The following presentation [click HERE to listen] is excerpted from a speech by Liberty University School of Law Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen was made at the Truth Academy in Columbus, Ohio, April 1-2, 2011 — sponsored jointly by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality and Mission America. We aired Prof. Lindevaldsen’s talk (edited down slightly from the original, without the ‘Q&A’ session) on the “Americans For Truth Hour” radio program May 21, 2011. Lindevaldsen discusses the escalating ”gay” activist campaign to establish homosexuality — and same-sex “marriage” – as a “civil right.” She discusses the growing threat to religious and First Amendment freedoms arising from pro-homosexual court rulings and policies. Lindevaldsen explains how President Obama is undermining the Defense of Marriage Act, and warns that religious liberty will suffer a crushing blow if homosexuals receive favored “suspect class” status in the law. NOTE: All of Prof. Lindevaldsen’t excellent presentations at AFTAH’s Truth Academies are available below:

Order Truth Academy Sets: DVDs of Chicago 2010 or CDs of Columbus 2011 – Rena Lindevaldsen has spoken at both of AFTAH’s Truth Academies.  Columbus 2011: A 13-CD AUDIO set of this year’s two-day Truth Academy in Columbus, OH – co-sponsored by Mission America — is available for just $49 postpaid.  This 13-CD set includes the full talk above by Prof. Lindevaldsen, as well as presentations by Greg Quinlan, Matt Barber, Linda Harvey, Gary Glenn, Prof. Rob Gagnon, Peter LaBarbera and WorldNetDaily’s David Kupelian. Chicago 2010: A DVD-video set of the entire three-day Truth Academy — featuring two talks by Rena Lindevaldsen — is available for $89 (including postage). Other Chicago speakers include: Robert Knight, Barber, Quinlan, Ryan Sorba, Laurie Higgins, Gagnon, Arthur Goldberg, Cliff Kincaid and AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera. Double order discount: Order BOTH Truth Academy sets (the Chicago DVD-VIDEO and the Columbus CD-AUDIO) for a discount price of $129 (postage included). Send your check and specify your order to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522; or give online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ (please use PayPal if possible). Send queries to americans

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5-21-11, Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen

Americans For Truth received an email today forwarded by a U.S. soldier serving overseas, who was sent an official notice containing the following statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marking “International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia” (IDAHO; May 17th). Clinton’s statement had been forwarded by an “EEO  (Equal Employment Opportunity) Counselor,” who endorsed it enthusiastically.  The statement is published on the State Department website HERE. Accompanying it in the e-mail obtained by AFTAH is a notice by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) extolling IDAHO. The USAID notice is reprinted verbatim below.

In recent years, “transgender” activists and their allies have begun to popularize the use of the term “Transphobia” [See Urban Dictionary "definitions"]. Of  course, the word is tendentious and a derivation of its controversial LGBT cousin, “Homophobia” – the use of which continues to expand to cover opposition to homosexuality rather than irrational “fear” (phobia) of homosexuals. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

——————————————————————–
Press Statement

For Immediate Release

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
 
WASHINGTON, DC – In every part of the world, men and women are persecuted and attacked because of who they are or whom they love. Homophobia, transphobia and the brutal hostility associated with them are often rooted in a lack of understanding of what it actually means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). So to combat this terrible scourge and break the cycle of fear and violence, we must work together to improve education and support those who stand up against laws that criminalize love and promote hate. As we mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia this May 17, let us resolve to redouble our efforts.
 
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am proud to reaffirm our support for LGBT communities at home and abroad, and to call for an end to discrimination and mistreatment of LGBT persons wherever it occurs. Whether by supporting LGBT advocates marching in Belgrade, leading the effort at the United Nations to affirm the human rights of LGBT persons, or condemning a vile law under consideration in Uganda, we are committed to our friends and allies in every region of the world who are fighting for equality and justice. These are not Western concepts; these are universal human rights.
 
Despite these gains and hard work, there is more to do to turn the tide of inequality and discrimination against the LGBT community. If you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, know that the United States stands with you and we are unwavering in our commitment to ending this cycle of hate.

_________________________________________________

The following notice from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) was included in the e-mail sent to the U.S. soldier serving abroad: 

USAID Notice
 
Subject: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, May 17th
 
On May 17, 2011, USAID observes International Day Against Homophobiaand Transphobia (IDAHO) in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) communities in the U.S. and abroad fighting for legal and social equality, and to call for an end to discriminationand mistreatment of LGBT people worldwide.  IDAHO is celebrated worldwide on May 17 as the date in 1990 when the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.  The theme this year is “As I Am,” which is a response to the daily homophobia and transphobia that seek to deny the individual worth of LGBT people.  IDAHO is an opportunity to reflect on the international LGBT community’s ongoing struggle for equal social treatment, civil protections, and rights.   Through its programs and policies, USAID encourages equality for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender  identity/expression.  For example, across Asia, USAID helps ensure that LGBT people have equal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment.  Additionally, in Washington, USAID has updated its “Policy on Diversity in the Workplace, Equal Employment Opportunity, and Non-Discrimination” to include protections on the basis of gender identity.  Despite these gains, there remains much work to remove inequality and discrimination against the LGBT community, and we encourage all USAID employees to consider how they, through their programs and daily actions, can speak out against and proactively undo homophobia and transphobia wherever and whenever it occurs.
 
USAID’s Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) is committed to ensuring the equality and proper treatment of all its employees, and is proud to observe IDAHO in partnership with Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA).  GLIFAA is the officially recognized employee resource group of LGBT and ally employees in U.S.foreign affairs agencies serving in the U.S. and abroad — it works to achieve full equality (in policy, treatment, benefits, etc.) for its members.  For further information and/or to join GLIFAA, please visit www.glifaa.org. Click here for further information about IDAHO, and to learn about related events in Washington and abroad.  Any questions concerning this notice may be directed to — Sheri Solomon, OCRD, (202) 712-1051.

Quinlan is a speaker at AFTAH’s and Mission America’s upcoming Truth Academy in Columbus, OH, April 1-2 [go HERE for details], which has the theme: “The ‘Hate’ Labeling of Christians— Why it’s Happening and What We Can Do.”

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2-26-11, Greg Quinlan

"Chaps" Klingenschmitt

This interview with Gordon James “Chaps” Klingenschmitt [click HERE to listen] was pre-taped and aired Christmas day, 2010. Chaps is founder of the “Pray in Jesus’ Name Project,” named after his much-publicized struggle to pray in Jesus’ name in public and without restrictions as a U.S. Navy Chaplain — which cost him his career in the service. Chaps, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, discusses his work reaching men and women for Christ in the Navy — including an “exorcism” involving a woman who overcame lesbianism. AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera commends Klingenschmitt for his yeoman’s work in mobilizing tens of thousands of Americans to fight the Democrat-led, lame-duck congressional effort to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military. Chaps discusses God’s view of homosexuality as sin, and says his biggest disappointment among Senate Republicans who joined the Democrats in ending the homosexual ban was Mark Kirk — the new Illinois Senator who quickly alienated conservatives in his own state by voting for the repeal. Part Two of this interview will air in January.

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12-25-10, Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, All

President Obama talks with The Advocate, a magazine for homosexuals.

By Peter LaBarbera

It’s the Christmas holiday — the perfect time for President Obama and his veep, Joe Biden, to move closer toward the embrace of so-called “marriage” based on an unnatural sexual sin, right? Nothing like a little pandering to Homosexual-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transsexual activists to profane the Holy Season! (Read the president’s recent interview with the homosexual magazine The Advocate HERE, in which he says his “attitudes are evolving” on homosexual “marriage.” As for Biden, he calls same-sex “marriage” “inevitable”; see One News Now story featuring AFTAH below; listen to it by clicking on the audio button at the top right HERE.)

Evolving? Please. Did you know that in 1996 Obama explicitly came out FOR “same-sex marriage” in a candidate questionnaire? See my article HERE on Obama’s homosexual “marriage” doublespeak. For him, it’s not a matter of ”if” but “when” and “how” he gets there – and his homosexualist allies know it. But he’s slick: I still get mad thinking back to how Obama conned Rick Warren during the presidential debate with McCain — gaining bogus “pro-marriage” credentials with gullible Christians who had no clue as to how committed to homosexuality this mysterious man from Chicago really was.

Of course, from a Truth and moral formation perspective – Obama’s “evolving” views on homosexual “marriage” are worth about as much as Pee-Wee Herman’s. But Obama is our president, and he can and already is using his significant power to erode the meaning of marriage in our culture – promoting sexual sin in the guise of compassion and “rights” (and abortion-on-demand as a “reproductive right”). Make no mistake, this self-described “fierce” advocate of civil unions — fresh from his victory in homosexualizing the U.S. military — is sold out to the homosexual cause, including oxymoronic homosexual “marriage.” He will advance it any way he can — beginning with the evisceration of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton).

Like so many phoney-religious politicians, despite professing Christianity, Obama is moved more by his homosexual friends and alliances — and the demands of Democratic Party politics – than by the Word of God, which is quite clear on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior. Sure, the Annointed One’s arrogance is mind-boggling, but no more so than a bunch of other liberal politicians who – with egos the size of Ukraine — are quite willing to put their political self-interest above obedience to God. (Jesus who…?) And once you’ve sold your soul on homosexuality in general, embracing “same-sex marriage” is just a matter of time. Remember Al Gore’s SSM “conversion”?

Well, here is what the real Anointed One, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose divinely orchestrated earthly birth we just celebrated, has to say about marriage:

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

Give Obama a few years and he’ll come out for full, legal ”same-sex marriage.” (Notice how liberals always “evolve” away from God’s timeless truth.) But first he will need to rationalize his disregard for the Bible – perhaps with some variation of his infamous dismissal of that “obscure line” in Romans 1 to make way for his political embrace of the Sin of Sodom.

For Obama and all smarter-than-God politicans, abandoning the dictates of their professed faith and manipulating those pesky ”social issues” (read: moral issues) is a daily exercise in camoflauging old-fashioned sinful rebellion as a newfound ”civil right.” (And who could possibly be against “civil rights”? “Why, that’s IMMORAL!!”) But Jesus Christ –no respecter of persons, or of declining nations – is the “same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and His eternal moral standard does not change with the political and cultural winds. God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera

American Family Association’s One News Now reports:

_____________________________

Activist: Obama a ‘lost man’ on issue of homosexuality

By Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 12/23/2010 1:20:00 PM
In light of President Obama’s recent comments on same-gender “marriage,” one family advocate describes the president as “a lost man…without a biblical conscience.”

In an interview with the homosexual publication The Advocate, Barack Obama said he is “wrestling” with the issue of marriage equality [AFTAH Editor's Note: read: homosexual "marriage"] and that his “attitudes are evolving.” The president made similar comments in a press conference Wednesday, just hours after he signed into law a repeal of the military’s ban on open homosexuality in the service.

Peter LaBarbera, who heads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes that for all practical purposes, Obama is “completely sold out” for the homosexual agenda.

“President Obama has already said that homosexual relationships are as valid as normal heterosexual relationships — of course, he didn’t use the word ‘normal,’” he explains. “[But] I predict, give him a few years and he’ll be for so-called homosexual marriage. Obviously this is the most committed pro-homosexual president that the homosexual lobby has ever had.”

The pro-family activist points out the president’s anti-biblical stance on the controversial issue.

“What we have here is a president without a biblical conscience,” LaBarbera emphasizes. “He affirms homosexuality as if he’s God, but we know what God says and we have to stay true to that.

“President Obama is just sort of a lost man on this issue,” he continues. “He may be President of the United States, but that doesn’t give him the right to redefine timeless morality.”

LaBarbera adds that Obama might not make a commitment for homosexual “marriage” during his term as president, but likely will at some point.

Rep. Barney Frank

Here is a story about America’s most famous homosexual politician, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA).  Note the good news about the new Congress, but also the new strategy that Sen. Harry Reid and the Democrats are planning to use to attempt to repeal the ban on homosexuality in the military (during the lame-duck session). Excerpted from the homosexual newspaper Washington Blade (the full interview is on the website):

Frank: ‘Zero chance’ for LGBT bills next year

Lou Chibbaro Jr., Washington Blade, Nov 08, 2010

Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who won re-election last week in one of his toughest challenges, said LGBT legislation would have no chance of passing in Congress under the Republican-controlled House next year.

In an interview Tuesday with the Washington Blade, Frank also said he was confident that the Senate, of which Democrats retained control, would join President Obama in blocking any anti-gay bills that conservative Republicans might introduce over the next two years.

“Next year there’s no chance of anything happening,” he said of pro-LGBT legislation. “There’s zero chance.”

He added, “It will be a status quo. They don’t have the votes to hurt us but we don’t have the votes to advance anything in the cause.”

Frank also said he was certain that Republicans would fail in an attempt to overturn D.C.’s same-sex marriage law.

“Do you think Barack Obama is going to sign a bill to repeal the D.C. marriage law,” he asked. “It won’t go through the Senate. There is no chance that could happen. None—zero.”

Frank noted that only five out of 179 House Republicans voted earlier this year to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“The Republicans have become much more anti-gay in their voting patterns,” he said. “There is zero chance of anything good happening with Republicans in control of the House.”

Frank said he was hopeful that the Senate would vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the congressional lame duck session over the next two weeks. The House passed a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal measure earlier this year as part of a defense authorization bill.

The Senate killed a similar defense authorization bill containing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language in a filibuster organized by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Every Senate Republican voted against a cloture motion to break the filibuster.

Frank noted that a number of GOP senators cited the Senate bill’s inclusion of a controversial immigration provision known as the DREAM Act as their reason for voting against the bill, saying they otherwise would have supported repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told him he won’t insert the DREAM Act immigration language in the defense authorization bill when he brings it to the Senate floor in the lame duck session.

With the immigration language removed as an “excuse,” Frank said he’s hopeful that Republican senators who support repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will now join Democrats in supporting the overall defense bill to which repeal language will be attached. Among the GOP senators that repeal advocates hope will back the bill this time are Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, both from Maine. [Continued... To read the full story and interview with Barney Frank on the Blade website, go HERE]

For the last few weeks I’ve been working with Mass Resistance’s Amy Contrada, who has pulled together a wealth of information about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s time at Harvard University, where she served as Dean of the Law School. Many will be shocked at just how extreme Harvard has become — and the radical sexual/gender policies advanced by Kagan. Kudos to Contrada and our friends at Mass Resistance for doing the reporting that most in the liberal media refuse to do (because too many agree with Kagan’s left-wing social agenda). And thanks to Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt of the Pray in Jesus Name Project for supporting this work. Please read the full report, which ends with questions that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee should be asking Kagan.

TAKE ACTION: Fax and e-mail the Kagan report to Judiciary Committee members and request that they question Kagan on her full record at Harvard, which is way out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. Click on the names of the individual Committee members HERE and fax to their MULTIPLE offices (D.C. and local); request that the Senator ask Kagan the questions at the end of the report (reprinted below). Do the same to your own two U.S. Senators. (Congress switchboard: 202-224-3121.) – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Read our Mass Resistance report, “How Elena Kagan Helped “Queer” Harvard Law School (Will she now help “queer” the US Supreme Court’s decisions?)”

Read our Mass Resistance report, “How Elena Kagan Helped “Queer” Harvard Law School (Will she now help “queer” the US Supreme Court’s decisions?)”

Our second Truth Academy — to be co-sponsored with our good friends at Mission America – in Columbus, Ohio, is 10 days away:  April 1-2, 2011. Each Truth Academy — the first was in Chicago (see tape ordering info below) — is an intensive seminar designed to educate citizens from a conservative perspective on the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. The Columbus Truth Academy – focusing on the “‘hate’-labeling of Christians” –features some of the world’s top pro-family experts on the homosexualist agenda. Basic information follows:

What: Truth Academy: Columbus 2011: theme: “The ‘Hate’ Labeling of Christians—Why it’s Happening and What We Can Do”

Co-sponsored by Mission America ( www.missionamerica.com) and Americans for Truth ( www.americansfortruth.com ).

David Kupelian, author of "The Marketing of Evil" and "How Evil Works," is keynote speaker Friday evening.

When: Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2, 2011; ;  doors open Friday, April 1 at noon; program begins at 1:00 PM; Friday evening dinner-lecture by award-winning journalist David Kupelian, WorldNetDaily editor and author, “The Marketing of Evil,” and “How Evil Works,” Saturday: program runs from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM [see hourly schedule below]

Where: Columbus, OH. Discover Christian Church, 2900 Martin Rd., Dublin, OH 43017 [see map HERE]; near the intersection of Sawmill Rd. and Rt. 161, near the airport.

Cost: $75 prepaid ; $99 at the door; make payment online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ (using Paypal or your Visa or MasterCard); or send your check for $75/attendee (with “Truth Academy” in the memo line), made out to Americans For Truth, and send to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522

Payment – online or through the mail: Online: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Regular mail: check payable to “Americans for Truth” to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

Specal Pastors/Students Discount: $25 for all pastors and students (high school and college*); also, please consider sponsoring a pastor or young person to attend the Truth Academy with your donation of $75 per attendee: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/

*We reserve the right to refuse admission and/or charge any Truth Academy attendee the full admission rate ($99); disruptions of presentations will not be tolerated.

RSVP: Reserve your spot at: americansfortruth@gmail.com or info@missionamerica.com; or call: 630-717-7631 (Americans For Truth) or 614-442-7998 (Mission America)

Tentative Speakers Schedule:

“The Hate Labeling of Christians: Who’s Behind It and What We Can Do”

 

Linda Harvey

Truth Academy: Columbus, Ohio, Discovery Christian Church, 2900 Martin Rd., Dublin, Ohio [see map HERE], April 1-2, 2011; co-sponsored by Americans For Truth and Mission America:

FRIDAY, APRIL 1:

Noon – -1:00 pm —Registration

1:00 pm –1:15 pm—Opening prayer, remarks and welcome: Linda Harvey, Mission America

Peter LaBarbera

1:15 pm—2:00 pm— “Homosexual Activism: How it is Undermining Faith and Freedom in America”—Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality

2:00 pm—2:45 pm— “Christian Theology and Homosexuality: Why God Has Not Changed His Mind”—Dr. Robert Gagnon, Associate Professor, New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary [Listen to AFTAH's radio interviews with Gagnon HERE.]

2:45 pm –3:00 pm—Break

Prof. Rob Gagnon

3:00 pm—3:45 pm – “Sexual Anarchy in the Military: the Implications for Christian Faith and National Security,” J. Matt Barber, Attorney, Vice President, Liberty Counsel Action [Listen to AFTAH's radio interviews with Barber HERE.]

3:45 pm—5:00 pm Panel: “Why Should Christians Care about Homosexual Activism and ‘Gay Rights’?”

Moderator: Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth

Panel Members: J. Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel

 

 

 

SATURDAY, APRIL 2:

Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen

9:30 am—9:45 am—Prayer and opening remarks—Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality

9:45 am —10:30 am — “Marriage and Family in the Crosshairs”— Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Associate Professor, Liberty University School of Law [Listen to AFTAH's radio interviews with Lindevaldsen HERE.]

10:30 am—11:15 am— “The Corruption of Youth and Schools: How Christians are Being Compromised in America,” Linda Harvey, Mission America [Listen to AFTAH's radio interviews with Harvey HERE.]

11:15—Noon— “The Reality of Leaving Homosexuality and the Attacks on the Ex-Gay Witness,” Greg Quinlan, President, PFOX ( Parents and Family of Ex-Gays and Gays) [Listen to AFTAH's radio interview with Quinlan HERE.]

Matt Barber

Noon—1:30 pm—Lunch on your own

1:30 pm—2:15 pm —“Propaganda or Journalism? The Role of the Media in Undermining Christianity”— David Kupelian, World Net Daily

2:15 pm—3:00 – “Current Controversies in the Campaign to ‘Christian-ize’ Homosexuality,” Prof. Rob Gagnon, www.robgagnon.net

3:00-4:00 pm –Panel: “How to Be Overcomers in a Today’s America” and Q & A

Moderator: J. Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel

Panel: Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth

Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty Counsel

Greg Quinlan, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays)

Dr. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Please tell your network of friends about this exciting and informative event!  RSVPs and e-mail inquiries to americansfortruth@gmai.com or info@missionamerica.com. Phone: AFTAH (630-717-7631) or Mission America (614-442-7998)

---

TAPE ORDERING INFO FOR DEBUT “TRUTH ACADEMY: Chicago 2010″ (held outside Chicago, August 5-7, 2010)

Three-day teaching seminar answering “gay” misinformation was one of most comprehensive pro-family teach-ins  on the Homosexual Agenda ever held

Click HERE for a PRINTABLE DVD/CD ORDER FORM (For Faxing and Mailing)

______________________________________

Conference DVD/CD Order Form – Truth Academy: Chicago 2010

Two ordering options: full set (DVD/video or CD/audio) OR individual speaker sets (DVD/video or CD/audio). Attendee discounts available only to those who attended Truth Academy: Chicago 2010.

By Fax: Fill and print out order form and fax to AFTAH at 630-839-0799;

By Regular Mail: send check with completed form to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522;

Order online: go HERE and order with a standard credit card (Visa or MasterCard) or via PayPal. For PayPay orders, send a separate e-mail indicating your payment and what you ordered to americansfortruth@gmail.com.

_______________________________________

Truth Academy: Chicago 2010 – Conference DVD/CD Order Form

FULL SET: Check to order [get easier-to-print ORDER FORM here]

_____ Full DVD set (all speakers including Q&As and panel discussion): $179 [all prices include shipping and handling]

_____ **Special Truth Academy attendee DVD discount rate** (full DVD set): $149

_____ Full CD set (audio only): $119

_____ **Special Truth Academy attendee CD discount** (full CD set): $99

TOTAL: $___________

_____________________________________________________________

INDIVIDUAL SPEAKER sets:

Individual speakers ($25 per speaker set DVD/ $20 per CD set; each set includes ALL talks by speaker; Laurie Higgins’ presentations available only on CD). Select speaker presentations:

INDICATE: ___ DVD (video)     OR        ___ CD (audio)

___  Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel (one talk with Q&A and Thursday panel discussion)

___  Prof. Rob Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (3 talks w/ Q&A)

___  Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing); (2 talks w/ Q&A)

___  Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute (2 talks w/ Q&A) [audio only available for Laurie Higgins]

___  Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media (3 talks w/ Q&A)

___  Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries (2 talks)

___  Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth (Welcoming remarks and Saturday talk)

___  Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University Law School (3 talks w/ Q&A)

___  Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (2 talks w/ Q&A)

___  Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California (2 talks w/ Q&A)

____ TOTAL # sets order: indicate: ___ DVD (video)      or     ___ CD (audio only)

TOTAL # of Speaker Sets: ____ @ $25 per set DVD= $_______  OR @ $20 per set CD

TOTAL=  $___________

Customer Information:

__________________________________________________________________

Full Name

___________________________________________________________________

Address

________________________________                  ______________            ________________

City                                                                              State                                   Zip Code

Credit Card information (M/C or Visa only):

Card #: ________________________________________________  Exp. Date _____/__________

Security code (3-digit # on back of card): __________

Send completed form and payment to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522;

Fax to AFTAH: 630-839-0799; inquiries: americansfortruth@gmail.com ; ph: 630-717-7631.

___________________________________________________________________

Truth Academy: Chicago 2010 Instructors:

Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California

Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media

Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University Law School

Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel

Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute

Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays

Prof. Rob Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; see www.RobGagnon.net

Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality)

For more information about ordering Truth Academy DVDs or audio CDs, – or to inquire about holding a Truth Academy in your area – send an e-mail to americansfortruth@gmail.com. Or call AFTAH at 630-717-7631.

_____________________________________________________________

AFTAH Truth Academy: Chicago 2010

Full Speakers Schedule:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5 (Day One)

All presentations are 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of Q & A.  There will be a panel discussion and Q & A on Thursday and Friday, and a special evening presentation each of those evenings.

8-9:30 – Light breakfast pastries;  Registration

9:30 – 9:35 – Opening Prayer, Calvin Lindstrom, Pastor, Church of Christian Liberty; Christian Liberty Academy

9:35 – 10:00 – Welcoming Remarks, Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality:

“From gay pride to gay tyranny”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law:

“History of modern ‘gay’ activism and the courts”

11:20-12:20 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival; Accuracy in Media:

“No criticism of homosexuality allowed: combating pro-homosexual media bias”

12:20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California:

“The ‘born gay hoax”

2:30 – 3:30 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute:

“Using reason and logic in answering pro-homosexuality arguments”

3:40-4:40 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering Healthy Alternatives to Homosexuality), author, Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change:

“Can gays change? Is gay parenting good for kids? Presenting the research on homosexuality”

4:50-6:00 – PANEL DISCUSSION and Q & A:

Theme:  “Can the effort to ‘mainstream’ homosexuality in American culture be stopped?”

Panelists:  Rena Lindevaldsen, Matt Barber, Laurie Higgins, Ryan Sorba, Arthur Goldberg, and Greg Quinlan, Cliff Kincaid; Moderator: Peter LaBarbera

Special Thursday evening presentation (Q & A will follow talk):

7:45 – 9:15 – Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX); Pro-Family Network:

“An Ex-Gay Christian Discusses Love, Truth and Homosexuality”

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 (Day Two)

8:00-9:00 – Light breakfast pastries; Registration

9:00 – 10:00 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival, Accuracy in Media:

“The battle over blood: ‘gay’ health risks and public policy”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law:

“The zero-sum game: homosexuality-based ‘rights’ vs. religious and First Amendment freedoms”

11:20-12:20 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute:

“Corrupting children, politicizing schools: the homosexual youth agenda”

12 :20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality:

“The gender confusion agenda: ‘transgender rights’”

2:30 – 3:30 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“From abomination to ‘gay’: answering ‘queer theology’ — Old Testament”

3:40-4:40 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty U. School of Law:

“The legal strategy to stop homosexual ‘marriage’: triumphs and pitfalls”

5:00-6:00 – PANEL DISCUSSION and Q & A:

Theme:  “Returning the debate to behavior – getting off the ‘GLBT’ playing field”

Panelists:  Rena Lindevaldsen, Matt Barber, Laurie Higgins, Ryan Sorba, Arthur Goldberg, Cliff Kincaid, Robert Knight, Robert Gagnon, Gregg Quinlan; Moderator: Peter LaBarbera

Special Friday evening keynote presentation (Q & A will follow talk):

7:35 – 7:45 – Special introduction by Sandy Rios, FOX News contributor and Chicago radio talk show host

7:45 – 9:15 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; author, Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Towards Socialism:

“From destroying DOMA to homosexualizing the military: Obama’s radical homosexual/transsexual agenda for America”

__________________________________________________________

SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 (Day Three)

8:00-9:00 – Light breakfast pastries; Registration

9:00 – 10:00 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“’But Jesus never said anything about homosexuality’”: Answering ‘Queer Theology’ — New Testament”

10:10 – 11:10 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries:

“Destructive legacy: Alfred Kinsey and the (Homo)Sexual Revolution”

11:20-12:20 – Greg Quinlan, PFOX, Pro-Family Network:

“The big, pink plan for a lavender culture”

:20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival; Accuracy in Media:

“Can you be in support homosexual activism and be conservative’? Confronting the pro-’gay’ Right”

2:30-3:40 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“Agreeing with God: a truly biblical approach toward ‘out and proud’ homosexuality”

3:50-4:50 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California:

“Confronting the zeitgeist: new strategies to turn around younger Americans on ‘gay rights’”

5:00-6:00 – Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel, AFTAH Board Member:

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Bleed: stopping Obama’s campaign to homosexualize the U.S. military”

6:00-6:20 – Closing remarks, Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

__________________________________________________________________________

Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen will teach at the AFTAH Academy on the inherent battle in the law between "gay rights" and Americans' precious religious and First Amendment liberties.

Dear Readers,

We’re delighted to announce the debut of our ongoing “Americans For Truth Academy,” designed to train Americans young and old how to answer “gay” activist misinformation and fight the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda. We hope and pray that ‘Truth Academy: Chicago 2010′ will be the first of many Truth Academies held across the United States, and maybe outside the USA some day.

This debut Academy will be one of the most important pro-family conferences on homosexuality ever held in the United States.  Please consider sponsoring a student/young person (ages 14-25) to attend for $99 or attending yourself (or encouraging your pastor to attend). RSVP to: americansfortruth@gmail.com. Rarely will you get a chance to learn from such brilliant teachers on the homosexual issue all in one rigorous seminar.

To reserve a spot, go online to www.americansfortruth.com/donate (designate AFTAH Academy); to sponsor a young person ($99/student), specify “Youth Scholarship” on the online form. Or mail your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Please RSVP to americansfortruth@gmail.com.

UPDATED ADULT PRICING POLICY: Adults, full 3-day conference: $149, or $50/day; youth ages 14-25: $99 (scholarships available); married couples discount: $199.  Pay online by designating “Truth Academy” however you choose to pay (Paypal or Credit Card) at www.AmericansForTruth.com/donate. Or send your check to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

This August 5-7, AFTAH will bring together some of the country’s leading pro-family experts on homosexuality to teach both young and old how to answer the lies and myths that so readily emanate from the “GLBT” (“gay”) camp. I am very excited about this new project’s potential to reverse years of pro-”gay” brainwashing in the schools and popular culture — corrupting the hearts and minds of  our young people.

Let’s face it: much of the conservative establishment has dropped the ball on fighting the homosexual agenda (or given up entirely), so AFTAH is stepping up to train a new generations of activists to contend with the sexual sin movement that has fooled so many Americans into treating a human wrong — changeable same-sex behavior — as a “civil right.” Please help us make this future-oriented event possible with your tax-deductible donation to Americans For Truth at www.americansfortruth.com/donate. God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

____________________________________________

Free Book Offer Selections for Sponsoring AFTAH Academy Student:

• “Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far,” by the late Dr. Charles Socarides, who fought the American Psychiatric Association’s gay-pressure-induced “normalization” of homosexuality in the early 1970s [hardcover: 312 pp]; or
• “Out from Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting,” by Dawn Stefanowicz. This harrowing yet beautifully written story about Dawn’s troubled upbringing with her promiscuous “gay” dad is required reading for anyone who is tempted to embrace “gay parenting.” (Dawn has agreed to be an instructor at future AFTAH Academy seminars.) [Softcover: 245 pp.]

To order these books without donating to the AFTAH Academy, send $20 postage paid per book (specify which book you’d like to order) or $35 postage paid for both books. Order online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate, or send your check or money order to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Complete this online form to apply.

Mission America and Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (www.aftah.org)

9:00 am –9:30 am—Registration—Coffee/donuts in Global Cafe

President Barack Obama's promotion of a government-enforced homosexual and "transgender" agenda will lead to the loss of liberties for those who espouse and defend the natural, historic Judeo-Christian conception of marriage and family.

CORRECTION: Well folks, looks like we’re a year behind in covering President Obama’s declaration of “Pride” in that which is shameful. I accidentally published President Obama’s 2009 “Gay Pride Month” Proclamation instead of the current 2010 version. So below we have included both years’ proclamations so you can compare them. Note that in the 2010 version, Obama calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which he is now circumventing piecemeal through “domestic partner” executive orders for federal workers. I apologize for the mistake. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

_______________________________

Original AFTAH commentary:

America’s pro-homosexual Panderer-in-Chief is at it again….When President Obama proclaims [2009 "Gay Pride Month" statement], “As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit,” I wonder if he’s ever heard of Matt Barber — who was fired by Allstate Insurance Co., after Obama’s “gay” allies over at the Human Wrongs Rights Campaign complained that Matt had written an online article critical of homosexuality (on his own time).

(I don’t recall Matt being comforted at the idea that it was for the cause of “gay equality” that he was cruelly and suddenly thrown into unemployment by Allstate….)

Or how about Elaine Huguenin, a Christian photographer who was fined by the courts under New Mexico’s “sexual orientation” law because she would not take pictures at a lesbian commitment ceremony? (Pro-gay-agenda Libertarians: take note; Huguenin is appealing the decision.)

Wasn’t religious liberty and freedom of conscience one of those “principles upon which our Nation was founded”?

Clearly, a few Americans many win but only at the expense of many more who will lose their freedom if proud homosexuality is elevated to official “civil rights” status. As Obama’s own recess appointee at the EEOC, lesbian law professor and ENDA architect Chai Feldblum, has put it, it’s a “zero-sum game” between religious freedom and homosexuality-based “rights.” So let’s do away with the pretense that celebrating legally-enshrined homosexuality (read: changeable homosexual behavior) is some universally-held value that will unite Americans. It won’t. And the Bible-dismissing Obama’s unprecedented promotion of not just the homosexualist agenda but federally-guaranteed “rights” based on gender confusion (the transgender “T” in “GLBT”) will only help solidify his standing as the most divisive president in modern memory and probably the most left-wing leader in our nation’s history. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

______________________________________________________________

Below is Obama’s (current) 2010 “Gay Pride Month” proclamation:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
May 28, 2010

Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month

As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities.  Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise.  An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.  This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.

LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life.  From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline.  They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors.  Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level.  Thanks to those who came before us    the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance    we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.

My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation.  We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban.  I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.

In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.  HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.  Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.

Much work remains to fulfill our Nation’s promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.  That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.  We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits.  We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment.  I am also committed to ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.

As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles.  Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole.  By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.  I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

___________________________________________________________________________

And here is (last year’s) Obama’s 2009 homosexual “Pride Month” proclamation:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release, June 1, 2009

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- – - – - – -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country’s response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration — in both the White House and the Federal agencies — openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

BARACK OBAMA

Click here to download PDF

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is using this sticker and a national "Queer the Census" campaign to turn the U.S. Census into a homosexual visibility project.

TAKE ACTION: Ask your Congressman and Senators to stand against Barack Obama’s executive imposition of the homosexual activist agenda — in spite of U.S. laws. The Obama administration is flouting DOMA and the homosexual exclusion law for the U.S. military. Call 202-224-3121; www.congress.org

Dear Readers,

Our imperious Panderer-in-Chief, Barack Obama, continues to undermine DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act — which, like the military’s homosexual exclusion policy, is still the law of the land. Homosexual activists led by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force demanded the “Queering” of the U.S. Census — and Obama complied. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

American Family Association’s One News Now reports:
________________________________

Census used as ‘gay gimmick’

Jim Brown and Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Traditional marriage proponents are warning that homosexual activists and the Obama administration are once again working in concert to “manipulate” federal law.

The Associated Press reports that the Census Bureau plans to count same-sex couples who say they are married, regardless of whether they have a marriage license (see AP article). Even though only five states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex “marriages,” the Census Bureau says same-sex couples should feel free to check the “husband” or “wife” boxes on the census form, rather than “unmarried partner.”

Peter LaBarbera, executive director of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, argues that the Bureau is clearly violating the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which does not recognize same-sex “marriages.”

“What they’re obviously trying to do is magnify the numbers of homosexuals in the society,” he suspects.  “This dates way back in the gay movement.  There was a time when homosexual activists just lied and said that ten percent of the public was gay — that was a bald-faced lie.  It took decades to finally disprove that lie, but here again we see them calling themselves married because they want to be called married.  Well, that’s not what the law says.”

LaBarbera believes homosexual activists are using the census as their latest “gimmick” to seek affirmation of their lifestyle, and he challenges Congress to “step up” and prevent the Obama administration from promoting the “gay” agenda by dictate.

Marriage by opinion is not marriage by law

Similarly, Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at Liberty Counsel, believes the source for the Bureau’s instructions can perhaps be traced as far as the White House. (Listen to audio report)

Matt Barber”It’s a shame that the Census Bureau, in tangent with radical homosexual activists, are choosing to use the census, which is supposed to provide objective, quantifiable information relative to varying demographics around the country, that they’re using this as a tool for political activism,” Barber laments.

He notes that just because a homosexual couple might call their relationship a marriage, that does not make it so. “It is directly contrary to probably the letter, at least the spirit, of the Defense of Marriage Act,” he adds.

The federal law recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and the cultural affairs director believes the purpose in the census campaign is to “create an impression in the minds of the American people” that the movement for legalizing homosexual marriage has more steam behind it than it actually does.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                                        October 10, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN DINNER

Walter E. Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
8:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Please, you’re making me blush. (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Barack!

THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. (Applause.)

To Joe Solmonese, who’s doing an outstanding job on behalf of HRC. (Applause.) To my great friend and supporter, Terry Bean, co-founder of HRC. (Applause.) Representative Patrick Kennedy. (Applause.) David Huebner, the Ambassador-designee to New Zealand and Samoa. (Applause.) John Berry, our Director of OPM, who’s doing a great job. (Applause.) Nancy Sutley, Chairman of Council on Environmental Quality. (Applause.) Fred Hochberg, Chairman of Export-Import Bank. (Applause.) And my dear friend, Tipper Gore, who’s in the house. (Applause.)

Thank you so much, all of you. It is a privilege to be here tonight to open for Lady GaGa. (Applause.) I’ve made it. (Laughter.) I want to thank the Human Rights Campaign for inviting me to speak and for the work you do every day in pursuit of equality on behalf of the millions of people in this country who work hard in their jobs and care deeply about their families — and who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. (Applause.)

For nearly 30 years, you’ve advocated on behalf of those without a voice. That’s not easy. For despite the real gains that we’ve made, there’s still laws to change and there’s still hearts to open. There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors, even loved ones — good and decent people — who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted. And that’s painful and it’s heartbreaking. (Applause.) And yet you continue, leading by the force of the arguments you make, and by the power of the example that you set in your own lives — as parents and friends, as PTA members and church members, as advocates and leaders in your communities. And you’re making a difference.

That’s the story of the movement for fairness and equality, and not just for those who are gay, but for all those in our history who’ve been denied the rights and responsibilities of citizenship — (applause) — for all who’ve been told that the full blessings and opportunities of this country were closed to them. It’s the story of progress sought by those with little influence or power; by men and women who brought about change through quiet, personal acts of compassion — and defiance — wherever and whenever they could.

It’s the story of the Stonewall protests, when a group of citizens — (applause) — when a group of citizens with few options, and fewer supporters stood up against discrimination and helped to inspire a movement. It’s the story of an epidemic that decimated a community — and the gay men and women who came to support one another and save one another; who continue to fight this scourge; and who have demonstrated before the world that different kinds of families can show the same compassion in a time of need. (Applause.) And it’s the story of the Human Rights Campaign and the fights you’ve fought for nearly 30 years: helping to elect candidates who share your values; standing against those who would enshrine discrimination into our Constitution; advocating on behalf of those living with HIV/AIDS; and fighting for progress in our capital and across America. (Applause.)

This story, this fight continue now. And I’m here with a simple message: I’m here with you in that fight. (Applause.) For even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot — and we will not — put aside issues of basic equality. I greatly appreciate the support I’ve received from many in this room. I also appreciate that many of you don’t believe progress has come fast enough. I want to be honest about that, because it’s important to be honest among friends.

Now, I’ve said this before, I’ll repeat it again — it’s not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans petitioning for equal rights half a century ago. (Applause.) But I will say this: We have made progress and we will make more. And I think it’s important to remember that there is not a single issue that my administration deals with on a daily basis that does not touch on the lives of the LGBT community. (Applause.) We all have a stake in reviving this economy. We all have a stake in putting people back to work. We all have a stake in improving our schools and achieving quality, affordable health care. We all have a stake in meeting the difficult challenges we face in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Applause.)

For while some may wish to define you solely by your sexual orientation or gender identity alone, you know — and I know — that none of us wants to be defined by just one part of what makes us whole. (Applause.) You’re also parents worried about your children’s futures. You’re spouses who fear that you or the person you love will lose a job. You’re workers worried about the rising cost of health insurance. You’re soldiers. You are neighbors. You are friends. And, most importantly, you are Americans who care deeply about this country and its future. (Applause.)

So I know you want me working on jobs and the economy and all the other issues that we’re dealing with. But my commitment to you is unwavering even as we wrestle with these enormous problems. And while progress may be taking longer than you’d like as a result of all that we face — and that’s the truth — do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach. (Applause.)

My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians — whether in the office or on the battlefield. (Applause.) You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman. (Applause.) You will see a nation that’s valuing and cherishing these families as we build a more perfect union — a union in which gay Americans are an important part. I am committed to these goals. And my administration will continue fighting to achieve them.

And there’s no more poignant or painful reminder of how important it is that we do so than the loss experienced by Dennis and Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was stolen in a terrible act of violence 11 years ago. In May, I met with Judy — who’s here tonight with her husband — I met her in the Oval Office, and I promised her that we were going to pass an inclusive hate crimes bill — a bill named for her son. (Applause.)

This struggle has been long. Time and again we faced opposition. Time and again, the measure was defeated or delayed. But the Shepards never gave up. (Applause.) They turned tragedy into an unshakeable commitment. (Applause.) Countless activists and organizers never gave up. You held vigils, you spoke out, year after year, Congress after Congress. The House passed the bill again this week. (Applause.) And I can announce that after more than a decade, this bill is set to pass and I will sign it into law. (Applause.)

It’s a testament to the decade-long struggle of Judy and Dennis, who tonight will receive a tribute named for somebody who inspired so many of us — named for Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought tirelessly for this legislation. (Applause.) And it’s a testament to the Human Rights Campaign and those who organized and advocated. And it’s a testament to Matthew and to others who’ve been the victims of attacks not just meant to break bones, but to break spirits — not meant just to inflict harm, but to instill fear. Together, we will have moved closer to that day when no one has to be afraid to be gay in America. (Applause.) When no one has to fear walking down the street holding the hand of the person they love. (Applause.)

But we know there’s far more work to do. We’re pushing hard to pass an inclusive employee non-discrimination bill. (Applause.) For the first time ever, an administration official testified in Congress in favor of this law. Nobody in America should be fired because they’re gay, despite doing a great job and meeting their responsibilities. It’s not fair. It’s not right. We’re going to put a stop to it. (Applause.) And it’s for this reason that if any of my nominees are attacked not for what they believe but for who they are, I will not waver in my support, because I will not waver in my commitment to ending discrimination in all its forms. (Applause.)

We are reinvigorating our response to HIV/AIDS here at home and around the world. (Applause.) We’re working closely with the Congress to renew the Ryan White program and I look forward to signing it into law in the very near future. (Applause.) We are rescinding the discriminatory ban on entry to the United States based on HIV status. (Applause.) The regulatory process to enact this important change is already underway. And we also know that HIV/AIDS continues to be a public health threat in many communities, including right here in the District of Columbia. Jeffrey Crowley, the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, recently held a forum in Washington, D.C., and is holding forums across the country, to seek input as we craft a national strategy to address this crisis.

We are moving ahead on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. (Applause.) We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage and selflessness on behalf of their fellow citizens, especially when we’re fighting two wars. (Applause.)

We cannot afford to cut from our ranks people with the critical skills we need to fight any more than we can afford — for our military’s integrity — to force those willing to do so into careers encumbered and compromised by having to live a lie. So I’m working with the Pentagon, its leadership, and the members of the House and Senate on ending this policy. Legislation has been introduced in the House to make this happen. I will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That’s my commitment to you. (Applause.)

It is no secret that issues of great concern to gays and lesbians are ones that raise a great deal of emotion in this country. And it’s no secret that progress has been incredibly difficult — we can see that with the time and dedication it took to pass hate crimes legislation. But these issues also go to the heart of who we are as a people. Are we a nation that can transcend old attitudes and worn divides? Can we embrace our differences and look to the hopes and dreams that we share? Will we uphold the ideals on which this nation was founded: that all of us are equal, that all of us deserve the same opportunity to live our lives freely and pursue our chance at happiness? I believe we can; I believe we will. (Applause.)

And that is why — that’s why I support ensuring that committed gay couples have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country. (Applause.) I believe strongly in stopping laws designed to take rights away and passing laws that extend equal rights to gay couples. I’ve required all agencies in the federal government to extend as many federal benefits as possible to LGBT families as the current law allows. And I’ve called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act. (Applause.) And we must all stand together against divisive and deceptive efforts to feed people’s lingering fears for political and ideological gain.

For the struggle waged by the Human Rights Campaign is about more than any policy we can enshrine into law. It’s about our capacity to love and commit to one another. It’s about whether or not we value as a society that love and commitment. It’s about our common humanity and our willingness to walk in someone else’s shoes: to imagine losing a job not because of your performance at work but because of your relationship at home; to imagine worrying about a spouse in the hospital, with the added fear that you’ll have to produce a legal document just to comfort the person you love — (applause) — to imagine the pain of losing a partner of decades and then discovering that the law treats you like a stranger. (Applause.)

If we are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that there are too many who do not yet know in their lives or feel in their hearts the urgency of this struggle. That’s why I continue to speak about the importance of equality for LGBT families — and not just in front of gay audiences. That’s why Michelle and I have invited LGBT families to the White House to participate in events like the Easter Egg Roll — because we want to send a message. (Applause.) And that’s why it’s so important that you continue to speak out, that you continue to set an example, that you continue to pressure leaders — including me — and to make the case all across America. (Applause.)

So, tonight I’m hopeful — because of the activism I see in this room, because of the compassion I’ve seen all across America, and because of the progress we have made throughout our history, including the history of the movement for LGBT equality.

Soon after the protests at Stonewall 40 years ago, the phone rang in the home of a soft-spoken elementary school teacher named Jeanne Manford. It was 1:00 in the morning, and it was the police. Now, her son, Morty, had been at the Stonewall the night of the raids. Ever since, he had felt within him a new sense of purpose. So when the officer told Jeanne that her son had been arrested, which was happening often to gay protesters, she was not entirely caught off guard. And then the officer added one more thing, “And you know, he’s homosexual.” (Laughter.) Well, that police officer sure was surprised when Jeanne responded, “Yes, I know. Why are you bothering him?” (Applause.)

And not long after, Jeanne would be marching side-by-side with her son through the streets of New York. She carried a sign that stated her support. People cheered. Young men and women ran up to her, kissed her, and asked her to talk to their parents. And this gave Jeanne and Morty an idea.

And so, after that march on the anniversary of the Stonewall protests, amidst the violence and the vitriol of a difficult time for our nation, Jeanne and her husband Jules — two parents who loved their son deeply — formed a group to support other parents and, in turn, to support their children, as well. At the first meeting Jeanne held, in 1973, about 20 people showed up. But slowly, interest grew. Morty’s life, tragically, was cut short by AIDS. But the cause endured. Today, the organization they founded for parents, families, and friends of lesbians and gays — (applause) — has more than 200,000 members and supporters, and has made a difference for countless families across America. And Jeanne would later say, “I considered myself such a traditional person. I didn’t even cross the street against the light.” (Laughter.) “But I wasn’t going to let anybody walk over Morty.” (Applause.)

That’s the story of America: of ordinary citizens organizing, agitating and advocating for change; of hope stronger than hate; of love more powerful than any insult or injury; of Americans fighting to build for themselves and their families a nation in which no one is a second-class citizen, in which no one is denied their basic rights, in which all of us are free to live and love as we see fit. (Applause.)

Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.

I believe the future is bright for that young person. For while there will be setbacks and bumps along the road, the truth is that our common ideals are a force far stronger than any division that some might sow. These ideals, when voiced by generations of citizens, are what made it possible for me to stand here today. (Applause.) These ideals are what made it possible for the people in this room to live freely and openly when for most of history that would have been inconceivable. That’s the promise of America, HRC. That’s the promise we’re called to fulfill. (Applause.) Day by day, law by law, changing mind by mind, that is the promise we are fulfilling.

Thank you for the work you’re doing. God bless you. God bless America. (Applause.)

END 8:35 P.M. EDT

This is the obvious difference between Obama’s “families” that social liberals refuse to acknowledge, or make relevant to public policy. “Queer” parenting and “gay” adoption are a part of radical social experiment in progress — and innocent children are the guinea pigs. Who can know the effect on a young child being raised by two homosexual men like Gay Adoption Poster Boy Dan Savage — who boasts of the “three-way” sex he and “husband” Terry engaged in while parents of an adopted boy. (News flash for the naive: “gay monogamy,” at least for men, is largely a farce.)

It seems that whether he aspires to it or not, President Obama is America’s first anti-Christian president. He does all he can to help pro-homosexual-”marriage” forces even as he claims to support traditional marriage; gets spiritual counsel from notorious homosexual activist Episcopal bishop V. (as in Vickie) Gene Robinson; he distanced himself from the National Day of Prayer; arrogantly (and ignorantly) dismisses Scriptural prohibitions against homosexual practice as “obscure”; and smears opponents of homosexuality as having “worn arguments and old attitudes.” Now, Obama manages to stick it to the traditionalist Christians (and Jews, Muslims and Hindus) once again by including homosexual “parents” in an otherwise forgettable proclamation about families. Thankfully, much of the country is becoming numb to Obama’s secular preaching — because whatever homosexual-led “families” are, they are by definition not the ideal for children. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

_____________________

Here is Obama’s Sept. 28 “Family Day” Proclamation (emphasis added):

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FAMILY DAY, 2009

——-

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Our family provides one of the strongest influences on our lives. American families from every walk of life have taught us time and again that children raised in loving, caring homes have the ability to reject negative behaviors and reach their highest potential. Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things. Today, our children are confronting issues of drug and alcohol use with astonishing regularity. On Family Day, we honor the dedication of parents, commend the achievements of their children, and celebrate the contributions our Nation’s families have made to combat substance abuse among young people.

The 21st century presents families with unprecedented challenges. Millions of women and men are struggling to balance the demands of their jobs with the needs of their families. At the same time, our youngest generation faces countless distractions in their social environment. They are coming of age in a world where electronic devices have replaced the playground, televisions have preempted conversation, and pressure to use drug and alcohol is far too prevalent. Parents bear significant stress and burdens to protect their children from harmful influences.

It is our responsibility to talk with adolescents about the risks of abusing alcohol, tobacco, or prescription and illicit drugs, and other harmful behaviors. These substances can destroy the mind, body, and spirit of a child, jeopardizing their health and limiting their potential. Active parents, voicing their disapproval of drug use, have proven themselves to be the most effective preventative method for keeping our children drug-free. A strong and engaged family can make all the difference in helping young people make healthy decisions.

By coming together as a family and discussing the events of the day, parents can foster open communication, share joys and concerns, and help guide their children toward healthy decisionmaking. A strong nation is made up of strong families, and on this Family Day, we rededicate ourselves to ensuring that every American family has the chance to build a better, healthier future for themselves and their children.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 28, 2009, as Family Day. I call upon the people of the United States to join together in observing this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities to honor and strengthen our Nation’s families.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine,

BARACK OBAMA

ENDA Paves the Way: John Berry (left), President Obama’s openly homosexual director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, says that once the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is “enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time” before the rest of the administration’s sweeping homosexual and transsexual activist agenda will become law.

TAKE ACTION: write (preferably not just by e-mail) and call your U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose this radical big-government legislation that would strip away Americans’ foundational right to act on their religious and moral beliefs.

The following is excerpted from the homosexual newspaper Washington Blade (emphasis added):

_________________________________

ENDA should be top priority – Berry

Says ‘Don’t Ask,’ DOMA repeal should also be pursued

By CHRIS JOHNSON, Washington Blade
September 28, 2009

The highest-ranking openly gay appointee in the Obama administration is encouraging LGBT Americans to make passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act their No. 1 priority and said its success would place within reach other civil rights goals.

John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, called for greater focus on ENDA on Saturday following his keynote address at Out for Work’s national convention at the Westin City Center Hotel in D.C.

Berry advocated for the importance of ENDA — and identified repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act as other priorities — in response to an audience member’s question about possible legislative issues on the horizon and criticism that President Obama isn’t moving quickly enough on LGBT issues.

“The most important thing we can do right now is we got to … secure the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — and it’s got to include full transgender protections,” Berry said. “I believe that if we all concentrate our efforts where it needs to be concentrated, which is on the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we can get the job done.”

Other pro-LGBT legislation can be more easily achieved, Berry said, if Congress were to pass ENDA.

“If we can get ENDA enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time before all the rest happens,” he said. “It is the keystone that holds up the whole bunch, and so we need to focus our energies and attention there.”

Berry was confident that there are enough votes in the House to pass a fully inclusive ENDA, but said a question remains over whether there are 60 votes in the Senate to end a filibuster.

“We’re very close to the 218 [votes in the House],” Berry said. “We’re within spitting distance, and I think we will get it. We are not as close on the 60 in the Senate, but we will be, and this will happen, so I think it’s going to take that focal energy point.”

The OPM director commended Obama for being “clearly on the record” in support of ENDA. …

Berry said Defense Secretary Robert Gates has “an open mind” on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but that the secretary also has to work to “balance some things,” such as military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Still, the OPM director noted that administration support alone is insufficient to overturn the law.

“This administration strongly supports the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but in the end, having the president say that without 218 votes in the House and 60 in the Senate don’t get you far,” Berry said.

Also high among Berry’s priorities is overturning DOMA. The OPM director criticized Congress for passing the law in 1996 and said it was enacted for bad reasons.

“It was motivated only by hate, it was motivated by discrimination, it is a base law and it should be repealed,” Berry said.

Berry noted that Obama has called DOMA [discriminatory] and urged for its legislative repeal, but the OPM director added the best way toward overturning the law would be through the courts and not Congress.

“I will tell you personally I believe that I think the courts will strike this down before Congress will have to repeal it legislatively,” he said. “And thank goodness because, in this case, the backbone is not there in Congress.”

Support for repealing DOMA through litigation echoes the position of gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on the issue. Frank has not signed on as a co-sponsor to the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal DOMA, because he said Congress should tackle other LGBT priorities and a pending lawsuit against the statute better addresses the issue….

TAKE ACTION: Call and write your U.S. Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA; HR 2981) as a Big Government bill that would empower the federal government to force small businesses to subsidize homosexual and gender-confused lifestyles. 

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Just in case you are still relying on establishment liberal media like the Associated Press (AP) to get your news, here are some startling photos and links documenting the mammoth, conservative “Tea Party Express” march in our nation’s capital Saturday, September 12th. This was a grassroots taxpayers’ protest of historic proportions — not in the “tens of thousands,” as AP misreported, but between one and two million people coming to make their voice heard in Washington.

I have been to a few big marches on Washington — including the annual March for Life and (as a critical observer) the homosexual activists’ March on Washington in 1993 (Click HERE to watch a very revealing YouTube video about that radical event). Based on the photos of Saturday’s tea party in D.C., this march appears to have dwarfed those past mobilizations. And try as the liberals will to paint Saturday’s marchers as a bunch of extremists, these are regular Americans, many of which had never attended a D.C. mass rally before. (But try this for a glimpse of the extreme 1993 “gay” rally, which had much smaller numbers.)

The Left is already moving to discredit the massive conservative turnout — jumping all over a false claim that ABC News reported the march as drawing between 1 million and 1.5 million. (We hope the Park Service will come up with a fair estimate, but even if they don’t aerial photos tell the story.) When even the left-wing MSNBC (NBC reporter Tom Costello) goes off script and reports that “hundreds of thousands” took part in the rally, you know something very significant has happened in Washington [watch Costello's MSNBC report HERE]. The New York Times reported:

“Many came on their own and were not part of an organization or group. But the magnitude of the rally took the authorities by surprise, with throngs of people streaming from the White House to Capitol Hill for more than three hours.”

Here are some important websites that tell the real story about this huge rally in D.C.:

• Obviously moved by the enormity of the 9/12 march, the British newspaper Daily Mail  — hardly sympathetic to American conservatives — reported (emphasis added): “A million march to US Capitol to protest against ‘Obama the socialist.’” However, the Daily Mail’s original headline was: “Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration” (it appears that the DM‘s editors made some politically correct revisions);
• Michelle Malkin’s original story on the 9/12 march: “Yes, the picture is real, nutroots” [see photo at right]
• Malkin’s follow-up web article: “Celebrating the 9/12 rallies; Turnout estimated at 2 million” ;
• WorldNetDaily.com story on 9/12: “A million or more rock Washington: Taxpayer march could be biggest rally ever in capital”;
• WND founder Joseph Farah’s column: “The shameful non-coverage of 9/12″;
• 9/12 elapsed-time footage of D.C. protesters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sjvc6baor8
• Glenn Beck web page with more photos of 9/12 march: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/30493/

It deserves remembering that smug, out-of-touch media types like Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s resident lesbian leftist,  her über-obnoxious fellow MSNBC talker Keith Olbermann, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper viciously mocked the initial mass “tea party” protests with smirking jabs attaching them to “teabagging” — which, as it turns out, is a twisted oral sex act popularized by homosexual activist filmmaker John Waters’ movie “Pecker.” It was certainly a low point in the history of U.S. media to watch highly paid TV celebrities airing their inside dirty joke that compared decent, concerned Americans to a modern perversion. (Thankfully, most normal Americans didn’t know what “teabagging” was.)

Perhaps the liberal media elite’s snide condescension toward everyday Americans simply voicing their discontent — including suggestions that the protesters are racist because President Obama is black — accounted for an extra few hundred thousand protesters arriving in D.C. Saturday to make their presence felt. And that they did: even Maddow, Olbermann and the Huffington Post will have a tough time explaining away these seven-figure crowd numbers.

What does all this have to do with the fight against the Homosexual Lobby? Well, for one, beyond the health care debate, the Obama Administration is pushing to enact a comprehensive “gay” agenda that would greatly expand the government’s power to effectively force businesses and individuals to approve of or subsidize immoral homosexual and “transgender” lifestyles. The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) — slated for a House hearing Wednesday, Sept. 23 — would create federal homosexuality- and transsexuality-based “rights” for employees. This would invariably circumscribe the liberties of business owners who oppose homosexuality as a matter of conscience. Our religious and First Amendment freedoms are at stake in this debate.

We trust that the same people who oppose Big Government intruding into our lives will resist the idea that the Government should be forcing businessmen and businesswomen to support homosexual behavior and gender confusion or risk getting sued.

NBC reporter Tom Costello reported that “hundreds of thousands” took part in the rally; the actual number was likely over a million.

 The AP photo above belies the news organization’s own reportage that numbered the massive crowd in the mere “tens of thousands.”

Sen. Kennedy: Hero of Homosexual Agenda: after his death, a homosexual activist reveals that Ted Kennedy used his massive influence in Massachusetts to pressure legislators to deny the state’s citizens a chance to vote on “same-sex marriage.” After the 2007 vote that blocked a traditional marriage amendment in his state, Kennedy congratulated a leading “gay” activist with these words: “What you accomplished for the people of Massachusetts is tremendous.” What about “the people’s” right to decide whether marriage should be radically redefined? At left is a cartoon published in the Boston homosexual newspaper Bay Windows.

_________________________

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Now that the eulogies are over, it’s time to tell the truth about the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s unprecedented anti-pro-life and anti-family legacy. Last week I heard FOX’s Bill O’Reilly describe the late Kennedy as a “committed Catholic.” (His guest, talk show host Laura Ingraham, a conservative Catholic, was taken aback.) Certainly, Kennedy was committed, but not to the social positions of his own church. He was a leading crusader for abortion-on-demand — after flip-flopping from being pro-life (so much for compassion and helping the “little guy”). And he used his considerable power to advance the full, radical homosexualist agenda; click HERE to read the praise he received from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an extremist homosexual organization if there ever was one. Kennedy was one of just 14 Democrats to vote against the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA), which President Obama is now trying to undo.

Tragically, Ted Kennedy was a central figure in helping set American liberalism and the Democratic Party on their current trajectory of celebrating a culture of death and deviance in the form of state-sanctioned abortion and homosexuality.  In fact, so egregious were Kennedy’s departures from Church teachings that many Catholics, to quote Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International, were upset that he was being extolled “with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event.” Also read the Catholic Action League press release: “Kennedy Funeral Mass a ‘Scandal,’ Says Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.”

Oddly, after his passing, we are learning that Kennedy was even more extreme than most conservatives knew. In 1983, he even secretly approached Soviet Communist dictator Yuri Andropov with a traitorous quid pro quo offer to help Andropov confront U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy; the media dutifully ignored Kennedy’s treachery when it was exposed by a British researcher in 1992. And now self-described “queer” activists are revealing the full extent of Kennedy’s efforts to advance their God-defying agenda. How strange that a Catholic would be so committed to denying the people of his own state a chance to vote on whether marriage should be redefined to accommodate homosexual relationships, which his own Catholic Church describes as sinful and disordered. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

MassResistance reports:

__________________________________________

August 28, 2009

Major homosexual activist reveals Ted Kennedy’s crucial role in defeating Marriage Amendment in Massachusetts Legislature

By Brian Camenker

Sen. Ted Kennedy was the secret critical force in the background that caused the Massachusetts Legislature to deny the people the right to vote on the Marriage Amendment, it was revealed this week.

Less than 48 hours after Kennedy’s passing, the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows published an article by Marc Solomon, who at that time ran MassEquality, the main homosexual lobby group trying to stop the amendment.

Ted Kennedy personally pressured enough conservative Democrats (and even “libertarian-leaning” Republicans) who the homosexual lobby was targeting, to change their votes on that the measure to allow a public vote would be defeated. Kennedy also worked on the overall strategy to defeat it. Without Kennedy’s involvement, it would likely not have been defeated the Legislature — and the people would have been able to vote.

Here’s what Solomon told Bay Windows:

Our cause was lining up the votes to defeat an anti-gay constitutional amendment that would strip same-sex couples of the right to marry. A final vote was scheduled for July 14, 2007. Our opponents needed the votes of only 25 percent of the legislature to advance a citizen-led amendment to the ballot. We had lined up two-thirds of the legislature through fieldwork, lobbying, media, literally everything we could think of. But getting those last 15 legislators-those conservative Democrats from working class Massachusetts communities and a few libertarian-leaning Republicans-was very tough. We needed all hands on deck to keep a Massachusetts version of Proposition 8 off the ballot. We needed Ted Kennedy.”Could you get me a list of your targets?” one of Kennedy’s key staffers finally asked me. “Don’t tell anyone I’m asking you for this,” he said. He meant it, and I didn’t.

A few days later, as I was doing my rounds in the State House, a bewildered conservative legislator stopped me. “You’ll never guess who left me a message about gay marriage,” he said. “Ted Kennedy.” And then I started to hear similar refrains again and again. We’d get word that he’d spoken to the Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the chair of the Democratic Party, asking for updates, strategizing, figuring out exactly what he could do and how he could be most helpful.

In the end, on that July 14, we won. We won what many thought was an impossible victory, by a vote of 151 – 45, keeping our opponents just below the 25 percent threshold. We shocked our opponents. They were sure they had the votes. Just the kind of come-from-behind, unexpected victory for the little guy that Kennedy relished so much.

Later that day, after rallies, celebrations, and parties, I sat down at my desk and listened to voice messages of congratulations, one after the next. One moved me to my core.

“Marc, Ted Kennedy calling from Washington, DC. Congratulations on what you did today. What you accomplished for the people of Massachusetts is tremendous. Good work, my friend.”

Click HERE to read the entire Bay Windows article

Kept secret until now

It’s interesting — and pretty shameful — that Kennedy obviously wanted to keep this a secret. If he was so proud of his “principled” stands, why not make them public? The truth is that Ted Kennedy was much more radical than most people realized (on this and other issues). A lot of insiders knew that. But if the public found out it’s pretty clear that there would be a backlash that would be very unnerving, even for Kennedy.

Flood of praise in Boston media

In the Boston media it was a week of nonstop Kennedy adulation. Interestingly, the Boston Herald, which Kennedy once tried to shut down by passing a special federal law, out-did the Globe in gushing coverage.

Obama likes to play basketball, and the head fake is an important part of the game. You try to get your defender to commit with a head or body fake, throwing him off balance so you can move in to take the real shot (or get a clear shot at the basket). “Both Sides” Barack, the candidate, made some pretty good head fakes on abortion and homosexual “marriage” during the campaign, and many Americans were fooled. He said he wanted to “reduce the number of abortions” and pretended to be a strong supporter of preserving traditional marriage. (Remember the Saddleback Church debate moderated by Rick Warren?)

Then the real Obama went to the hoop: he championed the radical Freedom of Choice Act to rally his pro-abortion base as a candidate, expanded taxpayer-funded abortions worldwide as president, and now is moving to destroy DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act (signed into law by Democrat Bill Clinton in 1996). But the double-game is getting much tougher for Obama: a growing number of Americans are seeing him for what he is: the most radically left president ever to occupy the Oval Office. Shame on the gullible Christians and religionists who went for his head fakes. We’d be fools to rely on them again to “defend” life and marriage. — Peter LaBarbera

P.S. I wonder if Obama is aware of Planned Parenthood’s racist origins.

[This YouTube video had only 85,371 hits as of Aug. 30, 2009.]

Obama Was For “Same-Sex Marriage” (and he Still Is): Above is a graphic that appeared in the Chicago homosexual newspaper Windy City Times — showing a “gay” questionnaire revealing Barack Obama’s explicit support for “legalizing same-sex marriage,” as a candidate for Illinois State Senate in 1996. Obama would later adapt his position because “strategically,” he understood that Republicans would use his radical support for homosexual “marriage” against him. Click on graphic to enlarge.

By Peter LaBarbera

Barack Obama sure has a strange way of showing his much-touted support for traditional “marriage.” On Monday, Obama’s Justice Department filed a legal brief against DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by the last Democrat to occupy the Oval Office: Bill Clinton. Weeks before that, Obama’s administration had defended DOMA, setting off a flurry of protests from his gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-whatever allies.

DOMA — which only Congress can repeal — passed overwhelmingly in 1996 with bipartisan consensus (a mere 14 Democratic Senators voted “No”). It protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state “gay marriages.” Its growing unpopularity among Democrats signals the near-complete moral collapse of the party of Harry S Truman, who surely would bristle at the Dems’ current overwhelming support of abortion-on-demand and homosexuality as non-negotiable, litmus-test issues.

In this respect, Obama’s anti-DOMA crusade epitomizes his party’s flight from Judeo-Christian norms and tradition. But then again, who needs the Bible when you’ve got Barack in the White House? In 2007, during the Democratic primary campaign, the Anointed One “corrected” Gen. Peter Pace — the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and old-school Catholic who was naive enough to honestly answer a Chicago Tribune reporter’s question about homosexuals in the military. Gen. Pace said, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.” For that apostasy he was angrily denounced by “queer” activist who, like spoiled children, are not used to hearing “No.”

It all went downhill from there for Pace, who was mercilessly maligned by the politically correct thought police, which is to say, the media. Pressed to respond to Gen. Pace, Obama (and Hillary Clinton) proclaimed that to the contrary, homosexuality was “not immoral.”

I wonder if Almighty God got their memo. And when will Barack and the Democrats get around to revising the Ten Commandments?

But redefining sin is child’s play for the all-knowing Theologian in Chief: against all biblical evidence to the contrary, Obama has had the chutzpah to imply that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a “gay”-affirming text — while dismissing as “obscure” verses in the New Testament Book of Romans that clearly describe homosexual acts as a sign of a self-centered society spiraling downward.

So much arrogance, so little time.

We keep hearing from the media about how incredibly smart Obama is. But if he’s so intelligent, shouldn’t he know that you cannot rationally hold two contradictory positions at the same time? Of course, the Obama-adoring media have allowed him to get away with his cynical double-game — telling voters again and again that he supports traditional marriage as they buried his opposition to DOMA and ignored his subservience to the Gay Lobby.

(By the way, add Bill Clinton and Al Gore to the growing list of Democratic pols who have switched from supporting “civil unions” to outright homosexual “marriage.” This is a study in that “evolving” liberal morality: heck, if you’re going to sell out your Creator, why not go all the way?)

Truth is, the vainglorious Obama is a spectacular phony on “gay marriage,” as he is a poser on social issues and morality in general. (He claims to want to “reduce abortions” even as he championed Planned Parenthood and supports the radical, sweeping “Freedom of Choice Act,” which would eviscerate pro-life reform laws nationwide.) Obama may have drifted rightward and milked the media image of supporting one-man, one-woman marriage to get elected president, but as sure as stimulus dollars are being wasted, in his heart he is for homosexual “marriage” in every way except calling them “marriages.”

Oops. Strike that. On February 15, 1996, then-candidate for Illinois State Senate Barack Obama did come out for legalizing same-sex “marriage,” in responding to a candidate questionnaire.  This little tidbit was reported by a Chicago homosexual newspaper — conveniently, after the 2008 election. Obama told the gay newspaper Outlines in 1996: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” No wiggle room there. Moreover, Politico reports, “On another questionnaire the same year, Obama said he would support a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.”

But eight years later, in 2004, in another “gay” newspaper interview, Obama — now running for U.S. Senate — had seen the light on traditional marriage (wink, wink to powerful “gay” friends). Even so, note his highly political — not moral — rationale for opposing “gay marriage” (emphasis added):

Lesbian reporter Tracy Baim: Do you have a position on marriage vs. civil unions?
Barack Obama: I am a fierce supporter of domestic-partnership and civil-union laws. I am not a supporter of gay marriage as it has been thrown about, primarily just as a strategic issue. I think that marriage, in the minds of a lot of voters, has a religious connotation. … What I’m saying is that strategically, I think we can get civil unions passed. … I think that to the extent that we can get the rights, I’m less concerned about the name. …

Entrusting the defense of marriage to this fellow would be like entrusting your 80-year-old grandmother to Obama-care for that urgent operation she needs to stay alive. Morality and timeless truths, like grandma, are thrown overboard as the politics of expediency override principle. On marriage, the playbook was obvious for the ambitious chameleon-candidate: running for office in a very liberal Chicago district, Obama pandered to the Democratic Left by strongly supporting full “same-sex marriage.” But years later, a more savvy U.S. Senate candidate Obama needed to jettison his “gay marriage” position lest the common voter figure out that he has a radical social agenda.

Of course, this was perfect training for the strategy that the cunning Obama would use in his successful run for the presidency — playing the role of moderate on a whole host of issues to fool America’s centrist, independent and faith-based voters, only to govern from the left once in office. Granted, he’s hardly the first politician to do that and he won’t be the last. But thankfully, Average American Joes and Janes are finally catching on to the real Obama — the one who plays a dangerous game with transcendent truth while deceiving the public about the real “change” he is pushing for.

Peter LaBarbera is founder and president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.org, based outside Chicago, Illinois.

This pro-family press conference — largely ignored by the dominant liberal media — was organized by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at the Liberty Counsel (and an AFTAH Board Member), was fired by Allstate Insurance Company in 2005 because he wrote an online article — on his own time — critical of organized homosexuality. Since then, he has risen to his current position as one of Americas leading defenders of natural marriage and family. He will be the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s fund-raising banquet outside Chicago on Oct. 24, 2009.

America is getting to know the real Barack Obama — and he’s a lot more radical than a 2008 presidential candidate by the same name. This aggressively pro-homosexual speech by Michelle Obama to the Democratic National Committee’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council (June 27, 2008) had only 56,805 views on YouTube as of August 7, 2009. Most Americans have never seen this side of Michelle Obama, just as most have not seen the side of her husband that celebrated America’s biggest abortion “provider,” Planned Parenthood, in a 2007 campaign speech. (That speech had only 84,875 views on YouTube as of Aug. 7.) Social liberals and “gay” activists will cheer this speech by Michelle; everyone else won’t recognize her vis-à-vis the “apolitical” First Lady described by the national media. (A transcript follows the video; emphasis and web links added.) — Peter LaBarbera

To put it in perspective: timeless truth from that “obscure” passage in the New Testament.–Ed.:

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (Romans 1:26-27)

_______________________________________

Incomplete transcript of Michelle Obama speech to DNC’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council, June 27, 2008 (emphasis and web links added):

Reprinted from TransGriot website: http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2008/06/michelle-obamas-remarks-to-dncs-gay-and.html

Thank you Howard Dean [then Democratic National Committee Chairman], for all your hard work building our party. We are proud to have you as our party Chairman. I want to recognize the members of UNITE HERE Local 6 who are working this event tonight. And thank you all for inviting me to spend some time with you.

I’m honored to be with you in a week that reminds us just how far we’ve come as a country. Five years ago today, the Supreme Court delivered justice with the decision in Lawrence v. Texas that same-sex couples would never again be persecuted through use of criminal law. And on Saturday, we recognize the anniversary of the day people stood up at Stonewall and said “enough.”

These anniversaries remind us that no matter who we are, or where we come from, or what we look like, we are only here because of the brave efforts of those who came before us. That we are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in a pursuit of that more perfect union that is the promise of this country.

Over the course of this campaign, we’ve seen a fundamental change in the level of political engagement in this country. We’ve seen a renewed sense of possibility and a hunger for change. We’ve seen people of all ages and backgrounds investing time and energy like never before; writing $20, $30, $50 checks; investing for the first time ever in a political candidate. We’ve seen people talking to their neighbors about candidates and issues; working hard to clarify misperceptions; challenging one another to think differently about the world and our place in it.

It’s precisely this type of individual engagement and investment that has been the mission of my husband’s life. Barack has always believed that there is more in this country that unites us than divides us; that our common stories and struggles and values are what make this country great; that meaningful change never happens from the top down but from the bottom up.

I’ll never forget the first time I realized there was something special about Barack. It was nearly 20 years ago this summer. Barack and I were just getting to know one another, and he thought the best way for me to get to know him better was to get a better sense of the work he cared about most — his work as a community organizer.

He took me to a small church basement on the South Side of Chicago, where a group of neighborhood residents were gathered; folks he knew from his years as a community organizer before he went to law school. They were desperate for change. They were regular Americans struggling to build a decent life for themselves and their families. Single mothers living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents raising grandkids despite an income that wouldn’t allow it; men unable to support their families because jobs had disappeared when steel mills closed. Like most Americans, they didn’t want much; they weren’t asking for much: just dignity and respect.

I watched as Barack walked into the room, took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and instantly connected with each and every person in that room. He spoke eloquently of “the world as it is” and “the world as it should be.” He said the key to change is understanding that our job as citizens of this nation is to work hard each and every day to narrow the gap between those two ideas. He explained that we often settle for the world as it is even if it doesn’t reflect our personal values. But he reminded us that it is only through determination and hard work that we slowly make the world as it is and the world as it should be one in the same. His words were powerful not only because they made us believe in him – they challenged each of us to believe in ourselves.

One of the many reasons I’m proud of the way Barack has handled himself in this campaign is that he is still the same man I fell in love with in that church basement. His unyielding belief in that simple idea – closing the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be – is precisely why he’ll be a President you can be proud of.

Barack is not new to the cause of the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community. It has been a conviction of his career since he was first elected to public office. In his first year in the Illinois State Senate, he cosponsored a bill amending the Illinois Human Rights Act to include protections for LGBT men and women. He worked on that bill for seven years, serving as chief cosponsor and lobbying his colleagues to reject the political expedience of homophobia and make LGBT equality a priority. In 2004, his efforts paid off as that bill finally became law, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, in housing, and in public places.

He’s led on gender-based violence with his work on the Illinois Gender Violence Act, successfully reaching across the aisle to put in place the nation’s strongest law giving the survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence legal remedy against their attackers. He joined his colleagues in fighting to include explicit protections for the LGBT community in that act. He lost that battle, but his efforts brought gender violence in the LGBT community into the political consciousness like never before.

In 2004, after hearing from gay friends and supporters about the hurtful impact of DOMA, Barack went on record during his U.S. Senate race calling for its complete repeal. And as a U.S. Senator, he voted to protect our Constitution from the stain of discrimination by voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Barack’s record is clear. There is so much at stake in this election. The direction of our country hangs in the balance. We are faced with those two clear choices: The world as it is, and the world as it should be. We have to ask ourselves: Are we willing to settle for the world as it is or are we willing to work for the world as it should be?

Despite the extraordinary challenges we face today, we have a candidate who believes that the country is moving in the right direction, despite the inequalities created over the last 8 years.

And then we have Barack Obama, who believes that we must fight for the world as it should be.

A world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws like DOMA and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

A world where LGBT Americans get a fair shake at working hard to get ahead without workplace discrimination.

A world where our federal government fully protects all of us — including LGBT Americans — from hate crimes.

And, a world where our federal laws don’t discriminate against same-sex relationships, including equal treatment for any relationship recognized under state law.

A world that recognizes that equality in relationship, family, and adoption rights is not some abstract principle; it’s about whether millions of LGBT Americans can finally live lives marked by dignity and freedom. Barack has made crystal clear his commitment to ensuring full equality for LGBT couples. That is why he supports robust civil unions. That is why he has said that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. And that is why he opposes all divisive and discriminatory constitutional amendments – whether it’s a proposed amendment to the California and Florida Constitutions or the U.S. Constitution. Because the world as it should be rejects discrimination.

But, it’s not just about the positions you take, it’s also about the leadership you provide.

Barack’s got the courage to talk to skeptical audiences; not just friendly ones. That’s why he told a crowd at a rally in Texas that gays and lesbians deserve equality. Now, the crowd got pretty quiet. But Barack said “now, I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday.” And the crowd started cheering. Then he said, “I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian.” And you know what? The crowd kept cheering.

That’s why he told evangelicals at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church that we need a renewed call to action on HIV and AIDS.

That’s why he went to Ebenezer Baptist Church and said that we need to get over homophobia in the African-American community; that if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll embrace our gay brothers and sisters instead of scorning them. And that’s why he stood up at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and told all of America that we refuse to be divided anymore.

That’s the choice in this election. Between slipping backward and moving forward. Between being timid or being courageous. Between fighting for the world as it should be, or settling for the world as it is.

My husband is running for President to build an America that lives up to the ideals written into our Constitution. We have just come through a historic primary election where a woman and a black man were running to become President of the United States. It hasn’t been painless, but change never is. As I travel this country, I am certain that we have arrived at a moment in our collective history where we are ready to move forward and create the “world as it should be.”

I know which world Barack will fight for each and every day as your President. But he can’t do it alone. As he said in that church basement, change happens when ordinary people are ready to take the reins of their own destiny. He needs you by his side every step of the way. That kind of change won’t be easy. There will be powerful forces who believe that things should stay just the way they are.

That’s where you come in. Your voices of truth and hope and of possibility have to drown out the skeptics and the cynics.

If you stand with my husband; if you reach for what is possible and if you refuse to let this chance get away; we can begin building that better world in November.

Thank you.

To view the president’s elitist slap at Americans who oppose homosexuality as adhering to “worn arguments and old attitudes,” start watching at the 1:00 mark of the YouTube video below of the June 29th White House reception with homosexual activists celebrating “gay pride month” (read AFTAH’s reaction to the speech HERE):

The following is the official White House transcript of Obama’s “LGBT”(lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender) speech June 29 (emphasis added):

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                                      June 29, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT LGBT PRIDE MONTH RECEPTION

East Room

4:35 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Hello, hello, hello.  (Applause.)  Hey!  Good to see you.  (Applause.)  I’m waiting for FLOTUS here.  FLOTUS always politics more than POTUS.

MRS. OBAMA:  No, you move too slow.  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  It is great to see everybody here today and they’re just — I’ve got a lot of friends in the room, but there are some people I want to especially acknowledge.  First of all, somebody who helped ensure that we are in the White House, Steve Hildebrand.  Please give Steve a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  Where’s Steve?  He’s around here somewhere.  (Applause.)

The new chair of the Export-Import Bank, Fred Hochberg.  (Applause.)  Where’s Fred?  There’s Fred.  Good to see you, Fred.  Our Director of the Institute of Education Sciences at DOE, John Easton.  Where’s John?  (Applause.)  A couple of special friends — Bishop Gene Robinson.  Where’s Gene?  (Applause.)  Hey, Gene.  Ambassador Michael Guest is here.  (Applause.)  Ambassador Jim Hormel is here.  (Applause.)  Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown is here.  (Applause.)

All of you are here.  (Laughter and applause.)  Welcome to your White House.  (Applause.)  So –

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Somebody asked from the Lincoln Bedroom here.  (Laughter.)  You knew I was from Chicago too.  (Laughter.)

It’s good to see so many friends and familiar faces, and I deeply appreciate the support I’ve received from so many of you.  Michelle appreciates it and I want you to know that you have our support, as well.  (Applause.)  And you have my thanks for the work you do every day in pursuit of equality on behalf of the millions of people in this country who work hard and care about their communities — and who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.  (Applause.)

Now this struggle, I don’t need to tell you, is incredibly difficult, although I think it’s important to consider the extraordinary progress that we have made.  There are unjust laws to overturn and unfair practices to stop.  And though we’ve made progress, there are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; and who would deny you the rights that most Americans take for granted.  And I know this is painful and I know it can be heartbreaking.

And yet all of you continue, leading by the force of the arguments you make but also by the power of the example that you set in your own lives — as parents and friends, as PTA members and leaders in the community.  And that’s important, and I’m glad that so many LGBT families could join us today.  (Applause.)  For we know that progress depends not only on changing laws but also changing hearts.  And that real, transformative change never begins in Washington.

(Cell phone “quacks.”)

Whose duck is back there?  (Laughter.)

MRS. OBAMA:  It’s a duck.

THE PRESIDENT:  There’s a duck quacking in there somewhere.  (Laughter.)  Where do you guys get these ring tones, by the way?  (Laughter.)  I’m just curious.  (Laughter.)

Indeed, that’s the story of the movement for fairness and equality — not just for those who are gay, but for all those in our history who’ve been denied the rights and responsibilities of citizenship; who’ve been told that the full blessings and opportunities of this country were closed to them.  It’s the story of progress sought by those who started off with little influence or power; by men and women who brought about change through quiet, personal acts of compassion and courage and sometimes defiance wherever and whenever they could.

That’s the story of a civil rights pioneer who’s here today, Frank Kameny, who was fired — (applause.)  Frank was fired from his job as an astronomer for the federal government simply because he was gay.  And in 1965, he led a protest outside the White House, which was at the time both an act of conscience but also an act of extraordinary courage.  And so we are proud of you, Frank, and we are grateful to you for your leadership.  (Applause.)

It’s the story of the Stonewall protests, which took place 40 years ago this week, when a group of citizens — with few options, and fewer supporters — decided they’d had enough and refused to accept a policy of wanton discrimination.  And two men who were at those protests are here today.  Imagine the journey that they’ve travelled.

It’s the story of an epidemic that decimated a community — and the gay men and women who came to support one another and save one another; and who continue to fight this scourge; and who demonstrated before the world that different kinds of families can show the same compassion and support in a time of need — that we all share the capacity to love.

So this story, this struggle, continues today — for even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot — and will not — put aside issues of basic equality.  (Applause.)  We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love.

And I know that many in this room don’t believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that.  It’s not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago.

But I say this:  We have made progress and we will make more.  And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises I’ve made, but by the promises that my administration keeps.  And by the time you receive — (applause.)  We’ve been in office six months now.  I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.  (Applause.)

Now, while there is much more work to do, we can point to important changes we’ve already put in place since coming into office.  I’ve signed a memorandum requiring all agencies to extend as many federal benefits as possible to LGBT families as current law allows.  And these are benefits that will make a real difference for federal employees and Foreign Service Officers, who are so often treated as if their families don’t exist.  And I’d like to note that one of the key voices in helping us develop this policy is John Berry, our director of the Office of Personnel Management, who is here today.  And I want to thank John Berry.  (Applause.)

I’ve called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act to help end discrimination — (applause) — to help end discrimination against same-sex couples in this country.  Now, I want to add we have a duty to uphold existing law, but I believe we must do so in a way that does not exacerbate old divides.  And fulfilling this duty in upholding the law in no way lessens my commitment to reversing this law.  I’ve made that clear.

I’m also urging Congress to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act, which will guarantee the full range of benefits, including health care, to LGBT couples and their children.  (Applause.)  My administration is also working hard to pass an employee non-discrimination bill and hate crimes bill, and we’re making progress on both fronts.  (Applause.)  Judy and Dennis Shepard, as well as their son Logan, are here today.  I met with Judy in the Oval Office in May — (applause) — and I assured her and I assured all of you that we are going to pass an inclusive hate crimes bill into law, a bill named for their son Matthew.  (Applause.)

In addition, my administration is committed to rescinding the discriminatory ban on entry to the United States based on HIV status.  (Applause.)  The Office of Management and Budget just concluded a review of a proposal to repeal this entry ban, which is a first and very big step towards ending this policy.  And we all know that HIV/AIDS continues to be a public health threat in many communities, including right here in the District of Columbia.  And that’s why this past Saturday, on National HIV Testing Day, I was proud once again to encourage all Americans to know their status and get tested the way Michelle and I know our status and got tested.  (Applause.)

And finally, I want to say a word about “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  As I said before — I’ll say it again — I believe “don’t ask, don’t tell” doesn’t contribute to our national security.  (Applause.)  In fact, I believe preventing patriotic Americans from serving their country weakens our national security.  (Applause.)

Now, my administration is already working with the Pentagon and members of the House and the Senate on how we’ll go about ending this policy, which will require an act of Congress.

Someday, I’m confident, we’ll look back at this transition and ask why it generated such angst, but as Commander-in-Chief, in a time of war, I do have a responsibility to see that this change is administered in a practical way and a way that takes over the long term.  That’s why I’ve asked the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a plan for how to thoroughly implement a repeal.

I know that every day that passes without a resolution is a deep disappointment to those men and women who continue to be discharged under this policy — patriots who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who’ve served this country well.  But what I hope is that these cases underscore the urgency of reversing this policy not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is essential for our national security.

Now, even as we take these steps, we must recognize that real progress depends not only on the laws we change but, as I said before, on the hearts we open.  For if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that there are good and decent people in this country who don’t yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters — not yet.

That’s why I’ve spoken about these issues not just in front of you, but in front of unlikely audiences — in front of African American church members, in front of other audiences that have traditionally resisted these changes.  And that’s what I’ll continue to do so.  That’s how we’ll shift attitudes.  That’s how we’ll honor the legacy of leaders like Frank and many others who have refused to accept anything less than full and equal citizenship.

Now, 40 years ago, in the heart of New York City at a place called the Stonewall Inn, a group of citizens, including a few who are here today, as I said, defied an unjust policy and awakened a nascent movement.

It was the middle of the night.  The police stormed the bar, which was known for being one of the few spots where it was safe to be gay in New York.  Now, raids like this were entirely ordinary.  Because it was considered obscene and illegal to be gay, no establishments for gays and lesbians could get licenses to operate.  The nature of these businesses, combined with the vulnerability of the gay community itself, meant places like Stonewall, and the patrons inside, were often the victims of corruption and blackmail.

Now, ordinarily, the raid would come and the customers would disperse.  But on this night, something was different.  There are many accounts of what happened, and much has been lost to history, but what we do know is this:  People didn’t leave.  They stood their ground.  And over the course of several nights they declared that they had seen enough injustice in their time.  This was an outpouring against not just what they experienced that night, but what they had experienced their whole lives.  And as with so many movements, it was also something more:  It was at this defining moment that these folks who had been marginalized rose up to challenge not just how the world saw them, but also how they saw themselves.

As we’ve seen so many times in history, once that spirit takes hold there is little that can stand in its way.  (Applause.)  And the riots at Stonewall gave way to protests, and protests gave way to a movement, and the movement gave way to a transformation that continues to this day.  It continues when a partner fights for her right to sit at the hospital bedside of a woman she loves.  It continues when a teenager is called a name for being different and says, “So what if I am?”  It continues in your work and in your activism, in your fight to freely live your lives to the fullest.

In one year after the protests, a few hundred gays and lesbians and their supporters gathered at the Stonewall Inn to lead a historic march for equality.  But when they reached Central Park, the few hundred that began the march had swelled to 5,000.  Something had changed, and it would never change back.

The truth is when these folks protested at Stonewall 40 years ago no one could have imagined that you — or, for that matter, I — (laughter) — would be standing here today.  (Applause.)  So we are all witnesses to monumental changes in this country.  That should give us hope, but we cannot rest.  We must continue to do our part to make progress — step by step, law by law, mind by changing mind.  And I want you to know that in this task I will not only be your friend, I will continue to be an ally and a champion and a President who fights with you and for you.

Thanks very much, everybody.  God bless you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  It’s a little stuffed in here.  We’re going to open — we opened up that door.  We’re going to walk this way, and then we’re going to come around and we’ll see some of you over there, all right?  (Laughter.)  But out there.  (Laughter.)

But thank you very much, all, for being here.  Enjoy the White House.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END                4:53 P.M. EDT