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Jeb Bush: GOP Too “Anti-Gay”: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush worries that Republicans come off as being too “anti-gay.” He said Floridians need to “respect the rule of law” after a Clinton-appointed judge struck down the state’s marriage-protection amendment, passed by 62 percent of the Sunshine State’s voters in 2008.
It is becoming apparent that Jeb Bush is the favorite Republican Party presidential contender of the Washington Blade—D.C.’s “gay news source”–due to his politically-correct evolution on homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”
The Blade and other liberal media report favorably every time the former Florida governor moves away from the conservative, pro-family, Republican platform defending marriage as between man and woman.
On January 5, the “gay” Blade happily reported that Bush “struck a softer tone” with his nuanced response to District Judge Robert Hinkle’s overthrow of Florida’s pro-natural-marriage amendment, which had passed with 62 percent of the vote in 2008. Here is Bush’s wishy-washy reaction to the Clinton-appointed judge’s outrageous overreach:
“We live in a democracy, and regardless of our disagreements, we have to respect the rule of law…I hope that we can show respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue – including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe marriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.”
Rule of law? What rule of law?! Perhaps a few hundred thousand Republicans–of the 4,890,883 Florida voters who cast ballots to preserve the common-sense definition marriage–might demand an answer from Bush to this question:
“Why should we respect a judge’s ‘evolving-Constitution’ interpretation of the law when the same judge shows zero respect for We the People—as he arrogantly casts aside the people’s clearly expressed will against legalizing homosexuality-based ‘marriage’?”
Of course, such trivialities as rendering nearly five million Florida votes meaningless matter little to the “gay” Blade, whose reporter cooed:
“While [Bush’s] remarks don’t signal support for the right of same-sex couples to marry, they’re a shift in tone from comments the former Florida governor made to The Miami Herald in which he said states should decide the marriage issue. [Bush said:} ‘It ought to be a…state decision…The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess.’”
A few weeks earlier, under the gushy headline, “Is Jeb a kindler, more gay-friendly Bush?” the Bladereported excitedly Bush’s complaint that Republicans come off as being too “anti-gay” (and anti-immigrant, etc.).
The year 2014 in America saw an unprecedented overreach by the judiciary, with federal judges–contemptuous or at least dismissive of the people’s clearly-expressed will–striking down as “unconstitutional” popular state ballot measures preserving the age-old definition of marriage as between husband and wife.
Only an “evolving Constitution” could countenance so-called rights and “marriage” based on sexual deviancy. Legislators, not courts, change the law, and well into the 20th Century most states had laws on their books banning homosexual sodomy—once known as the infamous “crime against Nature.” To this day homosexual acts remain “against Nature,” hence their disproportionate association with sexual diseases like HIV and syphilis—which is why MSM (men having sex with men) is a red flag for blood donations.
Today’s judicial supremacists—with media sycophants in tow—don’t care that the United States Supreme Court has already established precedent in 1972 against using the Fourteen Amendment–designed to combat institutionalized racism left over from slavery–to legalize homosexuality-based “marriage.” The Supreme Court dismissed in an appeal of the Minnesota Supreme Court decision Baker vs. Nelson in which the majority wrote:
“[I]n commonsense and in a constitutional sense, there is a clear distinction between a marital restriction based merely upon race and one based upon the fundamental difference in sex.”
The 2014 judicial avalanche in favor of radically redefining marriage to accommodate homosexual behavior exposes a key contradiction of the Left: on the one hand progressives bemoan voter-ID laws, arguing that these laws are purposely designed to make it harder for African-Americans and likely Democratic voters to cast a ballot.
On the other hand, “progressives” like those inhabiting the offices of the ACLU overwhelmingly support judicial negation of successful state constitutional amendments preserving marriage as between one man and one woman—in states like Utah, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and Florida. Each of these court rulings imposing “gay marriage” disenfranchises millions of Americans on the issue.
Moreover, polls show that Black Americans are a strong demographic in support of traditional marriage. So effectively, to use Twitter-ese, liberals are saying that #BlackVotesMatter–except when it comes to popular state amendments rejecting homosexuality-based “marriage,” for which (millions of) #BlackVotesDoNotCount.
Sexual revolutionaries have cunningly have mastered the art of using government power through the manipulation of the law to legitimize their sin, in this case homosexual behavior–which God calls an abomination (“detestable”; see Leviticus 20:13) and a sin that can be overcome through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). So naturally the Left has exulted in the tendency of most courts to reject overwhelmingly popular ballot measures designed to protect the historic definition of marriage.
LaBarbera allowed provisional entry into Canada for ‘Mischief’ trial Oct. 30 stemming from April protest at public university
Canada’s “Hate” Police:Above is an excerpt of the Border Services Agency document issued against Peter LaBarbera when he was originally denied entry into Canada in April on the basis that he and AFTAH “incite hate” in violation of the nation’s Hate Propaganda” law. LaBarbera was subsequently allowed into the country, but later arrested at a peaceful pro-life/pro-family protest at the University of Regina. Click to enlarge.
By Peter LaBarbera
UPDATE from author: After a short meeting in Regina with a Border Services official this morning, I was allowed to travel and speak in Canada until the completion of my trial Thursday upon agreeing to these two provisions:
“While in Canada:
“If I am on private property, and am asked to leave that property by the owner for any reason, I must leave the property immediately;
“If I am issued a direction or command by a police officer or other person in authority, follow that direction immediately.”
REGINA, Saskatchewan, Canada–Customs agents detained this writer (AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera) and did an intense search of my phone, laptop and belongings–as I arrived at Calgary International Airport late last night on the first leg of a trip to Regina, Saskatchewan for my trial on “mischief” charges October 30.
The mischief charges were filed against me and Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott after Whatcott, and then me, refused on free speech grounds to abandon a peaceful protest April 12 against abortion and sodomy at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, a public university. [See AFTAH article HERE and LifeSiteNews article HERE on how I was almost refused entry into Canada on the basis of AFTAH’s alleged “hate.”]
The Calgary Border Services agents confiscated a DVD copy of a new Russian documentary called “Sodom” as potential “hate propaganda” in violation of Canadian law banning material or people who could potentially “incite hate” based on “sexual orientation.”
Ironically, “Sodom”–which I have yet to watch–is available and easily accessible in Canada (and worldwide) on YouTube. Whatcott told me that he had already shared the documentary with his network of Canadian supporters across the country. “Sodom” features an interview with American pro-family leader Scott Lively of Defend the Family International. Lively, who received AFTAH’s American Truth-Teller Award on 2011, is currently running for governor as an independent in Massachusetts.
If the Russian film is deemed “hate propaganda” by the government’s “Prohibited Importation Unit” in Ottawa, it will be destroyed, two border agents informed me. If “Sodom” does not meet that designation, it will be mailed back to my home in Illinois.
Either way, the seizure of the film would make it impossible for me to view and/or present it to others in Canada–were it not easily accessible to everybody with a web connection on YouTube. Such is the folly of state censorship in an Internet age.
Customs hearing today
Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott and AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera.
Despite my two-and-a-half hour detainment in Calgary, agents ordered me to attend another hearing today (Tuesday) with Immigration officials in Regina at 11:00 A.M.–for “further examination” on my “admissibility” into Canada. Nevertheless, Border Services agents told me that I would be able to attend my “Mischief” trial in Regina on Thursday and that I am “innocent until proven guilty” under Canadian law.
A border agent named Shane Paul (I called him “Paul” because that was on his uniform and I presumed that was his first name) asked me questions about a small speaking engagement I was to have with Whatcott and others this (Tuesday) evening. I was unsure of the location of the meeting, as the venue has been changed three times already–because skittish Canadians pulled out from hosting the event fearing leftist protests. You can read about one cancellation in the Regina Leader-Post HERE (Note: not included in the story is Whatcott’s assertion that the prospective host, Greg Kulak, was not telling the truth when he claimed NOT to know the nature of the event.) By the way, Whatcott distributed thousands of fliers advertising the event–which Kulak’s cowardly pullout rendered meaningless by abandoning the listed location for it.
As an American, let me say that it is remarkable how far official political correctness – enforced and encouraged by sometimes fanatical left-wing activists and abetted by an anti-conservative media – has not only shut down conservative speech in Canada but succeeded in punishing people who run afoul of various liberal ideologies—not limited to pro-homosexualism. For example, the Canadian owners of a conservative website, “Free Dominion,” shut it down after 13 years of operation in January after losing a defamation lawsuit to “human rights” legal activist Richard Warman. They were fined a total of $107,000 and ordered not to print anything negative about the leftist Warman—effectively censoring them as a public forum [See LifeSite article HERE].
In the two years that I have worked closely with Bill Whatcott, I have seen the extraordinary harassment and soft (and hard) tyranny he has had to endure in his quest to get out biblical truth and facts about homosexuality and abortion. Whatcott, who distributes tens of thousands of fliers door-to-door every year, was found guilty of Canada’s “Hate Propaganda” law by Canada’s highest court. Earlier this year, he was denied service by Aaron Rubin, a computer shop in Weybourn because the owner did not like Bill’s views; Whatcott sued under the “human rights” laws and won and–in a demonstration of Christian grace–did not push for a big financial judgment but instead asked Rubin to do volunteer service for a local pro-life group. Rubin opted not to do the service and paid a mere $200 to have it done.
Recently, Whatcott tried to submit a simple ad for his event tonight (where I am to speak) to the Regina Leader-Post newspaper. The ad’s innocuous headline was “Bringing the Light of Christ to Our Culture”–but that did not matter; it was refused anyway. He could have another “human rights” victory in store if he sues the liberal paper for anti-religious discrimination. (Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms ostensibly protects religious freedom.) But even if the ad had run, Whatcott would have been chased out of the venue for the event.
With such relentless leftist pressure led by a few fanatics like Warman, it is only the rare, brave soul like Whatcott who fights on for Truth in Canada, while so many others fall away in fear. (Note that in the Chicago area, AFTAH, too, has been chased out of venues after the leftist activists with the Gay Liberation Network wielded their spurious “hate group” accusation against us.)
Searching my phone, laptop, books and papers–again
Anyway, I cooperated fully with the Border Services “investigation” of me at the Calgary airport, as I did in April at the Regina International Airport. Agent Paul and another Agent with the last name of Meehan went through—as in April—my:
Phone
Laptop
Books (including Dr. Michael Brown’s “Can You Be Gay and Christian?”; his book, “Something Queer Happened to America”; Robert Reilly’s book, “Making Gay OK”; and Frank Turek’s “Correct, Not Politically Corrrect: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone”)
Tracts: I brought a bunch of ex-“gay” Stephen Bennett’s tract “I WAS ‘Gay’”; and
Papers
When Shane asked me about Westboro Baptist Church (with its “God Hates Fags” message), I told him that AFTAH has always condemned Westboro, as has every other pro-family group I have worked with. I told them that AFTAH has long condemned violence and genuine hatred against homosexuals or anyone, for that matter.
At one point in the search, Shane asked me if I had children and then I asked him if he had children. He asked me as if offended: “Why do you ask that?” and then said, “I’m gay.” I told him I meant nothing by it and that I ask a lot of people that question. I told him my five children are a tremendous blessing and he said he may want to adopt children some day.
Once Shane’s “gayness” was out in the open, it was almost easier to have a conversation about my work and the larger homosexual issue. I told him that disagreement with homosexuality does not equal “hate,” despite the best efforts of LGBT activists to conflate the two. He and Meehan laughed when I told them that I couldn’t be a “homophobe” because if I truly “feared” homosexuals, I could not do AFTAH’s work, which requires me to be around many homosexuals.
Despite the awkwardness of the situation, it helped this time, compared to my April airport search in Regina, that Shane and Meehan, the two fellows handling my entry at Calgary, were actually interested in my explanation of what I and AFTAH do. They appreciated my defense of civility in the “gay” debate and I think Shane was satisfied that I didn’t hate him or homosexuals in general. I thanked him for his professionalism.
Shane asked me if anything i would present on Wednesday could be construed as “hateful.” I told him no, but explained that they’re is a lively debate going on in the culture about what constitutes “hate” on this question. I explained, and he agreed, that we could have a civil discussion about homosexuality and yet agree to disagree.
Paul discovered in my belongings the Human Right Campaign report, “Exporting Hate,” with its highly unflattering graphics of me and Michael Brown, and Mat Staver. (Others are targeted in the “Hate” booklet, but I only taken copies of the pages with the shadowy images of myself, Brown and Staver.)
He asked me about this quotation accurately attributed to me by the HRC “Export of Hate” hit-piece:
“Kids would ‘be better off in a single-parent household [compared to a homosexual-led household]…because you’re not modeling homosexual behavior. When you have two men raising a young child, that child grows up learning, basically, dysfunction and a sexual perversion as normality.” (Alan Colmes Show, 1/7/14)
Shane seemed especially concerned about my use of the word “perversion” and suggested in so many words that there is no religious (biblical) case for that word. I explained that historically the word has been used in association with homosexuality and that we also make the case that Natural Law opposes homosexuality.
Stay tuned for updates. Please pray for my meeting with Immigration officials today, and for our meeting (if it happens) this evening—and lastly, for Bill’s and my trial Thursday in Regina on the ridiculous “Mischief” charge leveled against us for defending life and sexual morality at—of all places—a public university.
Homosexual perversion centers flourish despite HIV crisis–even in Atlanta, where CDC is based
In this recent Roku interview on America’s Survival, my friend and AS founder Cliff Kincaid and I discussed how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) politically correct approach toward homosexuality and HIV does not breed confidence in the federal agency’s ability to keep Americans from contracting the Ebola virus. We also discuss the Republican Party’s growing support for proud homosexuality, as House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) held a fund-raiser for openly homosexual San Dieogo congressional candidate Carl DeMaio just when DeMaio had been charged with sexually harassing another homosexual male campaign worker [see AIM story HERE]. It is simply incredible that homosexual bathhouses flourish in big cities across America (including Atlanta, where the CDC is based: see about the 8:00 mark in the video)–even as HIV rates surge among homosexual male youth. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
Under Canadian law, espousing Judeo-Christian morality on homosexuality is an “Incitement of Hatred”
Calling Moral Speech “Hate”: Canadian Border Services document last April declares AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera “inadmissible” to Canada on the basis that his actions had “incited hate,” thus violating the country’s pro-homosexual anti-“hate-speech” law. LaBarbera appealed the decision and was allowed into Canada, only to get arrested a couple of days later with Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott–as they both refused on principle to heed a police demand to cease a peaceful pro-life and pro-family protest at the University of Regina. Whatcott and LaBarbera go to trial Oct. 30 on a criminal “mischief” charge surrounding the arrest. Go HERE for original AFTAH story on the arrest.
By Peter LaBarbera
Two days after AFTAH’s annual banquet featuring Dr. Michael Brown on Oct. 25, I will be heading off to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to stand trial with my friend and Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott. We hope to be exonerated from the criminal “mischief” charge that led to our arrest and incarceration April 14–after we resisted a police order to abandon our peaceful pro-life/pro-family protest at the University of Regina. [See AFTAH’s original story on our arrests HERE.]
At the protest, I held one of Bill’s sign that said, “Sodomy Is a Sin,” as well as a large placard showing an unborn baby. Who can blame the University of Regina and Canadian cops for cracking down on such unbridled and sinister HATE?! (Meanwhile, Muslims, a significant portion of whom follow shariah law—whose punishments against homosexual acts include the death penalty by stoning–are welcomed into Canada as students at U-Regina. Such is the folly of political correctness.)
After our arrest, U-Regina provost and vice president Thomas Chase was quoted in the newspaper as saying that our materials were “graphic” and “disturbing.” Among them was my one-page flier on some of the “Homosexual Health Risks.” Dangerous propaganda, that. Said Chase:
“The materials, we felt, could harm members of this campus community who we have a duty to protect and support.”
Leftists like to use government and institutions to control others, and they often fear a robust and free exchange of competing ideas. This explains U-Regina’s censorship and squelching of a debate that actually would have benefited its students. (We had friendly discussions with some young adults before the arrest.) Such bureaucratic speech “protection” dishonors students, who by the time they reach college should be able to hear all sides of every issue and make decisions for themselves on what they believe.
Almost banned from Canada
Prior to our protest, I learned the hard way that Canada is no longer a truly free country. Arriving at the Regina International Airport on a late flight, and after all the other passengers sailed through Customs, I was detained and questioned by Border Services agents for hours. Agents sifted through all my belongings–including my cell phone and computer–searching for evidence of alleged potential “incitement of hatred.” “Hate” propaganda on the basis of “sexual orientation” is banned in Canada, and the country has forced self-censorship of incoming broadcast transmissions dealing with homosexuality–e.g., broadcasts from Christian ministries like Focus on the Family–for years.
At times the airport investigation of yours truly was as comical as it was surreal: one of the images in my smart phone was of a colorful Nazi swastika. One of the Border agents queried me about it, thinking he might have discovered some compelling proof of “hate.” Perhaps Bill and I were planning a secret rendezvous with the Regina Neo-Nazi Brigade! Alas, I explained to the agent, this particular photo was one that I took at a hateful “gay” activist event in San Francisco’s homosexual Castro district, timed to mock Easter. It falsely equates Christians with genocidal Nazis. The agent didn’t really show much interest as he continued to go through my luggage and papers, book by book and piece by piece.
Ultimately, I was informed that I would be formally denied entry into Canada on the basis that my activities through Americans For Truth violated Canada’s anti-“hate” propaganda law.” You can see the official notice above from border agent Darren Banick. It reads in part:
Peter James LaBarbera….
Is a person who is: A foreign national who has not been authorized to enter Canada and who, in my opinion, is inadmissible…on the grounds of criminally committing an act outside of Canada that…if committed in Canada, would constitute an indictable offence under an Act of Parliament….
Mr. LaBarbera….if allowed in to [sic] Canada he may commit and acts [sic] which would be against the criminal code of Canada. Section 319(1)CC Public Incitement of Hatred.
Section 36(2)(C) of IRPA [Immigration and Refugee Protection Act] states in that there are reasonable grounds to believe is a foreign national who is inadmissible on the grounds of [criminality] for committing an act outside Canada that is an [offence] in the place where it was committed.
Thomas More Law Center promises “game changer” in new “national strategy to defend traditional marriage”
SEXUAL IMMORALITY IS NOT A “CIVIL RIGHT”:Pastor Emery Moss (L.), Pastor Danny Holliday, and Evangelist Janet Boynes (a former lesbian) listen during Thomas More press conference announcing national strategy to defend marriage. Said Holliday: “We all know that the 14th Amendment was made because Black folk were considered as property. Gays have never been considered as property.”
The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national, nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI held a press conference yesterday to reveal its national legal strategy to combat the slew of recent federal court rulings which have overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
_______________________
A Game Changer—Thomas More Law Center Reveals National Strategy to Defend Traditional Marriage
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, disclosed that a legal team has been formed to file friend-of-the-court briefs (amicus briefs) on behalf of a Coalition of African-American pastors and Christian leaders. The legal team consists of the Law Center’s senior trial counsel, Erin Mersino, and co-counsels William R. Wagner and John S. Kane of Lansing, MI.
Thompson explained, “In its briefs, the Law Center reflects the voice of a majority of African-Americans that discrimination because of one’s sexual preference is not the same thing as racial discrimination and that tradition and morality should not be discarded as a basis of the law; as the pro-homosexual judges have done in their opinions.”
Several pastors representing the African-American community spoke at the press conference, including Bishop Samuel Smith, and Pastors Danny Holliday and Emery Moss. Evangelist Janet Boynes, a former lesbian and a member of the group, also spoke. In eloquent and at times fiery words, they all defended the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
AFTAH received this lovely little note yesterday. It refers to my upcoming trial October 29 with Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott, as a result of our arrest at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan–for engaging in a peaceful protest against abortion and homosexual activism. If I had a quarter for every nasty note like this sent to AFTAH, we’d raise some serious money for our Truth ministry! I replied to this fellow (whose name is probably not “Mark Barnard”), but he did not reply back. God bless. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
P.S. I will be returning to Canada for the trial Oct. 29. But even if we lose the case, which is all about freedom of speech and religion in Canada with its odious “hate propaganda” law, it is highly unlikely that I will receive jail time, although Bill certainly could.
_______________________________
Mark Barnard
12:14 AM (15 hours ago)
markbarnard@comcast.net
to me [AFTAH]
The following message was sent from the Americans for Truth Web site:
If you go to jail, just say nothing. If you are compelled to say something, you are likely going to be made an example of. Use larger and larger objects in your anus. This will make it less painful when they play with you. They will be heterosexuals penetrating you. The guards will have a good laugh at their dinner break. I get the sense you might be looking forward to it. Mark
President Obama signing two Executive Orders advancing homosexual and transgender “rights.” One adds “gender identity” to the existing federal nondiscrimination policy (joining “sexual orientation”). The other–addressed by Dr. Michael Brown below–compels federal contractors to abide by federal pro-LGBT nondiscrimination mandates. Obama declined to include a strong religious exemption in the latter Order. Photo: White House; click to enlarge.
The following is excerpted from an online appeal by pro-family author and advocate, Dr. Michael Brown to President Obama, in response to Obama signing an Executive Order designed to advance “gay rights”–and which is bereft of a strong religious exemptions as requested by a coalition of religious leaders. Dr. Brown–whose book A Queer Thing Happened to America is essential reading for those hoping to understand the far-reaching LGBT agenda–will be the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s banquet October 25th at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. This article first appeared in Charisma magazine.
_____________________________
President Obama, You Have Crossed a Dangerous, Unprecedented Line
9:00AM EDT, 7/22/2014 Michael Brown, Charisma, In the Line of Fire
President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order banning “discrimination” by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.
Dear Mr. President,
I write to you today as a concerned citizen of our great nation, standing as a witness against your historic actions on the morning of July 21, 2014, actions which I hope you will one day repudiate with deep remorse and regret.
I am referring, of course, to your signing an executive order Monday banning “discrimination” by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.
This was an outrageous act of discrimination against religion in the name of anti-discrimination—an act of bullying people of faith in the name of the prevention of bullying.
How can you, as a man who professes to be a person of faith and a follower of Jesus, throw religious Americans—in particular Christians—under the bus?
How can you attempt to force Christians, Jews, Muslims and others to violate fundamental aspects of their moral codes in order to appease a small but powerful special interest group, one that is not, in fact, suffering daily economic hardship by being fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or expression?
Have you forgotten entirely that our nation was founded on the concept of religious freedom?
