Illinois bill HB 5569 banning pro-hetero change therapy for minors robs self-determination and parental rights

AN EX-“GAY” OFFERS HOPE TO STRUGGLING YOUTH: Christopher Doyle is a former homosexual and licensed therapist who now helps people overcome unwanted same-sex attractions. He was molested as a boy and suffered for years with unwanted same-sex desires before getting help. [Read Doyle’s testimony HERE]. He is now happily married and the father of three children. Under proposed Illinois legislation, HB 5569, boys like him who are the victims of homosexual predators or suffering in sexual confusion could not see a therapist (like Doyle today) to deal with their same-sex problems.

2) EVERYONE ELSE: Call or write your U.S. Representative (202-225-3121) and Senators (202-224-3121)–or go to ContactingtheCongress.org–and urge them NOT to support ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is a federal version of the same homosexual/transgender “rights” bills that have been used in states and cities to enforce *politically correct discrimination* against Christians and others who opposes homosexualism and “gay marriage.” [see this AFTAH article.] AFTAH is calling ENDA the “Gay Lawyers’ Dream Act” since it would only make if easier for Christians to be sued for not violating their conscience. [See this excellent report on ENDA by the Heritage Foundation.]

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Dear AFTAH Readers,

One important thing I’ve learned about the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Lobby in more than 20 years of fighting it is that everything they accuse their opponents of doing THEY DO in spades. They say we “hate,” yet many observed that it is radical homosexual activists like Dan Savage, Wayne Besen and Peter Tatchell (in Britain) who are truly hateful and vindictive in their often vicious, “morality-phobic” bigotry.

Pro-homosexual militants say that we are “harming children,” and yet the homosexual-bisexual behaviors THEY promote in the name of “equality” are closely linked to the spread of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Almost every case of HIV among boys and young men ages 13-24 is linked to deviant homo-sexual behavior [see this AFTAH article pointing to CDC data]. Moreover, bisexual men who have a girlfriend or are married but who (often secretly) engage in homosexual acts with other men are a key group spreading HIV to women.

And of course, homosexual activists charge us with “discrimination,” as the world’s largest homosexual lobby organization, the Human Rights Campaign, does below in a fundraising letter by the actress Sally Field (yes, the “gay” movement has Hollywood and the leftist media helping it). Experts at marketing and manipulation, the LGBT Lobby is now trying to re-define sincere efforts by Americans to protect Christians and moral-minded Americans from discriminatory pro-homosexual laws — calling such legislation–like the recent Arizona bill vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer–“License to Discriminate” bills.

Don’t buy this latest “gay” con job.

Who is really “discriminating”?

Did you know that pro-homosexual “sexual orientation non-discrimination” laws are one of the single greatest threats to freedom of conscience and religious liberty in the Western world? In a report I did for WND’s Whistleblower magazine, I described a bunch of the cases pitting “Gay Power vs. Religious Liberty,” but I didn’t come close to listing them all, and there are many other cases outside the United States I simply didn’t have room to include.

Victory shows the cultural battle over homosexuality-based “marriage” is far from over, says LaBarbera

THANK WORLD VISION! The American branch of WORLD VISION has listened to you and thousands of outraged Americans and reversed its sellout on “gay marriage.” TAKE ACTION: Call or write World Vision USA at 888-511-6548 [send an online message HERE] and THANK them for reversing their previously announced policy of recognizing  employees’ unbiblical homosexual “marriages.”  You can read AFTAH’s original press release on World Vision’s marriage sellout–which received wide coverage [e.g., see Charismanews.com]–HERE. 

UPDATE (5:05 p.m.): World Vision released a statement (see below) this afternoon confirming it has reversed its decision to allow its American branch to hire employees in same-sex marriages:

“The board acknowledged it made a mistake and chose to revert to our longstanding policy requiring sexual abstinence for all single employees and faithfulness within the Biblical covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. … We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority.”

We now wait to see what the new World Vision policy will be, and how they will handle the inevitable (media-magnified) outrage by LGBT activists. And I want to make clear that we are only commending World Vision’s return to biblical faithfulness on this issue.

MARRIAGE BATTLE FAR FROM OVER: I was just interviewed by SRN News (the national Christian-owned Salem Radio Network) and my message was this: the righteous turnaround at World Vision shows that Culture War over homosexuality and “gay marriage” is not nearly over. The media–who are sort of a huge PR firm for the ‘Gay’ Lobby–want you to give up.  They keep telling Americans that legal homosexual “marriage” in all 50 states is “inevitable”–forget the more than 30 states that passed pro-natural marriage amendments or statewide referenda in support of genuine marriage (one-man, one-woman).

The Left-dominated opinion-molders and pro-“gay” pundits are wrong about marriage. (Besides, when have the media been RIGHT about anything important? Remember how they shilled for Obama?) The American people, and especially those who seek to honor God, do NOT want to treat two men or two women in a homosexual union as if it were a real marriage.

Thanks for not giving in to the Gay Thought Police and standing up for what’s right. The fight ahead is long and difficult, but we must be more committed to defending Truth than the homosexual activists are to pushing their lies. God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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[TAKE ACTION: call or writer World Vision and thank them for recognizing their mistake [send an online message HERE]. You can read AFTAH’s original press release on World Vision’s marriage sellout–which received wide coverage (e.g., see Charismanews.com)–ONLINE HERE.]

UPDATE: World Vision Reverses Pro-Homosexual “Marriage” Policy!

As WORLD magazine reports, World Vision has listened to you and thousands of outraged Americans and reversed its sellout on “gay marriage.” TAKE ACTION: Call or write World Vision USA at 888-511-6548 [send them an online message HERE] and thank them for reversing their previously announced policy of recognizing employees’ unbiblical homosexual “marriages.”]

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Denying a Sellout: World Vision took a major step away from historic Christianity by allowing employees in homosexual “marriages” to work for it. The organization’s president, Richard Stearns, then compounded the capitulation by telling Christianity Today that WV’s new policy is not a “an endorsement of same-sex marriage,” nor a “rejection of traditional marriage.”

Press Release, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

March 25, 2014

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 312-324-3787; americansfortruth@gmail.com

Read it on Christian Newswire HERE

TAKE ACTION: CONTACT World Vision at 888-511-6548 or online HERE

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By Peter LaBarbera

CHICAGO—In a stunning capitulation to a powerful Sin Movement, World Vision’s American branch announced yesterday that it will now employ people who are in legal homosexual “marriages”—a distinctly anti-Biblical position for an organization that professes “Jesus is Lord” and “We desire him to be central in our individual and corporate life.”

The cultural cave-in by World Vision was made all the more remarkable by WV President Richard Stearns’ awkward attempts to justify and explain it—even denying that World Vision has caved on its Christian principles. WV had previously fought government attempts to force it and other Christian organizations to follow pro-homosexual mandates. Stearns told Christianity Today that the new policy was “not an endorsement of same-sex marriage. We have decided we are not going to get into that debate. Nor is this a rejection of traditional marriage, which we affirm and support.”

Stearns said, “Changing the employee conduct policy to allow someone in a same-sex marriage who is a professed believer in Jesus Christ to work for us makes our policy more consistent with our practice on other divisive issues,” he said. “It also allows us to treat all of our employees the same way: abstinence outside of marriage, and fidelity within marriage.”

Historically, people embracing sin are not regarded as faithful Christians. Homosexual conduct is clearly proscribed in the Bible as a sin (Romans 1:24-27) but one that can be overcome through Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Many former “gays” and “lesbians” like Anne Paulk have overcome homosexuality through faith in Jesus.

Christ affirmed the Genesis account of marriage as the union of one man and one woman (Mark 10: 6-8). Only in liberal denominations widely regarded as having jettisoned biblical authority does one hear the bizarre concept of two people of the same sex honoring “fidelity within marriage.”

Yet Stearns said, “This is not us compromising. It is us deferring to the authority of churches and denominations on theological issues.” He denied that World Vision is headed down a “slippery slope.”

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) offers the following points about World Vision’s pro-homosexual-“marriage” sellout:

• Stearns’ rationale for the policy change is stunningly dishonest and illogical in its double-speak. Stearns would be more forthright in declaring that World Vision has abandoned the Bible as authoritative and is denying “Jesus as Lord.” The same principle applies to individuals and organizations: one cannot embrace and sanctify sin while professing to honor Jesus Christ, who died and rose again so that believers might have victory OVER sin.
• By recognizing homosexual “marriages” in its hiring practices and treating them like actual marriages, World Vision has not only entered the debate over this issue but greatly advanced the LGBT agenda by lending “Christian” credibility to “gay” activists’ misleading “marriage equality” propaganda. WV also undermines religious liberty by signaling that immoral laws that defy God’s law are more binding than Scripture—unilaterally throwing up the white flag of surrender on freedom of conscience.
• World Vision’s sellout is part of a disturbing trend in evangelicalism to capitulate in the Culture War over homosexuality–while the pro-LGBT lobby only ramps up its advocacy of sexually immoral laws and corporate policies. The WV decision comes just days after Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy chose to censor himself by declaring that his public defense of natural marriage was a business “mistake.” Cathy vowed to stay out of the marriage debate, reportedly after listening to the counsel of friends—including homosexual activist Shane Windmeyer, whose organization, Campus Pride, advocates for homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism on college campuses.

Below is a YouTube video of AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera’s March 20, 2014 interview on Bryan Fischer’s “Focal Point” program over the American Family Radio Talk network. The program focused on Fred Phelps’ “God Hates Fags” protests with the news of Phelps passing away. Both say Phelps’ message was not Christian and LaBarbera faults Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church for denying the possibility of salvation to repentant homosexuals. Then the discussion moves to Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy pulling out of the Culture War over homosexual “marriage”–declaring that his previous public comments in defense of natural marriage were an immature business mistake. Hundreds of thousands of pro-family Americans had rallied to Cathy’s and Chick-fil-A’s defense after pro-homosexual activists accused him and the fast-food company of bigotry and sought to ban CFA franchises from certain locales.

Gay Activists Stay Vocal; Christian Leader Goes Silent: Chick-fil-A’s new CEO, Dan Cathy (right), befriended homosexual activist and Campus Pride executive director Shane Windmeyer in the wake of the media hubbub over Cathy’s defense of natural marriage. Now Cathy has heeded Windmeyer’s advice to pull back from publicly from the homosexual “marriage” debate. Photo: Huffington Post.

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear AFTAH Reader,

As usual, the Culture War over sexually immoral same-sex behavior is hot, and AFTAH is in the thick of it. We will have more on the regrettable backpedaling by Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, who says it was a “mistake” for him to speak out for natural marriage. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, which interviewed the chicken fast-food exec, reports:

“Cathy said he decided to step back from the gay marriage debate after prayer and conversations with co-workers and friends, including Shane Windmeyer, a gay supporter of marriage equality who helped Cathy understand why marriage was important to the gay community.”

Talk about snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory!

NOTE: Shane Windmeyer is a homosexual activist and the founder and executive director of Campus Pride, which aggressively pushes for the acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism on college campuses. Gee, what a shock that Windmeyer wants his friend, Dan Cathy, to SHUT UP about homosexual “marriage”….Lesson for pro-family advocates: in my experience, when Christians “dialogue” with homosexuality activists, the “gay” activists usually end up winning the most concessions and biblical values are compromised.

I wish I could say I’m stunned, but I’ve grown used to Christians and “pro-family conservatives” selling out in the Culture War over homosexualism. As I told American Family Radio talk show host Bryan Fischer Thursday, the “Gay” Lobby is playing hard ball, and Christians are playing tee-ball. Click HERE to view a “Right Wing Watch” clip of my interview with Fischer. And go HERE to view a story in Huffington Post (“Huff Post Gay Voices”) about my comments. (Yes, HuffPo has its own “gay cheerleading” section–No Moral Voices Allowed!)

I told Bryan that Cathy “sold out” all those good Americans who–after all–had rallied by the hundreds of thousands to support his RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT for God’s natural design for marriage as between a man and a woman. I mean, isn’t that why so many people showed up on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day”–because we were sick and tired of people of faith being silenced by homosexual militants and their pro-LGBT media enablers?

Also, the Journal-Constitution reports, “Progressive website Think Progress earlier this month reported that Chick-fil-A’s foundations — WinShape Foundation and its namesake Chick-fil-A Foundation — “dramatically” cut donations to groups gay marriage supporters consider anti-gay.” AFTAH will be checking into this as well. How sad if this is true.

One last thing: isn’t it interesting that PRO-homosexual-“marriage” execs like Starbuck’s CEO Howard Schultz don’t retreat from publicly speaking out FOR counterfeit “marriage”? In fact, liberal corporations are more sold out than ever in publicly supporting–and funding–All Things “Gay”–so once again it’s the Christian, “pro-family” side that is engaging in unilateral surrender in the battle for Truth on homosexuality and marriage. Meanwhile, the Homosexual Lobby is louder and more aggressive than ever in pushing its lies and demands!

AFTAH will have much more on this story and other examples of Christian defeatism in the Culture War….

P.S. AFTAH Needs Your Support: Help us out if you can because we cannot take on the well-funded, media-backed “Gay” Lobby without getting funding ourselves. Donate online to AFTAH HERE or use the blue “DONATE ONLINE” button above right. Or send your tax-deductible donation to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Thank you for standing with us!!

–Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; “Like” AFTAH’s Facebook page HERE. Follow me on Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera; E-mail me: americansfortruth@gmail.com.

“For young gay men…[the] urge for sex is strong, compulsive and obsessive. It dominates conscious thought with lustful fantasies which society does not grant expression without censure and judgement. For many gay men, a salient goal of life is to fulfill their sex fantasies and achieve some sort of intimacy with other men. …We seek intrigue and danger in our sexual netherworld. The threat of HIV infection may even nurture these yearnings. The greater the danger, the greater the thrill. Our masculine ideal is of strong, fearless men willing to inflict pain, aloof to suffering, and undaunted by sin. Virility is immortal, masculinity ever powerful and everlasting…Though the reality is often ugly, scarred, sordid and stupid, we willingly cower in the presence of that ersatz ideal, submit to its potency, genuflecting and suckling at the font of another man’s virility while scorning our own. Sometimes the power is fully consummated. I daresay there isn’t a gay man of 50 who doesn’t know of at least one friend murdered at the hands of a ‘trick’ [sexual hook-up]…Yet, as we survive each anonymous act, we only move farther away from the goal. We find no intimacy, fulfill no male ideal, and only confirm our deep-seated self-loathing….” –Garey Lambert, homosexual writer, “AIDS activist,” and editor of [homosexual newspaper] Baltimore Alternative, 1993

Ad for homosexual FLEX bathhouse in Atlanta–where men go for anonymous deviant sexual encounters with other men. (We’ve blocked the address and web site.) It is telling that such de facto perversion centers thrive in Atlanta, home to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control–which, though tasked with fighting the spread of HIV, refuses to push for closure of sex businesses that encourage “gay” hyper-promiscuity. The late homosexual writer Garey Lambert described how and why “gay” men are compulsively drawn to reckless, anonymous sexual encounters, which can be dangerous and even lethal. He wrote, “I daresay there isn’t a gay man of 50 who doesn’t know of at least one friend murdered at the hands of a [sexual] ‘trick.'”

[Warning: graphic language]

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There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

—Proverbs 14:12 (NASB)

Dear Readers,

This is the side of homosexualism that the secular-minded chattering classes–in their zeal to normalize sodomy as an innocuous identity and mere “orientation”–choose to avoid. Below is a verbatim reprinting of a column written two decades ago in the now-defunct homosexual newspaper, The Baltimore Alternative. I recently rediscovered this in the Americans For Truth archives. It is dated “1993” but the copy of the article does not give the month and date (we will attempt to find that). The writer is the late Garey Lambert, an “AIDS activist” and former editor at the Alternative, who died of AIDS at age 49 in 1996. This piece is a fascinating look into the the “consuming depravity” of homosexualism, to quote Pastor Ralph Ovadal–and of the overpowering lustful quests that motivate “men who have sex with men,” and which in all too many cases drive them to an early grave.

Reading the essay, I am reminded of how, even as much as AFTAH tries to convey the debauched, confused and destructive reality of homosexuality, we have only skimmed the surface. What is at work here is a type of indulged sexual addiction I have difficulty understanding. Let the astonishing words below sink in; obviously, “gay” men are endangered more by their own obsessive sexual pursuits with strangers than by any kind of anti-homosexual “hate” violence:

“I daresay there isn’t a gay man of 50 who doesn’t know of at least one friend murdered at the hands of a ‘trick’ [sexual hook-up] .“

Writings like this expose the “enslavement” (Lambert’s word) of male homosexual lust–and the same-sex desperation that seems to result from libidinous young men pursuing the wrong answer to their own masculinity crisis. LGBT ideologues will attempt to explain away Lambert’s observations–or claim they are made obsolete by the “domestication” of homosexuality (e.g., same-sex “marriage”). But he describes a root problem–emotional and spiritual–that cannot be cured by politics, or “pride.” (Note Lambert’s obligatory attempt to blame “society” and “parents” for the plight of homosexuals and the proper judgment of homosexuality as abnormal and wrong.)

By Gary Morella

I just returned from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on my trip with my son for Air Force pick-up to McGuire AFB.

On the way home, I saw something that I shall not soon forget.  It was on PA Highway 11-15 North with the Susquehanna River on my right heading for the PA Highway 322 West exit to [Pennsylvania] State College.

I was taking it easy after a long day and then, out of the blue, I saw a wonder of God’s creation, a magnificent Bald Eagle in all of its majesty slowly gliding with its wingspan fully evident toward the windshield of my car.  I slowed down as there wasn’t much traffic and that magnificent bird came so close before he turned slowly passing over me that I could clearly see its eyes looking at me.

It was like a message from God saying, “Stay the course, America will be all right.”

What a great finish to a Sunday for me.

Morella is a retired research mathematician at Penn State University and a pro-life and pro-family advocate.

Christopher Doyle, founder of Voice of the Voiceless. Doyle overcome homosexuality in his own life and is now happily married and the father of three children. AFTAH urgers readers to support Doyle’s new organization defending ex-“gays,” Voice of the Voiceless.

Folks, Christopher Doyle–a former homosexual himself who is now living happily as a married heterosexual family man (somebody report him to Homosexual Hatemonger Wayne Besen!)–is doing outstanding work through his new organization, Voice of the Voiceless. Doyle is the lead pro-family advocate confronting the Orwellian campaign by Besen and other homosexual militants (and the Southern Poverty Law Center) to outlaw pro-heterosexual therapy for minors–apparently using big lies when necessary (see the “transgender tale” below).

If Besen and his ilk win, children and freedom lose. So please support Doyle and VOTF. This column originally appeared online in the Christian Post, March 13, 2014.–Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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Setting the Record Straight on ‘Gay Conversion’ Therapy for Minors

By Christopher Doyle

As a response to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to hear an appeal over the 2012 California law prohibiting Sexual Orientation Change Effort (SOCE) therapy for minors, it has been open season for anti-therapy activists. To compliment existing laws in New Jersey and the Golden State, legislation has also been introduced in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Florida, Minnesota, New York, Maryland, Hawaii, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Pundits across the political spectrum are anticipating more laws to come in 2014.

A February 16 article in The Washington Times predicted that such laws would likely follow the path of states legalizing gay marriage, and perhaps even pave the way to a national ban if anti-ex-gay advocates were to gain more power on the federal level, while a February 12 editorial in the New York Times suggested that a wiser path would be for “victims” to use legal measures to quell the “deceptive practices” of those who offer SOCE therapy. After all, it’s a well-known fact that such therapy for minors has been “proven” to be “ineffective” and “harmful.”

However, recent legislative efforts by activists in Virginia and Washington have failed, and a hearing in Maryland on similar legislation was cancelled, partly because the lies and half-truths of activists are catching up to them. In Washington, a witness testifying in a January committee hearing said that a licensed therapist forced a child to watch pornography while in an ice bath so that the client would associate sexual arousal with pain. However, when questioned after the hearing, the woman refused to provide the name of the therapist and when it happened; nor was she willing to do any research to help uncover whether, if it had in fact happened, it was a licensed therapist.

In a senate hearing in February, a representative of the Washington Department of Health, which has jurisdiction over professional licensing and fields approximately 10,000 complaints a year, said that the current staff has 11 years of institutional knowledge and no one was aware of a single complaint alleging that a licensed therapist had attempted to coerce someone into not being gay.

This story sounds eerily similar to the disaster witnessed in New Jersey last year, when transgender activist Brielle Goldani claimed to have been sent to a “conversion therapy torture camp” in Ohio in 1997. Goldani alleged to have been electroshocked at the month-long “True Directions” camp in an attempt to make him, now her, straight. Yet, an investigation published at WorldNetDaily.com revealed that the entire testimony was a fraud, taken directly out of a Hollywood production starring drag queen RuPaul.