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Grassroots Illinois Republicans stand behind AFTAH banner urging the dismissal of IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady, who shocked the state’s Republicans by coming out for homosexuality-based “marriage.” Dozens of conservative Republicans, including elected officials, were forced to wait three hours as Brady’s future was decided in private at the meeting. When they were finally let back in, comments were limited to only a minute per speaker and then — after a few critical speeches including one by AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera — the meeting was suddenly cut short by Brady.
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TINLEY PARK, Illinois — Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) delivered the following informational Alert yesterday at the quarterly meeting of the Republican Party of Illinois (IL-GOP) Central Committee. AFTAH educates the public about the implications of homosexual activism to all institutions and all political parties. We’ll have more on Saturday’s bizarrely dysfunctional Central Committee meeting in another post [read Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton’s account of it HERE].
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Americans For Truth ** ALERT **
Putting Principles First: Why the IL-GOP Must Never Abandon Its Pro-Natural-Marriage Platform
Homosexual “marriage” will accelerate the promotion of homosexuality and gender confusion as ‘normal’ in public schools. In Massachusetts, 2nd graders were required to read this book, “King & King,” about a prince who falls in love with and “marries” another man instead of a princess. Parents in Mass. effectively lost their right to guide their own children’s moral values if they keep them in public schools.
TINLEY PARK, Illinois – Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) urges the Republican Party of Illinois to stay true to its own conservative Platform and reaffirm marriage as between a man and a woman.
AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera said that by embracing homosexuality-based “marriage,” IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the state’s most powerful Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk, have recklessly undermined the GOP’s conservative “brand” as a pro-family party and hurt the Party’s outreach prospects — especially among minority voters.
The family is society’s central building block… Our children need secure and nurturing environments, which are best found within the traditional family. No law should be enacted nor policy implemented without fully contemplating the effect it would have on children and their families…. [T]he ideal, best 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 our “DOMA.”
Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment a man and a woman make to each other in marriage….
LaBarbera urged the divisive Brady to step down as IL-GOP chairman and offered the following as among the reasons NOT to undermine the Party’s historic defense of natural marriage:
If homosexuality-based “marriage” is legalized, religious liberty and freedom of conscience will be further repressed by the state in the name of “gay equality”; this is already happening in Illinois under our “Civil Unions” law. In Paxton, IL, Jim and Beth Walder – owners of a bed-and-breakfast – were forced to go to court to defend their constitutional right to live by their own Christian beliefs (they declined a homosexual “civil union” ceremony on their own property). Republicans must stand for liberty – yet too often pro-homosexual libertarians are silent on the growing threat to First Amendment freedoms justified in the name of “gay rights.”
The following column by our friend Greg Quinlan first appeared on the website of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays):
By Greg Quinlan
Greg Quinlan says he was labeled a “traitor” for leaving the homosexual lifestyle and his “gay” identity behind.
The homosexual push for “equal marriage,” otherwise known as genderless marriage, can only lead to a ban on heterosexual rights. With a President in power who endorses gay causes and readily misuses executive orders, and emboldened by their numerous wins for gay rights at the legislative and judicial level, homosexuals have now moved beyond equal rights to the “more equal than you” level. As a result, gay organizations are working to ban that practice they fear the most — heterosexual behavior.
Witness the ban on heterosexual therapy successfully pushed by homosexual groups in California. Even though no scientific evidence exists of a “gay gene,” parents in California are now prohibited from taking their children to see a therapist to resolve their child’s unwanted same-sex attractions.
So for parents who discover that their son has been molested and is now sexually confused, their only option is to make an appointment with a gay-affirming therapist — because unlike heterosexual affirming therapy, gay-affirming therapy has not been declared illegal in California even though such therapy has not been proven beneficial by the APA.
Yet a parent can take their son to a therapist to approve gender blocking hormones so that the child’s natural gender is stunted before he reaches puberty. In short, parents can attempt to change a child’s gender, but they cannot change their child’s sexual orientation unless it is to a homosexual identity.
Hey folks, check out this video by my friend (and “AFTAH Hour” co-host) John Kirkwood, shot at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Schaumburg, Illinois outside Chicago. [Watch it on YouTube HERE.] This accurately conveys the spirit of this amazing grassroots, nationwide event in support of Chick-fil-A and its COO, Dan Cathy [click HERE for contact info]. As I wrote on my Facebook page, I was not prepared for what I experienced last evening at a Chick-fil-A last night in Aurora, Illinos. The lines were so long it took me and my son almost four hours to get our food! The people were boisterous, joyful and patient — you couldn’t find a crowd more polar opposite than the leftist “Occupy Wall Street.” It was spectacular. (Chick-fil-A set a record in one-day sales.) I came away with renewed hope for America, and feeling that perhaps the Silent Majority of decent, churchgoing Americans is finally rising up. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others on the Intolerant, ‘Homo-Fanatical’ Left may have helped wake up a sleeping giant. As one fellow (“PolarCoug”) tweeted, “The line at my local Chick-fil-A goes out the door and all the way to November 6th.” More coming on this amazing event launched by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; [follow me on Twitter]
In the early morning of AFTAH’s Oct. 15, 2011 banquet honoring Scott Lively, pro-homosexual activists threw two large, concrete paver bricks through the glass door of the Christian School hosting our banquet. The message on one read: “Shut Down Lively.”
Folks, few people in the world have been have been attacked, smeared and lied about by the homosexualist movement as Scott Lively, founder of Defend the Family International (and recipient of AFTAH’s 2011 “American Truth-Teller” award). It is to Lively’s great credit that because he fears God rather than man, he has never abandoned the defense of Truth on this issue, as so many have. Will liberal elites and the media start holding pro-homosexuality activists accountable for their intolerance of opposing views? — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)
The brouhaha over Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy’s defense of authentic marriage has caused a fender-bender on the political left. Classic free speech liberalism has apparently met for the first time the new generation of homo-fascists. Heady with empowerment by President Obama and a long string of political and legal victories, the “gay” activist movement and its homosexualist allies are flexing their muscles like never before. Two such allies, Mayors Tom Merino of Boston and Rahm Emanuel of Chicago announced plans to use the powers of their respective offices to prevent Chick-fil-A from expanding its business in these two cities. Their blatant disregard for the First Amendment was so egregious that it apparently shocked a number of classic liberals into action.
Salon Magazine’s Glenn Greenwald chided his fellow-travelers on the left in a column titled “Rahm Emanuel‘s Dangerous Free Speech Attack,” remarking “You can’t cheer when political officials punish the expression of views you dislike and then expect to be taken seriously when you wrap yourself in the banner of free speech in order to protest state punishment of views you like and share.” He listed a number of other liberal journalists and groups like the ACLU who had also gone public with their criticism.
Welcome to the brave new world of homo-fascism, Mr. Greenwald, but watch your back. You’re now officially a “homophobe” because you have dared to oppose something that is favorable to the “gay” cause. Sure, you tried to cover your backside by tossing in a couple of cheap shots at the “chicken CEO” but that won’t save you from the Brownshirts. They don’t really care about free speech. They care about power. Indeed, if you had been paying attention over the past few years, you would have noticed that their official position is that “anti-gay bigots” don‘t deserve free speech at all.
How ‘non-discrimination’ laws are used to discriminate against people of faith
First published by WorldNetDaily, June 15, 2012; this is the first half of Linda’s column; read the whole column on WND HERE:
Linda Harvey
By Linda Harvey
Relatively few self-identified homosexuals get “married,” even when same-sex unions become legal. But perhaps that was never the main point anyway. Respectability is what they are seeking. But to achieve this goal for behaviors that never can be intrinsically respectable, the power to massage the truth and to silence opponents is critical. How do you gain power? Restrict the rights of your enemies to express an opinion opposing homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”
The most destructive weapons deployed to this end are sexual-orientation and gender-identity “non-discrimination” laws. The Senate just held its first hearings on ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and many states and municipalities continue to be confronted with this unneeded legislation. As they hear the pleas about someone being fired “just for being ‘gay’ or ‘transgender,’” politicians would be wise to review the history.
Such policies routinely clobber people of faith who don’t agree with same-sex “marriage” or with the open expression of this behavior in the workplace, in schools and in public accommodations, by people who often lack good sense and good judgment. The cost of disagreement? Just your job, your reputation, your bank account and/or your religious liberty.
And we know where the “Gay”-Activist-in-Chief stands on religious freedom, right? Obama is leading the charge on restroom rights for radicals as well. June is once again “Pride” month, and the White House issued a glowing proclamation of support for this noble cause, which Obama thinks is “stronger than hate.” So there you have it.
“You will not acknowledge the freedom of those who seek change”
Homosexual activist Wayne Besen of "Truth Wins Out" viciously attacks people who have overcome homosexuality in their lives--like former lesbian Janet Boynes. To order Boynes' book, go to www.JanetBoynesMinistries.com.
The following is an open letter to “Truth Wins Out” (TWO), a homosexual activist organization that attempts to discredit the observed truth that people practicing homosexuality can change their dominating sexual attractions (and behaviors). This letter was sent to members of the California state Assembly, which is considering SB 1172 — passed in late May by the state Senate — banning “sexual orientation” change therapy (also know as “reparative therapy”) for homosexual youth. The letter’s signers are: myself [Peter LaBarbera, Founder and President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)], Wayne Lela, Founder of H.O.M.E. (Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment), and John McCartney, Jr., an AFTAH Board Member and advocate with the Citizens Concerned About Media, also based in Chicago.
TWO viciously demonizes “ex-gays”; typical is TWO founder Wayne Besen’s crass and demeaning characterization HERE of former lesbian Janet Boynes as an “ex-gay fraud” and “con artist.” Significantly, much of Besen’s and TWO’s efforts are directed at denying media visibility to people like Boynes who have overcome homosexuality in their lives. You can also listen HERE to Besen’s embarrassingly unprofessional appearance last year opposite me on liberal radio host Barry Lynn’s talk show, “Culture Shocks”: in addition to repeatedly calling me “Porno Pete” (a nasty smear he concocted) on air, Besen exposes his own folly of trying to “prove” homosexuals cannot change by admitting that he hasn’t (and of course cannot) monitor every former homosexual. (Besen and his small outfit evidently hadn’t been tracking successful Chicago former lesbian Linda Jernigan.)
I wish to add, for myself personally as a Christian who has monitored the homosexual movement for two decades, that some people trapped in homosexuality HAVE experienced rapid and, many would say, miraculous change away from homosexuality — mostly (but not always) through spiritual regeneration in Jesus Christ. However, that should not be the expectation of every person seeking sexual healing and transformation. As in all areas of life, each person brings his or her own unique circumstances, struggles, beliefs and personality to the process of overcoming adversity, sin and addictions in their life. And the lingering effects of temptation, abuse/family dysfunction and indulged, habitual sin — of whatever stripe — usually last a lifetime.
North Carolina Christian activist Steve Noble is guardedly optimistic about the upcoming May 8 vote in his state on the Marriage Amendment. He tells how he got active in pro-family advocacy in his book, "The Making of a Christian Wacko."
After a brief hiatus, Americans For Truth Radio is back featuring in-depth interviews with front-line, pro-family activists. This interview [click HERE to listen] by AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera is with Steve Noble, a Christian activist and talk show host in Raleigh, North Carolina. This was pre-taped and aired on WYLL-Chicago (1160 AM) April 7, 2012. Noble hosts a daily talk show, “Called2Action,” on 1030 AM Truth Radio in Raleigh (4:00 PM Eastern). Steve discusses the upcoming May 8 vote in North Carolina for the Marriage Amendment — which if passed would codify in the state’s constitution the preservation of marriage as one-man, one-woman. He notes how North Carolina’s homosexual activists are not affirming theirright to “marry,” but rather throwing up disinformation against the Amendment.
On April 2, Noble interviewed LaBarbera on his program on the same subject [go HERE to the archive page and download the April 2nd podcast: “A ‘Gay Marriage’ North Carolina?”]. Noble is also the author of, “The Making of a Christian Wacko,” about his path to becoming a Christian pro-family activist. You can order the book HERE.
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It’s rare when I agree with (pro-homosexual-“marriage”) Chris Matthews, the fast-talking host of the MSNBC program “Hardball” — but here he hits the nail on the head. At a March 24 book signing in Framingham, Mass., Matthews was “ambushed” by video-camera-wielding activists with the pro-homosexual, leftist group Faithful America. They badgered him about having Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, on as a repeat guest on “Hardball.” Here’s Matthews’ response [more commentary after the video]:
Silencing “hate”?
Needless to say, Faithful America justifies its blacklisting campaign against Perkins on the basis of Family Research Council being (mis)labeled a “hate group” — by fellow left-wingers at GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and the Southern Poverty Law Center. [See Faithful America’s Youtube comments HERE.] Perkins is a good man who ably and articulately defends the historic Judeo-Christian sexual and marriage ethic, for which he is rewarded with the usual vitriol by embittered homosexual activists and bloggers. Anyone who has seen Perkins debate on TV can see he is not “hateful” in the least — nor is the respected family organization FRC (where I once worked as a cultural analyst).
Do you see what is happening? The intellectual cowards on the Left — puffed up by a compliant media and suffused with enough “gay pride” and arrogance to presume that their aberrant sexual/gender ideology has NO LEGITIMATE OPPOSITION — are busier than ever trying to bully the media into joining their “Pro-Gay-Only” crusade. It is despicable, but worse: it is a grave threat to American liberty. Because when the media en masse kowtow to censorious activists — a road on which they are quite far along with the Homosexual Lobby — accountability, reason and fairness are jettisoned, paving the way for ever more reckless and extreme pressure campaigns against the dreaded “haters.” (That would be you, me and just about anyone who takes a public stand against homosexual behavior or “gay” agenda goals like same-sex “marriage.”)
