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The following open letter by Heather Barwick, a happily married mother of four, was originally posted on The Federalist website March 17, 2015:
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Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting
I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.
Gay community, I am your daughter. My mom raised me with her same-sex partner back in the ’80s and ’90s. She and my dad were married for a little while. She knew she was gay before they got married, but things were different back then. That’s how I got here. It was complicated as you can imagine. She left him when I was two or three because she wanted a chance to be happy with someone she really loved: a woman.
My dad wasn’t a great guy, and after she left him he didn’t bother coming around anymore.
Do you remember that book, “Heather Has Two Mommies”? That was my life. My mom, her partner, and I lived in a cozy little house in the ‘burbs of a very liberal and open-minded area. Her partner treated me as if I was her own daughter. Along with my mom’s partner, I also inherited her tight-knit community of gay and lesbian friends. Or maybe they inherited me?
Either way, I still feel like gay people are my people. I’ve learned so much from you. You taught me how to be brave, especially when it is hard. You taught me empathy. You taught me how to listen. And how to dance. You taught me not be afraid of things that are different. And you taught me how to stand up for myself, even if that means I stand alone.
I’m writing to you because I’m letting myself out of the closet: I don’t support gay marriage. But it might not be for the reasons that you think.
Children Need a Mother and Father
It’s not because you’re gay. I love you, so much. It’s because of the nature of the same-sex relationship itself.
Growing up, and even into my 20s, I supported and advocated for gay marriage. It’s only with some time and distance from my childhood that I’m able to reflect on my experiences and recognize the long-term consequences that same-sex parenting had on me. And it’s only now, as I watch my children loving and being loved by their father each day, that I can see the beauty and wisdom in traditional marriage and parenting.
Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn’t matter. That it’s all the same. But it’s not. A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting. My father’s absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad. I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.
I grew up surrounded by women who said they didn’t need or want a man. Yet, as a little girl, I so desperately wanted a daddy. It is a strange and confusing thing to walk around with this deep-down unquenchable ache for a father, for a man, in a community that says that men are unnecessary. There were times I felt so angry with my dad for not being there for me, and then times I felt angry with myself for even wanting a father to begin with. There are parts of me that still grieve over that loss today.
Alabama Supreme Court Ruling on Marriage Stands Firm
Montgomery, AL – A week after the Alabama Court issued its ruling informing all Probate Judges that they must comply and cease issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the federal judge who purported to overturn Alabama’s marriage laws in January has turned down the opportunity to challenge the statewide ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court. Federal Judge Callie Granade’snew order recognizes that her prior ruling only required Alabama Probate Judge Don Davis to issue marriage licenses to four same-sex couples who were plaintiffs in the federal case. The Alabama Supreme Court’s statewide ruling now prohibits all Alabama probate judges, including Judge Davis, from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Judge Davis had requested a stay of Judge Granade’s prior ruling because of the statewide Alabama Supreme Court order. The plaintiffs in the federal case, although they had already received the licenses they sought, urged Judge Granade to order Judge Davis to disregard the Alabama Supreme Court and issue marriage licenses to all same-sex couples who may ask. Judge Granade denied the stay requested by Judge Davis, but also declined to order him to disregard the Alabama Supreme Court.
“We are pleased that the Alabama Supreme Court’s order is being respected and followed throughout the State of Alabama,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which filed the suit leading to the statewide ruling. “The federal court has no authority to force the Alabama Probate Judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and that lack of authority has been admitted by the federal court. The law in Alabama is clear. Marriage is only between one man and one woman. Other states should follow the lead of Alabama,” Staver concluded.
Liberty Counsel represents Alabama Policy Institute (“API”) and Alabama Citizens Action Program (“ALCAP”) in the Alabama Supreme Court case.
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Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
Not a Hater: Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). Ruse’s group has been slandered by the leftist SPLC as a “hate group.”
By Peter LaBarbera
The pro-LGBT Left’s “hate” game is a cynical exercise in demonization and manipulation: by smearing people and organizations that oppose homosexual “marriage” or “gay” activism as “haters,” they seek to establish a narrative that delegitimizes any opposition to homosexualism as the moral equivalent of racism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has turned this spurious tactic into a money-making machine–see the current issue of WND’s Whistleblower magazine, “The Hate Racket.”
Finally people of faith are fighting back: American Family Association has created an “[Anti-Christian] Bigotry Map” in response to the heavy-handed SPLC’s farcical “Hate Map,” on which AFTAH and more than a dozen other pro-family organizations are listed.
Below is an example of how homosexual activists like Joe Jervis, creater of the Joe.My.God blog, play the SPLC hate card against pro-family advocates. Note Jervis’ headline:
“Haters Are Thrilled that Italian Designers Dolce & Gabbana Oppose LGBT Rights”:
The alleged “hater” to which Jervis refers is not hateful at all. Austin Ruse is a Breitbart writer, a dedicated Catholic family man and the president of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which fights for pro-life and pro-family values at the United Nations. Ruse is a smart and capable guy–but his organization, like AFTAH, has been slandered by the SPLC as a “hate group” [see the map’s New York listings; AFTAH is found in the map’s Illinois listings].
Join Pro-Life and Pro-Family activists at the Defense of the Texas Marriage Amendment Rally
WHEN & WHERE: Monday, March 23rd at 1:00 PM on the south steps of the State Capitol in Austin. Below is a video and letter by Dr. Steven Hotze, president of Conservative Republicans of Texas:
It’s time for Christians and conservatives to rise up and take a stand for God’s truth about marriage! We must draw a line in the sand.
This is a call to action. I am asking you to make whatever sacrifices necessary to attend the Defense of Texas Marriage Amendment Rally scheduled for Monday, March 23rd at 1:00 pm on the south steps of the Texas Capitol. Please encourage your family, friends and fellow church members to attend. You might consider taking busloads of people to the rally.
We have over 100 elected State Officials who are sponsoring this event. They are coming under attack by militant homosexuals. That is why Christians and conservatives must have a show of force to let these legislators know that we support them.
Marriage is a God ordained institution between a man and a woman and it is the fundamental foundation of families and of ordered societies: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5).
In the November 8, 2005 General Election, the citizens of Texas passed, by an overwhelming margin of 76% to 24%, a Marriage Amendment to the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 32, which provides that “Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.”
A fierce battle for the soul of Texas has begun.The liberals and their pro-homosexual allies want to force Texans to redefine marriage and accept ‘homosexual mirage’ as morally right.
Sodomy Finder: Grindr is a phone app–with by four million homosexual male subscribers–that uses GPS to facilitate them finding a sodomy partner nearby–literally telling them how many feet away he is. The above graphic is from the Grindr website; click to enlarge.
“Grindr is for, basically, gay guys not pretending it’s for anything other than meeting up to have sex.” — Billy Eichner
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By Peter LaBarbera
One of the unwritten codes among popular culture elites is that they can make fun of homosexuality, sort of, as long as they are outwardly pro-“gay rights”–which is now practically a universal value in Hollywood and the media. The rest of us can’t even joke about homosexuality–although many aspects of the same-sex world, e.g., Grindr, deserve ridicule–as most people endeavor to toe the line set forth by the Gay Thought Police (GTP) with its modern, deviance-celebrating “morality.”
Nevertheless, in poking fun at homosexuality (sort of) comedians–walking on politically correct eggshells–still manage to get out truth about the perverse “gay” world and even acknowledge verboten dissent–think Seinfeld and the “not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode. Smart media consumers can read between the laugh lines to discover subversive realities, just like in the old Soviet Union, where citizens read through Pravda’s propaganda to find out what was really going on in the socialist “People’s Republic.”
And so, in our own People’s Republic–in which bold Truth-tellers are fast becoming like dissidents in the USSR–we get a lesson in “Homo-Promiscuity” from this bawdy video produced by light-night host Conan O’Brien. Conan’s openly homosexual sidekick, Billy Eichner, clues us in (wink, wink) to the libidinous ways of Grindr–a tool and “lifestyle” that simply has no parallel in straight society (much as “gay” radicals like Dan “Monogamish” Savage would love for straights to sink to their sleazy standards).
Grindr Murder: Twenty-five-year-old “gay” Philly native Dino Dizdarevic (right), shown here with his boyfriend Nick McBee, was murdered in 2014 after driving to Chester, PA, for a Grindr hook-up.
I believe this is AFTAH’s first post on Grindr; think of it as a digital bathhouse that facilitates men hooking up for sodomitic encounters–literally telling them how many feet they are from potential sodomy partners. This is AFTAH, so you are free to say what your really think about that–it’s weird, gross and twisted, I know. But it’s happening–and it has real life repercussions that are no laughing matter –e.g., Grindr hook-up murders like the one last year that led to the tragic death of a young Philly man, Dino Dizdarevi?.
Be forewarned: this video is edgy and subversive in a PC way, in the sense that when we’re all laughing at perversion it becomes less threatening–this indeed is how homosexuality began being mainstreamed in America through entertainment, beginning with the 70s TV sitcom Soap, the first with an “openly gay” character (played by Billy Crystal). Note Eichner’s revealing comment about condoms at 7:29 and the look on Conan’s face shortly after 7:40 when he is told what sodomy is. Of course, we’ll have more on Grindr and homo-promiscuity in future articles:
Obama was “chomping at the bit” to support homosexuality-based “marriage,” says key adviser
By Peter LaBarbera
Obama adviser and powerful Chicago Democratic political strategist David Axelrod confirms in his new book “Believer” what many Americans have long suspected: Barack Obama “bulsh*tted” America on “gay marriage” to help win his bid for the White House in 2008. [See the 2013 AFTAH piece, “Was Obama Lying When He Piously Professed His Belief in Natural Marriage?”]
“I had no doubt that this [a 1996 campaign pledge by Obama to support same-sex “marriage” legislation while running for Illinois state senator] was his heartfelt belief.”
Candidate and then-Sen. Obama “grudgingly accepted the cousel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than [homosexual ‘marriage’].”
Obama “never felt comfortable with the compromise, and told Axelrod after one “awkward” public exchange defending his calculated compromise position: “I’m just not very good at [bullsh*tting].”
In 2010, “the president was chomping at the bit to support the right of gays and lesbians to wed–and having watched him struggle with this issue for years, I was ready, too.”
I heartily agree with Boyce College Professor of Biblical Studies Denny Burk‘s take on this:
“If Axelrod’s report is accurate, this is the worst kind of hypocrisy and cynicism. It would mean this: Not only did President Obama lie in order to get elected, but he also used his Christian faith as a pretense. He pretended to believe Christian teaching in order to make the lie credible.”
Obama himself is pushing back against Axelrod’s claim–see this Politico story: “Obama: I didn’t lie about same-sex marriage.” “I think David is mixing up my personal feelings with my position on the issue,” Obama told Buzzfeed.
But like so much of what the president has said over the years, his denial is not very plausible–just watch again the video below of Obama’s infamous “God is in the mix” pledge to 2008 debate moderator Pastor Rick Warren in support of natural marriage. (One could argue that as much as Obama may have “hated BS’ing” the country on sodomy-based “marriage,” he was pretty darned good at it–maybe a career in Hollywood awaits him after he leaves the Oval Office.)
Below are photos of the pages 446-7 from Axelrod’s book containing the key revelation that candidate Obama knew all along that he was “bullsh*tting” the public on this critical moral issue, followed by the 2008 Saddleback presidential debate footage (note Obama’s feigned piety). Oh, and one more thing: NEVER should Rick Warren moderate another presidential debate–he blew a big opportunity to call out Obama on his charade, which should have been evident to everyone since then-candidate Obama gave rhetorical sustenance to the very aggressive LGBT push for same-sex “marriage”–e.g., condemning state amendments to preserve the traditional definition of marriage–even as he formally opposed legalizing it:
Here is then-candidate Obama’s profession of support for natural marriage (one-man, one-woman) at the Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church debate in 2008:
AFTAH republishes this column by our friend Bryan Fischer from the outstanding website Renew America; to learn more about R.A., click HERE. Americans are indebted to Judge Roy Moore for attempting to stop arrogant judicial supremacists from imposing homosexual so-called “marriage” on the citizens of Alabama and those in so many other states who have been disenfranchised on this critical issue. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at “Focal Point”
A federal judge’s ruling is not a “law.” It is a “ruling.” So, for example, when people refer to Roe v. Wade as “the law of the land,” they are simply mistaken.
A “law” is something enacted by the elected representatives of the people (or by the people directly through referendum) and signed by the chief executive. A judge’s “ruling” is not therefore a “law.” Judges have no authority whatsoever to make law. They can issue rulings, but the power to make law is flatly prohibited to them.
This is clear from the first words in the the first article of the Constitution. “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
That is “all,” as in “every last little single bit,” of the power to make law has been vested in Congress. That means no legislative power whatsoever has been granted to the judiciary. That is “no” legislative power as in zip, zilch, nada.
The New York Times makes a typical and constitutionally illiterate gaffe in today’s edition, on a piece on Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s directive to probate judges in Alabama to refuse to issue wedding licenses based on what Alabama state law still refers to as “deviate sexual intercouse.”
In Alabama, United States District Court Judge Callie V. S. Granade issued a ruling – not a “law” you will note – overturning the state’s marriage amendment, which was passed with 81% of the vote in 2006. Thus this tyrannical judge in one fell swoop pulverized the voting rights of 697,591 Alabamians.
This judge, acting like a black-robed despot, has ordered Alabama to begin issuing same-sex licenses as of today (February 9). Judge Moore is rightly and constitutionally saying not so fast.
Parenting, San Francisco-style: One of the San Francisco drag-queen “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” works the 2013 Easter egg hunt, which is held the morning of the Christ-mocking “Hunky Jesus” contest every Easter Sunday. A new study finds the use of mental health treatment services is nearly double among children with same-sex parents when contrasted with those of opposite-sex parents. Children in homosexual-led households are naturally more exposed to aberrant sexual and gender behaviors–like those on display at “Gay Pride” parades–than children in normal mother-father homes. Photo: AFTAH; click to enlarge.
The following is an excerpt from an article on the excellent website The Public Discourse:
New Research on Same-Sex Households Reveals Kids Do Best With Mom and Dad
Published research employing the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), the ECLS (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), the US Census (ACS), the Canadian Census, and now the NHIS all reveal a comparable basic narrative, namely, that children who grow up with a married mother and father fare best.
A new study published in the February 2015 issue of the British Journal of Education, Society, and Behavioural Science appears to be the largest yet on the matter of same-sex households and children’s emotional outcomes. It analyzed 512 children of same-sex parents, drawn from a pool of over 207,000 respondents who participated in the (US) National Health Interview Survey(NHIS) at some point between 1997 and 2013.
Results reveal that, on eight out of twelve psychometric measures, the risk of clinical emotional problems, developmental problems, or use of mental health treatment services is nearly double among those with same-sex parents when contrasted with children of opposite-sex parents. The estimate of serious child emotional problems in children with same-sex parents is 17 percent, compared with 7 percent among opposite-sex parents, after adjusting for age, race, gender, and parent’s education and income. Rates of ADHD were higher as well—15.5 compared to 7.1 percent. The same is true for learning disabilities: 14.1 vs. 8 percent.
The study’s author, sociologist Paul Sullins, assessed a variety of different hypotheses about the differences, including comparative residential stability, experience of stigma or bullying, parental emotional problems (6.1 percent among same-sex parents vs. 3.4 percent among opposite-sex ones), and biological attachment. Each of these factors predictably aggravated children’s emotional health, but only the last of these—biological parentage—accounted for nearly all of the variation in emotional problems. While adopted children are at higher risk of emotional problems overall, being adopted did not account for the differences between children in same-sex and opposite-sex households. It’s also worth noting that while being bullied clearly aggravates emotional health, there was no difference in self-reported experience of having been bullied between the children of same-sex and opposite-sex parents….
