The anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality ( AFTAH ) held a press conference June 17 in a vacant suite at 29 S. LaSalle. Peter LaBarbera, president of AFTAH, ( Photo by Kat Fitzgerald,www.MysticImagesPhotography.com ) introduced eight speakers to a small group of supporters and three media outlets, to draw attention to what they call President Barack Obama's "radical homosexual" appointments, specifically the appointments of Kevin Jennings ( Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for the Department of Safe and Drug-Free Schools ) and Harry Knox ( Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships ) . Both Jennings and Knox have been longtime advocates and leaders in the LGBT community. Jennings is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ( GLSEN ) and Knox is the director for Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program.
Coincidently, this meeting took place on the same day Obama released a memo that would grant federal employees some domestic-partnership benefits, a moved that was met with little excitement by some in the LGBT community.
The press conference appeared to be more of a sermon as supporters nodded there head in approval with several "amens" as each speaker commented on a specific issue they deemed
Matt Barber spoke about the U.S. military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, that prohibits anyone who is openly gay and, by his definition, anyone who is "open homosexual, open cross-dressers, people who are self identified as transgender, engage in homosexual behavior" to enlist in the armed services. According to Barber, if Obama keeps his campaign promise to repeal this policy when soldiers are sharing tight quarters and "open showering" facilities, this will disrupt unit cohesion and affects troop morale.
Barber, who is not a physician, described Jennings role to create safe schools as "a demonstrably dangerous" thing to do, and associated gays and lesbians to the "extreme rates of nearly every form of sexually transmitted disease, far above natural heterosexual behavior."
Hiram Crawford, a pro-life advocate, opened with the statement "Jesus loves you; we have thousands of people who have come out of the lifestyle of sodomy and are totally involved." Crawford, who is African-American, said that one of the main things he is fighting and is deeply concerned about is the "genocide" that is going on in the African-American community, associating high rates of abortion within the community to people who are trying to get "rid of the Blacks." He equated this to Hitler's slow process when he was trying to take over German.
Mary Anne Hackett, president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, protested Harry Knox's appointment to the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships because, in her words, " [ He ] is an anti-Catholic bigot; he's chosen to live a lifestyle described by our church as disordered and by the bible as an abomination." She called on Obama to remove Knox and asked, "Would President Obama be comfortable with a racist, and anti-Semite, a member of the KKK on the council—or is anti-Catholicism the only form of bigotry that's acceptable?"
The denial of rights for LGBTs was a constant theme, but perhaps the most disturbing was the speech by Diane Gramley, who is the president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania. She addressed the hate-crimes bill by stating that Matthew Shepard, who has a measure named after him, was not targeted for being gay but because he was an easy target. She blamed the media for distorting the story and believes that the bill will be used to prohibit the freedom of speech of "Sunday school teachers" and "pastors."
Near the end, after Fox News and NBC-5 had packed their cameras, LaBarbera made a comment about the lack of media willing to report or show their side of the story, saying, "the media has low tolerance for the truth." Speakers included Matter Barber, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, Pastor Larry Rogers, Itom Brejcha and Thomas More. To view clips from the press conference, visit www.QueerTVNetwork.com
