I hope that those of you within driving distance of Chicago are going to Illinois Family Institute’s (IFI) fundraising banquet this Tuesday featuring former presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.  The event is this Tuesday, October 6 at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare at 5440 N. River Road, in Rosemont, Illinois, beginning at 6:30 p.m.  Tickets ($100/person) will NOT be sold at the door, so if you want to attend, you must call Kathy at IFI BY NOON MONDAY at 708-781-9328.  More info at www.illinoisfamily.org.  As a former executive director of IFI, I am so proud of Dave Smith, Laurie Higgins, and the whole IFI team — and all that Illinois Family Institute has done for life, families, and marriage in Illinois.  That includes leading the way in defeating a huge “gay” push for “civil unions” in Springfield this year.  Please join me in supporting this outstanding organization (an affiliate of American Family Association) by attending their banquet.  At the same time, you’ll benefit from hearing one of the few Republican leaders who isn’t afraid to talk enthusiastically about God and moral truths.  I’ll see you there! — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S.  We understand that the Christian-bashing, Marxist radicals over at Gay Liberation Network will be protesting IFI’s banquet. Now we know IFI must be doing something right.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, offered the following assessment to the Michigan Messenger on Iowa’s homosexual “marriage” ruling:

“Activist judges in Iowa proved once again today how right the American Family Association of Michigan was to call for a preemptive Marriage Protection Amendment constitutionally securing the definition of one-man, one-woman marriage in our state, and how right the people of Michigan were to overwhelmingly approve it. … Homosexual activists will of course now parade counterfeit ‘marriages’ through the streets of Des Moines for a while, as they did in California, but eventually the people of Iowa will have a chance to vote on the issue, and the result will be the same there as in Michigan and 29 other states.”

Note in the Michigan Messenger article that Illinois is viewed as a likely state for a court challenge like Iowa that produced the “gay marriage” decision:

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Timid Utah GOP Leadership Rewards ‘Gay’ Activists

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars (right) and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org.

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By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, I don’t know which aspect of this story is more preposterous: the notion of anti-Christian, homosexual lobby groups like Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — with their long history of demonizing people of faith as hateful bigots — setting themselves up as arbiters of responsible speech; OR … the specter of Republican Party leaders bending to pro-Democratic HRC’s pressure tactics.

My good friend Matt Barber (a Board Member of AFTAH) is correct below: if the Republican Party’s leaders think they are going to succeed in the long run by caving in to the Left’s version of “tolerance,” then we’re looking ahead at decades of Democrat Party rule in these United States. You simply cannot appease the homosexual activist movement, and groups like HRC are now engaged in a campaign of intimidation against pro-family lawmakers nationwide. Their unsubtle campaign attempts to classify any discussion of organized homosexual activism as a “threat” as beyond-the-pale hate speech leading to violence. More ominously, savvy homosexual moneymen like Tim Gill are targeting pro-family legislators for defeat using out-of-state “gay” PAC bundling, and it’s working [see this 2007 NPR story, “Wealthy Gay Donors a New Force in Politics,” featuring Americans For Truth].

“Why would we backslide on a core founding value in this country?”

UPDATE ON MICHAEL STEELE AND THE LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS:  In a new interview with radio talker Mike Gallagher, GOP Chief Michael Steele firmly rejected “civil unions” as an acceptable GOP compromise on homosexual “marriage” (see this left-wing account HERE). Your calls and e-mails to Steele made a difference!  Stay tuned for updates and you can thank him by calling 202-863-8700, or e-mailing: chairman@gop.com. Here’s the text of the interview (audio link available HERE):

GALLAGHER:  Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?

STEELE No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country? I mean this isn’t something that you just kind of like, “Oh well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage.” […]

GALLAGHER: So no room even for a conversation about civil unions in your mind?

STEELE: What’s the difference?

GEORGIA GOP DISTANCES ITSELF FROM LOG CABIN:  WorldNetDaily.com reports that the Georgia Republican Party has issued the following statement on the anti-Christian remarks by Jamie Ensley, president of the Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, who called AFTAH a “domestic terrorist” group and compared us to Nazis: “While a healthy debate on the issues can help strengthen us as a party, to use the word ‘terrorist’ to describe those that disagree with you is not appropriate.” See the full WND story HERE and the AFTAH article containing Ensley’s hateful e-mail to GOP Chairman Michael Steele HERE.

I’ve only read a couple chapters of this book, which I should have read when it came out in 2007, but I heartily recommend Dale O’Leary’s One Man, One Woman: A Catholic Guide to Defending Marriage, for anyone needing to become conversant in the arguments in defense of marriage and God-ordained (which is to say normal) sexuality.

This book is a must for any social conservative’s library. (Order it HERE.) I’ve known Dale for over a decade, and few in the pro-family movement have demonstrated the diligence, courage, dedication and intelligence that she has in answering the various propaganda myths and lies emanating from the radical feminists and their homosexual and gender-confused (“transgender”) allies. Here is a typically sensible quote from One Man, One Woman (p. 217):

It’s true that human beings can be weak, selfish, and sinful, and not every married couple will be good parents. But a male/female married couple nonetheless has built into it all the things children need for healthy development: a mother and a father to fulfill parenting roles and to model gender identity; a vowed bond of permanent commitment between two persons with sexual complementarity; and freedom from the stigma and distractions that accompany “experimental” family forms.

Thomasson: “If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt.”

Sacramento, California — In response to today’s decision by the California Supreme Court to hear the challenges to Proposition 8, the California Marriage Amendment, Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization, issued the following statement:

“It’s unfortunate that the judges are giving time to the mushy, subjective arguments of homosexual activists who reject the clear reading of the constitution and the clear reading of Proposition 8. If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt. It will also threaten the validity of all future constitutional amendments.

“The court is playing with fire by threatening to destroy the people’s vote on marriage. The California Constitution clearly says that the voters have the right to alter the highest law of the land. It’s the beauty of the American system of government. The four Supreme Court justices who unconstitutionally invented homosexual ‘marriages’ — Ron George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno — seem to be ignoring the fact that the people get the last word, not the judges.

“The clear reading of the constitution, as well as California’s legal and legislative history, tells us there is a world of difference between a constitutional amendment and a constitutional revision. Proposition 8 is a single-subject, voter-initiated amendment, not a legislature-initiated, multi-issue, whole-scale revision that alters many sections of the state constitution.

“If Prop. 8 gutted the constitution, why is it only one subject in one section of the constitution? If Prop. 8 doesn’t stand, then our constitution doesn’t mean anything, the people’s vote doesn’t mean anything, marriage has been utterly disrespected, and judges lied when they swore to uphold the constitution. Prop. 8 must stand, because the constitution is above the judges, not the other way around.

Hamtramck Citizens Voting NO to Special Rights Discrimination

http://www.hamtramck.org/family/

Click on photo to enlarge. Opposition to homosexuality- and gender-confusion-based “sexual orientation” laws is something that all committed religious people can agree on — because these laws invariably oppress religious people’s freedom to live out their beliefs. At right is multi-religious, multi-ethnic rally held Oct. 12 in Hamtramck, Michigan against a proposed “gender identity”-inclusive homosexual law.

Press Release
Contacts: Jay McNally: 734 717-1174; Fr. Andrew Wesley: 313 892-1310;
Akm Rahman: 313 293-7343; e-mail:  HamtramckFamily@gmail.com

Dear Readers,

It always strikes me as odd to see homosexual activists aligning themselves with American Muslims, who oppose homosexual practice as sinful in accordance with the religion, like faithful Christians and Bible-believing Jews. These photos from a rally in Hamtramck, Michigan reflect the appropriate political/sociological equation against homosexual activism: religious people (and moral people who are irreligious) cannot abide “rights” based on same-sex misbehavior (sin). In fact, as we’re seeing in California (where Christian doctors will now be forced to perform artificial inseminations for lesbians) and across the nation, the very outworking of government-enforced homosexuality-based “rights” is to oppress religious freedom.

Americans will have to decide whether creating aberrant-sex- and gender-confusion-based “rights” — including “same-sex marriage” and its cowardly cousin, “civil unions” — is worth trampling on the historic religious and First Amendment freedoms that have defined the American republic since its beginning.  –Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Here is the Hamtramck Citizens Opposing “Special Rights” press release put out before the rally; under that is an article on the coalition’s website explaining the coalition’s position:

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Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu Religious Leaders Speak Out Against Hamtramck Gay-rights Ordinance at campaign rally

HAMTRAMCK (Oct. 10) – Nearly a dozen religious leaders in the City of Hamtramck and a nationally prominent lawyer will speak at a campaign kick-off rally for the group Hamtramck Citizens Voting NO to `Special Rights’ Discrimination.

Harvey to join AFTAH in exposing Folsom Fair’s public filth in Nancy Pelosi’s district

PROFITING OFF OF PERVERSION: Miller Brewing Company took out a full-page ad (left) in the 2008 Folsom Street Fair Official Program Guide, on page 40. Five pages before that is this “StraightHell” ad that glories in the depraved and sadistic behaviors celebrated by this annual San Francisco “fair.” At least the gross Folsom ad has got one thing right: these boys are going STRAIGHT TO HELL if they don’t repent of this wickedness and accept Christ’s forgiveness. You can contact Miller though their spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@mbco.com or phone: 1-800-MILLER 6 or 414-931-2000.

Folks, AFTAH is organizing this event in America’s “queer” Mecca later this month to remind the rest of the country (and Californians voting on the marriage protection) about the downward spiraling trajectory of liberal “tolerance” and the homosexual activist agenda. My good friend Linda Harvey will be joining us in exposing this sure-to-be unbelievably evil spectacle occurring on Sept. 28 in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s city. Democrats with any sense of decency and “family values,” as they say, should be ashamed at what their party has become: enablers for the worst public perversions known to mankind (see Mayor Gavin Newsom’s welcoming letter to the Folsom Street Fair HERE). — Peter LaBarbera

PS. The organizers for Folsom tried to intimidate Americans For Truth from publishing graphics from their website and Program Guide — including the welcoming letter from Mayor Newsom, a public servant! It did not work: we have “fair use” rights to expose their filth. More on that in another post.

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Mission America writes:

California ‘Corruption Footprint’ Not Wanted in Middle America

September 8, 2008

Contact: Linda Harvey, (614) 442-7998, lpharvey@missionamerica.com

(Columbus, OH) Traditional families, especially children, will be harmed if California forces its sexual deviance on the rest of America, says Linda Harvey of Mission America.

Harvey joins other pro-family groups later this month in San Francisco to protest and expose the Folsom Street Fair, a public street orgy which includes sado-masochism, full nudity and homosexuality. They will also discuss the urgent need to pass Proposition 8, the ballot initiative upholding traditional marriage.

The event falls on Sunday, September 28, following “Leather Pride Week.” The alleged crowd estimate of 400,000 has no age restrictions, merely warnings about the “adult oriented nature” of activities. Last year, children were observed in the crowd where they could witness, for example, bare-bottomed men being whipped.

“There ‘s one big question: why?” said Harvey. ”How can Mayor Newsom, city officials and even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who represents San Francisco) tolerate disturbed people publicly displaying this deviance as police stand by and do nothing to stop it?