P.S.  We understand that the Christian-bashing, Marxist radicals over at Gay Liberation Network will be protesting IFI’s banquet. Now we know IFI must be doing something right.

*      *     *

“For those who support the hotel in this, imagine that the tables were turned. Suppose it was a homosexual group that had been turned down by the hotel because of ‘negative publicity.’ Would you still support the hotel’s right to discriminate in this fashion? Sauce for the goose…”

– Comment by “Springer” posted at Daily Herald article (reprinted below), “Anti-gay group sues Naperville hotel, alleges discrimination”

_____________________________

Anti-Christian Discrimination OK? Imagine the hue and cry that would have erupted had the Holiday Inn Select hotel (left) in Naperville, Ill., canceled a “gay” organization’s scheduled banquet after its leader told the hotel that some Christians might protest the event.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Below are two local articles on AFTAH’s just-filed lawsuit against a Naperville, IL Holiday Inn hotel for canceling our banquet two years ago out of fear of “gay” protests.

We hope you can make it to this year’s AFTAH banquet on Sat., Oct. 24 at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL — featuring culture warrior and former professional heavyweight boxer Matt Barber, who was fired by Allstate Insurance Co., after writing an article against homosexual “marriage” on his own time. Tickets are $50 each. A table of 10 is $500. More information here: http://americansfortruth.com/news/matt-barber-to-keynote-aftah-banquet.html; book your seat now at www.americansfortruth.com/donate.

Also, don’t forget our the dinner-lecture at our Carol Stream office Thursday, Sept. 17 featuring Michael Brown, who is going to talk about how to walk that fine line of reaching out to homosexuals with the Gospel of Christ while resisting the radical “gay” political/cultural agenda. I am really looking forward to this talk. Click HERE for more info. RSVP to aftahangela@gmail.com or americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Donations will be accepted at the event to cover costs.)

Lastly, AFTAH has now crossed the half-way mark in our goal of matching a generous donor’s $20,000 grant. Please help us go all the way with your tax-deductible donation to AFTAH at www.americansfortruth.com/donate or by mailing your gift to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Thank you!

Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth  About Homosexuality
www.aftah.org

——————————————————————————–
(Suburban Chicago) Daily Herald story:

Link: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=316820

Anti-gay group sues Naperville hotel, alleges discrimination

August 27, 2009

By Christy Gutowski | Daily Herald Staff

Peter LaBarbera said he was just being honest when he told the Naperville hotel event planner to expect protesters outside his anti-gay group’s upcoming banquet.

His truthfulness, though, may have led to his own undoing.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality recently filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Holiday Inn Select, 1801 N. Naper Blvd.

The Carol Stream-based group alleges its Oct. 6, 2007 fundraiser was canceled by the hotel six weeks earlier because of the group’s religious beliefs against homosexuality.

LaBarbera did not have a written contract, and no money was exchanged, but he said organizers verbally worked out details of the 100-person event, including the menu, during two meetings.

LaBarbera said hotel management told him the reservation was canceled due to “potential negative publicity.” AFTAH filed its discrimination suit Aug. 21.

“It’s always easy to come up with excuses,” said LaBarbera, AFTAH’s executive director, “but the real truth is they didn’t like our message. If you allow this sort of hecklers’ veto, you’re sanctioning discrimination.”

The banquet was planned at the hotel on the same night as a couple’s wedding. The Naperville Holiday Inn Select is independently owned and operated. Managers there said they had not been served with the lawsuit, and could not comment.

Georgia-based InterContinental Hotels Group owns the Holiday Inn brand. AN IHG spokeswoman said the cancellation decision was made solely by local hotel management. “IHG is very concerned about any claim of discrimination at any hotel bearing the Holiday Inn name,” said Sarah-Ann Soffer, media relations manager, in a statement. “IHG condemns unlawful discrimination in all of its forms. Since this matter is the subject of pending litigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

The national AFTAH organization, which is devoted to countering the gay agenda, ended up holding its banquet one day earlier at a Lombard hotel. Activists with the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network often protest AFTAH events, LaBarbera said.

The suit seeks an unspecified amount from the hotel in damages and attorney fees.

“We simply want to send a message that it might be easier to discriminate against a small Christian group, but it’s no less acceptable,” said Jason R. Craddock, AFTAH’s attorney. “We don’t want corporate America to continue in its belief that it’s OK to discriminate against unpopular points of view.”

_________________________________________

Naperville (IL) Sun story:

Link: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1739100,Christian-group-sues-Naperville-hotel_na082809.article

Christian Group Sues Naperville Hotel

August 28, 2009

By KATHY CICHON [kcichon@scn1.com]

Even though two years has passed since the incident occurred, a conservative organization has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Naperville hotel.

“Ultimately it would be easy just to ignore it and walk away,” said Peter LaBarbera, president and founder of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. “(But) it’s really not right to succumb to this sort of hecklers’ veto.” ….

On Friday the Carol Stream-based Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, which describes itself as “a group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda,” filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Holiday Inn Select, 1801 N. Naper Blvd., Naperville.

The lawsuit stems from the cancellation of a banquet Americans For Truth planned to hold Oct. 6, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Select. While working on the menu several weeks before the event, LaBarbera told the hotel the banquet may draw protesters from the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, which describes itself as “a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered direct action group.” According to LaBarbera, a Naperville resident, the group frequently protests Americans For Truth activities.

According to a 2007 Sun article, that information led the Holiday Inn Select to reconsider. With a wedding in the other ballroom, the hotel canceled the Americans For Truth event.

“For the safety and security of all of our employees and guests, we decided that it is not a function that we wanted to have based upon the potential of having a protest,” said general manager Dennis Igoe at the time.

There was no written contract for the banquet, LaBarbera said Thursday.

When contacted Thursday, the Holiday Inn Select said it has no comment at this time. Atlanta-based InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn brand, issued the following statement:

“InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, is very concerned about any claim of discrimination at any hotel bearing the Holiday Inn name. IHG condemns unlawful discrimination in all of its forms. The Holiday Inn Select Naperville hotel is independently owned and operated. IHG does not dictate local hotel operating policy for such franchised properties other than to require all hotels bearing its trademarks to comply with all applicable governmental requirements. In addition, IHG expects every Holiday Inn hotel to make every reasonable effort to promptly resolve all guest complaints. The cancellation decision in this matter was made solely by the local hotel. Since this matter is the subject of pending litigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

Saying it was unfairly treated because of its religious beliefs, LaBarbera said the group felt compelled to take action to prevent similar situations in the future and send a message to other hotels.

“We want something to come of it so hotels like Holiday Inn think twice before succumbing to anti-Christian (sentiment),” LaBarbera said.

LaBarbera said Naperville prides itself on tolerance, and that a “pro-family, pro-marriage” group deserves the same as other groups. If his group had been a gay rights or other organization, the situation never would have happened, he said.

“Tolerance is a two-way street,” LaBarbera said.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

“We don’t really have a dollar amount at this time,” said Jason Craddock, a New Lenox-based attorney representing Americans for Truth. “The most important thing is the message.”

________________________________________

To sign up for AFTAH’s Feedblitz service to receive notice of all AFTAH web postings, click http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=126361

Tom Dart, Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, shows his support for the homosexual agenda by fielding a float and marching in the 2009 Chicago Gay Pride Parade (June 28, 2009). Ten minutes later in the parade, a radical leftist homosexual organization holds up a banner that reads, “Gay Pride Means Fight Cops.” Note that the faces of the young men holding up the cop-hating banner are covered with Intifada-like headdresses.  More description is after the jump and under the video ….

… This footage was shot by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, as we make our belated entrance into the world of YouTube. As is typical, the 2009 Chicago “Pride” parade featured participants violating the Chicago Public Morals Law, e.g., a presumed transsexual “female” baring his/her breasts riding atop a float block after block on Halsted St (much like I witnessed at the 2007 Chicago “Pride” march). Keep in mind that there were many children at the parade — and this year children from Chicago’s Nettelhorst Elementary School actually participated in the homosexual parade at the request of their parents.

Also, this footage of Sheriff Dart’s float was shot directly in front of a 24/7 homosexual bathhouse called “Steamworks,” (at 3246 Halsted in Boystown, Chicago), where men go for anonymous, deviant sex with other men. Perhaps Dart should focus less on “gay pride” and more on enforcing decency laws — and closing down Chicago perversion centers like Steamworks that  facilitate the spread STDs by enabling reckless homosexual promiscuity. Call Sheriff Dart at 312-603-6444, or e-mail: sheriff@cookcountysheriff.org. Thanks for taking action. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com

Folks, this is a wake-up call to stop “civil unions” in Illinois. Call your state representative and senator today or tomorrow morning (find your lawmakers at www.congress.org). Homosexual lobbyist Rick Garcia (left) predicts passage of faux “gay marriage” (”civil unions”) in our state, but Garcia could be bluffing. And he’s hardly a truth-teller: some years ago he lied to told the Daily Herald that he didn’t know what goes on in the 24/7 homosexual bathhouse down the street from his office in “Boystown,” Chicago. (He called it a “health club” — good one, Rick.)  Kudos to Illinois Family Institute for its battle against “civil unions” and all the fine work it has done in the Land of Lincoln opposing the campaign to turn aberrant sexual behavior into a “civil right.” — Peter LaBarbera

P.S. What is the “AIDS Foundation” doing lobbying for homosexual “civil unions”?

IFI writes:

__________________________________

Homosexual Lobbyists More Determined Than Ever To Pass “Civil Unions”

By Kathy Valente, Policy Analyst, Illinois Family Institute

Take ACTION: Contact your state representative (www.congress.org) to preserve natural marriage in Illinois!!  [Call the Capitol Switchboard in Springfield at 217-782-2000; you can find all of your state and federal representatives by plugging in your 9-digit zip code or address at www.congress.org.]

Rick Garcia, gay lobbyist for Equality Illinois, said yesterday that he “absolutely” foresees both the House and Senate passing HB 2234, the civil union bill, as early as next Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s no secret that Governor Pat Quinn supports the bill and is likely to sign it into law.

If Garcia is right, Illinois will soon bestow its blessing upon homosexual couples, extending to them the same benefits as marriage, only under a different name.

According to CapitolFaxBlog.com, “Equality Illinois has nine lobbyists working as either full-time staffers or contractors to encourage lawmakers to vote in favor of civil unions. Other groups assisting in passing the measure include the American Civil Liberties Union, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Service Employees International Union…” (Emphasis added.)

Take ACTION: Please look up your state representative HERE and then call your state representative to ask him/her to please vote ‘NO’ on HB 2234 and, instead, pass a constitutional amendment to preserve marriage and its unique benefits for one man and one woman.

If they receive dozens of calls from their constituents, they might tell their leadership not to allow the bill to be called. This would be a public record of their vote to be used against them. They fear losing their next race.

We don’t want to cry wolf, but we also don’t want to take for granted that the bill won’t pass. It’s a tug-of-war. There are far too many unethical lawmakers who lack a strong moral compass and who too easily bow to the powers that fill their coffers.

Additional Action:

1. Forward this email to everyone on your Illinois email list.

2. Print and make copies of this half-sheet flyer to pass out at your church, school, among friends and neighbors, etc.

This bill can be stopped, but only if you will make the 2 calls to your state representative and state senator AND if you will pass this information to others. It’s our responsibility to tell those who represent us how we want them to vote. This is still a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

The only difference between marriage and “civil unions” is in name. The rights and privileges would be the same.

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:

1. 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”);
2. while he supports a government-funded school banning a Christian group for, effectively, sticking to its Biblical faith creed.

Hint: if you love the First Amendment, you won’t like Bob’s “clarification.” By banning Campus Bible Fellowship, Wright State has censored CBF’s speech. [TAKE ACTION HERE, or contact Wright's President, David Hopkins, at david.hopkins@wright.edu.] All of this begs the question: why would anyone expect the American Left — which has carried water for totalitarian governments the world over — to understand and honor religious liberty and First Amendment freedoms in the United States?– Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth, www.aftah.com

Here is Schwartz’s letter to Wright State President David Hopkins and BCC’d  to Americans For Truth, sent following AFTAH’s posting of the FIRE press release:

_________________________________________

From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 1:55 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Bible Bigots at Wright University

[To Wright State University President David Hopkins; link added]

Dear Mr. Hopkins:

No doubt you have received angry messages from bible bigots claiming that “religious freedom” is being compromised by the banning of the hate group from campus.

Racists and women haters have claimed religious sanction for their beliefs and discriminatory acts.  Gay and lesbian people deserve the same respect and protection accorded to other groups.

Please maintain the ban on the Campus Bible Fellowship.

BOB SCHWARTZ [of Gay Liberation Network]

Chicago

_________________________________________

Here is our follow-up with Schwartz and then his “clarification” equating a group maintaining Biblical standards against homosexuality with “hate speech”:

—–Original Message—–
From: Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth, americansfortruth@comcast.net
To: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 8:35 am
Subject: RE: Bible Bigots at Wright University

…. And this does seem like a retrenchment from your other email (which I posted on AFTAH) in which you say you defend opposition speech.

_________________________________________

From: [Bob Schwartz]
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 11:23 AM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Re: Bible Bigots at Wright University

I am opposed to government imposed restrictions on free speech, as such restrictions are historically directed at left-wing oppositionists.  I consider bible based bigotry against gays to be hate speech subject to antidiscrimination policies as in the case of Wright State University.

The Georgia Republican Party has distanced itself from homosexual activist and Georgia Log Cabin Republicans president Jamie Ensley’s vicious comments calling Americans For Truth a “domestic terrorist group” and comparing us to Nazis, WorldNetDaily.com reported Friday. Conservatives and pro-family Republicans across the nation have expressed outrage at Ensley’s bigoted remarks, but some homosexual groups like the leftist Gay Liberation Network have commended them.  

[UPDATE ON THIS STORY: WorldNetDaily.com reports that the Georgia Republican Party has issued the following statement on the Jamie Ensley-Log Cabin Republicans controversy: "While a healthy debate on the issues can help strengthen us as a party, to use the word 'terrorist' to describe those that disagree with you is not appropriate." Georgia GOP spokesman Doug Reineke emphasized to WND that the Log Cabin Republicans "are an independent group not officially associated with the Georgia Republican Party." See the full WND story HERE and the AFTAH article containing Ensley's hateful e-mail to GOP Chairman Michael Steele HERE.]

________________________________________

Log Cabin Republican Jamie Ensley Comes Out of his Bigot Closet

By Laurie Higgins, reprinted from the Illinois Family Institute website.

An un-righteously indignant James Ensley, President of Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, has sent a vitriolic tirade against Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth to the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele. For those unfamiliar with Log Cabin Republicans, they are a homosexual political action group that is committed to subverting the Republican Party position on issues pertaining to “gay rights.”

Once again, the hypocrisy of the claims of homosexual groups’ commitments to tolerance is laid bare in all its ugliness in Mr. Ensley’s letter. He has charged Mr. LaBarbera and anyone else who shares the orthodox Christian, mainstream, historical view of homosexual behavior as immoral with being bigoted, anti-American, anti-Christian, fringe, radical, extremist domestic terrorists who shouldn’t have a voice in the Republican Party [see AFTAH piece HERE].
Here are some inconvenient truths upon which Mr. Ensley and other like-minded dogmatists might spend some time ruminating:

• There is no research proving that homosexuality is biologically determined: none.
• There is no research proving that homosexuality is ontologically equivalent to race or biological sex: none.
• It is no more anti-American to believe that homosexual behavior is immoral than it is to believe that polyamorous or incestuous behavior is immoral. I think it’s safe to assume that most, if not all, of our pro-American Founding Fathers believed homosexual behavior to be immoral. It would be fascinating to see what evidence Mr. Ensley would provide to justify his rather remarkable claim that beliefs about the immorality of homosexuality constitute anti-Americanism, particularly since those arguments tend to rely on the erroneous and unproven presupposition that homosexuality is ontologically equivalent to race.
• There is a body of thought emerging from the homosexual community called “queer theory” that holds that homosexuality is neither inherent nor immutable.
• Although homosexual feelings are not chosen, homosexual conduct is.
• Even behaviors that emerge from feelings that may be shaped in some way by biological influences are not automatically moral. All humans experience feelings that are likely shaped in some way by biology, but that existential reality does not mean that it is always and automatically morally legitimate to act upon those biologically influenced feelings.
• The view that homosexual conduct is moral is an unproven, ethical belief —not a fact.
• The belief that homosexual conduct is immoral does not constitute incitement to violence or hatred. It no more constitutes hatred of homosexuals than does the belief that polyamory or selfish behavior is immoral constitute hatred of polyamorists or selfish people.
• The belief that volitional homosexual behavior is immoral is not an extreme position. Throughout history, it has been the dominant cultural view and remains so both in this country and many other countries throughout the world.
• Ensley’s comparison of those who believe homosexuality is immoral to Nazis is a classic association fallacy, best known as “guilt by association.” He is implying that because conservatives believe that homosexuality is immoral and Nazis believed it’s immoral, then conservatives are equivalent to Nazis. It’s a fallacious and absurd non-argument. Surely, Mr. Ensley recognizes that he likely shares in common some views with some Nazis. The fact that conservatives believe that volitional homosexual behavior is immoral and that some Nazis believed that also does not prove that the belief itself is evil.
• It is not bigotry to believe that homosexual behavior is immoral. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a bigot as a person who is “obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.” Clearly, there is a distinction between bigotry and moral views. Bigotry cannot simply refer to holding opinions or being in possession of moral precepts, for if it did, everyone but sociopaths would have to be considered bigots because everyone but sociopaths holds certain behaviors as moral and others as immoral. Moreover, “prejudice” refers to “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” As such, opinions formed, even negative opinions, after careful consideration do not represent prejudice.

It appears that James Ensley just came out of his bigot closet, hurling pernicious charges —with no evidence—at not only Mr. LaBarbera but also at countless others who share the view that homosexual behavior is immoral behavior. In the future, it might behoove the ad hominem-hurling Mr. Ensley to study the art of argumentation.

Laurie Higgins is the Director of School Advocacy for the Illinois Family Institute and a frequent contributor to Americans For Truth.

The far left, Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network has been smearing Christians as “haters” for years. Here they shown in 2005 picketing the city’s beloved Moody Church, which GLN fanatically labeled a “House of Hate” because Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer wrote a book against homosexual “marriage.” Click to enlarge; photo by Dave Smith, Illinois Family Institute.

_____________

News Advisory, Protect Marriage Illinois and Americans For Truth

November 15, 2008

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; americansfortruth@comcast.net

CHICAGO – Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of Protect Marriage Illinois and president of Americans For Truth (www.aftah.org), issued the following statement in response to the national homosexual protest day against Proposition 8’s passage in California. LaBarbera joins Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org) and a small group of Illinois pro-family advocates in Chicago to oppose the Chicago pro-homosexual-“marriage” rally today at Federal Plaza.

Statement by Peter LaBarbera:

We stand here today proudly in support of Prop 8 – which preserves the age-old definition of marriage as between and a man and a woman in California – and similar pro-traditional-marriage amendments that have passed in 30 states across the nation. Americans have spoken: they oppose the radical redefinition of marriage. We in Illinois hope to join the other states in passing a constitutional amendment to prevent activist courts from foisting “gay marriage” on our citizens.

Homosexual activists arrogantly reject the will of people and are trying to overturn their loss at the ballot box through the courts in California. If they succeed, it will create a constitutional crisis in California and sour citizens on the power of their vote – but that’s fine for homosexual activists because it’s always all about them. No wonder they regard all opposition to their “gay marriage” agenda as illegitimate, and even malign pro-family advocates – including African Americans who voted by 70-30 in California for Prop 8 – as “haters, bigots and homophobes.”

Gay activists talk a lot about “tolerance” but many do not practice what they preach. In the days since the election, America has watched as homosexual militants have escalated their anti-Christian and anti-religious attacks. Homosexual activists targeted the Mormon Church and other churches that supported Prop 8 with protests and even violence. A suspicious white powder was discovered at two Mormon temples and at a printing plant used by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization that supported and helped finance Prop 8’s successful campaign.

In Palm Springs, an elderly woman in favor of Prop 8 was assaulted by “gay” militants, and in Michigan, a lesbian anarchist group called “Bash Back!” stormed an Assemblies of God church and began throwing around condoms and engaging in vulgar behavior. So it’s no surprise that homosexual activists are going after the IRS non-profit charity status of opposing churches.

Incredibly, even after “No on 8” ran a vicious TV ad that was blatantly bigoted against Mormon missionaries, in the aftermath of the election “gay” activist accused Prop 8 of telling “lies” during the campaign. Here in Chicago, one of the main organizing groups for today’s homosexual protest is the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — a group that regularly maligns Christians and smears churches as “haters” because they disagree with GLN about homosexuality. Defending marriage is not “hate,” and agreeing with the historic Judeo-Christian opposition to homosexual practice is not “bigotry.” Those like GLN who smear Christians as “bigots” and “homophobes” merely for standing up for their Biblical beliefs about the sanctity of marriage reveal themselves as hateful bigots. We need a Proposition 8 here in Illinois!

Below is an excellent column by Joel Belz, founder of WORLD magazine, answering some of the current Christian gibberish critical of believers who fight for Truth in the public square. (Click HERE for the full column in WORLD.) While we’re at it, here are 20 more good reasons why Christians (or anyone) should never feel guilty about a single-minded focus in countering the homosexual/transsexual activist and pro-abortion lobbies:

1. Human Rights Campaign (largest pro-homosexual PAC);
2. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force;
3. Lambda Legal;
4. NARAL Pro-Choice American (formerly National Abortion Rights Action League, which cruelly defends even later-term abortions).
5. GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation;
6. GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network);
7. NOW (they manage to promote both lesbianism and abortion-on-demand);
8. MTV (obnoxious in its one-sided promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality, etc.);
9. Soulforce and other Bible-twisting, “queer theology”-promoting groups;
10. Radical, reason-challenged, pro-homosexual websites like young Jeremy Hooper’s Good As You blog, Wayne (”Anything But Straight”) Besen’s ‘ex-gay’-hating Truth Wins Out, and lesbian Pam (”Jeebus”) Spaulding’s Pam’s House Blend;
11. National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association;
12. EMILY’s List (a pro-abortion PAC)
13. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (working to open up the military to homosexuals);
14. ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project;
15. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
16. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
17. Tim Gill (homosexual money-man)
18. Pro-homosexual activist groups like Equality Illinois fighting in all 50 states for radical legislation that undermines marriage;
19. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
20. PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians & Gays), a radical pro-homosexual group.

_______________________________

Belz writes for WORLD:

Stop Apologizing!
It’s not always wrong to be a “single-issue” advocate

It’s become an increasingly frequent reminder to us evangelical Christians not to let our cultural identity be framed by “single issues.”

It was a reminder implicitly included in the “Evangelical Manifesto,” a document whose basic content we at WORLD have applauded but whose political direction I questioned in our last issue. Why are the Manifesto’s backers so ready to join the cultural left in suggesting a guilt trip for those evangelicals who have been preoccupied with the evils of abortion and same-sex marriage?

And if some argue that the rising generation of younger evangelicals is a bit embarrassed by what they think is an out-of-balance focus by their elders, and thinks it’s time to get equally exercised over issues like racism, economic justice, and the environment—well, if that’s the case with our twentysomethings and our teenagers, then maybe we need to go to work and do a better job of explaining to them why we’ve put the emphasis where we have for the last generation and why we believe that it’s time not to lower our voices.

Evangelicals shouldn’t be embarrassed to say boldly and clearly: Abortion and same-sex marriage are uniquely heinous sins. They rattle the foundations of a civilized society. They take a culture in a dreadful direction. We haven’t been wrong to say so. We aren’t fanatics.

Click HERE to read Belz’ entire column in WORLD

UPDATE: We learned June 26 from a Catholic, pro-family advocate who contacted the Chicago Archdiocese that AGLO has now been denied permission to march officially in this year’s homosexual “pride parade.” Stay tuned for more on this story.

[Click on photo to enlarge.] Topless transsexual bares his (presumably hormone-induced) breasts at last year’s (2007) Chicago “gay pride” parade. The “man” rode exposed like this for blocks along the parade route, as the crowd lining the streets cheered him on. Faithful Catholics in Chicagoland are outraged that a church-affiliated group called AGLO (Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach) may march in this year’s homosexuality-celebrating parade. (AGLO is listed as #114 in the parade line-up.) Photo: AFTAH. Click HERE to contact the Archdiocese of Chicago regarding AGLO.

Folks, I cannot help but commend this brilliant response from my friend Gary Morella to the news that Chicago Cardinal George is allowing (at least for now) a so-called “gay Catholic”-oriented group called AGLO (Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach) to march in this Sunday’s “Chicago Gay Pride” parade. (AGLO is listed as #114 in the parade line-up.) Morella is a Catholic pro-family, pro-life activist and research mathematician at Penn State, who catches enormous flack for his stubborn insistence on proclaiming truth at that academic den of iniquity.

Gary as a Catholic and I as an evangelical disagree on some points of theology, but we are completely in accord on the need to combat all worldly attempts to transform the sinful yet changeable behavior of homosexuality into some kind of inherent and innocuous “identity.” — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. I learned from my friend Susan Jordan, a Chicagoland Catholic, that AGLO has marched in other Chicago “gay pride” parades.

___________________________

Gary Morella (left) writes:

In regard to the report of a Chicago “AGLO” group marching in a “Gay Pride” parade, some seminal Catholic truths apply in regard to the “bottom line,” not the least of which is the following. The Chicago Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach is misnamed. There is nothing “gay” about being inclined to unnatural acts that are so revolting as to cause extreme revulsion when accurately described! We are talking about sexual perversion that has not evolved to sexual deviance to sexual preference to sexual orientation, which is the politically correct lie of those practicing same in order to anesthetize society that they must accept the vices of a radical fringe under force of law – to heck with the common good! Rather, we’re talking about aberrant behavior that remains sexual perversion, regardless of the devil’s packaging! Accordingly, there is nothing Catholic about celebrating such perverse behavior that is condemned by traditional Catholic teaching rooted in Sacred Scripture, PERIOD! This truth should be obvious to anyone who is Catholic in more than name only in the recognition that the common good leads ultimately to a supernatural good in accord with God’s Divine Plan for His Creation. To thwart the common good is to do the work of the devil!

This begs the obvious question, why are Catholic frauds repeatedly allowed to cause public scandal to the faith with impunity? AGLO does not deserve to exist because, as an organization, it shamelessly promotes the commission of Mortal Sin which is anathema to Catholicism. Why can’t Cardinal George see that seminal truth? Just how much more scandal must be tolerated, putting souls at extreme risk of eternal perdition, before the plug is pulled on the AGLO liars? The Catholic goal should be the encouragement to leave, not live, homosexual lifestyles!

What is frustrating is that this decline in the Church could be thwarted by some very simple courageous actions on the part of bishops, in particular, Cardinal Archbishops as metropolitans for their Episcopal brethren, by taking the bull by the horns and saying, e.g., to the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach (AGLO) in Chicago, “You can no longer exist because your premise is counter to Church teaching in that you believe that one can live homosexual lifestyles and still be Catholic, which is a lie.” Are you listening, Cardinal George?

The traditional Church teaching on sins against nature is very clear using Sacred Scripture and Tradition in the form of statements from the Popes, Councils, Saints, and Apologists combined with the tradition of civil legislation to show the moral chasm that has resulted when the language of “pseudo charity” replaces the language of “tough love” for salvation’s sake. The result being that the necessary feelings of revulsion toward those proudly trumpeting their sodomite tendencies are no longer there opening the door for a misplaced compassion that such individuals do not deserve. They are differences between an ontological dignity to which all are entitled by virtue of being made in the image and likeness of God, and a moral dignity as a function of being endowed with an intellect and will whereby good can be accepted and evil rejected. Moral dignity does not exist for sodomites, a distinction that AGLO never makes using language that would have us erroneously believe that there exists something called the homosexual person, a concept which turns Catholic anthropology on its head making God, Who is Perfect Good, out to be a liar in creating man with a built-in one way ticket to hell in complete ignorance of the effect of the concupiscence due to Original Sin.

The clear consistent condemnation of homosexuality in Catholic teaching does not have to be needlessly qualified, which is something that Saints Peter, Jude, Pius V, Basil of Cesarea, Augustine, Aquinas, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, Peter Damian, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Catherine of Sienna, Bernardine of Sienna, Peter Canisius, and the councils of Ancyra, Toledo, Nablus, and Third Lateran did not suffer.

Is it possible to be Catholic and be inclined to homosexual acts? The answer is yes as there is no guarantee that Catholics are not tempted to sin. It is better to ask, “Is it possible to remain a Catholic and live a lifestyle that equates sexual perversion with normality?” The answer is an unequivocal no. For to do so makes a mockery of Sacred Scripture which states emphatically that Jesus condemns the sin out of concern for the sinner’s eternal end. The same “good and gentle” Jesus who is readily quoted out of context by the contemporary disciples of “dignity” and “self esteem” also is the “just” Jesus who talked more about the consequences of grave sin than any other New Testament figure. He was especially discriminatory in this regard as while some ceremonial aspects of the old law were rescinded, the moral requirements were not.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen, I say unto you, till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and of the Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)

But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but, nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. And if thy hand of thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. (Matthew 18:6-9)

It is an oxymoronic contention that you can be a practicing homosexual and be Catholic. This is a violation of a fundamental philosophical principle in that “Something cannot ‘be’ and ‘not be’ at the same time in the same respect.” The Church’s clear teaching is that there is nothing “gay” about being inclined to proven self-destructive physically, psychologically, and especially spiritually, unnatural behavior that has also been proven to be changeable, i.e., there is no such thing as a homosexual orientation in an innate final sense. Such inclinations are to acts which the Church considers intrinsic moral evils, the inclination itself being objectively disordered because of the unnatural tendencies involved. To say otherwise is absurd!

This is not a question of exclusion but rather one of unconditional love for man’s salvific eternal end that demands telling the Truth, Who is a Someone, not a something, per the beginning of the Gospel of John.

Catholics, above all clerics, ought to realize that by lying to people who need the full truth does nothing to help them. And it is a lie to have someone believe that they can be Catholic and have no problems with being inclined to acts, which if performed, lead to final spiritual ruin. That is playing with fire. The Church calls those inclined to homosexuality to leave, not live, their lifestyles. In order to do that the Church cannot lie about such inclinations being benign naturally, and especially spiritually, given the eternal truth of the Natural Law of God which is a participation in His Eternal Law.

Would so-called “Catholic” apologists for the homosexual lifestyle have us believe that Matthew 5:21-31 excuses any responsibility for living it because homosexuality is not explicitly referred to?

“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire….You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart…It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

It most certainly is. In particular, see Genesis 18:20-21, Romans 1:24-28, and the Epistle of Jude. Moreover, Jesus took the old law one step further and made the actions leading to the act as severe as the act itself. Are we to believe as Catholics that somehow homosexuality fell through the cracks in Sacred Scripture? Thus, from the Catholic standpoint, to imply that Jesus never said anything about being inclined to unnatural acts is Bible eisegesis with the consequences of Matthew 18:6.

To give a message to those inclined to homosexual acts that “they are OK as they are” is un-Catholic in the extreme given the above observations. It makes no more sense than to tell an alcoholic that you may continue drinking to get over alcoholism. Moreover, it is akin to giving a serial killer more bullets.

The Magdalenes of the Gospel were most certainly forgiven, but the words of Jesus following His forgiveness are conveniently forgotten. “Go and sin no more.” That is what it means to be Catholic. To make the attempt to live a Faith which will be mocked by the world. To imply that the homosexual lifestyle somehow has a Catholic blessing is tragic. It is tragic because souls are at stake — those living the lie and, especially, those telling it. For Catholics, that’s NOT love but REAL hate for their fellow man.

Lest we forget, Jesus Christ exists eternally as Second Person of the Blessed Trinity of the One True Triune God, i.e., as God Jesus destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, which is the first thing that should be remembered when the heinous lie that “Jesus never had anything to say about homosexuality” rears its ugly heads via the disciples of the devil! We are talking about a proven changeable lifestyle with the Grace of God that is physically, psychologically, socially, economically, and most especially spiritually ruinous!
As Ralph McInerny in Catholic Dossier has pointed out, obfuscation has reached the college campuses and campaigns are waged against something called “homophobia,” the net effect of which is to suggest that it is the judgment that homosexual acts are sinful that is sinful, not the acts themselves. In this effort, Scripture and magisterial documents are invoked as if they favored homosexuality as erroneously implied in many college editorials. One has a Catholic duty, it seems, not to state the Catholic message on the matter. During campus campaigns to give recognition to homosexual organizations, no mention is ever made of the serious health dangers that follow homosexual activity. And this on “smoke-free” campuses. Now it is the consequences of the vice that dare not speak their name.

Lenience toward homosexuality is only an aspect of the Dionysian frenzy that characterizes talk of human sexuality. Human persons need the sane and saving doctrine of the Catholic witness on homosexuality today more than ever. To give a stone where bread is asked for is unkind. The Church’s mission is not to conform to the world, but to stand in contradiction to it in order to save it. Given this seminal Catholic truth, AGLO is not saving anyone, and as such, deserves to be summarily condemned by Holy Mother Church. — Gary L. Morella, Catholic Activist

By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Exclusive

Steamworks, a 24/7 Chicago homosexual bathhouse where men go for anonymous sex with other men — one man said it is “like the Disneyland of gay sex” — is one of the sponsors of a “Queer Prom” tomorrow night for Latino homosexual youth.

A link for the bathhouse is found in web articles promoting the “Queer Prom,” which, ominously, is also open to adults to attend.

The item below in the Chicago homosexual newspaper Windy City Times (May 14, 2008) points to the problem of “gay youth” events, which too often expose impressionable and already sexually confused young people to the hyper-sexualized, adult (male) homosexual culture; note that the event is open to adults:

Queer Prom approaches

Get out your suits and dresses, because Queer Prom 2008 is May 23.

The dance for LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning] youth and friends will take place at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1952 W. 19th, at 6:30 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by Radio Arte, the National Museum of Mexican Art, CALOR, Steamworks, the Association of Latino Men for Action, the Young Women’s Empowerment, Amigas Latinas, Latinos Progresando, Project Vida and Lambda Legal.

There is a $10 suggested donation for youth, and a $25 suggested donation for adults, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds….

One click away

As you can see by viewing THIS LINK advertising the event, youth are a mere click away from the web page for Steamworks, which caters to men 18 years and older. It appears as if the bathhouse owners are doing smart public relations to attract future clients to their sex business.

Here is a description of Steamworks bathhouse from its website (a photo from the site is at left; emphasis added below):

“STEAMWORKS has been providing men 18 years & older with a clean, comfortable and stylish place to meet other men, relax, workout and play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30 years….

“With over 800 lockers and over 230 private rooms, combined with over 10,300 gallons of water in our hot tubs and almost 44,000 square feet of club space… as soon as you walk into any of our clubs, you are grabbed by that inescapable Steamworks sexual energy. Whether you are here hanging out, working out or making out, think of Steamworks as your free space on the game of life - a place where man2man interaction is not only accepted, but encouraged!”

On a homosexual, pornographic website dedicated to helping men find public sites across the country where they can anonymously “cruise for sex” with other men, a satisfied out-of-town customer happily described his sodomitic encounters (he lost track of how many) and said: “I recently traveled to Chicago and before going I came to [the homosexual "cruising" website] as I was looking for some hot experiences. Man! Steamworks is like the Disneyland for gay sex.”

Steamworks, located in Boystown, the Chicago “gay” neighborhood north of downtown, is part of a chain of homosexual bathhouses (the others are in Toronto, Seattle and Berkeley, California, near San Francisco). Although Illinois’ best-known homosexual activist, Rick Garcia, claimed in the media not to know what goes on at Steamworks (located down N. Halsted Street from his offices at Equality Illinois), bathhouses and sex clubs are fixtures of big cities with large homosexual populations. (See this blog post about bathhouses by homosexual activist Keith Boykin, and the interesting comments that follow.)

One big problem with bathhouses — and one of the reasons why Americans For Truth About Homosexuality supports the permanent closure of all bathhouses and commercial sex clubs — is that many men who do not identify as “gay” use them. Places like Steamworks make it easy for bisexuals or men with girlfriends or wives to secretly engage in perversions, thus putting their spouses at risk.

The following description of the “Queer Prom” is found on the website Think Pink Radio (where there is also a web link to the Steamworks website):

Chicago’s only queer prom for youth who want a chance to go to a fancy party as themselves (with a real date) is looking for volunteers. No need to go in a group or with a friend, this is a safe space for anyone in high school or college that identifies as some form of queer. Presented by Homofrecuencia and WRTE Radio Arte, this annual gala will take place at The National Museum of Mexican Art on Friday, May 23, 2008. Interested volunteers can go here and fill out the form. If you are young and just looking to party, tickets are (suggested donation) $10 for youth and $25 for adults. Queer Prom 2008: “Todos Me Miran” will be super fun and filled with tears of joy, as always. … –Stinky Pinky

Mario Diaz, a Hispanic American pro-family advocate and policy director for legal issues for Concerned Women for America, said, “It’s bad enough that there’s a prom which celebrates deviant and unhealthy sexual behavior. But the fact that it’s sponsored by an adult homosexual bathhouse where men meet for anonymous sex is appalling.

“This goes against everything that the Latino community stands for,” Diaz said. “Latino organizations should be working for a better future for Hispanic youth, not encouraging them to celebrate self-destructive behaviors and a lifestyle that God opposes.

“This is another reason why parents need to be involved in the lives of their children,” Diaz said. “Not one Hispanic family I’ve ever known would approve of their children being involved in this kind of activity.”

AFTAH Board Member Matt Barber, also with CWA, said, “I want to know what business adult homosexuals have co-mingling with impressionable youth at an event centered around sexuality. What are their intentions with these teenagers?”

Perhaps since this is an event open to adults, parents and concerned members of the community should attend to monitor the event and ensure that minors are protected.

TAKE ACTION: Today is Homosexuals Re-defining Marriage Lobby Day in Springfield (at least that’s what we’re calling it). Homosexual activists are targeting Illinois — with the goal of turning us into the “Massachusetts of the Midwest” — and we need your help to stop their radical agenda. If you are an Illinois resident:

1) Call your State Representative and your State Senator at 217-782-2000 and urge them to oppose HB 1826, the House homosexual “civil unions” bill, and SB 2436, the Senate version. While you’re at it, ask your legislators to oppose the pro-homosexual “domestic partnership” bill, HB 4731, which would expand the definition of spouse for some Chicago teachers’ benefits to include homosexual “partners.” Illinois (and every state) needs to reward and provide incentives for real marriage and the natural family, not destructive and immoral homosexual behavior. If you don’t know the names of your representative and state senator, call Illinois Family Institute at 630-790-8370 or go to this IFI web page: http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=728&APP=GAC&screen=Address&.

2) Join Protect Marriage Illinois‘ (PMI) effort to defend marriage in Illinois! Go to PMI’s website, www.protectmarriageillinois.org, and download a pro-marriage petition sheet for the county you live in. PMI is working to get signatures to place an Advisory Marriage Protection referendum on the ballot to call on Illinois legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to preserve the sacred institution of marriage as between a man and a woman. The deadline is very near — April 30th — to get the necessary 269,000 signatures on the ballot, so please act now and encourage YOUR CHURCH to do a petition drive. All petitions must be notarized. Call PMI’s Acting Director Joetta Deutch at 217-377-6017 or email her at info@protectmarriageillinois.org for more information and for help in doing a petition drive at your church. More details on PMI below.

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1) Background on Homosexual Activists’ “Redefining Marriage” Lobby Day

Here is some background from our friends at the Illinois Family Institute:

Homosexual activists with Equality Illinois, Stonewall Democrats, Illinois Log Cabin Republicans, and the ACLU of Illinois are going to the Capitol on Wednesday, April 9th to lobby for the passage of counterfeit marriage legislation — HB 1826.

This bill would extend legal recognition and benefits of civil marriage to homosexual couples. The only difference between marriage and the governmental recognition this bill would grant is in name.

TAKE ACTION: Click HERE to email your State Representative today and ask him/her to vote ‘NO’ to the “Civil Unions” bill — HB 1826. Politely tell your lawmaker that Illinois’ government should not officially recognize immoral, unhealthy, and changeable homosexual behavior. (Be assured, your calls and emails are very important; legislators take very seriously the letters and the numbers of letters they receive.)

Email your state representative now by clicking HERE, or you can call the Capitol switchboard at 217-782-2000.

______________________________

2) Background on Chicago Teachers’ Homosexual Partners bill, HB 4371:

See White Paper by IFI Executive Director Dave Smith: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/content/img/f33761/IFI_HB_4731_2.pdf. This bill is sponsored by homosexual activist legislator Gregg Harris. Smith writes:

“While Illinois does not even recognized common-law marriage, this bill is moving to recognize same-sex domestic partners to be the same as married spouses for purposes of survivor and death benefits under Illinois law….

“HB 4731 would set a new precedent and public policy in Illinois as the first legislative vote explicitly establishing governmental benefits for unmarried “partners.” Previously, unmarried partners secured “DP” benefits — e.g., at the University of Illinois — but there was no vote in the Assembly creating these misguided benefits.”

More info on other bills of concern to Illinois families can be found here: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=33786

______________________________

3) Background on Protect Marriage Illinois (www.protectmarriageillinois.org) Petition Drive:

TAKE ACTION: Download your PMI petition for YOUR COUNTRY at www.protectmarriageillinois.org. Call PMI Acting Director Joetta Deutch at 217-377-6017 or email her at info@protectmarriageillinois.org for help or information on the petition drive. The deadline for turning your NOTARIZED petitions in is April 30th, so you must act fast.

PMI, which nearly succeeded in getting a Marriage Protection referendum on the Illinois ballot in 2006, is trying again, after some big changes to the organization that have temporarily slowed our effort down. You can read the petition language at www.protectmarriageillinois.org. PMI is no longer affiliated with Illinois Family Institute, which is focusing instead on legislation in Springfield. PMI is now a stand-alone, all-volunteer effort (Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera is on the PMI Board of Directors), which retains the same goal as always: passing a binding, constitutional amendment to preserve the age-old definition of marriage in the Land of Lincoln.

The good news is that despite the changeover and the totally volunteer nature of the new PMI campaign, Protect Marriage Illinois has gathered over 100,000 signatures! Obviously, there is tremendous support in Illinois and the heartland in general for preserving marriage against the homosexual activists’ relentless campaign to re-define it to accommodate their immoral lifestyles.

The “bad” news is that the deadline for turning the required 269,000 signatures is the end of this month, April 30th. It will take a huge influx of petitions in these last three weeks to cross the threshold. This often happens in petition drives, so do what you can to help and get YOUR CHURCH involved! Set a goal of, say, 100, (notarized) signatures and send them to PMI by April 30th; the address to turn in the petitions is:

PMI
P.O. Box 6017
Taylorville, IL 62568

Whether we make it or not, PMI will not rest until a binding constitutional amendment is on the books protecting marriage in Illinois from being radically re-defined. Again, you can contact PMI’s Joetta Deutch at 217-377-6017 or at info@protectmarriageillinois.org.

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The Homosexual Lobby Has Lots of $$$$, but AFTAH Needs Your Help!

How come the forces FOR homosexuality are bolder than those opposing their immoral agenda? Help us defend your liberties — and the next generation — by regularly praying for and financially supporting Americans For Truth. To make a donation online to Americans For Truth, click on our online donation page (you can use PayPal or your own credit card): www.americansfortruth.com/donate.

We are grateful for those of you who have signed up as monthly “Truth Team” givers by pledging a donation on of at least $20/month to AFTAH. We think this is a good investment in your children’s and their children’s future!

Our goal is to sign up 1,000 monthly AFTAH ‘Truth Team’ givers to put us on healthy financial footing.

You can also send your tax-deductible donation via regular mail to:

Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522

The chart below on federal NIH (National Institutes of Health) spending is put out by the Fair Foundation:

By Peter LaBarbera 

The same homosexual activist group, Gay Liberation Network (GLN), that led a pressure campaign to oust Americans For Truth from the hotel where it held its successful banquet Friday night, is now spreading lies about the number of attendees — saying that “40-50″ people came when in actuality over 110 people packed out the banquet room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard for the successful event.

GLN’s lie has surfaced on lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding’s site and presumably others as well. (We’re anxiously awaiting ”The Pam’s” correction….) As you might imagine, the prodigious Gay Fib Machine is quite busy when it comes to smearing Americans For Truth, about which they are quite obsessed.

The GLN’s Andy Thayer — who led a contingent of what looked like about 10 or fewer scruffy protesters at our event Friday, somehow determined that “There were only about 40-50 people in attendance” at our banquet. But Thayer and his small band of followers were kept off the Embassy Suites property; they were forced to hold their protest signs (one slammed the “Bigot Banquet”) on the nearest big road (Butterfield Rd.), at least 50 yards from the hotel — so we’re not sure how they got their curious crowd estimate.

A couple of homosexual men did come to the banquet room to harass us after the event had ended and many people had left, so maybe that explains it.

The Gay Liberation Network has some warped priorities, to be sure: while it crusaded against the “hateful” Americans For Truth — even trying to knock us from our hotel – it recently praised Miller Beer for sponsoring the deplorable, sadomasochistic “Folsom Street Fair,” at which hundreds of men walked around totally nude and where orgies on the streets and various “consensual” beatings went undisturbed by San Francisco police.

Here’s more falsehoods from GLN’s Thayer, as relayed by Spaulding:

I doubt they were getting anywhere near $50/person from their paltry attendance, as one of our people went in to scope it out and was told by a person at the door that all that was needed to get in was a free reservation.  No way they covered their overhead, let alone raised any money.  

Truth be told, all of our guests paid their $50, and many much more, so thankfully we had a good night raising funds for our cause of answering “gay” activist lies in the culture.  

I did have an interesting conversation with one GLN protester. As I was in the parking lot, a woman popped out of her car, hugged me and proclaimed — smirk on her face — that she loved me. I hugged her back and told her that I loved her, too. But when I touched her, another woman (perhaps her partner?), still sitting in the car, called out: “Don’t touch him, he’s diseased.”

Diseased? I wish that poor, deluded woman would have come in to hear Charlene Cothran’s wonderful presentation about overcoming homosexuality rather than stand outside with the GLN’s ridiculous signs: she’s welcome to call me any time and I’ll put her in touch with Charlene, who once, too, let anger and ideology keep her from the truth.

Folks, the homo-fascists over at the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network are cheering Miller Brewing Company for sponsoring the recent San Francisco perversion-fest known as the “Folsom Street Fair.” At the same time, they engaged in a (failed) grassroots lobbying campaign to cancel Americans For Truth’s reservation with the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard, Illinois — where we held a very successful banquet Friday, Oct. 5.

So let’s review the GLN’s position:

• Nudity-filled, sex-in-the-streets Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, where men masturbated themselves and other men in public, and whipped and spanked one another for the crowds, where Christianity-mocking “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” drag-queen “nuns” welcomed attendees: GOOD EVENT, WORTHY OF SUPPORT, KUDOS TO MILLER BEER! 
• Peaceful Americans For Truth banquet attended mostly by Christians; our first speaker, Charlene Cothran, described how God took her out of her past life as a homosexual activist, and how she now has the peace of Christ and wants to help others find it; our second speaker, David Parker, described his legal campaign to have public schools inform parents before their young children are exposed to pro-homosexuality-themed books and curricula: HATEFUL, EVIL EVENT, MUST BE PROTESTED; SHOULD BE BARRED FROM HOTEL!

We hope you get a sense of the folly of homosexual activist “tolerance” and the irrationality and hatred of the Left in general. Perhaps if we publicly embraced nudity and perversion like Folsom, GLN would have called off its protest of our event. Anyway, here’s GLN’s and Schwartz’s September 28 e-mail letter commending Miller Beer for financing the sick San Francisco Folsom Street Festival (emphasis added):

“Thanks for Backing Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco” 

 

Julian Green
Miller Lite Beer
 
Dear Sir:
 
It has come to my attention that your company is under attack for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.  The attack is emanating from such outfits as the Catholic League and Americans for Truth.  The Catholic League has as one of its directors, the laughable Alan Keyes, who embarrassed Illinois Republicans when he lost by the widest margin of any Illinois senatorial election.  Americans for Truth is a gang of far-right bigots who attack gays by saying we all ought to change into straight people through Jesus, and who would deny us equal civil rights.  Both groups portray themselves as victims as they go about preaching hate and discrimination.
 
The Catholic League and Americans for Truth want to impose one standard of behavior on everyone, a standard divined from ancient texts and a mythical “natural law, a standard that denies women control over their bodies and gay people the rights due to all citizens.
 
Please ignore these strident voices of intolerance and bigotry.
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network, Chicago

By Peter LaBarbera 

Many homosexual activists love verbally bashing Bible-believing Christians who oppose “gay rights” – calling them various names and insulting them by comparing them to racists and, in the case below, white supremacists. Of course, they rarely use the latter technique against African-American Christians like Harry Jackson, who are increasingly vocal in speaking out against the homosexual activist agenda.

Frank Kameny, the homosexual activist icon who was fired by the federal government in the 50’s and who is currently being honored by the Smithsonian Museum as an American ”civil rights” pioneer, coined the term “Christianofascists” to describe groups like Americans For Truth and Concerned Women for America that oppose homosexual activism. Something tells me that Kameny’s anti-Christian smear will not be found in the new Smithsonian’s exhibit about his life – since the academic world, like so many in the media, protects homosexual activists by hiding their more radical associations and beliefs.

(Kameny once addressed a meeting of NAMBLA – North American Man/Boy Love Association, the notorious pederasty group. Another American “gay” founding father, Harry Hay, enthusiastically defended NAMBLA’s right to march in “gay pride” parades.)

Here in Chicago, we have our very own accomplished Christian-bashers — Equality Illinois’ Rick Garcia — who called his own Catholic Cardinal (Francis George) a “bigot” — and, to a greater degree, the Gay Liberation Network, whose Bob Schwartz has a talent for name-calling like few on the Left. 

The easy thing to do would be to dismiss Schwartz and the GLN as part of the vast left-wing network of Christian-haters, and that they are. But as you read this latest rant from Bob, keep in mind that Schwartz’s virulent anti-Christianism is only stating forcefully what many homosexual activists and their allies believe.

Moreover, under government-sponsored pro-homosexuality (”sexual orientation”) laws, those who oppose homosexuality ARE treated as “bigots,” which is why “sexual orientation” legislation like ENDA (the Employment Nondiscrimination Act) is so dangerous. In Western tradition, the law was intended to punish wrongdoers, not people agreeing with God and acting in defense of natural law and time-tested religious and moral beliefs. Does “gay liberation” equate to oppression of religion?

My responses to Schwartz’s comments are in blue:

Poor, beleaguered Peter LaBarbarian. [cute, Bob] Not long after being denied space in a Naperville Holiday Inn for his banquet of bigots [more name-calling -- falsely equating pro-family Americans who oppose homosexuality with rank bigotry], the “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality” leader, the would-be il duce of the hard core antigay right-wing, has taken another hit.  Organizers of a diversity in the workplace panel have disinvited the homo hater [disagreement is not hate, Bob], after three other panelists said they would not participate if LaBarbera did.
 

It is good to hear that HRC’s Daryl Herrschaft and others will not appear with hate mongers [more name-calling] who don’t believe we have a right to even exist [Gay Martyr Syndrome: looks like Bob and friends are "existing" quite fine; we simply don't believe that people are defined by aberrant sexual behaviors, and of course we believe that homosexuals can change and abandon the lifestyle, as so many, like our Oct. 5 banquet speaker, Charlene Cothran, have], much less enjoy equal rights with other Americans ["equal rights" based on what? How you have sex? That's not in the Constitution]. 
 

People like LaBarbera ought to be treated in the same way as those preaching white supremacy or that Jews are Christ killers who need to convert to Christianity. [Another misleading and hateful statement by Bob and GLN, laced with a profound bigotry against sincere Christians and all people -- religious or otherwise -- who believe homosexual behavior is wrong. Here he resurrects past societal injustices to justify his own errant lifestyle. I hate anti-Semitism and racism as much as Bob or anyone else; those issues have nothing to do with Americans' views on the moral questions surrounding homosexuality and gender confusion.]
 

LaBarbera rails against “anti-Christian bigotry.”  This is a sham, a cover for hate hiding behind stained glass windows.  Many religious people held fervent beliefs that Jews and African Americans just didn’t rank up there with the better people, the chosen of god. People who believe and advocate for these things today are shunned as bigots. [Once again, Bob erects his twin straw men of racism and anti-Semitism, knowing full well that we at Americans For Truth abhor both these ills. The practice of homosexuality is shameful, and its celebration more so. Disagreeing with homosexual behavior is nothing more than agreeing with God.]

Note how Bob Schwartz equates the defense of historic Judeo-Christian morality with “hate.” We encourage readers to pray for Bob, who, is a very bitter and angry man. Readers can contact Dennis Igoe, General Manager of the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, at dennis@naperselect.com or 630-505-4900.

___________________________ 

E-mail subject header: “Thank you for cancelling bigot banquet”

Dennis Igoe
Manager, Naperville Holiday Inn
Naperville, Illinois
 
Dear Mr Igoe:
 
It has just come to our attention that you canceled a banquet by “Americans For Truth,” an antigay hate organization.  We thank-you for doing so, given that antigay hate under the guise of religion is still hate.  Similarly, anti-immigrant hate under the guise of patriotism is the real agenda of the Minuteman Project, a group barred from another Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake.
 
No doubt Peter LaBarbera had our organization, Gay Liberation Network, in mind when he informed you that “homosexual organizations” might picket his hate fest.
 
It has become the cant of bigot organizations like Americans For Truth to cry that there is “anti-christian discrimination” at work whenever anyone stands up for fair play, such as in this instance of a private corporation refusing to provide a platform for rank bigotry.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network
 
Copy: Americans for Truth

Sorry, Bob, Christians are not “hate merchants,” but it seems pretty clear that what you’re selling here isn’t even close to the tolerance that you demand of others. – Peter LaBarbera 

Here’s Schwartz’s Stalinesque rant: 

Bigots were “bullied,” and subjected to “sinister laughter and jeering” but they get out alive.  What would happen to the KKK if the racist scum tried to protest at the Bud Billiken parade at 43rd and King Drive?  Wouldn’t this threat be met by Malcolm’s dictum, “Liberation by any means necessary.”

 

Why do Chicago Pride parade organizers defend the “free speech” rights of bigots, rather than advocate for those who object to their presence? Three years ago when anarchists protected the parade from fascist street thugs, Richard Pfeifer condemned the anarchists and praised the cops who arrested them!  This year Pfeifer was quoted as saying that our “diversity” allows for bigots expressing antigay messages.

 

Those LGBTs and others who stood up to the fascists this year, whether at Cambridge and Diversey, or before the two hate merchants quoted below [reprints AFTAH story about mob attack] are to be commended.

 

Those who dare to come onto our streets to preach hate should face the consequences meted out to them by lesbians and gays who will not stand by and be degraded by bigots masquerading as kindly people of god.

 

Bob

Bob Schwartz of the leftist Chicago homosexual group Gay Liberation Network responded to my e-note asking if he favored laws censoring pro-family group’s speech critical of homosexuality. The following is Schwartz’s response (we’ve put his response at the top rather than following my note, as it was in the original).

I certainly doubt the accuracy of Schwartz’s claim about the Nigerian bishop, as he and his group typically lop all Christians who stand for traditional morality in with those who committed indefensible acts (e.g., violence or death threats) against homosexuals. Schwartz also engages in hyperbole typical of many leftists when he claims that Christian groups are a threat to democracy. Schwartz’s flagrant name-calling of committed Christians as “fascists” is a callous and hurtful shibboleth that has no basis in reality and is deeply offensive to all people and groups, like Americans For Truth, that abhor the Nazis’ genocidal record.

As to Schwartz’s claim about “hate speech,” many on our side of the debate regard GLN’s standard rhetoric — e.g., calling the historic Moody Bible Church in Chicago a “house of hate” — as hateful in the extreme.

Finally, regarding his note about socieities in decline, we commend the work of  the (anti-Christian) Edward Gibbons (The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire), historian Will Durant, Pitirim Sorokin, and others who have documented the role of sexual immorality in the demise of great civilizations.

All this said, we are pleasantly surprised that the GLN leader is not an outright advocate of censorship. Here is Schwartz’s reply to my question:

Is The Big House Peter LaBarbera’s future home?
 

_______________________________________________
 
Sure, its tempting to want to enact laws like those in Canada and across parts of Europe that restrict the very kind of hate speech you and others dole out to gays, all under cover of “religious freedom.” But, I do not favor governmental restrictions on hate speech.
 
I reach this conclusion, not because I care one iota about speech rights for people who would like to push me back into the closet, restrict my rights or see me dead, but because governmental regulation of speech–particularly in the United States–would likely be turned against people of the left, not of the right.  I’m not about to cut my own throat.
 
What I will do is keep portraying right-wing outfits like IFI and Americans for Truth, along with more effective hate groups like Focus on the Family, the John Hagee “ministries,” and the Coral Ridge fascist James Kennedy as dangerous to democracy. Dangerous because they include extremists who want to substitute the bible for the US Constitution. Dangerous because they are hate mongers who go after vulnerable gays today, but have an agenda that includes rolling back gains won thru struggle by workers, immigrants, women, and African Americans, as well as support to American/Israeli wars for empire.*
 
This summer, Gay Liberation Network will host a Nigerian gay man who has had to flee his native land following death threats from thugs spurred on by Christian leaders such as the Anglican archbishop, Peter Akinola, a man held to be a hero by some American gay haters.
 
Finally, as you will recall, we are prepared to take our ideas into the street.
 
You and others of your ilk deserve to be isolated, and ousted from respectable society.  The fate of Don Imus hopefully awaits antigay bigots as well.
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network
 
[* See the book by Kevin Phillips entitled "American Theocracy." Phillips points out that elites of societies in decline often appropriate religious fervor as they attempt to stabilize the sinking ship, branding policy opponents as enemies, demonizing religious and sexual minorities, scapegoating "foreigners," calling upon the deity to bless military adventures, etc.]

….
 
I got the following response from Peter LaBarbera after I copied him on the message I posted regarding the IFI campaign to defeat federal hate crime legislation.  My response to LaBarbera follows his message. 
LaBarbera posted my original message and his response on his website: http://americansfortruth.org/
He can be reached at americansfortruth@comcast.net
 
 
…. You’d love to censor groups like IFI and Americans for Truth, wouldn’t you? If you had the power, you’d want to shut us down or ban certain aspects of our speech and conduct? For example, would you favor a federal “anti-hate” law that would have made our last email (”Satan’s Talking Points”) illegal? Or am I wrong and you actually support freedom of speech in the USA on the homosexual issue (which does not include direct harassing threats or advocating violence)? Would you favor using anti-discrimination hate speech laws to curb anti-gay speech? Which speech if any would you censor? Do you support anti-”hate speech” laws in Canada and England that are rapidly criminalizing (”discriminatory”) speech critical of homosexuality and are resulting in Christians being sued for discrimination or being jailed because they publicly oppose homosexual behavior? Did you support the jailing of the pastor in Sweden, Ake Green (www.akegreen.org), or do you think he should not have been prosecuted and what the government did to him was an injustice?  Since you’re charging us with being fascists, don’t we have a right to know? Would you use state power to restrict anti-gay speech, or not, and if so, under what circumstances?
 
Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth

After being “cc’d” on the latest hateful e-mail sent by Bob Schwartz of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network — calling Illinois Family Institute (my former employer) the “Illinois Fascist Institute” for opposing a pro-homosexual federal “Hate Crimes” law – I sent the following e-note to Schwartz. We ask the same question of Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solomonese, NGLTF’s Matt Foreman and all homosexual activists: would they support laws — and government actions — to censor speech opposed to homosexuality?

My note to Schwartz: 

From: Americans for Truth [mailto:americansfortruth@comcast.net]
Sent:  Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:37 AM
To:  Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network
Cc:  David Smith, Exec. Dir., Illinois Family Institute
Subject:  Hey Bob, admit it…

…. You’d love to censor groups like IFI and Americans for Truth, wouldn’t you? If you had the power, you’d want to shut us down or ban certain aspects of our speech and conduct? For example, would you favor a federal “anti-hate” law that would have made our last email (“Satan’s Talking Points” [ Human Rights Campaign’s Harry Knox Promotes Ultimate ‘Big Lie’ in MSNBC Debate with CWA’s Matt Barber]) illegal? Or am I wrong and you actually support freedom of speech in the USA on the homosexual issue (which does not include direct harassing threats or advocating violence)? Would you favor using anti-discrimination hate speech laws to curb anti-gay speech? Which speech if any would you censor? Do you support anti-”hate speech” laws in Canada and England that are rapidly criminalizing (”discriminatory”) speech critical of homosexuality and are resulting in Christians being sued for discrimination or being jailed because they publicly oppose homosexual behavior? Did you support the jailing of the pastor in Sweden, Ake Green (www.akegreen.org) [Green was arrested in 2003 and later sentenced to jail for preaching a sermon in his church against homosexual behavior as sin], or do you think he should not have been prosecuted and what the government did to him was an injustice?  Since you’re charging us with being fascists, don’t we have a right to know? Would you use state power to restrict anti-gay speech, or not, and if so, under what circumstances?

Schwartz’s note to IFI: 

Fwd: IFI Makes it Easy to Contact Congress Members to Back Hate Crimes Legislation 

 

The kooks at the Illinois Fascist Institute want their followers to tell Members of Congress to oppose the recently re-introduced  Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.  Charging that this bill would provide the dreaded “special protection” to gays, in fact IFI wants to retain the right to discriminate based upon some presumed divinely sanctioned hatred of gays. 
 
Sorry, IFI, the Constitution and not a collection of ancient writings called the bible is the fundamental law of the United States.
 
While hate crimes legislation is by no means a panacea to counter antigay bigotry and violence, it does help isolate the haters, a fact at least indirectly acknowledged by IFI opposition to the bill which frames its hatred of gays as the “beliefs, thoughts and attitudes” of “religion.”
 
Thanks to IFI, there is easy access to Congressional contact information.  Is that Christian generosity, or what!!
 
Bob [Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network, Chicago, IL]
_______________________________________________

Original E-Alert by Illinois Family Institute:

IFI E-Alert: New Hate Crimes (Thought Crimes) Legislation in Washington D.C.
(Federal Issue)

4/13/2007 3:00:00 PM
By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute 
 
Bill would create special protection for homosexuals.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592) will be called for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives next week. This bill would extend existing federal hate-crimes laws that already cover crimes motivated by race, color, national origin and religion to include crimes based on “actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity (including gender-related characteristics).”

ACTION: Contact your Congressman today and urge him/her to oppose this anti-religious piece of legislation and vote ‘NO’ on H.R. 1592. Hate crimes legislation is really “thought crime” legislation because it penalizes politically-incorrect beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts, rather than actual crimes. (Phone calls are the most effective means to communicate with elected officials.)

Bobby Rush (D-1st District)
202-225-4372

Jesse Jackson (D-2nd District)
202-225-0773

Daniel Lipinski (D-3rd District)
202/225-5701

Luis Gutierrez (D-4th District)
202-225-8203

Rahm Emanuel (D-5th District)
202-225-4061

Peter Roskam (R-6th District)
202-555-1212

Danny K. Davis (D-7th District)
202-225-5006

Melissa Bean (D-8th District)
202-225-3711

Janice D. Schakowsky (D-9th District)
202-225-2111

Mark Kirk (R-10th District)
202-225-4835

Jerry Costello (D-12th District)
202-225-5661

Judy Biggert (R-13th District)
202-225-3515

Dennis Hastert (R-14th District)
202-225-2976

Timothy Johnson (R-15th District)
202-225-2371

Don Manzullo (R-16th District)
202-225-5676

Phil Hare (D-17th District)
202-225-5905

Ray LaHood (R-18th District)
202-225-6201

John Shimkus (R-19th District)
202-225-5271

Legislate Thought Crimes Act?
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592), which we’re calling the Legislate Thought Crimes Act, would add the words “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability” to the existing federal code.

The proposed Legislate Thought Crimes Act is different from current hate crimes law which permits federal prosecution of hates crime if the crimes were motivated by bias based on race, religion, national origin, or color, or because the victim was exercising a “federally protected right” (e.g. voting, attending school, etc.). This is because it would extend government protection and therefore official government recognition to sexual behavior as a legitmate protected class — a very dangerous precedent for U.S. law.

This bill removes the federally-protected activity requirement and adds “actual or perceived sexual orientation/gender identity,” gender and disability to the list of covered categories–bringing additional confusion to federal law. The proposed law would give unprecedented power to overzealous federal officials and liberal judicial activists who view opposition to homosexuality as “hate.”

Law would be homosexual tool
In short, this bill, if passed into law, could be used as a tool to advance the homosexual agenda through the enactment of federal laws that recognize homosexual behavior as civil right that needs special government protection. IFI will continually strive to educate people of the fact that unlike race, sexual orientation is a behavior that is changeable — as evidenced by the thousands of ex-”gays” living happy lives today.

Click HERE to listen to the interview online.

You can also download the interview by going to the CWA site.