Excerpted from Can Religious Freedom Survive Gay Liberation?, by David Frum, published Mar 9, 2007, by National Review:

…The movement for gay equality has rapidly evolved into movement to restrict personal freedoms, including freedoms of religion and conscience. The British example is not a special case. What is being done there today will be demanded here tomorrow…

Update: Andrew Stuttaford raises an excellent point on the Corner.

The more interesting question however is the extent to which religious belief should be privileged above all others. You can, quite legitimately, question the range and definition of anti-discrimination laws, but once a democracy has put those laws in place, I can think of no particular reason why some people should be exempted from that law, simply on the grounds of religion. To do so is to say that religious belief is somehow more deserving of special protection than other (perhaps no less deeply held) ideologies, an idea that, however well-intentioned, is irrational at best, dangerous at worse.

And of course he is right! When general laws are passed, they must apply to all.

That is precisely why the gay rights movement is inherently an illiberal one. When you decide to extend your nondiscrimination principles to behavior condemned by your society’s majority religion, you are embarking on a course that will sooner or later require the state to police, control, and punish adherents of that religion.

That was (or should have been obvious) from the start.

Continue reading at National Review…

From our good friends at MassResistance on Mar 9, 2007:

On March 5, Governor Deval Patrick appointed John Auerbach (pictured right), former Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPH), to be commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).

Auerbach is “married” to Boston Magazine restaurant critic Corby Kummer. While Auerbach was at the BPH, he created a “Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered Health Office.” The BPH also helped produce “The Little Black Book,” along with his new group, the DPH.

Note from AFTAH: Adults only, have a good look at the graphic and disgusting The Little Black Book, posted on the MassResistance website linked above, which was distributed with taxpayer money to public school children.

The following was written about “male to female” “transgendered” teenagers and predicts a heart-breaking future for the children who are encouraged (as they often are by homosexual activists in our public schools) to pursue gender confusion…

Excerpted from Book Review – Transparent: Love, Family and Living the T With Transgender Teenagers by Cris Beam, by Damian Penny, published Mar 8, 2007, by Blog Critics Magazine:

…Needless to say, they don’t have it easy – largely rejected by their families, the girls (as Beam, and most transgender advocates, would insist on calling them) bounce between group homes, roommates, short-term romantic relationships and — all too often — prostitution, drugs and prison. Some are able to procure female hormones or even cosmetic surgery to feminize their appearance, but others attend “pumping parties” where silicone (often, industrial-grade silicone) is injected into their bodies. One of her young friends, Domineque, ends up in a male prison, and ultimately winds up in a special unit with informers and sexual offenders – partly for her own protection, and partly because no one knows exactly what to do with her.

Beam [the lesbian author] and her girlfriend become especially close to Christina, a former gang member (still sporting her tattoo, which leads to some extremely awkward and dangerous moments) who rollercoasters between meaningful employment and the squalor of prostitution and drugs. She lives off and on with her mother, who remains deeply uncomfortable with what her son (born Eduardo) has done with his life and body.

Continue reading at Blog Critics Magazine…

Excerpted from James Hartline’s Action Alert dated Mar 7, 2007:

…The Gay and Lesbian Times is now reporting that the organizers of [San Diego Pride parade and festival] are actually planning to increase the amount of explicit adult entertainment that has been a staple of this annual anti-family carnival. This announcement follows on the heels of the Gay Pride organization’s recent press release that they will be hiring a high school teenager to recruit other minors to participate in this very vile party.

Here is what the March 1, 2007, Gay and Lesbian Times article stated about the increased porn industry presence for this year’s San Diego Gay Pride festival:

The Freedom Zone will be located at the south end, near the large beer garden. It will allow vendors with adult-oriented items and materials to fully display their merchandise. “Vendors who sell adult-oriented merchandise will be stationed in the Freedom Zone,” deHart said. “We’re also going to encourage special events such as autograph signings and contests and other events to take place in the Freedom Zone. It may be an opportunity to partner up with some of our local bars and clubs to do fun events and activities inside the Freedom Zone.”

The Freedom Zone was created to serve the percentage of the adult GLBT population who want to see more adult-themed booths. “The Freedom Zone will appeal to a segment of the population that hasn’t had their own space for a while,” said Philip Princetta, Pride co-chair.

…One carryover from last year will be the Youth Express Entrance, which offers 16- and 17- year-olds free entrance to the festival in exchange for participation in a brief orientation. The program was an experiment last year, partially in response to the 2005 Pride scandal, in which three Pride volunteers and one Pride employee were discovered to be registered sex offenders.

Rather than ban youth as a result of the scandal, the organization is educating them with regard to participating safely.

By Peter LaBarbera

Ann Coulter has been roundly denounced for using the “F-word” (six letters) — see this article by Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and this article by Albert Mohler). I’m a Coulter fan, but she crossed the line on this one.

There are larger issues at stake here for American freedom: today it’s the F-word, which has been banished as the sexual equivalent of the N-word. Tomorrow it could be certain applications of the G-word: G-A-Y. Many students use “That’s so gay” to connote something that they think is stupid or weird: should they be forced to undergo sensitivity re-education — or perhaps attend a “Gay Pride” parade?

Where will the PC “hate speech” enforcement stop? AP recently reported:

“When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, “Do you have 10 moms?” she shot back: “That’s so gay.”

       “Those three words landed the high school freshman in the principal’s office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?”

The AP story points to the threat that official speech codes pose to Americans’ most fundamental freedoms. Homosexual activists routinely and outrageously blame Christian pro-family groups for violence against homosexuals, and there are many on the Left who will go to extraordinary lengths to turn any derogatory use of ‘gay” into an opportunity to spread their pro-homosexual ideology. 

Coulter was joking. These activists are dead serious. Students and parents, take note.

As a rule we do not, like Fred Phelps, use the term “fag.” Coulter’s stunt was childish and, despite her protestations, she was clearly calling family man John Edwards a “faggot” — even as she also poked fun at the Left’s quirky “hate” formula by which they vilify their foes, then jump up and down when their own PC speech taboos are violated. (Example: saying George Bush is like Hitler — NOT HATE; saying we should love people practicing homosexual behavior but hate their sexual sin — HATE.)  Coulter’s reference point was Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington, who, after publicity grew about his calling a homosexual co-star a “faggot,” apologized and checked himself into rehab for a “psychological assessment.”

People involved in homosexuality should not be the object of taunts or hatred, and Christians, especially, are called to apply the Biblical command to speak the truth in love. We are called even to love our enemies so name-calling simply is not an option. (I confess that I once called homosexual blogger Joe Brummer, who is obsessed with AFTAH, a “twit,” but you might too if you read the tripe that he puts out on an almost daily basis. (A recent Brummer blog entry accuses Sonja Dalton and me of being “extremely responsible [sic] for the climate of violence that plagues gays and lesbians.”)

“That’s So Gay” 

The reality we face is that many on the pro-homosexual side, even as they recklessly smear committed Christians as bigots and haters (and murderers for what we believe!), want to define any negative use of the word “gay” as evidence of “hate speech” requiring punitive and corrective action. The AP story continues:

Testifying last week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now 18, said that when she uttered those words, she was not referring to anyone’s sexual orientation. She said the phrase meant: “That’s so stupid, that’s so silly, that’s so dumb.”

 

But school officials say they took a strict stand against the putdown after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year before.

 

“The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from harassment,” the district’s lawyers argued in a legal brief. “In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase ‘That’s so gay’ … was a reasonable regulation.”

Excerpted from School Accused of Promoting Homosexuality, by Lisa Black, published Mar 7, 2007, by Chicago Tribune:

Some parents have accused Deerfield High School of promoting a homosexual agenda by allowing gay students to speak before freshman classes about their personal experiences, cite research and invite questions.

Taking place in classrooms this week, the panel sessions are scheduled during a class called freshman advisory, which seeks to help students adjust to high school. The class is mandatory, but parents can choose to remove their child on days the lessons concern them, school officials said.

But Deerfield resident and parent Lora Sue Hauser, who heads a group called North Shore Student Advocacy, wants to see the panel discontinued, saying it delves into complex issues of sexuality that are better addressed by parents and trained counselors. She said the panel is one of several ways that Deerfield High and other schools treat homosexuality as morally acceptable without presenting the viewpoints of those who disagree.

“The school makes heterosexuality and homosexuality equivalent, and our country is deeply divided on that,” said Hauser, who said dozens of parents belong to the advocacy group but fear they will be labeled as haters or religious fanatics if they speak out.

“You can’t dump that on a 14-year-old,” Hauser said. “These are really difficult waters to navigate.”

Continue reading at Chicago Tribune…

Excerpted from While Critics Blame Catholic Church for AIDS Deaths Stats Show Just the Opposite, by Hilary White, published Mar 5, 2007, by LifeSite News:

…The available statistics show that countries with a large Catholic percentage population, show significantly lower rates of HIV/AIDS infections than countries with mostly non-Catholic populations.

2003 statistics from the World Factbook of the US Central Intelligence Agency, shows Burundi at 62% Catholic with 6% AIDS infection rate. Angola’s population is 38% Roman Catholic and has 3.9% AIDS rate. Ghana is 63% Christian, with in some regions as much as 33% Catholic and has 3.1% AIDS rate. Nigeria, divided almost evenly between the strongly Muslim north and Christian and “animist” south, has 5.4% AIDS rate.

Strongly Christian Uganda continues to frustrate condom-pushing NGO’s by maintaining its abstinence and fidelity AIDS prevention programs and one of the lowest rates of AIDS in Africa, at 4.1%. Uganda’s population is listed by the CIA Factbook as 33% Roman Catholic and 33% Protestant.

Of African countries with low Catholic populations, Botswana is typical with 37.3% AIDS, one of the highest in Africa, and 5% of the total population Catholic. In 2003, Swaziland was shown to have a 38.8% AIDS infection rate and only 20% Catholic population.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Recall AFTAH’s exclusive special report on the Homosexual Sex Worker Panel at “Creating Change”…

On Feb 12, 2007, at the historic College of William and Mary in Virginia, here’s what one sex worker “artist” presented to an audience of over 400:

…Jo Weldon shared her story of how a stripper job helped pay her way through college and graduate school.

Why would any institution of higher learning encourage students to imagine sex work — ie, prostitution — as a possibility for their lives?  This is not “controversial” — it’s corrupting.

TAKE ACTION — For a complete listing of other universities which have or plan to host this travesty, click HERE. If you are a current student or tuition-paying parent, an alumnus or a donor, please make your objections known to the university president.  Complain to your elected officials about the misuse of your hard-earned tax dollars to pay for this presentation at public universities.

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Excerpted from College of William and Mary Hosts Sex Worker Show on Campus, published Feb 23, 2007, by FOX News:

The same college that recently removed a traditional cross from the campus chapel allowed a controversial sex workers’ show to come give students an event complete with stripteases, feather boas and sex toys.

The College of William and Mary in Virginia last week hosted a Sex Workers’ Art Show for a crowd of more than 400 in an auditorium in the University Center, reported The Virginia Gazette. Another 300 people were turned away.

…Money to host the event came out of student activity fees…

“I think it’s a totally inappropriate use of student funds,” Ken Petzinger, a physics professor, told the Gazette. “It’s in conflict with other values the college has.”

President Gene Nichol issued a statement saying: “I don’t like this kind of show and I don’t like having it here … But it’s not the practice and province of universities to censor or cancel performances because they are controversial.”

Continue reading at FOX News…