By Peter LaBarbera

I sent the note below to homosexual journalist Rex Wockner after reading his photo-story on the anti-Mormon “kiss-in” protest yesterday in San Diego. (See AFTAH’s report condemning the event HERE.) Turns out this is just one of many “kiss-ins” that have targeted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) church after a male homosexual couple was arrested for trespassing on LDS church property in Salt Lake City after (if you believe LDS officials) flaunting their homosexuality. My goodness, that’s right up there with Jim Crow and anti-black segregation of the past — not. “Those big, bad churches won’t let us celebrate our deviant sexuality!” Oh, the heterosupremacy of it all!

Looking at Wockner’s photos of the over-indulged homosexual (and a few heterosexual) kisser-protesters, I suppose my characterization of this strange event as “Perversion Coercion” was a bit over-the-top — since it doesn’t appear as if the LDS church is going to be “coerced” anytime soon by this hapless lot mocking the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God outside those white temple fences. (But make no mistake: there is a long and sordid history of “queer” harassment of and attacks on churches and religious opponents.)

What is over-the-top, however, is the liberal (“mainstream”) media treating every “queer” protest and event as important news. (Meanwhile, Associated Press and all national media skipped our coalition press conference in Chicago against President Barack Obama’s “gay” agenda — held on the very day that Obama was capitulating to the “Gay” Lobby by signing an Executive Order supporting “domestic partners.”) If homosexual activists do succeed in destroying the influence of the church and ushering in the oxymoronic notion of government-supported homosexual “marriage,” the woefully biased American media will be able to claim major credit.

Here’s my note to Wockner:

Hey Rex, 25 media people at the anti-Mormon “kiss-in”? …

… according to your report. That’s almost more than the number of protesting kissers [30] themselves! Every pro-family leader I know would be shocked if half that many media showed up at one of their events. … So who’s got the power now?  The “gay victim” charade is getting a wee bit old given the media’s and Hollywood’s ubiquitous promotion of all things homosexual and transgender.

Hope you’re well. Here’s my take on Empowering Spirits’ silly call for “dialogue” at a protest designed to mock and defy Mormon values: http://americansfortruth.com/news/fk-the-mormons-homosexual-group-stages-another-kiss-in-at-a-mormon-temple.html#more-2957

– pl

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

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear Readers,

Imagine this nightmare scenario: four days ago, your family received a letter out of the blue from a homosexual activist organization notifying you, in “respectful” language, that your family is the target of a protest. Upset that you sent money to support Proposition 8 in California — reinstating marriage as between a man and a woman — the “gay” group informs you that about ten homosexual couples will show up on the sidewalk in front of your house on July 22nd (today) at 5:00 PM and engage in prolonged same-sex kissing with each other.

Wielding their public deviance as a political tool, the militant “gay” protesters call their event a “kiss-in” — knowing that you regard their homosexual behavior as unnatural and immoral, that it makes you extremely uncomfortable, and that it will embarrass you in front of your neighbors (and the media, whom they called in). Nevertheless, they assure you that they “respect” you and your religion and that they are happy to engage in “dialogue” with you in between their lip-locking acts of homoerotic defiance.

Well, your nightmare is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ (LDS) reality as they face another homosexual “kiss-in” protest at their San Diego temple this evening. After reading the Associated Press story about the San Diego “kiss-in” on the “gay” news site “355Gay.com,” I posted the following comment responding to it:

Homosexual activists are the ultimate hypocrites when it comes to “tolerance.” You see nothing wrong with offending the religious sentiments and moral beliefs of Mormons with your obnoxious “kiss-in” outside an LDS temple. Then you cry foul when religious people offend you with their heartfelt beliefs that same-sex “marriage” is wrong. The only good that comes from your incessant religion bashing is that it reveals your true hatred for traditionalists to the wider public. Stop lying by telling Americans that your “respect” their faith teachings and the right to live them out in the public square. You clearly do not.

Going to the “Empowering Spirits Foundation” website, I found this incomprehensibly self-serving description of their homosexuality-celebrating “kiss-in”:

This is to be a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue between LDS [Mormon] officials and those seeking equal rights. Love unites, and we will join together to not only display our endless support for equality, but for those with differing opinions, including the LDS church. We’ve also invited officials from the Mormon Church to engage in dialogue with us through this letter.

Please refrain from any profanity during the protest and do not bring signs that demean any religious organization, including the LDS church.

Orwellian “dialogue”

Let’s deconstruct the Empowering Spirits’ Orwellian Gayspeak. They are rubbing their perversion in the face of a church in the name of “respectful dialogue.” “Don’t offend the Mormon church by swearing,” they say, as though they truly respect the Mormons’ morality, “but it’s fine to flaunt your homosexual behavior outside their temple even though LDS teachings regard homosexual acts as sinful … Because it’s all about “dialogue,” you know.”

The poor “gay” activists are totally caught up in their own self-righteous delusion that their cause somehow approximates a “civil rights” movement. Yes, they even seem to believe that their homo-fascist stunts are “respectful” toward their targeted victims. And they are so convinced that their misguided goal of legalizing homosexual “marriage” is noble that they employ a crude ends-justifies-the-means approach to everything, including harassing a church.

Definition of marriage is ‘trivial’?

In this portion of a letter sent to LDS President Thomas Monson just three days before the scheduled “kiss-in,” Empowering Spirits Executive Director A Latham Staples characterizes the LDS teaching on marriage as a mere “pious triviality”:

Surely by now, the Church understands the value of teaching tolerance…Differing sides may not always agree, but we must not focus on pious trivialities as this corrupts our society.

Preserving the age-old definition of marriage as a “pious triviality”? This isn’t respect. It’s contempt. It’s not “dialogue” but coercion. Call it Perversion Coercion, it you will, and the goal is to intimidate religious people and churches into submission. And ex-”gay” Christian activist James Hartline has it right when he says that Empowering Spirits would never try to pull a “kiss-in” stunt like this in front of a mosque. That might upset the preposterous “gay-Muslim” alliance that will disintegrate when everyday adherents of Islam realize that the Homosexual Lobby despises their religion, too — or at least the part that teaches that homosexual acts are always wrong.

Here’s the AP story (which reads more like a “gay” press release) in 365Gay.com, followed by the posted comments as of last night, in which some react with a four-letter cuss word to express their attitude toward the Mormons’ defense of natural marriage:

___________________________

San Diego group plans ‘kiss-in’ at Mormon temple
By The Associated Press
07.21.2009 1:33pm EDT

(Salt Lake City) A gay rights group plans to stage a mass kissing demonstration outside the San Diego Mormon temple as a show of support for a gay couple cited for trespassing in Utah after sharing a kiss on church property.

The Empowering Spirits Foundation says the “kiss-in” is intended as a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gay community.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the temple near La Jolla, Calif.

It would be the third kissing demonstration held since Matt Aune and Derek Jones were cited for trespassing on the church-owned Main Street Plaza on July 9 in Salt Lake City.

The couple refused to leave the plaza when security guards who saw the kiss said the behavior was inappropriate.

___________________________

Posted Comments (expletives cleaned up by AFTAH):

* Samantha said (July 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pm):

Good for them!

* Lorion said (July 21st, 2009 at 1:59 pm):

Go for it. ..and do make it a community ‘even’t ALL couples invited.

* Peter said (July 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm):

Let’s see EVERY POSSIBLE COMBO in that crowd – kissing till the cows come home!!!!

* Allan said (July 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm):

I’ve come across this letter from the organization holding the rally to the church, which I think fully describes the intent of the rally. It’s a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue with the church, not a protest. I must admit that A. Latham Staples is very eloquent in his attempt to engage in conversation with LDS officials.

http://www.empoweringspirits.org/PRDocServer/LDS_Unity_Rally_072009.pdf

* Michael said (July 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm):

This is awesome. I always thought it would be really fun to do something like this on the one day a year the temples open to the public for tours. Have gays and lesbians walk through as couples and hold hands etc. [F**k] the mormons. They suck.

* Matteo said (July 21st, 2009 at 4:45 pm):

@ michael: don’t you see that saying “[f**k] the mormons, they suck” is just as ignorant and ultimately pointless as people on forums who say “[f**k] the gays, they suck.”

Sure, as we eventually progress to equal rights, we shouldn’t snub groups that are routinely hostile to people who identify as LGBT. We should be the bigger men and women and progress graciously. We should certainly be as open-minded, honest, and positive as (a) we would like people to be with us and (b) the doctrine of the people who seek to halt our rights.

The letter written by the people who are organizing this event reflect those sentiments and I believe progress will be made faster and less hatred will be felt on all sides the more we keep our hearts and minds open.

Ultimately we are working for the open inclusion, freedom, dignity and rights for everyone prescribed by our constitution, are we not?

Hatred can’t be defeated by hatred, nor fire deflected with more fire. Heaping more fire onto the pile will just cause everything to burn together.

* Jay said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:09 pm):

Good. We need more direct action. We have been too passive too long. Too many of us are too comfortable in the back of the bus. We need to stand up for our rights more aggressively.

* John said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm):

Well said Matteo! The GLBT community needs to take the high road, where there is less traffic.

Calling people names does not change minds and will not win the P.R. battle for these civil rights.

For many Mormons, this was simply a trespassing/private property issue. For GLBT people this was about equal treatment, respect and fairness.

If we just yell and scream at each other, we might feel better in the short term, but in the long term we won’t get to where we way we want to go.

If you want love and respect, you need to give love and respect.

* Porter said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm):

This is good news thats what this world is lacking love it the only thing thats universal and it wont be denied !!

* Gary A. said (July 21st, 2009 at 6:22 pm):

I second thaat, [F**K] THE MORMANS, THEY SUCK

* John said (July 21st, 2009 at 9:18 pm):

Ditto what Michael says: [F**K] THE MORMONS!

Ann Coulter has been roundly denounced for using the “F-word” (six letters) – see this article by Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and this article by Albert Mohler). I’m a Coulter fan, but she crossed the line on this one.

There are larger issues at stake here for American freedom: today it’s the F-word, which has been banished as the sexual equivalent of the N-word. Tomorrow it could be certain applications of the G-word: G-A-Y. Many students use “That’s so gay” to connote something that they think is stupid or weird: should they be forced to undergo sensitivity re-education — or perhaps attend a “Gay Pride” parade?

Where will the PC “hate speech” enforcement stop? AP recently reported:

“When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, “Do you have 10 moms?” she shot back: “That’s so gay.”

       “Those three words landed the high school freshman in the principal’s office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?”

The AP story points to the threat that official speech codes pose to Americans’ most fundamental freedoms. Homosexual activists routinely and outrageously blame Christian pro-family groups for violence against homosexuals, and there are many on the Left who will go to extraordinary lengths to turn any derogatory use of ‘gay” into an opportunity to spread their pro-homosexual ideology. 

Coulter was joking. These activists are dead serious. Students and parents, take note.

As a rule we do not, like Fred Phelps, use the term “fag.” Coulter’s stunt was childish and, despite her protestations, she was clearly calling family man John Edwards a “faggot” — even as she also poked fun at the Left’s quirky “hate” formula by which they vilify their foes, then jump up and down when their own PC speech taboos are violated. (Example: saying George Bush is like Hitler – NOT HATE; saying we should love people practicing homosexual behavior but hate their sexual sin — HATE.)  Coulter’s reference point was Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington, who, after publicity grew about his calling a homosexual co-star a “faggot,” apologized and checked himself into rehab for a “psychological assessment.”

People involved in homosexuality should not be the object of taunts or hatred, and Christians, especially, are called to apply the Biblical command to speak the truth in love. We are called even to love our enemies so name-calling simply is not an option. (I confess that I once called homosexual blogger Joe Brummer, who is obsessed with AFTAH, a “twit,” but you might too if you read the tripe that he puts out on an almost daily basis. (A recent Brummer blog entry accuses Sonja Dalton and me of being “extremely responsible [sic] for the climate of violence that plagues gays and lesbians.”)

“That’s So Gay” 

The reality we face is that many on the pro-homosexual side, even as they recklessly smear committed Christians as bigots and haters (and murderers for what we believe!), want to define any negative use of the word “gay” as evidence of “hate speech” requiring punitive and corrective action. The AP story continues:

Testifying last week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now 18, said that when she uttered those words, she was not referring to anyone’s sexual orientation. She said the phrase meant: “That’s so stupid, that’s so silly, that’s so dumb.”

 

But school officials say they took a strict stand against the putdown after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year before.

 

“The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from harassment,” the district’s lawyers argued in a legal brief. “In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase ‘That’s so gay’ … was a reasonable regulation.”

So many questions about this AP article (which you can read in full by clicking HERE):

1. Since when was it decided that “hate speech” must be “stamped out” in the USA, as AP reporter Lisa Leff so cavalierly asserts? I thought we had something called the First Amendment. Maybe Ms. Leff needs to go back to school to study it.
2. Who could agree on what constitutes “hate speech,” anyway? Are we going to get our definitions from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), whose founder, Kevin Jennings, certainly has evinced clear “hatred” toward religious conservatives? Lesbian blogger Pam “Jeebus” Spaulding calls me and other Christians who oppose homosexuality the “AmTaliban,” and I think she’s a hateful anti-religious bigot. How about letting the free market of ideas sort that one out — not some school bureaucrat or judge? If a kid is taunting another kid, it’s one thing — all students must be protected regardless of criteria — but if a student is overheard using “gay” in a negative context, that must not be used as an excuse to call in the Thought Police.
3. As we recently noted, it’s OK to be “anti-gay” as long as you don’t hate people. Homosexual behavior is destructive, wrong and — most important — changeable. “Gay” is not a person. So while I would not encourage my kids to say ”that’s so gay” – there are better ways to make your point — it’s almost refreshing that the word “gay” still has a stigma attached to it among so many youth. (That does not mean that you don’t fully punish thugs who prey on weak kids — you just do it without promoting any agendas.) Polls show that young people are increasingly pro-”gay”-agenda on issues like “same-sex marriage.” Nevertheless, despite years of brainwashing by public schools and popular culture designed to re-program their minds into thinking that “gay” is good (or at least no big deal), most American young people recognize, deep in their God-informed consciences, that homosexuality is unnatural and wrong. It’s sort of like liberal adults who take pride in their ”tolerance” until they are confronted with the reality of what homosexuals actually do (perversion) — and they react with disgust (the “ick” factor) like everyone else.
4. Remember, this is not about being fair or neutral: most homosexual activists and many liberals openly ridicule EX-”gays,” and some are even trying to ban therapy groups from helping people change unwanted homosexual attractions. Based on the preposterous “gay” arguments equating conservatives with the KKK because we oppose homosexuality, you’d better believe these activists will try to restrict more and more “hateful” speech as their power grows (example: Canada). 
5. Back to the Thought Police: once the GLSEN/”gay” agenda gets rolling in schools, what kinds of corrective measures would be meted out to the kid “caught” saying, “That’s so gay”? Surely part of the punishment will include being taught that homosexuals (they wouldn’t say that word, which is also fast on its way to being banished) are a “civil rights” minority, etc. — i.e., another excuse to foist one-sided pro-homosexual propaganda on kids. 
6. Rebekah Rice’s dad is to be commended for standing up to the education establishment, which apparently was watching Rebekah closer than other students. Isn’t that a microcosm of what’s wrong with the “hate speech” concept? Whoever is in charge gets to decide which speech will be the target of censorship or “correction.” Liberals dominate positions of power in public schools, libraries, big city governments, and the corporate H.R. departments that run ”diversity” programs. In schools, they will be tempted to abuse their power and impose their ideology on children through speech-control. We have to fight them to preserve freedom.

Continue reading AP article at Law.com…

——————————

The following is excerpted from ‘So Gay’ Trial So Sad on So Many Levels, by Chris Coursey, published Feb 16, 2007, by The Press Democrat:

…Insults based on sexual orientation and religious practices are not nice. Unfortunately, they are human nature. And when it comes to adolescent humans, those kinds of insults seem to be second nature.

It’s a defense mechanism. Teenagers haven’t yet learned enough impulse control or gained enough self-confidence to respond to slights in more thoughtful or productive ways, so they seize on the most glaring sore spot of their adversary.

His looks. Her clothes. His intellect. Her race. His religion.

It’s not right, but it’s reality.

It’s the proper role of schools to teach kids that such comments are not acceptable. After all, once they get into the real world, slurs about race or gender or religion might cost them their jobs.

But why did administrators at Carrillo feel it was necessary to give a written reprimand to Rebekah Rice when she responded to teasing about her Mormon religion by saying, “That’s so gay”? It’s hard to reconcile the discipline meted out to her with the school’s lack of response to religious insults directed at her. (The girl never complained to anyone about those insults. But neither did anyone object to her “gay” remark, except a teacher who overheard it.)

On the other hand, it’s hard to believe the Rice family’s lawsuit is about clearing their daughter’s record. The trial seems to be more a continuation of Elden Rice’s seven-year battle over what he has called the school’s “homosexual agenda.”

The father of seven began this crusade in 2000, protesting Carrillo’s first “Day of Dialogue,” an all-day lesson on diversity issues. Rice and other parents complained the school had not given them sufficient notice before exposing their kids to a sexual curriculum, as required by state law.

Since then, the Rices also have protested regarding a Diversity Club presentation in their daughter’s class, and complained when she was assigned alternate work after refusing to attend a class screening of the R-rated “Saving Private Ryan.”

But if Rice used his daughter to make his political points, the school provided him plenty of fodder. It apparently failed to follow its own policies on parent notification, even when it knew Rice was agitated about the issue. After he complained his daughter was being singled out, officials searched her backpack in response to a report of a “Rebekah” with a knife and cigarettes. The school now says that was a mistake.