In addition to allowing men in female restrooms, Target backs radical LGBT “Equality Act”; boasts 100% perfect score on HRC’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index”

Folks, today I sent the following letter to Target using their online Contact Form. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

TAKE ACTION: Contact Target at 800-440-0680 or using their Online Contact Form; and sign the AFA “Boycott Target” petition if you plan to join the boycott. If you do, make a point of going into your local Target store or calling the manager to explain why you and your family will no longer shop there. 

TARGET: 100% Pro-Homosexual-Transgender Agenda: Target boasts online of its “perfect” ranking on HRC’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index.” The biased LGBT “Index” punishes corporations for giving to pro-family causes–and rewards them for funding “gay” and “transgender” groups and events. This graphic is taken directly from the Target website.

________________________________________________

Why My Family Won’t Be Shopping at Target Stores Anymore

May 2, 2016

By Peter LaBarbera

WARNING: offensive descriptions of horrifying transsexual “sex reassignment surgeries”

Dear Target,

My family and I are joining the Target boycott and will no longer shop at your stores. It is preposterous that all Target stores now allow men to use female restrooms—a sex predator’s dream. Girls have the basic right not to have their private spaces invaded by men, for ANY reason.

My family has done a LOT of shopping at Target over the years, but no more. One of my five children even worked at Target–but now I will not allow my two teenage kids to apply for a job there given Target’s leftist, politically correct corporate policies. Target has chosen to be contemptuous of common sense and Americans who are motivated by faith, decency and traditional morality. So we in turn choose to no longer support Target with our consumer dollars.

Video captures the upside-down “New York values” of media stars pushing the “gay” (and transgender) revolution on America

“Mom, is it legal for a man to marry a woman?” Kelly Ripa’s son, Joaquin, shown in a 2014 Twitter photo on his 11th birthday. Following the legalization of “gay marriage” in New York in 2011, a younger Joaquin was so over-exposed to homosexual friends of his famous mom getting “married” that he had to ask her if a man marrying a woman was illegal.

By Peter LaBarbera

Kelly Ripa is in the news is for something that is–from an eternal Truth perspective–far less significant and newsworthy than the heart-breaking story below. Because this story involves the moral and spiritual confusion of a boy raised in a politically correct world gone mad–imbibing a level of cultural decadence unimaginable only a few decades ago:

________________________

“New York Values”? To get a feel for how utterly out-of-touch New York City-based media are with the average American, check out this May 2015 speech by Kelly Ripa, co-host of the ABC morning show “Live with Kelly and Michael [Strahan].” In the video, Ripa is accepting an award from GLAAD, the homosexual media pressure organization formerly known as the “Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination.”

Beginning around the 5:15 mark, she shares a story about her son, Joaquin, born in 2003. The context is her family life following New York State’s legalization of homosexual “marriage” in 2011:

“A few years ago, our youngest son, Joaquin, asked me if it was illegal for me to be married to Mark [her husband]–because all of our friends at that time who were getting married were same-sex couples. And it dawned on him…that a heterosexual couple getting married might actually be illegal.”

This speech captures the zeitgeist of big-city liberalism and the New York City-dominated media’s radical pro-“gay” embrace better than almost anything I have seen. Ripa praises her good friend and open homosexual Anderson Cooper of CNN, and is hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court would make same-sex “marriage” the law of the land–which it effectively did with its nature-defying Obergefell v. Hodges ruling shortly after this event, on June 26, 2015.

Ripa’s comments on homosexual “marriage” begin at the 4:00 mark, and those specifically about her son Joaquin’s marriage confusion at 5:15:

TRUMP THEN AND NOW: In this 2000 interview with the homosexual magazine The Advocate, businessman Donald Trump supported adding homosexuality to the Civil Rights Act–a stance that allowed him to cast himself as more pro-“gay” than the leading Democratic presidential contender at the time, Sen. Bill Bradley. [Click HERE to read the entire Advocate interview.] The media have mostly ignored asking direct questions about the homosexual activist agenda in the GOP campaign.

[Note: this article was update March 1, 2016]

Warning: Contains a brief description and graphic of (horrifying) transsexual surgeries that the LGBT Lobby is pushing to be funded by the taxpayers

Have you noticed that homosexual “marriage,” the nutty “transgender” issue–think big-boned men in gaudy dresses and pumps invading girls’ restrooms–and morality in general have been largely ignored in the Republican primary campaign?

This is no accident: a combination of the dominant media’s secular-Left bias; “establishment” Republicans working to keep those pesky social issues off the table; America’s disobedient drift away from God and biblical Truth; and creeping libertarianism and feminism have combined to push moral issues out of the debate in this crucial 2016.

The problem is, when issues are shunned by the media and in an extended electoral contests it becomes difficult to build and grow support for the Truth position on these issues. The LGBT Lobby knows this intuitively, which is why they labor to BAN opposition and shut down critical voices in the media (see GLAAD’s “Commentator Accountability Project” listing of this writer for showing “extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community”).

The minions of Big Gay Inc understand that if tens of millions of Americans were actually introduced through media to men and women who have successfully left homosexuality behind—people like DJ Foster, Greg Quinlan and Janet Boynes–it would dramatically undermine the LGBT media-narrative that people are inherently (born) “gay.”

Seeing homosexuality as a Changeable-Behavior issue would in turn help everyday people understand that unlike ethnic “minorities,” people practicing homosexuality can leave that category because it is not permanent (e.g., like skin color). Thus, accommodating people with “rights” based on their supposedly immutable “sexual orientation” is not “civil rights” and in fact directly leads to conflicts between “gay rights” and religious liberty. (See this excellent piece by Peter Sprigg dissecting Justice Anthony Kennedy’s unfounded claim that homosexuality is “immutable,” in his Obergefell ruling “nationalizing” homosexual “marriage.”)

Here are some questions and moral themes I’d like to see pursued in debates or political discussions:

1) Trump and Adultery? Suppose in that now-infamous initial Fox News GOP presidential debate, instead of asking Donald Trump a question about his alleged meanness toward Rosie O’Donnell, Fox’s Megyn Kelly had asked Trump about his self-admitted adulteries with married women and having a very public affair while he was married? Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) rightly tweeted to Trump:

“You brag about many affairs w/ married women. Have you repented? To harmed children & spouses? Do you think it matters?”

Does Adultery Matter? Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R-NE) Jan. 24, tweet to Donald Trump.

(Note how conservative neo-feminist Kelly opted for the “anti-women” angle over the moral—call it “anti-God”–angle; to read this writer’s in-depth report on Fox News’ pro-homosexual bias, click HERE.)

2) Rubio on Abortion vs. Rubio on Homosexual Agenda? How about a question to Marco Rubio about reports that his campaign staff held regular meetings with Log Cabin Republicans—a homosexual activist group that is trying to rebrand the GOP as a “gay”-affirming party? Why is Rubio so principled in his opposition to abortion (he said it’s not even political for him) yet much more nuanced on homosexualism? [See pro-family warrior Bryan Fischer rebut Rubio’s assertion that homosexuals are born that way.]

3) Trump’s Radical Pro-“Gay” Past? While many questions have focused on Trump’s support for Planned Parenthood (the non-abortion aspects of the business), no attention—from the media or other Republicans—has been given to his support back in 2000 for adding homosexuality (“sexual orientation”) to the Civil Rights Act. In other words, Trump was for the current LGBT “Equality Act” (which we’re calling the “Criminalizing Christianity Act”) before there even was an Equality Act. Would Trump–who opposes homosexual “marriage” and backs the First Amendment Defense Act— support the Equality Act or veto it today? Does Trump still believe that homosexuality is a criterion for “civil rights” and how would that affect the rights of others to disagree with homosexual “marriage,” celebrations, pro-LGBT school lessons, etc.?

[Editor’s Note: after this article was published, LifeSiteNews reported that in 2012 the Donald Trump Foundation donated $20,000 to the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and $10,000 to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. GLSEN pushes for the acceptance of homosexual, bisexual and gender-confused identities and behaviors to K-12 students–including “Gay-Straight Alliances,” de facto LGBT propaganda clubs, in schools. The LifeSite article relies on original AFTAH reportage exposing GLSEN’s agenda promoting homosexuality to young children. See our posts HERE, HERE (“Fistgate”), HERE and HERE (Kevin Jennings).]

Rubio Aide Supports Radically Redefining Marriage: Rubio campaign aide Rich Beeson signed on to an amicus brief for the Supreme Court Obergefell case supporting the legalization of “marriage” based on homosexuality. Graphic: AFTAH; photo by Fox News.

Folks, Sen. Marco Rubio is known as a social conservative, so this revelation of a top campaign staffer (Rich Beeson) signing on to a Republican PRO-homosexual-“marriage” friend-of-the-court brief–for the Obergefell SCOTUS case nationalizing “gay marriage”–is a big deal.

In the next few weeks AFTAH will be reporting facts about the remaining candidates in the Republican (and Democratic) primaries. [See our report on Trump’s past radical pro-homosexual advocacy HERE.] We are non-partisan and do not endorse any candidate–nor do we refrain from pointing out pro-homosexual advocacy wherever we find it. (AFTAH does not carry water for Republicans: this writer once caught a lot of GOP flak for co-authoring a report for Concerned Women for America about President George W. Bush’s “Homosexual Agenda.”) As I have said many times, God does not make a special provision for Republican homosexualism compared to the Democratic variety.

Moreover, GOP establishment big shots are pushing the Party to ditch social issues–and include the homosexual activist “Log Cabin Republicans” in the Party’s “big tent.” As you can read below, Rubio staffers have met regularly with Log Cabin Republican staffers, and the head of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference; 202-347-9388) just allowed Log Cabin Republicans to serve as a sponsor for next year’s gathering. The following is an excerpt from our friends at LifeSiteNews (which relies heavily on The Baptist Message, which broke the story). — Peter LaBarbera, AFTTAH

__________________________

LifeSiteNews reports:

Marco Rubio’s deputy campaign manager is a gay ‘marriage’ activist

First published by LifeSiteNews Feb. 18, 2016; to read full article, click HERE; sign up for LifeSite daily updates HERE

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A pivotal member of Marco Rubio’s campaign actively encouraged the Supreme Court to impose gay “marriage” on the entire nation by judicial fiat.

Senator Rubio’s deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to redefine marriage in last summer’s Obergefell v. Hodges case.

The amicus curiae brief, which was signed by 300 Republican operatives whose names spill over 24 pages, argued that having the court discover a nationwide right to same-sex “marriage” served “conservative values.”

Shoebat slams LaBarbera as “filthy pig” for denouncing his holy-war approach toward homosexualism

Ted Shoebat

“[W]e do not have the right to take the law into our hands and attack homosexual men and women. And if you have God’s heart of love and you want to see them saved and transformed, why would you want to beat them up?”–Dr. Michael Brown

______________________

Dear AFTAH Readers,

I support my friend and Christian leader Dr. Mike Brown in exposing the reckless rhetoric of Christian Ted Shoebat for condoning anti-homosexual violence. For my entire professional career in the pro-family and conservative movements, I have eschewed violence and real hatred against people caught up in homosexuality–and I’m not going to change now.

Recently, Shoebat viciously attacked yours truly as as a “filthy pig” because I–like Dr. Brown, Matt Barber and Linda Harvey and many other pro-family leaders–criticized his “holy war” approach toward the homosexual agenda. (See video below captured by the pro-homosexual organization People For the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch.“) [See the new Shoebat video criticized by Brown HERE; more on this controversy will follow.]

Some of my friends in the movement opposed to Big Gay Inc have opined that Shoebat sounds more like a fundamentalist Muslim than a Christian with his irresponsible rhetoric. Jihadist, Sharia-loving Islamists–not faithful Christians–advocate stoning homosexuals and pushing them off of tall buildings. Shouldn’t we emulate our Savior, Jesus Christ, who said to the Pharisees who were about to stone a woman they caught in adultery:

 “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8; see Matthew Henry commentary HERE)

And to the woman shown mercy the Lord said:

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

We must, as Dr. Brown often says, Resist the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda, while Reaching Out to homosexuals with the Gospel and love of Christ. Having said that, I am not like one of those namby-pamby evangelicals or “cafeteria Catholics” who seeks an accommodation with homosexualism. Shoebat below derisively references “Chick-fil-A Christians”–but AFTAH was almost alone in challenging Chick-fil-A C.O.O. Dan Cathy’s regrettable 2014 capitulation to Political Correctness when he decided to “step back from the gay marriage debate.” This effectively sold out the many thousands of Christians who stood in line at CfA restaurants on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” in 2012 to defend Cathy’s right to speak out for Truth in the Public Square. But more importantly, Cathy sold out his God. Not coincidentally, one of the people who advised Cathy to retreat on marriage was Shane Windmeyer, a homosexual activist (the founder of Campus Pride) whom Cathy had befriended.

Loving sinners biblically should not abet a sin movement, and going silent on homosexualism does just that.

In contrast, Mike Brown is not seeking the world’s favor. He ably works to achieve the right balance of loving homosexual and gender-confused strugglers while bravely challenging the LGBTQ-IAAM (“It’s All About Me”) sin lobby. Shoebat’s rhetoric not only justifies thuggery against homosexuals and does harm to the Gospel, as Mike states. It also makes it easier for “gay” radicals and their allies to advance legislation like the Criminalizing Christianity Act (aka LGBT “Equality Act”)–thus inadvertently helping them to extinguish the voice of believers in the culture. All in the name of “stopping anti-gay violence and hate.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera

Mike Brown writes:

___________________________________

No, Theodore Shoebat, Jesus Would Not Have Killed Gays

First published on Charisma Magazine’s website, 2/16/2016

Dr. Michael Brown

By Dr. Michael Brown

In a very troubling video, Theodore Shoebat, son of former Muslim Walid Shoebat, has claimed that if “sodomites” had walked into the temple of Jerusalem, Jesus would have killed them.

This is absolutely outrageous, totally unscriptural and downright dangerous.

Mr. Shoebat, I urge you to repent.

To be perfectly clear, I agree with Theodore that homosexual practice is detestable in God’s sight (as stated plainly in the Scriptures); I totally oppose same-sex “marriage”; and I firmly believe that homosexual activism is the principle threat to our freedoms of religion, speech, and conscience.

I also share Theodore’s abhorrence of the abusive acts of homosexual predators, just as I abhor the abusive acts of heterosexual predators.

At the same time, I categorically reject his encouragement of violent acts against homosexual men and women, and I renounce his statement that Jesus would have killed homosexuals who walked into the temple.

That is utter rubbish.

Tennessee St. Rep. Mark Pody

This is a terrific discussion with my friends and Christian activists Coach Dave Daubenmire and Mike Heath–which we recorded Monday (January 25, 2015). We discuss the defeat in committee of the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act. This bill,  offered by State Rep. Mark Pody, would nullify the Supreme Court’s evil Obergefell decision “nationalizing” homosexuality-based “marriage.” As Coach writes about HERE and Matt Trewela writes about below, the TNMDA bill received only one vote in the Civil Justice subcommittee–thanks in part to the “cover” provided by Tennessee affiliate of Focus on the Family, FACT (Family Action of Tennessee), which came out against the bill.

I had not studied up on the politics surrounding the Natural Marriage Defense Act prior to this interview, but what I know from experience is that our pro-family movement has been plagued by a defeatist mindset for decades. In 2006, 81 percent of voters in the Volunteer State made their will clearly known–protecting marriage as it naturally is: between a man and a woman. Or so they thought–because nine years later, five unelected Supreme Court Justices–led by pro-homosexual advocate Anthony Kennedy–arrogantly disenfranchised them, creating another fictional, newfangled “constitutional right” (homosexuality-based “marriage”) fundamentally at odds with “Nature and Nature’s God.”

Desperate times call for bold measures–led by lawmakers like State Rep. Pody who are willing to buck political correctness and take back legislative authority for We the People. FACT prefers another lawsuit–despite the legal profession’s steadily increasing subservience to LGBT activist ideology. We will continue to follow closely the efforts of people in Tennessee and many other states to fight back against judicial supremacists, including those five SCOTUS justices who think they know better than God what marriage is. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera [Watch this video on YouTube HERE.]

Matt Trewela writes:

__________________________________

What happened in Tennessee? A bill to defend marriage killed by Christians and GOP

By Matt Trewela, reprinted from his blog, January 23, 2016

Watching a nation burn itself to the ground is a hard thing. Watching the cowardice of men while it is happening is even harder.

I always tell people that – “If you give politicians something less to do than what is needed and necessary – they’ll take it every time.” Such was the case in Tennessee.

The largest pro-family group in the state, Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), put all their time, energy, and money into defeating the bill of interposition introduced by Representative Mark Pody – a bill that would have interposed against the lawless Obergefell opinion by SCOTUS. The bill had 22 co-sponsors. [See the FACT response to Pody’s bill HERE and a flowchart explaining their lawsuit strategy HERE.]

FACT stated they planned to bring a lawsuit in court to oppose the Obergefell decision. They stated that if this bill of interposition passed it would ruin what they were planning to accomplish through the lawsuit. The Republican legislators, or more properly stated, the GOP leadership loved what FACT was saying in opposition to the bill and had the bill killed on Wednesday, January 20th, in the Republican-controlled committee before it could ever come before the full legislature.

Anti-Christian lobby group HRC tallies Obama’s long list of pro-homosexual and pro-transgender “accomplishments”

Two More Dubious Obama LGBT “Firsts”: Obviously, Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to turn the White House–the American people’s house–into a symbol of homosexual-bisexual-transgender activism. (The rainbow has been appropriated by LGBTQ activists as the symbol of their de facto sin movement.) Obama is also the first president to sit for a photo-shoot for a homosexualist magazine, OUT Magazine, in its December 2015 issue.

_______________________________________

Summary of President Obama’s Commitment to LGBT Equality [the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda]

Note to AFTAH readers: the following is a list of President Barack Obama’s homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda “achievements,” produced by Human Rights Campaign, the world’s most powerful and well-funded LGBT lobby organization. [See the original HRC report on PDF HERE.] Even close followers of Obama’s socially left agenda will be surprised by the magnitude of his LGBT record. We have bolded some of the more important Obama actions–note especially #28 and #33 in which Obama undermined the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), thus accelerating the legal momentum for legalized same-sex “marriage.”

______________________

Retail giant stands proudly with anti-Christian homosexual-transgender lobby, Human Rights Campaign

Target Backs Anti-Christian LGBT “Equality Act,” HR 3185: The corporate giant is standing with anti-Christian activists at the Human Rights Campaign to support the most radical and far-reaching homosexual-transgender legislation ever introduced in Congress. AFTAH is calling HR 3185 the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” because it would empower the State to punish those who exercise their conscience and stand up for biblical morality on sex and true marriage (between a man and a woman). Call Target at 800-440-0680 [or 612-696-3400; hit #1]; or write them via their contact page. E-mail Target at guest.relations@target.com. or press@target.com.

For more information about the “Criminalizing Christianity Act,” go HERE. Target’s pandering and capitulations to LGBT activists go way back: see this 2011 L.A. Times article reporting Target’s pledge to give at least half a million dollars per year to homosexual activist organizations.

_____________________

Target Backs “Criminalizing Christianity Act,” HR 3185

By Peter LaBarbera

The popular department store giant Target has recently signed on as a corporate endorser of the radical homosexual-transgender “Equality Act” (HR 3185; S. 1858). AFTAH has renamed this LGBT bill the “Homosexual Superiority Act” or the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” because it will accelerate pro-homosexual State tyranny against people of faith or morals who oppose sinful, unnatural homosexual behavior and same-sex “marriage.” See this piece on HR 3185.

Target recently put out a statement on HR 3185–which was ballyhooed by the powerful, anti-Christian homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign (a Target ally):

“Target proudly stands with the LGBT community through all that we do, from our partnerships with organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), to our volunteer efforts, and even the products we sell. We want to be a champion for an inclusive society by using our influence and resources to support equality in the communities where our team members and guests live and work…

“Target is helping to lead the fight against discrimination by putting its support behind the Equality Act. Discrimination has no place in the workplace, and Target is demonstrating to all that inclusion is a pillar of any successful business,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “The time has come for full federal equality, and HRC is proud to include Target as a partner in this fight. Everyone should have a fair chance to earn a living, provide for their families, and live free from fear of discrimination, including Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”

HRC continues in its statement:

Target has a history of scoring highly on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, and was named as one of HRC’s 2015 “Best Places to Work”.

Target joins a number of leading American corporations, including Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, the Dow Chemical Company, Facebook, General Electric, General Mills, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, Nike, Oracle, Orbitz, PayPal and Symantec Corporation in support of federal LGBT non-discrimination protections.

As AFTAH has documented, HRC’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index” is a woefully-biased”scorecard” that gives companies points toward a Perfect 100 rating for making grants to LGBT activist groups–but takes points away from corporations that give to, say, pro-traditional-marriage groups. The homosexual-transgender lobby group continues to ratchet up the scoring criteria so that pro-“gay” corporations that have attained the “100 percent” ranking are pressured to make ever greater capitulations to LGBT demands to keep their “perfect” rating. In recent years that includes massive grants to pro-LGBT events such as “gay pride parades” [see Walmart’s funding of “New York City pride” HERE] and health insurance coverage for transgender employees seeking body-disfiguring “sex reassignment surgeries” as they “transition” to the opposite sex.

For more information about the “Criminalizing Christianity Act,” go HERE. Target’s pandering and capitulations to LGBT activists go way back: see this 2011 L.A. Times article reporting Target’s pledge to give at least half a million dollars per year to homosexual activist organizations. HRC is relying on large corporations to build support in Congress for the radical “Equality Act”; see this HRC release.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Target Corporation: [(800)440-0680; or call 612-696-3400 and hit #1; email: guest.relations@target.com. or press@target.com

Urge Speaker Paul Ryan and Congress to oppose the “Criminalizing Christianity Act” (HR 3185). Call 202-225-3121 for the House and 202-224-3121 for the Senate. More information from AFTAH HERE.