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Heartland rallies against faux “gay marriage,” which is not inevitable, after all
No “Civil Unions” in Illinois: thanks to an energetic grassroots campaign, pro-homosexual “civil unions” legislation (H.B. 2234) — ridiculously titled the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act — was rejected decisively by the Illinois General Assembly. Homosexual activist Rick Garcia’s prediction that H.B. 2234 would “absolutely” pass did not come true. as Garcia’s allies fell well short of the backing needed to call for a floor vote — despite their huge, well-funded lobbying campaign. Americans For Truth made the case against “civil unions’ and “gay marriage” on WGN-TV (left), Moody Radio (WMBI), WIND (Geoff Pinkus Show) and in the Chicago Tribune. AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera’s argued in a Tribune religious reporter’s blog that “gay marriage” and “civil union” laws violate business owners’ freedom of conscience.
TAKE ACTION: Thank your state House legislator (call Springfield at 217-782-2000; go to http://ilga.gov/ or find your representative at www.congress.org) if he or she opposed the “civil unions” legislation. Express your gratitude to them for NOT BUCKLING to the enormous, well-funded pro-“gay” lobbying blitz in Springfield. Also call your state senator and ask for his or her stance on “civil unions” — since the main battle was in the House. Stay vigilant in this battle, as homosexual activists are already vowing to lobby key districts over the summer.
By Peter LaBarbera
Pro-family grassroots forces in Illinois have scored a stunning victory with the decisive defeat of “civil unions” legislation, (H.B. 2234/S.B. 1716) — despite the prediction of the state’s leading homosexual activist that “civil unions” would “absolutely” be voted on and passed (by last Wednesday), and overcoming a massive and well-funded lobbying campaign by pro-homosexual groups.
Despite some some very premature gloating by homosexual activists across the country who thought a victory was in the bag, and despite some dirty tactics and lies, time ran out in the Illinois General Assembly Sunday night with the bill not even being called due to lack of support in the House.
A longtime pundit and supporter of the homosexual lifestyle choice has admitted online that the so-called “hate crimes” bill now pending in the U.S. Senate is totally unnecessary, according to a report.
“The real reason for hate crime laws is not the defense of human beings from crime. There are already laws against that – and Matthew Shepard’s murderers were successfully prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in a state with no hate crimes law at the time,” wrote Andrew Sullivan in his “Daily Dish” column.
“The real reason for the invention of hate crimes was a hard-left critique of conventional liberal justice and the emergence of special interest groups which need boutique legislation to raise funds for their large staffs and luxurious buildings,” he continued.
“Just imagine how many direct mail pieces have gone out explaining that without more money for [Human Rights Campaign], more gay human beings will be crucified on fences. It’s very, very powerful as a money-making tool – which may explain why the largely symbolic federal bill still hasn’t passed.”
Fantastic “Findings”: Even as “queer” bloggers incongruously and hilariously accuse Matt Barber of being a latent, self-loathing closet-case (trapped in a former pro heavyweight boxer’s body no less), we don’t think Matt would be “pretty in pink.” But not to worry: something tells us that Matt is not going to lose this bet concerning the preposterous “findings” of Senate “hate crimes” bill, S. 909. Reminder: Matt, a Board Member of Americans For Truth, will be the keynote speaker at our banquet on Saturday, Oct. 10 outside Chicago. Save that date! — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com
TAKE ACTION: Call your U.S. Senators and urge them to oppose S. 909, the “Thought Crimes” (hate crimes) bill; call 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121 or go to www.congress.org.
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Hate crimes’ bill is full of swill
Matt Barber, 5/7/2009 10:15:00 AM
Senate sponsors and liberal activist proponents of the federal “hate crimes” bill, S. 909, have been caught in a series of bald-faced lies. So confident am I of this, that if they can prove me wrong (for real I mean – you know, with evidence and such) I’ll join their little soirée, don a very large pink evening gown and publicly voice support for the legislation.
To the express exclusion of other identifiable groups – including veterans, the elderly and the homeless – S. 909, in its current form, would grant special federal resources and preferred minority status to pedophiles, homosexuals, cross-dressers and – as Democratic sponsor Alcee Hastings recently admitted on the House floor – a host of other APA recognized “sexual orientations” (i.e., deviant sexual fetishes and perversions).
My good friend and Christian “culture war” hero Mike Heath (right) — AFTAH Board Chairman, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council, and long-suffering whipping boy of fundamentally intolerant social leftists throughout his state — is way too kind in writing the following entry on his blog today. … — Peter LaBarbera:
…In the early 1990s Bob Knight talked sense to me. His polite confrontation over the phone inspired me to sink my teeth into the culture war. He was working for the Family Research Council (FRC). Peter LaBarbera was his assistant. Bob had a small team of guys that were beginning to provide effective coordination and motivation to grassroots pro family activists.
After Gary Bauer left to run for President Bob’s department was disbanded. That was a very sad day for me. I still regret that decision by FRC. Bob and Pete have stayed in the fight. They are America’s two most valuable national pro-family assets. If the pro family movement brought those two guys together again and funded them things would change fairly rapidly in the good ole USA.
I’m going to bring my very good friend Peter LaBarbera to Maine later this month, on May 28 and 29. He now heads up the most effective online advocacy website for common sense in the “gay” fight, www.americansfortruth.com. Make sure you check it out, and tell all your friends.
The title of Pete’s talk is “The Zero-Sum Game: How Gay Rights and ‘Same-Sex Marriage’ Undermine Religious Freedom.” I’m hosting a working lunch in Portland, supper in Houlton on Thursday, May 27th and breakfast in Bangor on Friday, the 28th of May.
Sought to exempt pedophiles from inclusion under “Sexual Orientation”
What a travesty that House Democratic leaders did not even allow a full-fledged floor debate on H.R. 1913. the “Thought Crimes” bill, which could become the first law to federalize both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Below Congressman Steve King discusses the “Hate Crimes” legislation during the limited House floor debate on April 29, 2009:
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.
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.
The following is a legislative alert from my friend Kevin McCoy, presidet of West Virginia Family Foundation and state director of the American Family Association of West Virginia. Kevin is the leading activist in West Virginia fighting against the imposition of homosexual “superior rights” in that state. (We argue that so-called “gay rights” go beyond mere “special rights” because many homosexual activists now claim that such aberrant-sex-based “rights” supersede traditional citizens’ First Amendment liberties, including freedom of association based on faith/moral beliefs.)
I’ve worked with Kevin for more than a decade and he is one of the most effective and hardest working pro-family advocates I have ever met. Give me 100 Kevin McCoys and America is a far different nation (I’m not exaggerating)! You can read about some of Kevin’s and WVFF’s accomplishments HERE. If you are a West Virginia resident — or even if you aren’t — please consider sending WVFF a donation to continue their outstanding work defending life, marriage and the traditional family. Thank you. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com
No “Civil Unions” in Illinois: thanks to an energetic grassroots campaign, pro-homosexual “civil unions” legislation (H.B. 2234) — ridiculously titled the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act — was rejected decisively by the Illinois General Assembly. Homosexual activist Rick Garcia’s prediction that H.B. 2234 would “absolutely” pass did not come true. as Garcia’s allies fell well short of the backing needed to call for a floor vote — despite their huge, well-funded lobbying campaign. Americans For Truth made the case against “civil unions’ and “gay marriage” on WGN-TV (left), Moody Radio (WMBI), WIND (Geoff Pinkus Show) and in the Chicago Tribune. AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera’s argued in a Tribune religious reporter’s blog that “gay marriage” and “civil union” laws violate business owners’ freedom of conscience. 
