Excerpted from Foley’s Fall Spotlights Growing Velvet Mafia Influence in GOP, published Oct 9, 2006, by WDC Media:

Amid the fallout of the Mark Foley scandal, one consequence appears to be an increasing exposure of the influential role homosexuals have within the Republican party. As the New York Times reported Sunday, homosexuals in the Republican Party — sometimes known by insider slang terms including the “velvet mafia” or the “pink elephants” — are a well-established force in the GOP.

According to the Times, many of these homosexual Republicans “have held crucial staff positions for decades,” and this has been even more the case in recent years…

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth believes the media have taken great pains to avoid using the words “homosexual” or “gay” in coverage of the Foley scandal. “There’s clearly an effort here to make this somehow a pedophile issue or something that’s separate from the homosexual issue,” he asserts, “and, of course, this is right up the homosexual alley.”

There is a well-documented history of homosexual men pursuing underage boys, LaBarbera says; but homosexual activists are getting help in burying this fact. “What we’re seeing here,” he contends, “is another effort by the media, working with the gay lobby, to separate out Foley’s predations on a teenage boy from the homosexual issue.”

The media is not being intellectually honest about the Foley situation or the pattern that it illustrates, the pro-family activist insists. “There’s a long history of homosexuals being predators on teenage boys,” he says.

“The fact is, if you go all the way back to the days of ancient Greece, there were homosexual relationships between adult men and teenage boys; so it’s really ridiculous to say this has nothing to do with homosexuality,” LaBarbera notes. He says the media’s reporting of the Foley scandal has been marked by a great deal of political correctness, while the media have actually helped homosexual activists bury the truth.

Continue reading at WDC Media…

Excerpted from Congressional Page Scandal Takes on Anti-gay Bent as Details Emerge, published Oct 6, 2006, in the pro-GLBT Dallas Voice:

As the Republican Congressional leadership scrambled to determine the true scope of the sex scandal surrounding former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and at the same time distance themselves from the Florida Republican, GLBT and progressive activists condemned what they characterized as the anti-gay bent of the response from both office holders and right-wing leaders…

Many gay rights and progressive activists, while criticizing Republicans’ handling of the situation, are even more incensed at efforts by the GOP and right-wing leaders to deflect attention from Republican officials by linking pedophilia to homosexuality.

Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, said “right-wing leaders have wasted no time in turning the Foley-Hastert scandal into an attack on gay Americans and advocates for equality.”

He pointed as examples to comments such as those by Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, who said, “When you hold of tolerance and diversity, this is what you end up getting. … [neither Republicans nor Democrats] seem likely to address the real issue, which is the link between homosexuality and child abuse.”

Linda Harvey, writing in World Net Daily, described Foley’s behavior as “typical behavior for homosexuals,” and Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth, said the scandal “illustrates the dangers of the GOP’s growing flirtation with pro-homosexual policies,” according to a report on the Christian Newswire.

LaBarbera listed Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., former Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., and former Rep. Bob Baughman, R-Md., as “outed or openly homosexual male Congressmen” who have been caught in sex scandals in the past.

“Three homosexual Congressmen have been involved in sexual seductions of minor boys, yet ‘gay’ activists ridicule anyone who suggests there is a predatory component to male homosexuality,” he told the Christian Newswire.

Frank’s former boyfriend had used the congressman’s Washington, D.C.-apartment as headquarters for a male prostitution ring, without Frank’s knowledge. Studds was censured by the House for having consensual sex with a 17-year-old boy. Bauman was charged with soliciting a 16-year-old boy for sex in 1980.

Studds and Frank were both re-elected after the scandals broke.

Continue reading at Dallas Voice… 

Excerpted from Illinois Superintendent Pleads Gay, by Steve Jordahl, published Oct 5, 2006, by Family News in Focus:

Rich Mitchell’s job is on the line after he compiled a spoof video making his teachers look like killers and drug abusers. Now he’s crying victim…

“Groups like Lambda do use intimidation letters, ACLU uses intimidation letters and sometimes they work.”

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth has seen the ploy before.

“I think, by very publicly referring people to his lawyer who is with Lambda Legal, it’s an attempt at intimidation. It’s like saying you can’t discipline me because I’m gay. With the preponderance of sexual orientation laws – they’re growing all over the place – you will see very smart homosexual activists abuse these laws.”

Continue reading at Family News in Focus…

Excerpted from District Threatens Truancy Charges Against Parents Who Keep Kids Home, published Oct 5, 2006, by WorldNet Daily:

The Philadelphia School District has launched a new advance in the battle to indoctrinate school children into the “gay” agenda with its announcement that October is “Gay and Lesbian History Month.”

And a report on Family News in Focus said officials there will make sure parents relinquish their children for that “education.”

“If there is a parent who wants to remove their child from school,” district spokesman Fernando Gallard told the report, “they would have to deal with the truancy regulations.”

…And Peter LaBarbera, president of the conservative Americans for Truth, told Baptist Press in promoting homosexual rights “by definition you have to undermine people’s religious rights and religious beliefs.

“If you have a gay history month, you’re basically saying, ‘This is a wonderful part of American history – homosexual history – let’s celebrate it and let’s teach the kids that this is like civil rights.’ Are they going to teach the role that homosexual behavior had in the onset of HIV and AIDS?”

Continue reading at WorldNet Daily…

AFT’s Peter LaBarbera will be the guest on

WVCY’s Crosstalk America Radio Talk Show

with Vic Eliason on Friday (Oct 6, 2006) at 2 pm Central.

Find a station in your area or click HERE to listen online.

Click HERE to download a podcast.

AFT President Peter LaBarbera was Janet Folger‘s guest on

Faith 2 Action Radio Talk Show

on Thursday (Oct 5, 2006) at 2 pm Eastern.

Click HERE to listen online or to download a podcast.

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

– I Peter 2:11-12

Excerpted from Psychologist’s Association with Family Group Costs Job, published Oct 4, 2006, by WorldNet Daily:

…Technically, Michael Campion’s work for the department simply was ‘not renewed,’ but since even city officials confirm they have been unable to attract a single complaint about him, pro-family groups are citing liberal interests’ objections to his former association with their efforts as a reason.

“They want to demonize Christians, and they’re willing to play hardball,” Pete LaBarbera, spokesman for the Illinois Family Institute, told WND.

…LaBarbera said Campion’s difficulty was that he was run over by a strong homosexual lobby in the city. He said his own organization also took a hit from a Minneapolis news report that said the IFI opposes civil rights for gays.

“The position we take on a sexual orientation law is that by making a right based on sexual behavior it doesn’t fit the traditional civil rights model,” he said.

…”Obviously he’s being treated because of his Christian association in the past,” LaBarbera said. “People all over the nation have to be watching this case with a great amount of care. If you go to the Catholic church that believes homosexuality is a disorder, does that mean you can’t have a federal job?”

He said simple logic confirms that one cannot determine rights on “how people have sex.”

…”The liberal ‘diversity’ lobby is going after Mike because of his deeply-held religious and moral beliefs. In fact, no homosexual police officers have come forward with charges of bias,” LaBarbera said. “How ironic that the forces of ‘tolerance’ are now leading a new assault on civil rights, this time against people of faith.”

Continue reading at WorldNet Daily…

Excerpted from Speculation Flies on Fallout from Foley, by Douglas Turner, published Oct 4, 2006, by The Buffalo News:

… “This is a story that people can understand,” Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute told The Buffalo News. “Other issues, like the conviction of [lobbyist] Jack Abramoff and two congressmen, may have gone over people’s heads. This is about the welfare of young people. For that reason I think this will have a very, very significant effect on the election.”

…Peter LaBarbera, spokesman for Americans for Truth, an evangelical lay organization, denounced what he called “the GOP’s growing flirtation with pro-homosexual policies.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, “When a party holds itself out as the guardian of values, this is not helpful.”

Continue reading in The Buffalo News…