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The list of “Victims of Homosexualism” continues to grow; little media sympathy for lives damaged by politically incorrect (pro-gay) “discrimination”
Crystal Dixon was fired by University of Toledo in 2008 after writing a column critical of comparing “homosexual rights” to the noble Black civil rights movement.
Folks, conservative and Christian pro-family advocates should avoid the pitfall of viewing the “gay rights” cultural battle narrowly, as merely between those whose work relates to the wedding business (bakers, photographers, etc.)–and homosexual militants trying to force them to participate in their same-sex “marriages.” That’s part of it, of course, but as you can see from this in-depth report I wrote for WND’s October 2013 Whistleblower magazine, the crisis goes far deeper than that, and it predates cultural fights over homosexual “marriage.” Below I have added photos and a few updates to the original article, which itself was republished by WND.com in November.
Since this report came out, other Christians like Coach Dave Daubenmire have become victims and targets of pro-homosexual bigotry and discrimination. Like those below, Coach Dave was smeared as a “hater,” “homophobe” and “bigot.” (We’re all painfully familiar with such vicious name-calling by “gay” activists–which is tolerated and often echoed by the compliant media.) Shame on us if we allow special “rights” based on a changeable, destructive sexual sin to displace our inalienable rights and liberties as Americans. God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; e-mail: americansfortruth@gmail.com.
Please help circulate this report, and write Brad Wallace at AFTAH (connops@yahoo.com) if you would like a hard copy of it.
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First appeared in Whistleblower Magazine, Oct. 2013:
‘GAY’ POWER VS. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Exclusive: Peter LaBarbera on how homosexual ‘rights’ is destroying freedom of conscience
“The legal struggle for queer rights will one day be a struggle between freedom of religion versus sexual orientation.”– Canadian lesbian lawyer Barbara Finlay, quoted by columnist John Leo and Janet Folger (Porter), The Criminalization of Christianity
There is a war between homosexual “rights” and Americans’ religious and First Amendment freedoms – and the “gay” activists are winning.
The “zero-sum game” is how homosexual activist law professor and Obama EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) appointee Chai Feldblum describes the legal battles between modern “rights” based on homosexual “orientation” (read: behavior) and the traditional American principle of religious liberty.
“Gays win, Christians lose,” Feldblum said, predicting homosexuals would win most of the legal contests. She is proving to be correct, as the news for Americans with traditional values gets worse by the year, due to rapidly escalating homosexual and transgender activist power in the legal, cultural, political and corporate arenas.
Following is a summary of cases involving battles between religious and moral freedom and homosexual activism. Some involve legal cases, others involve people who suffered privately for speaking out against the “gay” agenda. Others involve children whose rights (such as girls’ right to privacy) are violated in the name of “LGBT equality.”
In a sense, this could be called a list of the “Victims of Homosexualism”–that is, organized homosexuality. Though not comprehensive, its sheer scope illustrates what pro-family veterans have long known – but which the “gay”-cheerleading media fail to report as a major story: that “rights” based on homosexuality and gender confusion (“transgenderism”) cannot coexist with religious liberty.
First, a few observations:
These victims of escalating “Gay Tyranny” in America are not all tied to the question of homosexual “marriage.” Indeed, well before “gay marriage” came on the scene as a “mainstream” issue, pro-homosexual “sexual orientation” laws and corporate pro-LGBT policies were victimizing and punishing Christians and other moral opponents of homosexuality. And those laws are invariably used to argue for homosexuality-based “marriage.” The homosexualist agenda moves ahead incrementally, but “sexual orientation” laws and policies – and their philosophical presupposition that homosexuality is about innate “identity” (“who you are”) rather than changeable, wrong and aberrant behaviors (“what you do”) – is the foundation for the entire far-reaching LGBT agenda.
The pro-homosexual (and pro-atheist) legal war against the Boy Scouts of America was made possible by a “sexual orientation” law in New Jersey.
The most prominent example of the inherently discriminatory nature of pro-”gay” nondiscrimination laws (predating the entire homosexual “marriage” debate) is the Boy Scouts of America, who were initially challenged in 1990 by homosexual James Dale under a then-new “sexual orientation nondiscrimination” law in New Jersey. Ultimately, in 2000, the Dale case found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Scouts narrowly won their right not to have homosexual scoutmasters and members – only to toss away the fruits of their victory 13 years later by changing their rules under corporate pressure to allow openly homosexual Boy Scouts. (The Scouts still ban adult, openly homosexual scoutmasters, but pro-family experts predict that this prohibition will crumble – under continued “gay” activist pressure – now that the Scouts have sacrificed the moral principle that they had fought years to defend.)
It should also be recognized that oppression comes in many forms and from many quarters. Once professional institutions like the American Bar Association, American Association of Pediatrics and American Counseling Association adopt pro-LGBT “sexual orientation” codes, these policies become the basis for discriminating against people of faith.
These cases involve mostly higher-profile “victims.” What does not make the following list are everyday small businesspeople who, under an array of pro-homosexual laws and policies, are forced to effectively subsidize sexual behavior they regard as immoral. Thus, in a “gay marriage” state or in a big city with “sexual orientation” laws, business owners – much like the wedding cake makers below – are forced by the heavy hand of government to treat homosexually “married” or partnered employees as they would their normally married workers.
Also, countless employees and students have been forced to endure “gay tolerance” and pro-LGBT “diversity” programs that promote ideas with which they strongly disagree – a form of “soft tyranny” that most moral-minded employees have come to accept as the price of working in a big corporation. As is shown below, those who rock the politically correct boat invite persecution.
Lastly, note the irony that several of the victims below are black. [The late] Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Wash., (a former NFL player who appears occasionally on the “Rush Limbaugh Show”) says, “Don’t compare your sin to my skin.” (Hutcherson is black.) Yet that is precisely what the expanding web of “sexual orientation” laws, executive orders and rulings from liberal judges is doing. By mandating “gay” (and transgender) tolerance as a basic, modern American value, the law and politically-correct U.S. corporations are rapidly making opposition to homosexuality and gender confusion anathema – even banning it – thus relegating Christians and defenders of historic Judeo-Christian moral truths to second-class, pariah status.
An America in which faith-motivated citizens can believe (privately) that homosexuality and faux homosexual “marriage” are wrong but cannot act on their beliefs is no longer truly free.
UPDATE: Gov. Jan Brewer caved in to political correctness and the intense LGBT misinformation campaign against SB 1062 by vetoing the bill Wednesday. See this Arizona TV report to get a feel for what she was up against, and see this excellent RedState piece to understand the Left’s dishonest “Ends justifies the means” tactics. Lastly, here is an NRO article on Cathi Herrod of the pro-family Center for Arizona Policy, who describes how the media’s “ridiculous portrayals of the proposed law” became reality to many in the public. –PL
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By Peter LaBarbera
New Mexican Christian photographer Elaine Huguenin and her husband were fined $6,000 for politely declining to shoot photos at a lesbian “commitment ceremony.” Arizona Senate Bill 1062 seeks to prevent such lawsuits against people of faith in that state–but media report that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is leaning toward vetoing the bill. The Huguenins lost their case in the New Mexico Supreme Court and are appealing it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
[TAKE ACTION: Contact Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer at 602-542-1318 or go HERE to reach her online.]
The powerful, media-fed “Gay Hysteria” machine is exploding over Arizona Senate Bill 1062, which seeks to protect citizens’ First Amendment liberty NOT to violate their conscience with regard to homosexual “marriages.” But few Americans realize how decades of court-imposed favored legal status for homosexuality have already stolen away our “freedom to be moral.”
Tragically, America is far down the road of “Criminalizing Christianity”—or, more accurately, Judeo-Christian morality—thanks to Big Gay Inc. and its powerful allies in the courts, media and academia. But what is most amazing about this Culture War battle is how homosexual activists still manage to play the victim even as more and more Americans become Real Victims of the LGBT agenda—which, at its core, is about enforcing PRO-homosexual discrimination through the State and big corporations.
The Arizona bill is simply an attempt to preempt the sort of pro-homosexual ‘reverse discrimination’ that has spread across the country as (mostly Christian) photographers, wedding-cake makers and bed-and-breakfast owners have been sued by LGBT militants for refusing to allow their services to be used for homosexual “marriage” ceremonies. I have documented many of these cases—and others in which Christians have suffered at the hands of homosexual militants–in my WND article, “’Gay’ Power vs. Religious Liberty.”
Here is National Review’s take on the liberal media distortions surrounding Arizona’s pro-religious-liberty bill:
Defenders of S.B. 1062 reject the claim that the bill effectively legalizes discrimination. Proponents have repeatedly stated — including multiple times on CNN — that the bill does not allow businesses to deny service to someone at an establishment such as a restaurant or coffee shop. The law looks to protect those with religious objections from being compelled to participate in or use their creative expression in circumstances that violate their conscience. Since there is no current law on the issue in the state, lawmakers hope to preempt situations such as bakers and photographers facing legal action for not working a same-sex wedding, as has occurred in neighboring states.
Playing the race card
Julea Ward was drummed out of a graduate counseling program at Eastern Michigan University because as a Christian she could not in good faith affirm homosexual relationships. Ward settled out of court with EMU.
With insultingly inane comparisons to Jim Crow laws, CNN and others on the pro-LGBT Left are “going there” with their spurious racism analogies—conveniently ignoring that skin-color prejudice and biblical morality are completely different things. Do the media know or care that Blacks who believe Scripture that homosexuality is wrong repeatedly have been victimized by “gay” activism—which posits that approval of ‘gayness’ and same-sex relationships trump one’s personal religious and moral beliefs about sexual morality and marriage?
Take the case of Julia Ward, who is Black and was kicked out of Eastern Michigan University’s counseling program as a grad student because as a committed Christian she could not counsel same-sex couples in a manner that affirms homosexuality. Surely Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (who saw homosexuality as a “problem” that could be “solved”) did not wage his nonviolent struggle so that Americans of color would be forced by the State to either deny their faith or be barred from various professions that now worship at the altar of homosexualism. As the late, great pastor and Culture Warrior (and former NFL linebacker) Ken Hutcherson, who was Black, said, “Don’t compare your sin to my skin.”
Treating unequal things as equal
Aristotle wisely observed that it is unjust to treat unequal things equally—yet that is the essence of modern pro-homosexual/pro-transgender ideology, which treats sexual perversion and extreme gender confusion as the basis for civil rights. “Gay marriage” is a lot of things but it is certainly not “equal” to the real deal: two people of the same sex cannot produce a child on their own, and “Daddy No. 2” can never substitute for the love and care of a mother. Nor can two lesbian “moms” replace having a dad in the home. This is radical egalitarian social engineering and, sadly, innocent children are the guinea pigs.
Folks, three pro-homosexual protesters disrupted our press conference today in Washington, D.C.– called to announce a new pro-family umbrella group, the Coalition for Family Values (CFV), of which AFTAH is a member. The protesters–who accused CFV organizer Scott Lively of causing the death of homosexuals in Russia–were removed by National Press Club security officials after refusing to relent. Below is a YouTube video of the incident provided by a reporter with the Washington Blade:
At the event, Lively (of Defend the Family International) and other speakers graciously offered to let the protesters stay and ask their “question” after our speakers were finished making their initial presentations. (The protesters started with their rant before the last of three speakers was about to present–before the question-and-answer period.) After the lead woman protester, Ellen Sturtz, ignored pleas to stop and kept speaking loudly, Press Club security officials removed her and the two others.
For the record, although the Left and homosexual activists have a long history of disrupting conservative speakers, I can’t even think of an instance in which pro-family activists interrupted a “gay” press event. No wonder, then, that the term “homo-fascist” is catching on to describe LGBT militants’ intolerance of opposing views. Nevertheless, afterward the CFV event was over, Lively and the protesters talked outside the Press Club building, and Lively even posed for photos with Sturtz. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
Coach Dave Daubenmire discusses his Christian faith and homosexuality in this interview with the ABC and FOX affiliates in Columbus, Ohio. Coach Dave–who recently was denied a football coaching job at Lakewood High School, his alma mater, after being targeted by a homosexual cyber-smear campaign–ably refutes the Big Lie that opposing same-sex sin constitutes “hate.” Here is the link to the Columbus FOX28 site with the interview; and click HERE to watch this on YouTube.
Click HERE for AFTAH’s background article on the Daubenmire non-hiring story and to get contact information for the Lakewood School Board that voted against him for the coaching job that the school had originally recruited him to fill. The FOX28 write-up on the interview follows after the video (after the jump). To support Coach Dave, visit his Pass the Salt Ministries website.
Columbus, Ohio FOX28 reports [Editor’s note: It is interesting that this report fails to mention the outside lobbying campaign against Daubenmire that ignited this controversy]
Controversial Former Football Coach Talks to ABC 6/FOX 28
Updated: Friday, February 14 2014, 08:45 PM EST
HEBRON, Ohio — (Maria Durant/Ken Hines) — A football coach known for his controversial conservative Christian views spoke out Friday about his hometown school board’s decision to deny him a coaching position on their high school football team.
Kirk honored by radical homosexual group that smear C-f-A’s “hate-filled homophobic ‘Chiken'” and tried to deny Christian-owned chain’s ‘freedom’ to do business in Illinois
Republican U.S. Sen. Mark KIrk of Illinois accepts “Freedom” award from the state’s leading homosexual lobby group, Equality Illinois. The group ran a nasty albeit unsuccessful “Flick the Hate” pressure campaign to run Chick-fil-A restaurants out of the state–by petitioning their stakeholders to deny the popular fast-food chain’s leases. Chick-fil-A is expanding in Illinois, and now has 32 restaurants in the state.
By Peter LaBarbera
TAKE ACTION:
Call or write Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) [202-224-2854; Chicago 312-886-3506; online Comment Form HERE] and urge him to stop rewarding anti-Christian bigotry. Ask him to return this “Freedom Award” from the hateful anti-Christian homosexual group, Equality Illinois–which in 2012 launched a failed pressure campaign to kick Chick-fil-A restaurants out of Illinois.
Call or write the Republican National Committee [Contact Form HERE] and its Chairman, Reince Priebus [202-863-8500; choose ext. “1”], and urge them to stand firm against the aggressive Homosexual Lobby, which is targeting Christian leaders and businesses like Chick-fil-A for demonization. Tell Priebus that when Republicans like Sen. Mark Kirk embrace Democratic-type social liberalism, it only deflates the pro-family GOP grassroots. Lastly, urge Priebus to PUBLICLY oppose ENDA, the radical Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Thank Chairman Priebus for being publicly pro-life–but urge him also to make the case against “Big Gay Government” (e.g., ENDA)–and Obama’s push to nationalize “same-sex marriage”–as part of the RNC’s regular public Talking Points.
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Dear AFTAH Readers:
On Saturday evening (Feb. 8, 2014), U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) was presented with the “Freedom” award by Equality Illinois, the state’s leading homosexual pressure group, at a swank fundraising banquet in Chicago. You can watch a video of the presentation below [or on YouTube HERE]. Sen. Kirk has become one of the most liberal Republicans on Capitol Hill on homosexual-related issues–with ever greater acts of pandering to the LGBT Lobby. (He came out for homosexual “marriage” and is pushing for passage of ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [see homosexual activists release on Kirk and ENDA HERE], or–as we at AFTAH call it, alternatively the “Big Gay Government Act,” “Gay Lawyers’ Dream Act,” or “ENDA Our Freedom Act”) [See an excellent Heritage Foundation report on the ENDA bill HERE.]
You might recall how Kirk–in a capitulation whose cowardice was eclipsed only by its pettiness–recently blocked the respected pro-family organization World Congress of Familiesfrom securing a meeting room on Capitol Hill. This towering act in defense of “freedom” (sarcasm) came after the Senator heard complaints against WCF from some homosexual activists. World Congress, affiliated with The Howard Center, is based in Rockford, Illinois.
Thus it appears that Sen. Kirk’s conception of “freedom” matches that of his intolerant homosexual activist allies. In 2012, Equality Illinois launched a vicious and slanderous campaign to deny Chick-fil-A restaurants the “freedom” to operate in Illinois. As you can see below, EQ falsely accused C-f-A of “discriminatory policies” because the latter’s Chief Operating Officer, Dan Cathy, had spoken out publicly against homosexual “marriage” as tempting the judgment of God. The Chicago “gay” group launched this “Flick the Hate” petition campaign designed to boot the Christian-owned chicken fast food franchise out of several college towns:
The above is a web graphic from radical homosexual group Equality Illinois’ 2012 “Flick the Hate” campaign against Chick-fil-A. Many observers were shocked that any group would try to run a successful business OUT of Illinois, whose economy is suffering under long-running Democratic political dominance.
As you can see, Equality Illinois’ malicious campaign smeared Chick-fil-A and its COO, Dan Cathy, as representing “hate”–merely because Cathy disagreed publicly with “gay marriage.” EQ sought to petition stakeholders into cancelling their rental leases to the 19 Chick-fil-A restaurants then operating in Illinois. (Thankfully, they failed; there are now 32 C-f-A franchises in Illinois, according to the company’s website.) The EQ page reads, in part (emphasis theirs):
Chick-fil-A has 19 restaurants across Illinois, mostly on university campuses and in shopping malls. This petition will be give to key stakeholders in Illinois who lease, rent or allow Chick-fil-A to continue to sell their hate-filled homophobic “Chiken,” asking them to cut ties….
That kind of hate has no place in a business, especially in Illinois. It is a shame to be associated with such extreme intolerance and hate.
Says he has seen adult homosexual men in their 30s, 40s and even 50s sexually pursuing minor teen boys
A lot is to be learned about the homosexual subculture from honest “gay” men like Walter Lee Hampton II [see his Facebook Page and YouTube site]. In this video, Hampton explains that pederasty–older men pursuing sex with underage boys–is some thing he has seen a lot of in his life as a homosexual. Here is his own description of the video, published February 8, 2014.
“Based upon my life experiences ..if I had Teenage sons I would NOT allow them around GAY MEN!..because over the years I have seen many GAY MEN pursue TEENAGE BOYS (ages 14-17) for SEX. and I have seen this VERY OFTEN.”
What Hampton is revealing helps us understand how teenage boys are contracting HIV. You might want to check out the comments at the YouTube page for his video HERE. Thanks to Jason Salamone, AFTAH’s Research Associate and our Facebook Page administrator, for spotting this. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
NOT HIRED. TOO CHRISTIAN:Coach Dave Daubenmire with his trademark Christian cap that he wears as a no-nonsense, politically incorrect, Christian pro-family advocate. Despite his stellar coaching record of turning around failing high school football programs, Coach Dave was voted down 3-2 for head football coach at Lakewood [Ohio] High School–after pro-LGBT activists (e.g., “Change.org” and People for the American Way’s “Right-Wing Watch”) targeted the Lakewood, Ohio School Board with a pressure campaign.
“In America, only Christians can be discriminated against. Homosexual teachers and coaches would be welcomed with open arms.”–Coach Dave Daubenmire
Folks, the bad guys in the Culture War just won another one yesterday, and a very good guy, Coach Dave Daubenmire, lost–after getting cyber-smeared by a hateful social media campaign by the “Gay-KK” (or “Gay-stapo,” or “Gay Thought Police,” or “Homo-fascists,” or whatever you call today’s uber-intolerant, anti-Christian homosexual militants who target dissenters for retribution and recognize NO legitimate opposition to homosexualism).
Last night, the Lakewood, Ohio School Board voted 3-2 against hiring Coach Dave–despite the recommendation of Daubenmire by Lakewood Superintendent Jay Gault [mailto:jgault@laca.org; 740-928-4552; ext. 2]. Coach Dave is a bold, outspoken, politically incorrect Christian–pro-life, pro-real-marriage, anti-pornography. But he is also an accomplished coach with a an outstanding record for turning around failing high school football programs:
He coached at Heath High from 1982 to 1988 before taking over at London [(Ohio) High School], where he coached for the next 11 seasons, guiding that team to the playoffs five times between 1992 and 1999. Most recently, he started the football program at Fairfield Christian Academy in Lancaster in 2008, going 23-8 with two playoff appearances in his final three seasons.
Daubenmire also was recommended for hire by the Lakewood superintendent, but no matter, because he was branded “anti-gay,” “hateful” and “homophobic” by LGBT militants who spread lies and half-truths about him using a high-tech online lobbying website (Change.org) that targeted the School Board.
Of course, guess who will suffer most from this Politically Correct vote: a bunch of teenage boys who now have been denied an outstanding Coach and motivator–but more importantly, a great Christian role model.
We will have much more on this story, but the bottom line is that the pro-homosexual Left–which has gotten very good at getting Bible-believing Christians fired or punished [see my WND Whistleblower piece]–is saying that you cannot be a role model for youth if you are publicly “anti-gay.” Our society is now completely upside-down: a college football star (Michael Sam) is treated like a hero for going public with his homosexuality (i.e., his besetting sin)–while a God-fearing, Christian family man (Dave Daubenmire) is denied a coaching job at his alma mater–a job for which he is superbly qualified–merely because he holds views on sexual morality that are despised by the LGBT Lobby. More coming… — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
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Lakewood, Ohio Local School Board: In rear (left to right): Judy White; Trisha Good. In front (left to right): Tim Phillips; Forrest Cooperrider; and Bill Gulick. Superintendent Jay Gault (not shown) recommended Coach Dave for the coaching job at Lakewood high–but Board members started wavering after being inundated with protest letters against Daubenmire by a homosexual activist social media blitz.
Does renegade, pro-homosexual Illinois Republican politician have a conflict of interest?
“Do you agree that [your constituents] have a right to know if there is a special interest in your life that affects your voting record? From an integrity standpoint, I think the axiom is true: honesty is the best policy.”— Peter LaBarbera to then-St. Sen. Dan Rutherford (Republican-Pontiac, IL), 11/18/2004
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IL GOP gubernatorial candidate and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford–widely rumored to be homosexual by activists in the GOP–cast two key votes as State Senator for pro-homosexual legislation. Rutherford is now being sued for sexual harassment by a male aide who says he was groped by the politician.
Homosexual newspaper Windy City Times to Dan Rutherford: “Is the Republican Party changing? Should it?” Rutherford: “I think the party should change. I think the party should evolve. I think it’s going to take people like myself to help the party evolve. When I voted for the [pro-homosexual/pro-transgender] human rights bill in the early 90s, there was only a few of us. And when we moved forward to eventually pass it, there was more of us. And as we moved into consideration of the civil unions bill, there were some of us.
“Equality Illinois [the state’s leading homosexual activist group] was one of the hosts at the Republican National Convention for one of the receptions.” — WCT interview with Rutherford, 8-6-13
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Dear AFTAH Readers,
With reports that Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford is being sued for sexual harassment by a male aide, I thought it important to reprint the two articles below–which originally appeared on the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) website in 2005–and which I wrote as then-Executive Director of IFI. The article (like many other older pieces) fell off the current IFI website following a overhaul of the site, and currently is not on the IFI site.
Since these articles were written, then-State Sen. Rutherford, having already helped the Democrats pass a homosexual “nondiscrimination” bill, went on to cast a second key Republican vote for a bill legalizing homosexual “civil unions.” The latter was a precursor to legalized homosexual “marriage” in the Land of Lincoln (the state “gay marriage” law takes effect June 1, 2014). Rutherford, who went on to become Illinois State Treasurer in 2011, never answered this writer’s query about alleged homosexuality–something which most men, especially those falsely accused like myself, find very easy to do. But he has offered curt and carefully-worded denials to others about being homosexual. This includes responding “No” to an oddly-worded “non-question” alluding to his alleged “gayness” in an interview with conservative Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton. (I’m afraid Eaton’s overly deferential, walking-on-eggshells approach–Rutherford answered “No” to “The Question” without her defining it–revealed more about the uncomfortableness surrounding homosexuality than it did about Rutherford’s past or present sexual lifestyle.)
Most recently in an interview last August with the Chicago homosexual newspaper, Windy City Times, Rutherford had this exchange with a reporter:
WCT: Your support for the LGBT has put you in the spotlight. Conservative bloggers have speculated you are gay. How do you define your sexual orientation?
Dan Rutherford: I’m not gay.
To which Chicago homosexual activist Robert Castillo responded: “Thanks for asking if he’s gay. You should have also asked if he is bisexual.”
Note that on every occasion of Rutherford being “questioned” about homosexuality, there are no follow-up questions (e.g., have you ever been in a homosexual relationship?)–and no probing into the meaning of words. (Many men who engage(d) in homosexual or bisexual behavior do not claim to be “gay”; there is even a term for it: men on the “down low.”) Also note that Rutherford’s continued advocacy of homosexuality in the Republican Party sets him apart from a person who may have engaged in homosexual behavior in the past but abandoned it–i.e., a repentant or recovered former homosexual. (Christians believe in the power of God through Christ to help people overcome that behaviorial sin pattern.)
On the conservative side, activists like Republican Chicago attorney and Republican News Watch founder Doug Ibendahl have long maintained that whether Rutherford ever admits it publicly or not, he is “gay.”
Encounter with Rutherford’s “partner”
Of course, there is the very real possibility that Rutherford–a politician, after all–is lying and dissembling about his aberrant sexual past and/or present so as not to hurt his prospects running in a Republican primary for governor.
A couple of years ago–long after my attempt at IFI to get Rutherford to clarify his sexuality–I had an interesting discussion with a veteran Illinois Republican activist, who told of meeting Rutherford “and his [male] partner” a number of years ago while travelling abroad. The man who accompanied Rutherford was clearly his partner, the activist said matter-of-factly. The activist source had no special animus toward Rutherford and worked with him as a GOP supporter, as with other ILGOP leaders.
Why should we care?
Why is any of this important? Because the people have a right to know if their public servant has a conflict of interest–and because honesty, morality and integrity matter. If Dan Rutherford has practiced a homosexual lifestyle–while advancing “gay” public policy goals in his role as a legislator (in defiance of the ILGOP and national Republican Party Platforms), it says something about his character. (As you can see, I am not a liberal.) And if he then lied and continues to lie or mislead about the matter, it says even more about his character.
