Does renegade, pro-homosexual Illinois Republican politician have a conflict of interest?

“Do you agree that [your constituents] have a right to know if there is a special interest in your life that affects your voting record? From an integrity standpoint, I think the axiom is true: honesty is the best policy.” — Peter LaBarbera to then-St. Sen. Dan Rutherford (Republican-Pontiac, IL), 11/18/2004                                                    

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IL GOP gubernatorial candidate and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford–widely rumored to be homosexual by activists in the GOP–cast two key votes as State Senator for pro-homosexual legislation. Rutherford is now being sued for sexual harassment by a male aide who says he was groped by the politician.

Homosexual newspaper Windy City Times to Dan Rutherford: “Is the Republican Party changing? Should it?”
Rutherford: “I think the party should change. I think the party should evolve. I think it’s going to take people like myself to help the party evolve. When I voted for the [pro-homosexual/pro-transgender] human rights bill in the early 90s, there was only a few of us. And when we moved forward to eventually pass it, there was more of us. And as we moved into consideration of the civil unions bill, there were some of us.

“Equality Illinois [the state’s leading homosexual activist group] was one of the hosts at the Republican National Convention for one of the receptions.”  — WCT interview with Rutherford, 8-6-13

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Dear AFTAH Readers,

With reports that Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford is being sued for sexual harassment by a male aide, I thought it important to reprint the two articles below–which originally appeared on the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) website in 2005–and which I wrote as then-Executive Director of IFI. The article (like many other older pieces) fell off the current IFI website following a overhaul of the site, and currently is not on the IFI site.

Since these articles were written, then-State Sen. Rutherford, having already helped the Democrats pass a homosexual “nondiscrimination” bill, went on to cast a second key Republican vote for a bill legalizing homosexual “civil unions.” The latter was a precursor to legalized homosexual “marriage” in the Land of Lincoln (the state “gay marriage” law takes effect June 1, 2014). Rutherford, who went on to become Illinois State Treasurer in 2011, never answered this writer’s query about alleged homosexuality–something which most men, especially those falsely accused like myself, find very easy to do. But he has offered curt and carefully-worded denials to others about being homosexual. This includes responding “No” to an oddly-worded “non-question” alluding to his alleged “gayness” in an interview with conservative Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton. (I’m afraid Eaton’s overly deferential, walking-on-eggshells approach–Rutherford answered “No” to “The Question” without her defining it–revealed more about the uncomfortableness surrounding homosexuality than it did about Rutherford’s past or present sexual lifestyle.)

Most recently in an interview last August with the Chicago homosexual newspaper, Windy City Times, Rutherford had this exchange with a reporter:

WCT: Your support for the LGBT has put you in the spotlight. Conservative bloggers have speculated you are gay. How do you define your sexual orientation?

Dan Rutherford: I’m not gay.

To which Chicago homosexual activist Robert Castillo responded: “Thanks for asking if he’s gay. You should have also asked if he is bisexual.”

Note that on every occasion of Rutherford being “questioned” about homosexuality, there are no follow-up questions (e.g., have you ever been in a homosexual relationship?)–and no probing into the meaning of words. (Many men who engage(d) in homosexual or bisexual behavior do not claim to be “gay”; there is even a term for it: men on the “down low.”) Also note that Rutherford’s continued advocacy of homosexuality in the Republican Party sets him apart from a person who may have engaged in homosexual behavior in the past but abandoned it–i.e., a repentant or recovered former homosexual. (Christians believe in the power of God through Christ to help people overcome that behaviorial sin pattern.)

On the conservative side, activists like Republican Chicago attorney and Republican News Watch founder Doug Ibendahl have long maintained that whether Rutherford ever admits it publicly or not, he is “gay.”

Encounter with Rutherford’s “partner”

Of course, there is the very real possibility that Rutherford–a politician, after all–is lying and dissembling about his aberrant sexual past and/or present so as not to hurt his prospects running in a Republican primary for governor.

A couple of years ago–long after my attempt at IFI to get Rutherford to clarify his sexuality–I had an interesting discussion with a veteran Illinois Republican activist, who told of meeting Rutherford “and his [male] partner” a number of years ago while travelling abroad. The man who accompanied Rutherford was clearly his partner, the activist said matter-of-factly. The activist source had no special animus toward Rutherford and worked with him as a GOP supporter, as with other ILGOP leaders.

Why should we care?

Why is any of this important? Because the people have a right to know if their public servant has a conflict of interest–and because honesty, morality and integrity matter. If Dan Rutherford has practiced a homosexual lifestyle–while advancing “gay” public policy goals in his role as a legislator (in defiance of the ILGOP and national Republican Party Platforms), it says something about his character. (As you can see, I am not a liberal.) And if he then lied and continues to lie or mislead about the matter, it says even more about his character.

Ex-“gay” author Bailey chastises internet giant for hypocrisy

We at AFTAH certainly agree with Dean Bailey about Google’s latest bit of pro-homosexual pandering. Note that the colors match the homosexualist “rainbow flag.” (How tragic that a Sin Movement stole the rainbow–which in Scripture holds powerful symbolism regarding divine judgment and man’s sinful rebellion.) Bailey, a former homosexual, is author of Beyond the Shades of Grey: Because Homosexuality Is a Symptom, Not a Solution, which we encourage you to purchase [go to Amazon.com or the publisher’s page — or Bailey’s Facebook page].Strange how so many who advocate for “gay rights” show no interest in — or even deny the existence of — ex-“gays.”

Also, this is the first I’ve seen of the statistic that 24 percent of human sex trafficking victims are boys and young men–obviously disproportionate to the tiny percentage of homosexual men in society. International “sex tourism” by (relatively) wealthy Western homosexual men (can I call them perverts?) creates a demand for underage boys and young men, who become exploited tools for sodomitic gratification. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Google creates pro-“gay” image as part of its radical commitment to promoting the homosexual activist agenda. Here the Google home page copies the homosexualist “rainbow flag” colors to indict Russia, which passed a law prohibiting homosexual propaganda toward minors. Click to enlarge.

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By Dean Bailey

An Open Letter to Google Inc:

I noticed late yesterday that you are once again showing your normal, homo-fascist attitude by shoving a pro-homosexual image in the face of everyone who uses your search engine. You accompanied the image with this quote:

“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” –Olympic Charter

Just one problem with your gay-pandering manipulations, Google… Russian law does not prohibit homosexuals from participating in the Olympic sporting events. They are there! It simply prevents them from propagating their lies and blatant immorality to the public, and more specifically, to children citizens of Russia.

You, Google, on the other hand, violate the very quotation you posted there, each and every time you discriminate against the Christian viewpoint of hope that offers people freedom from homosexual sin and behaviors. There is absolutely no “mutual understanding” from you, or from the homosexual activists that you pander to in that regard… NONE WHATSOEVER!

Sexual revolutionary advocates (very “gay”) “monogamish” agenda among straights

Vulgar homosexual activist Dan Savage–who advocates “monogamish” relationships tolerating outside sex–was excited by a Nestle Butterfinger Super Bowl ad (above) that seemed to promote sexual threesomes. Watch the Nestle ad HERE.

By Peter LaBarbera [on Twitter @PeterLaBarbera]

TAKE ACTION: Call Nestle at 1-800-225-2270, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST. Or reach them online HERE. Watch the “threesome” ad at bottom after the jump.

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Predictably, libertines on the Left are applauding Nestle’s Butterfinger Super Bowl ad [watch it HERE], in which a man representing “Butterfinger” joins with a presumably married couple (the man is “Peanut Butter” and the unfulfilled woman is “Chocolate”) in a counseling session to spice up their relationship. He begins massaging the woman, who is instantly happier.

Last evening saw this Twitter exchange between Dan Savage, a homosexual activist and urban sex-advice columnist, and a fan [expletive is blocked for decency]:

Alison Brown: Ooo, @Butterfinger promoting threesomes? [Dan Savage] would be so proud!

Dan Savage: Proud of #Butterfinger for promoting threesomes?!? [F–k] proud! I want residuals and credit for the concept!

To which this writer responded with the following tweets:

Like the thief who cheers when others steal, [Dan Savage] (a “3-way” guy himself) celebrates 3-ways for straights [Advocate story link]…

So what I’m hearing is that [Dan Savage] is pushing Fake Monogamy so that straights can act like “gay’ men.

Savage, who adopted and raised a boy with his male homosexual lover-turned-“husband” Terry, has written about at least two of the sexual threesomes that he has engaged in with Terry–each with a third man whom they both knew. [See AFTAH story with my odd correction HERE.] Savage invented the term “monogamish” for couples who stay together while allowing outside sex–much like so many “monogamous” homosexual men who notoriously tolerate outside sexual “cheating” by their partners. He avidly promotes this decidedly anti-Judeo-Christian concept–knowing that the more straight couples embrace his twisted “monogamish” vision, the less interest there will be in society for virtuous, truly faithful (man-woman) marriage.

In this sense, Savage personifies how ‘gay marriage’ erodes the godly, noble marital ideal: rather than elevating marriage as the Left claims, homosexualizing it will drag it downward by trivializing the fidelity that is at the heart of this bedrock institution.

Dan Savage is the leading social revolutionary working to mainstream promiscuous, “gay” male sexual mores among straights.

But it goes way beyond marriage: if Savage can get millions of straights to engage in {or approve of} acts and lifestyles once universally condemned as perverted and unnatural–e.g., open relationships, three-ways and rectal sex–then it becomes more difficult to label homosexual conduct itself as abnormal and wrong. If everybody seemingly is pushing the sexual envelope, how can you call it “deviant” and sinful?

Here is a clip from a recent episode of The Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie, featuring a lesbian couple coming over with their adopted child, Taylor, for a play date. Note how the main mother character, Amy (Leigh Allyn Baker) is nonchalant about exposing her daughter (Charlie) to homosexual parenting. (Amy goes on to call the lesbians a “great couple” [go to 1:45 in the longer video segment]. Also note how she apparently never discussed the “lesbian moms” visit with her husband Bob (Eric Allen Kramer–of course, the dumber one). Get the message? A visit by homosexual parents is so inconsequential it doesn’t even merit a family discussion!

TAKEAWAY:  if you are a Christian and/or moral-minded parent who wants to teach your children that homosexuality is aberrant and wrong behavior–i.e., you don’t want to model sinful relationships as normative to your kids–YOUR morality and faith, and your child’s innocence, are being undermined by Disney. TAKE ACTION: Call Disney Channel at 818-460-7477 (hit #4), or email support@disneyonline.com.

Watch this same short video on YouTube HERE — and the longer, full video segment of the “lesbian moms” episode HERE. This is probably The Disney Channel’s first “baby step” into more aggressive homosexual advocacy — which is not unexpected given America’s moral decline, but tragic just the same. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Southwest Airlines is a major sponsor of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change” conference, which promotes: a radical “Sexual Freedom” agenda (including sadomasochism and “polyamory”);  the extreme “transgender” agenda; “gay christianity”; and abortion-on-demand. To view a PDF of the Creating Change program, click HERE.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

Press Release, January 30, 2014

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 312-324-3787; americansfortruth@gmail.com

TAKE ACTION: Contact Southwest Airlines through their online Contact Page — or call Customer Relations at 214-932-0333 (press #1). 

CHICAGO – Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is exposing the radical corporate giving priorities of Southwest Airlines – including Southwest’s role as a major funder of the annual homosexual activist “Creating Change” conference put on by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).

Creating Change, which begins today in Houston, Texas, promotes: the “homosexualization” of Christianity; extreme transgender activism including laws allowing transgender “girls” and “women” (read: boys/men in dresses) to use female restrooms; pro-homosexual/transgender programs in schools (even for very young students); and sadomasochism.

Creating Change is the organizing event for more than 3,000 LGBT (lesbian, “gay,” bisexual and “transgender”) activists across the nation – with “how to” workshops on:

• Redefining Christianity with pro-homosexual messaging. One Creating Change workshop , “Catholic Teaching and LGBT Justice: Good in Bed Together? God’s Truth!” is described as follows (emphasis added): “Use solid Catholic teaching, tradition and practice when advocating for the equality of same-sex love? Yes.…We will work interactively from your wisdom and lived experience and join it with the best of Catholic sexual ethics to craft a message that speaks powerfully to people in the ‘malleable middle.’ This is subversive work!”
• Advancing the radical “transgender” agenda, including winning government (Obama-care)/insurance coverage for body-disfiguring “sex reassignment surgeries” and hormone therapies;
• Promoting extreme agendas under the guise of “sexual freedom.”  As the euphemism for the radical, “anything goes” fringe of liberal sex politics, “Sexual Freedom” includes advocacy for: prostitution (“sex workers”); “polyamory” (multiple-partner sexual relationships); “kinky sex” (sadomasochism); pornography; sexual “swingers”; and opposing obscenity laws and public decency efforts, e.g., banning strip clubs in neighborhoods;
• Defending abortion-on-demand, under the euphemism of “Reproductive Justice.”

Southwest took out a full-page ad in the Creating Change program with an accompanying letter (see pages 22-23) from Communications VP Linda Rutherford, who wrote, “Southwest Airlines is proud to support organizations like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.”

Civil rights icon saw homosexuality as a ‘culturally acquired’ ‘problem’ with a ‘solution’

By Matt Barber 

This past week America honored both the life and noble work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a Bible-believing Christian minister who did more to advance the cause of race-based civil rights than perhaps any other person in recent history.

Regrettably – and as they do each year – the same flock of opportunist “LGBT”-activist vultures quickly swooped in, picking the live flesh from MLK’s character-based “dream,” to advance their own behavior-based nightmare.

In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, this mostly white left-wing faction has, over the years, disingenuously and ignobly hitched its little pink wagon to a civil rights movement that, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice.

What was MLK’s position on the homosexual lifestyle and so-called “gay rights”? While he said little in public on the issue, what he did say made his viewpoint abundantly clear. Unlike the “LGBT” lobby, I’ll let Dr. King speak for himself.

In 1958, while writing an advice column for Ebony Magazine, Dr. King responded to a young “gay” man looking for guidance. To avoid being accused of “cherry-picking,” here is the exchange in its entirety:

Question: My problem is different from the ones most people have. I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. I don’t want my parents to know about me. What can I do? Is there any place where I can go for help?

Answer: Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.

No amount of leftist spin can muddy Dr. King’s lucid position on the homosexual lifestyle. He recognized it as a “culturally acquired” “problem” in need of a “solution” – a “habit” stemming from a series of negative “experiences and circumstances.”

Although homosexual activists desperately cling to the fact that, after his death, Dr. King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, did voice some level of support for the homosexualist political agenda, the undeniable reality remains that, based upon his own words, Dr. King supported neither homosexual conduct nor “LGBT” political activism.

Fox News’ powerhouse cites Left’s favorite Bible verse to criticize ‘Duck Dynasty’ star

“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?” —Phil Robertson, interview with GQ magazine, Jan. 2014

Folks, last year I did an in-depth report for America’s Survival Inc., on Fox News growing pro-homosexuality bias, and in it I noted Bill O’Reilly’s evolving support for homosexual “rights.” That includes backing homosexual adoption, homosexuals in the military and saying he doesn’t really care much anymore about (opposing) “gay marriage.” I also noted that O”Reilly occasionally does segments [like this] that infuriate LGBT activists. We are grateful for all the good work he has done (e.g., going after predators).

However, in the December 20, 2013 segment below–in which O’Reilly faults “Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson for “singling out” homosexuals and being “judgmental”–his analysis was sophomoric and inane. Watch for yourself, but it seems to me that O’Reilly doesn’t understand that Robertson was paraphrasing the New Testament (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) when he told GQ that homosexuals (and other unrepentant sinners) would not go to heaven. (Read what Robertson actually told GQ–including his quote above hoping for the redemption of repentant homosexuals–HERE.)

Yes, Bill, the God of the universe condemns sexual sin, “singles out” unnatural sins against the body like homosexuality as abominations (detestable), and sends unrepentant sinners who refuse to accept Jesus’ “free gift” of salvation to Hell. And Jesus did not advise us “not to judge” but rather to make right, non-hypocritical judgments [see this useful Frank Turek video on Jesus and judging]. Homosexualism is about changeable behavior, and people are not their sins: there is no special category for intrinsic “gayness” (i.e., as “who you are”) in God’s Word. That’s a 20th Century creation and a product of the Sexual Revolution–and decades of homosexual advocacy–that transformed a destructive sin pattern into an innocuous, personal (proud) identity.

Then note how O’Reilly — like some smug, biblically illiterate college kid — trots out the trendy “anti-judging” verse (Luke 6:37) (out of context) to gain some Bible cred for his Talking Points. (Memo to Bill: read a bit further in Luke 6 and Jesus explains HOW to judge people — with humility and by examining their fruit.) It is stunning to see a guy like O’Reilly who has made a very good living rebutting liberal Political Correctness, now spouting the PC line on homosexualism and passing it off as Christianity. To do so, he must ignore not only inconvenient Bible passages but his own Catholic Church’s clear teachings on homosexuality.

Criticizing Fox News’ Big Kahuna means I probably will never appear on “The O’Reilly Factor,” but no matter. AFTAH will continue to call out Bill O’Reilly for his situational morality, cafeteria Christianity and, yes, Bill: in this case, your “Pro-Sin Spin.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH  [note excerpted quotations from the interview appear beneath video and after the jump]

Description of Mediaite segment posted by YouTube channel “TV Alberta”;
[Watch the video on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/2vMXw2XJiJU]

Homosexual activists have used a law designed to protect the innocence of Russian children to make themselves the victims — engaging in wild distortions that demonize civil opponents of homosexualism. See, for example, the homosexual pressure group Truth Wins Out’s screeds against the “anti-gay pogrom” in Russia. (TWO is known for its vicious and dehumanizing attacks against ex-“gays” and pro-family advocates.)

Laurie Higgins cuts through the hyperbole surrounding Russia’s law banning homosexual propaganda directed at minors:

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Russia’s Anti-Propaganda Law Riles Pro-Homosexuality Crowd

By Laurie Higgins

This article first appeared on the Illinois Family Institute website on Jan. 6, 2014

The cacophonous voices of homosexual activists and their ideological allies are getting louder as the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia approach. They’re protesting Russia’s new federal law pertaining to homosexuality. Surely, this law must be draconian, reasonable people think, to generate this degree of heat from the ever-fevered “LGBTQQIAA” (that is, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally”) community.

What is often reported in the mainstream press is simply that the law is “anti-gay” followed by reports of anti-“gay” brutality. Few articles include any details of the text of the law and its inoffensive—some would argue wholly appropriate—content. The omission of the text of the law with the concomitant reporting on already illegal physical attacks is a strategic decision intended to distract attention from the actual intent of the law.

In order to put into perspective this newest manifestation of outrage from homosexual activists, let’s look at the pertinent parts of the actual law (emphasis added):

The Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences… shall be amended as follows:
…

Propaganda of homosexualism among minors –

is punishable by an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of four thousand to five thousand rubles; for officials –forty thousand to fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities – four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles”;

…

EXPLANATORY NOTE
…Propaganda of homosexualism in Russia took a wide sweep. This propaganda is delivered both through the media and through active social actions that promote homosexualism as a behavioral norm. It is especially dangerous for children and youth who are not yet capable of a critical attitude to the avalanche of information that falls upon them every day. In this regard, it is necessary to primarily protect the younger generation from the effects of homosexual propaganda, and the present bill pursues this goal.