Concerned Women for America

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 15, 2008

FOR MORE INFORMATION: NATALIE BELL

(202) 488-7000, ext. 126

California Supreme Court Betrays “We the People” on Marriage

Washington, D.C. — Today the California Supreme Court imposed, through judicial fiat, so-called “same-sex marriage” on Californians, thus totally disregarding the sanctity of marriage and the will of the people. In 2000, Californians adopted Proposition 22 to protect marriage and maintain its definition as a union between one man and one woman, and expressly prohibiting the state from recognizing “same sex marriages.”

NOTE: the California Supreme Court decision is available on the court’s website at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S147999.PDF

To ensure that marriage is protected and the voice of the people is heard, a constitutional marriage amendment must be placed on the November ballot and national efforts need to be made to generate a federal constitutional marriage amendment. The decision must be removed from the hands of judicial activists and returned to the rightful hands of the people.

Matt Barber, CWA Policy Director for Cultural Issues [Barber is on the Board of Americans For Truth], said “The California Supreme Court has engaged in the worst kind of judicial activism today, abandoning its role as an objective interpreter of the law and, instead, legislating from the bench. It’s absurd to suggest that the framers of the California state constitution could have ever imagined there’d be a day when so-called ‘same-sex marriage’ would even be conceptualized, much less seriously considered. If anyone then had suggested the ridiculous notion, early Californians would have laughed their smocks off.

“So-called ‘same-sex’ marriage is counterfeit marriage. Marriage is, and has always been, between a man and a woman. We know that it’s in the best interest of children to be raised with a mother and a father. To use children as guinea pigs in radical San Francisco-style social experimentation is deplorable.

Will “gay” militants sacrifice Brett VanAsdlen to advance their agenda?

TAKE ACTION: 1) E-mail or call Champaign Co., Illinois State’s Attorney Julia Rietz and ask her to drop the government’s one-sided felony “hate crimes” prosecution against 18-year-old student-athlete Brett VanAsdlen. Email: jrietz1@gmail.com or statesatty@co.champaign.il.us

2) Listen to CWA’s online audio interview on the trumped-up VanAsdlen “hate crime” case with AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera, Bob Knight of the Culture and Media Institute and CWA’s Matt Barber. Click HERE for the AFTAH link or HERE to listen online:

__________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

I sent homosexual activist blogger Tim Kincaid this note after reading his latest fulmination on the pages of Box Turtle Bulletin (the first paragraph of which we’ve reprinted below):

“[T]hanks for your nasty little piece on [Box Turtle Bulletin], Tim. Par for the course. The issue isn’t David Duke (whose website I only saw for the first time Friday) or Ted Pike (no, I wouldn’t use the phrase “Jewish media” [as Pike does]) but whether this kid, [Brett VanAsdlen], is being railroaded. If you called me a “breeder” and then we got in an argument ending in you pushing me down (perhaps after I aggressively got in your face after you hurled your insult), NO, I definitely would not want you to face a felony “hate crimes” charge. It’s ridiculous — especially if accounts are true that the prosecution has already dropped the aggravated battery charge [against VanAsdlen].”

I cited Ted Pike in my original article on this case because, as one who has crusaded against “hate crimes” laws, Pike was the first to bring the VanAsdlen story to national attention (in a mass email) — not because I agree with the thrust of his website (or Duke’s). Like most evangelicals, I abhor anti-Semitism and in fact am quite the hawk on defending Israel. I also decry racism and, of course, white nationalism, “white pride,” etc.

In their continuing effort to steal the legacy of the real civil rights movement, homosexual activists and their allies posit an analogy between racism and “homophobia” — their smear term of choice to denigrate traditionalists. It is a deeply flawed comparison: what does unchangeable skin color and ethnicity have to do with aberrant, immoral and changeable sexual behavior?

Nothing, unless you can produce an ex-African American.

Moreover, the homosexualists are in the uncomfortable position of making actual descendants of slaves — like Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church and ex-lesbian Janet Boynes (pictured at right) — the target of their opprobrium. Men and women of color (like Crystal Dixon, a Black woman who recently was suspended from the University of Toledo after publicly making points similar to these) are mere “religious anti-gay bigots,” according to the homo-fundamentalists’ warped formulations.

Congratulations to the Thomas More Law Center, AFA of Michigan and all the pro-family groups, legislators, citizens, and churches in Michigan for successfully defending marriage in your state!

LANSING, Mich. (Catholic News Agency), May 8, 2008 — The Michigan General Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages also blocks Michigan governments and state universities from offering “domestic partnership” benefits for homosexual couples. Click HERE to read the Michigan Supreme Court ruling.

The Marriage Protection Amendment was approved by nearly sixty percent of voters in 2004. Considered the broadest of the 11 state marriage amendments barring same-sex marriage, the language of the Michigan amendment says “…the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.”

The Michigan ACLU, representing the AFL-CIO homosexual activist group National Pride at Work, had challenged the application of the law as based in Attorney General Mike Cox’s interpretation of the amendment.

The Michigan court’s 5-2 decision did not rule on whether government employment benefits can be offered to homosexual partners on some broader basis also available to other employees. Some local governments and universities have attempted to maintain present benefits by amending the eligibility requirements.

“The people of Michigan have constitutionally protected marriage as exclusively the union of one man and one woman, period, and that includes prohibiting the recognition of homosexual relationships as equal or similar to marriage for any purpose, including offering spousal-type benefits to the homosexual partners of government employees,” said Gary Glenn, one of the co-authors of the Marriage Protection Amendment and head of the American Family Association of Michigan.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, praised the decision, saying, “The Michigan Supreme Court courageously upheld the will of the people.”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12591

Related news release from Thomas More Law Center: “TMLC Praises Michigan Atty General Cox for Defending Marriage Amendment; Blasts Gov and Universities”

“Evil” 18th Century “Neanderthal”?

CBS’s Lesley Stahl: “I’m surprised at how many people really, really hate you. These are some things we’ve been told: ‘He’s evil;’ ‘He’s a Neanderthal;’ ‘He’s going to drag us back to 1789.’ They’re threatened by what you represent and what you believe in.”

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “These are people that don’t understand what my interpretive philosophy is. I’m not saying no progress. I’m saying we should progress democratically.”…

Stahl: “But his critics argue that originalism is a cover for what they see as Justice Scalia’s real intention: to turn back some pivotal court decisions of the ’60s and ’70s. He’s been labeled a ‘counterrevolutionary.'”

— CBS’s 60 Minutes, April 27, 2008, as reported by Media Research Center’s “Notables Quotables,” May 5, 2008.

What will happen if California’s highest court imposes “gay marriage”?

The quotation below was sent to us by Gary Glenn of American Family Association of Michigan. Homosexual activist Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight, describes the chaos that would result if California’s highest court were to mandate homosexual “marriages.” Rather than create public sympathy to rectify alleged anti-homosexual “discrimination,” as Besen hopes, we think the ensuing confusion would only heighten citizens’ awareness of the crisis caused by the homosexual lobby and arrogant, social-engineering courts.

Only a Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) would establish a national standard preserving the historic institution of marriage as one-man, one-woman — perhaps in name only if current trends continue. California becoming a “gay marriage” state would certainly breathe new life into the FMA. However, another cultural/legal/political battle would follow over “civil unions,” which — far from being an acceptable compromise — are merely another tactic advancing the “gay” activists’ goal of putting government power and authority behind homosexual couples and the creation of unnatural “families.” And as the people of Massachusetts and Vermont know well, lots of bad things (e.g., more pro-homosexual indoctrination in schools, curtailment of moral freedoms) flow from state-sanctioned homosexuality.

Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues at Concerned Women for America (and Board Member or Americans For Truth), has requested prayer for Lisa and Isabella Miller, whose tragic case will be heard before the Virginia Supreme Court this Thursday, April 17. Lisa Miller is a born-again Christian who abandoned the lesbian lifestyle. As Matt writes, “this hearing will determine whether a lesbian woman who is Lisa Miller’s former partner will share custody of Isabella, Lisa’s daughter. The woman is neither an adoptive parent nor is she biologically related to Isabella. In fact, she’s a total stranger to the little girl. Isabella, who is now 6-years-old, hadn’t seen this woman since she was 17-months-old. This case could have national ramifications and will help decide whether state’s like Vermont and Massachusetts get to export their radical new definitions of marriage and family around the country.”

Please pray for justice and protection of this innocent child. You can commit to praying for the Millers at www.cwfa.org/millersign.asp. Below is Matt Barber’s original column on this sad situation:

You’re Not My Mommy!

By J. Matt Barber

This article was published by CWA on August 1, 2007:

The person trying to take Isabella away from her mother is entirely unrelated to the little girl and is essentially a total stranger.

“Same-sex marriage” in Massachusetts has opened up the door to pro-homosexuality lessons for young children in public schools. Illinois is a prime target of homosexual activists. To get involved in the Protect Marriage Illinois referendum drive, click on www.protectmarriageillinois.org. At left is one of the first pro-homosexual picture books, “Daddy’s Roommate.”

TAKE ACTION: Today is Homosexuals Re-defining Marriage Lobby Day in Springfield (at least that’s what we’re calling it). Homosexual activists are targeting Illinois — with the goal of turning us into the “Massachusetts of the Midwest” — and we need your help to stop their radical agenda. If you are an Illinois resident:

1) Call your State Representative and your State Senator at 217-782-2000 and urge them to oppose HB 1826, the House homosexual “civil unions” bill, and SB 2436, the Senate version. While you’re at it, ask your legislators to oppose the pro-homosexual “domestic partnership” bill, HB 4731, which would expand the definition of spouse for some Chicago teachers’ benefits to include homosexual “partners.” Illinois (and every state) needs to reward and provide incentives for real marriage and the natural family, not destructive and immoral homosexual behavior. If you don’t know the names of your representative and state senator, call Illinois Family Institute at 630-790-8370 or go to this IFI web page: http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=728&APP=GAC&screen=Address&.

2) Join Protect Marriage Illinois‘ (PMI) effort to defend marriage in Illinois! Go to PMI’s website, www.protectmarriageillinois.org, and download a pro-marriage petition sheet for the county you live in. PMI is working to get signatures to place an Advisory Marriage Protection referendum on the ballot to call on Illinois legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to preserve the sacred institution of marriage as between a man and a woman. The deadline is very near — April 30th — to get the necessary 269,000 signatures on the ballot, so please act now and encourage YOUR CHURCH to do a petition drive. All petitions must be notarized. Call PMI’s Acting Director Joetta Deutch at 217-377-6017 or email her at info@protectmarriageillinois.org for more information and for help in doing a petition drive at your church. More details on PMI below.

Stephen Green, national director of [British group] Christian Voice, said, “It seems that Christians are gradually being squeezed out of the adoption process. It’s exactly what we said would happen. In the name of equality, it’s discriminating against Christians.” 

 British couple Owen and Eunice Johns are being denied as foster parents because they agree with their Creator about homosexuality.

By Peter LaBarbera

Commenting on LifesiteNews story by Hillary White:  http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022705.html

For more information, see the British Christian Legal Centre’s site at: http://www.christianlegalcentre.com/view.php?id=253

The once-great nation of Britain is being reduced to a bastion of politically correct silliness. Is America next? So now British couples aren’t qualified to raise children unless they can recite pro-“gay” shibboleths?

Why no, Johnny, you don’t have to have a man and a woman to get married — in fact, two daddies are often better at raising children than a mommy and a daddy. When you are old enough, we will tell you all you need to know so we can support you if you have a gay or transgender orientation. Did you know that being gay is a one of God’s gifts for special people?”

You chuckle, but it is surreal to behold the deterioration of Western civilization before our very eyes — one sad story like this at a time. Meanwhile, smug, agnostic pundits and religious leftists like Jim Wallis castigate the “Religious Right,” which is made up of people who are merely trying their best to hold back the march of evil (masquerading as progress). Which reminds me: when is the last time you heard the media use the phrase “Religious Left,” anyway?

Destructive and radical ideologies (e.g., Marxism) often are imposed from above by force, relying on disinformation — or stealth strategies — because an informed, moral (and generally conservative-leaning) citizenry would never approve such nonsense on their own. Hence the homosexual activists’ drive for power culminates in state punishment and repression of their opponents — mainly Christians and other religious adherents. Invariably, as we are seeing abroad and now here in the USA, “gay rights” comes at the expense of religious freedom.

Liberals and “gay” activists alike ask: “But how does granting equal rights for gays and lesbians affect you?” It’s the wrong question (it’s not all about ME), and one that radically redefines civil and human rights, but here’s part of the answer: state-enforced, pro-homosexuality ideology ultimately criminalizes Judeo-Christian ethics, ideas and even compassion (per the U.K.) — and that destroys societies and hurts children. “Gay” ideology is at war with common sense and “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” — as our Declaration of Independence from Britain states — giving rise to misguided social policies like that below.