DiversityInc magazine co-founder Luke Visconti (lvisconti@diversityinc.com) showed his own (modern) bigotry and disrespect for people of faith by comparing Americans For Truth president Peter LaBarbera to a 19th Century Christian slavery advocate because LaBarbera opposes homosexuality and pro-homosexual corporate policies. The strongly pro-“gay” DiversityInc disinvited the AFTAH founder to a “Religion in the Workplace” panel discussion after pro-homosexual panelists threatened to boycott the discussion if LaBarbera was allowed to participate.

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear Christian or morality advocate who opposes homosexuality:

Did you know that in the eyes of some liberal, pro-homosexual advocates, you are the moral equivalent of the KKK? Actually, this is nothing new: radical “gay” activists have been making this absurd and hateful analogy for years. This is why I tell religious people all the time: disabuse yourself of the idea that homosexual activists and their liberal fellow travelers “respect” your faith or your right to live it out in the public square. They don’t; they despise your Bible-centered morality, and are quite willing to demonize you for it.

Increasingly, the liberals’ contempt for Christians and religious traditionalists is “out of the closet,” even as they continue with their hollow pleas for ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity.’

I sent the following note to DiversityInc Executive Editor Barbara Frankel, in response to a column by Luke Visconti, co-founder of DiversityInc, explaining why they were justified in disinviting me to their “Religion in the Workplace” panel discussion. Essentially Visconti’s argument is this: “There is no need to balance human rights,” especially since I [and by extension, other pro-family leaders opposed to homosexuality] am the moral equivalent of slavery advocates.

Frankel and DiversityInc did allow me a full-page column to express my disappointment with their decision to drop Americans For Truth from their panel (see below), to which Visconti was responding.

Visconti’s column cites a 19th Century pastor who used the Bible to justify slavery, and claimed that I am his modern-day equivalent. He also cites the Ku Klux, fascism and other evil or misguided causes which were defended by Christian leaders. (We apologize but the DiversityInc site is having problems so we are not able to provide excerpts of his column at this time.)

In response to my incredulous question to Ms. Frankel — “As an opponent of homosexuality, I am the moral equivalent of a slavery advocate?” — Visconti wrote me:

To answer your question: Yes.

There’s one point on which I agree with you: The discussion should have been in person. I appreciate you taking the offer of writing the column.

Here is my note to Frankel:

Barbara, so that’s it?… As an opponent of homosexuality, I am the moral equivalent of a slavery advocate? I shudder at the arrogance — and insulting bigotry — of your “white guy” founder, Luke Visconti [Visconti has a column in his magazine called, “Ask the White Guy”]. I suppose my African-American friends who agree with me on marriage and sexuality issues are also to be compared with slavery advocates?

TAKE ACTION: Write or call Speaker Nancy Pelosi and urge her to do the right thing by condemning the public nudity and perversions — and blatant anti-Christian bigotry — that occurred in her Congressional District at the “Folsom Street Fair” in San Francisco September 30. Contact Speaker Pelosi at 202-225-0100 or through her online contact page. Educate others about liberal tolerance run amok in San Francisco.

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CLICK HERE TO READ AFTAH’S SHOCKING PHOTO-STORY ON THE SAN FRANCISCO ‘FOLSOM STREET FAIR’ THAT SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI HAS REFUSED TO CONDEMN

Americans For Truth is delivering the following letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) by courier today. On Wednesday, I will be in Washington, D.C., “speaking truth to power” at the National Press Club, as AFTAH publicly airs our video footage (shot by Allyson Smith) of the obscene “Folsom Street Fair” (See this link: WARNING: OFFENSIVE IMAGES: “Tolerance Gone Wild in San Francisco”) — with its police-tolerated public nudity and street orgies — held in San Francisco September 30.

Most of the city of San Francisco lies within Pelosi’s Eighth Congressional district, which she has represented since 1987. Speaker Pelosi is second in line to the presidency of the United States, behind Vice President Dick Cheney.

Americans For Truth is calling on Speaker Pelosi to publicly condemn the Folsom event and to use her considerable power to help stop similar affronts to public decency from occurring in San Francisco. We are also asking her to denounce the anti-Christian bigotry of the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” — a San Francisco group of men who dress in drag as mock “nuns” — which works directly with Folsom organizers and is a major beneficiary of that sadomasochistic event.

For a reminder of just how bizarre and offensive the Folsom event is — and what San Francisco is willing to “tolerate” — see our photo-story (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES WITH NUDITY COVERED), “Tolerance Gone Wild in San Francisco.” Unlike the Folsom photos that we posted on our website, the shocking video footage we will show to the media Wednesday will be uncensored — just as it was allowed to occur without police intervention on September 30th.

To view Speaker Pelosi’s adoring speech to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the world’s largest homosexual lobby group — in which she boasted about San Francisco values — click HERE. — Peter LaBarbera

AFTAH LETTER TO SPEAKER PELOSI:

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

December 3, 2007
Via Courier

Ms. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
House of Representatives
United States Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Madam Speaker:

Because you frequently extol San Francisco’s values to the rest of America, we are compelled to call your attention to what actually takes place at the Folsom Street Fair and other egregious and offensive “gay pride” celebrations in your Congressional District.

I was in San Francisco with a videographer on Sunday, September 30 and verified but a small segment of the most immoral and outrageous sexual behavior that ever disgraced the streets of any American city. On Wednesday, December 5, at 1:00 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, we will release the un-retouched DVD of the public debauchery which we videotaped during the city’s Folsom Street Fair just two months ago. Included is raw and unedited verification of:

• Large numbers of men walking on public streets either fully or partially naked;
• Groups of men engaged in orgies on the public street, including acts of oral sex and mutual masturbation, as crowds waked by and snapped pictures.
• Fully exposed men “greeting” other men by grasping other men’s genitals and massaging them in full view of passers-by. The police stood by and did nothing;
• A man sitting on the curb in broad daylight masturbating as crowds of people gawked and took pictures (he even posed for photos with others as he sat there naked and aroused);
• Theatrically dramatic sadomasochistic whippings and floggings – drawing blood and turning the willing “victim’s” skin bright red;
• Abundant flaunting of female nudity and real or simulated sexual acts;
• “Master-slave relationships” in which one man or women would “walk” their subservient “slave” with a dog-collar and chain. Others imitated animals (dogs and ponies) as yet another “fetish” on display: we talked to one woman whose mouth was bridled like a horse;
• Blatant anti-Christian bigotry in the form of “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” men dressed in drag mocking Catholic nuns, greeting incoming attendees at Folsom; one male “Sister” wore a shirt that read “Bottom for Jesus” (“bottom” refers to his position in anal sex); entrance stickers featured a twisted, S&M-fetish version of DaVinci’s “Last Supper” painting;
• Young children with their parents witnessing this perverted and revolting spectacle.

Repent America issued the following release November 15th:  

PENNSYLVANIA’S COMMONWEALTH COURT
STRIKES DOWN “HATE CRIMES” LAW EXPANSION

PHILADELPHIA – The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in a 4-1 decision today struck down amendments to the state’s “hate crimes” law, declaring that the amendments enacted in 2002 were “unconstitutional and therefore null and void.” The ruling was a victory for Repent America (RA), a Christian evangelistic organization, several of whose members challenged amendments.

“Praise the Lord!” stated RA director Michael Marcavage upon hearing the decision. “This is a victory for constitutional government, so let us be thankful,” he concluded.

The legal challenge to the law, formally known as the Ethnic Intimidation Law, stemmed from the arrests of eleven Christians with RA, who became known as the Philadelphia 11, after they were jailed and charged under the amendments to the law while ministering the Gospel in 2004 at a publicly-funded homosexual event known as “OutFest”. The charges were all later dropped and/or dismissed as being without merit.

Seven defendants in the Philadelphia criminal cases subsequently filed an action in the Commonwealth Court challenging the process by which the amendments to the Ethnic Intimidation statute had been enacted. In particular, the petitioners asserted that the passage of the bill – which originally criminalized agricultural crop destruction but through amendment became the first statute in Pennsylvania history to recognize “sexual orientation” as a protected class – violated various sections of Article III of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Section 1 of Article III prohibits the changing of a bill in the course of its passage through the legislature such that its original purpose is changed. Section 3 of Article III requires that the subject matter of a bill be clearly expressed in its title.

The Court, finding sufficient basis to rule in the petitioners’ favor due to an alteration of purpose of the bill as expressed in its original text, declined to rule on the challenge brought under Article III, section 3. The amendments struck down today would have increased the penalties for various crimes committed with a malicious motivation based upon “actual or perceived . . . ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.”

“The legislative process that led to the enactment of these amendments clearly violated Article III of the Pennsylvania Constitution,” stated Aaron Martin, attorney for the Repent America defendants. “The Court rightly found that there was no logical or legal connection between trampling down a hay field and assaulting someone on the basis of sexual orientation,” he concluded.

The Court’s majority opinion was authored by President Judge Emeritus James Gardner Collins, who was joined by Judges Doris A. Smth-Ribner, Dan Pellegrini and Robert Simpson. President Judge Bonnie B. Leadbetter dissented without opinion. The full text of the Court’s opinion can be found by clicking HERE.

Gary Morella sent the following letter to President Bush: 

November 8, 2007

Dear Mr. President:

ENDA [Employment Nondiscrimination Act, H.R. 3685] is horrendous legislation that must  be vetoed for the sake of the common good.  It was put forth for one reason, and one reason only, i.e., the advocacy of a social engineering agenda under force of law by a radical fringe who demand that society make them comfortable with their vices, which is counter to the aforementioned common good, as classically understood from the time of Aristotle’s Politics.  Any exemptions are illusions, as verified by what has been going on in Canada and Europe, especially the UK, when irrational legislation is made law. All one has to do is query those who were visited by the police for standing up for faith and right reason, which are married, not divorced!  Society is not obliged to codify law that makes aberrant behavior a civil right, which is insanity, and ultimately leads to anarchy! 

Moreover, we are talking proven changeable, aberrant behavior that is physically, psychologically, socially, and economically ruinous, not to mention the coercion of people of faith by its advocates, which is pure and simply, UN-AMERICAN, making a mockery of the sacrifices of all those who fought and died for our country in its history.   Rational societies are obliged to discriminate between right and wrong behavior; else, they cease being rational!  If responsible parents can understand this, why can’t responsible states? 

Accordingly, there is no choice here, Mr. President, for the sake of a world fit to live in for our children and grandchildren.  Please VETO ENDA for the common good which should be the primary goal of the state! 

Sincerely,
 
Gary L. Morella
Research Assistant
The Pennsylvania State University
P.O. Box 719
Lemont, PA  16851

Urgent report from C-FAM, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute: 

November 8, 2007
Volume 10, Number 47
    
By Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK — C-FAM) At a meeting at UN headquarters this week, a coalition of NGOs and the governments of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay hosted the New York launch of a document which seeks to advance homosexual rights at the national and international levels. Boris Dittrich, advocacy director for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender program at Human Rights Watch and moderator of the event stated that this document was the “Magna Carta for human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Called the Yogyakarta Principles, the document lists human rights that already exist in binding international law such as the right to life and freedom from torture, and reinterprets each one to include homosexual rights. Based on the tenet of non-discrimination, the Principles assert that nations are legally bound to change their constitutions and penal codes to incorporate homosexual rights, including rights to same-sex unions and gay adoption. 

According to the Principles, “Sexual orientation is understood to refer to each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional [sic] and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.”  The document states that “gender identity is understood to refer to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.”

CWA Release, November 8, 2007

[Call your senators at 202-224-3121 or go to www.congress.org; call President Bush and urge him to veto ENDA if it passes at 202-456-1414 or 202-456-1111, or www.whitehouse.gov/contact.]

Washington, D.C. — On Wednesday, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed — largely along party lines —  H.R. 3685, the so-called Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), by a vote of 235–184. [Click HERE for the Roll Call and HERE to see which Congressmen voted against their party’s majority.] 

Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, “By passing this Orwellian piece of legislation, the Democrat-controlled House has displayed exceptional arrogance.  Congress apparently believes it has carte blanche authority to nullify any constitutional provision which it finds bothersome.  In this case, they’ve drawn a black line through the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.”  

ENDA contains an extremely weak religious exemption which might partially protect some religious organizations but would leave many others — such as Bible bookstores and many Christian schools — entirely unprotected.  It would additionally crush individual business owners’ guaranteed First Amendment rights.   

 NOTE: Rep. Blunt penned a column on the majority’s ENDA legislation this week for Human Events, available HERE. His speech on the floor of the House can be viewed on YouTube by clicking HERE. Call 202-225-6536 or go to his website HERE to thank Congressman Blunt for standing up for religious freedom and educating the nation on how ENDA will undermine it. If we had more Congressmen like Blunt, our freedoms would not be in jeopardy.

Majority’s ENDA Bill Takes Dead Aim at Religious Freedom

Legislation creates conflict between one’s right to religious freedom, and another’s right to sue you for exercising it

WASHINGTON – House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after Democrats failed to secure a veto-proof majority on the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would erode one’s right to religious freedom by strengthening another’s right to sue you for practicing it:

“The structure of the bill before us today is eerily similar to legislation we’ve seen from this majority all year: a favorable, purposefully misleading title applied to a bill that’s poorly assembled and oblivious to its own consequences. 

“In this case, the so-called ‘Employment Non-Discrimination Act’ creates a legal quagmire for employees who practice, or even acknowledge, their religious beliefs – depending on where they happen to work, and subject to judicial interpretation. In the process, it erodes a basic, fundamental right bestowed upon us by our Creator – and a right guaranteed to every American under the U.S. Constitution.

“As a former president of a Baptist college in Missouri, supporters of this bill have been quick to assure me that its most onerous provisions would not apply to that school. But no such exemption is available for Christian bookstore owners, as an example, or any other small business in which people of faith and deep religious conviction are relied upon as an integral part of the workforce.

“Thankfully, Republicans secured the votes necessary this afternoon to uphold a presidential veto. It’s my hope now that this Congress can move forward on the real priorities affecting American families. Though a clear boon to trial lawyers, this bill does not meet that standard.”

NOTE: Rep. Blunt penned a column on the majority’s ENDA legislation this week for Human Events, available HERE. His speech on the floor of the House can be viewed on YouTube by clicking HERE.

PFOX News Advisory:  November 8, 2007

Contact:  Regina Griggs, Director, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX)

703-360-2225  PFOX@pfox.org   www.pfox.org
 
New “Gender Identity” Law Would Have The Effect of Legalizing Indecent Exposure to Minors

‘Weekend Transgenders’ to Use Women’s Shower Rooms and Bathrooms?
 
Montgomery County, MD — A bill before the Montgomery County, Maryland Council puts girls and women at risk by opening women’s restrooms and locker rooms to men who dress as women, warns Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).  The bill virtually eliminates gender distinctions by allowing Montgomery County residents to choose if they are male or female even when the choice conflicts with their biological sex. 

The bill, slated for a vote on Tuesday, Nov. 13, would add ‘gender identity’ as a protected class for ‘transgenders.’  It would guarantee the right to use public facilities consistent with the person’s gender identity “publicly and exclusively expressed or asserted.”  No sex change is necessary.
 
As an organization that aids former transgenders, PFOX can attest that many transgenders prefer to dress and act publicly and exclusively as a woman or man on weekends and then as their birth gender during the work week.  These are known as “weekend transgenders.”  Pedophiles could also put on a dress and assert they are exclusively female in order to get near naked children in swimming pool locker rooms. 

When asked if the proposed law would apply to weekend transgenders, Council member Duchy Trachtenberg refused to answer, instead insisting that “transgender people face serious discrimination … in public accommodations.” 

“There’s a good reason why transgenders face ‘serious discrimination’ when using shower rooms and toilets that don’t apply to their gender,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX.  “It’s because they don’t belong there.  What parents want their daughter to use the public pool’s locker room with a naked man who cross-dresses full-time or part-time?  This bill in effect legalizes indecent exposure to minors in these kinds of situations.”