Excerpted from Ghana Bans Gay Conference, Says it Would Promote Unhealthy Homosexuality, by Gundrun Schultz, published Sept 5, 2006, by LifeSite News:

“Ghanaians are unique people whose culture, morality and heritage totally abhor homosexual and lesbian practices and indeed any other form of unnatural sexual acts,” said a statement by Information Minister Kwamena Bartels. “Supporting such a conference or even allowing it will be encouraging that tendency which the law forbids.”

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Update: According to PinkNews.co.uk and 365Gay.com, homosexual activist leaders in Ghana say there was never a conference planned. Nonetheless, the Sept 7 365Gay.com article again quotes Information Minister Kwamena Bartels as saying,

…under Ghana’s laws against homosexuality any gathering of gays and lesbians was illegal.

“Unnatural carnal knowledge is illegal under our criminal code. Homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality are therefore offences under the laws of Ghana,” Bartels said in a statement to the Ghana News Agency.

So (whether there was or was not a conference planned) our point stands: Ghana’s leadership stands for Truth.

Excerpted from Scotland Bishop Supports Firefighters Disciplined for Refusing to Staff Booth at Gay Pride, by Gundrun Schultz, published Sept 5, 2006, by LifeSite News:

Glasgow Archbishop Mario Conti has spoken out in support of nine firefighters who were penalized by the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue after they refused to staff a booth and hand out leaflets during the homosexual Pride Scotia event in June…

“We have followed this case with concern. There was no question of these officers’ competency or commitment being called into question, not was there any suggestion that they were refusing to come to the assistance of people in danger.

“They were asked, while in uniform, to hand out leaflets during a demonstration where they had legitimate concerns about being the subject of taunts and jokes, and in which in some cases, their religious sensibilities would have been grossly offended by people dressed as priests and nuns lampooning the Church.”

Some of the men cited embarrassment at wearing the firefighter’s uniform at the event, the Guardian reported. Others said attending the event would go against their moral beliefs.

One of the firefighters, a watch manager, was demoted to crew manager as penalty and received a ?5,000 cut in salary. The remaining eight men were ordered to undergo diversity training, after receiving a written warning. The diversity training requirement was “alarming,” said the Archbishop.

“The duty to obey one’s conscience is a higher duty than that of obeying orders.”

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Excerpted from Westbrook School System is Set to Teach Kids the Virtues of Gay Marriage, published Aug 31, 2006, by Christian Civic League of Maine:

With the start of the new school year, the Westbrook school system is scheduled to begin teaching children in the early grades the acceptability of gay marriage. The decision of the Westbrook School Department to introduce the curriculum changes, which include lessons on contraception for middle school students, ignited a firestorm of controversy earlier this year when it was learned that a former head of a Montana lesbian activist organization “Montana PRIDE” was shepherding the curriculum changes through the Westbrook Curriculum Committee.

Thanks to a Maine Freedom of Access Act request filed by a concerned Westbrook parent, it was learned that the parents of Westbrook were led to believe that the curriculum changes were part of a grassroots, neighborhood effort, when in reality, they merely incorporated word-for-word the recommendations of the nation’s most liberal sex education organization, the New York-based group SIECUS. Worse yet, the rationale advanced for the proposed curriculum changes – that the curriculum was needed to ward off a rising teen pregnancy rate – was revealed to be bogus. The data used to back up the curriculum changes actually showed that teen pregnancy rates were steadily declining in Westbrook.

The real shocker was yet to come. Only two days before the school board voted on the proposed curriculum changes, Westbrook parents learned that the new curriculum would include material portraying gay marriage as normal and acceptable. Despite opposition by many Westbrook parents, the vote by the school board was unanimous in favor of the proposed changes. The proposed changes were scheduled to take effect with the start of this school year.

Continue reading at Christian Civic League of Maine…

Excerpted from American Baptists Boot Pro-Gay Church, published Aug 30, 2006, by UPI:

A group of Baptist churches in Michigan has cut ties with one of their congregations for its approval of homosexuality.

Woodside Church, Flint’s oldest Baptist church, has become the first Baptist church in the state to be disaffiliated from American Baptist congregations because of its progressive views on homosexuality, the Flint (Mich.) Journal said Tuesday.

By a vote of 18-3, churches in a 10-county area that are part of the American Baptist Churches USA, a national denomination, elected to sever all ties with Woodside, which also is affiliated with the left-wing United Church of Christ.

Continue reading at Religion & Spirituality Forum…

Excerpted from Southern Decadence Returns To New Orleans, published Aug 31, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality 365Gay.com:

A year after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans forcing the cancellation of the biggest gay party in the South, Southern Decadence is back and organizers say it is living proof the city is well on its way to recovery.

Hotels and guest houses are reporting near capacity bookings for the weeklong event that gets underway Friday and culminates with the traditional flamboyant parade.

…While much of the city’s gay population is back, many have opted to stay in communities that gave them shelter in the aftermath of Katrina – like Baton Rouge and Houston. Organizers of Southern Decadence say that a lot of those people are coming back this weekend, if only for a visit.

After all, Southern Decadence is a tradition. Not only in the Big Easy but throughout the South. It is such a big deal one conservative religious leader blamed the event for Katrina.

…Pre-Katrina about 100,000 people a year attended Southern Decadence…

Continue reading at 365Gay…

Excerpted from Ontario Well on Way to Declaring More than Two Legal Parents for Children, by Hilary White, published Aug 31, 2006, by LifeSite News:

Once again the needs of children in Canada are being placed a distant second to the personal wants of Canadian gay activists. In response, the Alliance for Marriage and Family, a coalition of groups fighting the legislative and judicial attacks on the traditional family, has filed a brief in Ontario’s Court of Appeals in what is being called the ‘three parents case.’

The case involves two women in a lesbian relationship and a man who donated his sperm to create a child for them on the condition that he could have a part of the child’s life. The man in the case is married to another women and has other children. After the child was born, his mother’s lesbian partner demanded to be listed legally as his “second” mother in addition to his biological parents.

The case was rejected by a lower court that ruled Ontario’s family law recognized only two possible parents for each child, whether biologically or by adoption and so the court had no authority to make the declaration.

The woman appealed, claiming a special situation because she was in a same-sex relationship and such couples require assisted human reproduction.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Excerpted from Toronto School Board to Ask All High School Students Their Sexual Orientation, by Gudrun Schultz, published Sept 5, 2006, by LifeSite News

The Toronto District School Board is introducing a survey asking high school students to self-identify their sexual orientation, the Canadian Press reported last week.

Ontario students will be asked to provide voluntary information on a variety of questions—for students in grades nine to twelve, those questions will include whether they identify as straight, gay, “lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer or two-spirited (an aboriginal term).”

Experts in the field of children’s mental health have suggested the trend in schools toward determining child sexual orientation is dangerously misplaced. George A. Rekers, Ph. D., research director for child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, stated that children are particularly vulnerable to confusion in the development of their sexual identity.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Excerpted from Gay Republican Tests Party Faithful in Minnesota Primary Fight, by Patrick Condon, published Sept 4, 2006, by Associated Press:

…[Minnesota Senator Paul] Koering, 41, a former dairy farmer and lifelong resident of the area, …often describing himself as a good Catholic boy. He’s an abortion opponent, a supporter of gun and property rights, and an outspoken supporter of veterans.

But in 2005, Koering was the only Republican in the Senate to join Democrats in opposing an effort to force a floor vote on a constitutional gay marriage ban.

That vote stirred up longstanding rumors at the Capitol about Koering’s own sexuality, and within a few days he revealed to the media that he was gay…“We are seeing more instances of openly gay Republicans, but there are still going to be significant parts of the country where that’s going to be difficult to pull off,” Dison said. Like Koering, most prominent gay Republicans came out only after they were in office, including U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona and former U.S. Rep. Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin.

Continue reading in Duluth News Tribune…