The same Gay Liberation Network that lied about Americans For Truth’s banquet numbers and tried to pressure the Embassy Suites Hotel to drop our reservation once called Chicago’s historic Moody Church (in background) a “House of Hate” — because Moody pastor Dr. Erwin Lutzer wrote a book critical of “same-sex marriage.” The anti-Christian GLN claimed that “40-50” people attended AFTAH’s banquet, when in truth over 110 showed up, packing the room. Photo courtesy Illinois Family Institute. 

By Peter LaBarbera 

The same homosexual activist group, Gay Liberation Network (GLN), that led a pressure campaign to oust Americans For Truth from the hotel where it held its successful banquet Friday night, is now spreading lies about the number of attendees — saying that “40-50” people came when in actuality over 110 people packed out the banquet room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard for the successful event.

GLN’s lie has surfaced on lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding’s site and presumably others as well. (We’re anxiously awaiting “The Pam’s” correction….) As you might imagine, the prodigious Gay Fib Machine is quite busy when it comes to smearing Americans For Truth, about which they are quite obsessed.

The GLN’s Andy Thayer — who led a contingent of what looked like about 10 or fewer scruffy protesters at our event Friday, somehow determined that “There were only about 40-50 people in attendance” at our banquet. But Thayer and his small band of followers were kept off the Embassy Suites property; they were forced to hold their protest signs (one slammed the “Bigot Banquet”) on the nearest big road (Butterfield Rd.), at least 50 yards from the hotel — so we’re not sure how they got their curious crowd estimate.

A couple of homosexual men did come to the banquet room to harass us after the event had ended and many people had left, so maybe that explains it.

The Gay Liberation Network has some warped priorities, to be sure: while it crusaded against the “hateful” Americans For Truth — even trying to knock us from our hotel — it recently praised Miller Beer for sponsoring the deplorable, sadomasochistic “Folsom Street Fair,” at which hundreds of men walked around totally nude and where orgies on the streets and various “consensual” beatings went undisturbed by San Francisco police.

Here’s more falsehoods from GLN’s Thayer, as relayed by Spaulding:

I doubt they were getting anywhere near $50/person from their paltry attendance, as one of our people went in to scope it out and was told by a person at the door that all that was needed to get in was a free reservation.  No way they covered their overhead, let alone raised any money.  

Truth be told, all of our guests paid their $50, and many much more, so thankfully we had a good night raising funds for our cause of answering “gay” activist lies in the culture.  

I did have an interesting conversation with one GLN protester. As I was in the parking lot, a woman popped out of her car, hugged me and proclaimed — smirk on her face — that she loved me. I hugged her back and told her that I loved her, too. But when I touched her, another woman (perhaps her partner?), still sitting in the car, called out: “Don’t touch him, he’s diseased.”

Diseased? I wish that poor, deluded woman would have come in to hear Charlene Cothran’s wonderful presentation about overcoming homosexuality rather than stand outside with the GLN’s ridiculous signs: she’s welcome to call me any time and I’ll put her in touch with Charlene, who once, too, let anger and ideology keep her from the truth.

 Charlene Cothran addresses Americans For Truth banquet Friday.

Folks, the homo-fascists over at the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network are cheering Miller Brewing Company for sponsoring the recent San Francisco perversion-fest known as the “Folsom Street Fair.” At the same time, they engaged in a (failed) grassroots lobbying campaign to cancel Americans For Truth’s reservation with the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard, Illinois — where we held a very successful banquet Friday, Oct. 5.

So let’s review the GLN’s position:

• Nudity-filled, sex-in-the-streets Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, where men masturbated themselves and other men in public, and whipped and spanked one another for the crowds, where Christianity-mocking “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” drag-queen “nuns” welcomed attendees: GOOD EVENT, WORTHY OF SUPPORT, KUDOS TO MILLER BEER! 
• Peaceful Americans For Truth banquet attended mostly by Christians; our first speaker, Charlene Cothran, described how God took her out of her past life as a homosexual activist, and how she now has the peace of Christ and wants to help others find it; our second speaker, David Parker, described his legal campaign to have public schools inform parents before their young children are exposed to pro-homosexuality-themed books and curricula: HATEFUL, EVIL EVENT, MUST BE PROTESTED; SHOULD BE BARRED FROM HOTEL!

We hope you get a sense of the folly of homosexual activist “tolerance” and the irrationality and hatred of the Left in general. Perhaps if we publicly embraced nudity and perversion like Folsom, GLN would have called off its protest of our event. Anyway, here’s GLN’s and Schwartz’s September 28 e-mail letter commending Miller Beer for financing the sick San Francisco Folsom Street Festival (emphasis added):

“Thanks for Backing Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco” 

 

Julian Green
Miller Lite Beer
 
Dear Sir:
 
It has come to my attention that your company is under attack for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.  The attack is emanating from such outfits as the Catholic League and Americans for Truth.  The Catholic League has as one of its directors, the laughable Alan Keyes, who embarrassed Illinois Republicans when he lost by the widest margin of any Illinois senatorial election.  Americans for Truth is a gang of far-right bigots who attack gays by saying we all ought to change into straight people through Jesus, and who would deny us equal civil rights.  Both groups portray themselves as victims as they go about preaching hate and discrimination.
 
The Catholic League and Americans for Truth want to impose one standard of behavior on everyone, a standard divined from ancient texts and a mythical “natural law, a standard that denies women control over their bodies and gay people the rights due to all citizens.
 
Please ignore these strident voices of intolerance and bigotry.
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network, Chicago

A Lesson in the Lies of the Left 

By Peter LaBarbera 

Many homosexual activists love verbally bashing Bible-believing Christians who oppose “gay rights” — calling them various names and insulting them by comparing them to racists and, in the case below, white supremacists. Of course, they rarely use the latter technique against African-American Christians like Harry Jackson, who are increasingly vocal in speaking out against the homosexual activist agenda.

Frank Kameny, the homosexual activist icon who was fired by the federal government in the 50’s and who is currently being honored by the Smithsonian Museum as an American “civil rights” pioneer, coined the term “Christianofascists” to describe groups like Americans For Truth and Concerned Women for America that oppose homosexual activism. Something tells me that Kameny’s anti-Christian smear will not be found in the new Smithsonian’s exhibit about his life — since the academic world, like so many in the media, protects homosexual activists by hiding their more radical associations and beliefs.

(Kameny once addressed a meeting of NAMBLA — North American Man/Boy Love Association, the notorious pederasty group. Another American “gay” founding father, Harry Hay, enthusiastically defended NAMBLA’s right to march in “gay pride” parades.)

Here in Chicago, we have our very own accomplished Christian-bashers — Equality Illinois’ Rick Garcia — who called his own Catholic Cardinal (Francis George) a “bigot” — and, to a greater degree, the Gay Liberation Network, whose Bob Schwartz has a talent for name-calling like few on the Left. 

The easy thing to do would be to dismiss Schwartz and the GLN as part of the vast left-wing network of Christian-haters, and that they are. But as you read this latest rant from Bob, keep in mind that Schwartz’s virulent anti-Christianism is only stating forcefully what many homosexual activists and their allies believe.

Moreover, under government-sponsored pro-homosexuality (“sexual orientation”) laws, those who oppose homosexuality ARE treated as “bigots,” which is why “sexual orientation” legislation like ENDA (the Employment Nondiscrimination Act) is so dangerous. In Western tradition, the law was intended to punish wrongdoers, not people agreeing with God and acting in defense of natural law and time-tested religious and moral beliefs. Does “gay liberation” equate to oppression of religion?

My responses to Schwartz’s comments are in blue:

Poor, beleaguered Peter LaBarbarian. [cute, Bob] Not long after being denied space in a Naperville Holiday Inn for his banquet of bigots [more name-calling — falsely equating pro-family Americans who oppose homosexuality with rank bigotry], the “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality” leader, the would-be il duce of the hard core antigay right-wing, has taken another hit.  Organizers of a diversity in the workplace panel have disinvited the homo hater [disagreement is not hate, Bob], after three other panelists said they would not participate if LaBarbera did.
 

It is good to hear that HRC’s Daryl Herrschaft and others will not appear with hate mongers [more name-calling] who don’t believe we have a right to even exist [Gay Martyr Syndrome: looks like Bob and friends are “existing” quite fine; we simply don’t believe that people are defined by aberrant sexual behaviors, and of course we believe that homosexuals can change and abandon the lifestyle, as so many, like our Oct. 5 banquet speaker, Charlene Cothran, have], much less enjoy equal rights with other Americans [“equal rights” based on what? How you have sex? That’s not in the Constitution]. 
 

People like LaBarbera ought to be treated in the same way as those preaching white supremacy or that Jews are Christ killers who need to convert to Christianity. [Another misleading and hateful statement by Bob and GLN, laced with a profound bigotry against sincere Christians and all people — religious or otherwise — who believe homosexual behavior is wrong. Here he resurrects past societal injustices to justify his own errant lifestyle. I hate anti-Semitism and racism as much as Bob or anyone else; those issues have nothing to do with Americans’ views on the moral questions surrounding homosexuality and gender confusion.]
 

LaBarbera rails against “anti-Christian bigotry.”  This is a sham, a cover for hate hiding behind stained glass windows.  Many religious people held fervent beliefs that Jews and African Americans just didn’t rank up there with the better people, the chosen of god. People who believe and advocate for these things today are shunned as bigots. [Once again, Bob erects his twin straw men of racism and anti-Semitism, knowing full well that we at Americans For Truth abhor both these ills. The practice of homosexuality is shameful, and its celebration more so. Disagreeing with homosexual behavior is nothing more than agreeing with God.]

  Anti-Christian bigotry prevails: Human Rights Campaign’s Daryl Herrschaft threatened to boycott a DiversityInc Magazine forum on “Religion in the Workplace” if Americans For Truth were allowed to participate. The magazine caved in.

By Peter LaBarbera 

“How do you balance the need to create an open and equal workplace for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] employees with the religious beliefs of those who oppose same-sex relationships?” 
— proposed discussion question for DiversityInc “Religion in the Workplace” roundtable that includes an atheist and a homosexual activist but dropped Americans For Truth after being lobbied by pro-“gay” panelists

Today I was scheduled to fly to Newark, N.J., to participate in a “Religion in the Workplace Roundtable” discussion sponsored by DiversityInc Magazine. But I won’t be going to Newark – because three of the panelists decided that true diversity was something they simply could not tolerate.

On Friday, I received an awkward call from Barbara Frankel, DiversityInc’s Executive Editor, who had originally invited me to take part in the roundtable — along with Daryl Herrschaft, Director of the Workplace Project at Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual activist group, and several other panelists including the president of American Atheists.

An embarrassed Ms. Frankel said she was forced to disinvite me, less than a week before the event, because Herrschaft and two other panelists (she wouldn’t say whom) had threatened not to come if I were allowed to participate. (I had already bought my airline ticket and received planning materials for the discussion.) Ironically, one of the proposed questions for the roundtable was: “How do you balance the need to create an open and equal workplace for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] employees with the religious beliefs of those who oppose same-sex relationships?”

Frankel apologized and said that she was very upset about this development, but that her hands were tied. Of course, she could have stuck with the original plan and told Herrschaft and his two allies to take a hike, or at least a refresher course on genuine diversity.

Frankel’s decision to cave in to HRC’s demands represents a triumph of the new, Intolerant “Tolerance” over real tolerance. In originally inviting me and Americans For Truth to participate, Frankel – representing the very pro-“gay” DiversityInc — was, to her credit, practicing old-fashioned tolerance: people with divergent worldviews listening and talking respectfully to one another about each other’s viewpoint, in a spirit of civility.

The New Tolerance – epitomized by Herrschaft’s arrogant threat – is “tolerant” in name only. It is driven by ideology and power. Here’s the formula: certain viewpoints that the Left finds intolerable – e.g., that homosexuality is wrong and changeable behavior – must be denied public expression, or at least be marginalized. All to build a “hate-free” society, you see. (Conservative college students know well this counterfeit brand of “tolerance and diversity.”)

 Author David Blankenhorn

By Peter LaBarbera 

David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values — who has done tremendous work in defending the institution of marriage and in making the case against “same-sex marriage” — has now proclaimed the “equal dignity of homosexual love.” This has earned him high praise from a leading homosexual “same-sex marriage” advocate, Jonathan Rauch. Watch their 3-minute video debate segment on “Bloggingheads.tv,” “Does opposing gay marriage make you a homophobe?” online here: http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=386&cid=2311.

How utterly tragic is this pronouncement by one of the world’s leading marriage advocates — who should know better than to go out on limb on the homosexual issue, apparently in solidarity with his homosexual friends and associates. (Click HERE to read Princeton professor Robbie George’s review of Blankenhorn’s latest book, The Future of Marriage, in National Review.)

On what basis and authority does Blankenhorn make this astounding claim about homosexuality? He is part of a growing trend of prominent “conservatives” (a label which Blankenhorn rejects) and self-professed Christians who have decided that they disagree with what the Bible says about homosexuality.

At least Blankenhorn is honest enough to state openly that he disagrees with the Word of God — most people at his level are not, preferring to play a double-game of proclaiming their fealty to Biblical truth, reason and tradition while actually undermining them all. On page 210 of The Future of Marriage, Blankenhorn writes:

“I am a Christian, I take the Bible seriously, and I know what the Bible says about homosexuality. I disagree with the Bible on this point. Or if you’ll permit me, I believe that Jesus’ teachings are inconsistent with the idea that today in the United States we should judge people as blameworthy just for being gay or lesbian.”

That puts Blankenhorn’s latest statements on homosexual “love” in perspective. Let’s hope and pray that he returns to truth on this issue, and that his friend Jonathan Rausch leaves homosexuality behind.

Predictably, homosexual activists are already touting the “failure rate” revealed by this study. However, many of the same activists have denied that people can change their “orientation” (i.e., their homosexuality) at all, a claim that is belied by Jones’ and Yarhouse’s research and ample evidence in the real world. Hopefully, this will be the first of many serious studies proving the reality of change to skeptical secularists and the media.

Another factor from my experience as a close observer of the “ex-gay” phenomenon is that many former homosexuals do not linger in “reparative therapy” programs, or participate in them at all. They attribute their dramatic and (relatively) rapid transformation to the power of God, and likely would not show up in a study of this kind. In fact, these “unstudied” overcomers would appear to be the most successful ex-homosexuals because they’ve moved on with their lives — as “reborn” Christians move on after overcoming any besetting sin. Moreover, they are not proud of their former sinful lifestyle and may not even wish to discuss it.

Who knows how many thousands of formerly “gay” men and “ex-lesbians” fit into this category — who will likely never be a statistic in this type of research? — Peter LaBarbera

The following is taken from a Baptist Press report on the ex-“gay” study. For the full Baptist Press article, click HERE.

Landmark Study: Change for Homosexuals Is Possible 

By Michael Foust, Baptist Press

Sep 14, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–In what some are calling groundbreaking research, a new four-year study concludes it is possible for homosexuals to change their physical attractions and become heterosexual through the help of Christian ministries.

The data was released Sept. 13 at a news conference in Nashville, Tenn., and will be published in the forthcoming book, “Ex-Gays?” (InterVarsity Press) by psychologists Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. Thirty-eight percent of the subjects followed in the study said they had successfully left homosexuality, while an additional 29 percent said they had had only modest successes but were committed to keep trying. In another significant finding, Jones and Yarhouse said attempts at conversions do not appear to be psychologically harmful.

Experts in the field call it the first scientific study performed on a sample of individuals undergoing Christian counseling, monitoring their successes and failures from the beginning. A follow-up study is being conducted and will be released in the future.

“These findings contradict directly the commonly expressed views of the mental health establishment that change in sexual orientation is impossible, and that if you attempt to change it’s highly likely to produce harm for those who make such an attempt,” Jones, professor of psychology at Wheaton College in Illinois, said at the news conference.

Folks, you hear a lot of bad news these days, but here’s some very good news: men and women are leaving homosexuality and living a life in line with God’s moral precepts — not in rebellion against them. Click this “700 Club” link to watch a wonderful video segment about how God drew Charlene Cothran OUT of the homosexual activist movement. Cothran, who went from “gay” activist to Christian evangelist, will be speaking at Americans For Truth’s banquet on Friday, October 5, in Lombard, Illinois, outside Chicago. See below or click HERE for more details and how to sign up online.

I hope you can come hear Charlene on Oct. 5, and Massachusetts father David Parker, who is battling the dangerous homosexual pressure campaign to indoctrinate young schoolchildren in pro-homosexuality viewpoints — without their parents’ knowledge. This banquet will educate you with not one but two of the most compelling speakers in the world on the homosexual issue — and I promise that it will energize you in the fight for truth for the coming year. In the process, you will be supporting AFTAH’s mission of answering the lies of the “GLBT” (that’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) movement, with information that the Political Correct media will not give you.

How to Sign Up for the Oct. 5 Banquet

Seats are filling up, so sign up today. You can do so using a VISA or MasterCard on our new Online Donations page HERE, or send a check for $50/seat (table of 10 for $500) to:

Americans For Truth
ATTN: Banquet Coordinator
P.O. Box 5522
Naperville, IL 60567-5522

You can also sign up using Paypal or your American Express or Discover card HERE. Call 312-315-6152 to place a credit order by phone or get more information.

One more thing: please consider buying a ticket for your pastor or priest to come to the banquet, and make arrangements for your teenage children, grandchildren, or their friends, to come. Many pastors are ignorant about these matters, or too timid to discuss them effectively from the pulpit. And so many young people these days are believing the lie that people are “born gay,” and that’s “who they are.” But in the case of Charlene, “being gay” is who she WAS.

Homosexuality is a changeable behavior, not a “proud,” inborn identity. Young people need to see real, live men and women who have overcome same-sex desires — to strengthen their faith in God, and help them to share this heartwarming truth with their peers.

So bring a teenager or college student to this banquet on Friday, October 5 to help inoculate them against pro-homosexual professors in college and against a pop culture that celebrates sexual experimentation and denigrates Biblical morality.

Watch this video about Charlene Cothran. Note how God turned her “pride” into shame: her transformation began when she felt ashamed at a “gay pride” event for African Americans, in Chicago! At the end of the video you can watch Pat Robertson’s heartfelt prayer for people caught up in homosexual sin. I don’t see any “hate” in this man who so many liberals love to … hate. Nope, instead I see the love of Christ for people who are going down the wrong road of homosexuality. In fact, none of the people of faith I know “hates” homosexuals; we simply disagree with them and want them to know the that same indescribable joy that lights up Charlene’s face, as you can watch on the video!

Charlene tells me that part of her new life is meeting all the pro-family leaders like Pat Robertson — people she once despised as a homosexual activist — and learning that they are kind-hearted folk who just believe the Bible and sincerely want men and women to find freedom through Jesus Christ.

It is a privilege to welcome Charlene back to Chicago, and this time without that sense of shame! I hope you can join me in hearing her God-glorifying testimony of COMING OUT … from homosexuality. See below or sign up online HERE, or CLICK THIS LINK for more information on the Oct. 5 banquet.

God bless you,

Peter LaBarbera

Americans For Truth

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love.”  (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)

How to Sign Up for the Oct. 5 Banquet

Use your VISA or MasterCard on our new Online Donations page HERE, or send a check for $50/seat (table of 10 for $500) to:

Americans For Truth
ATTN: Banquet Coordinator
P.O. Box 5522
Naperville, IL 60567-5522

You can also sign up using Paypal or your American Express or Discover card HERE. Call 312-315-6152 to place a credit order by phone or get more information.

The following letter was sent today by the leftist, Chicago-based organization “Gay Liberation Network,” which routinely protests pro-family and Christian events — and which once blasted historic Moody Church in Chicago as a “House of Hate.” 

Note how Bob Schwartz equates the defense of historic Judeo-Christian morality with “hate.” We encourage readers to pray for Bob, who, is a very bitter and angry man. Readers can contact Dennis Igoe, General Manager of the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, at dennis@naperselect.com or 630-505-4900.

___________________________ 

E-mail subject header: “Thank you for cancelling bigot banquet”

Dennis Igoe
Manager, Naperville Holiday Inn
Naperville, Illinois
 
Dear Mr Igoe:
 
It has just come to our attention that you canceled a banquet by “Americans For Truth,” an antigay hate organization.  We thank-you for doing so, given that antigay hate under the guise of religion is still hate.  Similarly, anti-immigrant hate under the guise of patriotism is the real agenda of the Minuteman Project, a group barred from another Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake.
 
No doubt Peter LaBarbera had our organization, Gay Liberation Network, in mind when he informed you that “homosexual organizations” might picket his hate fest.
 
It has become the cant of bigot organizations like Americans For Truth to cry that there is “anti-christian discrimination” at work whenever anyone stands up for fair play, such as in this instance of a private corporation refusing to provide a platform for rank bigotry.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network
 
Copy: Americans for Truth