By Peter LaBarbera

As a social conservative, one of the most troubling aspects of this presidential campaign has been the media’s (and John McCain’s) failure to flesh out Barack Obama’s “audacious” doublespeak on the issue of same-sex “marriage.”

Here’s the question Obama was lucky enough to have never been asked in this campaign: What does it mean to say you support traditional marriage (one man, one woman) – when you do so much to advance the pro-“gay marriage” cause, including denouncing state marriage-protection amendments like Prop 8 in California as “discriminatory and divisive”?

Did you know that Obama has promised homosexual activists that he will work to fully repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act? DOMA was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996 and protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state “gay marriages.” It was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate, 85-14, with Sen. Biden joining 28 other Democrats in voting yes. How liberal is Obama’s anti-DOMA scheme? Hillary Clinton, a trusted gay ally, pledged to repeal only part of DOMA.

Neither McCain nor Gov. Palin has made an issue of Obama’s extreme anti-DOMA sop to the homosexual crowd even though they had a clear opening. (One 2007 Quinnipiac poll revealed that a homosexual group’s endorsement of a candidate would be a net electoral loser among voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.) The result is that Obama’s DOMA Destruction Plan never surfaced in the debates and barely in the major media.

The Democratic spin on marriage has fooled a lot of voters. If you watched the presidential debates, including the Saddleback Church event with Pastor Rick Warren, you might have concluded that Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, pretty much agree with McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin on same-sex “marriage.”

That is a precisely what the savvy strategists at the Obama/Biden campaign want you to think, as they strive to hide their candidates’ radical pro-gay agenda and portray themselves as reasonable moderates on this wedge issue. Truth is, the gulf between the tickets is the difference between saying you support marriage and actually doing something to protect it – and NOT favoring policies like repealing DOMA that are completely in line with the homosexual activists’ goal of radically redefining this sacred institution.

McCain is a strong DOMA supporter who will embrace a Federal Marriage Amendment if he sees activist judges forcing “gay marriage” on the states. Obama, on the other hand, went from supporting DOMA in 2004 to calling it “abhorrent” as part of his radical promise to homosexual groups to overturn it. Obama is setting the stage for nationalizing “same-sex “marriage” (perhaps under the guise of “civil unions”), while reporters dutifully provide him cover by repeating his alleged opposition to same.

If only one major media reporter would ask Sen. Obama: how can you say you support traditional marriage and yet “abhor” a popular law (DOMA) that helps states to preserve it? Alas, we mere mortals have to choose sides – and most politicians flip and then flop — but apparently Obama, The One, is allowed to embrace both sides of an issue simultaneously and get away with it.

Consider the following Obama policies and rhetoric and ask yourself if this sounds like a man who supports traditional marriage:

• Obama congratulated homosexual activists for “getting married” at a San Francisco Democratic gay event;
• Though Obama says he “personally” opposes “gay marriage,” he creates a distinction without a difference by supporting federal “civil unions.” Obama told the nation’s leading homoseuxal lobby group: “I believe civil unions should include the same legal rights that accompany a marriage license.” Interestingly, this stance has led Obama to support a bill to allow homosexual partners to immigrate to the United States just like married spouses;
• Obama promises gay activists that he will use the bully pulpit to advocate for homosexual adoption of children. Thus Americans may have to endure the absurd spectacle of a President Obama using the prestige of the White House to defend placing children in homes that are motherless or fatherless by design;
• Obama said he “respects” the California supreme court’s 4-3 decision earlier this year forcing “gay marriage” on that state, even though it wiped out a previous statewide ballot vote by Californians to preserve marriage as between a man and a woman;
• Obama denounced the Federal Marriage Amendment as a mere “political ploy”;
• Obama dismisses a key passage in the New Testament Book of Romans and distorts Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount to justify his pro-homosexuality agenda.

Considering the above, is it asking too much of the media to stop repeating the distortion that Obama and Biden support traditional marriage?

Appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres show, Sen. Biden eagerly told Ellen, a “gay-marriage” activist, that if he were a California voter he would vote “no” on Prop 8 in California. How strange, since Prop 8 does nothing but reinstate the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. (It does not affect same-sex “domestic partners,” who already receive the same benefits as married couples under California law.) Of course, earlier, in the vice-presidential debate, Biden claimed to oppose gay “marriage” — creating the false impression that he and Palin essentially agree on the same-sex-”marriage” question.

John McCain blew it by not calling out his opponents on their “gay marriage” deception and their plans to do in DOMA. All he needed to say was that the Illinois Senator doesn’t have the guts to tell the truth — that Obama’s “personal” opposition to “gay marriage” is meaningless because his pro-gay pledges would greatly advance the spread of homosexual “marriage” across the land. With friends like Obama and Biden, McCain could have said, the beleaguered institution of marriage really doesn’t need enemies.
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Peter LaBarbera is founder of Republicans For Family Values (www.rffv.org) and president of Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (for identification purposes only).

Republicans For Family Values
www.rffv.org

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; rffv@comcast.net

Super Tuesday Exposes Folly of Pundits Proclaiming Pro-Gay Romney as ‘Conservative’

Peter LaBarbera of the Republicans For Family Values website (www.rffv.org) offered the following lessons and observations from Super Tuesday’s surprising Huckabee performance:

• Perhaps Mitt Romney should pull out of the race: he cost the more conservative Huckabee a victory in both Missouri and Oklahoma; says Texas pro-family leader Kelly Shackelford: “You’re not a conservative if you can’t win the south.  The south has spoken clearly- Huckabee is the conservative. … Losing in third place across the south, Romney needs to leave the race so true conservatives can coalesce around Gov. Huckabee.” 
• Factoring the anti-Huckabee bias of both the liberal media and pro-Romney conservative pundits like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh (which should be worth at least 10 percentage points) – plus Romney’s huge personal spending advantage — and it is clear that the real “two-man race” in the GOP is between McCain and Huckabee;
• The voters rejected the pundits’ and broadcast reporters’ promotion of Romney as “the conservative” candidate – since on social issues, which matter most to the GOP’s loyal grassroots base of religious, pro-life voters, Huckabee is the true conservative (e.g., he opposes “gay rights” laws, in contrast to Romney, who said state gay rights laws “make sense”);
• Evidence of conservative pundit bias: Ann Coulter’s trashed Mike Huckabee’s alleged past liberalism while she ignored Mitt Romney’s longtime pro-abortion-on-demand, pro-gay record and his current liberalism – including Romney’s public support for state homosexual “special rights” laws and his creation of a state health insurance plan in Massachusetts that ended up including a $50 co-pay for abortion as “benefit.”  Later, after McCain moved ahead in the race, Coulter made a fool of herself by asserting that she would vote for Hillary Clinton — who is competing with Barack Obama over which Democrat is more pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality — rather than John McCain;
• FOX News’ Sean Hannity and other conservatives should stop blatantly promoting Mitt Romney and belittling Mike Huckabee as a candidate; Hannity reached a new low when he led his viewers to believe (erroneously) that Huckabee had quit the race in Florida;
• Evidence of the liberal media bias: the reporting on Huckabee’s speech urging a Human Life Amendment and Marriage Protection Amendment – making the Constitution more in line with “God’s standards.” News media like MSNBC (Joe Scarborough; see broadcast HERE) bristled at Huckabee’s religious reference while NOT reporting that the former Arkansas governor was merely offering rhetorical support for two planks that enjoy deep support among the GOP’s social conservative grassroots;
• How much of the above bias and distortions surrounding anti-Huckabee/pro-Romney coverage result from standard anti-evangelical-Christian bigotry?
• If Romney had been “Huckabee’d” by the conservative pundits – i.e., had they fully exposed the former Massachusetts governor’s extremely liberal past social record, unprecedented flip-flops, and current liberal positions – Romney likely never would have emerged as the purported “conservative” alternative to McCain; 
• Some social conservative leaders are clearly putting politics over principle by opting for a candidate – Mitt Romney – who fails in two critically important areas for religious conservative voters: opposing all aspects of the homosexual activist agenda and being consistently pro-life (we applaud Romney’s pro-life conversion, but since that conversion he has supported or enabled some anti-life policies such as subsidizing abortions as a health insurance “benefit“). We understand why the Club for Growth chose Romney (although Romney is not a genuine economic conservative), but for key evangelical leaders to downplay Romney’s liberal policies – especially his current and novel pro-homosexual positioning as a Republican FAVORING passage of state homosexual “special rights” laws  – has damaged these leaders’ credibility;
• There appears to be strong bias among conservatives in general that economic issues are more important than social issues (which is not to imply that Romney has a true conservative economic record); pro-life and pro-family voters should reject this.
• Many pro-lifer and pro-family Republicans remain ignorant of Romney’s pro-homosexual-agenda record and his dubious pro-life record, including his support for stem cell research using excess embryos created during fertility treatments. Conservative media and some pro-life/pro-family leaders are complicit in not reporting or even covering up these crucial facts exposing Romney’s liberalism.

Says Rick Scarborough, founder and president of Vision America and a national leader among pro-life and pro-marriage advocates:

“I cannot support Mitt Romney.  His conversion to the pro-life position is suspect and his ongoing support of homosexual rights is not. His position on the deity of Christ does not align with orthodox Christianity and his positions on abortion and Gay rights does not align with orthodox Mormonism. He flip flops on the core values which drive Christian conservatives.”

I hope this conference deals with an important aspect of the AMERICAN HIV/AIDS crisis, too. Incredible as it may seem, 24/7 homosexual bathhouses where men go for anonymous sexual liaisons with other men are flourishing in big cities across the nation. Will Pastor Warren and Hillary Clinton condemn these sex clubs and offer a plan to shut them down? These bathhouses — advertised heavily in the gay media and on gay “hook-up” websites, present an extra danger to women in that they are frequented by men — some married — who do not identify as “gay” but engage in sex with other men. These men with a homosexual problem present a danger to their unknowing female spouses by serving as a conduit for HIV transmission. There is simply NO REASON this far into the AIDS crisis not to have these bathhouses shut down. Please, Mr. Warren, use your great influence to deal with this crisis right here in the USA!

Peter LaBarbera, Republicans For Family Values (www.rffv.org). For identification purposes only, LaBarbera is also founder and president of Americans For Truth (www.americansfortruth.org)