Congress Passes Bill Protecting
Bizarre Sexual Orientations

By Andrea Lafferty

On April 29th, despite the heroic efforts of Republicans, the Democrat-controlled House rushed through H.R. 1913 (the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a so-called ‘hate crimes’ act) by a vote of 249 to 175 that makes all ‘sexual orientations’ and ‘gender identities’ into federally-protected classes – including ‘pedophiles.’

They voted to make “sexual orientation,” “gender,” and “gender identity” into federally-protected minority groups even though they refused to define these terms in the legislation.

Republicans, Congressmen Louie Gohmert (TX), Steve King (IA), Trent Franks (AZ), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Jim Jordan (OH), Tom Rooney (FL), and others took a key leadership role in fighting against passage of H.R. 1913. During the markup of this legislation on April 22-23, they repeatedly debunked liberal and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) talking points over the need for this bill.

Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and I attended the markup of H.R. 1913 for two days. During the markup, Steve King offered an amendment that was designed to exclude pedophilia from the undefined  term “sexual orientation” in the bill. King repeatedly attempted to get lesbian activist Tammy Baldwin to define what “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” meant.  She refused and was visibly shaken by having to appear to be in support of pedophilia. But, she argued against King’s commonsense amendment anyway.  It is clear that the LGBT crowd doesn’t want sexual orientation or gender identity defined because it would limit a liberal judges’ ability to define those terms any way they wish.

The Democrats voted down King’s amendment to exclude ‘pedophiles’ from the term “sexual orientation.”

These courageous Representatives used research and consulting assistance provided by the TVC, including our paper on the 30 sexual orientations and FBI statistics proving that there is no epidemic of hate violence against LGBT individuals. In 2007, there were only 242 cases of actual physical violence based on bias against an LGBT person. This is hardly an epidemic.

Numerous other pro-family groups also used TVC’s materials in their battle against passage of H.R. 1913 and generated several thousand alerts to members of Congress to help reveal the truth about this bill.

It is clear from monitoring LGBT web sites that they were outraged and rattled by the fact that the Traditional Values Coalition was successful in entering our facts into the record on H.R. 1913. In fact, our exposure of the bogus “findings” in H.R. 1913, pressured Democrats to remove our findings as their first action during the markup.

The “findings” are the foundation of a bill – used to justify the need for the legislation. Proponents of H.R. 1913 claimed, without any evidence, that LGBT men and women were so persecuted in their home states that they had to flee over state lines to avoid being brutalized. The “findings” also stated that these individuals were unable to find jobs or purchase goods and services because of this persecution and were being used to justify federal intervention because “fleeing across state lines” supposedly involved “interstate commerce.”

These laughable “findings” were exposed by TVC as being so ridiculous that Democrats couldn’t support them with a straight face. By removing them, of course, they deleted the stated reasons for the bill. Democrats and their LGBT allies have never let facts get in the way of a political agenda.

President Obama supports passage of H.R. 1913 and will sign this legislation as soon as it reaches his desk. In fact, on the White House website, Obama states: “I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance – legislation that will enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association.  I also urge the Senate to work with my Administration to finalize this bill and to take swift action.”

Obama and his wife Michelle promised the LGBT movement that they would support every objective of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender activists before the election. Mrs. Obama told a crowd of LGBT activists at the Democratic Convention that her husband was 100% behind their goals. To date, Obama has appointed at least 11 LGBT individuals to recruit staff for the Executive Branch.

What’s Next?

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Olympia Snowe (RINO-VT) have introduced their version of the hate crimes bill in the Senate, S.909. A vote on the Senate bill is expected to take place before Memorial Day. This legislation is on a bullet train to the President’s Oval Office for his signature.

Now is the time to contact your two U.S. Senators and ask that they vote NO on any “hate crimes” bill that adds sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity as federally protected classes. Ask them to oppose any legislation that treats Americans differently under the law based on their sexual preferences and habits.

Andrea Lafferty is the Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition the largest non-denominational, grassroots church lobby in America. Founded in 1980, by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, Chairman, TVC has sought to empower people of faith through knowledge. TVC speaks on behalf of over 43,000 churches bridging racial and socio-economic barriers and includes most Christian denominations. For more information visit their website at http://www.traditionalvalues.org.