Excerpted from Liberals Aim to Push Ideas Through Congress, published Nov 16, 2006, by Associated Press:

…The president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, said he has high hopes for two long-pending proposals that failed to get through the GOP-controlled Congress. One would outlaw employment discrimination [ENDA] against gays, lesbians and transgender people; another would include them among the groups protected in federal hate-crimes legislation.

Gay activists also would like to see Congress repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits gay members of the military from being open about their sexual orientation – but a push for this may come somewhere down the road.

“Everyone remembers the fight President Clinton had when he made this his first major political issue in 1993,” said Aaron Belkin, director of a University of California, Santa Barbara think tank that studies gays and the military.

“While opinion on letting gays serve has moved leaps and bounds since then, the new Democratic Congress is not likely to come out strongly on this one from the get-go,” Belkin said.

Solmonese indicated that leading gay-rights groups will be patient with the new Democratic leadership, not pushing to have their issues be at the very top of the 2007 agenda.

“What we’ve got is a new and respectful Congress that’s open to our community, to learning the specifics of our issues,” he said. “To stress right now – ‘This is what we want and this is when we want it’ – would be premature.”

Continue reading at MSN…

TAKE ACTION

Excerpted from Scandalous San Francisco ‘Gay Pride’ Pastor and Chancellor Back in Saddle after “Leave”, by Hilary White, published Nov 17, 2006, by LifeSiteNews:

The pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic parish in the heart of San Francisco’s heavily homosexual Castro neighbourhood, is back in his position after spending some time “on leave from his duties,” following a scandal involving a homosexual activist group.

Father Stephen Meriwether, who also serves as Chancellor of the San Francisco Archdiocese, was placed “on leave” after his permission to allow a virulently anti-Catholic homosexual activist group to hold “revival bingo” games was revealed by faithful Catholic bloggers.

…The “Sisters,” whose motto is “go and sin some more” and describes itself as a “leading-edge order of queer nuns,” planned to hold regular bingo games including one that featured, as master of ceremonies, “Peaches Christ” (pictured left) on the Feast of All Souls, the day on which Catholics traditionally pray for their dead. The money raised by the games was to go to a number of AIDS and homosexual organizations including the parish’s own AIDS outreach group.

After a local Catholic posted information about the event to the popular ‘blog of Catholic apologist and writer, Mark Shea, the Archdiocese issued a statement on Oct. 30 saying that permission should not have been given and the group’s activities at the parish were to cease “immediately.”

Archdiocesan spokesman Maurice Healy said, “For years the group has directed contempt and ridicule at Catholic faith and practices… Fr. Meriwether is on leave from his duties.”

Another Catholic blogger and former editor of the magazine Catholic World Report, was sceptical of the veracity of the Archdiocese’ action.

“This is public relations damage control,” Domenico Bettinelli wrote. “A true attempt to stop the scandal to the faithful and assert Church teaching would take stronger and more public steps. This sounds like they’re doing just enough to take the heat off without having to do anything substantive that would annoy certain people.”

…Bettinelli’s scepticism seems to have been justified. Most Holy Redeemer parish website now carries a notice for a celebratory pancake breakfast, set for November 19, in honour of Fr. Meriwether’s return from “leave.”

The parish website carries a message from Fr. Meriwether saying,

“You will find the good people of our parish old, young, married, gay, lesbian, transgender, affluent, homeless, blue-collar, converts, cradle Catholics, radical, traditional, questioning, fervent.”

The website also includes links to various homosexual activist groups including Dignity San Francisco, the Gay Catholic Forum, the Conference of Catholic Lesbians, and the dissident anti-Catholic organization, Voice of the Faithful.

Father Meriwether was appointed to his post as archdiocesan chancellor by the former archbishop of San Francisco, William Levada. Levada is now a cardinal and serves in Rome as the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As such, he is considered the second most powerful man in the Catholic Church.

…The website of the parish features photos of Fr. Meriwether blessing the regular parish contingent of marchers preparing to participate in the San Francisco “Gay Pride” parade. Included is a shot of Fr. Meriwether sprinkling the marchers with holy water while wearing full Mass vestments. Marchers from Most Holy Redeemer carried a banner sign and marched in the parade as a group. The photos show participants carrying the homosexual emblem of the rainbow flag and wearing t-shirts with the slogan, “Most Holy Redeemer, Pride 2006”.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

According to an article published in the San Francisco Times on June 23, 2006, Wal-mart gave a $60,000 donation to Out & Equal, a pro-homosexual employee advocacy group.

Wal-Mart is a $60,000 plenary sponsor of September’s [2006] Out & Equal summit in Chicago. The company signed on to support the workplace advocacy group just two years after Ken Pearson, a Wal-Mart executive [and chairman of PRIDE, a group for Wal-Mart’s homosexual employees], attended his first summit and reported his findings to Bentonville.

Those close to the company and this sponsorship say it is not just a façade and reflects a growing commitment by Wal-Mart to ‘do the right thing.’

“I think the company, with it’s mission and focus on diversity, really wanted to make an impact, knowing that the support would be well-received within the LGBT community,” Pearson said. Wal-Mart “has been making great strides in moving the needle in LGBT workplace equality.”

Out & Equal executive director Selisse Berry sold Wal-Mart executives on Out & Equal in two days of meetings on LGBT issues in Bentonville last December.

“What struck me about that was that the culture at Wal-Mart is changing,” Berry said. “They were eager to learn and kind of catch up.”

Click HERE to view Wal-Mart endorsement ad for Out and Equal homosexual rights conference.

From the Out & Equal website:

Out & Equal™ Workplace Advocates is the pre-eminent national organization devoted to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the workplace.

Our mission is to educate and empower organizations, human resource professionals, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and individual employees through programs and services that result in equal policies, opportunities, practices and benefits in the workplace regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, expressions or characteristics.

Click HERE to hear what Amy Andre of Out & Equal presented at the 2006 National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference last weekend.

Excerpted from A Gay Conservative?, by Cliff Kincaid, published Nov 16, 2006, by Accuracy in Media:

…I think it’s also important, with the election campaign behind us, to define what is meant by “conservative.” Whatever it means, it can’t possibly include Andrew Sullivan, who has written a book titled The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How To Get It Back.

People can claim to be anything they want to be, but it defies reality to claim that Sullivan (pictured right), an HIV-positive homosexual who embraces and celebrates the homosexual lifestyle, is a conservative. Sullivan told Howard Kurtz on the October 15 edition of his Reliable Sources show that he is engaged to be married to another man.

Kurtz told Sullivan: “You are a lifelong conservative who supported George Bush in 2000, and now you’re a fierce critic of the administration and you supported John Kerry in 2004.”

How can a self-described conservative have voted for Kerry in 2004? The answer lies in the fact that Sullivan is consumed by the issue of his own homosexuality. But because Bush opposes homosexual marriage, Sullivan has turned on him. Sullivan has also flip-flopped on the Iraq War, going from a supporter to an opponent.

So on what issue is a Sullivan a conservative? He claims to be opposed to extravagant federal spending. He refers to the “astonishing leap in federal spending under the Bush Republicans.” But I searched through his book and found no complaints about the disproportionate amount of federal money being spent on AIDS. So far, about $200 billion has been spent on HIV/AIDS. The FAIR Foundation exists to highlight the federal favoritism given to AIDS over other more deadly diseases that affect far more people.

In his book, Sullivan makes statements that would strike most conservatives as invalid or looney. He complains, for example, that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth engaged in “character assassination” of Kerry when the organization simply documented his war-time service and statements that assisted the enemy.

A self-proclaimed Christian, he spends some of his book bashing Christian “fundamentalists” who want to protect the institution of marriage between a man and a woman. Once again, this is where Sullivan’s homosexuality consumes him.

Continue reading at AIM…

By Peter LaBarbera

The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, a leftist homosexual organization, honored Frank Kameny at its 2006 Creating Change conference Nov. 8-12 in Kansas City, Missouri. At the event, Kameny referred to Christians with venom, calling them “Christianofascists” and “nutty fundamentalists,” according to an Americans For Truth reporter who attended the conference and heard his acceptance speech.

The author of the “gay is good” slogan, Kameny–whose papers have just been accepted by the Library of Congress and the National Museum of American History–also told conference attendees that “gay is moral and virtuous,” as part of his ongoing crusade to redefine ancient moral truths through catchy activist slogans.

I’ve known Kameny for years. I respect his zeal, but loathe his ideology, just as he loathes mine. He is brilliant but wasted his considerable intellect and talents on homosexual activism, which is a shame. Like others in the pro-family movement, I have been on the receiving end of Kameny’s angry and pointed letters, or should I say screeds, in which–if my memory serves–he would repeat his patented slogan, “Gay is good,” followed by, “Gay is godly. You are neither.” Kameny is a feisty old bird who agreed to sit down with me and Ken Ervin for an extended interview back when Ken and I were both working at Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. One of the things we learned in that interview is that Kameny is an atheist, which makes his “gay is godly” assertion a tad disingenuous. But hey, anything to advance the homosexual cause, right?

From the Smithsonian website: Dr. Franklin Kameny presents a picket sign to Brent D. Glass, Director of the National Museum of American History and Harry Rubenstein, Chair and Curator, Division of Politics and Reform, National Museum of American History. Photo: Harold Dorwin

We’ll have more about Frank Kameny later, but suffice it to say that this man with a penchant for anti-Christian bigotry and questionable sloganeering does not deserve to be honored as a “civil rights” pioneer by America’s national library. Somehow my mind just can’t get around the idea of putting Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman in the same category, historically speaking, with a homosexual and “fervent atheist” who says “gay is godly” and “gay is moral and virtuous,” just to sock it to the Christians.

TAKE ACTION – If you agree that Frank Kameny’s dishonorable legacy and outspoken bigotry against Christians is not worthy to stand alongside the noble legacy of great Americans like Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, please call or write these officials:

Library of Congress
Dr. James H. Billingham, Librarian of Congress
LM-608
101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540
phone – (202) 707-5205
fax – (202) 707-1714
Contact via e-mail

Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Brent Glass, Director and
Richard Darman, Board Chairman
phone – (202) 633-3129
Contact via e-mail

Note the reaction in bold below of veteran Detroit homosexual activist Jeffrey Montgomery to the news that a CATHOLIC high school had fired a lesbian school guard after the woman revealed her homosexuality. Montgomery implies that if Michigan had a statewide “sexual orientation” law, such an action would have been illegal. So much for the school’s freedom of religion.

Charlene Genther as an open lesbian has no more of a right to work at a Catholic high school after publicly snubbing Catholic moral teachings than I have a right to work for Montgomery’s radical homosexual outfit, the Triangle Foundation.

Lesson here: don’t believe it when “gay” activists say that their agenda does not threaten your religious freedom or, ultimately, your church.—Peter LaBarbera

Excerpted from Catholic School Fires Gay Guard, published Oct 19, 2006, by Detroit Free Press:

A gay-rights advocacy organization is denouncing the firing of a campus safety officer at Marian High School, saying she was dismissed because she publicized that she’s a lesbian.

“It’s a horrible lesson to the young women at that school,” said Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation in Detroit.

The officer, Charlene Genther, 55, was in her sixth year at the Catholic, college-preparatory school for girls. A former Detroit police officer, she has a daughter who graduated from the Bloomfield Township school in 2001.

Her firing has prompted Marian alumnae to action. A petition at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/genther that seeks an apology for Genther and the gay and lesbian community had gathered 136 signatures by Wednesday.

Genther said Wednesday that she has been in a committed relationship for 28 years and that it was no surprise to anyone at the school that she is a lesbian. She and her partner often attended school events, chaperoned dances and went to parent-teacher conferences.

But last week, when she began publicizing her autobiography, “Badge 3483: A True Story,” which addresses the relationship, she was fired.

Genther said Sister Lenore Pochelski, the school’s president, gave her the news Friday, two hours after a local newspaper reporter interviewed her about the book. She said Pochelski said she wouldn’t have gotten fired if she hadn’t gone public with the book.

“She was very clear,” Genther said. “She said it was because my lifestyle does not coincide with the teachings of the Catholic Church. I personally felt she was having a hard time firing me. …

…Montgomery said Genther’s firing illustrates the lack of protections against discrimination that gays have in Michigan. “In Michigan it is not against the law to discriminate against gay people. You can be fired if you’re gay. You can be refused public accommodations. There is no protection against discrimination.”

Continue reading at Detroit Free Press…

From Republican Party + Homosexuals = Anti-Life, by Jill Stanek, published Nov 15, 2006, by WorldNet Daily:

I wrote in my previous column that revelations during the final weeks of the autumn 2006 election season shifted my thinking on why national Republican Party leaders have been reticent to advance the life issue.

It may be too easy to dismiss them as cowards. It may well be they are compromised.

…The revelations about the GOP were of corruption and homosexuality among legislators and influential staff.In October, while Mark Foley’s homosexual and pedophiliac proclivities were coming to light, gay activists circulated a paper called “The List” to conservative groups outing several high ranking queer GOP staffers, some who worked for conservative legislators.

It’s easy to connect dots between corruption and ideological concession, but it may not be so easy to connect dots between homosexuality and same, specifically the sanctity of life.

But the homosexual and abortion lobbies are evil twins with the same agenda. Both want the freedom to commit illicit sex without physical or moral consequences.

From the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History:

In a ceremony [held Oct 6, 2006,] at the U.S. Library of Congress, long-time civil rights activist Franklin Edward Kameny officially presented more than 70,000 letters, documents and memorabilia to the nation. The gift represents a lifetime of Kameny’s personal papers destined for the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress along with several rare protest and picket signs to be made part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

In addition to these gifts to the federal repositories, many of the remaining picket and protest signs will be donated to gay and lesbian history archives throughout the United States for their collections.

“Nearly fifty years ago, the United States Government banned me from employment in public service because I am a homosexual,” Kameny said. “This archive is not simply my story; it also shows how gay and lesbian Americans have joined the American mainstream story of expanded civil liberties in the 20th century. Today, by accepting these papers, the nation preserves not only our history but marks how far gay and lesbian Americans have traveled on the road to civil equality.”

To make this once-in-a-lifetime gift possible, a volunteer donor group offered to support Kameny and his wishes. With advancing years and limited means, Frank Kameny was not eligible for a federal tax deduction, as is common with such an extraordinary donation. Following an expert appraisal of the documents, several individuals and groups stepped forward to partner with Frank Kameny and to establish the brief-lived Kameny Papers Project. It also has long been Kameny’s wish to ensure the papers – once stored in his Washington , D.C. attic – remain in the Nation’s Capital, his home for over five decades and that they ultimately are made available to all for historical research.

The gift was made possible through an original matching grant from a former Member of Congress, the Honorable Michael Huffington, as well as additional generous contributions from organizations and individuals including The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gill Foundation, Bohnett Foundation, Log Cabin Republicans and the Liberty Education Forum as well as Donald Capoccia, Charles Francis, M el Heifetz , Gregory King, Elizabeth Koontz, Jonathan Rauch, Ellen Ratner and Stephen Salny, as well as pro bono contributions from Joiner Law Firm, Attorney Michele Zavos, and Witeck -Combs Communications, Inc. Richard Rosendall serves as ‘attorney-in-fact’ for the Kameny Papers Project.