TAKE ACTION — ILLINOIS CITIZENS:  1) Call or write your state representatives immediately and urge them to vote against the homosexual “marriage” bill [the so-called “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act”]. IL Capitol Switchboard: 217-782-2000. According to the Illinois Review, the “same-sex marriage” bill is amended to an automobile rental bill and could come up for a floor today — in the lame duck session that ends January 9. The situation is fluid but Democrats need Republican votes to get the bill passed. Click these links for Illinois Senate Members and Illinois House Members. See IllinoisReview.com for timely updates on the bill.

Who knew that when Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady called for “Change for Illinois,” he was referring to legalizing oxymoronic homosexual “marriage”?

ILLINOIS REPUBLICANS: Make your voice heard regarding IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady’s stunningly ill-advised endorsement of homosexual “marriage” in Illinois. Many conservatives including AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera have called for Brady’s resignation. The IL-GOP can be reached at 217-525-0011 or info@ilgop.org. Contact your local Republican Party officials through this link. 

What did “gay marriage” do to Massachusetts?  For an excellent report on the effects of legal homosexual “marriage” — including the proliferation of pro-“gay” propaganda in schools, the loss of parental rights, and the harassment of Christian employees — see Brian Camenker’s excellent Mass Resistance report: “What same-sex ‘marriage’ has done to Massachusetts.”

“77 Non-Religious Reasons to Support Man/Woman Marriage”: Informative PDF by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute: http://www.johnbiver.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/77reasons.pdf

For key updates on Illinois same-sex “marriage” vote and IL-GOP politics: 

Illinois Family Institute: www.IllinoisFamily.org

Illinois Review: www.IllinoisReview.com

Capitol Fax (run by liberal advocate Rich Miller but a useful source): http://capitolfax.com/

John Biver’s “Dispatches”: http://www.johnbiver.com/

Republican News Watch: http://republicannewswatch.com/wp/

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Background: Is the Illinois GOP Going ‘Gay’?

There is a saying popular among American conservatives: the Democrats are the liberal party and the Republicans are the stupid party. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady provided further evidence for the latter as he reportedly is lobbying Republican lawmakers in Illinois to support a bill legalizing homosexual “marriage” — leading to a new surge in conservative calls for his resignation.

If the IL-GOP pursues this course of abandoning natural marriage and pro-family values, it will sink into permanent minority status in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois is not unlike the rest of the country in one respect: voters deserve a clear choice between party philosophies and policy goals — not a false choice between Democrat and “Democrat-lite.” Already, conservative dissatisfaction with the IL-GOP is so great that many have left the Party or become disillusioned with politics altogether.

Social liberals now dominate the Illinois Republican Party and they are actively undermining its conservative platform. These two influential IL-GOP leaders are working against pro-family values:

Sen. Mark Kirk — this pro-“gay” senator, recovering from a debilitating stroke, boasted in his successful run for U.S. Senate of his support from Planned Parenthood. Kirk is the de facto head of the state GOP and apparently backs Pat Brady;

Dan Rutherford — this former state senator, current Illinois State Treasurer, and effective GOP campaigner (although he ran Mitt Romney’s losing Illinois campaign) cast two key votes to advance the homosexual agenda in Illinois. His lone Republican vote for the Illinois “Civil Unions” bill was critical to its passage and paved the way for a law that led to religious persecution in the state. Incredibly, despite the anti-Christian aftermath of the “Civil Unions” law, liberal proponents of the same-sex “marriage” bill have the audacity to include “religious freedom” in its name. Rutherford is widely rumored to be homosexual himself — and this writer has publicly challenged him to answer questions about whether he has a personal stake in “gay”-related legislation.

Illinois is in such economic and moral decline that people are leaving the state in droves for conservative-friendly states like Texas. Pat Brady’s reckless experiment in “Republican Gay Activism” will only accelerate the decline. If Illinois’ own grassroots citizens do not take action, their “leaders” will bring ruin to the state. AFTAH will closely monitor legislative and court action on same-sex “marriage.” (An openly lesbian judge, Sophia Hall, will rule on the constitutionality of Illinois’ existing law upholding natural man/woman marriage in the state.) Please take action to make your voice heard in Springfield, and in the Illinois GOP. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH, Naperville, Illinois

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The conservative Illinois Review reported Jan. 2:

ILGOP Chair Sees Gay Marriage as ‘Equality Issue’ and ‘True Conservative Position’

Not unexpectedly, the gay marriage bill seems likely to move through committee today and to a floor vote tomorrow. As pro-family forces attempt to rally the grassroots to voice their opposition, the growing question seems to be which Republican(s) might break with the GOP’s traditional stance on the issue and vote in favor of the bill.

Sources reported that Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady has been making calls to legislators in support of the gay marriage bill. When asked, Brady told Illinois Review that he believes it is an “equality issue”, and that the “true conservative position is in favor” of allowing gay marriage.

He also made it clear that this is his personal view only, and not in his role as Chairman of the ILGOP.

The bill presents a problem for Illinois Republicans in that voting in favor would not only be unpopular with the Party’s base, but would seem to be in contradiction to its platform, which states:

1. …The ideal environment for children is within a two?parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman. The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in “DOMA.”

2. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment a man and a woman make to each other in marriage. …No law should undermine the importance of that union, divide that union nor unduly burden the efforts of parents to rear a family in a safe and nurturing environment.

Janet Boynes, who abandoned the lesbian lifestyle, is one of thousands of men and women who have overcome homosexuality. In 2012, LGBT advocates showed their intolerance by pushing for laws that ban ex-gay change therapy for minors.

From the website of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality):

Emergency Court Injunction Halts SB 1172!

December 26, 2012m NARTH.com

NARTH and several of our organization’s clinicians who are represented by Liberty Counsel received an early Christmas present late Friday when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the California ban on change therapy (SB 1172) and granted an injunction pending our appeal. The law, scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2013, would have prevented our young clients from continuing counseling to diminish or eliminate unwanted same-sex sexual attractions, behavior or identity.

NARTH has been fighting the California legislative efforts to deny families the right to seek therapy for their children experiencing unwanted homosexual attractions for almost a year. It began with a month’s long opposition to a bill introduced by state Senator Ted Lieu  that went through several committee hearings, a number of amendments and changes by the legislature, and finally passage through both houses of the state legislature. NARTH sent a delegation to testify in those hearings and spent many hours contacting legislators explaining why we believe the bill would be both harmful and unconstitutional.

Matt Barber in the ring.

This column was first published Dec. 28. 2012 in WND.com. Matt Barber is vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, a former professional boxer, and a Board Member of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). He was also fired by Allstate Insurance Co. in 2005 after writing an online column on his own time critical of the homosexual activist agenda.

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“It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world …” ~ The Kinks

Through the secular-”progressive” looking-glass, the term “sexual orientation” has, in a few short years, evolved to accommodate an ever-expanding fruit basket of carnal appetites.

Mr. Francis enjoys macramé, long walks on the beach, wearing lady’s knickers and showering fully nude with 6-year-old girls.

Because it’s illegal to “discriminate based on the basis of gender identity,” and since it’s the only “tolerant” thing to do, this brave bellwether of the persecuted LGBT victim-class has secured the “civil right” for him and other men to fully expose themselves to your daughter in the locker room at Olympia, Washington’s Evergreen State College.

But slow down, Dad. According to the law, if you have a problem with Mr. Francis baring all to your baby girl, then you’re the problem. You’re a “transphobe” (“homophobia’s” evil twin sister, er, brother … whatever). Deck this sicko for terrifying your first-grader and you’re off to jail while “Colleen” is off to the “Human Rights Campaign” for a commendation as the latest victim of an “anti-LGBT hate crime.”

Rosa Parks in drag, I guess.

MIDNIGHT DEADLINE for Tax-Exempt, Year-End Gifts to AFTAH:  All gifts to Americans For Truth are fully tax-deductible according to the IRS.  To count your gift as deductible for your 2012 taxes, give online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ by midnight Central Time today (Dec. 31st).  Or postmark your regular-mail donation by today (Dec. 31st) and mail to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Please consider becoming a monthly “Truth Team” donor to AFTAH.

** AFTAH is looking forward to aggressively and non-defensively confronting the Homosexual, Bisexual and Transgender Lobbies in 2013.  Thank you for making our work possible with your donations and prayers! **

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Scott Lively

Folks, being called a “pro-family hero” by Scott Lively is humbling, and a great honor.  See below where Scott lists AFTAH as among his “Top 10 Pro-Family Heroes” for 2012.”

In recent years nobody has been on the receiving end of more lies, slanders and all-around wickedness at the hands of homosexual activists than Scott Lively.  I don’t think the average Joe American could even comprehend what Scott has gone through — merely because he stands against the lies and myths of the Homosexual Movement.  And yet he fights on undeterred because he knows that as a follower of Christ devoted to the Truth of God’s Word, he will be persecuted.  I know Scott and he is nothing at all like the evil, hateful caricature that “gay” activists have made him out to be.

AFTAH presented Scott with its “American Truth Teller” award for 2011 because he exemplifies the sacrificial spirit of truthful, Christ-like resistance to the LGBT Sin Movement — which is based on one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated against mankind: that homosexuality is natural (for some people), innocuous, “who you are,” and the basis for “civil rights.”  Scott Lively is a true cultural hero, and a decent, great Christian man who loves homosexuals enough to tell them the Truth.

…Savage’s hateful “Porno Pete” video typical of vicious attacks on AFTAH

A new video by vulgar and hateful homosexual activist Dan Savage takes on AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera, smearing him as “Porno Pete” and using distortions in an attempt to discredit him. In the video (see link below), Savage repeats a lie about LaBarbera being ejected from his speech at Elmhurst College due to supposed disorderly behavior. LGBT militants hate AFTAH because we expose their lies and extremism.

Support AFTAH with a Year-End Gift:  Give safely to AFTAH online or mail to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Thank you and God bless you!

Profane “gay” activist targets LaBarbera with hateful, lying video: watch Savage’s video here (warning: offensive language): http://www.advocate.com/politics/2012/11/20/dan-savage-explains-origins-porno-pete  Note: we will offer a point-by-point response to Savage’s video, and correcting its lies, but HERE is an AFTAH article that includes testimony from a Savage sympathizer explaining what really happened at his Elmhurst College talk.

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By Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

Dear AFTAH Readers,

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying time with your family in this wonderful season when we reflect on Jesus Christ and His free gift of salvation for sinful man.

We at Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) are preparing for the New Year with all its challenges, even as we survey the wreckage of 2012.  I say ‘wreckage’ because in recent weeks some prominent conservatives and Christians have compounded pro-family defeats on Election Day by signaling surrender on homosexuality and “gay marriage.”

One of the big stories of 2012 has been the weakening will of people who know in their heart that the Homosexual Lobby is wrong — or who once opposed it on principle — yet now they rationalize their embrace of homosexualism and “same-sex marriage” as an issue of “rights” out of fear that society is trending pro-“gay.”

Single gay man in his thirties compares “flakey” homosexual men to shallow, vicious 14-year-old girls…

Folks, here is a fascinating eight-and-a-half-minute YouTube video that reminds me of how — despite 20 years of monitoring the “gay” movement — AFTAH has only skimmed the surface in exposing the tragic reality of the homosexual lifestyle. AFTAH is excoriated by “gay” activists for allegedly exaggerating homosexuality’s downsides, but the reality is quite the opposite: as outsiders (I am not nor have I ever been homosexual or homosexually-tempted), we fail to convey how dysfunctional, superficial, and destructive it actually is.

The anonymous author of this video is no fan of AFTAH, to be sure. On Dec. 18, he tweeted: “My video is not meant for hetero[sexual] bigots. [It] is meant for other gay men who have to deal with the same things I do.” But that only makes the video more authoritative, not less. God only knows how representative and accurate this fellow’s bitter assessment of male homosexuality is. However, the video is a necessary and frank rebuttal to the ubiquitous cheerleading for homosexuality, as typified by the thousands of videos inspired by homosexual militant Dan Savage’s youth-oriented “It Gets Better Project.”

Few could doubt that LGBT advocates — desperate to rationalize their own (or a friend’s or relative’s) homosexuality, tend to downplay its many negatives. And of course the media and Hollywood — pressured by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) — glamorize homosexuality. Think of this presentation as a lone, politically incorrect — and well documented — counterpoint to all the “gay”-affirming buzz. Following the video is research provided by the author to back up his claims. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

 [WARNING: Video contains vulgar language and sexual references]

Excerpted from WorldNetDaily. Matt Barber is Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action, a weekly WND columnist, and a Board Member of Americans For Truth:

In light of today’s horrific developments in Newtown, Conn. – developments so sorrowful that no words will do – I felt it only appropriate to pull my regular column for this week. I offer, instead, the only words I can at this inexpressibly mournful time: A simple prayer. ~ Matt Barber

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Please come, Lord Jesus.

Come, King Jesus.

Come soon I pray.

Yet, even still come now, Holy Spirit, until such time.

We need you.

Tax-funded transgenderism: This is Celeste Flemming, and “she” is a man. At an “LGBTQ” conference in Norman, OK, Flemming compared “transitioning,” “male-to-female” transsexuals who are prevented from using women’s restrooms (e.g., at work) to racist Jim Crow laws that banned Black Americans from using the same public restrooms as whites. The Oklahoma conference was sponsored by the State of Oklahoma with federal grant dollars. Flemming is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employee who evidently now is used by the agency to help accommodate other gender-“transitioning” FAA employees.

OKLAHOMA CITY — I’m writing you from Oklahoma, having just attended a pro-homosexual conference funded with YOUR tax dollars and sponsored by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of HHS.  We will have a full report on this one-day conference, which not only was devoid of pro-family advocates but featured speakers who were explicitly anti-biblical in their ideology, e.g., claiming that Romans 1 does NOT proscribe homosexual acts as sinful.

Here’s an excerpt from a conference flier titled, “What does the bible say about homosexuality?” passed out by presenter Kathy McCallie, in a session called “Spiritual Wellness in BGLT (sic) Communities, a Primer”:

“[The Apostle] Paul had no inkling that for some persons, a same-sex orientation might be natural, that is, part of who they are created to be. If he had known this, he would have had to argue that, for such persons, heterosexual acts would be unnatural.”

Whatever happened to liberal demands for “Separation of Church and State” (which is actually a twisting of the First Amendment)?! Here we have Americans’ tax dollars being used to assault historic biblical teaching against homosexuality as sinful.

As you can see from the photo above, the Oklahoma conference, although supposedly focusing on substance abuse, devoted much energy to promoting gender confusion and homosexuality. Can you imagine comparing gender-confused men who believe they are “women” but are denied use of the ladies’ restroom to Blacks suffering under official Jim Crow racism — as male-to-female trans “woman” Celeste Flemming did?

The very first speaker at the conference, Randy Roberts Potts — the openly homosexual grandson of the late Oral Roberts — maligned my friend and Oklahoma St. Rep. Sally Kern, accusing her of being “hateful” toward homosexuals and going on a “witch-hunt” against them.  Stay tuned to this story, which also sheds like on the Obama administration’s radical use of the federal bureaucracy to promote the homosexualist agenda across America.  — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH