From our good friends at Culture Campaign and North Shore Student Advocacy, originally published Feb 19, 2007:

A recent letter to the editor [.PDF] in the Thursday, Feb. 15 issue of Deerfield Review reveals a troubling agenda at Deerfield High School. A parent was denied permission for a one-time visit to observe a class called Freshman Advisory. She had become concerned about the content of the class after her daughter was mocked, called ‘anti-semitic’ and ‘homophobic’ for openly disagreeing with the pro-homosexual message presented. Student members of the Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) drew pictures of her with devil horns on her head…

Here is the letter in its entirety:

Parent Denied Class Visit

I have seven children who have either attended or are currently attending Deerfield High School. As a parent, I have the right to know what they are teaching my kids, how they are teaching my kids, and why they are teaching my kids certain information. I recently asked for the first time to visit a class to hear what they are teaching in Freshman Advisory.

I was surprised to receive a letter informing me that I would not be allowed to visit. They told me that they would send me a taped copy of the class.

First, how would I know if the tape had been edited? Second, I am an adult, I pay taxes for my kids to attend this school, and I should be able to sit in on one class to see what they are teaching my fourteen-year-old.

I have instilled morals and values in my kids, and I believe that some at DHS are trying to change my child’s beliefs to conform to theirs.

Tolerance is one of the values that I have instilled in my kids, but it is clear that tolerance is not a value shared by the Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) at DHS. I was shocked to learn that when one of my children openly disagreed with SAGA’s position on homosexuality, she was called anti-Semitic and homophobic. In addition, certain individuals in SAGA drew pictures of my daughter with devil horns on her head.

Shockingly, none of this was solved, and no one was punished for these intolerant and distasteful acts. I feel certain that if the tables were turned, my daughter would have been punished. Intolerance is clearly an issue at DHS. Unfortunately it is those with a non-traditional agenda who are the intolerant ones. Some students and certain staff members make it uncomfortable for more conservative students to disagree with the belief that homosexual behavior is moral.

I will do whatever I can to ensure that my children and their beliefs are tolerated. Furthermore, I do not want my children taught anything at school that should be taught only at home. Teachers should teach English, math social studies, science, and foreign languages.

The class I asked to observe is a Freshman Advisory class in which gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender DHS students discuss their sexual orientation with all freshmen. If they are allowed to share this information with freshmen, parents should be allowed to hear their presentation also.

If they are uncomfortable with a parent sitting quietly in the back of the class, then perhaps the presentation is not appropriate for the public school.

I do not want teachers having some students announce their sexual orientation to my children as part of a classroom presentation, and I do not want teachers even suggesting that my children accept the view that homosexual behavior is right behavior. This is not what I send my kids to school to learn. Something needs to change.

Ellen Waltz
Deerfield

Deerfield High School has some explaining to do…

Newsletter from Indiana Voice for the Family published Feb 28, 2007:

Today I am able to bring you good news! In a previous email last week I alerted you to a very dangerous bill that the Representative Greg Porter drafted. HB 1459 the Indiana Hate Crimes bill flew out of committee with a vote of 9:1. House Bill 1459 would have made it a worse crime to assault a gay man walking out of a bar than attacking a grandma walking down the street. It would have created 2 classes of victims, and punished someone more because of their thoughts. This bill represents an attempt to give special protection to homosexuals and cross dressers by stating that a crime against them is to be treated with more severity than a crime against a senior citizen, a child or a pregnant mom. It was a step in the wrong direction for the freedom of speech. I believe a crime is a crime, and needs to be punished to the full extent of the law! One would wonder, would the next step have been to prohibit speech that someone views as hateful? For example, will legislation be introduced to prohibit pastors from speaking out against the homosexual lifestyle? This legislation has already been introduced in the US congress (HR 254), and stands with the votes aligned ready to pass. Already, we have people who are being arrested under the “Hate Crimes” laws. Ask these 2 grandmothers in Pennsylvania who have received a 40 year jail sentence for passing out what Pennsylvania described as hate speech. (The Bible!!!) Read their story.

The pro family leaders united, and you acted! Thousands of emails were received by the Indiana Legislators. Then Indiana House Republican Jackie Walorski (pictured left) did the unexpected — She killed the controversial hate crimes bill by offering a pro-life amendment. Representative Walorski asked the House to give the same special protections to unborn babies as homosexuals and cross-dressers in the hate crimes bill. Democrats didn’t want to deal with that controversy and failed to allow a vote on it. Representative Walorski needs to be commended for her courageous action to stop this dangerous legislation (call or select “contact us” to send an e-mail).

This is what we are able to accomplish when we unite and say enough is enough! Thank you for acting so quickly in this matter! The Indiana Voice for the Family, American Family Association of Indiana, Advance America, Indiana Right to Life, Focus on the Family, and the Indiana Family institute are working together to bring these issues to the forefront! There are several key issues we will be watching this week.

1. SJR7 has made it to the house. Speaker Bauer has said that he will let this be heard. We need to hold him to his word! Call his office today, and ask him to follow his word. Let SJR7 be heard!
2. SB327, which is the HPV bill, is now ready for the House. We will be there to makesure this is not a mandatory vaccine for the girls of Indiana. We will soon need your help in letting our Representatives know that this is not a public health issue. This is a behavioral issue. It should not be forced on our girls. We do not want Indiana girls used as guinea pigs for a vaccine that has only been studied for 4.5 years.

We will continue to keep you up to date on the Issues at the statehouse. Thank you for your prayers and your support!

Monica Boyer
Indiana Voice for the Family

From Top Law Firms Undergo a Rainbow Revolution, by Vivia Chen, The American Lawyer, March 2, 2007, as re-published in Law.com:

In his famous dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’s same-sex sodomy law, Antonin Scalia railed against the legal profession for embracing the “anti-antihomosexual culture.” Well, Scalia got that right.

Not only are the nation’s elite law firms not anti-gay, they are putting out the lavender welcome mat. Perks that seemed radical just 10 years ago are now standard fare at Am Law 200 firms: health care benefits for domestic partners, nondiscrimination pledges and sponsorship of gay organizations. Firms are also stampeding to recruit candidates at gay job fairs. And according to a survey by gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign, the legal profession ranks high in gay-friendliness when compared to other industries.

Continue reading at Law.com

A followup to AFTAH’s exclusive special report on Out & Equal’s radical agenda…

From the Out & Equal website:

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is proud to display our ever-increasing list of corporations who support LGBT workplace equality by encouraging and fostering their own employee resource groups (ERGs). With such valuable workplace groups in place, employees in one ERG can turn to leaders in other groups to share resources and establish good workplace practices for LGBT employees. LGBT employees trust their employers are keeping their interests in mind when making key business decisions that affect all employees…

True Out & Equal Workplace Leaders

RFFM National Director Dan Zanoza interviewed Peter LaBarbera for this monthly feature (emphasis added).

From In Their Own Words, published Mar 1, 2007, by Republicans for Fair Media:

The liberal media now see themselves as “protectors” of the homosexual cause

Dan Zanoza: To say the least, you have had an interesting career. However, I think you would agree your role with AFT may be the most difficult challenge you have undertaken in your professional life. Why did you think it was important to take on such a controversial subject?

Peter LaBarbera: Well, I’ve been exposing and fighting the homosexual activist lobby for 15 years, and the Left for longer than that, for groups like Family Research Council, CWA (Concerned Women for America), Illinois Family Institute, and (my first job) Accuracy in Media (AIM). AFTAH was always a part-time endeavor, but now by re-launching it as a full-time organization, I’m taking it to a new level. “Gay” power has expanded exponentially just in the time I have been monitoring it. They may have more money and influence than ever, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are promoting a monumental fraud. Their “big lie” is that homosexuality is about “civil rights”; it’s really about normalizing behavior that is always wrong. Unnatural homosexual practices are very dangerous, at least for men, which is why we still see “gay” men dying in the prime of their life. Yet, strangely, the same liberals who decry smoking promote this very unhealthy lifestyle as OK to children in schools.

The good news is that homosexuality is not inborn and need not be permanent in a person’s life. Nobody has to be “gay.” There are no “ex-Blacks” or “ex-Latinos.” Thankfully, there are thousands of ex-“gays” who have left that lifestyle behind and now live contented lives in accordance with God’s wonderful design for sex and marriage. We are trying to inform the public about these truths because unfortunately the liberal media now see themselves as protectors of “gay rights” and they spike stories that they regard as unfavorable to the cause. My first boss coming out of college was the late, great media critic Reed Irvine of AIM, and I worked for several years under Bob Knight (now director of Brent Bozell’s Culture & Media Institute), so I have been blessed with wonderful mentors in that area.

I read this testimony with tears of joy streaming down my face — GOD IS SO GOOD! Let us thank Him for the amazing transformation in Charlene Cothran’s heart and life — and let us pray that He will endow her with courage and wisdom as she grows in the grace and knowledge of the LORD. She is the publisher of Venus Magazine — check out the updated mission statement! — Sonja Dalton

From Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out, by Charlene E. Cothran, published by Venus Magazine:

Over the past 29 years of my life I have been an aggressive, creative and strategic supporter of gay and lesbian issues. I’ve organized and participated in countless marches and various lobbying efforts in the fight for equal treatment of gay men and lesbians. I have kept current on the issues and made financial contributions to those organizations doing work about which I was most passionate.

As the publisher of a 13 year old periodical which targets Black gays and lesbians, I have had the opportunity to publicly address thousands, influencing closeted people to ‘come out’ and stand up for them selves, which is particularly difficult in the African-American community.

But now, I must come out of the closet again. I have recently experienced the power of change that came over me once I completely surrendered to the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a believer of the word of God, I fully accept and have always known that same-sex relationships are not what God intended for us.

I don’t expect that this message will be widely received, quite the contrary. But, I do know that there is someone, possibly reading this very article, who is tired and unhappy living this way. Someone, in your heart of hearts, is searching for a way out, but you just can’t seem to break free on your own. I am speaking to my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters who want real peace; the kind you’ve heard about, sung about, read about. It is simpler than you think to acquire it and there is no condemnation once you’ve entered it.

Although I have lived as a lesbian for my entire adult life, it is without a doubt my soul’s purpose to use my gifts to LOVINGLY share the truth about how we got here: how we came to be gay or lesbian, how we came to enjoy our ‘lifestyle’ and how we came to believe that this was OK with God. [Romans 1:21-28]

Many argue that each individual should determine for themselves what God intends for him or her. This would indicate that we each have a separate set of biblical rules to live by. This is untrue. If you are ready for change and willing to open yourself to the truth, God’s love can bring your current belief system in line with His Word. Jesus will cleanse and forgive all confessed sin from a willing heart. Homosexuality is only one of them. It is no greater sin than any of the others, but it is sin.

By now you’re asking, ‘Has she lost her mind? My answer is NO. I didn’t lose it, I gave it away! In fact, I traded it in for a new one! [Romans 12:1-2]

ONE TUESDAY MORNING

I was minding my own business one fine New Jersey morning when I received a call from a local pastor, the Rev. Vanessia M. Livingston. I had never spoken to her previously. She was calling to add a statement to an article about her gospel group in another paper we own called the Kitchen Table News.

I don’t remember how we got on the subject of salvation but she could not have known how much I had been struggling with trying to reckon my spiritual upbringing with my lesbian lifestyle.

My stiff-necked resistance to the truth arose in me as she ministered. I honestly figured that if I simply mentioned the ‘L’ word that she’d drop the phone, anoint it with oil and that would be the last I’d hear from her. But that’s not what happened. The pastor prophetically confirmed what I’ve known for years, ‘one day you will come out of the world and bring many gay and lesbian souls out with you.’ She asked if today was the day that I would choose but I said no. I felt the power of conviction upon me as she spoke but I resisted and hardened my heart against the truth as I had done many times before. I was not willing to hear her or give up my all to God, especially knowing that I had a confirmed speaking engagement scheduled the following week at the Schomberg Center during New York City Gay Pride.

From HIV-Positive Rep Seeks Homosexual ‘Marriage’ in IL, by Jim Brown and Jody Brown, published Feb 28, 2007, by One News Now:

An Illinois pro-family group is voicing opposition to what it calls a “counterfeit” marriage bill in the state legislature that seeks to make Illinois “the Massachusetts of the Midwest.”

Illinois’ only openly homosexual representative, Democrat Greg Harris, has introduced HB 1615, which would repeal Illinois’ ban on same-sex “marriages.” Pete LaBarbera of the Chicago-based group Americans for Truth says Harris and other homosexual activists are hoping to wear down Illinois voters, and over time pass what he describes as “radical” legislation.

“Greg Harris is the new homosexual rep representing ‘Boystown,’ which is the homosexual neighborhood in Chicago. He replaces another homosexual,” says LaBarbera. “He is HIV positive and even put … on his resume, publicly, that he has AIDS.” The Americans for Truth spokesman says he finds that both sad and ironic. “He’s bearing a disease that is caused by this lifestyle,” he notes, “and now he wants to take this lifestyle and say that it merits being called ‘marriage.'”

According to LaBarbera, the bill introduced by Harris is “sneakily” called the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.” And homosexual activists like Harris, he notes, play long-term politics, whereas many in the pro-family movement play short-term politics.

“The long-term goal of the homosexual activists is to make Illinois ‘the Massachusetts of the Midwest,'” says the pro-family leader. “[T]hey would desperately love to get a state in the Midwest to go for so-called ‘homosexual marriage.'”

For that reason, LaBarbera is encouraging conservatives and people of faith likewise to think long-term. “We must retain the goal of repealing all ‘sexual orientation’ laws — in Illinois and across the nation — since they are incompatible with the basic American freedoms of religion, conscience, and association,” he says on his group’s website. “And we must act to protect marriage as between a man and a woman at the state and federal constitutional levels.”

Toward that end, LaBarbera says Americans for Truth will be working with other Illinois pro-family groups to push for another referendum calling on the state legislature to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting homosexual “marriage.” One pro-traditional marriage referendum, HJRCA 1, he explains, has “languished” in the General Assembly for years. LaBarbera blames what he calls “Democrats’ subservience to the state’s powerful ‘gay’ lobby.”

TAKE ACTION — Pass this article forward to the executives at your company and contact your elected officials in Washington, D.C. (Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121) to express opposition to the “ENDA Our Freedom” Bill. (ENDA is the pro-homosexual, pro-“transgender” Employment Non-Discrimination Act.) Also, call President Bush at 202-456-1111 or 456-1414 and ask him to veto any and all pro-homosexual bills that emerge from the Democrat-led Congress.

AN Americans For Truth EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT

Amy Andre, program manager for Out & Equal, presented a workshop at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference, November 8-12, 2006, in Kansas City, Missouri, entitled 15 Steps to an Out & Equal Workplace. (AFTAH’s reporters went undercover at the conference because the Task Force ejects critical observers at its events.)

One key initiative revealed by Andre: the promotion of a “spousal equivalency policy” that would require employers to pay homosexuals a higher salary than married heterosexuals.

These are the steps that homosexual activists are recommending for American corporations (our comments are in bold and italics):

(1) Support and attend the annual Out & Equal “Workplace Summit”

(2) Start an “employee resource group” — This employee group will be used to pressure the company to complete the remaining steps.

(3) Offer domestic partner benefits — O&E supports domestic partner benefits for cohabitating heterosexuals as well as homosexual partners.

(4) Include “sexual orientation” in your company’s EEO policy — Such a policy would prevent the company from “discriminating against” homosexuals or bisexuals.

(5) Include “gender identity and expression” in your company’s EEO policy — This policy would prevent an employer from “discriminating against” a transvestite (cross-dresser) or transsexual (who might be considering a “sex change” operation or might be partially or completely “transitioned”), even if this situation creates a problem with clients. (For example, these policies have been used to ensure that a teacher who cross-dresses or proceeds with a “sex-change” operation cannot be fired. Instead, children are expected to understand and cope with this outrageous situation.)

(6) Include LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] workplace diversity training — “Knowing someone who is LGBT changes attitudes” so O&E recommends having the trainer or another employee “come out” during the session — a manipulative tactic.

(7) Support the LGBT community through corporate giving — Although homosexual activists generally express disdain for corporate America, executives are urged to contribute money to promote the normalization of homosexuality.

(8) Recruit and develop LGBT employees

(9) Market to the LGBT community

(10) Create LGBT-specific advertising

(11) Provide LGBT leadership development opportunities

(12) Develop spousal equivalent policies for LGBT employees — See below — this one is very important.

(13) Include LGBT-owned businesses in your supplier diversity program — O&E recommends the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s certification program. This policy results in business moving from family-oriented companies to pro-homosexual companies. (Case in point: Wal-Mart.)

(14) Promote an LGBT-friendly corporate culture

(15) Share best practices around LGBT workplace issues

Out & Equal convinces companies that homosexuals comprise both a vital source of talent and a uniquely attractive target market segment. Using data from Witeck-Combs, a pro-homosexual firm, O&E suggests that homosexuals comprise 6 to 7 percent of the population. (Their number far exceeds more scientific estimates that put the figure at 1-3 percent.)

Using their inflated numbers, O&E says the 14 to 16 million homosexuals will spend about $640 billion in 2006. They report that homosexuals are twice as likely to be professionals or managers, are early adopters of new technologies, are brand loyal, and have a higher discretionary income. That enticement, along with a little “social justice” guilt, deceives companies into implementing O&E recommended policies.

First, a corporation would incur additional expense to fund “domestic partner” benefits. Most corporations contribute a substantial portion toward the cost of an employee’s personal health care and some toward the cost of coverage for an employee plus spouse or employee plus spouse/children. O&E recommends that an employer make that same contribution for those who are not married — for instance, a live-in boyfriend/girlfriend or a homosexual partner.

Homosexual “Spousal Supremacy”?
Next, Out & Equal’s “spousal equivalency policy” would require the employer to compensate the homosexual employee for the absence of tax exemption on homosexual partner and children health insurance costs. An employee normally makes a contribution, deducted from his paycheck, toward the cost of his health care coverage. For a married man, that expense is paid with pre-tax or tax-exempt dollars. Because there is no federal recognition of “gay marriage,” although a homosexual may receive domestic partner benefits, his contribution is paid with taxable dollars.

In the example Ms. Andre used (and she did note that the figures would vary according to each unique circumstance), she estimated that the employer would need to pay a homosexual employee with a partner $3787.20/year extra to compensate for the different tax status; that figure would soar to $7006.32/year for a homosexual with a partner and children. The net effect of this concept would be to pay a homosexual with a “partner” thousands of dollars more than a married heterosexual.

And add to that the cost of employee time spent networking, calling or e-mailing, meeting to focus on their “victim” status, lobbying HR/management, etc.

Executives would do well to examine Eastman Kodak, Ford, and Wal-Mart as case studies and to note the negative effect of capitulating to GLBT demands — on corporate revenue, volume, and stock price.

Or they could simply heed the words of one (white, female) activist in a separate Task Force Creating Change session, who expressed disdain for American corporations and said:

“…I am happy to take the white man’s money
and use it to subvert [everything he stands for].”

Out & Equal’s 2007 Workplace Summit will be held September 27-29 at the Hilton in Washington, D.C. Human Resource executives would do well to take their calculators along.