Detroit homosexual activist Sean Kosovsky (left) says media who criticize homosexual “marriages” as illegitimate should be sued for libel and “slapped around publicly.” Kosovsky has also recklessly and falsely accused Gary Glenn’s American Family Association of Michigan of supporting the murder of homosexuals.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wed., May 21, 2008
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978

By Gary Glenn, President, AFA-Michigan

LOS ANGELES — Michigan’s largest homosexual activist group says once marriage is legally redefined to include homosexual couples, business owners and even news media outlets who refuse to recognize such marriages should be jailed or sued and “publicly slapped,” a Jewish and openly bisexual columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News reported Monday.

Statements attributed in the column to homosexual lobbyist Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation, were denounced Wednesday by American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn, co-author of the Marriage Protection Amendment approved by voters in 2004 to constitutionally reaffirm the legal definition of marriage in Michigan as only between one man and one woman.

“The Triangle Foundation openly admits homosexual activists’ intentions, once they gain sufficient political power, to impose their radical social agenda on America by brute force, trampling cherished American values such as religious freedom, freedom of speech, academic freedom, and even freedom of the press if it stands in their way,” Glenn said.

Glenn pointed to comments by Kosofsky reported Monday by David Benkof, author of Gay Essentials: Facts for Your Queer Brain and founder of the Q Syndicate, a “gay”-press syndicate that provides columns and other material to a hundred homosexual newspapers.

Benkof, who strays from “gay” political orthodoxy by opposing the redefinition of marriage, wrote in a column published Monday by the Los Angeles Daily News that he had interviewed homosexual activists nationally about the legal implications of a California Supreme Court ruling last week declaring a constitutional “right” to so-called homosexual “marriage.”

Benkof wrote: “What happens if a traditionally religious business owner wants to extend his ‘marriage discount’ only to couples married in his eyes? Sean Kosofsky of Michigan’s largest gay-rights group, the Triangle Foundation, says, ‘If you are a public accommodation and you are open to anyone on Main Street, that means you must be open to everyone on Main Street. If they don’t do it, that’s contempt and they will go to jail.’ ” http://www.dailynews.com/editorial/ci_9312682

Benkof continued: “Michael Taylor-Judd, the president of the Legal Marriage Alliance of Washington state, said if a newspaper writes that a given same-sex marriage wasn’t really a marriage, ‘it is certainly in the realm of possibility for someone to bring a (libel) suit, and quite possibly to be successful.’ Kosofsky agreed: ‘I would be sympathetic to some damages. They need to be slapped publicly.’ ”

(See full Benkof column below)

Glenn said the Triangle Foundation routinely justifies its hostility toward individuals and organizations who disagree with homosexual activists’ political agenda, as well as Triangle’s admitted plans to suppress their opponents’ free speech rights, by demonizing those who support traditional one-man, one-woman marriage as promoters of “hate” and violence.

* The Triangle Foundation’s web site currently features a news release charging that support for Michigan’s Marriage Protection Amendment by Glenn and Catholic Cardinal Adam Maida of the Archdiocese of Detroit was a motivating factor in the alleged beating death of a homosexual senior citizen last year in Detroit. “It is appalling hypocrisy,” the statement reads, “for (Glenn and Maida) to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos.” http://www.tri.org/violence/pdfs/taskforce.pdf

Triangle’s claims were proven false when police reported they found no evidence of assault and the Wayne County medical examiner’s office concluded the man had died from natural causes after a fall resulting from arthritic paralysis. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262308,00.html

* Kosofsky has for years publicly accused Glenn’s organization of supporting murder, though only one news media outlet has ever published the allegation. “We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian and bisexual people,” Kosofsky said, as reported in 2001 by State News, the student newspaper at Michigan State University.
http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2001/11/gay-rights_group_fights

And Kosofsky in a published column in 2005 called Cardinal Maida “recklessly wicked,” accused him of “arrogance, bigotry and hypocrisy,” and said the Catholic church’s position in support of one-man, one-woman marriage “should be tossed in the trash.”
http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=13021

Glenn also noted that when Kosofsky said news media outlets should be sued and “slapped publicly” if they report material to which homosexual activists object, one example may have been fresh on his mind. Last month, Kosofsky attacked WNEM-TV Channel 5, Saginaw, for its coverage of a pro-homosexual student protest in public schools. “WNEM has run one of the worst stories I have seen in recent years on Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender issues by using insensitive and inflammatory terms,” Kosofsky wrote on his blog, Blog O’ Queer.
http://www.blogoqueer.org/2008/04/horrible-coverage-of-day-of-silence-in.html

Violations of religious freedom, free speech rights, academic freedom, and freedom of the press have become routine in countries and states that have already adopted so-called homosexual “marriage” or “hate crime” laws based on homosexual behavior, Glenn said.

* Swedish Pastor Ake Green in 2004 was sentenced to 30 days in jail for preaching a sermon in which he defined homosexual behavior as sinful and harmful to society. http://www.akegreen.org

* Baptist Press reported in 2005: “A Catholic bishop in Canada is under investigation by a government agency for condemning ‘gay marriage’… The bishop, Fred Henry of Calgary, is being investigated by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for comments he made about homosexuality in both a letter to parishioners and a Calgary Sun newspaper column. Two homosexuals filed the complaints.” http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=20716

* The Irish Times reported in 2003: “Clergy and bishops who distribute the Vatican’s latest publication describing homosexual activity as ‘evil’ could face prosecution under incitement to hatred legislation. …Those convicted under the Act can face jail terms of up to six months.”
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2003/0802/1059775167952.html

* The London Daily Telegraph reported in 2006: “New Government proposals on equality could require clergy to bless homosexual ‘weddings’ or face prosecution, the Church of England said yesterday. It said the proposed regulations could undermine official teaching and require Christians to act against their religious convictions.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1520849/Church-%27could-be-forced-to-bless-gay-weddings%27.html

* Catholic Charities in Boston was forced by a state “sexual orientation” law to either process the adoption of children to homosexual couples, a direct violation of Vatican policy, or abandon their century-old adoption referral services altogether. They chose the latter. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions

* The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix newspaper was ordered by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal to pay three homosexual men $1,500 each after the newspaper agreed to run an ad that featured Bible verses critical of homosexual behavior. “As the Star-Phoenix lawyer said in his closing statement (before the Tribunal), ‘A Human Rights ruling against the Star-Phoenix and Mr. Owens could limit freedom of speech in the media, in churches and in classrooms.’” http://www.realwomenca.com/newsletter/1999_Sept_Oct/article_7.html

* A British couple were questioned by police on possible “hate crime” charges after they wrote a letter-to-the-editor of their local newspaper criticizing city officials for distributing brochures at city hall promoting homosexual behavior. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/4555406.stm

* The London Daily Telegraph reported last month: “A Christian couple who have taken in 28 children have been forced to give up being foster parents after they refused to promote homosexuality. Vincent Matherick, 65, and his 61-year-old wife Pauline were told by social services that they had to comply with legislation requiring them to treat homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1567160/Christian-foster-parents-condemn-’gay-laws’.html

* A British Anglican bishop in February was fined for refusing to hire an openly homosexual man as a church youth minister. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08021104.html

* The London Daily Telegraph reported in 2003: “A bishop who angered homosexuals by suggesting they seek a psychiatric cure is to be investigated by police to see if his outspoken views amount to a criminal offence, it emerged yesterday.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1446318/Bishop%27s-anti-gay-comments-spark-legal-investigation.html

* Eleven Christians in Philadelphia — including two grandmothers in their 70′s, one white and one African-American — were arrested and charged with “ethnic intimidation” under Pennsylvania’s “hate crimes” law when they tried to read Bible verses out loud during a homosexual street festival. They faced a cumulative 47 years in prison had they been convicted. http://www.cultureandfamily.org/articledisplay.asp?id=6542&department=CFI&categoryid=nation

* A New Mexico Christian photographer was fined $6,600 for refusing on religious grounds to photograph a homosexual marriage-like “commitment” ceremony.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200804/CUL20080416a.html

* Catholic bishops in Belgium and Spain were sued in 2004 by homosexual activist groups for making public statements in opposition to homosexual behavior and homosexual “marriage.”
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=43235

* Boston public school teachers were threatened with termination if they failed to portray so-called homosexual “marriage” in a positive light. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=27201

———————————–

LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
Los Angeles, California
May 19, 2008

Same-sex ruling good for no one
by David Benkof

Champagne corks are popping wherever gays and lesbians gather throughout the Golden State after the California Supreme Court’s ruling in In Re Marriage Cases, which opens the way for same-sex couples to legally wed beginning next month. But my fellow members of the LGBT community shouldn’t be celebrating. This decision does next to nothing for California gays and lesbians, and causes real harm to people who believe in the “old” definition of marriage. It’s nothing to be proud of.

The June weddings that can now be expected for same-sex couples all over California will actually provide little tangible advantage to anyone. California already has a domestic-partnership law providing all the state benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act denies all the federal benefits. Sure, gays and lesbians may get a lift in self-esteem from having their relationships declared “equal” by four jurists, but does an ego boost really outweigh the real harms caused by Thursday’s decision?

Because there certainly are harms — to religious liberty and to children, for example. For the last two weeks, I have been contacting “marriage equality” leaders from San Diego to Sacramento to ask about the impact of redefining marriage on religious freedom.

All have repeatedly refused to disclose their opinions, including prominent lesbian and gay legislators and leaders.

Although California marriage-equality leaders won’t say what impact they expect Thursday’s change to have on religious freedom, activists in other states haven’t been so shy.

What happens if a traditionally religious business owner wants to extend his “marriage discount” only to couples married in his eyes? Sean Kosofsky of Michigan’s largest gay-rights group, the Triangle Foundation, says, “If you are a public accommodation and you are open to anyone on Main Street, that means you must be open to everyone on Main Street. If they don’t do it, that’s contempt and they will go to jail.”

Sharon Malheiro, a lawyer and LGBT activist from Des Moines affiliated with the state’s gay-marriage lobby, One-Iowa, told me if a teacher in a marriage-equality state taught that marriage is between a man and a woman, “then it becomes a job performance issue,” and the school district should take appropriate action.

Michael Taylor-Judd, the president of the Legal Marriage Alliance of Washington state, said if a newspaper writes that a given same-sex marriage wasn’t really a marriage, “it is certainly in the realm of possibility for someone to bring a (libel) suit, and quite possibly to be successful.” Kosofsky agreed: “I would be sympathetic to some damages. They need to be slapped publicly.”

Now, no lesbian in history has lost her assets, her job, or her freedom for writing, teaching, and running her business guided by her belief that marriage is a union of any two individuals who love each other. So why do gay activists outside California support limitations on the freedom of speech, the press, and religious expression for anyone who disagrees with them? And why won’t California marriage-equality activists go on the record with their opinions on this vital issue?

This new ruling doesn’t only harm traditionally religious people. It poses a serious danger to the well-being of children.

After four Massachusetts judges imposed this change on their state, Boston’s Catholic Charities was given the choice of treating couples without both a mother and a father the same as more traditional couples, or getting out of the adoption business altogether. The well-regarded agency felt it had no choice but to shut down – which means there are children in the Bay State who do not have the mother and father they could have had if gay activists hadn’t been so strident.

As an LGBT person, I’m embarrassed that my fellow community members prioritized their own pride over the welfare of disadvantaged orphans.

There are real and injurious issues the gay community could be focusing on, such as the distressing rates of HIV/AIDS among African-American men who have sex with men, the FDA’s unnecessary ban on gay blood, and Florida’s heartless prohibition of gay and lesbian adoptive parents. No lesbian ever died a painful death because the government called her relationship a domestic partnership instead of a marriage.

Gays and lesbians should put away the champagne, work to overturn this ruling, and start focusing on LGBT issues that actually matter.

————————————————–

David Benkof is a columnist in several gay newspapers around the country and the author of “Gay Essentials: Facts for your Queer Brain.” Contact him through his blog, gaysdefendmarriage.com.

http://www.dailynews.com/editorial/ci_9312682

 Matt Foreman, outgoing National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director admits, “HIV is a gay disease.”

URGENT ALERT TO HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST ”FACT CHECKERS”  AND “ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA” BLOGGERS EVERYWHERE: somebody straighten out homosexual activist Matt Foreman, outgoing executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who had the temerity to admit the obvious: “HIV is a gay disease.”  Next thing you know, Foreman — who is actually one of America’s most strident anti-Christian bigots … er, “gay” leaders — will be acknowledging that men and women practicing homosexuality can leave the lifestyle and lead contented lives outside the “gay” fold. 

Government’s fault? 

The Gay Thought Police need not be too alarmed: pro-family stalwart Gary Glenn of AFA-Michigan subsequently informed us that Foreman, talking to a Detroit homosexual newspaper, added this caveat to his statement about HIV and homosexuality: “I dont blame our community for the fact that MSM [men who have sex with men] still account for nearly three quarters of men living with HIV. I hold our government accountable.”

Whew, I’m glad Foreman straightened that out!  For a moment there, I thought were were going to witness a major homosexual leader actually encouraging “gay” men to take responsibility for their own sexual (mis)behavior. 

In a future post, we’ll address some of Foreman’s other remarks at Creating Change – which might cause conservatives consternation but which should have a sobering effect on the pro-family movement.  (Here’s a clue: they’re gaining; we’re losing.) – Peter LaBarbera

P.S.  Click HERE  and HERE if you missed our stories about the homosexual Task Force and Creating Change honoring a sadomasochistic advocate of “consensual slavery” at their Detroit conference — during Black History Month, no less.

P.P.S.  Public school sex-ed instructors and educators everywhere, take note:  

American Family Association of Michigan 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wed., Feb. 13, 2008
CONTACT:  Gary Glenn  989-835-7978

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Admits: “HIV is a Gay Disease”

Michigan family values group welcomes admission,
urges lawmakers to block homosexual “rights” legislation

DETROIT, Mich. — A Michigan family values organization Wednesday welcomed the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s startling admission that homosexual activity is predominantly responsible for the spread of the HIV virus in the U.S. and called on Michigan legislative leaders to block pending legislation that would give special “protected class” status to individuals who engage in such behavior.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force — in an address Friday to the National Conference on Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Equality ["Creating Change"; see AFTAH article HERE] in Detroit — shocked attendees by calling HIV “a gay disease.”  Despite medical data identifying homosexual activity among males as by far the largest single source of HIV infection in the U.S., homosexual activists have routinely have condemned conservative and public health organizations for characterizing the disease as being predominantly associated with and spread by homosexual behavior.

Foreman further shocked attendees by himself referring to such data, saying that “with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi[-sexual], we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that.”

See Foreman’s formal remarks, last paragraph, page 3: http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/exec_director/cc08_state_of_movement.pdf

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the Marriage Protection Amendment approved by Michigan voters in 2004, responded to Foreman’s comments by saying the nationally prominent homosexual activist “shouldn’t stop there.”

“Before whatever dose of truth serum somebody slipped him wears off,” Glenn said, “Foreman should also publicly accept responsibility for professionally promoting a lifestyle that’s medically associated with a dramatically higher risk of domestic violence, mental illness, substance abuse, eating disorders, life-threatening diseases such as AIDS, cancer, and hepatitis, and premature death by up to twenty years.”

Glenn said his and other traditional values organizations will continue to “truthfully warn the public and particularly young people about the severe threat homosexual behavior poses to both personal and public health.”

“The only difference is, we will now quote Matt Foreman and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in truthfully characterizing HIV infection in the U.S. as a predominantly homosexual-related disease, and challenge Michigan’s Triangle Foundation or any other homosexual activist group to dispute that characterization.”

Foreman’s comments are a dramatic departure from the long-standing strategic and rhetorical orthodoxy of the homosexual “rights” movement, which in the past has heatedly objected to any such characterization by critics of its political agenda.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force itself, in an August 2004 news release quoting Foreman, attacked the Bush Administration for “nominat(ing) individuals with extreme anti-gay views to the federal bench and other federal positions, including nominating Christian evangelical Jerry Thacker, who has called AIDS the ‘gay plague.’”
http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/pr729_082704

The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2003 regarding Thacker: “Blasted by controversy over his characterizations of AIDS as a ‘gay plague,’ Christian activist Jerry Thacker — who is infected with the AIDS virus along with his wife and daughter — withdrew his nomination to a presidential AIDS advisory council Thursday.”  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/24/MN240928.DTL
 
Homosexual activists reacted similarly last month to news reports of medical researchers’ finding that a new strain of drug-resistant bacterial infection is also being transmitted largely by homosexual activity at a rate “13 times greater for gay men than for the rest of the (San Francisco) population.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/15/MNI5UE0L8.DTL&hw=MRSA+gay&sn=001&sc=1000
Homosexual activists immediately decried the news reports for suggesting — based on medical fact — that homosexual behavior is associated with a dramatically higher risk of the MRSA infection.  According to Concerned Women for America, a pro-family group which followed the story, homosexual activist groups immediately accused critics of having “claimed the outbreak was ‘the new AIDS,’ a ‘new gay disease’ and ‘the gay plague.’”  http://www.cwfa.org/articles/14584/CFI/family/index.htm

Glenn said that in light of homosexual activists’ typical response to such medical findings, Foreman’s “startling new party line of admitting rather than denying medical fact about the health hazards of homosexual behavior — at least regarding HIV — has apparently left some homosexual activists in a quandary, and in shock.”

He pointed to comments by Todd Heywood, a Lansing homosexual activist who writes for Between the Lines, a homosexual advocacy newsmagazine published in metro Detroit, who told the Lansing State Journal:

“This story is likely to gain political traction in the coming days, weeks and months. When leaders of the right wing claim HIV AIDS as a gay disease, we all balk at that claim. But what happens when a national gay leader says it?”  http://noise.typepad.com/election_countdown/2008/02/a-gay-disease.html

Foreman’s comment “rocked the American gay community,” Heywood wrote in an article for the Michigan Messenger, an alternative online news site. http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=838

Derek Smiertka, former executive director of the Oakland County Republican Party under past chairman L. Brooks Patterson, and now executive director of Michigan Equality, a Lansing-based homosexual activist group, said:

“Although I disagree scientifically that it is a gay disease, our behavior reflects poorly when we look at hard numbers. We really have to take a hard look in the mirror before we start looking at other parts of the community. A good long hard look in the mirror.”

However, Glenn noted that Foreman and the Task Force are not the first homosexual activists to abandon homosexual activists’ politically correct orthodoxy by acknowledging the medical facts regarding HIV.

Lifesite News reported in 2006: “The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center has abandoned a long-held homosexual activist contention by declaring on billboards posted throughout Southern California that HIV/AIDS is a ‘gay disease.’  According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, the Center is trying to address rapidly increasing HIV infection rates among the homosexual population by rallying the gay community to increasing vigilance against exposure to the disease. Activists for the homosexual lifestyle have, until this current development, strongly, and sometimes vehemently refused to admit that the disease is predominantly generated among homosexual men.  The ad campaign…is in part a response to the findings of public health officials, who have noted that three out of four cases of HIV infections are found in men who engage in homosexual activity, the United Press International reported.” http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06100404.html

As a follow up to Foreman’s remarks, Glenn Wednesday e-mailed a statement to Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop and Speaker of the House Andy Dillon to advise them of Foreman’s admission and urge them to oppose a collection of bills he said “would further the threat to personal and public health by legitimizing, promoting, and protecting the unhealthy sexual practices which the nation’s leading homosexual lobby now admits is responsible for the spread of HIV.”

“Homosexual activists’ belated admission comes too late for HIV victims whose lives might have been saved had homosexual activists told the truth sooner, instead of condemning those who told the truth,” Glenn wrote, “but it’s not too late for you to ensure that legislation that would give special rights and protection to such behavior, and thus put more lives at risk, is not allowed to become law.”

Glenn specifically cited legislation in the Democrat-controlled House that would statutorily allow homosexual couples for the first time in Michigan to adopt children, “thus putting children at much greater risk of second-hand exposure to all the mental, emotional, and physical health-related traumas medically associated with homosexual behavior.”

He also cited pending legislation in the Michigan House that would amend the state’s “hate crime” and “civil rights” laws to grant special “protected class” and legally-recognized minority status to individuals expressly on the basis of their “sexual orientation” toward engaging in homosexual or bisexual behavior, the very behavior Foreman admitted is responsible for the spread of HIV.

He also cited legislation, already approved by the House, which would — rather than simply protect all public school students from all bullying regardless of its motivation — require public school districts instead to segregate students into special “protected class” categories, including “sexual orientation,” then dole out protection based expressly on students’ membership in such categories.
 
Glenn noted that Democratic control of the Michigan House is largely attributable to homosexual activist billionaire Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, who contributed $5 million of his own funds during the 2006 election to an independent expenditure campaign to unseat the then Republican majority.

Foreman during his remarks Friday credited Stryker in part for homosexual activists’ political successes in 2006: “It was leaders like Jon Stryker … who helped fund campaigns to take out bigots and elect pro-(Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) candidates.”

In response, Glenn said AFA-Michigan “will continue to oppose efforts by homosexual activists and their allies in Michigan’s Democrat-controlled House to push homosexual activist Jon Stryker’s agenda into law, including bills that would legitimize, enable, and protect the very behavior the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force now admits is predominantly responsible for transmission of the HIV virus,” Glenn wrote.
 
Last year, Foreman in a nationwide news release accused Glenn and Catholic Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit — by virtue of their public support of Michigan’s Marriage Protection Amendment — of being responsible for inciting the alleged beating death of a 72 year old Detroit man who identified himself as being involved in the homosexual lifestyle. http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/prMF_022307
 
Detroit police later announced they found no evidence of any beating, and the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office ruled the death the result of a fall caused by arthritic paralysis of the man’s neck.  http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/baptistwatch/vpost?id=1797389
 
However, Foreman has never retracted or apologized for the false accusation.

______________________________

The following statement was issued by Gary Glenn, president of American Family Association of Michigan in May 2006, upon learning that Fred Phelps of “God Hates Fags” notoriety was planning to stage a protest at a military funeral in Michigan (emphasis added):

Fred Phelps and Homosexual Activists Both Wrong
By Gary Glenn

The American Family Association of Michigan believes that homosexual behavior is harmful and wrong.  Without apology, we oppose attempts by the Triangle Foundation [a Detroit-based homosexual organization] and other homosexual activist groups to force their political agenda onto our children, our public schools, and society at large.

We approach the public policy debate surrounding homosexual behavior with sincere Christian care and concern for individuals who we believe put themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually at risk by engaging in such behavior, and with a spirit for protecting children and others put at risk by those who promote and enable such behavior.

We personally know parents who in 2004 helped gather signatures to enact a Marriage Protection Amendment to our state constitution — reaffirming marriage as only between one man and one woman — not because they “hate” their children who are involved in homosexual relationships, but because they love them.

The sincere Christian compassion which motivates our stand is marked by warning against — and protecting those we love from — harmful self-destructive behavior, not by the false compassion of enabling or passing special laws to protect such behavior. 

That’s in sharp contrast to the self-described, expressly hate-motivated message of the Kansas “reverend” who plans to picket a local military funeral this weekend.

Fred Phelps insists that individuals who engage in homosexual behavior are beyond hope or redemption, a false doctrine that — while at odds with the true Christian gospel of repentance and forgiveness available to all — is much closer to that of homosexual activists who echo Phelps’ insistence that individuals involved in homosexual behavior have no hope of abandoning that lifestyle. 

We strongly disagree.  The false gospel preached by Fred Phelps and the Triangle Foundation is proven wrong by the life experience of individuals who through faith, with God’s help, have abandoned homosexual activity and now live their lives in normal loving relationships between a man and a woman, many married with children.  In four Michigan cities, counseling services are available staffed by individuals who themselves abandoned homosexual behavior and are compassionately committed to giving others hope and help in doing so.  (For example, see http://www.corduroystone.com/ in Lansing or http://www.recmin.org/ in Sterling Heights, [Michigan].)

Compared to sincerely compassionate voices who warn young people and others about the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual hazards of such activity, Phelps gives the repulsive appearance of gleefully celebrating the life-threatening disease, premature death and other severe health consequences medically associated with homosexual behavior.  

Recently, Phelps has expanded his expressly hate-driven activities to include despicable attacks on U.S. military personnel who gave their lives in service to this country, parading “God Hates America” signs and desecrating the American flag at their funerals without regard or compassion for their families or the certainty that many such families are people of faith who themselves sincerely believe homosexual behavior is wrong.

Phelps’ bizarre demand to erect celebratory public monuments to the murder of homosexual college student Mathew Shepard has also motivated officials in at least one city, rather than grant his demand, to ban all public displays and thus remove a Ten Commandments monument that had for half a century been displayed in a city park.

Phelps’ twisted message serves only to falsely caricature and fuel prejudice and bigotry toward people of faith who sincerely espouse traditional Judeo-Christian moral views on issues such as marriage and protecting the lives of prenatal children.  He has become a near-indispensable propaganda tool for homosexual activists intent on promoting homosexual behavior in our public schools and elsewhere and demonizing anyone who objects.

Despite the fact that they actually share a central tenet of Phelps’ false, misguided doctrine — that individuals who engage in homosexual activity are incapable of choosing otherwise — homosexual activists understandably leap at every opportunity to portray anyone who dares oppose their own political extremism as “hate-mongers” comparable in motivation to Phelps, something that’s as unfair and untrue as claiming that every single individual who engages in homosexual behavior is also a child molester.

The American Family Association of Michigan will continue its leadership role in standing against homosexual activists’ political agenda and their attacks on traditional family values and institutions such as marriage.  We also condemn Fred Phelps’ rejection of the Christian gospel of redemption and his expressly hate-motivated attacks not only on individuals ensnared in the homosexual lifestyle, but on American military personnel and their families who have nothing whatsoever to do with the issue.

We respectfully offer our condolences to the families of Sgt. Gabriel DeRoot and others killed in the War on Terror, and we salute these young men for their courageous sacrifice in the cause of keeping all of our families safe and free.

Further, we endorse Michigan’s new state law banning Phelps’ brutish disruption of military funerals, and we also urge our two U.S. senators — Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. Debbie Stabenow — to support efforts to constitutionally ban desecration of the American flag by Phelps and others.

Finally, as we have since he first appeared here four years ago, AFA-Michigan once again urges Phelps not to bring his false gospel back to southwest Michigan or anywhere else in our state.

______________________________

Gary Glenn, Midland, is president of the American Family Association of Michigan. He served eight years in the Army National Guard.  Contact him at www.AFAMichigan.org.

Homosexual activists rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday to protest a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in February that public employers may not recognize homosexual relationships for the purpose of providing taxpayer-financed spousal benefits…
 
“Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the (homosexual) Triangle Foundation, exhorted the crowd: ‘Are you tired of a polluted political atmosphere caused by the toxic diatribes of Gary Glenn and the American Family Association?’  The crowd replied with a resounding ‘yes.’
 
…Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the 2004 (Marriage Protection Amendment), feels that the outcome lives up to its original intent. ‘The issue is about government recognition,’ he said in an interview last week. ‘And government recognition includes taxpayer-provided benefits.’  …Glenn cited an October 2004 Detroit Free Press poll taken before the proposal’s passage.  At the time, 53 percent of those polled approved of the proposal, and 54 percent opposed allowing government and university employers to provide benefits to same-sex couples.  According to Glenn, this proves that voter intent was parallel with the authors’ intent and that voters saw the proposal as a way to prohibit such benefits.”

Pro-family leader Gary Glenn: “gay” Task Force blamed him for “murder” of homosexual man 

How would you like to blamed for a murder that never even happened? Ask pro-family hero Gary Glenn, president of American Family Association of Michigan. This is part of an incredible national story: “gay” militants staging “hate crimes” which are then blamed — with the help of the biased liberal media — on pro-family conservatives and Christians. You could fill a large book documenting the cases of fake “hate crimes” — just in the last couple of decades — many of them homosexual-related, others racial.

It’s all about the politics of “hate” and the homosexual activists’ manipulative push for a “gay”- and “trans”-inclusive federal “hate crimes” law — which would only quadruple the potential for abusing American law enforcement to punish Christians and promote the homosexual agenda.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Matt Foreman of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force to apologize to Glenn, after maliciously blasting Glenn by name following the apparent assault of 72-year-old Anthony Anthos (see Foreman’s slanderous comments at bottom or click HERE). All of this is a reminder of the potential for abuse if “hate crimes” law based on homosexuality and gender confusion (“sexual orientation” and “gender identity”) is federalized.

TAKE ACTION against “Thought Crimes”: Call your U.S. Representative and Senators at 202-224-3121 and ask them to oppose HR 1592, the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” and other versions of “Hate Crimes” legislation. (For more information about two other “Hate Crimes” alternative bills, HR 984 and HR 808, click HERE.) ALso, click HERE for an excellent video message by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins about the “Thought Crimes” bill; from there you can sign on to FRC’s “Public Declaration of Opposition to Thought Crimes Laws.”

____________________________________________

American Family Association of Michigan News Release 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 29, 2007

CONTACT: Gary Glenn: 989-835-7978

“No evidence an assault occurred,” Detroit police say

Homosexual activists pressed to come clean, apologize for claims about discredited “hate crime”

Police urged to investigate complicity in filing of false report

DETROIT — A statewide family values organization accused by homosexual activists of inciting an elderly Detroit man’s alleged murder Thursday called on Detroit police to investigate who may have been complicit in the filing of a false police report after police and medical officials announced that 72-year old Anthony Anthos had not been attacked and instead died of an accidental fall caused by a degenerative disease.

The Associated Press reported today (Thursday): “‘There’s no evidence that an assault occurred,’ police spokesman James Tate said Wednesday. …’They determined that he died of natural causes,’ Tate told The Detroit News.”

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, issued the following statement:

“Homosexual activists were obviously well into great plans to exploit and profit both financially and politically from the now apparently false claims about the tragedy of this poor man’s death.  It’s time for Jeff Montgomery and the Triangle Foundation to come clean and tell us whatever they know about whether someone convinced an elderly man suffering from mental illness, a week after he accidentally fell and hit his head, to falsely accuse an African-American man of attacking him for ‘being gay.’”

The Associated Press reported March 21st: “(Cousin Athena) Fedenis said Anthos, who received state disability payments, was diagnosed with mental illness in the 1950s.”

The Detroit Free Press reported Thursday: “Initially, Anthos told police he did not know what happened to him, police said. But about a week later, he told police he was struck from behind after someone called out, asking him if he was gay.”

Glenn also called for an apology from a national homosexual advocacy group.

“Now that police and medical personnel have reported the truth, Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — if he has a conscience — will issue an immediate public apology for falsely and maliciously accusing Cardinal Maida and the American Family Association of Michigan of being responsible for Mr. Anthos’ accidental death,” Glenn said. 

(See NGLTF statement: http://www.tri.org/violence/pdfs/taskforce.pdf )

Glenn also urged police and Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kym L. Worthy to investigate who may have been complicit in Anthos’ filing of an apparently false police report a week after initially telling police he did not know what happened to him.

He cited an almost identical case of a false “hate crime” allegation by a Boise State University student.  The university’s student newspaper in January reported that the Boise city prosecutor “has filed a summons for a BSU student accused of making up an account of an anti-gay assault on the BSU campus. Authorities announced that Alex ‘A.J.’ McGillis, 20, of Boise must appear in court on charges…relat(ing) to a false report McGillis made to police…According to police reports, McGillis initially claimed a white male struck him from behind with an object while using anti-gay expletives.”  Similarly, in his altered police report a week after intially telling police he didn’t know how he’d been hurt, Anthos claimed a black male struck him from behind with an object while using anti-gay expletives.

Glenn said such fabricated reports are “part and parcel of homosexual activists’ media-driven propaganda campaign to promote so-called “hate crime” legislation under which a criminal who physically attacks a pregnant mom, senior citizen, or small child would be punished less severely than someone who assaults a grown man, if that grown man engages in homosexual behavior.”

“Mr. Anthos’ accidental death was a tragedy to his family and friends because he was a human being, not because he engaged in homosexual behavior,” Glenn said.  “Had he or anyone else actually been physically attacked, the assailant should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, not punished any more or less severely based on the victim’s sexual activity.”

_________________________________________

Matt Foreman’s and the Triangle Foundation’s Lies about Gary Glenn:

On Feb 24, 2007, Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (which takes in over $30 million/year), issued the following statement blaming Christians:

“The hatred and loathing that led to the vicious murder of Andrew Anthos only because he was gay is not innate. Instead it is being taught every day by leaders of the so-called Christian right and their political allies. They disguise their bigotry as ‘deeply-held religious beliefs.’ They cloak themselves in ‘family values.’

“For years, Michigan has been subjected to the homophobic rants of Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, while so many otherwise good and decent people have been silent. Just two years ago, the state endured an ugly campaign, led by Cardinal Adam Maida, to ‘protect marriage’ by writing anti-gay discrimination into its constitution. Based on that amendment, a three-judge panel of Michigan’s court of appeals voted last month to terminate medical insurance coverage for families of LGBT government workers throughout the state.

“It is appalling hypocrisy for these forces to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos…”

That’s right: Matt Foreman publicly (and falsely) accused Gary Glenn and Cardinal Maida as accessories to the murder [which we now know was probably not a murder--AFTAH editor] of a 72-year-old man, simply because these men exercise their constitutional freedom of speech to vocally uphold the Christian principles upon which our nation was founded — including God’s design for one man to wed one woman for life and His consistent condemnation of homosexual behavior.

Perhaps Matt Foreman took his cue from Sean Kosofsky of Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based homosexual activist group, who once made this preposterous claim against Glenn’s group:

“We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian and bisexual people… We are also fairly certain the AFA wants all homosexuals locked up on sodomy charges and put in jail.”

Michigan pro-family leader Gary Glenn: victim of homosexual smear campaigns 

On Feb 24, 2007, Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force issued the following statement blaming Christians and specifically Gary Glenn, president of American Family Association of Michigan, for the apparent murder of homosexual Andrew Anthos — which Detroit police have now reported was not a murder:

“The hatred and loathing that led to the vicious murder of Andrew Anthos only because he was gay is not innate. Instead it is being taught every day by leaders of the so-called Christian right and their political allies. They disguise their bigotry as ‘deeply-held religious beliefs.’ They cloak themselves in ‘family values.’

“For years, Michigan has been subjected to the homophobic rants of Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, while so many otherwise good and decent people have been silent. Just two years ago, the state endured an ugly campaign, led by Cardinal Adam Maida, to ‘protect marriage’ by writing anti-gay discrimination into its constitution. Based on that amendment, a three-judge panel of Michigan’s court of appeals voted last month to terminate medical insurance coverage for families of LGBT government workers throughout the state.

“It is appalling hypocrisy for these forces to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos…”

That’s right: Matt Foreman publicly (and falsely) accused Gary Glenn and Cardinal Maida as accessories to the murder [again, which we now know was probably not a murder--AFTAH editor] of a 72-year-old man, simply because these men exercise their constitutional freedom of speech to vocally uphold the Christian principles upon which our nation was founded — including God’s design for one man to wed one woman for life and His consistent condemnation of homosexual behavior.

Perhaps Matt Foreman took his cue from Sean Kosofsky of Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based homosexual activist group, who once made this preposterous claim against Glenn’s group:

“We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian and bisexual people… We are also fairly certain the AFA wants all homosexuals locked up on sodomy charges and put in jail.”

Lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding published a post on Mar 3, 2007, entitled Intimidation Tactics In the Name of Religion Will Not Stop Change. In it, she accuses Christians of inciting violence against homosexuals — for example,

• Bil Browning, head of Indiana Action Network and Bilerico blogger, claims that, following his coverage of a protest in Indiana over SJR-7, he received threatening phone calls and that the window of his car was smashed.
• 72-year-old Andrew Anthos of Detroit was taunted and viciously beated with a metal pipe, leaving him paralyzed and in a coma for ten days until he finally died. A sketch of the suspect has been released, but no arrests have been made at this point.
• A 19-year-old Hoboken High School student, Andy Rivera, has been charged (and a second person is sought) in the brutal beating of a 21-year-old man, allegedly for wearing pink pants.

Ms. Spaulding, a Duke employee whose blog has been lauded by the university (which has historic ties to the United Methodist church), says:

“This behavior occurs because many fundies actually justify explain violence against gays and lesbians as God’s wrath being visited upon them. It’s about controlling the behavior of people who are different, who may or may not share their worldview, or else, dag nab it, ‘God’ is going to work in his mysterious ways by inspiring someone to take a pipe to beat a 72-year-old gay man to death or beat up a gay man for wearing pink pants, for instance.”

Though none of the perpetrators have claimed to be Christians nor to have acted on God’s behalf (some are not yet identified), Ms. Spaulding blames these heinous crimes on “fundie” (fundamentalist) Christians — and she is not the only activist to make such claims.

On Feb 24, 2007, Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (which takes in over $30 million/year), issued the following statement blaming Christians:

“The hatred and loathing that led to the vicious murder of Andrew Anthos only because he was gay is not innate. Instead it is being taught every day by leaders of the so-called Christian right and their political allies. They disguise their bigotry as ‘deeply-held religious beliefs.’ They cloak themselves in ‘family values.’

“For years, Michigan has been subjected to the homophobic rants of Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, while so many otherwise good and decent people have been silent. Just two years ago, the state endured an ugly campaign, led by Cardinal Adam Maida, to ‘protect marriage’ by writing anti-gay discrimination into its constitution. Based on that amendment, a three-judge panel of Michigan’s court of appeals voted last month to terminate medical insurance coverage for families of LGBT government workers throughout the state.

“It is appalling hypocrisy for these forces to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos…”

That’s right: Matt Foreman publicly (and falsely) accused Gary Glenn and Cardinal Maida as accessories to the murder of a 72-year-old man, simply because these men exercise their constitutional freedom of speech to vocally uphold the Christian principles upon which our nation was founded — including God’s design for one man to wed one woman for life and His consistent condemnation of homosexual behavior.

Perhaps Matt Foreman took his cue from Sean Kosofsky of Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based homosexual activist group, who once made this claim against Glenn’s group:

“We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian and bisexual people… We are also fairly certain the AFA wants all homosexuals locked up on sodomy charges and put in jail.”

Ms. Spaulding says in her post that “the Christians I know don’t think this way…” We’re not sure if Ms. Spaulding actually knows any genuine Christians — consider that she thinks the pro-homosexual Faith in America are Christians. But as Bible-believing Christians, we at AFTAH have repeatedly condemned violence against homosexuals — for example: HERE, HERE, and HERE.

This just in: Christians are not the only people who oppose homosexuality. Orthodox Jews oppose homosexuality, as do Muslims and Hindus. Secular citizens with traditional American values oppose normalization of homosexuality. And some people who lack compassion and self-control instinctively recognize homosexuality as unnatural, and, most regretably, they respond to their repulsion to homosexuality with verbal abuse and even brutal physical violence that Jesus Christ would (and will eternally) condemn…and which we also condemn.

People who make obscene, threatening phone calls or stalk homosexual men to harangue them and beat them with metal pipes are not reading the Americans For Truth website — nor are they reading their Bibles — nor are they Christian in any sense of the word. They are wicked and must be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

But if Pam Spaulding is so concerned about “hate speech,” she should contemplate her own behavior, for she is deliberately inciting hatred toward Christians:

• Spaulding consistently uses the term “Jeebus” (which apparently originated from “The Simpsons”) or “Jeebus H. Christ” to mock Jesus Christ and His followers. (A search of her site generated 11 pages of results, including this one about Kirk Cameron and Way of the Master.)
• On her site the Christian fish symbol is shown with the words “N Chips” inscribed inside. Another fish symbol has a vulgar phrase inside. These graphics link to an anti-Christian business that sells other perversions of the Christian fish symbol, including one with “Satan” incribed inside and horns.
• She and her fellow bloggers very often refer to their opponents using terms like fascist, Christo-fascist, American Taliban, homophobe, homo-bigot, racist, etc. She makes no distinction between the un-Biblical “God Hates Fags” campaign of Fred Phelps versus those who speak Truth with love. (God does not hate homosexuals — He sent His only Son to die for them so that they, too, might become co-heirs of eternal life. Jesus Christ has demonstrated the greatest love for people caught up in homosexual behavior, as well as for all kinds of sinners.)
• On a personal note, Pam Spaulding still commonly refers to Peter LaBarbera as “Porno Pete” (a search generated 6 pages of results). This slanderous charge is based the strange notion that because LaBarbera exposes homosexual excesses, including public “gay” perversions, he must have some prurient interest in homosexuality himself.

We encourage our readers to look at Pam Spaulding’s blog occasionally and develop an understanding of the lesbian activist’s confused worldview — and then ask yourself which of us incites hatred? Pray for Pam Spaulding and her readers.

The Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based gay rights advocacy organization, has unveiled a controversial Web site targeted against the American Family Association.

The group unveiled the Web site, www.AFAexposed.com, Wednesday…

Sean Kosofsky, director of policy and victim services for the Triangle Foundation, said the site was created as a resource to educate people about the association…

“We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian and bisexual people,” he said. “We are also fairly certain the AFA wants all homosexuals locked up on sodomy charges and put in jail.”

…The site also features a picture of Gary Glenn, state director of the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association, next to links explaining Triangle Foundation’s perspective of the association’s agenda.But Glenn said the association will defend its purpose to defend family values, despite the foundation’s views.

Charlene Genther as an open lesbian has no more of a right to work at a Catholic high school after publicly snubbing Catholic moral teachings than I have a right to work for Montgomery’s radical homosexual outfit, the Triangle Foundation.

Lesson here: don’t believe it when “gay” activists say that their agenda does not threaten your religious freedom or, ultimately, your church.–Peter LaBarbera

Excerpted from Catholic School Fires Gay Guard, published Oct 19, 2006, by Detroit Free Press:

A gay-rights advocacy organization is denouncing the firing of a campus safety officer at Marian High School, saying she was dismissed because she publicized that she’s a lesbian.

“It’s a horrible lesson to the young women at that school,” said Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation in Detroit.

The officer, Charlene Genther, 55, was in her sixth year at the Catholic, college-preparatory school for girls. A former Detroit police officer, she has a daughter who graduated from the Bloomfield Township school in 2001.

Her firing has prompted Marian alumnae to action. A petition at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/genther that seeks an apology for Genther and the gay and lesbian community had gathered 136 signatures by Wednesday.

Genther said Wednesday that she has been in a committed relationship for 28 years and that it was no surprise to anyone at the school that she is a lesbian. She and her partner often attended school events, chaperoned dances and went to parent-teacher conferences.

But last week, when she began publicizing her autobiography, “Badge 3483: A True Story,” which addresses the relationship, she was fired.

Genther said Sister Lenore Pochelski, the school’s president, gave her the news Friday, two hours after a local newspaper reporter interviewed her about the book. She said Pochelski said she wouldn’t have gotten fired if she hadn’t gone public with the book.

“She was very clear,” Genther said. “She said it was because my lifestyle does not coincide with the teachings of the Catholic Church. I personally felt she was having a hard time firing me. …

…Montgomery said Genther’s firing illustrates the lack of protections against discrimination that gays have in Michigan. “In Michigan it is not against the law to discriminate against gay people. You can be fired if you’re gay. You can be refused public accommodations. There is no protection against discrimination.”

Continue reading at Detroit Free Press…