Excerpted from Lesbian Couple Married in Massachusetts Seeks Divorce in Rhode Island, by Josh Montez, published Dec 11, 2006, by Family News in Focus:

Since RI doesn’t recognize gay marriages, gay divorce seems pointless. Could it be the couple wants another way to legitimize same-sex unions?

The divorce-seeking lesbian couple is working their way through the Rhode Island court system. A family court refused the case, referring it on to the State Supreme Court. Kris Mineau with the Massachusetts Family Institute believes this is a ploy to get the legal system to recognize gay marriage, through divorce.

“Isn’t that bizarre? They’ll seize at any opportunity, whereas in New Jersey and Maryland, they are seeking to marry, and suing through the courts. Here they’re seeking to divorce and suing through the courts.”

Attorneys for the gay couple say they aren’t asking Rhode Island to recognize same-sex marriage, just same-sex divorce. But Peter LaBarbera with Americans for Truth doesn’t buy that argument.

“I think if you recognize same-sex divorce, you’re recognizing same-sex marriage. It’s amazing how political the activists are. The problem here is we’re dealing with a very political movement and Americans on the side of decency and truth just aren’t as political as the gay activists.”

LaBarbera says this is more than a gay couple trying to make headlines; it’s an attempt to change the law.

“The modus operandi of the homosexual activists is to use anything possible, even divorce, to win approval of their lifestyle. That’s what the main agenda is. They are desperate for approval of their lifestyle and even if it means recognizing gay divorce as opposed to gay marriage, they’ll do that.”

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has yet to decide if it will take the case.

Excerpted from Pastor at Senate Invocation curses ‘Spirit’ of Gay Marriage, published Dec 12, 2006, by Star-Ledger (New Jersey):

A pastor delivering the invocation at the opening of yesterday’s Senate session included in his prayer a condemnation of gay marriage.

“We curse the spirit that would come to bring about same-sex marriage,” the Rev. Vincent Fields, pastor of Greater Works Ministries in Absecon, prayed as lawmakers listened, heads bowed. “We ask you to just look over this place today, cause them to be shaken in their very heart in uprightness, Lord, to do that is right before you.”

Earlier yesterday the [NJ state] Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation to allow gay couples to form civil unions with the same rights as married couples.

Continue reading in Star-Ledger…

From the Dec 8, 2006, issue of “Washington Update by Tony Perkins, Family Research Council:

For the last three days, media outlets from across the country have flooded FRC with calls on our reaction to the news that Vice President Cheney’s daughter, who has a lesbian partner, is expecting a child. We have purposefully declined to comment on the story, in order to maintain FRC’s focus on policy discussions. However, when an event such as this is used by some as a catalyst for advancing a political agenda or promoting public policy that attacks traditional marriage or parenting, I have no reservations about stepping forward and defending morality and the family — regardless of who is involved. Today’s Washington Post features such an attempt by editorial columnist Ruth Marcus. With an air of noble tutelage, Marcus writes, “Whether she intends it or not, [Mary Cheney’s] pregnancy will, I think, turn out to be a watershed in public understanding and acceptance of this phenomenon.”

Unlike Marcus, authorities on child and family health do not use anecdotes as the basis for public policy. Their analysis is fact-driven, not emotion-driven. And those facts have seldom changed. Marcus writes that “To be a badly wanted child… in a home with two loving parents is no tragedy. If they’re worried about ’emotional devastation,’ they would do better to reserve their lamentations for children in poverty, those who are abused or neglected, or for children in families splintered by divorce.” Children’s needs, however, are more than the sum of the wants in the lives of the adults who reside with them. Study after study demonstrates that no amount of care or financial privilege can compensate for the missing physical and emotional benefits experienced by children who enjoy the lifelong love and presence of a married mother and father.

Comprehensive studies published in the peer-reviewed journals Archives of General Psychiatry, Interpersonal Violence, Social Service Research, Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Nursing Research, Developmental Psychology, Adolescence, and others too numerous to list here, all cite the devastating effects of domestic violence, increased substance abuse, mental health problems, sexual identity confusion, depression, and suicide associated with the homosexual lifestyle. A child fortunate enough to escape those realities still faces a distinct disadvantage throughout childhood — the irreplaceable influence of the missing biological parent. In rearing children, the complementary contributions of a mother and father are rooted in the innate differences of the two sexes, and can no more be arbitrarily replaced than can the very nature of male and female.

But besides dismissing science, Marcus misrepresents the reality of Virginia law. In her eagerness to exploit the circumstances, she asserts that the state’s new marriage protection amendment “casts doubt on the ability of Cheney and Poe to write binding medical directives and wills.” The law casts no doubt on the matter. It implicitly allows individuals to engage in private contracts. Here Marcus succeeds in personalizing her argument but not substantiating it. She concludes, “[This] high-profile pregnancy will help the Republican party come to grips with [the] facts of life. If not, [Mary Cheney] will have to explain to her child what mommy was doing trying to help a party that doesn’t believe in fairness for families like theirs.” What is at stake in these debates, however, is ultimately not the fate of political parties or the lateral “fairness” adults seek, but what is fair and favorable for children, all of whom have a stake in whether our nation stands by the ideal of homes embraced by, and embracing, a mother and father, a husband and a wife.

If the homosexual activist group GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is recommending a new show, it must be pretty bad for traditional values. So watch out for “Wedding Wars,” a new movie produced by A&E debuting tonight (Monday, Dec. 11, 9:00 PM EST, 8:00 Central) and which is the subject of the giddy online post, below, by GLAAD.

Just what America needs: more homosexual propaganda on TV. Yep, every day I’m reminded just how disenfranchised this poor, beleaguered “gay minority” is. Who are they kidding? The homosexual activist lobby has elite power — far disproportionate to their tiny numbers — and they aren’t afraid to use it.

If you have any doubts about how ludicrous it is to say that the “gay marriage” movement has ANYTHING in common with the noble civil rights struggle that ended state-sponsored segregation in this country, check out this link for the annual “Aspen Gay and Lesbian Ski Week” (note the appropriate theme of the Seven Deadly Sins). Talk about wealth, power, and privilege.

We can chuckle at the symbolism of actor John Stamos’ career path, from playing a caring father of twins in “Full House” to playing a homosexual party planner in “Wedding Wars.” But the downward evolution of the fight for “equality” in America — from Selma to Aspen, from ending horrible Jim Crow laws to shilling for counterfeit “marriage,” from stigmatizing racist bigotry to scoffing at Christian morality — is a sober reminder of the corruption of civil rights in this nation.

A&E need not have bothered with its condescending GLAAD “public service” announcement (actress Julianne Moore lecturing us about “freedom and equality”) running alongside the show. Looks like the whole “Wedding Wars” movie is designed to promote GLAAD’s perspective. Memo to GLAAD and A&E: homosexual practice will always be wrong, no matter how many millions of dollars worth of PC programming you throw at the public. “Gay marriage” is the ultimate rebellion against a God who lovingly created men and women for each other, united in marriage to raise children.

Which takes us to an aspect of the ongoing “gay” crusade that many Americans are only now beginning to understand. So often pro-family advocates are asked why we care so much about “what two people do in their bedroom,” “why can’t we just leave them alone?” etc., as if homosexuality is a private matter that just sort of exists without demanding attention. For some, of course, it is. But “Wedding Wars” shows us the flip side of the “gay” movement, which proudly DEMANDS approval at every opportunity, and feels the need to ridicule Judeo-Christian values in order to score points for the “gay” cause.

Makes sense: sinful lifestyles cannot be elevated to normal and even “Christian” status unless sin itself is redefined, and normalcy and Christianity are brought lower.

This seeming pathological drive for approval (tolerance is passe) is why proud homosexuality will remain the most divisive social issue this country has faced in a long time. The “gay” activists won’t leave us alone. They can’t. To achieve their revolutionary, egalitarian goal of treating homosexuality the same as heterosexuality in our culture, they and their increasingly radical straight allies are forced to discredit and destroy a lot of good, Bible-based tradition — and turn the hearts of America’s children against God’s created purpose for sexuality.

There are other sins like pornography, pre-marital sex and abortion that war against tradition, but none has the organizational, insider power that homosexuality now has, nor the massive chip on their shoulder that drives self-styled “queer” activists, compulsively, to sneer at normalcy and true religion.

Yes, “gay”-friendly Hollywood is laughing at us and our supposedly antiquated beliefs. But I have to believe that although confirmed liberals might watch and enjoy shows like “Wedding Wars,” the average American is put off by the overkill of “gay, gay, gay” in the popular culture. Please take a minute to remind yourself that God is right and GLAAD is wrong, then tell A&E what you think about their latest sellout to the homosexual lobby. — Peter LaBarbera

TAKE ACTION – Tell A&E that you do not appreciate
programming that promotes homosexuality.

GLAAD writes:

The A&E Network will premiere Wedding Wars on Monday, Dec. 11 at 9pm ET, a comedic take on the battle for marriage equality starring John Stamos (ER), Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy) and James Brolin (The Reagans).

Stamos plays Shel, a gay party planner, who agrees to organize the nuptials for straight brother Ben (Dane) and Maggie (Bonnie Somerville), the governor of Maine’s (Brolin) daughter. After Shel finds out that Ben, a campaign manager for his future father-in-law, is behind the governor’s speech against marriage equality, he decides to go on strike for equal rights. Shel’s strike picks up steam and eventually spreads nationwide, showing the extent that gay and lesbian people make up the workforce of this country.

“A&E’s original movie Wedding Wars offers a fresh, entertaining take on marriage equality — and how people are growing to realize that banning their gay family members, friends and acquaintances from marrying is both unfair and hurtful to everyone,” says GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. “This is the kind of storytelling that can invest more and more people in our lives and our families, and we’re thrilled that millions of A&E viewers will soon be able to see this movie and share it with their loved ones and friends.”

During the world premiere broadcast of Wedding Wars, A&E will air an award-winning GLAAD public service announcement starring Julianne Moore.

Produced by Storyline Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television,Wedding Wars is directed by Jim Fall (Trick, The Lizzie McGuire Movie) from a script by Stephen Mazur (Liar, Liar). Storyline Entertainment’s Craig Zadan and Neil Meron serve as executive producers.

by Sonja Dalton

Julianne Moore is the spokesperson for GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) in what they call “an award-winning GLAAD public service announcement.”

To view the Julianne Moore PDF,
please click HERE.

In the continuing quest to conflate special status for sexual perversion with civil rights for black Americans, the piece begins with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

Then the actress says: “I love this country. I love it for the principles it was founded upon, where every American is created equal, regardless of skin color or sexual orientation…”

It would come as quite a surprise to George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the other God-fearing leaders of the American Revolution to learn that they had “sexual orientation” (homosexuality) in mind while drafting the Declaration of Independence, framing the Constitution and drafting the Federalist Papers.

General Washington approved the court martial of Lt. Gotthold Frederick Enslin from the Continental Army for attempted sodomy on another soldier, so we don’t think he would have agreed with Moore’s and GLAAD’s revisionist history.

Moore goes on to say: “People who love those of the same gender were created as every other American — equal…”

People who have sex with people of the same sex were indeed created equal; however, they choose a lifestyle which is not morally equal nor equally valuable to society. In this country, now that the Supreme Court has declared sodomy a de facto constitutional right, they are at liberty to have deviant sex anywhere in the USA with any consenting adult — but they cannot reasonably expect to enjoy universal approval and respect any more than an adulterer can.

Julianne Moore says: “Promote freedom — Embrace equality.”

GLAAD is an odd group to speak out for “freedom.” They haven’t exactly stood up for the rights of former homosexuals to tell their stories, but instead have worked to keep those stories from reaching the public. (GLAAD justifies its censorious impluse against ex-gays and others in the pro-family movement by saying it is protecting the airwaves from “hate.”)

So now GLAAD is again exploit America’s noble civil rights movement for its own ends, which will include curtailing the “freedom” of those who object publicly to homosexual behavior.

Let’s examine what the Scriptures say about true freedom.

The Bible teaches: “Promote freedom — Embrace Jesus Christ” – the Son of God, who affirmed His Father’s design for marriage and sexuality, and who said…

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free…
If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

–John 8:31-41

When the Bible speaks of freedom, its inspired authors are referring to freedom from the ceremonial Law of Moses and the requirement for constant blood sacrifice, which was necessitated by their sins. Through baptism into the death of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3-4), we can be fully released from the spiritual consequence of sin, which is eternal death (Romans 8:23), a permanent separation from God’s glory, His provision and His mercy.

The disciples of Jesus do not use their freedom as an occasion to indulge the sinful nature (Galatians 5:13-14) and they do not allow sin to reign in their bodies (Romans 8:11-14); instead they become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18).

Ironic, is it not, that those who promote a lifestyle which is physically, emotionally, and spiritually harmful, would call it “freedom”? Do not be deceived.

Parents, please take the time to read this article in its entirety on the New York Daily News website. Of particular note:

• Be wary of the books on your child’s required or recommended reading lists, especially if a book carries the label “Young Adult.” Your elementary, middle school, junior high school age child is not a “young adult” – nor is your high school adolescent a “young adult” until they’re 18.
  
• You cannot trust the judgment of the library or the recommendations of teachers’ groups. You must evaluate your child’s reading materials for yourself.
• If you find such materials at your local school, there is something you can do. Follow the example of the parents in this story and get personally involved in opposing inappropriate materials.
  

——————————

Excerpted from P. S., These Books Are Sick!, by Rachel Scheier and Carrie Melago, published Dec 7, 2006, by New York Daily News:

Sixth-graders at a Queens school were getting quite an education – in homosexuality, French kissing and cursing – thanks to three books widely available in classroom libraries.

But after numerous complaints from parents at Public School 150 in Sunnyside, the books – a profanity-laced poetry book, short stories about homosexuality and a novel called “First French Kiss” – were pulled from the shelves last week.

…The poem “I Hate School” in a book called “You Hear Me?“ includes the rhyme, “F— this s—, up the a–. I don’t think I’ll ever pass.”Another poem compares eating an orange to having sex, while several passages repeatedly use vulgar slang for genitalia. And the book “Am I Blue?“ is an anthology of stories about gay teenagers that parents found too adult-themed for 11- and 12-year-olds.

…Parent and leadership team member Michael Novak said the books, which are labeled “young adult” by the New York Public Library, are “material that is totally inappropriate for sixth-graders.”

Principal Carmen Parache said she had not reviewed the books until she received complaints but said they were “definitely inappropriate.” She said classroom materials would be more carefully screened in the future.

“As soon as I saw them, I pulled them and they are no longer in the school,” she said. “This is something that shouldn’t have happened and it will not happen again.”

“You Hear Me?” was suggested for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders by the Columbia University Teachers College’s Reading and Writing Project because it is the only anthology with poems written by minority teenagers, said Lucy Calkins, its founding director.

Continue reading in New York Daily News…

A Plea to Pastors and Christian Leaders

By Linda Harvey of Mission America

The conflict in our culture over homosexuality is heating up at an astonishing pace. The battle now needs to be waged on many fronts simultaneously: in the media, in our schools, in the courts, on campus, and within the medical profession. Most tragically of all, the battle over sexuality threatens to divide Christianity as nothing has since the Reformation.

It is in this last arena where I entered the fight to begin with, and where I believe our central focus should be. We are in a fight to determine who we are created to be. God is our Creator, so the battlefield always ends up at the foot of the cross.

So why isn’t this issue of immediate concern to more confessing Christians? Homosexual activists and their allies are, in case one hasn’t noticed, the torch-carriers for a movement to destroy biblically-oriented Christianity and its positive influence on our culture. They won’t be able to reinvent Christianity, of course. Christ’s authentic Church of true believers will remain steadfast even if we’re stripped of all we have in this world. But they could destroy our culture.

The bigger point is, how will Christians account to God for how we responded to this challenge, and the people whose souls, health and lives could have been salvaged?

I am increasingly convinced that much of the Church will have a lot of explaining to do. Why did most pastors allow evil to be “sold” to our young people with barely a whimper of protest? Why did you allow this tragic behavior to become a chic cause celebre in the media without trying to take a stand against it? Why did you let seminaries teach this blasphemy? Why did you spend little or no time in the pulpit dealing with this and all the related sexuality issues – promiscuity, pornography, adultery, fornication – sins that are tearing apart the families and personal lives of even Bible-confessing Christians? Why did you constantly decry “political involvement” when this is a deeply moral issue, one for which there are ready arguments to be made in the public square had more Christian leaders been willing to make them?

And the big question is: why do you let the world define what’s right to do? What will be “accepted” or not? What is “hate” or not? This defense of inaction completely undermines who Christ is and what God is able to do. Such cowardice should make us tremble. For God would not only be with us if we tried to talk some sense into the world, He is just as able to judge each Christian and the society we live in for our disloyalty and cold-heartedness. I believe right now, He is doing just exactly that.

The moral decline in our world — the violent images that are the daily bread of our children, the school shootings, the acceptable treason of our elected leaders — will not stop until the Church is willing to be politically incorrect and cry out loudly in protest to proclaim what is good, instead of meekly retreating in the face of evil. With all the hope that is in the Gospel, why do so many remain silent?

We win the argument in the end, of course. Homosexuality will eventually be seen for the lie it is, a lie against all that God created a person to be; a lie about how people are best to love and relate to one another; a lie of omission about the health hazards involved, the sinful origins of homosexual desire and the real possibility of change. It will be seen for a lie that invalidated the authenticity of Scripture for many, leading them to believe in false gods and goddesses, creating worship of a “Jesus” that does not exist. They will realize that the defenders of homosexuality were wolves masked by this false worship, leading many of Christ’s sheep to be fed in fields fertile with enticing poison.

But it will be too late for America as we know it when “experts” and “authorities” — and even the Church’s leaders — finally realize their error. My fear is that we’ve already crossed a line where Pandora’s box cannot be closed. These practices are well-established already in the lives of many teens and young adults, and we are soon to live in a society of sexual barbarians where all types of unspeakable practices are accepted.

Violence, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, accompanies widespread sexual license, already evident in the millions of abortions performed each year. Why are we surprised when violence emerges from behind the closed doors of clinics, and into our schools and eventually, our streets and homes? Decline will be swift and painful and Christians will not escape the trauma in this world. We can look forward to eternity, which in all its glory will be a blessed aftermath. But tribulation here and now is coming unless we turn our society around. Only Christians can do this, for we are the only ones willing to stick it out.

Or so one would think.

There aren’t many folks in this fight, but this is why we are. It simply represents the essence of who people are, and who Christ is. We don’t know how much impact we can have, but we know we are called to try. It would be encouraging to have more Christians join us.

Preach the word!
Be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.”

–2 Timothy 4:2-4 NKJV

AN Americans For Truth SPECIAL REPORT

How Does a Teenager Get Started in Homosexual “Sex Work”? Just ask the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force…

It’s about time that Christian Americans learn to distinguish between the man or woman struggling with homosexual temptations–to whom we should extend a loving hand and God’s grace to help them overcome–and a “gay” activist movement bent on destroying all sexual and gender norms in the culture.

Last month, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force held its 2006 Creating Change conference at the Westin Crown Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. Americans For Truth sent reporters to the Nov. 10-12 event–and they witnessed the farthest thing from heartland values that you can imagine. Our representatives were forced to go undercover because the Task Force bans conservative critics from its conferences. (Years ago, I was kicked out of a Task Force conference while attending a workshop on “public sex,” led by a panelist who runs a pornographic “cruising” site for men looking for anonymous sex with other men. No joke.)

Is it any wonder that Task Force leaders are not “proud” of their radical agenda but seek instead to hide it from the public? And yet they have the audacity to compare their movement to Martin Luther King’s.

As the leftist arm of the homosexual movement, the Task Force’s annual “Creating Change” conference — now in its 19th year — tells us where they want to take America. “Sex work” for teenagers? Don’t judge it as wrong. Prostitution? Legalize it but don’t tax it. Partnering with sexual sadists, pornographers and “fetishists”? Hey, they have their “rights,” too.

The new rallying cry for the “gay” Left is “Sexual Freedom.” This is to the sloganeering homosexual militant what “people’s democracy” was (is) to the Communist cadre: Orwellian Newspeak for an extreme agenda that threatens children, undermines natural families, and ultimately helps destroy societies.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s crusade for sexual anarchy — which we will lay out in future articles — is the logical result of a movement that is constantly discovering new rights based on sexual and gender aberrations. Of course, the Task Force cannot say “No” to the sadomasochists and the prostitution advocates, etc.: if rights can be based on homosexual behavior — a sin so grievous that it was an unspoken taboo not too long ago — why stop at these other sex/gender “orientations”?

Meanwhile, the Task Force’s director, Matt Foreman, regularly blasts pro-family Christians and groups like American For Truth as “extremists” and “homophobes.” Reality check: there is nothing more extreme than the Gay Task Force’s agenda of casting aside all laws proscribing immoral and unhealthy sexual conduct.

While many homosexuals take issue with this or that aspect of the Task Force’s “loony left” agenda, Americans need to recognize that, collectively, the organized homosexual activist movement — those pushing to change our laws and make homosexuality and transsexuality easy for youth to embrace — constitutes one of the greatest evils facing our culture today.

Now, I hear some of you objecting that the Task Force conference does not represent the “gay mainstream.” True, but the NGLTF’s other agenda of domesticated, “monogamous” homosexuality is nearly as extreme as what’s described below because it presents a “good” side to perversion — that is, sin — for young people to emulate.

Regularizing sin (deviance) or repackaging it to appear more like normal heterosexual relationships does not make it right.

For those tempted to embrace homosexual monogamy as an acceptable compromise, ask yourself: how do two men consummate their “gay marriage”?

The likelihood that you don’t even want to think about answering that question bespeaks the evilness of organized homosexuality and the illicit nature of all “gay” sex. Supporting “civil unions” as a compromise is merely a capitulation to an agenda that seeks to enshrine wrong and sometimes deadly behavior as a “good” for society.

Tear off the veneer of “gay” propaganda and underneath you will see that this issue has little to do with “equality” or “civil rights” and everything to do with a revolutionary assault on nature and a time-tested Judeo-Christian morality that has served Western civilization well.

So why are we losing to this extreme movement? One reason is that the Task Force’s agenda is so perverse that most Americans cannot fathom it, while others simply don’t want to face the truth that committed activists are actually mobilizing around such deviance. Still others, their minds softened by the outreach of “gay” friends and family, have taken a “live and let live” approach even though in their gut they recognize the danger of normalizing things like “gay adoption,” “gay marriage” and “GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered] youth.”

So the “gays” — organized, wealthy and single-minded — win incrementally because “good people do nothing.”

So what should we do? In my view there are three options:

1) LIBERAL OPTION: embrace the lie, throw away common sense and centuries of Judeo-Christian tradition, and support homosexuality and gender confusion as civil rights. Watch and cheer as Americans’ First Amendment rights to live out their faith and disagree with homosexuality get superseded by “gays” demanding “sexual freedom” in its various manifestations;

2) “FEEL GOOD” COMPROMISE: support the “middle ground” of civil unions/domestic partnership. (We won’t call it “marriage,” but the media will.) This actually rewards homosexual activism by legitimizing “gay” relationships — thus creating a faulty paradigm of “acceptable, responsible” homosexuality. This option will confuse youth and help all homosexuals rationalize their immoral relationships. It also will embolden “gay” advocates in their struggle to legalize “same-sex marriage”;

3) STAND ON PRINICIPLE: recognize that homosexual behavior and homosexual relationships are always wrong and must not be rewarded by our government or by our laws. Resist all attempts to confirm youth in counterfeit homosexual, bisexual or “transgender” identities. Extend the hope of the life-changing Gospel to homosexual strugglers while fighting the “gay” political/cultural agenda with everything you’ve got.

We at Americans For Truth hope that you will join us in pursuing Option Three. God bless. — Peter LaBarbera

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Creating Change, Corrupting Children: The ‘Gay’ Task Force’s Evil Agenda

By Americans For Truth staffers

At the Creating Change conference (Nov 8-12, 2006), organized by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, at least three teenagers (some still in high school) listened from the front row while a panel discussed “sex work” — prostitution, stripping, and pornography films — and sex worker “rights.”

According the NLGTF’s website, Creating Change is the largest GLBT organizing conference. Over 2,000 homosexual activists were reportedly in attendance in Kansas City.

The Task Force scheduled a panel discussion for Saturday (Nov 11) entitled “What’s $ Got to Do With It?: Sex Work, Economics, and Class.” The description of this session in the conference program states:

“We all know that transgender, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals (as well as those in our communities who don’t identify with those terms) are involved in exchanging sexual services for money, or other necessities, also known as sex work.

“Whether as street-based workers, exotic dancers, pro-dommes, pornography actresses and actors, or in any other aspect, you’ll find gender and sexual minorities.”

To be clear, the primary topic under consideration was prostitution. The program continues:

“…The stigma connected to sex outside of heterosexual, monogamous, inside-marriage-only norms affects the lives of both queers and sex workers. …And sex workers across the US, often time with LGBT sex worker activists at the forefront, are demanding respect for their rights.

“This workshop will explore the diversity and contradictions of the sex industry involving issues of sexuality, gender, race, class and more, with an emphasis on encouraging participants to support sex workers’ fight for their rights. Panelists will discuss alternatives to criminalization, the maximization of health and safety for sex workers, and how feminist, queer theory, and sexuality discussions engage the issue of sex work.”

There were 77 seats available in the meeting room, very few empty, with an additional 8 or 10 people standing. In the front row, directly in front of the panel, sat teenage students from Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (“BAGLY” — “a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization”).

Four adults formed the panel: Darby Hickey, Carol Queen, Gennifer Hirano, and Tyrone Hanley.

Darby Hickey is a male-to-female transvestite (pictured left), with red hair, and was wearing sunglasses, a tight t-shirt and a short plaid pleated skirt. He (God made him male) serves as program coordinator for Different Avenues, a non-profit that offers classes on “communication and negotiating” and counseling on “safer” sex and HIV. In his “Friendster” profile, Darby describes himself as “Christian” and “just a poor girl caught up in the life of glamour and luxury due to my moral corruption and participation in illegal and fraudulent activities.”

Carol Queen is a world-renowned pervert (and proud of it), board member of Woodhull Foundation and creator of “Masturbate-a-thon.” You can read her review of Creating Change on her blog, “Chronicles of Sex Positive Culture” — including her summary of Thursday’s all day “Sexual Freedom Institute.”

Gennifer Hirano is also known as “AsianPrincess” — “an Asian cowgirl in pink braids, bikini top, and thong who often sings ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ while giving an Asian man a lap dance” according to an article by Karen Eng. She is affiliated with SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project), and describes herself as a “Queer Bitch Whore Revolutionary.” An interview published in Asian Week reveals that Ms. Hirano performed at Crazy Horse, a full nude club in San Francisco’s SOMA district — while she was a grade school teacher in San Mateo (she resigned June 30, 2006).

Tyrone Hanley of HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) also serves as president of Youth Alliance DC.

So what did these four GLBT role models have to say to the audience — and more importantly, to teenagers — about “sex work”?

NGLTF’s emerging policy position on prostitution
The Task Force panel advocates “decriminalization” of all sex work — as opposed to “legalization” which would subject prostitution income to taxation and allow for “government control of women’s bodies.”

Gennifer Hirano (pictured right) expressed frustration that she was constrained as a grade school teacher from being “out” as a sex worker.

Darby Hickey said that “sex exchange is a right” and “a tool for survival.”

Tyrone Hanley said that in DC, about 40% of sex workers are women, 40% are trans, and 20% are men. Of the trans prostitutes, nearly all are black or “of color” men who “lack access to the resources to achieve their transition goals” and who are excluded from legitimate employment, even among homosexual professionals and business owners who occupy “a position of power” in DC.

“How do you get started?”
One of the teenage boys on the front row raised his hand and asked: “How do you get started?” He explained: “We suspect that one of the youth in our group is leaning toward sex work. What should we do?”

The panelists did not suggest deterring the youth from pursuing sex work or encouraging the youth to think about a college education. They suggested listening, remaining non-judgmental, and perhaps discussing safety, “but not to the extent that he feels stigmatized.”

“Jesus and all that horrible stuff”
An audience member made reference to a ministry in Kansas City that provides services to prostitutes, homosexual and heterosexual, but “tells them about Jesus and all that horrible stuff.” She asked, “How do we organize against it?”

Carol Queen agreed that to offer services to prostitutes or the homeless while requiring Bible study or prayer is “coercive.” She suggested “creating alternative space without the Christian thing.”

“White supremacy”
Gennifer Hirano closed the session saying that “the police are not my friend.” She suggested that if sex workers, strippers, and porn stars could “overcome sexism” they would “form an alliance to f*ck the police.” As a “Queer Bitch Whore Revolutionary” (with a masters degree) she said “I am a sex worker because of white supremacy” and that “every sex act with a client is an act of revolution.”

Indeed.