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C-FAM: Radical Homosexual Campaign Launched by UN OfficialsNovember 9th, 2007Urgent report from C-FAM, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute: November 8, 2007 (NEW YORK — C-FAM) At a meeting at UN headquarters this week, a coalition of NGOs and the governments of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay hosted the New York launch of a document which seeks to advance homosexual rights at the national and international levels. Boris Dittrich, advocacy director for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender program at Human Rights Watch and moderator of the event stated that this document was the “Magna Carta for human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity.” Called the Yogyakarta Principles, the document lists human rights that already exist in binding international law such as the right to life and freedom from torture, and reinterprets each one to include homosexual rights. Based on the tenet of non-discrimination, the Principles assert that nations are legally bound to change their constitutions and penal codes to incorporate homosexual rights, including rights to same-sex unions and gay adoption. According to the Principles, “Sexual orientation is understood to refer to each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional [sic] and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.” The document states that “gender identity is understood to refer to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.” Read the rest of this article » CWA: First Amendment Trampled With ENDA PassageNovember 8th, 2007CWA Release, November 8, 2007 [Call your senators at 202-224-3121 or go to www.congress.org; call President Bush and urge him to veto ENDA if it passes at 202-456-1414 or 202-456-1111, or www.whitehouse.gov/contact.] Washington, D.C. — On Wednesday, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed — largely along party lines — H.R. 3685, the so-called Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), by a vote of 235–184. [Click HERE for the Roll Call and HERE to see which Congressmen voted against their party’s majority.] Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, “By passing this Orwellian piece of legislation, the Democrat-controlled House has displayed exceptional arrogance. Congress apparently believes it has carte blanche authority to nullify any constitutional provision which it finds bothersome. In this case, they’ve drawn a black line through the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.” ENDA contains an extremely weak religious exemption which might partially protect some religious organizations but would leave many others — such as Bible bookstores and many Christian schools — entirely unprotected. It would additionally crush individual business owners’ guaranteed First Amendment rights. Read the rest of this article » Rep. Roy Blunt: Democratic Majority’s ENDA Bill Takes Dead Aim at Religious FreedomNovember 8th, 2007
Majority’s ENDA Bill Takes Dead Aim at Religious Freedom Legislation creates conflict between one’s right to religious freedom, and another’s right to sue you for exercising it WASHINGTON – House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after Democrats failed to secure a veto-proof majority on the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would erode one’s right to religious freedom by strengthening another’s right to sue you for practicing it: “The structure of the bill before us today is eerily similar to legislation we’ve seen from this majority all year: a favorable, purposefully misleading title applied to a bill that’s poorly assembled and oblivious to its own consequences. “In this case, the so-called ‘Employment Non-Discrimination Act’ creates a legal quagmire for employees who practice, or even acknowledge, their religious beliefs – depending on where they happen to work, and subject to judicial interpretation. In the process, it erodes a basic, fundamental right bestowed upon us by our Creator – and a right guaranteed to every American under the U.S. Constitution. “As a former president of a Baptist college in Missouri, supporters of this bill have been quick to assure me that its most onerous provisions would not apply to that school. But no such exemption is available for Christian bookstore owners, as an example, or any other small business in which people of faith and deep religious conviction are relied upon as an integral part of the workforce. “Thankfully, Republicans secured the votes necessary this afternoon to uphold a presidential veto. It’s my hope now that this Congress can move forward on the real priorities affecting American families. Though a clear boon to trial lawyers, this bill does not meet that standard.” NOTE: Rep. Blunt penned a column on the majority’s ENDA legislation this week for Human Events, available HERE. His speech on the floor of the House can be viewed on YouTube by clicking HERE. Roll Call on ENDA after 235-184 Passage; Liberty Counsel Asks for Presidential VetoNovember 8th, 2007Click HERE for a list of Republicans and Democrats who broke with their party’s majority on the ENDA bill. From Liberty Counsel, November 7, 2007 Contact President Bush and Ask Him to Veto ENDA – H.R. 3685 Passed by a vote of 235 to 184 We told you earlier this week about the dangers of ENDA (Employment Nondiscrimination Act), which elevates “sexual orientation” to a protected civil right. Unfortunately, the bill passed this evening. Religious freedom for Christian employees and business owners is in jeopardy! Read more about the dangers of ENDA. President Bush has said that he will veto the bill. A veto override would require 270 votes (2/3 of the House). Read the rest of this article » Congressmen Who Broke with Party on ENDA VoteNovember 8th, 2007ENDA VOTE TALLY: Total was 235-184; bill passed and moves to U.S. Senate By Party: Republicans Voting in Favor Biggert (R-13, IL) Democrats Voting Against ENDA Barrow (D-12, GA) * indicates that “no” vote was likely because “gender identity” (pro-transgender) language was not included PFOX: Proposed Md. ‘Gender Identity’ Bill Would Have The Effect of Legalizing Indecent Exposure to MinorsNovember 8th, 2007PFOX News Advisory: November 8, 2007 Contact: Regina Griggs, Director, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) 703-360-2225 PFOX@pfox.org www.pfox.org ‘Weekend Transgenders’ to Use Women’s Shower Rooms and Bathrooms? The bill, slated for a vote on Tuesday, Nov. 13, would add ‘gender identity’ as a protected class for ‘transgenders.’ It would guarantee the right to use public facilities consistent with the person’s gender identity “publicly and exclusively expressed or asserted.” No sex change is necessary. When asked if the proposed law would apply to weekend transgenders, Council member Duchy Trachtenberg refused to answer, instead insisting that “transgender people face serious discrimination … in public accommodations.” “There’s a good reason why transgenders face ‘serious discrimination’ when using shower rooms and toilets that don’t apply to their gender,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX. “It’s because they don’t belong there. What parents want their daughter to use the public pool’s locker room with a naked man who cross-dresses full-time or part-time? This bill in effect legalizes indecent exposure to minors in these kinds of situations.” Read the rest of this article » Homosexuality Activists Applaud Allstate’s Firing of Matt BarberNovember 8th, 2007Americans For Truth received the following two e-mails via our website after our recent posts mentioning Matt Barber’s firing by Allstate in 2005. Note the crude, concocted e-mail address in the first hate message, which we redacted below (AFTAH regularly gets emails from cowardly, “insult-and-run” activists who block the reply to their message):
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Proposed ENDA Amendments Hardly Sufficient to Reduce Threat to Religious Freedom; Vote TomorrowNovember 6th, 2007
NOTE TO READERS: Proposed amendments to H.R. 3685, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) approved by the Rules Committee for a vote on the House floor — probably tomorrow — do little to address the bill’s core problem: it tramples on the rights of Christian and moral-minded businessmen by creating new federal employment rights based on aberrant sex (or at least the inclination toward homosexuality/bisexuality). AFTAH released the following media advisory today: Americans For Truth November 6, 2007 Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631 Americans For Truth Says ENDA, H.R. 3685, Would Lead to Religious Persecution Christian Newswire. NAPERVILLE, Illinois — Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera today urged Christian, Muslim and other moral-minded Americans to “wake up to the tremendous threat that the ‘ENDA Our Freedom’ Bill, H.R. 3685 (Employment Nondiscrimination Act), poses to their religious and First Amendment freedoms.” H.R. 3685 could be debated on the House floor today. [It now appears the vote will be Wednesday, Nov. 7.] See Americans For Truth’s paper, “14 Good Reasons to Oppose HR 3685, the ‘ENDA Our Freedom’ Bill.” Call Congress at 202-224-3121 or go to www.congress.org. “In an era when homosexuals are being hired – not fired – for “being gay” — and when Christians are already being punished or fired by corporations like Allstate for opposing homosexuality, ENDA would lead to further harassment of faith-motivated employees by creating federal ‘rights’ based on homosexuality and bisexuality,” LaBarbera said. He offered this example as to how ENDA would codify discrimination: “Take an orthodox Jewish entrepreneur who owns a large day care center. He can now factor in his morality about homosexuality as a sin. (He rejects the idea of innate, innocuous “sexual orientation.”) Under ENDA, if his company were to grow to 15 or more employees, he would lose his right to consider his own religious and moral beliefs in hiring/firing decisions. A bisexual with good credentials who does not get hired might sue him for “discrimination.” (If he’s an outspoken pro-marriage advocate, he might be targeted for a “gay” lawsuit.) The government’s politically correct view of homosexuality could force this man, and hundreds of thousands like him, to violate their conscience. It’s Big Government with an amoral twist and, incidentally, a homosexual activist lawyer’s dream.” To understand the inherent conflict between “gay rights” and religious freedom, LaBarbera pointed to lesbian Georgetown professor Chai Feldblum’s 2005 Beckett Fund presentation, “Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion.” Unlike most homosexual activists, Feldblum at least recognizes that religious citizens have a valid moral claim in opposing homosexuality, yet she asserts that homosexuals also have a “moral” claim for their “civil rights” (including same-sex “marriage”). She calls the conflict between those two claims a “zero-sum” game. “Feldblum says her ‘morality’ outweighs that of traditionalists. I would strongly disagree, seeing that this nation was founded by people seeking religious freedom. ENDA would take away Christians’ and others’ right to stand up for Biblical morality and live by the dictates of their own moral conscience,” LaBarbera said.
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