Grassroots Illinois Republicans stand behind AFTAH banner urging the dismissal of IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady, who shocked the state’s Republicans by coming out for homosexuality-based “marriage.” Dozens of conservative Republicans, including elected officials, were forced to wait three hours as Brady’s future was decided in private at the meeting. When they were finally let back in, comments were limited to only a minute per speaker and then — after a few critical speeches including one by AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera — the meeting was suddenly cut short by Brady.

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TINLEY PARK, Illinois — Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) delivered the following informational Alert yesterday at the quarterly meeting of the Republican Party of Illinois (IL-GOP) Central Committee. AFTAH educates the public about the implications of homosexual activism to all institutions and all political parties. We’ll have more on Saturday’s bizarrely dysfunctional Central Committee meeting in another post [read Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton’s account of it HERE].

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Americans For Truth ** ALERT ** 

Putting Principles First:  Why the IL-GOP Must Never Abandon Its Pro-Natural-Marriage Platform

CONTACT: Peter LaBarbera: americansfortruth@gmail.com                           April 13, 2013

Homosexual “marriage” will accelerate the promotion of homosexuality and gender confusion as ‘normal’ in public schools. In Massachusetts, 2nd graders were required to read this book, “King & King,” about a prince who falls in love with and “marries” another man instead of a princess. Parents in Mass. effectively lost their right to guide their own children’s moral values if they keep them in public schools.

TINLEY PARK, Illinois – Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) urges the Republican Party of Illinois to stay true to its own conservative Platform and reaffirm marriage as between a man and a woman.

AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera said that by embracing homosexuality-based “marriage,” IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the state’s most powerful Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk, have recklessly undermined the GOP’s conservative “brand” as a pro-family party and hurt the Party’s outreach prospects — especially among minority voters.

The IL-GOP Platform reads in part:

The family is society’s central building block… Our children need secure and nurturing environments, which are best found within the traditional family. No law should be enacted nor policy implemented without fully contemplating the effect it would have on children and their families…. [T]he ideal, best environment for children is within a two-parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman.

The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in our “DOMA.”

Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment a man and a woman make to each other in marriage….

LaBarbera urged the divisive Brady to step down as IL-GOP chairman and offered the following as among the reasons NOT to undermine the Party’s historic defense of natural marriage:

• • If homosexuality-based “marriage” is legalized, religious liberty and freedom of conscience will be further repressed by the state in the name of “gay equality”; this is already happening in Illinois under our “Civil Unions” law. In Paxton, IL, Jim and Beth Walder – owners of a bed-and-breakfast – were forced to go to court to defend their constitutional right to live by their own Christian beliefs (they declined a homosexual  “civil union” ceremony on their own property). Republicans must stand for liberty – yet too often pro-homosexual libertarians are silent on the growing threat to First Amendment freedoms justified in the name of “gay rights.”

Are Republican Party elites on a suicide mission?

Michigan RNC Committeeman Dave Agema was charged by fellow Republicans with “hate” for raising the public health risks of the homosexual lifestyle.

This is an important piece by Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins, reprinted from his April 2 “Washington Watch” newsletter. Republican Party politicians (they’re not behaving like statesmen) are on a suicide mission if they think they can stab their most faithful constituents in the back on the homosexual agenda and still come away strong enough to beat the radically pro-“gay” Democrats. (A Democrat will usually beat a “Democrat-lite.”)

You are like me if you’re ready to yell at the TV or radio every time you hear a Republican or some libertarian-leaning pundit assert, with robot-like efficiency, that we need to be “focusing on the issues that really matter.” That’s code for the fiscal issues — rather than social issues like homosexual “marriage,” which I suppose, by extension, “don’t really matter” much to these Republicans.

Seems to me the moral disintegration of America and the preservation of marriage should be at the top of the list of issues that matter. Too bad we don’t have a STRONG pro-family, pro-life, God-fearing conservative party that could give both of our corrupt major parties a run for their money. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

P.S. While I (like Perkins) will not vouch for the accuracy of each of Agema’s citations (e.g., it was not NAMBLA but another pedophile group that invented the sick motto, “Sex before eight or it’s too late”), it is preposterous to assert that homosexuality is somehow above criticism. Even more absurd is the idea — repeated in this Daily Kos hit piece against FRC — of blaming the well-documented, highly disproportionate disease rates linked to homosexual sex (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis, etc.) on “the stress which comes from having to deal with homophobia and discrimination.” Right, it’s our fault….

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From Tony Perkins’ April 2 “Washington Watch”:

RNC Makes Values a Mute Point

“Wishful thinking.” That’s how MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough described the GOP’s supposed shift on same-sex “marriage.” During a segment on yesterday’s show, Scarborough tried to put the media’s spin into perspective. “This rush to marriage equality is–at least among the Republican base–a mirage.” Anyone who believes otherwise, he said, has a fundamental misunderstanding of the political realities in America:

“I wonder how many of these people [who] support it from Washington or New York, or from state capitals across the country, have ever campaigned in western Iowa, have ever campaigned in South Carolina in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, have ever campaigned across north Florida. … What [Republican presidential] candidate can win in western Iowa, can win in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, can win in north Florida if they come out and support gay marriage nationally?”

AFTAH in the news….

TIME magazine covers, blocked for decency’s sake by AFTAH. TIME managing editor Richard Stengel says the homosexual kisses are “beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage.” Click on graphic to enlarge.

From OneNewsNow, the online publication of the American Family Assoction [click HERE to view article on their website]:

Media, Republicans Fueling the Left

Posted by Charlie Butts and Chad Groening (American Family News) – April 04, 2013

A pro-family leader asserts that while “nothing’s inevitable,” the media and now members of the Republican Party are helping promote the homosexual agenda.

The April 8 issue of TIME has two different covers with the same theme. One features two women kissing, and the other shows two men doing the same. “Gay Marriage Already Won. The Supreme Court Hasn’t Made Up Its Mind – but America Has” is printed in yellow across the two black and white covers.

But Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is “upset” by how the magazine is jumping the gun.

“This is shocking that TIME magazine would do this — basically publishing indecent photos, promoting perversion on the cover of their magazine, where on racks across the country children can see this,” he laments. “This is an in-your-face promotion of homosexual immorality, and I’m very upset that they would go to this length.”

And LaBarbera is especially dismayed that the order to print the photos came from the top.

“The managing editor of TIME, Richard Stengel, said the images published by TIME were — quote — ‘beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage’ — unquote,” the AFTAH president reports. “How can you be more confused? Two people of the same sex kissing symbolizes the love of marriage?”

Marriage has historically been between a man and a woman, and he asserts that media moguls cannot change that.

LaBarbera adds that the media and the far left are confused, and he submits that the article and cover photos are a sellout to the homosexual lobby, as corporate America supports TIME through its advertising dollars.

Sen. Kirk and “gay marriage”

Meanwhile, the pro-family activist who works to expose the truth about homosexuality is not surprised that Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk has come out in favor of same-sex “marriage.”

Republicans will never “out-gay” the Democrats in pandering to a Sin Movement…

Sen. Rob Portman’s emotional conversion to the homosexual “marriage” cause — which he justified as supporting his homosexual son — plays into the liberal media and “gay” activist narrative that same-sex “marriage” is inevitable.

By Peter LaBarbera for Americans For Truth

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush – it seems everyone is embracing oxymoronic homosexual “marriage” these days, or so the liberal media would have us believe. Promoting sexual perversion in the name of “civil rights” is the trendy and “cool” thing to do. If you’ve heard it once you’ve heard it a hundred times: today’s youth (and we all know how wise and experienced they are) are overwhelming pro-“gay marriage” — so it is “inevitable.”

Even CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, is getting in the game: last week it allowed the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) to sponsor an entire panel (“Rainbow on the Right”) devoted to homosexuals’ “inclusion” in the conservative movement. Sounding more like a Washington Post “conservative” than a real one, panelist and Post columnist Jennifer Rubin reportedly exclaimed at the panel how anti-homosexual-“marriage” Republicans “cannot be at war with America on the issues of fairness and equality.“ (Prominent opponents of the Homosexual Lobby were excluded from the CPAC-CEI panel.)

In the midst of the CPAC gathering, news broke that Sen. Portman had flip-flopped on homosexual “marriage” because his 21-year-old son Will is a homosexual. Thus Portman succumbed to the emotionalism and illogic that dominate post-Christian America. Employing some awful theology, he kicked God to the curb — as is becoming habit in a land that increasingly mocks its own national motto, “In God We Trust.”

Here is a dose of Politically Incorrect truth: homosexual behavior is sinful (read: always wrong in the eyes of God), unnatural, destructive and yet – thankfully – changeable. To become homosexual-affirming because someone you love announces he or she is homosexual is the antithesis of “tough love.” It’s like telling a loved one who is has a drug problem: “I love you so much that I’m going to send you a five ounces of cocaine every month, because that’s how much I care.”

An imperfect analogy, perhaps, but Portman’s tragic defection and moral weakness play right into the Left’s ubiquitous narrative that same-sex “marriage” is unstoppable. Don’t buy it. In politics and life, only death and taxes are inevitable. Remember that radical feminists used to say that the abortion debate was “settled”; now they’re losing that cultural battle for hearts and minds.

“Conservative” business group brings pro-homosexual “Rainbow on the Right” panel to CPAC

Self-styled “conservative” and lesbian Tammy Bruce isn’t very “conservative” when it comes to homosexuality. If the Republican Party starts supporting “out and proud” homosexuality and “gay marriage,” it will divide the Party and alienate its socially conservative base.

Folks, my friend and America’s Survival president Cliff Kincaid is getting a lot of flack from the Left and LGBT activists over this piece (below) highlighting Marxist connections to homosexual activism. CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., begins today and runs through Saturday.

In protest of CPAC denying the homosexual-activist Republican group “GOProud” a sponsoring role at its annual conference, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) used its privilege as a major CPAC sponsor to hold a special panel (tonight) titled, “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing Tolerance Out of the Closet,” which will promote “inclusion” of homosexuals (and Republican “gay” activist groups like GOProud) in the conservative movement. Among the CEI panelists is libertarian, pro-“gay marriage” pundit Margaret Hoover and GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia — but not a single stalwart social conservative like Kincaid who opposes the homosexual activist agenda on principle.

Homosexual activism — fighting for “rights” based on sexual deviancy — and oxymoronic “same-sex marriage” are the antithesis of conservatism. Certainly, practicing homosexuals can vote Republican and be conservative on various issues — taxes, foreign policy, etc. And they can even oppose what I call the “Big Gay Government” agenda, which is in the vanguard of repressing religious freedom — ironically, in the name of “nondiscrimination.” But I have found that usually the personal “gay” aspect of “gay conservatives” dominates and drives them to be very anti-conservative on that particular issue. An example is supposed “conservative” and open lesbian Tammy Bruce. She is terrific on many issues and an articulate critic of leftist excesses. But when it comes to her pet issue, homosexuality, Bruce at times has behaved like a typical irrational, left-wing extremist.

Years ago, in a response to a release AFTAH put out critical of “Gay Day” at Disney World, Bruce interviewed me on her radio show, posing as a bullying “homophobe.” (I foolishly had failed to research her before appearing on the show.) In the radio business this is known as an ambush interview. Executing her on-air ruse, Bruce tried to goad me into saying that it was OK to get violent with homosexuals — because, of course, from Bruce’s fanatical and warped perspective, my opposition to homosexual activism meant that I “hated gays” enough to want to beat them up! (AFTAH and its predecessor, The Lambda Report, have from their inception (LR in 1993) condemned violence against and hatred of homosexuals.)

Libertarian Margaret Hoover is pushing the GOP to embrace homosexual “marriage.”

Thankfully, I didn’t play into Bruce’s jaundiced “gay” stereotype, because I don’t hate homosexuals. Frustrated that I didn’t fall for her “Religious-Right-as-Antigay-Bully” trap, she closed the show by defiantly announcing that she was an “out lesbian” and that I had one minute to respond. It was a harrowing experience that violated all rules of civil discourse. I ended up haltingly affirming that it’s OK to oppose homosexuality and that doesn’t translate into “hating gays.”

It was telling that Bruce never had the courage or decency to provide me a tape of the program when I requested it. She also never apologized to me, because I suppose the ends justify the means and “hateful homophobic bigots” like me deserve to be mistreated, right? (Even now, Bruce — like GOProud co-founder Chris Barron — blocks me on her Twitter account; sign up to follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PeterLaBarbera.)

I tell this story to illustrate the folly of the Republican Party folding “out and proud” homosexuality — and “gay” activism of GOProud’s variety — into its Big Tent. First and foremost, homosexual behavior is immoral and hence defending it – much less ascribing it legal rights — is anti-conservative, assuming that conservatives defend Judeo-Christian mores.

TAKE ACTION — ILLINOIS CITIZENS:  1) Call or write your state representatives immediately and urge them to vote against the homosexual “marriage” bill [the so-called “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act”]. IL Capitol Switchboard: 217-782-2000. According to the Illinois Review, the “same-sex marriage” bill is amended to an automobile rental bill and could come up for a floor today — in the lame duck session that ends January 9. The situation is fluid but Democrats need Republican votes to get the bill passed. Click these links for Illinois Senate Members and Illinois House Members. See IllinoisReview.com for timely updates on the bill.

Who knew that when Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady called for “Change for Illinois,” he was referring to legalizing oxymoronic homosexual “marriage”?

ILLINOIS REPUBLICANS: Make your voice heard regarding IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady’s stunningly ill-advised endorsement of homosexual “marriage” in Illinois. Many conservatives including AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera have called for Brady’s resignation. The IL-GOP can be reached at 217-525-0011 or info@ilgop.org. Contact your local Republican Party officials through this link. 

What did “gay marriage” do to Massachusetts?  For an excellent report on the effects of legal homosexual “marriage” — including the proliferation of pro-“gay” propaganda in schools, the loss of parental rights, and the harassment of Christian employees — see Brian Camenker’s excellent Mass Resistance report: “What same-sex ‘marriage’ has done to Massachusetts.”

“77 Non-Religious Reasons to Support Man/Woman Marriage”: Informative PDF by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute: http://www.johnbiver.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/77reasons.pdf

For key updates on Illinois same-sex “marriage” vote and IL-GOP politics: 

Illinois Family Institute: www.IllinoisFamily.org

Illinois Review: www.IllinoisReview.com

Capitol Fax (run by liberal advocate Rich Miller but a useful source): http://capitolfax.com/

John Biver’s “Dispatches”: http://www.johnbiver.com/

Republican News Watch: http://republicannewswatch.com/wp/

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Background: Is the Illinois GOP Going ‘Gay’?

There is a saying popular among American conservatives: the Democrats are the liberal party and the Republicans are the stupid party. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady provided further evidence for the latter as he reportedly is lobbying Republican lawmakers in Illinois to support a bill legalizing homosexual “marriage” — leading to a new surge in conservative calls for his resignation.

If the IL-GOP pursues this course of abandoning natural marriage and pro-family values, it will sink into permanent minority status in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois is not unlike the rest of the country in one respect: voters deserve a clear choice between party philosophies and policy goals — not a false choice between Democrat and “Democrat-lite.” Already, conservative dissatisfaction with the IL-GOP is so great that many have left the Party or become disillusioned with politics altogether.

Social liberals now dominate the Illinois Republican Party and they are actively undermining its conservative platform. These two influential IL-GOP leaders are working against pro-family values:

Sen. Mark Kirk — this pro-“gay” senator, recovering from a debilitating stroke, boasted in his successful run for U.S. Senate of his support from Planned Parenthood. Kirk is the de facto head of the state GOP and apparently backs Pat Brady;

Dan Rutherford — this former state senator, current Illinois State Treasurer, and effective GOP campaigner (although he ran Mitt Romney’s losing Illinois campaign) cast two key votes to advance the homosexual agenda in Illinois. His lone Republican vote for the Illinois “Civil Unions” bill was critical to its passage and paved the way for a law that led to religious persecution in the state. Incredibly, despite the anti-Christian aftermath of the “Civil Unions” law, liberal proponents of the same-sex “marriage” bill have the audacity to include “religious freedom” in its name. Rutherford is widely rumored to be homosexual himself — and this writer has publicly challenged him to answer questions about whether he has a personal stake in “gay”-related legislation.

Illinois is in such economic and moral decline that people are leaving the state in droves for conservative-friendly states like Texas. Pat Brady’s reckless experiment in “Republican Gay Activism” will only accelerate the decline. If Illinois’ own grassroots citizens do not take action, their “leaders” will bring ruin to the state. AFTAH will closely monitor legislative and court action on same-sex “marriage.” (An openly lesbian judge, Sophia Hall, will rule on the constitutionality of Illinois’ existing law upholding natural man/woman marriage in the state.) Please take action to make your voice heard in Springfield, and in the Illinois GOP. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH, Naperville, Illinois

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The conservative Illinois Review reported Jan. 2:

ILGOP Chair Sees Gay Marriage as ‘Equality Issue’ and ‘True Conservative Position’

Not unexpectedly, the gay marriage bill seems likely to move through committee today and to a floor vote tomorrow. As pro-family forces attempt to rally the grassroots to voice their opposition, the growing question seems to be which Republican(s) might break with the GOP’s traditional stance on the issue and vote in favor of the bill.

Sources reported that Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady has been making calls to legislators in support of the gay marriage bill. When asked, Brady told Illinois Review that he believes it is an “equality issue”, and that the “true conservative position is in favor” of allowing gay marriage.

He also made it clear that this is his personal view only, and not in his role as Chairman of the ILGOP.

The bill presents a problem for Illinois Republicans in that voting in favor would not only be unpopular with the Party’s base, but would seem to be in contradiction to its platform, which states:

1. …The ideal environment for children is within a two?parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman. The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in “DOMA.”

2. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment a man and a woman make to each other in marriage. …No law should undermine the importance of that union, divide that union nor unduly burden the efforts of parents to rear a family in a safe and nurturing environment.

This is the first of a two-part interview [click HERE to listen] with Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church, in Redmond, Washington. It was recorded November 29, 2012. Hutcherson discusses the failed pro-family campaign to defeat a homosexual “marriage” bill in his state. He drew attention in pro-family circles by. criticizing national groups such as National Organization for Marriage (NOM) for coming into the state and dictating a “moderate” leadership for the pro-traditional-marriage forces–at the expense of a unified, local coalition of religious and pro-family leaders that had already formed. (See these articles quoting Hutcherson in One News Now and Christian Post.) Hutcherson compares the Washington State anti-“gay marriage” campaign’s effort to stay moderate (he says he was denied a leadership role because he was viewed by NOM as “too controversial”) to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney avoiding social issues to reach out to moderate voters. “Hutch” says Romney would have won had he exposed President Barack Obama’s radical record on “same-sex marriage,” abortion and other social issues because that would have motivated more Christians and conservatives to go to the polls. AFTAH will be inviting NOM to tell its side of the Washington State marriage vote story in a future interview. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes.  Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

11-29-12, Pastor Ken Hutcherson, Part One

Why is Alan Chambers apologizing — to unrepentant homosexuals — for Exodus International’s past slogan, “Change is possible”?

In this broadcast [click HERE to listen], recorded September 6, 2012, AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera and co-host John Kirkwood discuss several issues in the news surrounding the homosexual issue, including:

• Exodus International president Alan Chambers’ embrace of “gay”-affirming Christianity and his appearance before the “Gay Christian Network” (at which Chambers apologized for Exodus’ former slogan, “Change Is Possible”);
• An excellent response by Kirkwood to LaBarbera’s question: “Is ‘sexual orientation’ in the Bible?”;
• Commentary on Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias’ compelling answer at an open forum to the question, “Is it possible for a man or a woman to live a sincere Christian life as a homosexual?”;
• The Democrat Party versus the Republican Party platforms on homosexuality — and especially the Democrats’ formal embrace of homosexual “marriage”;
• Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL)’s overzealous response to FOX interviewer Brett Baier’s question about why the Democrats would remove the word “God” from their 2012 Party Platform (it was later restored in a controversial floor voice vote [listen at about 46:00 on the program]). Durbin asserts that “both parties are God-fearing parties”;
• The growing push within GOP circles — including this article on conservative icon Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze — to advance homosexual “marriage.”

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes.  Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

9-6-12, Peter LaBarbera & John Kirkwood