Sandy Rios of the American Family Association invited Americans for Truth about Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera on her radio show to discuss what went wrong with the four state ballot initiatives won by gay rights advocates. She said the problems began when Religious Right leaders such as James Dobson and the late Chuck Colson were pressured by Karl Rove and Republican establishment during the fight over the Federal Marriage Amendment to only talk about marriage but not discuss homosexuality and same-sex relationships, which she compared to using the word ‘chattel’ instead of ‘slavery.’ “They though it was okay just to protect marriage, not to talk about homosexuality, that was banned from the discussion, we could only talk about the word marriage,” Rios explained. “My point was always, if we were talking about slavery, we would say we would allow ‘chattel’ just not ‘slavery,’ ‘chattel’ is the same thing, the word doesn’t matter.”
Probably one of the most difficult battles I faced as president of Concerned Women for America was the issue of same-sex marriage. I was there during the time when Massachusetts passed it, Peter worked for me in the Culture and Family Institute and we were into this up to our knees, up to our shoulders. Let’s go back ten years and the polls were showing that people were not, there was no way they were ready to accept same-sex marriage, and not only that but they were not willing to accept legalized same-sex partnerships: no civil unions, domestic partnerships, they were sill wildly unpopular in polls. So when we pushed for a federal marriage amendment that would outlaw acknowledging through law any kind of same-sex coupling, we had all the stats on our side and that’s what we were pushing for.
But the Republican establishment pushed back, Karl Rove pushed back, and he managed to pressure some people that we all love and respect dearly here in Washington, D.C., to buckle, I would include Chuck Colson, who I love dearly, I would include James Dobson, they decided that it was enough to protect the word marriage. That was the battle. They though it was okay just to protect marriage, not to talk about homosexuality, that was banned from the discussion, we could only talk about the word marriage. My point was always, if we were talking about slavery, we would say we would allow ‘chattel’ just not ‘slavery,’ ‘chattel’ is the same thing, the word doesn’t matter.
She even tied the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to the scandal surrounding David Petraues, saying that more military officials will be “distracted with issues of sexuality” and the country “will be less protected.” Later, Rios argued that homosexuality itself causes depression, high suicide rates and violence and that a “tragic” consequence of the gay rights movement “is the gay community itself,” which she described as a dysfunctional and sad place. LaBarbera, meanwhile, said that the “the Glee kiss that was on national TV” told him “that America was in deep, deep trouble” as gay rights supporters are “taking away the natural revulsion that most people have or used to have toward homosexual behavior.”
Rios: The military is going to transform tremendously and I don’t think when men are distracted with issues of sexuality, just like David Petraeus just had to step down because he was having a long term affair after as far as I can see did a terrible job of overseeing Benghazi, perhaps because he was distracted, we can expect we will be less protected. Peter, take it from there, what other things do you see coming?
LaBarbera: It’s just unbelievable Sandy that young people are going to be exposed to more and more homosexual behavior. I keep going back to the Glee kiss that was on national TV, that told me that America was in deep, deep trouble. We had two boys kissing for twenty or thirty seconds in a romantic set up on Fox’s Glee during prime time. It’s getting so bad that they’re taking away the natural revulsion that most people have or used to have toward homosexual behavior. To understand the homosexual agenda it’s this pathological drive for acceptance and they will use the government to force acceptance on people if necessary. There’s a drive by people practicing homosexuality, trying to rationalize that sin, I believe that deep down at least at one point they knew it was a sin but they are trying to overcome that. So that’s why we see this tremendous push in the corporate world, in society by government, to push the acceptance of homosexuality on people and it will reach the church, it already has, and it will only get worse like you said.
Rios: I would be remiss without saying this, what I always say, because I believe it with all my heart, one of the most tragic results of this is the gay community itself. The men who are dying early of diseases, who are having their hearts broken over and over again because it’s not satisfying, men are not meant to be with men and women are not meant to be with women, so there’s depression, and you know people who date and break up and date and break up, this is what happens: rejections, suicide rate and violence.
