If you don't want to miss anything posted on the Americans For Truth website, sign up for our "Feedblitz" service that gives you a daily email of every new article that we post. (This service DOES NOT replace the regular email list.) To sign up for the Feedblitz service, click here.
Denise Shick’s father told her he wanted to become a “woman” when she was just nine years old. Now she runs the Help 4 Families Ministry, which reaches out to families dealing with “transgender” issues. Shick will be speaking on a panel at the AFTAH Teach-in Sat., Oct. 21, following our dinner-banquet with ex-“gay” Stephen Black Oct. 20. Black also will give three presentations on Saturday.
Folks, I’m excited to announce that Denise Shick, founder and executive director of Help 4 Families Ministry, will be speaking at the AFTAH Teach-in Oct. 21, which follows our banquet with former homosexual Stephen Black Oct. 20. Help 4 Families describes itself as “a Christian ministry that compassionately reaches out to family members and brings understanding of the emotional and spiritual issues that families face when a loved one is gender confused.”
As you can read in the essay by Denise below, Shick’s father revealed to her when she was just nine years old that he wanted to become a “woman,” then asked her not to tell her own mother. Her ministry today was birthed by her many years of dealing with the pain and trauma of such emotional abuse at the hands of her own gender-confused dad; read more about her harrowing personal story HERE.
Denise is author of three books dealing with “transgender” issues (see below). She will be on our Q-and-A panel Saturday afternoon, following three presentations on homosexuality by Stephen Black, who has lived 35 years free of the “gay” lifestyle that he once thought defined him. Black also speaks Friday evening, Oct. 20, with a casual dinner served. Tickets are just $25 for both days of outstanding teaching. My friend and pro-family leader Diane Gramley of American Family Association of Pennsylvania will also appear on the final Saturday panel.
Banquet & Teach-in sign up: More information HERE; sign up with your safe payment online HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth
_______________________________
The ‘Transgender’ Lobby Is Weaponizing Children as Pawns in the Culture War
By Denise Shick, Oct. 1, 2017
I’ll never forget the first time I heard of warlords such as Uganda’s Joseph Kony turning little boys into killer soldiers and little girls into sex slaves. My heart ached at the thought. It still does. It seemed like a horrible war movie—but it was real, with real children as casualties.
War is always horrible, but in some sad cases it is necessary. But children should be—to the greatest degree possible—shielded from violent conflicts. They should never be forced to kill or do violence. Innocent, impressionable children are malleable. They can be sculpted into persons of deep character, guided by transcendent principles. Or they can be turned into weapons, as Joseph Kony and many other evil men have done.
Folks, please make plans to attend the Americans For Truth banquet and next-day teach-in featuring my friend and pro-family leader Stephen Black, Oct. 20-21, 2017 — at Grace For Life Bible Church, in Naperville, IL (west of Chicago). Stephen once considered himself “gay” but now is a Christian family man and the director of First Stone Ministries, which helps people overcome homosexuality like he did. He is also author of the forthcoming book, Freedom Realized, and Board Chairman of Restored Hope Network, the largest umbrella group of ex-gay Christian ministries. This will be a spectacular learning event that you will not want to miss!! Event details follow the video from our friends at PFOX. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
AFTAH Banquet and Teach-in on Homosexuality (note venue change):
WHAT: AFTAH’s annual dinner-banquet and next-day teach-in on homosexuality.
WHEN: Banquet with casual dinner is Friday, Oct. 20, 6:00-9:30 PM. Teach-in seminars led by Stephen is Saturday, Oct 21, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. A casual lunch will be served.
WHERE: [Note venue change] Grace For Life Bible Church, Naperville, Illinois (west of Chicago), 7S201 S. River Rd., Naperville, IL. [at the corner of River Rd. and Aurora Ave.]
COST: Just $25/person to attend either or both events. Table of 10 at banquet for $250. Separate gift offerings will be taken both Friday and Saturday. Mail check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522 — or pay online HERE (we are still updating the banquet donor form).
______________________________________
Background
Stephen H. Black’s life is a microcosm of homosexuality and the “gay” cultural debate. Molested and bullied as a boy, he came to believe the lie that he was “gay.” Unsatisfied with his homosexual life as a man, he ultimately found salvation through Jesus Christ, walked away from homosexual sin, married a wonderful woman and had children (Stephen is a grandfather now, too). In recent years, Stephen was used by God to defend the truth about homosexuality as a board member of the largest Christian ex-gay umbrella group, Exodus International, which imploded after its leaders embraced apostasy.
Stephen is the author of the forthcoming book, Freedom Realized: Finding Freedom from Homosexuality & Living a Life Free from Labels, which testifies to the truth, ignored by the media, that many men and women have found freedom from homosexuality through Christ. Stephen’s powerful testimony and bold defense of biblical truth is a rebuke to the timidity and shallow, defensive thinking on homosexual sin that pervades the evangelical church today.
Stephen will be the keynote speaker at our dinner banquet Friday, October 20th, and then will lead three seminar discussions on Saturday, October 21st, answering questions like these:
People I love are “gay.” What is the best way to reach out with the heart of Christ to homosexual or “transgender” strugglers?
Why should I believe what the Bible teaches about homosexuality and marriage, and how do I defend it in a secular culture?
If “born gay” is a myth, what are the major contributing factors to a person embracing a homosexual identity?
Is there really solid evidence that MANY once-“gay” men and women have changed and found lasting freedom apart from homosexuality?
Why is it wrong to affirm “LGBTQ youth” in “gay” identities and gender confusion?
What is the danger of “gay”- and “trans”-affirming “Christianity” and how should believers answer its false claims?
Why should the Church stay engaged in the cultural battle for Truth surrounding LGBTQ issues?
How are LGBTQ activists destroying religious liberty in America?
Folks, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my tax dollars spent on transsexual “male-to-female” “vaginoplasty” “surgeries” that attempt to turn a severely gender-confused man’s healthy penis–which God designed to bring forth new life–into a makeshift “vagina.” Nor do I want to subsidize through my government the surgical removal of a woman’s healthy breasts so she can have a flat chest to help fulfill her disordered “transgender” fantasy of becoming a “man.” Ex-transsexual Walt Heyer of SexChangeRegret.com is right: your DNA does not lie and you cannot change your sex.
The mutilations are revolting and tragic, yet YOU and I are paying for them. Recently, the U.S. House narrowly rejected the Hartzler Amendment to the main defense spending bill–designed to stop taxpayer funding of such grotesque operations in the U.S. Armed Forces. Amazingly, 23 Republicans joined the unified Democrats in voting it down.
The following graphic is excerpted from a larger description of a “vaginoplasty” by the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery. Beneath the graphic (after the jump), we have reprinted the Center’s full “Vaginoplasty Methodology” description. Let’s put an end to this tax-funded madness; call your U.S. Congressman at 202-225-3121 and your Senators at 202-224-3121. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera [click on graphic to enlarge]
On Tuesday (July 18, 2017), I was a guest on VCY America’s “Crosstalk,” with my friend and host Jim Schneider (who always does an excellent job) [Click HERE to listen.] It was a great program; Crosstalk’s description of it follows (I have added some links). Also, a reminder: you can view all of my articles and columns on LifeSiteNews by clicking on the button at the lower right or by going HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, president, Americans For Truth; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera; write us at americansfortruth[at]gmail.com.
________________________
Selling Out to the LGBT Agenda
Posted on July 18th, 2017
??Date: July 18, 2017 Host: Jim Schneider Guest: Peter LaBarbera ?Listen: MP3 ???| Order from VCY America
?This edition of Crosstalk began with an update concerning baby Charlie Gard. An American doctor, who previously testified that Charlie’s chances of improvement are up to 50%, is examining him.
The judge is allowing for this examination and then he’ll allow up to a week in making a decision.
Also, Charlie has received a government appointed lawyer who supposedly is speaking for Charlie in the courts. The problem is that this lawyer is the chairman for Compassion in Dying, an end-of-life advocacy group with a sister organization that supports assisted suicide.
Peter LaBarbera is the founder and president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality and also a writer for Lifesitenews.com.
Jim indicated that he commends the Trump administration for putting on hold the recruitment of people who desire to identify in a way that’s contrary to their biological sex. That policy was set to take effect July 1st but has been postponed to January 1st. However, those in the military who wish to identify as transgender are being allowed to do so. Peter feels it’s ridiculous that under President Trump we’re not shelving this radical experiment.
According to Peter, there’s radical pro-transgender training which is telling even women that they need to get used to and accept (in the name of non-discrimination) the idea that there will be biological males in the same shower facilities, barracks and restrooms with them.
Jim noted that what’s even more disturbing is that now when a vote has come before Congress to put a stop to things like this, they have refused to do so. For example, he mentioned how the Republican led U.S. Congress had an opportunity to ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries for military personnel. They blocked a ban on such operations which means they kept the Obama era policy intact and put taxpayers on the hook for those in the military who are gender confused.
America Corrupts the World: Even under Trump, the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica flies the LGBTQ-activist “rainbow flag” under Old Glory. But Jamaicans know that immoral “gay-” and “transgender” “rights” inherently destroy real freedoms. Photo: Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, June 2017.
Folks, the following column was published Sunday in the Jamaica Gleaner. It is written by Shirley Richards, a wise Christian advocate for genuine rights and moral truth whom I had the privilege of meeting in Jamaica when I spoke there in 2013. Below Richards ably explains the difference between genuine rights based on a moral philosophy, rooted in timeless Judeo-Christian truth–and counterfeit “gay/transgender rights,” which “compete with, and undermine, fundamental human rights and freedoms.”
Smart Jamaicans–and peoples all over the world–are trying to learn from the USA’s and the West’s failed experiment of creating sodomy-based “rights,” which became the foundation for the modern Western abomination of “same-sex marriage.” Meanwhile, the United States and other decadent Western nations–and leftist organizations like the George Soros-funded Human Rights Watch–are pressuring Jamaica and many other nations to join our illicit “rights” revolution.
At right is a current photo of the American Embassy in Kingston, flying the LGBT “rainbow flag” (as it did under Obama)–thereby telegraphing to this small nation that, even under Trump, we will use our immense political and economic power to “persuade” them to embrace a system of newfangled legal “rights” that inherently destroys liberty. Let’s hope we don’t prevail, and that Donald Trump gets America out of the business of exporting the immoral, anti-Christian LGBT “rights” revolution. — @Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; see my LifeSiteNews articles here.
___________________
Majority view on gay rights must have sway
By Shirley Richards
Published in Jamaica Gleaner, June 11, 2017
In an article written by Dr. Carolyn Gomes published [in the Jamaica Gleaner] on Sunday, May 28, 2017, she stated, in relation to the development of the [Jamaican] Charter of Rights: “The Parliament, however, appears to be timid. It has not acted on the recommendation to ensure that all citizens are protected from discrimination on the basis of disability, health status, if they speak Patois, have a mental illness, or are different in sexual orientation and gender identity.”
These were recommendations made by various interest groups. They were debated by the joint select committee of Parliament on the Charter of Rights (Constitutional Amendment) Bill and decisions were made to accept or reject accordingly.
The Parliament had then, and still does have, a responsibility to allow for citizens to make submissions, but there was, and still is, the corresponding responsibility to sift submissions and to decide which ones are in the best interests of the country. Parliament must examine all the relevant studies and data. They must also have an understanding of the impact of these decisions on the country both now and in time to come and be satisfied that such decisions are in fact for the good of the country.
In determining what is in the “best interests” of the country, they cannot afford to disregard the voice of the people. Specifically, the members of the House of Representatives are there to represent the people, not to foist their own viewpoints on the people, a point Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, as a member of said House, may do well to remember. As the late [First Premier of Jamaica] Norman Manley, QC, said on the occasion of the passage of the 1962 [Jamaican] Constitution:
“As a politician, sir, I would be the first person to acclaim every instance in which the public succeeds in having their way … for we, sir, are their servants and are here to execute their will.”
Non-discrimination
As it relates to the issue of “sexual orientation”, the joint select committee (1999-2001) debated the request by the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays to protect ‘sexual orientation’ as grounds for non-discrimination. The committee expressly decided not to protect this term. The committee was concerned about the impact of such a term on the institution of marriage and on parenting.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) released the following statement Thursday, attributed to Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor, regarding a summary the White House released late Wednesday about an executive order on religious liberty issued by President Trump on the National Day of Prayer, May 4:
“During his campaign, President Trump stated that the first priority of his administration would be to preserve and protect religious liberty. In speeches, he said the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith will always have their religious liberty protected on his watch and will not have to face bullying from the government because of their religious beliefs. Religious voters took him at his word, giving the president a mandate to affirm and protect Americans’ first freedom.
“The current outline of the Religious Liberty Executive Order released by White House officials recalls those campaign promises but leaves them unfulfilled.
“First, no specific relief is offered to families like the Vander Boons in Michigan, who were threatened with the effective closure of their family-run business for simply expressing a religious point of view on marriage that differed from that of the federal government.
On April 1, I spoke at a Texas Mass Resistance conference in Austin that was put on by my good friend Brian Camenker, founder of national Mass Resistance, and Texas MR leader Robert Oscar Lopez–both brilliant pro-family strategists. Here is my presentation, dealing with the Human Wrongs Rights Campaign’s (HRC)’s ongoing pressure campaign to get major corporations to promote the radical LGBTQ agenda. Most Americans haven’t a clue about how successful HRC’s pro-perversion “CEI” (Corporate Equality Index) campaign has been. It even has an explicit anti-family component that punishes a corporation with negative points if it supports, say, a pro-national-marriage ministry. You can watch the other speeches at this excellent event on the main MR site. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
Under Obama, homosexual activist groups like Equality Florida used the White House Easter Egg Roll to promote homosexuality-based “marriage.”
By Peter LaBarbera
Most people think of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll as a special event for children, but under the Obama presidency, it took on a dual, political purpose as another excuse to promote sexually aberrant “LGBT” lifestyles and “gay parenting.”
That is apparently not happening this year at the Easter Egg Roll under President Trump, and some LGBTQ activists are hoping that’s only because the Trump administration is just getting started. The Egg Roll will be held today (Easter Monday) on the White House lawn, and is expected to draw 20,000 people, according to the New York Times, in an article about how behind the Trump team is in pulling it together.
The Washington Blade, a D.C. newspaper for homosexuals, reported April 12 that, “Because of the event’s emphasis on family, the [White House] Easter Egg Roll in years past has served as a vehicle to promote LGBT families and their children at times when relationship recognition was threatened by efforts to ban same-sex marriage or progressing as litigation seeking marriage equality proceeded through the courts.”
