Welcome to Americans for Truth, a newly reorganized national organization devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda.
Officially Preferred Victims: Liberty University law professor Shawn Akers writes that if H.R. 1913, the federal “Hate Crimes” bill, becomes law, “local and state law enforcement would have the incentive of federal funds to prosecute cases involving … preferred victims to the exclusion and neglect of less valuable victims.” Membership in the “preferred” category is “based not on immutable characteristics but on the class member’s choice of sexual conduct … and subjective gender self-identity.”
TAKE ACTION: Call or write your U.S. Representative and Senators in opposition to H.R. 1913, the “Hate Crimes” bill that will likely be voted on by the House tomorrow, Wednesday, April 28. Call 202-225-3121 or 202-224-3121 or contact your representatives through www.congress.org.
Editor’s Note: we delayed in making a change in copy desired by the author, in paragraph I.A. (”Characteristics”), giving the proper credit for a description of the Hate Crimes bill, HR 1913. That paragraph was corrected on May 1, 2009.
Following is an outstanding analysis of the federal “Hate Crimes” bill, HR 1913, which could be voted on by the House of Representatives tomorrow (Wednesday, April 29). Shawn Akers is a relative newcomer to the pro-family movement but is shaping up to be a future all-star. He serves as a Policy Analyst with Liberty Counsel, and as Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of Academic Support with Liberty University School of Law. Akers is a close friend, colleague and former Regent Law classmate of Matt Barber, AFTAH Board Member and current Culture War heavyweight also with Liberty Counsel. (Barber will keynote AFTAH’s fundraising banquet on Saturday, Oct. 10 — save the date.) Keep an eye on Shawn. The Lord will be using him mightily as the heated culture war reaches a boil. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.com.
TAKE ACTION: Call your U.S. Representative and Senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE H.R. 1913, the federal “Thought Crimes” (”Hate Crimes”) bill, which is likely to be passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today. You can also find your representatives at www.congress.org.
“Passage of ‘hate crimes’ legislation would place the behaviorally driven and fluid concepts of ’sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ on an equal footing with legitimate, neutral and immutable ’suspect class’ characteristics such as skin color or a person’s true gender. This creates both a sociopolitical and legal environment wherein traditional sexual morality officially becomes the new racism.” – Matt Barber
Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) have quietly re-introduced the federal thought crimes bill, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling “hate speech” laws. It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. The bill is expected to be marked up Wednesday before the full House Judiciary Committee.
Under the 14th Amendment, victims of violent crime are currently afforded equal protection under the law regardless of sexual preference or proclivity. If passed, H.R. 1913 will change all that. It overtly and, most likely, unconstitutionally discriminates against millions of Americans by granting federally preferred status, time and resources to individuals who define their identity based upon aberrant sexual behaviors (i.e., “gay” and lesbian “sexual orientation” or cross-dressing “gender identity”).
Schwartz defends state action against “bible based bigotry against gays”
Bob Schwartz of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network supports Wright State University’s ban against the Campus Bible Fellowship. The Christian campus group opposes Wright’s “nondiscrimination” code, which would force it to abandon its faithfulness to Scripture by allowing unrepentant homosexuals as members. Schwartz previously claimed to oppose laws criminalizing Christian speech — yet he favors banning groups because he considers them “bible bigots.” Would Schwartz and GLN (which AFTAH considers to be an anti-Christian hate group) allow a tax-supported public university to dictate ITS membership standards if it operated on a college campus?
AFTAH was copied on the following e-mail letter from Bob Schwartz of the left-wing Gay Liberation Network, based in Chicago, to Wright State University President David Hopkins. Schwartz sent his letter following Americans For Truth’s reprint of a press release by the Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) , which is fighting to overturn Wright State’s oppressive policy of forcing Campus Bible Fellowship to violate its faith creed in order to stay on campus. Note at bottom Schwartz’s clarification in response to a question from this writer.
Please study this series of e-mails and links [Wright State story HERE and Schwartz's previous statement against censorship HERE] and see if you can comprehend how Schwartz can simultaneously hold two seemingly contradictory positions:
he “opposes” government censorship against Christian speech (for which AFTAH wrote that “we are pleasantly surprised that the GLN leader is not an outright advocate of censorship”);
while he supports a government-funded school banning a Christian group for, effectively, sticking to its Biblical faith creed.
“This kind of overheated rhetoric creates a climate where hate crimes can occur … We demand that The Family Policy Council of West Virginia apologize and take down this violent ad. This video is reckless, wrongheaded and irresponsible.” –Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out (TWO), a militant homosexual group, describing the alleged horrific effects of the West Virginia pro-marriage video [click Youtube video directly below] that used a target graphic to illustrate the point that homosexual activists are targeting traditional marriage for redefinition. See article by Laurie Higgins following the video:
Wayne Besen said this visual target graphic representing homosexual activists targeting traditional marriage — in a video produced by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia — turned the video into a “violent ad.” At bottom is an excerpt of the narration of the video surrounding the portion with the “target” graphic.
Wayne Besen, former spokesman for the subversive homosexual activist Human Rights Campaign and founder of the hate organization Truth Wins Out, apparently can’t make a distinction between a domestic terrorist threat and — a metaphor.
Besen has a West Virginia marriage initiative in his sights. He sees in this utterly benign video by The Family Policy Council of West Virginia a nefarious sniper threat. Please watch the video that has so terrorized Besen and that is more like an episode of The Waltons than 24: http://www.wvformarriage.com/ [Click on YouTube above to watch video.]
His claim is both idiotic and comical. In one frame of this video, we see the nuclear family through the sight of a gun, which is a commonplace metaphor that means that someone or something is taking aim at or opposing something. Is Besen actually claiming that society should prohibit the use of this metaphor? Will society tolerate this kind of intrusive censorship? And is Besen claiming that he and his collaborators don’t have traditional marriage and the natural family in their crosshairs?
Utah’s “Common Ground” package, Illinois “civil unions” bill would help courts impose “same-sex marriage”
“Recent court decisions in other states have similarly made clear that providing benefits to same-sex couples, no matter how minor and even if accompanied by statement of intent meant to protect marriage, will be treated as evidence that the legislature does not object to redefining marriage.
“In each of the State high court decisions mandating a redefinition of marriage (in Massachusetts, California and Connecticut), the majority opinions have pointed to the extension of benefits to same-sex couples in those States in support of its conclusion.[3] This was the case in Massachusetts even though the legislature had specified in one bill that “[n]othing in this act shall be construed so as to legitimize or validate a ‘homosexual marriage’, so-called.”– William Duncan, Marriage Law Foundation
TAKE ACTION: “Civil unions” and “domestic partner” bills are used by activist judges to legalize “same-sex marriage,” as Bill Duncan of the Marriage Law Foundation shows below. Such bills are being considered in several states. “Sexual orientation/Gender Identity” bills create the foundation for artificial, homosexuality-based “rights,” culminating in homosexual “marriage.” A “civil unions” bill just advanced in Illinois, and several pro-homosexual bills will be considered soon in Florida. Take action in the following states (this list is not comprehensive):
Not the Right Kind of “Hate” Victim. In 1996, pro-family activist and pastor Ralph Ovadal was punched in the left ear from behind by a homosexual activist while protesting a pro-”gay” school event in Madison, Wisconsin. Ovadal was knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital with serious injuries from the blind-side assault. Although police first charged the attacker with “substantial battery,” Dane Country prosecutors did not attempt a “hate crimes” conviction and Ovadal’s assailant ultimately was not even charged with a misdemeanor (he received a mere ordinance violation). Pastor Ovadal continues to suffer neck and leg pain from the brutal attack, which is fully documented with police reports. Now imagine that the circumstances were reversed and Ovadal — a vocal opponent of organized homosexuality — had assaulted a well-known “gay” activist. Most likely he would have been charged with a “hate crime,” the media would have lavished coverage on the case, and Ovadal would have served jail time. To paraphrase George Orwell, in the politically correct world of “hate crimes,” some victims are more equal than others. Call Congress at 202-224-3121 to protest two “Thought Crimes” bills, HR 256 and HR 262 today. Click on photo to enlarge.
From our good friend and youth advocate Linda Harvey, founder of Mission America. TAKE ACTION by calling your Congressman and U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121 or through www.congress.org; politely urge them to oppose all new “Thought Crimes”(Hate Crimes) legislation.
HATE CRIMES BILLS predicted to move fast in U.S. House
There are two bills now in U.S. House of Representatives on so-called hate crimes, and both need to be OPPOSED for lots of reasons but the most egregious element is the “sexual orientation” language and opportunities for violation of religious freedom and further legitimizing of ‘gay’ behavior. They are also pork-laden, social engineering bills that are unnecessary in a time of what should be budgetary conservatism.
Just remember,the key problem with hate crime legislation is that the crimes supposedly only covered through such bills are, in fact, already crimes, and can already be prosecuted under current laws. All the “sexual orientation” category does is add extra penalties if opposition to homosexuality (the “wrong” attitude) is determined to be a factor.
Agenda includes the ““Foreign Homosexual Lovers Importation Act of 2009”
MEDIA NOTE: I will be the guest on Liberty Counsel’s outstanding new radio program, “Liberty Live” – airing today at 4:00-5:00 PM Eastern Time (3:00-4:00 Central). The host (in Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver’s absence) will be my good friend, Matt Barber, LC’s Director of Cultural Affairs and an AFTAH Board Member. (Matt is the guy who was fired by Allstate a few years back after writing a private web article against “gay marriage”– on his own time; this was God’s way of launching him into full-time pro-family work!) “Liberty Live” airs on more than 150 stations through the American Family Radio Network. You can also stream the show live and take part in the interactive blog discussion at www.afr.net or www.lc.org. We’ll be discussing the Obama Administration’s and Log Cabin Republicans’ shared homosexual agenda. Click HERE to listen to the archived show shortly after the program, and HERE to find AFR radio stations in your area.
Lynchburg, VA – Literally within minutes after President Obama took the oath of office yesterday, the official White House webpage was updated – under the heading of “The Agenda: Civil Rights” – to detail Obama’s wholesale “support for the LGBT (homosexual activist) community.” His stated plans include the following:
Defeating all state and federal constitutional efforts to defend the millennia-old definition of natural marriage;
Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed by Bill Clinton – the only line of defense keeping all 50 states from being forced to recognize so-called “same-sex marriages” from extremely liberal states like Massachusetts and Connecticut;
Repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy;
Passing constitutionally dubious and discriminatory “hate crimes” legislation, granting homosexuals and cross dressers special rights – denied other Americans – based on changeable sexual behaviors;
Passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would force business owners (religious and otherwise) to abandon traditional values relative to sexual morality under penalty of law; and,
Creating intentionally motherless and fatherless homes and sexually confusing untold thousands of children by expanding “gay adoption.”
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Officially Preferred Victims: Liberty University law professor Shawn Akers writes that if H.R. 1913, the federal “Hate Crimes” bill, becomes law, “local and state law enforcement would have the incentive of federal funds to prosecute cases involving … preferred victims to the exclusion and neglect of less valuable victims.” Membership in the “preferred” category is “based not on immutable characteristics but on the class member’s choice of sexual conduct … and subjective gender self-identity.” 
