Don’t be misled into thinking that this bill bans only professional counselors from trying to alter same-sex attractions. It goes well beyond that.

Robert Gagnon. For more pro-family (and pro-freedom) resources on AB 2943, go HERE. Also see SaveCalifornia.com. See Gagnon’s excellent website at RobGagnon.net.

By Robert A. J. Gagnon, reprinted from the Catholic World Report, April 15, 2018

The biggest effort at book-banning, the banning of counseling services and church conferences, the banning of academic courses, and a general banning of free speech in the history of the United States is well underway in California. This is reminiscent of when Southern states in the pre-Civil War era banned any literature suggesting that slavery might not be a good thing; what we are fighting now is slavery to same-sex attractions and gender dysphoria.

The bill in question is California Assembly Bill 2943. It would treat as a criminal violation of the state’s consumer fraud act “the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer” that consists of “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual.” Don’t be misled into thinking that this bill bans only professional counselors from trying to alter same-sex attractions. It goes well beyond that.

“Orientation change” can be as innocuous as stating at a paid conference that homosexual and transgender desire can be overcome (not necessarily eliminated) by the Spirit of Jesus. Or even complying with an attendee’s request for prayer that the Spirit of God empower the attendee not to succumb to the power of same-sex attractions.

That’s not all. More than “orientation change” is at issue, for the bill expressly states:

‘Sexual orientation change efforts’ means any practices that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation. This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.

Did you catch the part that says: “This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions,” not just orientation change? You cannot treat homosexual expression or transgenderism as the product of disordered desires.

Working Together: Americans For Truth has worked closely with Brian Camenker and MassResistance for two decades. MR has branches in many states and volunteer activists all over the world. To read more about LaBarbera joining the MassResistance team, go HERE. AFTAH will continue to operate as an independent organization, publishing exposés educating the public on the hard truths about homosexuality, “transgenderism” and the powerful LGBTQ Lobby that many other groups shy away from.

The following is an Americans For Truth press release on AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera joining the pro-family group MassResistance:

AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera Joins MassResistance, Leading Grassroots Pro-Family Group Fighting LGBTQ Agenda

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

April 13, 2018

Peter LaBarbera, founder and president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org), issued the following statement today on joining the Boston-based pro-family organization MassResistance (MR) as assistant director. AFTAH, based in Chicago, will continue to exist as an independent organization producing no-holds-barred exposés on the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. See the MassResistance article on LaBarbera coming on board HERE.

Statement by LaBarbera:

I am thrilled to be joining the MassResistance team with Brian Camenker and Amy Contrada. MR is the leading national grassroots organization opposing the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) movement.

I have worked with Brian, Amy and the MR staff for more than two decades and my admiration for them has steadily grown over the years. In a world darkened by suffocating political correctness, they stand out as principled truth-tellers, supremely dedicated to fighting the lies of the powerful “gay” and “trans” lobbies. Moreover, like the fanatical LGBTQ activists they oppose, they will never quit.

Camenker understands that merely exposing LGBTQ cultural aggression is not enough: we must build and organize a worldwide resistance to this sin/deviance movement before it engulfs America and other nations with its perverse ideology–which corrupts everything it touches, including marriage and Christianity. He also understands that the endless defensiveness of conservatives on LGBTQ issues inevitably leads to further defeats.

Contrada is a first-rate researcher who, leading up to the presidential election of 2012, had the guts to expose then-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s long record of capitulation to homosexual activists. See her book “Mitt Romney’s Deception.” Like AFTAH, MassResistance never caters to the “Republican gay agenda.”

In 2017, MassResistance published a 600-page book on the “Health Hazards of Homosexuality” – meticulously loaded with research and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reports laying out the massive, disproportionate health risks linked to sodomy and other LGBTQ behaviors. “Gay” activists immediately lambasted the book as “hateful” without reading its contents.

Camenker and MR operate from the truthful presumption that the powerful, proud LGBTQ activist movement is evil. For decades, “gay” ideologues have aggressively targeted young people—even toddlers and elementary school students—with their nefarious propaganda promoting homosexuality and gender rebellion as “normal and natural.”

He also understands that the other side never backs down—so why should we? Homosexual activists and their liberal enablers routinely mock and vilify anyone who publicly opposes homosexualism and transgenderism. Worse, they push for oppressive laws that trample over citizens’ constitutional rights to pursue wholesome, pro-heterosexual change and freely live out their beliefs about natural marriage and sensible, Judeo-Christian morality.

The sad reality is that Christians and other conservative moral advocates have been outhustled, outmaneuvered and outlasted time and again by the “Gay” Lobby—whether it’s in the courts, in corporations or in schools. That must end if we are to preserve not only our liberty in the freest nation on earth, but the innocence and well-being of future generations of children.

No Tolerance for Christians: Self-styled “Moma Bear” Sara Cunningham of the pro-homosexual/pro-transgender group Free Mom Hugs crusades against ex-“gay” ministries, saying, “To agree to disagree on this issue and this type of ministry is no longer acceptable.” Cunningham said on Facebook that a Christian documentary film “Tranzformed: Finding Peace with Your God-Given Gender,” featuring interviews with men and women who have overcome transsexualism in their lives, is “dangerous” and amounts to “hate speech.” Above is Cunningham’s Twitter page graphic. Click to enlarge.

The following press release was issued by my friend and Christian pro-family leader Stephen Black, Board Chairman of Restored Hope Ministries and executive director of First Stone Ministries in Oklahoma City. Black was the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s 2017 banquet, and gave several wonderful talks. It’s clear that the LGBTQ movement is in the vanguard of attacking Christian speech in the Public Square–to the point of directly attacking transformative ministries at Christian churches. This is why I’m proud and excited to be traveling to Oklahoma City this Friday to stand in support of Stephen and the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

Tranzformed Documentary info: For more information on David Kyle Foster’s documentary “Tranzformed: Finding Peace with your God-given Gender” (produced by Pure Passion Ministries) go HERE. For info on Stephen Black’s public showing of the film in Oklahoma City this Friday, April 6, go HERE.

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LGBT Activists Vow to Shut Down Christian Ministry, ‘Your Faith be Damned’

No longer content with widespread acceptance, activists are fighting to eliminate any program aimed at helping those struggling with same-sex attraction or gender identity

Contact: Don Otis, 719-275-7775

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 3, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ — “The level of hatred and bullying is not like anything we’ve seen,” says Stephen Black, who lived as a gay man for 8 years, over 35 years ago, and now Executive Director of First Stone Ministries is in the crosshairs of gay activists.

Black is the author of a ground-breaking book that reveals that 70-percent of people who want freedom from a destructive same-sex lifestyle find it. In Freedom Realized, Black and his colleagues examined 25 years of case files and found incontrovertible evidence that people can and do change.

On April 6, First Stone Ministries (firststone.org) is hosting a public screening of the documentary film, Tranzformed: Finding Peace with Your God-Given Gender (tranzformed.org/). “This documentary is about 15 people who were unhappy as homosexuals and transgendered and wanted more in their relationship with Jesus Christ,” says Black. Gay activists have already sent death threats to a Michigan pastor and his family and are now setting their sights on Black.

Gay advocate and protestor, Sara Cunningham, vowed to close First Stone Ministries (she appealed for a $25,000 grant from Starbucks for her mission). Her goal is to mobilize and eliminate any mention of the possibility of change, even if people want it and even if it means a transformed life. “To agree to disagree on this issue and this type of ministry is no longer acceptable,” says Cunningham. But Black sees it differently, “In the last ten years, there has been an increasing attack on the gospel-centered message of freedom from homosexuality.” Activists are intent on shutting down any counseling that leads to new life in Christ and freedom from homosexuality.

AFTAH in the News: intolerant “progressive” LGBTQ cheerleaders have become more “fundamentalist” than Christian “fundamentalists” 

HBO late-night host John Oliver’s “children’s book mocking one by the vice-president’s daughter, Charlotte Pence, promotes homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” to children.

The following piece about HBO late-night host John Oliver’s nasty stunt, featuring comments by AFTAH, is from One News Now, the daily news site produced by our friends at American Family Association (AFA founder Don Wildmon received the first Americans For Truth “Truth Teller” award in 2009).

I am struck by the sheer meanness of self-righteous “progressives” and their obsession with homosexualism (and gender rebellion), which seems to have surpassed unlimited abortion as their Holy Grail. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera; americansfortruth@gmail.com

P.S. The main problem with Charlotte Pence’s response to Oliver’s mock-book is that we should never applaud a book that corrupts children, as his does (by celebrating homosexual “marriage” and demonizing those who oppose it). Also, the LGBTQ group that benefits from Oliver’s book, Trevor Project, is hardly a “charity” as it pushes for laws to shut down pro-heterosexual change therapy for minors. But who can blame Charlotte Pence for trying to pivot away from the hateful attacks of “progressives” against her father and her family?

__________________

Pence’s Daughter One-betters Late-night Host

By Steve Jordahl, One News Now, March 19, 2018

A mean-spirited late-night host is mocking a children’s book simply because the authors are related to Vice-president Mike Pence.

Second-Daughter Charlotte Pence and her mom, Karen, wrote a kids book about Charlotte’s pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo, who has become popular on social media. It’s called, A day in the Life of the Vice President.

But late night television host John Oliver appears to believe that no one with the name Pence should be allowed out in public.

I would love to say, ‘Fine, it’s a fun, sweet book about a rabbit … Who gives a [expletive]?’” Oliver expressed on his show. “But unfortunately, one of the stops on that book tour is at Focus on the [expletive]-ing Family. So, congratulations, Pence, you’ve even managed to ruin Marlon Bundo.”

Not being content to just harangue the Pences with foul language, Oliver then decided to hit where he thought it would hurt the Pences most.

“We also wrote a book about Mike Pence’s rabbit that has also been published,” the vitriolic host continued. “You’ll notice right away that our rabbit has a bow tie, so there’s that. Also, our story is about Marlon Bundo falling in love with another boy rabbit because our Marlon Bundo is gay.”

Focus on the Family Vice President Paul Batura says the ministry is honored to have the Pences stop by.

“I’m not shocked that late-night TV would spoof or would mock, but I think it sort of goes to a new low to do it with a children’s book – to try and politicize something that’s clearly positive and fun and innocent, really,” Batura shared.

Meanwhile, Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth insists that celebrating homosexuality has become the Holy Grail to the left.

“Ironically, they despise biblically faithful Christians, but they’re more fundamentalist in their anti-faith than most Christians are with their faith,” LaBarbera insisted.

Shining above Oliver, Charlotte Pence is taking the high road. On her twitter feed, she has a picture of Marlon with a bow tie. On it, she wrote, “Not gonna lie, I do look pretty fly in a bow tie. The only thing better than one bunny book for charity is TWO bunny books for charity.”

On January 15, I was interviewed by Christian talk show host Janet Mefferd on the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) agenda in 2018. As always, it was a lively discussion. Here is the podcast. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera

Leftist haters … hate AFTAH: Hard-left groups like “People for the American Way” despise AFTAH and castigate its president, Peter LaBarbera, whenever he publicly criticizes the homosexual activist agenda. Here PFAW’s “Right Wing Watch” expresses dismay that LaBarbera is speaking out against “Star Wars” for featuring a character who models a deviant homosexual identity.  See above PFAW link HERE and PFAW’s “RWW” link containing hundreds of its “Peter LaBarbera” entries HERE. Help support AFTAH by giving safely online HERE. Click on image to enlarge.

Special Note from AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera:

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying a Happy New Year as we enter 2018 with all its challenges and opportunities!

AFTAH (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) defends the simple truth that homosexual behaviors are wrong, unnatural, and are not the basis for one’s identity, nor positive “rights” in the law.

Throughout 2017, I represented AFTAH as a guest on dozens of conservative Christian radio talk shows to expose and confront the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) agenda. Here is a sample of programs (with links) on which I appeared this year:

* VCY America:  Based in Milwaukee, it reaches several States in the Midwest, Middle America and the South. AFTAH appears regularly on VCY America “Crosstalk” to discuss the overarching LGBTQ agenda.  The LGBTQ media and leftist activists did not appreciate my criticism on a September 26 WVCY interview of “Star Wars'” inclusion of a character modelling homosexual sin as normal.

* Janet Mefferd Show:  Janet—one of the smartest talkers and thinkers in Christian media—regularly relies on AFTAH as a “go to” source in explaining the “gay” and “transgender” onslaught on America.  I appeared frequently on both her individual show as well her AFR (American Family Radio) show.  Here is a Nov. 4 “Janet Mefferd Live” radio broadcast interview in which I discuss the Human Rights Campaign’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index.”

* AFA “One News Now”: AFTAH is also regularly featured on this excellent American Family Association news source. In this July 20 ONN story, I responded to homosexual mega-funder Tim Gill, who said he wants to “punish the wicked,” referring to pro-family conservatives.  LaBarbera told ONN:  “Tim Gill is a bigot and he’s an intolerant bigot at that … He wants to squelch dissent; he wants to squelch the very Judeo/Christian values that help make our country great. But all Tim Gill’s millions or billions or whatever he has cannot eradicate God’s truth. The Bible stands true yesterday, today, and forever.”

* Linda Harvey Show: On Dec. 16, I was interviewed by my friend and pro-family advocate Linda Harvey on the connection between homosexuality and pedophilia, in the wake of the Hollywood ongoing sex-abuse scandal. Go to this link and scroll down to 12/16/17, “Homosexuality and the Predator Issue.”

* Chaps Klingenschmitt Show: Chaps (Gordon) Klingenschmitt of the Pray in Jesus Name Project interviewed me about the intriguing case of “gay conservative” Milo Yiannoupoulos. Watch the Skype interview HERE.

In 2017, I also spoke out in public against homosexualism, which usually inspires some form of pro-LGBTQ censorship these days.  In October, the Wisconsin Christian News sponsors of my recent speech “Exposing the LGBTQ Agenda” were directly censored by both Office Max (Office Depot) and Facebook. [See main AFTAH story HERE.]

Through our ongoing media outreach and our website, AFTAH over the last three decades has educated many millions of people all over the world about the campaign to “mainstream” homosexuality—which is now getting a tremendous push from Corporate America.

[Please Help Us: To help AFTAH continue in its mission to tell the politically incorrect Truth About Homosexuality, give safely online HERE or send your gift to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.]

In addition, AFTAH is highly engaged on Twitter, where we are one of the most visible opponents of “gay” ideology, and on Facebook, which recently “de-published” our page, amidst other acts of censorship over the year.  Speaking “truth to power,” in a moral sense, is what we do, and we do it joyfully even as we are hated and despised by lost souls in the grip of sin, leftist propaganda and sexual confusion.

Amazing Stephen Black testimony: AFTAH banquet

Stephen Black addresses Americans For Truth “Teach-in.” Black received the AFTAH “American Truth Teller Award” for 2017. Click HERE to watch the entire banquet on video. Help support AFTAH by giving safely online HERE.

In October we had a successful banquet featuring ex-“gay” Stephen Black.  Stephen offered compelling testimony in defense of the Christian view of homosexuality and shared the harrowing story of how as a young boy, he’d been molested twice by men with a homosexual problem.  Two other ex-“gay” men also shared their riveting personal stories of coming out of homosexuality.

I was thrilled to present Stephen with a $1,000 check and the “American Truth-Teller Award” for 2017.  Honoring defenders of Truth and changed lives through Jesus Christ is what we’re all about.  (Support Stephen’s First Stone Ministries HERE.)

Stephen’s entire banquet and “teach-in” presentation, joined by several other leading pro-family activists, can be viewed HERE (or click the “Stephen Black” box on the right side of the AFTAH website).

Dirtiest word in America: Morality

The M-Word—Morality—is now one of the “dirtiest” words in modern America.  Biblical sexual morality has been under withering assault in the United States for decades—think of the abject filth, vulgarity and soft-core porn that have become staples of modern movies.  The abomination of homosexuality (that’s how God sees it: as detestable) is now widely treated as merely another form of “love.”

“Love is love,” went the simplistic, pro-LGBTQ slogan, echoed by Obama and countless others after our corrupt Supreme Court ushered in legal homosexual “marriage” in 2015.  This is how dumbed-down American culture has become!

Indeed, post-Christian America today is just a shadow of her moral and spiritual past self, but the Truth, like Christ Jesus, does not change (Hebrews 13:8).  That is why AFTAH exists.  We are unswervingly dedicated to holding up God’s Truth in a (Western) world stubbornly bent on the redefining sex and gender roles to justify people’s sins.

A lot of conservatives are sort of “embarrassed” over the whole question of sexual morality, and especially homosexuality, as they rationalize in their own minds why the fight against “Big Gay Inc” is passé or no longer worthwhile.  We’ve all seen it: tiny sellouts in which a “conservative” pundit pay lip service to some aspect of the LGBTQ agenda, usually “same-sex marriage.”

Not us.  We at AFTAH count it as a joy and a privilege to stand with God against secular lies and wickedness in the culture, although it does get lonely and frustrating.  Let’s face it: nobody likes being smeared as a “hater” and a “bigot” day after day—which is why so many Christians and conservatives, intimidated and beaten down by the vocal Left, give up on defending truth regarding LGBTQ issues.

AFTAH never “moves on” – while GOP praises “gay Republicans”

But I say, “Man up!”  (You, too, ladies!)  For goodness’ sake, name-calling and vicious insults are a small price to pay for serving God in a dying culture, and we do so proudly at Americans for Truth.  AFTAH is the principled, Christian conscience of the pro-family movement against the “homosexual agenda” (notice how rarely that phrase is used anymore).  We never bow down to political correctness or political partisanship, even if that means getting criticized or ignored by fellow conservatives who have made their own accommodation with “gay Republicans” or “gay rights” in general.  (Many conservatives just “go silent” and no longer engage the issue of homosexuality.)

Fox News contributor and Townhall editor Guy Benson considers himself a “gay Christian.” Will “conservatism” embrace a GOP version of the LGBTQ sexual sin movement?

Perhaps the Republican National Committee, which recently celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the homosexual group Log Cabin Republicans, would consider that Romans 1 in the Bible contains no “GOP exception” as it describes society’s godless descent into sexual sin and idolatry.

At AFTAH, we never stop calling for the overturning of the Supreme Court’s outrageous 2015 Obergefell ruling imposing homosexuality-based “marriage” on the nation, even though it seems most Republicans and conservatives have given up on that goal, too.  “Kvetch and Retreat,” as Rabbi Mayer Schiller wisely put it, is the modus operandi of conservatives, especially when it comes to sexual morality.  This grieves my heart.

In contrast, the pro-homosexual Left—purveyors of lies and at war with God’s wholesome values—is perpetually on offense.  Meanwhile, we who claim to possess absolute Truth stumble on defense.  Shame.

Freedom in the Balance: Will the Government of the United States of America force people of faith like Jack Phillips to use their talents and privately-owned business to honor and serve “marriages” based on immoral homosexual behavior? Click to enlarge. Photo: Alliance Defending Freedom.

Folks, here is a neat video on the Jack Phillips Supreme Court case by Elizabeth Johnston, the “Activist Mommy” despised by the Left because she is an effective and fearless Christian, conservative truth-teller. It strikes me as un-American that our simple freedom as citizens of this nation, founded on religious liberty, to associate with whomever we want and publicly live by our moral and spiritual beliefs now hangs by the thread of the whims of a few Supreme Court Justices.

All eyes are on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who, though appointed by Ronald Reagan, has earned hero status on the pro-LGBTQ Left for his consistent, pro-homosexual record on the Court. Where will Kennedy, who authored the God- and Constitution-defying 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision imposing counterfeit “same-sex marriage” on all 50 states, come down on Phillips’ conscience-based refusal to participate through his cake shop in the celebration of disordered homosexual “weddings”? [Read the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s superb dissent on Obergefell HERE.]

Social conservatives warned that legalizing so-called “same-sex marriage” would result in escalating State and cultural oppression against religious people and institutions–ironically, in the name of “civil rights,” “diversity,” and “equality.” Now that is happening with horrific consequences for principled Christians like Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman. The media- and Democratic Party-enabled “Gay” Revolution has advanced to the point where it is now working to effectively criminalize faithful Christians and other moral dissenters by preposterously comparing them to racist bigots and treating them accordingly.

The leading legal crusader for homosexual “marriage,” Evan Wolfson, said, “I’m not in this just to change the law. It’s about changing society.” Indeed. Now the question is: are we going to let the pro-LGBTQ Lobby and the Government destroy our First Amendment liberties in the service of a godless, radical egalitarian agenda that regards the public expression of biblical faithfulness as just one more component of “anti-gay discrimination”? We’ll see, but to say that a lot rides on this case would be an understatement. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

America Corrupts the World: Even under Trump, the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica flies the LGBTQ-activist “rainbow flag” under Old Glory. But Jamaicans know that immoral “gay-” and “transgender” “rights” inherently destroy real freedoms. Photo: Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, June 2017.

Folks, the following column was published Sunday in the Jamaica Gleaner. It is written by Shirley Richards, a wise Christian advocate for genuine rights and moral truth whom I had the privilege of meeting in Jamaica when I spoke there in 2013.  Below Richards ably explains the difference between genuine rights based on a moral philosophy, rooted in timeless Judeo-Christian truth–and counterfeit “gay/transgender rights,” which “compete with, and undermine, fundamental human rights and freedoms.”

Smart Jamaicans–and peoples all over the world–are trying to learn from the USA’s and the West’s failed experiment of creating sodomy-based “rights,” which became the foundation for the modern Western abomination of “same-sex marriage.” Meanwhile, the United States and other decadent Western nations–and leftist organizations like the George Soros-funded Human Rights Watch–are pressuring Jamaica and many other nations to join our illicit “rights” revolution.

At right is a current photo of the American Embassy in Kingston, flying the LGBT “rainbow flag” (as it did under Obama)–thereby telegraphing to this small nation that, even under Trump, we will use our immense political and economic power to “persuade” them to embrace a system of newfangled legal “rights” that inherently destroys liberty. Let’s hope we don’t prevail, and that Donald Trump gets America out of the business of exporting the immoral, anti-Christian LGBT “rights” revolution. — @Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; see my LifeSiteNews articles here.

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Majority view on gay rights must have sway

By Shirley Richards

Published in Jamaica Gleaner, June 11, 2017

In an article written by Dr. Carolyn Gomes published [in the Jamaica Gleaner] on Sunday, May 28, 2017, she stated, in relation to the development of the [Jamaican] Charter of Rights: “The Parliament, however, appears to be timid. It has not acted on the recommendation to ensure that all citizens are protected from discrimination on the basis of disability, health status, if they speak Patois, have a mental illness, or are different in sexual orientation and gender identity.”

These were recommendations made by various interest groups. They were debated by the joint select committee of Parliament on the Charter of Rights (Constitutional Amendment) Bill and decisions were made to accept or reject accordingly.

The Parliament had then, and still does have, a responsibility to allow for citizens to make submissions, but there was, and still is, the corresponding responsibility to sift submissions and to decide which ones are in the best interests of the country. Parliament must examine all the relevant studies and data. They must also have an understanding of the impact of these decisions on the country both now and in time to come and be satisfied that such decisions are in fact for the good of the country.

In determining what is in the “best interests” of the country, they cannot afford to disregard the voice of the people. Specifically, the members of the House of Representatives are there to represent the people, not to foist their own viewpoints on the people, a point Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, as a member of said House, may do well to remember. As the late [First Premier of Jamaica] Norman Manley, QC, said on the occasion of the passage of the 1962 [Jamaican] Constitution:

“As a politician, sir, I would be the first person to acclaim every instance in which the public succeeds in having their way … for we, sir, are their servants and are here to execute their will.”

Non-discrimination

As it relates to the issue of “sexual orientation”, the joint select committee (1999-2001) debated the request by the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays to protect ‘sexual orientation’ as grounds for non-discrimination. The committee expressly decided not to protect this term. The committee was concerned about the impact of such a term on the institution of marriage and on parenting.