Following its decision in Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Kansas Court of Appeals to reconsider the conviction of gay teen-ager Matthew Limon. (Previous XGW coverage. Focus on the Family defended the sentencing.)
In a ruling published today, the Kansas Court of Appeals upholds the state’s discriminatory sentencing of gay teen-agers and dictates that the young man will remain in prison until he is 35.
ACLU response
Addendum: From an AP article in the Dodge City Daily Globe:
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who defended the 17-year prison sentence for Matthew Limon, now says the state’s “Romeo and Juliet” law is too lenient. The law virtually eliminates the prison sentence for underage sex if both partners are close of age and heterosexual.
But Kline maintains that gay teen-agers should still be punished as harshly as Limon, and more harshly than heterosexual teens.
In an interview with Human Events, Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America maps out the organization’s strategy on gay marriage.
Specifically, CWA believes the Federal Marriage Amendment to ban gay marriages in every state is too weak, because the antigay Alliance for Marriage was able to market FMA as if it allowed civil unions. Alliance for Marriage did this even though one of the writers of the amendment language, a Professor Robert George of Princeton University, specifically crafted FMA to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships forever in every state.
Rios claims not to be confident that FMA can pass in this Congress. Her organization’s strategy, then:
- Pass legislation barring federal courts from ordering one state to recognize another state’s civil unions
- Empower louder, more extreme antigay activists at the grassroots level
- Replace “our weaker brothers” in public office who are unwilling to legislate against homosexuals
On his blog “Just Think!” on Jan. 7, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers says those who knowingly transmit HIV should be prosecuted, regardless of sexual orientation.
But that was not Chambers’ public position in regard to Michael Johnston when the scandal broke — nor does Chambers clarify his position on Johnston now.
To the best of XGW’s knowledge, Johnston remains in hiding.
In the Jan. 23 issue of Spotlights, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers attempts to explain why Exodus lobbies ex-gays and Christians to discriminate — and to promote government-mandated discrimination — against gay couples:
Had same-sex marriage been legal in 1990 I am almost certain that I would have tested that option. I met men who I wanted to “marry”. Yet, as I look back as a mature adult, I realize that I wasn’t searching for a man as much as I was searching for an answer, a drug if you will, to numb the pain and make me feel better about who I was. The law kept me from making one, if not many, huge mistakes. And while honoring and preserving the sanctity of heterosexual marriage is the bedrock of my opposition to redefining marriage to suit a few, I believe a positive bi-product of keeping same-sex marriage illegal is that it will save tens of thousands of hurting young people like me from the biggest mistakes of their life: looking to man to satisfy what only God can.
If you are a former homosexual, I encourage you to take a stand for today’s gay youth by opposing same-sex marriage; they may not thank you today, but protecting them now provides them with a better chance at them being around to thank you later.
The conclusion is a bit silly:
As former homosexuals we have many opportunities to exercise our civil liberties, speak into the media and entertainment industries and call the Church to a redemptive response.
Just so long as homosexuals, tolerant heterosexuals, and Christians and people of faith outside Chambers’ ideological sandbox are denied their civil liberties, of course.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 has nothing to do with “lesbianism” or the Showtime cable network, but that didn’t stop Exodus from cutting-and-pasting a random Bible verse into its Jan. 23 issue of Spotlights.
Exodus board member Anne Paulk ridicules ‘The L Word,’ the Showtime network’s new weekly drama about lesbian characters. After accusing the show of invading her home and threatening her children (why does she have cable, and why does she pay for erotic channels?), Paulk says:
Instead, I measured it against the truth I know. Most of the women with same-sex attraction I have known, surveyed, or interviewed have had considerable difficulties in their lives to deal with including childhood abuse, depression, alcoholism, over-eating, drug addiction and various other forms of self-medication. Depression and suicidal thoughts have been rampant and most often related to the breakup of a same-gender sexual or romantic relationship.
Ms. Paulk is among the Exodus leaders who have spent the past few years locking gay people out of their lives: cutting off friendships with gays, misquoting gay former friends in their publications, ridiculing efforts at dialogue, and lobbying for laws to promote discrimination. So it does not surprise me that the same-sex-attracted people left in their lives are, in fact, unhappy individuals who are struggling with multiple disorders while resisting treatment by “secular” medical professions.
Addendum: While Ms. Paulk criticizes ‘The L Word’ for its failure to reinforce stereotypes, independent writer Jennifer Vanasco praises the show for its depiction of lesbians as unique and complicated individuals.
Commentator Deroy Murdock wrote an op-ed for Scripps Howard, reminding heterosexuals that their non-monogamous straight peers — not homosexuals — are the ones with a track record of undermining marriage.
In the Jan. 16 edition of Spotlights, spokesman Randy Thomas responded.
Read more…
The conservative Roman Catholic media agency Zenit published a lengthy interview Jan. 24 on the alleged parental and social origins of homosexuality.
The sole subject of the article is John Harvey, founder of the pro-celibacy group Courage, who offers no scientific studies to substantiate his views.
Harvey asserts that people with predominant same-sex attraction are predisposed from an early age due to environmental factors in the home — namely, an imperfect or unbalanced relationship with mother or father. He blames parents for failing to interrupt the predisposition, but blames homosexuals and the mass media for causing youth to be “seduced into a homosexual way of living.”
Harvey warns that healthy homes must have two, opposite-gender parental figures — if not mother and father, for example, then mother and uncle or father and aunt.
Exodus executive director Alan Chambers was a guest on gay author and activist Michelangelo Signorile’s radio show Jan. 27.
Chambers’ blog entry about the show
If anyone has a link to transcripts, media coverage, or comments by Signorile, please share.
Ron Belgau of Courage Seattle gave a talk at Georgetown University last week:
“The Love That Does Not Count the Cost: A Biblical Reflection on Same Sex Attraction and Christian Love”
Belgau is a vocal advocate for chastity outside of heterosexual marriage.
Nick of Morons.org doesn’t appreciate Focus on the Family’s effort last week to steer federal funding of faith-based initiatives.
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