects the reality and the diversity of all American families.”

Translation: The Task Force demands that others honor and respect any group that wants to label itself family. And not just “gay” families: consider the Task Force’s “Creating Change” session (listed in the official program) on “polygamy/non-monogamy.” When sexual radicals talk “diversity,” don’t assume that means just homosexual relationships.

Matt Foreman said to an audience of over 1,000 homosexual activists attending “Creating Change”:

“We are strong, unbowed, unbeaten, vibrant, energized, and ready to kick some butt.”

Advocates of the natural family and real marriage had better assume a similar posture:

Read Matt Foreman’s speech in its entirety here.

Suppose a large group of same-sex-marriage activists came together and made the following confession to a group of same-sex-marriage skeptics:

“Look, we’re going to level with you in a way that we haven’t up to now. We all support same-sex marriage, but for many — even most — of us, gay marriage isn’t an end in itself. It’s a way-station on the path to a post-marriage society. We want a wide range of diverse families — even ‘polyamorous’ groupings of three or more partners — to have the same recognition, rights, and benefits as heterosexual married couples. In short, your worst fears are justified. The radical redefinition of marriage you’ve been worried about for so long is exactly what we want…

“And consider the complex families created when three or even four gay men and lesbians combine through, say, artificial insemination, to bear and raise children. We want recognition for these sorts of unconventional families too, even — or especially — if such recognition leads to legalized polyamory. Pretending that certain aspects of the gay community don’t exist only weakens our diverse families. The way we live is the way we live. Up to now, we’ve tried to hide it. But at last we’re ready to own up to reality, and to push for legal recognition for all types of families, even if that expands the definition of marriage until the very idea of marriage itself is stripped of meaning.”

For all practical purposes, this confession has already been offered. A good part of the substance of the above message was conveyed this past July, when hundreds of self-described lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and allied activists, scholars, educators, writers, artists, lawyers, journalists, and community organizers released a manifesto entitled, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage.” Among other things, that statement called for recognition of “committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner.”

Continue reading at National Review…