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Denise Shick’s father told her he wanted to become a “woman” when she was just nine years old. Now she runs the Help 4 Families Ministry, which reaches out to families dealing with “transgender” issues. Shick will be speaking on a panel at the AFTAH Teach-in Sat., Oct. 21, following our dinner-banquet with ex-“gay” Stephen Black Oct. 20. Black also will give three presentations on Saturday.
Folks, I’m excited to announce that Denise Shick, founder and executive director of Help 4 Families Ministry, will be speaking at the AFTAH Teach-in Oct. 21, which follows our banquet with former homosexual Stephen Black Oct. 20. Help 4 Families describes itself as “a Christian ministry that compassionately reaches out to family members and brings understanding of the emotional and spiritual issues that families face when a loved one is gender confused.”
As you can read in the essay by Denise below, Shick’s father revealed to her when she was just nine years old that he wanted to become a “woman,” then asked her not to tell her own mother. Her ministry today was birthed by her many years of dealing with the pain and trauma of such emotional abuse at the hands of her own gender-confused dad; read more about her harrowing personal story HERE.
Denise is author of three books dealing with “transgender” issues (see below). She will be on our Q-and-A panel Saturday afternoon, following three presentations on homosexuality by Stephen Black, who has lived 35 years free of the “gay” lifestyle that he once thought defined him. Black also speaks Friday evening, Oct. 20, with a casual dinner served. Tickets are just $25 for both days of outstanding teaching. My friend and pro-family leader Diane Gramley of American Family Association of Pennsylvania will also appear on the final Saturday panel.
Banquet & Teach-in sign up: More information HERE; sign up with your safe payment online HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth
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The ‘Transgender’ Lobby Is Weaponizing Children as Pawns in the Culture War
By Denise Shick, Oct. 1, 2017
I’ll never forget the first time I heard of warlords such as Uganda’s Joseph Kony turning little boys into killer soldiers and little girls into sex slaves. My heart ached at the thought. It still does. It seemed like a horrible war movie—but it was real, with real children as casualties.
War is always horrible, but in some sad cases it is necessary. But children should be—to the greatest degree possible—shielded from violent conflicts. They should never be forced to kill or do violence. Innocent, impressionable children are malleable. They can be sculpted into persons of deep character, guided by transcendent principles. Or they can be turned into weapons, as Joseph Kony and many other evil men have done.
I enjoyed this interview with my friend Dr. Chaps Klingenschmitt on the Milo Yiannopoulos controversy and the whole notion of “gay conservatives.” Gordon James (Dr. “Chaps”) Klingenschmitt is the director of the Pray in Jesus Name Project. As you can see, we are both torn on Milo. [See my recent piece in LifeSiteNews, “Milo still defends sex between men and teenage boys despite blowback.”] In the interview, I attempt to bring out the subversive aspects of Milo’s “conservatism,” which includes his bawdy, sodomitic humor that is way too disgusting to describe in depth on pro-family program.
And yet, as you can see beginning at 11:45 in this video, Milo brilliantly analyzes the recent violent UC-Berkeley riots by leftists targeting his (canceled) speech there. Chaps notes Milo’s recent apology for joking about pederasty (sex between men and boys) in which he was involved, and I discuss the reality of “man-boy love” (sodomy) in the homosexual subculture going way, way back. Chaps also notes a reality that was almost ignored due to the Milo controversy: CPAC is now again pandering to homosexual activists, thus undermining Ronald Reagan’s “three-legged stool” of conservatism. Two-legged stools don’t stand up, so the GOP is headed for big trouble if it continues to jettison the homosexual issue. Chaps says a prayer for Milo at the end of the video. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
Mike Heath of Helping Hands Ministries in Maine interviewed Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera September 14, 2016. Their discussion begins around the 12:30 mark and ends around 37:45:
By the way, Mike Heath has the noble distinction of having played a leadership role in not one but two successful, statewide efforts to overturn homosexuality-based “special rights” laws, in Maine. We call them “special rights” but perhaps “false rights” is more accurate. Because unlike genuine rights, which come from God, the panoply of modern homosexualist laws are rooted in sinful, unnatural behaviors like sodomy destructive to mind, body and soul. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org
Democratic vice-presidential candidate and former Virginia governor Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) addressed the Human Rights Campaign national dinner September 10, 2016. Kaine, who calls himself a “devout” Catholic, said he believes the Catholic Church will one day embrace homosexual “marriage”–a claim rejected by his own bishop three days after Kaine’s HRC speech (see statement below).
The following statement was released by the Roman Catholic Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia–after self-described “devout” Catholic. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, said that he believes the Catholic Church will one day recognize homosexual “marriage.” Sen. Kaine made the comment in a campaign speech September 10, 2016 at the Human Rights Campaign, the world’s largest and best-funded homosexual-bisexual-transgender lobby organization.
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For Immediate Release: September 13, 2016
Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo Statement on
The Catholic Church’s Teaching Regarding Marriage
“More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage, and despite recent statements from the campaign trail, the Catholic Church’s 2000-year-old teaching to the truth about what constitutes marriage remains unchanged and resolute.
“As Catholics, we believe, all humans warrant dignity and deserve love and respect, and unjust discrimination is always wrong. Our understanding of marriage, however, is a matter of justice and fidelity to our Creator’s original design. Marriage is the only institution uniting one man and one woman with each other and with any child who comes from their union. Redefining marriage furthers no one’s rights, least of all those of children, who should not purposely be deprived of the right to be nurtured and loved by a mother and a father.
“We call on Catholics and all those concerned for preserving this sacred union to unite in prayer, to live and speak out with compassion and charity about the true nature of marriage – the heart of family life.”
No Law Can Make Sodomy Safe or Good: Poster warns attendees of International Mr. Leather (IML), a homosexual deviance-sex-fest held every year in Chicago, of the increased risk for meningitis among “gay and bisexual men.” See AFTAH’s story on IML 2016. Also see the Chicago Health Department release on homosexual men and meningitis.
The following was released today by the Catholic Action League, a Massachusetts pro-family group:
DEFEND TRADITIONAL MORALITY, OPPOSE HOUSE BILL 4392!
Because so many members of the General Court were away this week at the Democratic National Convention, the Massachusetts Legislature will close out its 2016 session with a special weekend sitting of the House and the Senate today, July 30th, and tomorrow, July 31st.
One of the proposed laws which may emerge from the Committee on Third Readings is a pernicious measure sponsored by Representative Byron Rushing, (D-Boston), House Bill 4392, which would repeal the remaining prohibitions in the General Laws of the Commonwealth against adultery, fornication, and sodomy—“the abominable and detestable crime against nature.” This repeal is a longstanding objective of homosexual activists in Massachusetts.
The bill would also remove the designation of “subversive” from the Communist Party, at a time when the so-called RevComs—Revolutionary Communists—are protesting alongside elements of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Although these laws are no longer enforced, they have significant symbolic value. The law is a teacher, from whom many in society learn what is right from what is wrong. Passage of this secularist measure would erase, in matters of sexual ethics, the last vestiges of Biblical morality and natural law in the criminal statutes of Massachusetts, completing the process of de-Christianization.
Please contact House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones and urge them to stop this proposed legislation from being rushed through at the end of the legislative session!
I saw this in a tweet from Stephen Black, who like few others can confirm that what lesbian writer and activist Camille Paglia says below is correct–as Stephen overcame homosexuality in his own life. [Black is executive director of First Stone Ministries and sits on the Board of Restored Hope Network.] Paglia, author Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, has made a career of irritating feminists and the Left, and being an intellectual bomb thrower. In a quote from the book (touted by NAMBLA) opining on pederastic “man-boy love,” Paglia writes: “I feel free to protest that men today are pilloried for something that was rational and honorable in Greece at the height of its civilization.” While as a Christian and a conservative I am not always in Paglia’s corner, she is spot on below. –– Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
“Homosexuality is not normal. On the contrary it is a challenge to the norm. Nature exists whether academics like it or not. And in nature, procreation is the single relentless rule. That is the norm. Our sexual bodies were designed for reproduction. No one is born gay. The idea is ridiculous. Homosexuality is an adaptation, not an inborn trait.” — Lesbian activist and writer Camille Paglia
The case against sodomy: How to use reason and natural law to argue against homosexual acts and ‘gay marriage’
Explaining Why Homosexual Behavior Is Wrong: Robert Reilly, author of ‘Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything,’ will speak at AFTAH’s annual dinner-banquet Saturday, October 17th at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL. Sign up online HERE. Tickets are $20/person or $200 for a Table of 10. Send a check with “AFTAH Banquet” on the memo line to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. For a printable PDF color flier of the event, click HERE.
What: Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s (AFTAH) annual dinner-banquet fund-raiser
Who: Keynote speaker: Robert Reilly, author, ‘Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything’ [order it HERE or on Amazon]. Reilly served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and was the Director of the Voice of America.
When: Saturday, October 17, 2015, 6:00 PM Central; doors open at 5:30.
Where: Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL 60004. Map HERE.
Cost: Only $20 per person. Sponsor a Table of 10 for just $200. Or sponsor 5 attendees for $100. Send check made out to “AFTAH” to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Or sign up online using our safe credit card form (check the box for Banquet Registration or to sign up to sponsor a Table of 10).
PDF Flier: For a printable PDF color flier on the Oct. 17 event, click HERE.
UPDATE: Stellar pro-family advocate Linda Harvey of Mission America (and a WND.com columnist) will also be speaking at the AFTAH banquet Saturday, Oct. 17!)
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Second AFTAH Banquet in Wash., DC on Nov. 21: Americans For Truth will be hosting Robert Reilly for a second dinner-banquet in the Washington, D.C. area on Saturday, Nov. 21. Stay tuned for more details.
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Crafting a Principled Strategy: At a recent speaking appearance in Chicago, Reilly explained how the dominant pro-family movement strategy of the last decade of focusing on a positive defense of natural marriage and consciously avoiding discussing homosexuality is “the losing strategy. That is how we lost.” Reilly continued:
“The entire issue is based on the morality or immorality of sodomy. And once you’re no longer willing to address that issue or if you concede that issue, you have lost, and you’ll get rolled on the religious freedom issue as well.”
Amen. It is such clear and principled thinking that sets Reilly apart from many pro-family leaders. We live in bizarre times in which even some who profess to be “conservatives” are making the radical case for “marriage” based on the sexual perversion (and sin) of homosexuality. Shame on them for debasing conservatism and Christianity all at once. But I am greatly encouraged that Reilly’s well-reasoned approach is beginning to gain ground as we endeavor to rebuild the foundation for an aggressive defense of Truth on this vexing issue. We greatly look forward to Bob’s presentation October 17: please mark your calendars and tell your friends! This article below appeared in many online publications, including CNS News. – Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Email: americansfortruth@gmail.com; Phone: 312-324-3787
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Below is an excellent column by Robert Reilly that lays out the compromise in the pro-family legal strategy that helped pave the way for the imposition of homosexual “marriage” by the courts, culminating in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling:
Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Goes Against the ‘Laws of Nature and Nature’s God’
By Robert R. Reilly | June 9, 2015 |
Why have the pro-natural family forces been losing in court? Intentionally or not, Judge Richard Posner explained the reason in a 7th Circuit Court ruling (Sept. 4, 2014), in which he decided against the Indiana and Wisconsin laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman:
“The state [Wisconsin] does not mention Justice Alito’s invocation [in the Windsor case] of a moral case against same-sex marriage, when he states in his dissent that ‘others explain the basis for the institution in more philosophical terms. They argue that marriage is essentially the solemnizing of a comprehensive, exclusive, permanent union that is intrinsically ordered to producing new life, even if it does not always do so.’ [U.S. v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675, 2718 (2013).] That is a moral argument for limiting marriage to heterosexuals. The state does not mention the argument because as we said, it mounts no moral arguments against same-sex marriage.” Baskin v. Bogan, 766 F.3d 648, 669 (7thCir. 2014) (emphasis added).
While Justice Alito recognizes that there is a moral argument for limiting marriage to heterosexuals, it was not only the State of Wisconsin that failed to make such a case. Neither have the States of Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, or Tennessee in Obergefell, the decisive case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. I believe that this is one of the key reasons that the pro-natural family position has been losing in most of the cases thus far.
Question and answer fit homosexual activist narrative; Kelly’s and Fox News’ pro-“gay” evolution continues
Fox News’ Pro-Homosexual Bias: America’s Survival’s 90-page report on the “conservative”-leaning network’s pro-“gay” bias, authored by Peter LaBarbera. Photo on cover is of Fox News prime time star Megyn Kelly posing for a photo at the — annual fund-raiser of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. To download a PDF copy of the report, go HERE. For an HTML version, go HERE. See a transcript of the debate HERE. See the video of LaBarbera discussing the report with Michael Voris below.
TAKE ACTION: Contact Fox News and urge the network to stop promoting homosexual “marriage” and the rest of the LGBT agenda (as Megyn Kelly, Dana Perino and other on-air personalities are doing). Call 888-369-4762 or use their Online Contact Form. Or e-mail Fox News at comments@foxnewsinsider.com. Download a PDF of the author’s in-depth 2013 report on Fox News’ pro-“gay” bias HERE.
In a nation that professes to be “under God” but is teetering on the edge of moral collapse, perhaps it was inevitable that–in the most watched U.S. primary political debate ever–the opportunity for candidates to defend marriage between a man and a woman would get short shrift.
Fox News prime time star Megyn Kelly, one of the three debate moderators at the Fox-sponsored Republican presidential primary debate August 6, may be known as a tiger for her tough questioning of guests, but when it came to her team’s debate question on homosexual “marriage,” she was a pussycat for the LGBT Lobby, asking a hypothetical that evoked sympathy for the homosexual cause. Sadly, this has become a trend with Kelly and Fox News, which, as this writer has documented (see report HERE or at right), increasingly has a pro-“gay” bias.
According to a Pew Research study in 2013, Fox News ran more stories that were biased towards homosexual “marriage” rather than against it (see Page 2). And Fox News also funds the advocacy-oriented National and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA) every year; Kelly and other Fox journalists have attended NLGJA fund-raisers in support of the homosexual organization.
In the days leading up to Thursday’s prime time debate in Cleveland, Fox News anchors had been telling us how hard they were laboring to prepare penetrating, specific questions that would prevent their GOP targets from being evasive.
Electoral politics led by media pundits is pretty much a “biblical morality-free zone”–at least on the issue of homosexuality–as journalists obsess over the political “horse-race” rather than right versus wrong. Many journalists and even some conservatives have become cheerleaders for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender) cause, while others simply bow to the prevailing political correctness.
So I was prepared for the worst as I sat down Thursday night to watch the main Fox News GOP debate, and, well…here is an excerpt of the key prime time exchange on same-sex “marriage,” posed to Ohio Gov. John Kasich by Kelly:
KELLY: Governor Kasich, if you had a son or daughter who was gay or lesbian, how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage?
KASICH: Well, look, I’m an old-fashioned person here, and I happen to believe in traditional marriage. But I’ve also said the court has ruled —
KELLY: How would you — how would you explain it to a child?
KASICH: Wait, Megyn, the court has ruled, and I said we’ll accept it. And guess what, I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do, doesn’t mean that I can’t care about them or can’t love them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them.
Who knew that the toughest question that the Fox News brain trust could come up with on homosexual “marriage” could have been penned by the Media Department of the Human Rights Campaign?! Some LGBT activists and liberals must have been checking their TV remotes to make sure they weren’t watching MSNBC.
It was telling that the Fox team directed its “gay’-sympathetic query not to a strong social conservative candidate like Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, or Dr. Ben Carson–who likely would have vigorously defended traditional marriage and religious freedom, and assailed the SCOTUS Obergefell ruling—but to “moderate” Kasich, who pathetically boasted about attending a friend’s “marriage” ceremony based on a sexual sin. Coincidentally (or not), Ohio’s U.S. Senator, Rob Portman, a Republican, changed his position in 2013 and backed homosexual “marriage” to support his homosexual son–a theme echoed in Kelly’s debate query to Gov. Kasich.
Now, it goes without saying that parents should love their children unconditionally–Kasich got that part right. But the governor offered no reasons behind his stated opposition to homosexual “marriage”–typical of GOP politicians who avoid discussing immoral homosexual behavior like the plague.
A close friend of mine shared my observation about Fox News’ strange priorities, and astutely noted regarding Kasich’s weak answer:
Kasich’s three-part answer, which resulted from a carefully planted question by Megyn Kelly, could have been drafted by the Human Rights Campaign:
“I’m old-fashioned….” This makes natural marriage merely a matter of personal preference, one that could be eclipsed by time and reason. Anytime a pol starts this way, he is selling out a traditionalist moral stance. Right up there with “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but….”
“Love everybody” — If you don’t go along with the fiction of a brideless or groomless “wedding,” you don’t love people.
Attended a “gay” wedding – See how tolerant I am, as opposed to all those bigots who voted for the 31 state constitutional amendments protecting natural marriage?
No wonder liberal praise has been pouring in for the Fox News debate moderators (and Kasich)–although the moderators’ aggressive questioning of Donald Trump has drawn most of the commentary and public criticism.
To be fair (and balanced), Kelly followed up her Kasich question with one from Facebook sent in by a social conservative. It dealt with people’s religious freedom NOT to support same-sex “marriage,” and was directed to libertarian Sen. Rand Paul, who hardly hit it out of the park. (See questions and answers in “gay marriage” debate excerpt at bottom.)
But the damage had already been done by the Fox News star’s emotion-laden question and Kasich’s rambling, Chamberlain-esque response, in which he simultaneously extolled his own Christian faith and his willingness to attend a blasphemous, homosexuality-based “wedding.” The one-two punch of Kelly’s “gay”-sympathetic hypothetical and Kasich’s guilt-ridden reply perfect illustrates how conservatives and Christians have lost on homosexuality-based “marriage.”
Megyn Kelly: growing ally of “gays”
Not Always Fair & Balanced (or Unafraid): Fox News’ Republican debate moderators (left to right): Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier. Each has demonstrated pro-homosexual bias in their reporting or actions in recent years. In 2011, Kelly berated Dr. Keith Ablow for suggesting that parents need to guard their children from media celebrations of “transman” “Chaz” (Chastity) Bono. In January of this year, Baier, a Catholic, cancelled a scheduled speaking appearance at a meeting held by the Catholic organization Legatus following criticism from an online homosexual activist of the organization as “anti-gay.” Baier said he did so at the request of his employer, Fox News. See a YouTube of Kelly’s unprofessional interview with Dr. Ablow below, or read about it in pages 25-30 of the author’s Fox News-“gay” biased report.
First, representing the media—which is easily the most powerful force driving the “gay” revolution–is Kelly, a professed Catholic, the prime-time star of Fox News who seems to be a “conservative feminist.” In a rather creepy 2010 interview with perverted shock-jock Howard Stern, Kelly declined to label herself and said she is conservative on some issues and liberal on others.
As this writer has documented in a 90-page America’s Survival report on Fox News’ pro-homosexual bias—Kelly is increasingly public as an LGBT “ally” who uses her considerable TV power to defend gay/transgender positions. In 2011, she grilled psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow and recklessly accused him of “adding to the hate” for daring to question whether female-to-male “transman” “Chaz” (formerly Chastity) Bono is an appropriate TV role-model for kids (who might want to imitate Bono’s transgenderism). Homosexual activists heaped praise upon Kelly for her agenda-driven interview berating Dr. Ablow. [Read about it on pages 25-30 in my Fox News-pro-homosexual-bias report, or watch a YouTube of the interview below.]
It deserves mentioning that Megyn Kelly and Fox News–unlike more liberal media networks–still give voice to Christian conservatives. She welcomes Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on as a frequent guest of her prime time show “The Kelly File”–even as Perkins has been targeted by intolerant, pro-LGBT leftists who demand that he be banned from TV talk shows due to his supposed “anti-gay hate.” Kelly was invited as a speaker at FRC’s upcoming annual “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, D.C., but she is not now on the list of scheduled presenters.
Nevertheless, Kelly’s sympathies on homosexual and transgender issues are not hard to discern. Recently, she took on the role of straight ally/“protector”* of Guy Benson, a newly “out” young, homosexual conservative and political editor of Townhall.com. In Benson’s “coming out” interview with Kelly [see YouTube below], she describes Benson as “very brave” for revealing his homosexuality on national TV, and says her show is a “safe space” for Benson amidst (mostly “progressive”) criticism of him. In a subsequent June interview with Benson–who himself is a Fox News Contributor–after the Supreme Court imposed homosexual “marriage” on the entire nation, Kelly seemed quite taken with the youthful Benson, who applauded the SCOTUS ruling and described himself as “someone who’s gay and Christian.” [See Dr. Michael Brown’s column dealing with the “gay Christian” controversy.]
