Liberty Counsel

Press Release, November 25, 2008

www.LC.org

Miami, FL – Today, an activist Miami State Court Judge ruled that a 1977 Florida law that bans homosexual adoption is unconstitutional. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman claims that the law violates equal protection rights for homosexuals and that there is no valid reason to consider sexual orientation when approving adoption. The state has already filed an appeal. Liberty Counsel successfully defended the same law at the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which upheld the law banning homosexual adoption against a constitutional challenge.

The law has also been ruled to be constitutional by state courts of appeal. Although the decisions by the appeals courts are binding on the circuit judge, Judge Lederman lawlessly disregarded these legal precedents.

In the United States of America, nobody — Christian or otherwise — should ever be forced to support or subsidize immoral homosexual relationships against their moral beliefs. Religious exemptions may appear to be a short-term solution to the problem of “competing rights” between traditional American liberties and newfangled “gay/transgender rights” laws, but in the long run they will not preserve true freedom in America.

From the Becket Fund website (emphasis added). We’ve left the word (same-sex) “marriage” without quotation marks, which we would normally insert to clarify the false notion that two people of the same sex can marry. Also, we would note that the issue of “competing liberties” — as stated below — existed with the passage of the first pro-homosexuality “sexual orientation” law — long before same-sex “marriage” became an issue.

Becket Fund is well intentioned in its advocacy of strong religious exemption laws, but Americans For Truth supports the full repeal of all sexual orientation laws as fundamentally incompatible with historic American freedoms. One problem with religious exemptions is that they leave out the non-religious opponents of homosexuality — essentially creating a new set of “special rights” for religious people — the right to live by one’s moral beliefs. Secular foes of aberrrant sexual and gender behaviors should not lose that same right.

Another problem is that such exemptions give pastors and (officially) religious organizations an incentive to pull out of the cultural struggle over the normalization of homosexuality — even as Christian and religious businessmen are being forced to violate their own freedom of conscience under pro-“gay” laws. Exemptions may appear to be a short-term solution but they are not the answer; reasserting the primacy of historic, genuine American freedoms over newly-theorized “rights” based on homosexual misbehavior and gender nonconformity is. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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Becket Fund writes Nov. 10, 2008:

Becket Fund Releases Study of Religious Liberty Implications of Same-sex Marriage, Surveys Anti-Discrimination Laws in 50 States

Over 350 separate state anti-discrimination laws would likely be affected by the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, according to a new study by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

The Becket Fund surveyed over 1,000 state anti-discrimination laws — specifically those prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, or marital status — to assess how those laws would affect religious dissenters to same-sex marriage if same-sex marriage were legally recognized.

The study found that all 50 states prohibit gender discrimination in some way, and only 37 states have explicit religious exemptions to these provisions, many of them quite narrow. This lack of robust exemptions could become a problem if (as has happened in some instances) religious objections to same-sex marriage are treated as a kind of gender discrimination. In addition, 33 states prohibit at least some discrimination based on marital status, and only 13 of these states provide religious exemptions, some with a wide latitude of exemption, others with only narrow exemptions. Of the 20 states that prohibit sexual orientation-based discrimination, 18 provide exemptions for religious objection.

Boy Scouts fought same homosexual law, and won in Supreme Court

E-PERVERSION.COM? Born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren and the company he founded, eHarmony.com, have capitulated to a New Jersey “sexual orientation” complaint using the state’s homosexual “rights” law– by expanding its dating service to homosexuals. The Boy Scouts fought the same law rather than cave on their principles. Click HERE for the settlement and HERE for a news release by New Jersey’s Attorney General. TAKE ACTION: write Warren at ncwarren@eharmony.com. 

Americans For Truth sent out the following e-letter today to: Dr. Neil Clark  Warren, founder of the eHarmony online dating company; eHarmony’s management team; and various pro-family groups and leaders (listed at bottom). We refer you to WorldNetDaily’s story, “eHarmony to Match ‘Gays,’” detailing the company’s capitulation to New Jersey following a “discrimination” complaint by a homosexual activist. Some excerpts from the WND story are at bottom. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

TAKE ACTION: Contact Dr. Neil Clark Warren at ncwarren@eharmony.com. An eHarmony contact page and blog for comments can be found HERE (several management e-mails listed bounced back).

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Subject: Dr. Warren et al, you sold your soul (or at least eHarmony’s)…

Importance: High

FR: Peter LaBabera, Americans For Truth

TO: Dr. Neil Warren, founder of eHarmony, and eHarmony’s Management:

Dr. Warren et al, you sold your soul (or at least eHarmony’s)…

… It is a shame that you chose not to follow the lead of the Boy Scouts of America by standing up for your legal rights as a moral company that believes in REAL marriage – one that would not promote homosexuality and ungodly, unhealthy relationships. (You will recall that the Scouts, too, were challenged under New Jersey’s “sexual orientation” law, but New Jersey was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court.)  I suppose this means you have now officially joined the list of Companies Promoting Immorality (CPI) – a growing list, indeed. How tragic that eHarmony’s resources – and your good name — will be used to advance the cause of homosexual behavior, a changeable sin.

You could have set an example to Christians and freedom-loving Americans everywhere by fighting on principle for your company’s First Amendment right not to be bullied into submission by a politically correct state bureaucracy. Instead, you capitulated. In addition to hurting the cause of Christianity, you have damaged the cause of freedom and particularly religious freedom in America. It appears that eHarmony is no longer a “match” for Integrity.

Thomasson: “If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt.”

Sacramento, California — In response to today’s decision by the California Supreme Court to hear the challenges to Proposition 8, the California Marriage Amendment, Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization, issued the following statement:

“It’s unfortunate that the judges are giving time to the mushy, subjective arguments of homosexual activists who reject the clear reading of the constitution and the clear reading of Proposition 8. If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt. It will also threaten the validity of all future constitutional amendments.

“The court is playing with fire by threatening to destroy the people’s vote on marriage. The California Constitution clearly says that the voters have the right to alter the highest law of the land. It’s the beauty of the American system of government. The four Supreme Court justices who unconstitutionally invented homosexual ‘marriages’ — Ron George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno — seem to be ignoring the fact that the people get the last word, not the judges.

“The clear reading of the constitution, as well as California’s legal and legislative history, tells us there is a world of difference between a constitutional amendment and a constitutional revision. Proposition 8 is a single-subject, voter-initiated amendment, not a legislature-initiated, multi-issue, whole-scale revision that alters many sections of the state constitution.

“If Prop. 8 gutted the constitution, why is it only one subject in one section of the constitution? If Prop. 8 doesn’t stand, then our constitution doesn’t mean anything, the people’s vote doesn’t mean anything, marriage has been utterly disrespected, and judges lied when they swore to uphold the constitution. Prop. 8 must stand, because the constitution is above the judges, not the other way around.

We would add to Citizenlink’s list below that President-elect Obama is on record supporting:

1. the more liberal version of ENDA that includes “gender identity” (transsexual “rights”);
2. changing immigration law to treat homosexual couples (i.e., same-sex lovers abroad) like married couples;
3. expanding federal AIDS spending despite the disproportionate government monies spent on this behavior-driven disease compared to other serious maladies such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease;
4. federal recognition of homosexual “civil unions”; and
5. using the president’s bully pulpit to advocate for homosexual adoption and other homosexual activist policy goals.

I’m sure we’ve missed some homosexual agenda items. But if you are a Christian and/or consider yourself pro-natural-family — and you voted for Mr. Obama — perhaps it’s time to start contacting him to urge him NOT to pursue these misguided policies. (We assume that many strongly religious Obama voters were at least partly — and perhaps willfully — ignorant of his liberal-left plank on the moral issues of homosexuality and abortion.) We don’t know if the messages will get to him, but here’s a contact page for the Obama transition team: http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

The Citizenlink story is below:
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“Defending Marriage Is Not ‘Hate,'” say pro-family advocates

The far left, Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network has been smearing Christians as “haters” for years. Here they shown in 2005 picketing the city’s beloved Moody Church, which GLN fanatically labeled a “House of Hate” because Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer wrote a book against homosexual “marriage.” Click to enlarge; photo by Dave Smith, Illinois Family Institute.

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News Advisory, Protect Marriage Illinois and Americans For Truth

November 15, 2008

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; americansfortruth@comcast.net

CHICAGO – Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of Protect Marriage Illinois and president of Americans For Truth (www.aftah.org), issued the following statement in response to the national homosexual protest day against Proposition 8’s passage in California. LaBarbera joins Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org) and a small group of Illinois pro-family advocates in Chicago to oppose the Chicago pro-homosexual-“marriage” rally today at Federal Plaza.

Statement by Peter LaBarbera:

We stand here today proudly in support of Prop 8 – which preserves the age-old definition of marriage as between and a man and a woman in California – and similar pro-traditional-marriage amendments that have passed in 30 states across the nation. Americans have spoken: they oppose the radical redefinition of marriage. We in Illinois hope to join the other states in passing a constitutional amendment to prevent activist courts from foisting “gay marriage” on our citizens.

Read the rest of this article »

Click on cartoon to enlarge. Reference articles: “Schwarzenegger tells backers of gay marriage: Don’t give up” (LA Times, 11-10-08); “Schwarzenegger says gay marriage could be good for economy” (Sacramento Bee, 5-21-2008); “Schwarzenegger will battle gay marriage ban” (NY Daily News, Associated Press, 4-11-08); “Governor backs same-sex marriage ruling” (San Francisco Chronicle, 5-17-08).

Matt Barber says Prop 8 violence shows ‘gays’ are ‘most hateful among us’

Envelopes with suspicious white powder were discovered at two Mormon temples, including this one in Salt Lake City, and a Knights of Columbus printing plant in Connecticut — probable “gay” terrorist retribution for the Mormons and the Catholic group’s strong support for Proposition 8 in California. “Queer” intolerance for dissent is out of control — but where are the “gay” leaders reigning in their fanatics? When asked on FOX News today about the escalating anger and protests targeting churches, Joe Solmonese of Human Rights Campaign — which has sought to link Christian pro-family groups to “hate violence” against homosexuals — could barely bring himself to say a negative word against the radicals on his side. Americans need to know: are the Justice Department and FBI watching out for coordinated acts of homosexual “hate violence” and churches, synagogues and mosques?

Matt Barber, who is director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action and associate dean with Liberty University School of Law — and  a Board Member of Americans For Truth — puts all the “queer” anger, intolerance, and even violence in perspective below. Send you comments to Matt at jmattbarber@comcast.net.

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WorldNetDaily.com; posted November 14, 2008

Counterfeit Marriage and its Counterfeit Movement

With a unified voice amplified several million-fold through the ballot box megaphone, African-Americans have spoken on the issues of marriage, family and human sexuality. Whether young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican, blacks are justifiably fed up with the deceptive antics of the self-described and craftily contrived “gay rights movement.”

For decades now, well-organized, well-funded and highly influential “gay” political pressure groups have, with impertinence, hijacked the language of the authentic civil rights movement. In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, self-styled “queers” have disingenuously and ignobly hitched their lil’ lavender wagons to a movement which, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice.

An illegitimate offspring of the ’60s sexual revolution, the newfangled “gay rights” cult is today’s postmodern, sex-centric cause célèbre. Its core tenets include, among other things, mandated moral relativism, social androgyny and forced acceptance of a pleasure-based, though demonstrably destructive, lifestyle. Apart from practitioners of “the sin that dare not speak its name,” its devotees are in large part institutional fringe elitists confined to blue-state America who almost universally suffer the insufferable pangs of white guilt.