Excerpted from UCLA Gets $1 Million to Study Legal Topics Involving Gay Couples, published Feb 26, 2007, by Associated Press:

A gay couple who hope to marry one day has donated more than $1 million to the University of California, Los Angeles, to fund research on legal topics involving same-sex relationships.

The gift announced Friday from John McDonald and Rob Wright will support what is described as the nation’s first endowed academic chair in sexual orientation law.

The two say they want to promote objective [?] research, but they also hope to aid the campaign for gay marriage and other gay rights issues…

Continue reading at Associated Press…

Note just how “objective” they are:

• This is not McDonald and Wright’s first gift to UCLA designed to promote homosexuality in American culture.

• McDonald and Wright are also benefactors of the public television newsmagazine In the Life which publicizes various aspects of the homosexual lifestyle.

More and more it is becoming clear that the homosexual agenda cannot succeed without censorship and trampling over other people’s rights. Can you imagine the can of worms that this legislation would open up? California is reaping the whirlwind of Christian apathy in the face of evil (masquerading as tolerance). If conservatives, churches and parents don’t pull their heads out of the sand soon and stop this juggernaut, California will deserve the oppressive fate that it gets. — Peter LaBarbera

Note: For some additional background on Sheila Kuehl, click HERE.

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From Legislator Introduces Outrageous Homosexual Bill, published Feb 26, 2007, by Christian Newswire:

SB 777 a serious assault on religious freedom in schools

[California] State Senator Sheila Kuehl has introduced legislation that will ban textbooks and teachers from any instruction that “reflects adversely” upon homosexuality, transgenders, bisexuals or those with perceived gender issues.

SB 777 is almost identical to last session’s highly controversial SB 1437, which passed the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“SB 777 is designed to transform our public schools into institutions that disregard all notions of the traditional family unit,” said Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute. “This reverse discrimination is an outright attack on the religious and moral beliefs of California citizens.”

SB 777 not only affects textbooks and instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1-12, it also affects all school-sponsored activities. School-sponsored activities include everything from cheerleading and sports activities to the prom. Under SB 777 school districts could potentially be prohibited from having a “prom king and queen” because that would show bias based on gender and sexual orientation.

“Pushing this radical homosexual agenda in California schools will inevitably conflict with the religious and moral convictions of both students and parents,” continued England. “The full ramifications of this sweeping legislation could affect the entire nation as most textbook companies tailor their material to their number one purchaser: California.”

“The term ‘reflects adversely’ is too nebulous and susceptible to broad interpretation,” said Meredith Turney, Legislative Liaison for Capitol Resource Institute. “For instance, does it reflect adversely upon homosexuals to report statistics on the rate of AIDS infections in America, including the homosexual community? And would the terms ‘mom and dad’ or ‘husband and wife’ be considered discriminatory?”

“Last session thousands of Californians called their legislators and the governor opposing the very same piece of legislation,” continued Turney. “In fact, legislators publicly stated that they received more constituent complaints about this legislation than any other bill. It proves that when a out-of-touch group has a radical agenda to push forward, they will ignore the will of the people.”

CRI is committed to opposing legislation that uses our children as social-experiments and tramples upon long-standing traditional family values.

Read SB 777

Excerpted from Ex-Hub Councilor Nabbed in Bid to Have Sex with Minor (now archived), by Laura Crimaldi, published Oct 11, 2006, by Boston Herald:

Former Boston City Councilor David Scondras (mugshot shown left) faces sex charges after he was busted in a Lawrence school parking lot with lubricant and booze while allegedly seeking a tryst in the woods with a 15-year-old boy he’d trolled for online.

Police say the “boy” that Scondras, 60, of Cambridge drove some 30 miles to meet for sex turned out to be a 20-year-old Lawrence General Hospital security guard.

The guard said he’d received a series of lurid instant messages and graphic pictures from the former five-term councilor, who used the screen name “Toppdadd,” seeking sex with a minor, and approached a cop for help in dealing with the messages, court and police records indicate.

“You know a lot of people have prejudices against guys who like to have sex with children,” Scondras allegedly told the security guard, identified in court papers as Michael W. Fornesi, during a cell phone conversation after the illicit underage rendezvous was set up.

…According to Shafer’s police report, Scondras, Boston’s first openly gay councilor, initially exchanged sexually explicit IM’s with the guard, and after being told he was communicating with a willing 15-year-old, who used the screen name “Cubscout4mastr86,” sent along his cell phone number and began soliciting sex.At Shafer’s direction, the guard called Scondras to offer directions to the school lot. Scondras told the guard, who used the pseudonym Josh, that he wanted to have unprotected sex with him “in the woods” and would bring marijuana, a police report states.

After Scondras arrived at the lot and identified himself to “Josh,” Shafer moved in for the arrest. In his report, he said Scondras resisted arrest and tried to flee.

…In Scondras’ car, Shafer said, were four blue packages of “Wet” lubricant, an open bottle containing a “red alcohol substance” and a printout of the instant messages.Scondras lost his council seat in 1993 after details of a series of obscenity-laced and slurred calls he made to a 911-dispatch operator. In 1996, he was charged with groping a 16-year-old boy in a movie theater, but the case was dropped when the teen refused to testify.

Continue reading at Boston Herald…

Excerpted from Former City Councilor Is Arrested on Sex Charge (Charged with trying to entice a minor), by Brian R. Ballou and Michael Levenson, published Oct 11, 2006, by Boston Globe:

David Scondras swept onto the City Council in 1983, a Harvard-educated tenant activist from the Fenway who wanted to fight for the less fortunate. He was reelected five times, serving as the city’s first openly gay councilor when few politicians spoke about their sexuality.

But a series of problems hastened Scondras’s fall from office. He was caught making rambling calls to police and acknowledged that he was an alcoholic, had been taking pain medication, and that his partner had been diagnosed with AIDS. In 1993, he was voted out of office.

Yesterday, Scondras faced new allegations when he was charged in Lawrence District Court with trying to entice a minor into having sex.

Police alleged that Scondras, 60, used the screen name Topdadd to send pornographic images and messages to someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy. Police arrested Scondras at 1:15 a.m. in the parking lot of Day Charter School in Lawrence, where authorities say he had arranged to meet for sex. Scondras allegedly tussled with an officer and tried to run away, before being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.

…Many recalled another episode in 1997, when Scondras was accused of trying to fondle a 16-year-old boy in a Back Bay movie theater. That charge was dropped when the youth refused to testify in court.

Neutral Unisex Bathroom Created for Cross-dressing Student

News Advisory:  February 23, 2007
Contact:  Regina Griggs, Director, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX); 703-360-2255  PFOX@pfox.org   www.pfox.org

Montgomery County, Maryland –  Three parent organizations are asking the Maryland State Board of Education to halt the new sex ed curriculum approved by the Montgomery County, Maryland Board of Education (BOE).  Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC), and Family Leader Network have filed an appeal requesting Maryland to stay Montgomery County Public School’s sex ed plans. 

The newly approved curriculum, entitled “Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality,” promotes cross-dressers, homosexuals, transgenders, bisexuals, the intersexed, and other non-heterosexuals.  It teaches children about “coming out” as gay, “gender identity” for men who think they’re women and vice-versa, and “homophobia” as a label for anyone who disagrees.

In one lesson, a boy begins to wear dresses to school, calls himself “Portia,” and wants to be known as a girl.  The principal gives him a key to a private restroom and a new student ID identifying him as a girl.  “Although transgenderism is considered a gender identity disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, the lesson plan fails to recommend counseling for students with gender confusion,” said Regina Griggs, PFOX Executive Director.  “Instead, it implies that schools should create new unisex bathrooms for cross-dressing students.” 

The lesson also refers to “Portia” as a ‘she’ when the law and biology classify ‘her’ as a “he.”  “This gender bending forces students to acknowledge ‘Portia’ as a female when he is not and creates gender confusion for children,” said Griggs.  “This flawed educational policy is not based on medical or scientific facts.” 

Despite repeated appearances by former homosexuals and a former transgender before the BOE, the Board voted to exclude ex-gays from the lesson plans although gays, transgenders, and the intersexed are included and taught to students. “Why do the lesson plans censor ex-gays when every other sexual orientation is discussed and supported?” asked Griggs.   “The BOE violates its own sexual orientation non-discrimination policy by choosing which sexual orientations it favors based on politics and not science.  Its discriminatory actions contribute to the intolerance and open hostility faced by the ex-gay community.” 

PFOX was a member of the curriculum committee representing the ex-gay community, yet the BOE voted to teach students that it is normal to change your sex (transgender) but not normal to change your unwanted same-sex attractions (former homosexual).  “The lesson plans instruct students that homosexual orientation is innate and inborn, despite testimony by former homosexuals before the BOE and all contrary scientific research,” explained Griggs.  

“The lesson plans are entitled “Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality,” yet the ex-gay community receives no respect and is deliberately left out of the curriculum,” Griggs said.  “The actions of the Montgomery County Board of Education are discriminatory, endanger children, and are politically motivated.”

“What happens in Montgomery County will happen to the rest of Maryland, so it is imperative to stop this ‘sex ed’ program now before it is fully implemented,” said Griggs.  Concerned Maryland  residents can take action at http://www.mcpscurriculum.org/take_action.shtml

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A copy of this news advisory is available online at:  http://pfox.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=155#155
 

By Peter LaBarbera

Born “gay”? Oscar host and very “out” lesbian Ellen DeGeneres
revealed that she was molested by her stepdad as a teenager.

It’s OK to be “anti-gay,” as long as you don’t hate people. That is, as long as you understand that “gay” is not an innocuous, inborn trait but an adjective describing wrong and destructive behavior.

Sexual revolutionaries stole the real meaning of “gay” (merry, exuberant, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary) decades ago, and it’s long gone now. So let’s try to redeem it by making some sense of what “gay” is and what it is not:

“Gay” is not an unchangeable trait like skin color and it has a moral component – unlike being left-handed or having blue eyes (to name two spurious analogies used by homosexual activists).

Nor is “being gay” “who you are,” as homosexual activists claim, but rather “what you do.” Even the word homosexual –– a Greek-Latin hybrid that dates back only to 1869 –– should be used only as an adjective, not a noun, as my friend and AFA-Michigan leader Gary Glenn reminds us (this is very hard to do, by the way).

The great news is that nobody has to be “gay.” Homosexuality need not be permanent in a person’s life, as proved by the thousands of former homosexuals living contented lives today. There are no ex-Blacks or ex-Latinos, while there are lots of ex-“gays” –– a fact that by itself should negate “gayness” as a civil rights category. (Strangely, many of the same liberals who lecture us about respecting “gays” either ignore or ridicule ex-“gays.”)

Nobody “happens to be gay,” either (another “gay” shibboleth). Environment plays a big role. Many “gay” men and lesbian women testify to dysfunctional or abusive childhoods and broken relationships with one or both parents. Ellen DeGeneres, a very public lesbian and host of the upcoming Academy Awards, has revealed that her stepfather molested her as a teenager. She is just one of countless homosexuals who testify to abuse in their past. Yet the media robotically parrot the “born gay” line as if it were just days away from becoming a scientific fact.

The semantic struggle that conservatives and Christians face is that there is no neat, positive equivalent to “pro-life” in the debate over homosexuality. Pro-normal? Pro-hetero? Nothing seems to work, hence we are left with the rather vague pro-family to avoid the negative-sounding, condemnatory anti-gay.

The evil genius of ‘gay’
Words have tremendous power. The evil genius of America’s homosexual activist movement is that it took a taboo behavior that was universally regarded as an unspeakable sin until a few short decades ago –– and redefined it as “gay.” In doing so, it created America’s “queerest” minority, at least until the homosexuals’ cross-dressing, “transgendered” allies came onto the scene using copycat tactics.

“Gay” activists succeeded in personalizing a destructive impulse to make it sound like a harmless identity, or trait.

From NewsCWiPP #32, published Dec 2006, by Dr. Peter Jones of Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet:

Having spent three days with 11,000 professors of religion and Bible at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Washington DC., I’m glad to be back in the peace of my Californian study. Every year, in the academy, orthodox biblical Christianity decreases in representation, while radical liberalism increases. The liberal SBL, founded in 1880, welcomed the fledgling AAR in 1963, but it is now being thrown out of AAR, apparently because privileging one religion in a meeting of “religion teachers” is too politically incorrect. So the cuckoo takes over the nest and the SBL must fend for itself.

While the joint arrangement persists (until 2008), I am able to observe religious history as it happens. Since 1991 I have witnessed the radical agenda stretch the liberal envelop to unimaginable extremes. I have deliberately attended the “cutting edge” seminars, since what the “cutting edge” conceives soon becomes acceptable to the liberal majority. Here is a sampling of this year’s offerings:

• In her plenary address, Diana Eck, president of AAR and professor at Harvard, introduced herself as a Montanan, a Methodist and a Massachusetts-recently-married gay — to enthusiastic applause. Her great contribution is the promotion of religious pluralism in America, but religious pluralism is often accompanied by sexual pluralism;

• In The Contemporary Pagan Studies Consultation, academic witches and warlocks conferred on the spiritual power of “fire circle drumming,” in which fire represents “hardly contained desire.” The audience heard about “Paganistan,” the thriving Wiccan community in Minnesota, and a lecture entitled “The Pagan Explosion,” documented that paganism has grown 38 fold in the USA in the last eleven years and 250-fold in Australia in the last five years;

• In The Theology and Religion Section: Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics, Wallis reduced the Christian message to a modern version of a social gospel for the Democratic party. An “evangelical feminist” railed against the genocidal foundation of America and called for the deconstruction of “normative heteropatriarchy.” One small but bright light came from a Canadian scholar who accused Wallis of nationalistic idolatry for making America, rather than the church, the source of Gospel action;

• In a review session of Christ and the Single Savior [subtitle: Gender and Sexuality in the Bible], Yale professor Dale B. Martin’s homoerotic interpretation of the New Testament teaching on sexuality began with a professor from Harvard Divinity School introducing herself by saying: “I do not know where I am in relation to Christianity.” Such confusion was hardly lifted when a Yale professor of theology asked Martin where Jesus had gay sex. Martin replied: “In the park, which is what the gospel writers meant by ‘garden.'” This trivialization and eroticization of Jesus Gethsemane suffering elicited not a single objection from the numerous theology professors in attendance;

• In The Queer Theory and LGBT Studies in Religion Consultation a paper “showed” the deep theological meaning of homosexual bathroom graffiti. With the verbal verve of a rap artist, gross sexual perversion was transformed into a noble response to “the dominant hegemonic power-structures of white, heterosexual, capitalistic society.” Another gay theologian argued that there was no genetic “binary template” (male/female) so we are all sexually becoming whatever we wish to be;

Ex-“gay” Christian activist James Hartline is drawing attention to a disconcerting announcement from San Diego LGBT Pride:

San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride has established a first-ever, paid internship position for a high school senior as part of its resolution to further involve LGBT youth into the long-term planning of Pride’s annual celebrations.

The position, which partly involves direct outreach into the youth community, sponsorship involvement and volunteer training, begins in January and runs until the end of August with the possibility of an extension…

“The voice of teenage youth is an integral part of the everyday planning process for our annual events,” said Ron deHarte, executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride. “The internship program is yet another growth step of the organization.”

We at Americans For Truth share Hartline’s concern and implore San Diego residents to speak out against the involvement of teenagers in planning and organizing an event which celebrates sexual perversion — especially given the track record of this particular “festival”:

In 2005, San Diego Gay Pride employed five registered sex offenders in voluntary and supervisory positions. One of those employees, Marty the Clown, a convicted pedophile, was hired to work in the San Diego Gay Pride Children’s Garden!

In 2006, San Diego Gay Pride continued its dangerous campaign against the young kids of San Diego by allowing children to march in its parade with porn-promoters, male prostitutes and nearly-nude male strippers.

No responsible adult who knows the reality of homosexual celebrations like “gay pride” parades would countenance placing teenagers or even younger children in that environment. And that’s just the point: many “gay” activists (and their straight liberal allies) are so committed to pushing for acceptance of homosexuality that they are not responsible enough to protect children. Parents, beware.

Some homosexuals would agree with Hartline, but many activists are so far removed from traditional morality and desensitized to the debauchery that surrounds “gay” celebrations that they’ve lost all perspective on how perverted the events are. One of the saddest spectacles I have observed over and over at “gay pride” parades are the young, impressionable children brought to view or even march in the parades as if they were being put on by Macy’s.

These are celebrations of homosexuality, for goodness sake! Isn’t it bad enough that adults are involved? In the name of “rights” and “equality,” a sin lobby corrupts children. — Peter LaBarbera

Our good friend Matt Barber (pictured right) — former Corporate Outreach Director of AFTAH and now Policy Director of Cultural Issues at Concerned Women for America — issued the following response to the sad story below:

A 14-year-old German boy has decided to undergo a sex change, making him the youngest patient in history to receive this extreme procedure. The young boy Tim, who prefers to be called “Kim,” has wanted gender reassignment surgery since he was 12 and claims to have considered himself female since age two. Concerned Women for America (CWA) is saddened that doctors and parents have fostered this young boy’s gender confusion and are allowing him to go forward with the surgery.

“This poor kid’s situation really undercuts the homosexual lobby’s deceptive equality-fluff and hyperbole,” said Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues. “It casts a bright light on the truly destructive, bleak and evil nature of the homosexual agenda. Has our world completely lost all sanity? That parents would allow their child to be treated like this is mind-boggling.

“Rather than addressing the emotional or chemical problems responsible for Tim’s gender confusion, his parents and doctors have bought into the homosexual lobby’s PC puffery hook, line and sinker. They’re about to rob him of his ability to father a child, and render him horribly disfigured and further confused. It’s not just a tragedy. It’s a travesty.”

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The following is excerpted from Unhappy As a Boy, Kim Became Youngest Ever Transsexual at 12, by Bojan Pancevski, published Jan 29, 2007 by Telegraph (UK):

A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world’s youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female.

The boy – originally called Tim, but now known as Kim – has started to receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will eventually complete the sex change.

Tim was diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago, when doctors and psychiatrists concluded that his claims to be “in the wrong body” were so deeply felt that he required treatment. The therapy involves artificially arresting male puberty, with a series of potent hormone injections before the administration of female hormones to initiate the development of features such as breasts.

…Kim reacted badly to the first signs of puberty, he said. “At that stage we realised that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice breaking.”

Kim’s parents consulted psychiatrists across Germany. Some condemned their support of their child’s desire to undergo a sex change, or suggested that Kim be kept under observation in a closed psychiatric ward. But others agreed that the child should receive therapy, because growing up to be a man would have damaged her personality.

Dr Bern Meyenburg, the head of a clinic for children and adolescents with identity disturbances at Frankfurt University, concluded that the child was serious. He wrote in his diagnosis: “Kim is a mentally well-developed child who appears happy and balanced. There is no doubt of the determined wish, that was already detectable since early childhood. It would have been very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a clear-cut case.”

…Should Kim change her mind before the surgery, the procedure could be reversed. [Note from AFTAH: Let us pray for this child to change his mind and stop this procedure before it is too late!] Doctors admit that the treatment involves a risk, however, and that its effects on children as young as Kim are not fully understood.

For legal reasons, the final stage – cosmetic surgery to remove the male genitalia – cannot take place until Kim is 18. Britain’s youngest transsexual is Angel Paris-Jordan, who was granted an operation on the NHS at the age of 17.

Continue reading at Telegraph…