Press release from our friends at American Family Association of Pennsylvania, published Jan 4, 2007:

Ambridge Area School District Partnership With GLSEN Is a Mistake, Traditional Values Group Says

(Pittsburgh) – The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has invited Ambridge Area Senior High School principal Alan Fritz to attend diversity workshops they offer. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA) has expressed concern with this partnership in a letter to Mr. Fritz.

The AFA of PA, a statewide traditional values group, also provided Mr. Fritz with a copy of anti-bullying curriculum developed by Dr. Warren Throckmorton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Grove City College. GLSEN’s goal is to normalize the homosexual lifestyle and to demonize those who do not agree with that normalization.

In the letter sent to Mr. Fritz, the AFA of PA referred to a March 5, 1995 quote from Kevin Jennings, Executive Director of GLSEN, where he admits to using the ‘safety’ issue as a way of convincing the Massachusetts legislature to adopt a pro-homosexual agenda for their schools. Two years ago the father of a kindergarten student was arrested for objecting to homosexuality being discussed in his son’s class. Is Pennsylvania far behind?

“School boards and school administrators at Ambridge Area School District and beyond, need to be fully aware that it is in their best interest not to partner with homosexual organizations such as GLSEN. Pushing the acceptance of homosexuality ultimately will target the First Amendment rights of those with deeply held religious beliefs which believe that lifestyle is sinful,” Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA, noted.

Also mentioned in the letter were books that GLSEN encourages students to read:

• Two Teenagers in Twenty which is a compilation of true first-person ‘coming out’ stories of teens. In the book one boy relates that he has a 23-year-old lover, a homosexual man he met at a subway stop. The boy telling the story is 15 (p. 81).

• In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth has been available for purchase on the GLSEN web site. In this book, a boy named Todd recalled having a 25-year-old male sex partner when he was 16. They met when the boy went to the Sonoma County “gay” youth group (pp.58-59). He shortly began a different relationship with a 27-year-old male, a friend of the first partner (p.141).

• A novel called Rainbow Boys [by Alex Sanchez] is currently available for purchase on the GLSEN web site. In this book, three teen boys are featured as they explore homosexual relationships with each other and others. Besides numerous graphic scenes of masturbation, sex between homosexual teen boys, a 29-year-old “meets” a 17-year-old in an online chat room (p.112). They eventually go on a “date” and teen readers are treated to an explicit sex scene involving anal intercourse without a condom.

“Any school which partners with GLSEN is agreeing with their efforts to normalize homosexuality. A lifestyle which shortens the lives of the male participants by up to 20 years, sees increased substance abuse and psychological and eating disorders.

“GLSEN’s goal is to make Pennsylvania and all states similar to Massachusetts in pushing homosexuality in the classroom. Schools should provide a safe learning environment for all students, but teaching that ‘gay is okay’ is not being truthful about the dangers and could pose potential danger to students,” remarked Gramley.

Excerpted from Gay Admirer Thanks President Ford, by Deb Price, published Jan 2, 2006, by Detroit News:

…Pleasantly surprised by how comfortable Ford was talking about gay issues — not a trait I’ve found in many politicians — I asked whether the federal government ought to treat gay couples the same as married heterosexuals.

“I think they ought to be treated equally. Period,” Ford replied.

Trying to get a better sense of what he meant, I pressed on, asking whether he believed gay couples should receive the same Social Security, tax and other federal benefits?

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t. I think that’s a proper goal,” Ford replied.

He also told me that he supported a federal law to outlaw anti-gay job discrimination:

“That is a step in the right direction. I have a longstanding record in favor of legislation to do away with discrimination,” he said.

Amazed at finding myself chatting with the former president, I told him that my first vote ever was for him and he shared with me that he and his wife had gay friends.

Ford also said that he wanted gay Americans to be part of his party.

“I have always believed in an inclusive policy, in welcoming gays and others into the party. I think the party has to have an umbrella philosophy if it expects to win elections,” he said.

Not long after my column about our interview was published, the gay-friendly Republican Unity Coalition contacted Ford, and he agreed to join its advisory board, lending his name to its cause.

…Even in death, Ford, who was an Episcopalian, spread the message that gay people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

The Rev. Robert Certain, the priest at Ford’s Palm Desert, Calif., church, pointed out in his homily that when he and Ford had discussed plans for his funeral this past summer, the former president brought up his concern about the growing rift in the denomination over allowing gays and women to take leadership roles: “He said he did not think (such inclusive steps) should be divisive for anyone who lived by the Great Commandments and the Great Commission — to love God and to love neighbor.”

Continue reading on Detroit News…

Lexington, Massachusetts, School Superintendent Paul Ash tells taxpaying parents:

“When anybody’s been willing to listen to me I say, yes, you do have rights. You can choose not to send your child to a public school. But you don’t have the right to tell us what we can teach or not teach unless you want to run for school committee, find a majority of the members of the school committee and then hire a superintendent who’s consistent with that philosophy. But as an individual citizen you don’t have the right to tell a first grade teacher what to teach or not teach,” said Ash. “But I must tell you that the parents’ rights argument resonates with a lot of people in America.”

as quoted in Lexington School Superintendent Paul Ash, published Dec 27, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality Bay Windows

As the new Congress convenes in January, hate crimes legislation and ENDA (employment non-discrimination) are high on the priority list. Read on to see where similar legislation has taken our British friends…

Excerpted from Homophobia Spies in the Classroom, published Dec 28, 2006, by Evening Standard:

Schools that fail to show enthusiasm in rooting out prejudice against homosexuals should be reported to the police by pupils and parents, a Home Office report recommended yesterday.

It called for parents and children to identify schools that ignore “homophobic” language in the playground and teachers who produce “homophobic” lessons.

And it called for head teachers to bring lessons about “homophobia” on to school timetables and to involve their pupils in gay “awareness weeks”.

The advice from Home Secretary John Reid‘s officials comes at a time of deep concern among churches that new gay rights laws due next spring will bar traditional teaching on sexual morality in schools and force them instead to include gay rights dogma in lessons.

The paper on “homophobic hate crime” is aimed at guiding police forces, local authorities, social services and schools among other public bodies.

…Urging that school incidents be reported to a “hate crime co-ordinator”…It called for reporting systems to “allow pupils and parents to make referrals direct if they feel the school is not taking the issue seriously.”

The report added: “The seriousness of using homophobic language is not fully appreciated in schools…”

Home Office minister Tony McNulty [Minister for Police & Security, pictured right] said: “…People who commit homophobic crime need to know their prejudices and actions will be tackled…”

…Colin Hart (pictured left) of the Christian Institute think tank that backed the Roberts said yesterday: “There is an element of desperation about this advice. No-one wants to see any kind of bullying in schools. But this is not about bullying of pupils who others think are homosexual. It is about punishing schools unless they try to stop pupils using “gay” as a perjorative word.”

…The Home Office guidance also said that gay lobby groups could set up “third party reporting centres” to pass to police details of “homophobic” incidents which gay individuals themselves have been too scared to report to police.

Police should then record the names and details of individuals passed on by gay lobby groups, it said.

Continue reading in Evening Standard…

Note: Lambda Report, the precursor to and the now defunct publication of Americans For Truth, broke the original story revealing ILGA’s (the International Lesbian and Gay Association) connection to NAMBLA, the notorious North American Man/Boy Love Association. ILGA has long sought official United Nations-affiliated consultative status, to give itself a more influential platform to advance its distorted conception of “human rights” (one that is deeply offensive to majority Muslim countries, by the way). The Lambda Report story led to Congressional passage of a law banning any pedophile-inclusive group from receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars.

We are of course deeply troubled that the Bush Administration has voted to give ILGA and two other international homosexual groups the coveted U.N.-affiliated status. It seems that in recent months, through various pro-homosexual actions, the White House has lost touch with the conservative, pro-family values that helped put George Bush in the Oval Office. We hope this trend doesn’t continue as Mr. Bush could soon be presented with pro-homosexual legislation (ENDA, “Hate Crimes,” repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) coming out of the Democratic-controlled Congress. —Peter LaBarbera

———————————-

The following is from Radical Homosexual Groups Approved by UN with Bush Support, by Bradford Short, published Dec 28, 2006, by Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute:

The U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) recently granted official [consultative] status to three gay-rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs):

• the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians,

• the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) and

• the International Lesbian and Gay Federation (ILGA).

ECOSOC granted the consultative status to the gay-rights NGOs despite the fact that the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended against it, and the fact that one of the groups had clear links to pro-pedophilia organizations in the past.

ILGA is probably the most infamous of the groups granted ECOSOC consultative status last week. A “global federation of organizations and individuals seeking to” advance gay rights, ILGA, was repeatedly rejected for official UN status many times in the past several years for its connection to a child-sex group called the the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). NAMBLA is probably the leading pro-pedophilia group in the United States. ILGA is said to have expelled NAMBLA but, according to UN delegations, refused to condemn adult-child sex. ILGA said “these groups had joined ILGA at an earlier stage of ILGA’s development, at a time when ILGA did not have in place administrative procedures to scrutinize the constitutions and policies of groups seeking membership.” This claim, at least until last week, gave UN delegations pause since the name “North American Man Boy Love Association makes it fairly clear the group promotes homosexual sex between men and children.

Another approved group, the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians considers itself to be an organization that takes a “conservative” approach to gay-rights advocacy in Denmark. That is, its support for gay “marriage,” for gay adoption, and for laws that would force churches to bless gay unions, all are “conservative” endeavors because in doing these things Danish homosexuals do not “want to change the world,” they “just want to be in it on equal terms.” The Association does understand, however, the concerns of “subversive” Danish homosexuals, who want to prevent the “extensive heterofication of [Danish] society” that they say is happening because gays are pursuing “conservative” ends, such as marriage. In this way does the Association understand itself as a moderate gay-rights group.

LSVD includes member divisions such as “LSVD fresh,” which is supposed to be a support group “for youngsters” who are gay.

Twenty-three nations on the Council voted for the groups’ accreditation, while sixteen voted against it, and ten abstained. Among those voting in favor of the gay-rights groups was the United States, which has recently been voting in favor of groups that advance the homosexual agenda at the UN. One UN permanent representative told the Friday Fax that, “while the Bush Administration has been solid on life issues, it seems irrational to me that they insist on favoring gay groups that clearly seek to undermine marriage and the family.”

We trust that you have enjoyed a blessed Christmas this year. We know that your year-end giving opportunities are plentiful, but please consider a tax-deductible gift to Americans For Truth (AFTAH) to assist us in our mission of helping Americans confront the homosexual and transsexual lobbies — which are serious about converting the next generation to their harmful agenda.

Click HERE to give safely online or mail your check to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567. Or click HERE to become a regular monthly “Truth Team” giver.

To appreciate why AFTAH’s work is so important, consider how one radical gender activist responded to our heart-warming article last week about an EX-transgender young man.

Recall the wonderful story we shared about an Illinois high school student “John” who overcame adolescent “transgender” confusion after becoming a born-again Christian. In response, two websites – one “gay” and one “lesbian” — published a reply from a terribly confused man who goes by the name Autumn Sandeen (pictured below).

Transvestite Autumn Sandeen, as interviewed by the pro-homosexuality
newspaper, San Francisco Bay Times (July 6, 2006):

“My penis doesn’t bother me as a body part…[but] as a sexual organ I’m very uncomfortable with it.
I’m going to be an op, I’m a pre-op I guess, but at the same time
I’m not really sweating how long it takes me to get there.
But at the same time love is out of the question for me.
Well, not out of the question but I feel uncomfortable with relationship stuff.
I’ve literally only had one partner in my entire life and I’m just not interested in sex.
If I could have a relationship with someone that was just as intimate
as a sexual relationship—but without sex—I would love that.”

In his response to AFTAH, Mr. Sandeen rejects wrote of his own frequent “conversions”:

Yet he concludes by denying that change (overcoming homosexuality or gender confusion) is possible.

You don’t need an academic degree to see the irony of this man — and he is still a man — being troubled at our report of a young man overcoming the pull of “transgender” deviance in his life. We live in a world in which “the experts,” often with impressive sounding credentials, dismiss healthy change yet put their stamp of approval on homosexual and gender-confused identities like that above. Science has been politicized and is being used to guide young people into harmful and unnatural behaviors.

To most Americans, religious or not, leaving homosexuality or gender confusion behind is a good thing. To homosexual and gender-bending activists, any ex-“gay” testimony threatens their central propaganda myth that some people are intrinsically (born) “gay,” bisexual or “transgender.” Some homosexual activists like Wayne Besen and the fellows at “Ex-Gay Watch” have dedicated themselves to discrediting ex-“gay” change by hyping the cases of people who have returned back to homosexual behavior. (Yes, change is difficult, but why focus exclusively on failed attempts? Imagine if someone tried to “prove” that overcoming drug addiction was impossible by popularizing only those cases of addicts who tried to go clean but fell back into their drug-abusing lifestyle.)

As you read on, give thanks that high school student “John” was transformed by Jesus Christ (rather than by modern secular psychiatrists) and will not have to suffer the severe emotional confusion and deep loneliness inherent to “transgender” delusion. “John” is truly free now — to experience gratitude for his body, to fall in love with a woman, to enjoy sex in marriage, to accept the natural blessing of children and grandchildren, to worship and serve his God, to know joy.

Please support groups like Americans For Truth that cut through the fog of the homosexual lobby’s lies and tell young people, especially, that nobody has to be “gay.” Homosexuality and gender confusion are not permanent, predestined “identities” — as evinced by the thousands of men and women who have overcome homosexuality and related deviancies in their lives.

Also offer up a prayer for Mr. Sandeen’s genuine ‘trans’-formation as well, for, as the Christmas story teaches, nothing is impossible with God. (Click HERE for a great ex-“gay” resource.) It’s certainly not too late for Mr. Sandeen to experience the only “conversion” that counts. God bless. — Peter LaBarbera

———————————

The following commentary was carried on two homosexual activist blogs, Ex-Gay Watch and Pam’s House Blend, in response to our story on a high school student who overcame gender confusion through Jesus Christ:

Statements of Conversion: Student ‘Trans’-formed by Christ

By Autumn Sandeen
Posted Dec 22, 2006

Here on the Ex-Gay Watch I know I frequently point out logical fallacies in logical (or perhaps better said illogical) arguments, and my peers here do the same thing. My peers and I have noted ex-gay and ex-gay affirming organizations — such as NARTH and Exodus International — often use Statements Of Conversion to make their points, vice referencing statistically sound research or widely recognized subject matter experts.

Merry Christmas to all of our readers! Please consider making a year-end, tax-deductible gift to Americans For Truth. There’s a reason liberal-left groups like People for the American Way are monitoring AFTAH’s every move: they don’t want the radical “gay” agenda that endangers and corrupts children exposed. We need your help to keep standing for truth, as exemplified by the heartwarming story below…

The stakes of the cultural battle over homosexuality are never made clearer than when God reaches down from heaven to bring radical change in a person’s life — in the case below, a gender-confused suburban Chicago high school student who has recovered his masculine identity through Christian rebirth (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Only a sophomore in high school, “John” last year went by the name “Joanna” and was known in school for his feminine behaviors, like putting on women’s make-up. (We will not use his real name or identify his school to protect his identity as a minor.) He was headed towards living a life as a female-imitating, “transgendered” she — when God intervened and John was “born again” through faith in Jesus Christ, he told his student newspaper.

Now “transgender” Joanna is no more and John is reestablishing his true, God-given male nature at his high school. His newfound reality is precisely the sort of story that homosexual/transsexual activist groups like GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) do not want other teenagers to hear. Because GLSEN knows that such stories undermine the “gay” myth that people are born GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered), and that such aberrant identities are mere natural and innocuous “orientations.”

In GLSEN’s “gay” activist world, “Joanna” deserved to be recognized and celebrated based on his/her “transgendered” lifestyle. GLSEN encourages teachers and school counselors to confirm highly impressionable youth in gender-confused identities: in fact, it’s quite common now to hear teachers of young students identify gender non-conforming children as future “transgendered” adults.

GLSEN’s warped ideology has become official policy at many schools across the country.

But, of course, change is possible, because God is in the business of changing repentant sinners. If the Christ of Christmas can turn around the lives of drug addicts, murderers, and drunks, He certainly can save men and women — and adolescent children — trapped in gender confusion and homosexuality.

As you read this story, say a prayer of praise and thanks to God for working in the life of this young man. Merry CHRIST-mas, John! — Peter LaBarbera

——————————

The following is excerpted from an article that appeared in “John’s” high school newspaper in the fall of 2006; we have changed his name and omitted source identification to protect his identity as a minor for now:

Comments left on the Myspace website of [John] displayed messages such as “Why are you moving?” and “Please don’t move away!”

Despite concerns that [John] might not begin his sophomore year at [unnamed Illinois high school], he is back, armed with a new wardrobe.

“All my friends were afraid that I was moving away. I’m not moving. Joanna [his female persona’s name] is moving,” said [John].

At the end of last year, [John] was concerned with properly applying eyeliner and picking a lip gloss that matched his belt.

[John] sold his old clothes and is now clad in [male] outfits from his new favorite stores…

The decision to change his appearance wasn’t a quick transition. Losing his feminine appearance took [John] the entire summer.

He became inspired after becoming more involved with religion and his church. [John] calls himself a “born-again Christian.”

“I started reading passages from the Bible this summer and I finally understood messages that didn’t make sense to me when I was younger,” [John] said. “Now I realize I can be who I want to be. Everybody can be who they want to be.”

…He also will remain active in his church because he feels that religion helped him decide what kind of changes to make in his life.

According to [John], although the start of the school year was “exciting” for him, he is disappointed that he received negative feedback about his changes from some of his friends.

“Mostly they say things like ‘Whoa, what happened?’ I understand that they might be shocked by my new look or that they don’t necessarily like it, but it doesn’t matter what they think,” [John] said.

According to [John], he spent “too much time” allowing his [Joanna — female] persona to be teased and mistreated last year.

“People couldn’t decide if they were going to accept me then, so I’m cautious of people who are eager to meet the new me,” [John] said.

Despite mixed reactions during the first days of school, [John] feels that his family and “true friends” have been accepting and encouraging of the changes he decided to make.

“I feel that the blessings have been pouring down on me recently,” [John] said. “Now I can finally be who I’m meant to be.”

And to that we at Americans for Truth say, Amen!

Excerpted from Democrats Shopped Foley Story to Newspapers, by Christina Bellantoni, published Dec 12, 2006, by The Washington Times:

Democratic campaign operatives pushed newspapers to write about then-Rep. Mark Foley’s e-mails to teenage pages in the hope that a scandal would emerge before the midterm elections, according to a House ethics report.

The findings were bolstered when an aide to Rep. Rahm Emanuel (pictured right), Illinois Democrat, said the congressman also knew about the e-mails, which were dubbed “inappropriate” by the ethics panel. Mr. Emanuel, who was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) when Mr. Foley’s sex scandal broke in late September, had denied knowledge of the Florida Republican’s e-mails.

…CNN first reported Saturday that Mr. Emanuel, the incoming chairman of the Democratic caucus, was “informed” but never saw the e-mails that Mr. Foley sent to a former page in the summer of 2005.

An Emanuel aide yesterday confirmed to The Washington Times that DCCC staffer Bill Burton told the congressman about the Foley e-mails in fall 2005. The aide said Mr. Emanuel took no action because the e-mails were mentioned in passing as a “rumor” about Mr. Foley.

On Oct. 8, Mr. Emanuel was put on the spot during his appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Did you or your staff know anything about these e-mails or instant messages before they came out?” host George Stephanopoulos asked. Mr. Emanuel interrupted with “No.”

“George — Never saw ’em,” he said twice.

When Rep. Adam H. Putnam, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and a guest on the show, started questioning Mr. Emanuel, the DCCC chairman blanched.

“What you guys want to do is take your dirty laundry and throw it over the fence and try to blame other people for the problems,” Mr. Emanuel told the Florida Republican.

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, called the news “stunning,” and accused Mr. Emanuel of letting a “predator roam free” for “cold, calculated political advantage.”

…The panel found “political considerations played a role in decisions that were made,” and theorized Republicans didn’t act for fear of exposing Mr. Foley’s homosexuality.

Continue reading in The Washington Times…