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Retail giant stands proudly with anti-Christian homosexual-transgender lobby, Human Rights Campaign
Target Backs Anti-Christian LGBT “Equality Act,” HR 3185: The corporate giant is standing with anti-Christian activists at the Human Rights Campaign to support the most radical and far-reaching homosexual-transgender legislation ever introduced in Congress. AFTAH is calling HR 3185 the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” because it would empower the State to punish those who exercise their conscience and stand up for biblical morality on sex and true marriage (between a man and a woman). Call Target at 800-440-0680 [or 612-696-3400; hit #1]; or write them via their contact page. E-mail Target at guest.relations@target.com. or press@target.com.
TAKE ACTION: Contact Target Corporation: [(800)440-0680; or call 612-696-3400 and hit #1; email: guest.relations@target.com. or press@target.com]; urge them to reverse their support of the anti-Christian “Equality Act”; [HR 3185; S. 1858] aka the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” or “Homosexual Superiority Act.” Suggest to Target that they would be smarter to at least stay neutral in the Culture Wars over redefining marriage and “civil rights” rather than siding with intolerant homosexual and transgender activists. The latter now champion anti-Christian bigotry by equating the defense of biblical morality and marriage with “hate”–and make shameful comparisons between cross-dressing men using Female restrooms and racist Jim Crow laws from the past that persecuted Black Americans.
For more information about the “Criminalizing Christianity Act,”go HERE. Target’s pandering and capitulations to LGBT activists go way back: see this 2011 L.A. Times article reporting Target’s pledge to give at least half a million dollars per year to homosexual activist organizations.
The popular department store giant Target has recently signed on as a corporate endorser of the radical homosexual-transgender “Equality Act” (HR 3185; S. 1858). AFTAH has renamed this LGBT bill the “Homosexual Superiority Act” or the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” because it will accelerate pro-homosexual State tyranny against people of faith or morals who oppose sinful, unnatural homosexual behavior and same-sex “marriage.” See this piece on HR 3185.
Target recently put out a statement on HR 3185–which was ballyhooed by the powerful, anti-Christian homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign (a Target ally):
“Target proudly stands with the LGBT community through all that we do, from our partnerships with organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), to our volunteer efforts, and even the products we sell. We want to be a champion for an inclusive society by using our influence and resources to support equality in the communities where our team members and guests live and work…
“Target is helping to lead the fight against discrimination by putting its support behind the Equality Act. Discrimination has no place in the workplace, and Target is demonstrating to all that inclusion is a pillar of any successful business,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “The time has come for full federal equality, and HRC is proud to include Target as a partner in this fight. Everyone should have a fair chance to earn a living, provide for their families, and live free from fear of discrimination, including Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”
HRC continues in its statement:
Target has a history of scoring highly on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, and was named as one of HRC’s 2015 “Best Places to Work”.
Target joins a number of leading American corporations, including Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, the Dow Chemical Company, Facebook, General Electric, General Mills, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, Nike, Oracle, Orbitz, PayPal and Symantec Corporation in support of federal LGBT non-discrimination protections.
As AFTAH has documented, HRC’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index” is a woefully-biased”scorecard” that gives companies points toward a Perfect 100 rating for making grants to LGBT activist groups–but takes points away from corporations that give to, say, pro-traditional-marriage groups. The homosexual-transgender lobby group continues to ratchet up the scoring criteria so that pro-“gay” corporations that have attained the “100 percent” ranking are pressured to make ever greater capitulations to LGBT demands to keep their “perfect” rating. In recent years that includes massive grants to pro-LGBT events such as “gay pride parades” [see Walmart’s funding of “New York City pride” HERE] and health insurance coverage for transgender employees seeking body-disfiguring “sex reassignment surgeries” as they “transition” to the opposite sex.
For more information about the “Criminalizing Christianity Act,”go HERE. Target’s pandering and capitulations to LGBT activists go way back: see this 2011 L.A. Times article reporting Target’s pledge to give at least half a million dollars per year to homosexual activist organizations. HRC is relying on large corporations to build support in Congress for the radical “Equality Act”; see this HRC release.
Urge Speaker Paul Ryan and Congress to oppose the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” (HR 3185). Call 202-225-3121 for the House and 202-224-3121 for the Senate. More information from AFTAH HERE.
So-called LGBT “Equality Act” will surely escalate State oppression against people of faith
Will Speaker Ryan Back the Anti-Christian LGBT Agenda? As a Republican Congressman, Paul Ryan voted in 2007 for the pro-homosexual ENDA bill–the precursor to today’s HR 3185 (Homosexual Superiority Act aka LGBT “Equality Act”). Contact House Speaker Ryan at 202-225-0600 and urge him to OPPOSE the radical “Equality Act” (HR 3185)–which would only escalate State oppression against people of faith across America.
The following is an excellent summary by Matthew Kacsmaryk of dangerous new LGBTQ legislation, HR 3185 (S. 1858), which AFTAH is labeling the “Homosexual Superiority Act”–or perhaps the “Criminalizing Christianity Act”–but which congressional sponsors (all Democrats) propagandistically refer to as the “Equality Act.” Kacsmaryk’s analysis first appeared in the outstanding website, “Public Discourse,” which I highly recommend (sign up for their emails HERE).
NOTE: I do have one quibble with the writer: the phrase “sexual liberty” is unfortunate Newspeak and the latest semantic invention by “progressives” that perverts historic notions of ordered liberty. It does so by attaching immoral and unnatural sexual conduct condemned in the strongest terms by God Himself to “liberty.” That connection–which is now employed by the most extreme libertines in the LGBTQueer coalition–e.g., the pro-sadomasochism National Coalition For Sexual Freedom–should be avoided at all costs, especially by social conservatives. Postmodern “sexual liberty” is in reality sexual license. Also, we usually affix quote marks to the word homosexual “marriage” but did not add them in Kacsmark’s article below.
Words matter. A lot of leftist harassment, intolerance and oppression is now being carried out in the lofty name of “equality.” The bottom line: when people caught up in homosexuality and/or gender rebellion are given superior (special) rights based on their aberrant lifestyles, moral-minded people lose their free-conscience rights. We already see escalating government prosecution–read: persecution–of faith-motivated Americans–mostly people who do not want to participate in same-sex “marriage” ceremonies–under local and state “sexual orientation nondiscrimination” laws. Now try to imagine the expanded assault on citizens’ religious freedom and First Amendment liberties if the ACLU and the rest of the Homosexual-Transgender Lobby were to be given the added power of the federal bureaucracy and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to enforce their pro-homosexual-transgender groupthink.
This “LGBTyranny” bill must be stopped if Americans are to remain free to be moral and follow God as they see fit. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera
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TAKE ACTION: 1) Contact Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (202-225-0600) and urge him to oppose HR 3185–the “Homosexual Superiority Act,” aka the LGBT “Equality Act.” (The other phone numbers for Speaker Ryan–who is now “America’s Congressman”–can be found HERE.) In 2007, as a Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, Ryan voted FOR the pro-homosexual Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the precursor bill to HR 3185. It is disturbing that Ryan, a self-styled “conservative,” would support growing federal homosexual-agenda power at the expense of faith-based Americans who defend natural marriage and Judeo-Christian morality. Ominously for Bible-believing Americans, the LGBT “Equality Act” is ENDA on steroids–and even more dangerous than ENDA to our cherished religious and First Amendment liberties.
2) Call Your Congressman and Senators, too: and urge them to oppose HR 3185. Find your Congressman HERE.
Target Corporation has backed the anti-Christian homosexual activist “Equality Act”–which AFTAH has dubbed the “Homosexual Superiority Act.” Contact Target at 800-440-0680 or write them at guest.relations@target.com.
3) Contact Target Corporation [(800)440-0680; guest.relations@target.com], which just endorsed HR 3185, and urge them to reverse their support of this anti-Christian “Equality Act”; suggest to Target that they would be smarter to at least stay neutral in the Culture War over redefining marriage and civil rights rather than side with homosexual and transgender activists. The latter now openly embrace anti-Christian bigotry and make shameful comparisons between anti-women “transgender” behavior (e.g., men in dresses using Female restrooms) and racist Jim Crow persecution of Black Americans. [AFTAH will have more on this story.]
4) Support FADA! Contact all the same legislators above and urge them to SUPPORT the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), HR 2802, which would prohibit the federal government from taking any punitive action against an American who believes that marriage solely between a man and a woman.
If enacted, the deceptively titled Equality Act would punish dissenters, giving no quarter to Americans who continue to believe that marriage and sexual relations are reserved to the union of one man and one woman.
On June 26, 2015, five justices of the Supreme Court found an unwritten “fundamental right” to same-sex marriage hiding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—a secret knowledge so cleverly concealed in the nineteenth-century amendment that it took almost 150 years to find. Facebook and the White House were awash in rainbow flags proclaiming the arrival of “marriage equality.”
Just three weeks after Obergefell, congressional Democrats filed House (H.R. 3185) and Senate (S. 1858) versions of the “Equality Act,” seeking to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the protected classes listed in the federal code. Americans are on an “equality” roll. What could go wrong?
As it turns out, quite a bit. If enacted, the deceptively titled Equality Act would punish dissenters who disagree with same-sex marriage by using the enforcement tools of the amended Civil Rights Act of 1964, but with even greater force and scope. The Equality Act seeks to weaponize Obergefell, moving with lightning speed from a contentious five-to-four victory on same-sex marriage to a nationwide rule that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are privileged classes that give no quarter to Americans who continue to believe and seek to exercise their millennia-old religious belief that marriage and sexual relations are reserved to the union of one man and one woman.
The Contents of the Law
So, in concrete terms, what would the proposed law do? Here are just a few of the potential areas of impact, given how the Equality Act would amend various provisions of the Civil Rights Act:
Employment: would amend Title VII to create new protected classes for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” with no countervailing exemptions for faith-based organizations that maintain internal standards of sexual conduct rooted in longstanding religious tenets.
Federal Programs: would amend Title VI, historically limited to race, color, and national origin, to create new protected classes for “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,” with no countervailing protections for faith-based providers who willingly serve every program-eligible person but maintain internal standards of sexual conduct rooted in longstanding religious tenets.
Public Accommodation: would drastically expand the Title II definition of “public accommodation” to cover “gatherings” and facilities historically owned and operated by churches or religious organizations—“shelters,” “food banks,” and “care centers”—extending far beyond the categories at issue during the Civil Rights Movement: common carriers (freight, bus, taxi, train, and air lines), public utilities, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
Public Education: would amend Title IV definitions of “desegregation” to include new protected classes for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” placing in the litigation crosshairs all sex-restricted facilities like dormitories, restrooms, or locker rooms.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act: would omit exemptions for religious organizations contained in prior drafts of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and expressly state that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) may not be used as a defense or a basis for challenging the Equality Act.
Sex: would enter a congressional finding that “federal agencies and courts have correctly interpreted [] prohibitions on sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex stereotypes,” thereby adopting the EEOC’s most aggressively extra-textual recent rulings.
Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications: would amend Title VII exemptions for employers who have sex-based “bona fide occupational qualifications” (BFOQ) for specialized jobs—for example, male security guards in a maximum security prison or female undercover officers in a sex-trafficking sting operation—to require recognition of persons “in accordance with their gender identity.”
Order Bob Reilly AFTAH Speech and Book: To order a DVD copy of Reilly’s outstanding speech at AFTAH’s Fall banquet (Oct. 17) in Chicago–combined with a paperback copy of his “Making Gay Okay” book–send $49 postpaid to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Or give a $49 gift on our new online donor form: https://give.cornerstone.cc/aftah
AFTAH is postponing our Washington, DC area banquet, which was scheduled for Nov. 21, due to delays and special circumstances surrounding our relocation to the nation’s capital. The banquet likely will be held in the Spring and will still feature conservative author Robert Reilly, author of “Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything.” Stay tuned.
Special Offer: To order a DVD copy of Reilly’s outstanding speech at AFTAH’s Fall banquet (Oct. 17) in Chicago–combined with a paperback copy of his book–send $49 postpaid to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Or give a $49 gift on our new online donor form: https://give.cornerstone.cc/aftah.
To make a general donation to Americans For Truth to help us in our move to the DC area, go HERE.
November 6, 2015; contact: Peter LaBarbera: 312-324-3787; americansfortruth@gmail.com
Who Is the Out of Touch Bigot on Transsexuals in Public Bathrooms: Ben Carson or the Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin?
WASHINGTON — Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera today accused Chad Griffin, president of the high-powered homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign, of “reverse bigotry” after Griffin smeared GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson for allegedly acting like a “segregationist.” Griffin made the absurd and ugly charge after Carson said that cross-dressing men and women should have their own “transgender restrooms” rather than make people uncomfortable by using bathrooms not designated for their biological sex. [AFTAH release continues after video clip below]:
Asked by journalist-activist Jorge Ramos, “Should transgender men and women use any public bathroom they choose,” Dr. Ben Carson calmly responded, “How about we have a transgender bathroom?”
Carson continued: “It is not fair for them [cross-dressing “transgenders”] to make everyone else uncomfortable. It’s one of the things I don’t particularly like about the [LGBT] movement. I think everybody has equal rights, but I’m not sure anybody should have extra rights—extra rights when it comes to redefining everything for everybody else, and imposing your view on everybody else, when the way this country was designed was live and let live.”
“Ben Carson’s hateful comments are out of touch and all candidates should immediately make clear that they disavow his dangerously transphobic views,” he fumed. “Ben Carson can’t go a week without invoking reckless and irresponsible stereotypes about the LGBT community, and his suggestion that transgender people be required to use segregated bathrooms echoes an ugly past our country should never revisit.”
LaBarbera responded:
“Shame on Chad Griffin for invoking racist Jim Crow laws against an African American man to justify the insanity of allowing gender-confused men to use female restrooms. The bottom line here is that a rich, powerful white homosexual activist in Washington, D.C., Chad Griffin, is a accusing a thoughtful black man, Dr. Ben Carson—who rose from humble roots to become a prominent neurosurgeon and a role model for youth everywhere—of being the moral equivalent of a Jim Crow racist. Why? Simply because Carson believes that girls and women should not be forced by ‘transgender rights’ laws to suffer the indignity of having their private spaces invaded by sexually confused men in dresses who think they’re women.”
On Tuesday, Houston voters overwhelmingly rejected—by a 61-39 margin—the city’s proposed LGBT “HERO” ordinance, which would have banned so-called “gender-identity nondiscrimination,” thus allowing gender-confused men and boys to use female-designated restrooms, and vice versa. Pro-family advocates who won the landslide “No” vote campaigned heavily on the dangers to women and girls of letting men into private female restrooms.
Chad Griffin of Human Rights Campaign
Said LaBarbera: “I ask you: who is truly out of touch here regarding men in female restrooms? Dr. Ben Carson with his common sense yet regrettably necessary solution–or Chad Griffin—the powerful lobbyist for a pro-Democrat Washington homosexual organization? Ask any woman: I think most would side with Carson.”
LaBarbera added that the danger of the proposed federal LGBT “Equality Act” (HR 3185)—which he dubbed the “Homosexual-Transgender Superiority Act” and the “Criminalizing Christianity Act”—is that it would put federal government power behind the brand of “reverse bigotry” espoused by Griffin.
“It’s bad enough that decent people are being accused by vicious homosexual zealots of ‘hate and bigotry’ simply because they uphold historic Judeo-Christian norms for sex and marriage and defend their First Amendment freedoms,” he said. “But imagine the mom-and-pop owners of a family business facing federal ‘civil rights’ prosecution merely because they won’t allow a big-boned, sex-confused guy wearing pumps and a skirt to enter the female restroom in their establishment? Are we really going to force women to have their private spaces violated in the name of LGBT ‘Equality’?! Are Chad Griffin and HRC anti-women?”
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Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org) is a non-partisan Christian group that does not endorse political candidates. AFTAH is moving its operations to the Washington, D.C. area. Its debut dinner-banquet in the nation’s capital featuring “Making Gay Okay” author Robert Reilly will be held Saturday, November 21 at Patriot Hall in Vienna, VA. Details HERE.
