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Yesterday the U.S. House passed H.R. 1913 and elevated “actual or perceived” “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the same federal legal status as race. The vote was 249 to 175, with 10 not voting. You can see how your representative voted by checking the roll online.
Officially Preferred Victims: Liberty University law professor Shawn Akers writes that if H.R. 1913, the federal “Hate Crimes” bill, becomes law, “local and state law enforcement would have the incentive of federal funds to prosecute cases involving … preferred victims to the exclusion and neglect of less valuable victims.” Membership in the “preferred” category is “based not on immutable characteristics but on the class member’s choice of sexual conduct … and subjective gender self-identity.”
TAKE ACTION: Call or write your U.S. Representative and Senators in opposition to H.R. 1913, the “Hate Crimes” bill that will likely be voted on by the House tomorrow, Wednesday, April 28. Call 202-225-3121 or 202-224-3121 or contact your representatives through www.congress.org.
Editor’s Note: we delayed in making a change in copy desired by the author, in paragraph I.A. (“Characteristics”), giving the proper credit for a description of the Hate Crimes bill, HR 1913. That paragraph was corrected on May 1, 2009.
Following is an outstanding analysis of the federal “Hate Crimes” bill, HR 1913, which could be voted on by the House of Representatives tomorrow (Wednesday, April 29). Shawn Akers is a relative newcomer to the pro-family movement but is shaping up to be a future all-star. He serves as a Policy Analyst with Liberty Counsel, and as Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of Academic Support with Liberty University School of Law. Akers is a close friend, colleague and former Regent Law classmate of Matt Barber, AFTAH Board Member and current Culture War heavyweight also with Liberty Counsel. (Barber will keynote AFTAH’s fundraising banquet on Saturday, Oct. 10 — save the date.) Keep an eye on Shawn. The Lord will be using him mightily as the heated culture war reaches a boil. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.com.
Meet Iowa’s New ‘Super-Legislature’: forget those civics lessons, kiddos: the real, ultimate power to create laws lies with the nature-defying liberals in charge of the Iowa Supreme Court (left). Needless to say, Iowa’s Democratic governor, Chet Culver (who once taught high school government), did not take Matt Barber’s bold advice today — that is, he did not interfere with the new immoral, counterfeit “marriages” imposed by the seven smiling “judiciocrats” at left.
Iowa Governor Should Tell Court ‘Thanks but No Thanks’
Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel* released the following statement today encouraging Iowa Governor Chet Culver to honor his obligation to uphold the Iowa Constitution and refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex pairs.
“In Baker v. Nelson, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to imagine there exists a ‘constitutional right’ to ‘same-sex marriage.’ It held that if the Court were to create such a right, it would amount to an unconstitutional act of ‘judicial legislation.’ With its recent opinion charging that such a right exists and ordering that, starting today, marriage licenses be given to homosexual duos, the Iowa Supreme Court has done just that. It has co-opted the role of both the legislative and executive branches of government and has presumed to unconstitutionally create and administer law from the bench.
This is a very useful piece from my good friend, John Biver, who is doing outstanding work along with Jack Roeser and the guys at Champion News in holding Illinois’ consistently dysfunctional Illinois Republican Party leaders accountable. Of course, a similar principle might apply to pro-life and pro-family Democrats who are fed up with their party’s lock-step support of the homosexualist and abortion-on-demand agendas, with one key difference: the Democrat Party platform promotes government support for abortion and homosexuality, whereas the GOP’s, as John writes, does not. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
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Does a Republican Precinct Committeeman have to support all GOP candidates?
Last week a good friend who is newly involved in his township GOP organization asked me if I thought he was obligated to work for Republican candidates he felt he couldn’t support. As an example, he said he can’t support Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert because of her co-sponsoring of Republican Mark Kirk’s dangerous and wrong-headed H.R. 1913 [the “Thought Crimes” bill].
It’s a good question, since there seems to be some misunderstanding about the role of precinct committeemen, the party itself, and the people it elects.
TAKE ACTION: Call your U.S. Representative and Senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE H.R. 1913, the federal “Thought Crimes” (“Hate Crimes”) bill, which is likely to be passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today. You can also find your representatives at www.congress.org.
“Passage of ‘hate crimes’ legislation would place the behaviorally driven and fluid concepts of ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ on an equal footing with legitimate, neutral and immutable ‘suspect class’ characteristics such as skin color or a person’s true gender. This creates both a sociopolitical and legal environment wherein traditional sexual morality officially becomes the new racism.” — Matt Barber
Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) have quietly re-introduced the federal thought crimes bill, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling “hate speech” laws. It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. The bill is expected to be marked up Wednesday before the full House Judiciary Committee.
Under the 14th Amendment, victims of violent crime are currently afforded equal protection under the law regardless of sexual preference or proclivity. If passed, H.R. 1913 will change all that. It overtly and, most likely, unconstitutionally discriminates against millions of Americans by granting federally preferred status, time and resources to individuals who define their identity based upon aberrant sexual behaviors (i.e., “gay” and lesbian “sexual orientation” or cross-dressing “gender identity”).
Check out this church-produced video (also available on YouTube HERE) responding to today’s homosexual activist “Day of Silence,” posted by our friends over at Illinois Family Institute — which recently was smeared by the anti-Christian morality-phobes over at the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center:
Below is a YouTube video of an MSNBC debate April 8 between Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage and Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign. Keep in mind that Solmonese makes $338,400 a year to do things like claim that pro-family advocates are lying when they rightly assert that the homosexual political agenda — including “gay marriage” — will undermine the religious and moral freedoms of Americans who oppose homosexual behavior. Maggie and I focus on different aspects of the overall debate and we may disagree on a point or two, but she is a modern hero for truth and deserves our thanks for the yeoman’s work she has done on behalf of marriage. For this, of course, she is now rewarded with daily vilification by the Forces of Tolerance, led by those meanspirited “gay” bloggers and Professional Homosexuals like Solmonese.
It’s comical to watch homosexual activists call others liars — even as they promote the colossal falsehood that denies the “queer” threat to Americans’ religious liberties and freedom of conscience. Heck, HRC staffers have cut their teeth demonizing faith-based pro-family advocates as bigots on a par with vile racists of the past — while working to squelch our voice in the public square. (I wonder if HRC staffer Darryl Herrschaft got bonus pay for kicking me off a “DiversityInc” panel discussion on “Religion in the Workplace” in 2007.) Worst of all, they maliciously link pro-family and church speech to violence against homosexuals in their cynical campaign to pass “hate crimes” legislation. Make no mistake: if HRC’s agenda is enacted at the federal level, your freedom to live by your beliefs will take a big hit. Please support NOM’s work. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com
Why is this man held up as an authority on “tolerance”?
Who Is the Real Hateful Bully? Professional homosexual-hater-of-EX-gays Wayne Besen (left) got in former homosexual Greg Quinlan’s face and spewed vulgarities at Quinlan, accusing him of “still having gay sex” before being led away by security.
How fascinating that Wayne Besen (left) is given the opportunity to appear on FOX News, of all places [this YouTube clip features Besen whining about a hilarious Snickers ad that was pulled], to critique alleged “homophobic” attitudes and speech toward homosexuals — when he has such a well-deserved reputation for being one of the nastiest “queer” activists in the business. (Besen is the guy who came up with the deceptive smear “Porno Pete” to demonize yours truly — as if I have some prurient interest in homosexual pornography rather than a desire to expose the hyper-promiscuity celebrated within the homosexual male subculture. Wayne knows this is a lie but he continues to use it–strange conduct for the founder of a group called “Truth Wins Out.”) TAKE ACTION: forward this article by my friend Greg Quinlan to FOX’s Bill O’Reilly (oreilly@foxnews.com) and urge him to reconsider his use of an accomplished anti-Christian bigot (who especially hates public ex-gays like Greg) as a talking-head “expert” on “tolerance.”– Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com
What happens when ex-gays dare to come out of the closet? When I helped staff the exhibit booth for the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus at the National Education Association conference in June 2006, Wayne Besen, the former spokesperson for the gay Human Rights Campaign, approached our booth and began to insult us for having the audacity to live as heterosexuals. He took photos of our booth for his ex-gay bashing website which targets the ex-gay community for ridicule and harassment. Mr. Besen and gay rights organizations do not believe ex-gays are entitled to the same rights and respect that gays currently enjoy. They picket ex-gay conferences and protest vigorously against ex-gay equal access.
