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Folks, it looks like the case of Barronelle Stutzman–the Christian florist who was sued by two “marrying” homosexual men and the Washington State Attorney General because she would not create a floral arrangement for their “wedding”–is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Feb. 16, the Washington State Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Stutzman of a lower court decision and ruled that “the government can force her—and, by extension, other Washingtonians—to create artistic expression and participate in events with which they disagree,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom, which is handling Stutzman’s defense (see more info below video). [Read the court’s decision HERE.]
Below is a background video on Barronelle’s case created by ADF. You will note from this 2016 court filing that ADF et al are defending Stutzman on “artistic freedom” grounds. We at AFTAH are not attorneys but we do know this: in a free society, anyone–Christian florist, Muslim cake-maker or atheist wedding chair-supplier–should have the liberty not to use their business to celebrate homosexuality-based “marriage,” which we, as Christians, regard as sin on steroids.
We hope that this kind, brave and faithful woman prevails at the Supreme Court. If she doesn’t, you can stop singing that America is the “land of the free.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH [more background after jump and video]
President Trump is keeping in place a special international LGBT “envoy” established by Obama who is charged with promoting the acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism abroad in the name of U.S. foreign policy.
The reinstatement of Randy Berryas Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons is another defeat for pro-family advocates who were counting on Trump to remove homosexual activists from the foreign affairs bureaucracy.
Berry is a career foreign service officer who speaks Spanish and Arabic. He was given the “LGBT Envoy” position of in 2015, to the applause of LGBT activists. Berry is also a homosexual and “gay” activist himself dedicated to seeing other nations adopt an immoral, modern Western legal system that grants “rights,” including marriage, based homosexuality and gender deviance.
Strike Three
This is Strike Three for Trump in terms of major pro-homosexual actions after his election:
He said in an interview as President-elect that SCOTUS’ homosexual “marriage” ruling, Obergefell, is “settled” law (it’s not, any more than Roe v. Wade is, or the pro-sodomy-law Bowers v. Hardwick decision was);
He now continues Obama’s pro-LGBTQ foreign policy promoting unnatural behaviors and sexual sin as “human rights.”
On the plus side, Trump has discontinued Obama’s policy of pushing transgender bathroom and locker room “rights” in public schools (allowing gender-confused boys in girls’ private spaces). And he nominated a conservative judge, Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court, although we have no idea how Gorsuch would rule on LGBTQ issues, assuming he gets in.
Those Days Are Gone….for LGBTQ activists. Although Trump has already made some key capitulations to the LGBTQueer agenda, he has also disappointed homosexual and gender-confusion activist in major ways. Obama’s immoral LGBTQ legacy is astonishing and much of it will be hard to undo. This Newsweek cover accompanied an adoring 2012 piece on Obama by homosexual writer Andrew Sullivan.
Think of it as payback for Obama refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) after “bullsh–ting” the American people on “gay marriage” in his 2008 run for president (to quote his top aide). Remember how Obama conned voters into thinking he was a pious believer in marriage as one man, one woman? (Mr. Rainbow Halo will have to answer to God for that some day, and much more.)
Now a note to AFTAH’s readers and supporters: if you haven’t figured it out yet, here is our approach toward President Trump and the LGBTQueer agenda: “Don’t really trust, and verify.” When he does right, like in NOT pushing gender confusion in schools, we will praise him. When he advances the “gay/trans” agenda, through action or non-action, we will criticize him.
I say this as a Cruz guy in the primaries who voted for Trump Nov. 8, and who would do so again: it is my longstanding conviction that God doesn’t give a pass to “Republican-backed” Sin Movements. Morality and biblical Truth know no party. So all you diehard, Trump-can-do-no-wrong fans: don’t bother urging us to go easy on Trump or look the other way when he enables homo-immorality, because we simply cannot–especially after hammering pro-sin Democrats all these years.
Here’s a “Washington Watch” piece with some good background on the Obama transgender order by Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council. Following that is the reaction to AG Jeff Sessions’ action by the Human Wrongs Rights Campaign (HRC), the world’s largest and most powerful homosexual-bisexual-transgender lobby group. God bless. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
If you thought President Trump hit the ground running, you should see Jeff Sessions. The new attorney general was probably still unpacking his office when he got to work turning the page at the Justice Department after eight years of scandal. First up? The Obama bathroom mandate for public schools.
Less than 48 hours after his confirmation, Sessions’s DOJ made it clear the agency was under new management by refusing to defend the controversial order to let students of both sexes use any locker room, shower, or restroom they want. Since last May when President Obama shocked the country with his decree, the issue has been working its way through the courts — thanks to a huge pushback from states like Texas. By summer’s end, a federal judge agreed with parents: the Obama administration had overstepped its boundaries. In a huge win for the Constitution and common sense, Reed O’Connor blocked the rule from taking effect, at least temporarily. Frustrated, the Obama attorneys asked the court to lift its ban in every state except the 13 who sued the government over it. O’Connor refused, insisting:
“It is clear from Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit precedent that this Court has the power to issue a nationwide injunction where appropriate. Both Title IX and Title VII rely on the consistent, uniform application of national standards in education and workplace policy. A nationwide injunction is necessary because the alleged violation extends nationwide,” he wrote. “Should the Court only limit the injunction to the plaintiff states who are a party to this cause of action, the Court risks a ‘substantial likelihood that a geographically-limited injunction would be ineffective.”
Queer, indeed: Kendall Oliver identifies as “genderqueer.” She prefers to use the pronoun “they” to describe herself. (AFTAH routinely runs afoul of the Pronoun Police by using pronouns that match a person’s birth sex.) Photo: Christian News Network.
Folks, here is yet another example of what I’m calling #LGBTyranny—ridiculous even by “gay” standards. For goodness’ sake, if you identify yourself as *genderqueer,* you should expect a little pushback, right? Is this an “orientation”?—no, silly me, it’s a “gender identity.” (Because it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of all the permutations, AFTAH has adopted the catch-all designation of “LGBTQueer” for the sex-and-gender-disordered movement.)
Should employers now be forced to hire “genderqueers”? Do we need special “genderqueer” restrooms? “Genderqueer” sensitivity lessons for first-graders? These LGBTQueer lawsuits make a mockery of real civil rights, and America a laughingstock around the world. And who gets to use the word “queer,” anyway? Only self-styled “queers,” or perhaps “queer”-friendly people and the media, too? But not the rest of us, that’s for sure. So much nonsense, so little time.
The poor barbershop in question only served men, dictated by the beliefs of its owner, Richard Hernandez. His freedom got clipped because Ms. Oliver wants to look like a dude, sort of. So she called in the “gay” lawyers. Oh, the humanity of it all! (By the way, look at the photo: there’s a beautiful woman under all that faux masculinity.)
Stay tuned: I hear a new “civil rights” lawsuit is in the offing from the Polyamory Liberation Front. (Actually, no such organization exists…yet.)
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — A men’s barbershop in California has agreed to a settlement with a woman who identifies as “gender neutral” who filed a lawsuit last year after being denied a haircut because she is not a man.
Under the terms of the settlement, signed by both parties, Richard Hernandez, owner of The Barbershop, admits to violating California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and agrees to serve all who request a haircut.
“Kendall’s sex shouldn’t have mattered. No one should experience the gut-punch of being told they won’t be served by a business open to the public,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn said of the men’s barbershop in a statement on Wednesday.
As previously reported, Kendall Oliver, 25, began identifying as “genderqueer” after serving in the Army. The term is defined as “a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.”
Oliver also began preferring the pronoun “they” for herself as opposed to “her” or “him” in order to be gender neutral.
However, Oliver identifies more as male in her appearance, wearing men’s clothing and sporting a short hairstyle.
Not Politically Correct, but True: One thing the “gay”-cheerleading media refuse to discuss is the connection between homosexual behavior and disease. Order HERE for 29.95 or as an e-book for 9.95 HERE. Click on graphic to enlarge.
Folks, if you care about answering the absurd “gay” narrative that God’s design for sex and marriage is “equal” to sexual perversion, buy this book. If you want to support pro-family warriors who are on the front lines of defending what’s right–like the great people at Mass Resistance–buy this book. If you want to educate an LGBTQ-brainwashed friend or millennial, buy this book! C’mon, everyone: the truth matters, and the truth is homosexual behavior is destructive and unhealthy.
Pence praises Trump’s lack of ‘prejudice,’ implying opposing to homosexuality-based laws is bigoted
Pro-Homosexual “Marriage”: President Trump’s daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner. Although both purport to embrace Orthodox Judaism, they are strong supporters of the homosexual activist agenda–which is anathema to that religion. In 2011, they co-hosted a “Freedom to Marry” fundraiser. FTM was a leading LGBT organization fighting for legal homosexual “marriage.” Photo: IvankaTrump.com; White House Correspondents dinner.
Folks, the following is reprinted from an article I wrote for LifeSiteNews, a leading pro-family and pro-life news site [subscribe to LSN newsletter]. The next few weeks could determine the course of this administration, which is now attempting to reconcile its commitment to both religious freedom and homosexual “rights”–a task that many longtime critical observers of the homosexual agenda believe is impossible. See both LifeSite videos on Trump’s prior pledges on marriage and religious freedom at bottom. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera
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Ivanka Trump, husband reportedly stopped religious freedom order; Pence affirms pro-LGBT rights move
Peter LaBarbera, Feb. 9, 2017
(LifeSiteNews) — Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, are being credited in the media for sinking a potential Trump executive order designed to protect the freedom of conscience for people of faith.
The power couple, though identifying as Orthodox Jewish, have a history of supporting homosexual activism, including co-hosting a fundraiser for a leading pro-homosexual “marriage” group in 2011.
Meanwhile, in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Vice President Mike Pence defended his boss’ extension of a pro-LGBT executive order issued by President Obama in 2014.
After ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Pence to react to influential Iowa pro-family leader Bob Vander Plaats, who said, “Our base is wondering why Obama’s [pro-LGBT] executive order is allowed to stand,” Pence answered:
“I think throughout the campaign, President Trump made it clear that discrimination would have no place in our administration. I mean, he was the very first Republican nominee to mention the LGBTQ community at our Republican National Convention and was applauded for it. And I was there applauding with him.
“I think the generosity of his spirit, recognizing that in the patriot’s heart, there’s no room for prejudice is part of who this president is.”
Pence vs. Pence: Vice President Mike Pence has been put in an awful position, as a longtime opponent of homosexuality-based “rights” who now is Number Two man to a president who champions “LGBTQ rights.”
The D.C. homosexual newspaper Washington Blade reported: “The words in favor of LGBT rights are striking for Pence, who has a long anti-LGBT history that includes signing into law as Indiana governor a ‘religious freedom’ bill that would have enabled anti-LGBT discrimination.”
Pence was noncommittal on whether a religious liberty executive order was forthcoming but said Trump is investigating ways to overturn the Johnson Amendment that limits the political speech of pastors. In the campaign, Trump pledged to overturn it.
Liberal leak
The potential pro-religious liberty Trump executive order was leaked Feb. 1 to the leftist publication The Nation, which led a flock of pro-LGBT media and blogs to publish stories critical of the order as “anti-LGBT.” Such leaks are common in Washington as a way of undermining policies opposed by the leaker.
Folks, here is a Google Hangouts interview I just did (Feb. 2, 2017) with Cliff Kincaid, founder and president of America’s Survival. Kincaid is also director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism; see the AIM piece he refers to in the interview, “Trump Joins Ranks of DNA Deniers.”
The video is very choppy at times due to connection issues (with words missing), but please overlook that as it covers some interesting material regarding President Trump’s attempt to be pro-“gay” and pro-“religious liberty” at the same time. We also discuss whether Trump-backing Brit, Breitbart editor and vulgar homosexual Milo Yiannopoulos–who talks glibly about his oral sex encounters with other men at his “Dangerous Faggot Tour” college speeches–is actually a “conservative” and whether he helps or hurts the conservative cause. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH [more info after jump]
Here is America’s Survival’s YouTube channel description of the video (links added):
Why did Trump keep Obama’s executive order affirming special rights for the transgendered? How is this compatible with religious freedom and traditional values? Is there such a thing as a “gay conservative?” Who is Milo Yiannopoulos? Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth and LifeSiteNews.com talks about these matters with ASI TV host Cliff Kincaid.
Homosexual activists fret over Neil Gorsuch’s judicial philosophy and record; Log Cabin Republicans noncommittal
Let the “Borking” Begin: Homosexual legal group Lambda Legal runs photo of Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, with the word “Dangerous” printed over his face.
By Peter LaBarbera
Trump giveth, and Trump taketh away. Days after giving homosexual activists a huge gift by NOT rescinding a 2014 Obama executive order forcing federal contractors to have an LGBT “nondiscrimination” policy, Trump offered up a constitutional “originalist,” Judge Neil Gorsuch, to replace deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.
That led the coddled array of deviant-sex-and-gender leftist groups, otherwise known as the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) movement, to go ballistic [see my LifeSiteNews piece here].
Note that, regarding one 2015 decision by Circuit Court Judge Gorsuch involving a gender-confused prisoner, the LGBTQ Lobby almost literally has its (transgender) panties in a wad. (The poor fella in the case, a “male-to-female” transsexual, was not permitted to wear “feminine undergarments” in jail. Boo-hoo.)
It is hardly shocking that the same homosexual and transgender activists who create “rights” based on sodomitic inclinations and same-sex/gender-confused feelings would fear a man like Gorsuch, who is being compared to the brilliant conservative Justice Scalia. The latter repeatedly eviscerated the “living, breathing Constitution” judicial philosophy of “progressives” that discovers “rights” out of thin air to accommodate modern social ills like abortion-on-demand, homosexuality and pornography.
Even honest liberals might agree with this: it is difficult to find a “constitutional” right for two dudes to “marry” seeing that sodomy itself was illegal in most colonies and a taboo at the time of the Constitution’s framing. (“Prior to 1962, sodomy was a felony in every state, punished by a lengthy term of imprisonment and/or hard labor,” the left-biased Wikipedia reports.)
So even though the newly elected Trump choked badly by telling 60 Minutes that legalized same-sex “marriage” via the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling is “settled law” (while somehow Roe v. Wade is not), the Supreme Court could be just one more Trump appointment away from reversing it and sending “gay marriage” back to the states. That freaks out the Homosexual Lobby, which, like the Left in general, regards its SCOTUS victories as permanent, and pro-family wins like the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision upholding sodomy laws as temporary.
Here’s a quick rundown with links on some of the larger LGBTQ organizations’ hostile statements against Gorsuch; most of these are excerpts (note source links attached to group name). Also note the nuanced, noncommittal statement of the homosexual Log Cabin Republicans on Trump’s nominee:
GLAAD (formerly Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination):
“Neil Gorsuch’s harmful history of discrimination against the LGBTQ community renders him completely unfit to sit on the highest court in the land,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President & CEO. “He has record of advocating for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric or supporting candidates that are in favor of open discrimination against people and families who simply want to be treated the same as everyone else. Gorsuch’s presence on the Supreme Court will affect the law of the land for generations to come – long after Trump is out of office, and will turn back the clock on equality and acceptance.”
