Cartoon by: Carmelo Torres
Posted on 12/01/2002 4:26:09 PM PST by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
Cartoon by: Carmelo Torres
The GOP's November 5 election victory was a referendum of sorts against "gay marriage," homosexual adoption, and attacking the Boy Scouts - as candidates who strongly defended traditional family values on these issues won key races across the nation.
Candidates in competitive races who embraced the most extreme homosexual planks - such as Georgia Sen. Max Cleland's (D) support of the "gay" lobby over the Boy Scouts of America, and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Shannon O'Brien's (D) flip-flopping embrace of "gay marriage" - lost their elections after being criticized for abandoning mainstream values.
Although liberal and self-described "moderate" candidates who took some pro-"gay" positions won in many races, the fact that clear pro-family stances on homosexuality played well as major campaign issues rebuts a central argument of groups like the homosexual Log Cabin Republicans (LRC) and Republican Unity Coalition (RUC). For years, these groups have argued that GOP candidates must reach out to "moderate" voters either by taking pro-homosexual positions or - as RUC advises -making "homosexuality a non-issue" in their campaigns.
But even in liberal, heavily Democratic states, the election results provided evidence that principled opposition to homosexual activism helped candidates win.
The most telling example of that is Hawaii. In that Democratic stronghold, Mike Gabbard - who has been the leading foe of "gay marriage" and who has dedicated the last decade of his life to educating the state's citizens on how homosexual behavior is wrong and unhealthy - coasted to a 62-38 percent victory over Pamela Witty-Oakland for a seat on the Honolulu City Council. Gabbard, who ran as an independent, made homosexual extremism an issue in his race after pro-"gay" activists vilified him and engaged in dirty tactics during the campaign (see below).
The following are some examples of how supporting the homosexual political agenda hurt candidates while opposing it helped pro-family candidates:
Florida: Bush Opposes "Gay" Adoption. Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, clearly embraced the state's law banning homosexual adoptions, which has stirred major media and Hollywood opposition led by lesbian Miami resident Rosie O'Donnell. Bush's opponent, Bill McBride, said the anti-gay adoption law was "not the American way." Despite being the No. 1 target of the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Bush clobbered McBride by a 56-43 percent margin. Regarding the adoption law, Bush said children should be placed in permanent homes only with couples who are "man and a wife," Hotline reported. "It's the law of the land, but I believe it personally, " Gov. Bush said, according to The Miami Herald. McBride, on the other hand, said, "prohibiting gay couples from adopting children is discriminatory." (In the primary, McBride defeated former Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno, who even more fervently supported homosexual adoptions.)
Georgia: Cleland Pays for Dissing Scouts. In a victory that surprised many pundits, Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R) defeated incumbent Sen. Max Cleland. The state Republican Party pounded Cleland for his vote against the Helms amendment prohibiting federal funding of schools that ban the Boy Scouts. The following was part of one 30-second TV ad:
Announcer: "Max Cleland's turned out to be just another politician. … In Georgia, he pretends to share our values, but he voted against the Boy Scouts and for partial-birth abortions."
Another ad contrasted Cleland's vote against the Scouts and banning late-term abortions to opposite votes by Georgia's other Democratic senator, Zell Miller:
Announcer: "Zell Miller shares our Georgia values. Max Cleland does not. Zell voted to support the Boy Scouts of America. Max voted against the Boy Scouts. Zell opposes partial-birth abortions. Max voted three times to legalize them."
Sen. Cleland has a 100 percent rating in the 107th Congress with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's leading homosexual pressure group. The vote against the Boy Scouts was part of the group's scorecard.
Massachusetts: Gay 'Marriage' a Loser. Democratic candidate for governor Shannon O'Brien got carried away in her embrace of the state's homosexual lobby and did a late-inning flip-flop on the "gay marriage" issue. On October 15, she switched positions and told the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Political Caucus that as governor she would sign a "gay marriage" bill if one crossed her desk. Later, she said she hadn't changed her position and still opposed "gay marriage." The liberal Boston Globe reported:
Union members, many of whom are socially conservative, lunch-bucket Democrats, may have been put off by O'Brien's stance on gay marriage, which she said she supported late in the campaign.
The GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, attacked O'Brien for flip-flopping on marriage. Romney is hardly a stalwart in opposing the homosexual political agenda: he bragged about being endorsed by the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual group and, in a pre-election interview with the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows, he backed various tenets of the "gay" agenda including "domestic partner" benefits. But he steadfastly opposed "gay marriage" - which has been the focus of intense political debate in Massachusetts over the last few years. Democrats recently violated the state Constitution by shutting down a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to make marriage and its benefits legal only for one man and one woman. (See Massachusetts News for more information on the marriage amendment and Romney.)
Hawaii: Family Activist Wins Big. Victorious Honolulu city council candidate Mike Gabbard did not shy away from the homosexual issue during the campaign, as candidates from both major parties so often do. Instead, Gabbard described in his campaign literature how he and his family were victims of nasty tactics by homosexual extremists. In a campaign mailing, his wife Carol wrote:
You may recall when I offered to serve on the School Board, homosexual extremists and their supporters waged a vicious campaign to try to keep me from being elected. Fortunately, the people of Hawaii said "No" to hate and rumor-mongering and elected me with more than 100,000 votes.
But the radical homosexuals and their supporters won't quit. I'm very saddened to inform you that these same people are now actively engaged in a dirty campaign to try to keep you from voting for my husband, Mike, for the City Council.
Ever since my husband led the fight to protect traditional marriage and prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage, homosexual activists have been waging a campaign of hate not only against Mike, but against our entire family. Criminal charges have been initiated against one of these people for destroying more than 60 of Mike's campaign signs and calling our home with threats. … Those who do not want real change at the City Council have linked arms with the homosexual extremists and a hateful rumor-spreading campaign is underway … I'm asking you to say "No" to the campaign of hate and bigotry. Say "No" to dirty campaigning. Say "Yes" to aloha.
Gabbard, who founded Stop Promoting Homosexuality International and the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, said that as he campaigned door to door on the island of Oahu, people recognized him for his work opposing homosexual "marriage" (a state ban against which was passed in 1998).
"They would say to me, 'Hey, you're the marriage guy!'" Gabbard told C&F Report. He said he was frequently welcomed into people's homes for long, friendly discussions.
Gabbard said that in talking to thousands of people in their homes, "it really hit home to me how these were our people - our family. … The idea of pro-homosexual activism is totally alien to the Hawaiian culture."
In another setback for Hawaii's "gay" lobby, Mike Gabbard's daughter, Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo, won a seat in the state House of Representatives as a Democrat. Gabbard Tamayo is the youngest person ever elected to the state Legislature.
The Gabbards' electoral victories takes on national significance in that they are precisely the type of family activists whom homosexual groups like HRC and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force label as "extremists" or the "radical religious right." If that were true, given the Gabbards' high visibility as opponents of homosexuality, then Hawaii could now be considered an "extremist" stronghold, which is preposterous.
In contrast to the Gabbard family victories, a liberal, very pro-homosexual family in Hawaii, the Golojuchs, lost each of their races this year. Carolyn Golojuch, who heads a local branch of the homosexual pressure group P-FLAG (Parents, Friends, and Families of Lesbians & Gays), lost her race for the Board of Education. (In 2000, she also lost badly in the election that saw Carol Gabbard win a seat.) Husband Michael Golojuch Sr. lost a City Council race in District 9. His son, Michael Golojuch Jr. - a homosexual activist and vice-president of the atheist group Hawaii Citizens for Separation of State and Church - made it a hat trick by losing his race for a seat in state House of Representatives.
Maryland: Pro-'Gay' Kennedy Loses. In this heavily Democratic state, Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend (D), daughter of the late Robert Kennedy and an ardent backer of the homosexual political agenda, lost in a shocking defeat to Rep. Robert Erlich. Both candidates opposed homosexual "marriage," but Kennedy-Townsend endorsed Vermont-style "civil unions" and was closely allied with the state's homosexual activists. She even held a fundraiser at the Maryland home of Elizabeth Birch, a prominent homosexual activist and executive director of the Human Rights Campaign. HRC, for its part, lost most of the key, non-incumbent Senate races in which it endorsed candidates.
Pro-family enthusiasm for Rep. Erlich was dampened towards the end of the campaign due to his TV ad campaign in the final weeks of the race proclaiming his support for a "woman's right to choose" (abortion).
Minnesota: Pro-Homosexual Mondale Goes Down. In the U.S. Senate race, pro-family GOP candidate Norm Coleman defeated Democrat Walter Mondale, who had embraced the homosexual and pro-abortion agenda. Coleman stated clearly that he opposed not only "gay marriage" but also "domestic partner" benefits.
Meanwhile, in the governor's race, Republican Tim Pawlenty, who opposed "gay" marriage and domestic partner benefits, defeated Democrat Roger Moe, who supported civil unions for homosexual couples, and Independent Tim Penney, who had embraced domestic partnerships and "gay" marriage. Pawlenty had also led the charge in the spring of 2002 in calling the University of Minnesota to account for publishing the pro-pedophile book by Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex.
Tom Pritchard, head of the Minnesota Family Council/Institute, told Culture & Family Report that his group had distributed 400,000 voter guides that clearly showed the differences between the candidates on several issues, including domestic partnerships.
West Virginia: Family Stance Helps Local Activist. Evidence of the potential political potency of strongly opposing homosexual activism can be found in the surprise electoral win of Delegate Lisa Smith (R), who defeated Oshel Craigo, a powerful Democrat and head of the state Senate Finance Committee. Smith received 18,047 votes to 16,389 for Craigo.
Smith's campaign exposed Craigo's support for homosexual activism (and abortion). Pro-family groups went door-to-door campaigning for Smith and did a phone-message campaign informing citizens in the 4th senatorial district of her opponent's pro-"gay" voting record. Newspaper ads highlighted Craigo's 100 percent pro-homosexual record as well. One ad carried this message:
Oshel Craigo Favors Sexual Orientation in Hate Crime Statutes which will lead to same sex marriages. Pastors will be fined and silenced on speaking out on the unhealthy lifestyle. Delegate Lisa D. Smith testified before the State School Board Opposing Teaching Schoolchildren on How to be Homosexuals. ... Lisa D. Smith introduced and voted for many pro-life [bills] to protect women and babies!
Mixed Bag on Homosexuality
Despite some of the key victories in which opposition to homosexuality played well for family values candidates, the 2002 elections will go down in history as a mixed bag on the issue. Homosexual activists won four local city initiatives dealing specifically with homosexual issues (see last week's C&F report article), while family forces won the only statewide contest: a pro-marriage ballot measure in libertarian-minded Nevada.
The pro-homosexual side won some key contests such as the governor's races in Michigan and Illinois. And homosexual activists could point to the election or re-election of dozens of openly homosexual candidates, such as David Catania (R) in the District of Columbia. In many of those elections, homosexual matters were not a major issue. (However, if openly homosexual candidates can run and win with their homosexuality being a "non-issue," this can be considered something of victory for homosexual activists.)
In at least one case, a conservative Christian candidate overreached in not making an issue of his opponent's homosexual lifestyle (and "gay" activism). In heavily Democratic Madison, Wisconsin, Republican Ron Greer - a black pastor who gained national attention when he was harassed by a mob of homosexual activists at a pro-family event - repeatedly asserted that the lesbianism of his opponent, incumbent Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D), was not an issue. To win "tolerance" points in the media, Greer went so far as to write in a local newspaper that he has let a homosexual baby-sit his children. After running a lackluster campaign that raised little money, Greer lost to Baldwin in the election.
Another Republican candidate who campaigned against his pro-family base was Wayne Allard of Colorado, who came out for homosexual adoption, according to Human Events Online. Even so, Allard beat Tom Strickland (D), who more fully backed the "gay" activist agenda and was endorsed by the homosexual lobby group HRC.
Culture and Family Institute Director Robert Knight contributed to this article.
Ha ha, on other threads here they claim it was anti-abortion the lead to the wins.
Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.
America's Fifth Column ... watch Steve Emerson/PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
Great screen name.
The hypocrisy of the democrats is all the more loathesome when one considers that the only anti-homosexual campaigns were all run by democrats!!
The race in Montana and several down South come to mind.
The problem with radical gay consenting adults is that they don't want to keep the door closed. They want to make it your business.
That's where I have the problem. I'm very tolerant, I think, but when I see two leather-bikini clad men dry-humping each other on a "gay pride" parade float, I react negatively. I don't even want to see straights doing that, so I'm not just "homophobic."
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