Americans for Truth about Homosexuality

Two men share truth about homosexuality with Chicago college students

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an  mp3 file.  Left click once on this link to play (more instructions at bottom) : 7-17-10, John McCartney & Wayne Lela, All

In this interview (Part One of two), which aired Saturday, July 17, 2010, AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera talks in studio with John McCartney and Wayne Lela – two Chicago men who have a unique “ministry” of going to local Chicago colleges and universities and educating students about homosexuality and “gay” activism. They do this from a pro-natural-family perspective that most young people rarely hear. For that they have been harassed by liberal professors — among other trials — but they persevered and have now gained entry on to all the Chicago-area public colleges, which cannot legally engage in viewpoint discrimination.

In the interview, McCartney discusses the way “brainwashing” works on this issue — censoring negative information about homosexuality while demonizing opponents of the “gay” agenda. Lela (who as an agnostic is not a member of the so-called “Religious Right”) formed a group called HOME, Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment. McCartney is a retired English teacher and committed Catholic living in Chicago who has long served both the pro-life and pro-family causes. Both men will be attending AFTAH’s upcoming Truth Academy Aug 5-7, to be held at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL.

In this (Part One) interview, the two discuss the reactions of students to their work — and how Chicagoland newspapers seem to be cutting back on printing letters-to-the-editor that are critical of homosexuality — which would be consistent with the increasingly censorious posture of Chicago’s major media, which generally are very pro-”gay.” Lela and McCartney deserve our commendation. There are millions upon millions of people who affirm the truth that homosexual behavior is wrong, destructive, unnatural and changeable. But there are precious few like these two men who actually contend for this truth in the public square — and especially with students who, as they say, are “brainwashed” by the non-stop pro-homosexual propaganda in the media and popular culture.

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an  mp3 file.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

7-17-10, John McCartney & Wayne Lela, All

Gay Liberation Network's Bob Schwartz supports the University of Illinois' firing of Catholic professor Kenneth Howell. Imagine how different his reaction would be if it were a "gay" professor fired for explaining "gay rights" to his students.

I received the following note yesterday from Bob Schwartz, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago. Schwartz is a self-described Trotskyite (communist) and is the fellow who bragged that he worked to get AFTAH’s website labeled as a “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:55:16 -0400
To: <americansfortruth@comcast.net>
Subject: Kenneth Howell
Here are AFTAH’s two stories on Howell’s firing:

Just a note to advise you that I asked the new U of I president to support the termination of antigay bigot “natural law” [Prof. Kenneth] Howell.

Bob Schwartz

Here is my reply to Schwartz:

From: [Peter LaBarbera} americansfortruth@comcast.net to [Schwartz]
Date: July 13, 2010
Subject: Re: Kenneth Howell

Bob…If this happened to a homosexual prof who affirmed gay rights to his students (in a class about the GLBT Movement), you and GLN would be crying “discrimination!” to the media and holding protest vigils at U of I. But I’ve come to expect such hypocrisy from you guys. “Tolerance for me but not for thee.”…

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

Here are two AFTAH articles on the University of Illinois-Howell termination scandal:

• U. of Illinois’ President Hogan Says Kenneth Howell Firing Under Review
• The E-Mail that Got Dr. Kenneth Howell Fired at U. of Illinois

Update: leftist group fixes error but retains inaccurate claim about LaBarbera

Southern Poverty Law Center director Mark Potok sent AFTAH a snide message to point out a small factual error, yet for years the SPLC has confused AFTAH's Peter LaBarbera with Family Research Institute founder Paul Cameron on its website.

EDTIORS NOTE: After the publication of our article, the SPLC fixed the major error described below of (twice) confusing AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera for Family Research Institute founder Paul Cameron. However, the leftist group’s website retains one error, claiming that LaBarbera called for closing down all homosexual “establishments.” In actuality, LaBarbera called for closing down all “gay” sex clubs and bathhouses (where men go to have anonymous sexual encounters with other men) in the interest of protecting the public’s health.

By AFTAH Staff

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing organization under fire for expanding its “hate” designations beyond racist fringe groups to pro-family organizations like Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) and the conservative Tea Party movement — has mistaken AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera for Family Research Institute researcher Paul Cameron in two longstanding “Intelligence Report” posts on its website.

The sophomoric error first appeared in a Spring 2005 SPLC “Intelligence Report,” “A Mighty Army,” about pro-family organizations opposed to homosexuality (see the section on Page 3 of Concerned Women for America). It was repeated in a Summer 2006 SPLC “Intelligence Report” article, “Passive Aggressive,” by Heidi Beirich. Both fallacious reports have been posted on the Southern Poverty Law Center website for years and have been repeated by sympathetic liberal activists on the web. The SPLC, which raises and spends millions of dollars annually for its “anti-hate” political and research activities, works with government and law enforcement authorities to provide research on alleged “hate” groups.

The above excerpt from the 2005 Southern Poverty Law Center report "A Mighty Army" mistakes Peter LaBarbera, founder of Americans For Truth, with Paul Cameron, founder of Family Research Institute. The typo in the first sentence (should be "In") appears in the original report.

Ironically, after the Southern Poverty Law Center outrageously designated Americans For Truth as a “hate” website — urged on by the pro-communist “Gay Liberation Network” — SPLC director Mark Potok sent Americans For Truth the following snide e-mail message to correct an inadvertent error in a column by (AFTAH Board Member) Matt Barber:

I know you all value accuracy above all things — I can tell that from the fine and incisive quality of your writing and research. Therefore, I\’m sure you\’ll want to let Matt know that we\’re based in Montgomery, Ala., not Atlanta, Ga. I know these places all seem the same to you — kind of like the unspeakable horrors of homosexuality — but hey, they\’re not. Of course, Matt does appear incapable of doing any actual reporting — his little attack piece is a compendium of ancient quotes he dredges from a 10-year-old Harper\’s magazine article.

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Jim Daly, President and CEO, Focus on the Family

“When you look back from a pro-life perspective, what were the gains there?” he asked, noting President Ronald Reagan’s judicial choices. A generation later, “we see a bit of fatigue. We don’t see the results for the energy, the money, everything else that’s been poured into the political sphere,” said [Focus on the Family CEO Jim] Daly … “We as a Christian community need to refocus a bit on what’s important in the culture. For us, it’s family. That’s our mission.”

Yet it’s clear Daly, who has met with gay activists, sees diminishing returns in continuing the culture wars.

“I’m not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. … I don’t know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I’m not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles,” he said, noting that for “98 percent” of people, traditional marriage will remain relevant.

“It’s going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now,” he went on. “You look at the under-35 age group. I think it’s splitting 60-40 support for same-sex marriage. There’s a lot of people in the U.S. [who] basically come to the conclusion that this is something between two adults. I will continue to defend traditional marriage, but I’m not going to demean human beings for the process.” — Excerpted from AOL News online article about Jim Daly, Focus on the Family’s new CEO; “Dobson’s Successor Gives Mega-Ministry New Focus.”

_________________________________

Dear AFTAH Readers,

It seems that Focus on the Family (FOTF) is becoming a schizophrenic organization. Recently we applauded Focus for reaffirming a principled position against homosexual judicial nominees. Now, oddly, Jim Daly, FOTF’s new president and CEO, is talking down the pro-family “culture war.”

Daly’s softness on public policy must be understood in the context of the ongoing evangelical retreat in the Culture War (typified by the book UnChristian). Many Christians are more concerned with the Church’s “image” than they are with confronting lies in the culture and standing against secular threats like “Gay” and Abortion Lobbies. They claim that Culture War activism hinders the Gospel. But I have found that there are certain questions that “Soft” Evangelicals are hard-pressed to answer:

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“When you say that your organization is no more hateful than the Catholic church, we have a rare point of agreement. You are both haters.” — Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network

The Catholic Church should also be on the "hate" list, says Bob Schwartz of the Gay Liberation Network.

Bob Schwartz, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network, a Marxist “direct action” group that reportedly lobbied the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to mislabel Americans For Truth as a “hate” website, sent the e-mail below to AFTAH through our website. Schwartz describes himself as a Trotskyist (after Bolshevik Leon Trotsky, who advocated worldwide communist revolution before being assassinated by a Soviet agent in Mexico in 1940). Communists have such a long and storied history defending human rights and individual rights and dignity, you know.

Note that you don’t have to agree with the Catholic Church’s handing of its homosexual/pedophile crisis (most Catholics I know do not) to see the absurdity of labeling the church a “hater” because it defends traditional sexual morality and natural marriage between a man and a woman. The folly of the SPLC’s expanding “hate” dragnet is that it threatens to engulf all religious/moral opposition to homosexuality. Indeed, it would be revealing to query the top 25 “GLBT” activist across the nation and ask them if they would also label, as Matt Barber pokes fun HERE, the following as “hate groups”: Family Research Council, AFA, the Roman Catholic Church, Focus on the Family, the Southern Baptist Convention and ADF. (I posed the question to one young “gay” activist, Alex Blaze, HERE, and received no response.)

[Homosexual activists] Wayne Besen/Evan Hurst/Joe Jervis/Jeremy Hooper/Rea Carey/[insert GLBT activist here]: take up the challenge!

Yes, we’re all “haters” now (except the likes of Schwartz, despite his bully tactics and GLN’s ugly, anti-Christian bigotry). And just like ObamaCare is padding the rolls of the IRS to keep Americans in “compliance” with government “health” mandates, perhaps the SPLC needs an infusion of Obama stimulus funds to expand its already large staff and huge budget to accommodate its “reporting” on the ever-expanding “hate” network.

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SPLC co-founder Morris Dees once fought the Klan. Now his group targets pro-family Christians opposed to homosexual activism. The SPLC, lobbied by a pro-Communist homosexual organization, labeled AFTAH a "hate site."

Click HERE to listen to an interview by Concerned Women for America’s Martha Kleder with Matt Barber, a Board Member of AFTAH and Liberty Council’s Director of Cultural Affairs. CWA writes (links added):

Reports surfaced this week about Democrat lawmakers receiving threatening phone calls following the vote on health care reform. Interestingly, those news reports mentioned the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which is noted for “tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.” Also this week the SPLC named Americans for Truth about Homosexuality a hate group. With more on this overstep by SPLC and the wanton use of the term “hate” is Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs for both the Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action.  Listen | Download

Pictured above is the 'hateful' and 'violence-prone' Matt Barber, Board Member of Americans For Truth, in his days as a professional boxer.

By J. Matt Barber

Though always left of center, the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) once had a reputation as a fairly objective civil rights group. Founded by direct-marketing millionaire Morris Dees and partner Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971, the SPLC made important and honorable contributions to many of the historic civil rights gains of the 20th Century. According to its own materials, the SPLC was “internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.”

Alas, “power corrupts,” as it goes, and the SPLC, having amassed tremendous power and wealth over the years, has regrettably become corrupt to its core. By way of an ever-escalating wave of “us-versus-them” money-grubbing schemes, Today’s SPLC has morphed into a far-left political activist outfit, famous for promoting a panoply of extreme liberal causes.

Ken Silverstein, writing for Harper’s Magazine, addressed this untoward metamorphosis in 2000:

“Today’s SPLC spends most of its time – and money – on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate. ‘He’s the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement,’ renowned anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer says of Dees, his former associate, ‘though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye.’

“The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors,” continued Silverstein. “Morris Dees doesn’t need your financial support. The SPLC is already the wealthiest civil rights group in America, though [its fundraising literature] quite naturally omits that fact. … ‘Morris and I…shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,’ recalls Dees’ business partner, a lawyer named Millard Fuller (not to be confused with Millard Farmer). ‘We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich.’” (You say Fuller. I say Farmer. The two Millards say “call the whole thing off.”)

So, what happens when a dragon slayer – paid per dragon head – runs out of real dragons to slay? Well, he invents new ones, of course. Gotta keep those sprinklers-a-sprinklin.’ (According to Harper’s, “Dees bought a 200-acre estate appointed with tennis courts, a pool, and stables.” SPLC’s 2008 Form-990 shows net assets of over 219 million at the beginning of that year. Yup, there’s a spate to be made in the hate trade.)

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TAKE ACTION by Dec. 31st: Please support Americans For Truth with a tax-deductible gift before the year’s end: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. All donations received online by midnight Dec. 31st — or postmarked no later than Dec. 31st for regular mail gifts — can be deducted on your 2009 tax return. Send gifts to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. You can become a regular monthly AFTAH “Truth Team” giver by going HERE. Thank you for helping AFTAH fight for the Truth as hard as homosexual activists fight for their “gay” lies!

______________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

Peter LaBarbera

If you want a good indication of the hatred and vilification to which Americans For Truth and this writer are subjected on a daily basis for exposing the truth about the homosexual and transsexual activist lobbies, do a Google search on my name: Peter LaBarbera (often misspelled: Peter LaBarbara).

Then try another Google search on the smear term that hateful homosexual militants like Wayne Besen and Joe Jervis have adopted in their quest to discredit me and AFTAH: Porno Pete.

Do you see why I can easily relate to Sarah Palin? AFTAH has been on the receiving end of irrational hate from snide leftists and mean-spirited homosexual activists well before anybody in the continental U.S. had even heard of Palin! If I had a quarter for every piece of pro-”gay” hate-mail we’ve received, I could fund our operations for a year.

Just the other day I noticed on Besen’s “Truth [gag] Wins Out” website that Wayne had posted another item blasting me as “Porno Pete.” It was a video that another bunch of hateful activists had created to attack me — sort of a Christmas present from the Gay Grinches to yours truly. I was touched.

“Porno Pete” is Besen’s proud creation, intended to mock me for exposing vile “gay” events like San Francisco’s annual depraved and nudity-filled “Folsom Street Fair” — and Chicago’s “Queer Prom” (sponsored by a gay bathhouse). We expose these events as often as possible because most Americans have no clue how radical the “gay” movement really is — and the threat it poses to kids [check out this gay youth flier] — and the liberal media will never tell them.

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