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New ballot efforts seeks voter referendum on “gay marriage/civil unions” in Illinois in 2012
Note: it is outrageous that the State of lllinois would even consider FORCING religious adoption agencies (or irreligious agencies, for that matter) to place children in homes that are motherless or fatherless by design. Adults (proudly) practicing homosexuality are not good role models for impressionable children, who need a mom and a dad. (No, the sexes are not interchangeable.) The new Illinois “Civil Unions” law — rammed through Springfield in a lame-duck session — must be repealed to preserve religious liberty in the Land of Lincoln. “Exemptions” — even if they are strengthened — won’t preserve freedom.
In the meantime, a new movement has been launched to place an Advisory Referendum on “same-sex marriage” (and “civil unions”) on the Illinois ballot in 2012. Almost 300,000 signatures of Illinos voters must be gathered and turned into the Illlinois Board of Elections by April 2012 to make that happen. To get involved, go to www.DefendMarriageIllinois.org and download a petition and instructions. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tom Ciesielka, 312-422-1333; tc@tcpr.net; June 7, 2011
Catholic Leaders Take Legal Action Over Risk of Losing Foster Care Services
Catholic Charities in Illinois Seek Remedy for Best Interests of Children, Families
(SPRINGFIELD, IL) Leaders of three Catholic dioceses – the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, Peoria and Joliet – took legal action today as their charities fight to continue their work in serving the best interests of thousands of needy children and families throughout the state.
In March of this year, the Attorney General’s office issued a letter stating that the office “received notice that Catholic Charities … discriminates against Illinois citizens based on race, marital status and sexual orientation” in the provision of foster care and adoption services and demanded that Catholic Charities turn over a wide range of documents in response. The June 1 law authorizing civil unions in Illinois has raised further questions and criticism about Catholic Charities’ longstanding position not to place children for adoption and foster care with non-married couples who live together – regardless of sexual orientation.
This lawsuit, filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court, seeks a declaration that the charities are in full compliance with Illinois law in their current practices and an injunction against further action by Illinois government officials to the contrary. The charities argue both that the Illinois Human Rights Act exempts religious adoption agencies from the provisions relied upon by the Attorney General’s office and that the new Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act includes an express protection for the religious freedom of entities like Catholic Charities.
Christian business owners Jim and Beth Walder could be tied up in litigation for years to stop an attempt by homosexual activists and the State of Illinois to force them to host homosexual "civil union" ceremonies -- against their religious beliefs -- at their bed-and-breakfast in Paxton, Illinois. Here the Walders are shown with their five children.
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera said today that Springfield’s first-ever “Gay Pride” celebration is another tragic watershed for the Land of Lincoln – and said aggressive homosexual activism encroaching on America’s heartland will surely undermine the First Amendment and religious liberties of citizens who stand for traditional, biblical morality.
LaBarbera and AFTAH (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) will stand in silent counter-protest to the Springfield homosexual “pride” festival near the state capitol (on Capital Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets), under the banner: “Homosexuality: Wrong. Unhealthy. Unnatural. Changeable.”
AFTAH expands on the banner’s message below:
• Wrong: Historic Judeo-Christian teaching – Old and New Testament — holds that homosexual practice is sinful. (See Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Professor Robert Gagnon’s website, www.robgagnon.net, which ably refutes various LGBT attempts to affirm homosexuality as consistent with Christian ethos.) The Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Other major religions including Islam similarly teach that homosexual practice defies the Creator.
Naturally, efforts to transform American law to affirm people practicing same-sex behavior have collided with the religious and First Amendment liberties of those who disagree with homosexuality. In Illinois, shortly after lame-duck passage of the ”civil unions” bill, a homosexual male couple targeted Paxton bed-and-breakfast owners Jim and Beth Walder, who have held wedding ceremonies on their property. The “gay” activists seek to use the new law to FORCE the Walders to use their own private business (and property) to host homosexual “civil union” ceremonies against their Christian conscience. Similarly, LGBT activists are maneuvering to FORCE private, religious adoption agencies in Illinois to place children in homosexual-led households against their religious beliefs.
WARNING: Offensive descriptions and photos of materials that should NOT be promoted to college students
Books on display at "Leather Library" exhibit hosted and sponsored by University of Chicago. Book at center, "Macho Sluts," combines S&M, incest and pedophilia. Other books promote sadistic perversion and public sex. Photos: Peter LaBarbera; click to enlarge.
[First of several reports on U-Chicago’s corruption of students]
TAKE ACTION: Call the University of Chicago at 773-702-1234 and ask for President Robert Zimmer’s Office. [e-mail him at president@uchicago.edu]. Let him know that you are appalled that the Universiity is promoting sexual sadism and deviant pornography — even pedophilia — to its students. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that U-Chicago could be the first of MANY colleges to host the perverse “Leather Library” exhibit — but it also could be the last if this academic abuse causes the appropriate controversy. So make your voice heard on this today.
Keep this story alive: Lastly, contact Sun-Times reporter Kara Spak at kspak@suntimes.com [312-321-3000; press #5 twice] and: 1) thank her for doing the story; 2) tell her that most Americans would be outraged to learn of this academic abuse; and 3) urge her to keep following this shocking story of U-Chicago directly promoting S&M to students in the name of “diversity.”
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University of Chicago Promotes Sadomasochism and Pedophilia to Students — in the Name of Diversity
CHICAGO–The University of Chicago provided nearly $3,200 to a “kink” student group for a traveling sadomasochistic “leather library” exhibit at the University that eroticized pedophilia, incest, and the most deviant pornographic perversions known to mankind.
Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) sent a reporter yesterday to the exhibit – at the University’s International House – and came back with photos of the shockingly perverse offerings of the “Carter Johnson Leather Library,” including:
The lesbian porn book “Macho Sluts,” by Pat Califia, which includes a story about a mother who engages in sadistic, violent “sex play” with her own 13-year-old daughter;
“Gay” male pornographic fiction books with pederastic themes, including one 1975 book, “Small Town Boy,” about a 15-year-old boy who meets up with and is sodomized by an adult businessman visiting from New York City;
Photos and posters depicting the twisted violence and “consensual” degradation and cruelty of S&M – including one of a woman caning her ball-and-chained male ”slave.”
The University of Chicago "leather" exhibit featured dozens of homosexual porn fiction books like this one, "Small Town Boy," about a 15-year-old boy who williingly is sodomized by an adult man visiting from New York City.
IFI Executive Director Dave Smith got lied to by a few "pro-family" legislators who caved on Civil Unions in Springfield.
This interview with David Smith, Executive Director of Illinois Family Institute (IFI), aired Dec. 11, 2010 [click HERE to listen]. Smith was lobbying in Springfield against the “Civil Unions” bill successfully pushed by the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, and by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. (See the Civil Unions roll call in the Illinois Senate and the House.) Smith describes how supposedly pro-family legislators reneged on their “No” pledge as they caved under the tremendous pressure that the Democratic leadership brought to bear on legislators. Several politicians who had indicated they were against Civil Unions switched their vote — as House Speaker Mike Madigan and Quinn wheeled and dealed to secure passage of legislation that constitutes a giant step toward recognizing “same-sex marriage” in the Land of Lincoln. (Madigan and Quinn are “cafeteria” Catholics who disregarded the Illinois Catholic Conference’s strong opposition to the bill.)
AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera comments on the lone Senate Republican who voted to pass Civil Unions: Sen. Dan Rutherford, who was just elected Illinois Treasurer. He notes that Rutherford’s alleged homosexuality is a fairly open secret (or widely suspected) among the state’s Republican activists. In 2005, LaBarbera, then executive director of IFI, challenged Rutherford — who (mis)represents a conservative, rural district in central Illinois –to be forthright and honest about his sexual behavior, after Rutherford made his first major pro-homosexual vote (a pro-homosexual “sexual orientation/gender identity” bill). Rutherford avoided the question. Smith and LaBarbera also note the pathetic GOP opposition to Civil Unions in the state House — with just two Republicans rising on the floor to speak against the bill.
Biased, leftist SPLC has never reported hateful homosexual groups like ACT UP
The SPLC's Mark Potok oversees the organization's de facto "campaign of defamation" painting groups like AFTAH that oppose homosexuality as "hate groups." Potok admits that the SPLC has never identified a single "gay" group as hateful even though militant homosexual organizations like ACT UP and Bash Back! have targeted churches with vicious attacks.
TAKE ACTION: Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee (members listed HERE; Senate Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121) — and the House Committee on Homeland Security (202-226-2616; members listed HERE; House Switchboard: 202-225-3121) and urge them to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) working relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. The leftist SPLC is now slandering conservative, Christian and Tea Party groups by mislabeling them as “hate groups” on a par with genuine, fringe hate groups like the KKK. American taxpayers should insist that the federal government have no role in legitimizing the SPLC, which has politicized “hate” and turned it into a fund-raising business to demonize conservatives — including mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism. To read an in-depth report exposing the SPLC’s unethical practices, go HERE.
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Below is a useful article by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute — on the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC)preposterous smear-job against mainstream pro-family groups (including AFTAH, IFI, Family Research Council, and AFA) as “hate groups” because we oppose homosexuality and LGBT (“gay”) activism. Technically, the SPLC would argue that AFTAH and the other groups opposed homosexuality in the wrong way, but let’s be honest: ideologically speaking, the SPLC is so deeply committed to pro-“gay” advocacy that it considers suspect any organization that opposes pro-LGBT activism. Predictably, the left-wing, pro-homosexual echo chamber is using the SPLC’s “findings” to discredit pro-family groups.
Indicative of the SPLC”s tendentious and polemical “hate reporting” is its description of this writer as a “longtime gay-basher.” Using such semantics, that would make SPLC staffers like Mark Potok “longtime Christian bashers.” To read an excellent set of reports on the SPLC’s escalating “campaign of defamation” against conservatives and traditionalists, read this special Social Contract Journal edition.
As Barb Anderson of the (potential future “hate” group?) Minnesota Family Council and I discussed in Part One of our AFTAH Radio Hour interview [click HERE to listen], the SPLC’s cynical “hate” dragnet is growing so wide that we have almost reached the point where if a pro-family group is NOT INCLUDED on the SPLC’s “hate” list, it must be slacking off in resisting the destructive homosexual agenda. I write “almost” because some of our good friends such as Liberty Counsel and Campaign for California Families have not yet officially been designated “haters”; their time will come. Of course, the truth is, nobody “hates” like the American Left — especially militant homosexual activists.
I like Laurie’s reference to the “Morality Police”; how ironic that the Left has become the mirror of what it hates: the societal “moral” scold. Remember that the dogmatists on the Left once screamed against the “Religious Right”: “Don’t impose your morality on the rest of us!” Now it’s the pro-“queer” Left that works diligently to “impose its immorality” on America using every dirty tactic ever conceived by Saul Alinsky (e.g., “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”; see this piece). I half expect Potok or SPLC co-founder Morris Dees to show up in Wheeling, West Virginia, claiming to “have in my hand the names of 57 newly designated anti-gay hate groups….”
Perverted and Christian-hating sex columnist treated with great respect in Chicago
"Queer" sex columnist Dan Savage believes straight married couples should have outside sex (like many homosexual male couples) as a way to help reduce the divorce rate. Few in the LGBT movement have a record as extreme and hateful as Savage when it comes to vulgar demonizations of pro-family leaders like former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
[CORRECTION: Note HERE our technical correction to this article: Dan Savage correctly points out that his and his male partner’s “three way” trysts were with acquaintances — NOT “strangers” as we originally reported in this piece.]
TAKE ACTION: Call taxpayer-funded WTTW at 773-583-5000 (9-5:00 Central Time M-F; hit “0” and ask for Phil Ponce). Or contact WTTW CEO and President Dan Schmidt. Let WTTW know that it is hypocritical and shameful that they were so respectful toward a hate-filled, vulgar anti-religious homosexual extremist like Dan Savage. Eight percent of WTTW’s budget comes from the taxpayers: urge the station to balance their in-depth interview with the anti-Christian Savage with an extended interview with a pro-family leader opposed to mainstreaming homosexuality. You can e-mail the program at chicagotonight@wttw.com. Or leave an online message on Chicago Tonight’s contact form HERE. You can also contact your Congressman at 202-224-3121 (www.Congress.org) regarding cutting off all federal funds the far-left-biased Public Broadcasting System [contact PBS’ Ombudsman HERE].
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Folks, I sent a version of the letter below to WTTW, Chicago’s main public TV station, and its daily evening program, “Chicago Tonight.” Apparently, like most of the rest of Chicago’s Left-dominated media, WTTW has decided that there is no legitimate “other side” on the homosexuality issue. Hence Wednesday they felt free to do an embarrassingly uncritical interview with renegade ex-Catholic Dan (“Saliva Terrorist”) Savage — who is as radical and perverted a Christian-basher as there is in the LGBT movement. [To view Ponce’s fawning interview with Savage, go HERE.]
I forgot to mention in my letter Savage’s admitted “three way” gay sexual romps — he, his “husband” Terry and a male acquaintance [NOTE: see AFTAH clarification: we originally reported that the three-ways were with “strangers”] — while Terry and he were co-adoptive “daddies” of “The Kid” (the title of Savage’s book). AFTAH wondered: who babysat “The Kid” during their orgy? Savage is a leading booster of “gay parenting” and homosexual adoption — once even landing as a guest on the conservative Michael Medved Show (Medved said he was unaware of Savage’s advocacy of “nonmonogamy” and his history of viciously maligning Christians.)
Savage is living proof that nobody hates like hard-core homosexual activists — yet because he is a “gay” activist and Christians are the target of his bile, Savage not only gets a pass from the media but is treated with deference and respect. (While in Chicago, Savage was also the featured speaker at the Chicago Humanities Festival.)
AFTAH banquet’s Married Couples Discount not available to counterfeit homosexual “marrieds”
New York City homosexual activist blogger Jeremy Hooper (right) and his boyfriend/"husband" can attend AFTAH's banquet Saturday, but they will not get our $50 Married Couples Discount, even though they went through a legal "marriage" ceremony in Connecticut.
When: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010; 6:00 PM; doors open at 5:30.
Who/What: Pastor Ken Hutcherson, keynote speaker. Catering by Maggiano’s Little Italy. Hutch is founder of the “Mayday for Marriage” rallies, a former NFL linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks, and pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, WA. [More info on Hutch HERE.] There may also be a testimony by a former lesbian who now helps others change through the Gospel of Christ.
Tickets: $75 per person (after Nov. 8) and at the door. Married couples discount (one man/one woman only!): $100 per couple, no matter when you sign up. Pay online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate. Or mail your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Pastors attend FREE; sponsor a pastor with your extra gift of $50!
Yes, AFTAH Discriminates…in Favor of Real Marriage
By Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality:
Dear Readers,
It struck me yesterday as I was reviewing my recent e-pitch for our AFTAH banquet — this Saturday, Nov. 13th at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights — that I wasn’t quite clear about the “discriminatory” intent of our invitation. Well, I wouldn’t actually use that word, but our fanatical homosexual activist opponents certainly would. You see, AFTAH is offering a Married Couples Discount for the banquet of $100 per married couple – a savings of $50 off the cost for last-minute registrants (and those at the door), who normally would have to pay $75 per person (or $150 per couple).
Here’s what I forgot to mention in the e-mail: our Married Couples Discount is available only to legitimately married couples (one man, one woman) – not homosexual “couples” playing house and pretending to be “married” as they practice a changeable and destructive lifestyle that defies their loving Creator and mocks the bedrock institution that they’ve politically appropriated in the name of “equality.”
GLN leader says hopefully that Academy instructor Cliff Kincaid “could get hit by a car”
The following is video of the August 5 protest against the AFTAH Truth Academy by a coalition of pro-homosexuality groups led by the Marxist Gay Liberation Network. The Chicago-based GLN attempted to smear the Truth Academy as “teaching hate,” but the real hate came from some of the protesters — not Truth Academy instructors like Ryan Sorba (featured prominently in this video). Several Academy presenters including Matt Barber, Greg Quinlan and AFTAH founder Peter LaBarbera joined Sorba in wading into the crowd, engaging various protesters on the question of “hate.” The first video below was shot by Illinois conservative Lynn Thomas, creator of Cao’s Blog, and Janet Aldrich [a second YouTube follows the jump]:
Note: it is outrageous that the State of lllinois would even consider FORCING religious adoption agencies (or irreligious agencies, for that matter) to place children in homes that are motherless or fatherless by design. Adults (proudly) practicing homosexuality are not good role models for impressionable children, who need a mom and a dad. (No, the sexes are not interchangeable.) The new Illinois “Civil Unions” law — rammed through Springfield in a lame-duck session — must be repealed to preserve religious liberty in the Land of Lincoln. “Exemptions” — even if they are strengthened — won’t preserve freedom. 
