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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

WORLD NET DAILY SUPPORTING TOLERANCE OF GAY LIFESTYLE USING ICELAND AS A MODEL OF PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM BUT WITH A BLIND EYE TOWARDS LOSS OF FREEDOMS

ICELAND A MODEL TO AMERICA OF PROGRESSIVE LGBT TOLERANCE? ONLY IF YOU HIDE THE TRUTH BEHIND AND "SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW"!




We previously reported in two of our posts about the reasons we no longer recommended Joseph Farah's World Net Daily as a reliable source of "Christian News" and we explained why here:
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2013/02/pjtn-proclaiming-justice-to-nations.html.
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2013/02/world-net-daily-no-longer-recommended.html.

Joseph Farah, WND Editor in Chief

Gina Miller

    We now have a commentary from Gina Miller of Renew America, "Iceland is a homosexual role model for America?"
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/miller/130716, exposing a writer from World Net Daily named Ellen Ratner who published an article titled 
"Let's Move Beyond Gay Bashing",
http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/lets-move-beyond-gay-bashing/, the latter being about the alleged benefits of tolerance for the gay lifestyle in Iceland as an example to the rest of the world and America. 
Ellen Ratner

Excerpted quote from Ratner's article:
    "Iceland is a pretty progressive country by anyone’s evaluation. Some readers will write me emails and say it is socialist. Not quite. It is very capitalist, but it does have education and health insurance for all. Surprisingly, there is no separation of church and state. There is freedom of religion, but the official church is the “Evangelical Lutheran Church,” and the government supports it. Gay and lesbians can and do get married there."

Excerpted quotes from Miller's article:
    "She doesn't actually cite instances of anyone "bashing" homosexuals, so I'm left to guess that by "bashing," she simply means vocal or active opposition to the militant homosexual movement's agenda. That agenda includes the destruction of the meaning of marriage and the trampling of the freedom of speech, association and religion of Christians and any others who oppose it."
    "No, we are not doing homosexuals any favors by moving to embrace their sinful, self-destructive behavior. Encouraging homosexuals in their sin does them no good, and a nation that moves to force the mainstream acceptance of such deviancy will pay a terrible price for it. We can already see the awful results of the imposition of same-sex "marriage" on Massachusetts."

Therefore, let us prove that Ratner is "progressively" delirious:
See: Mass Resistance for their timeline and bullet point list of the progression of homosexual depravity and its effects on Massachusetts, etc.:
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/marriage/effects_of_ssm_2012/index.html, and/or
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/marriage/effects_of_ssm_2012/SSM_Mass_2012.pdf
(distributable printable copy).
See full text below unedited:
Brian Camenker

What same-sex "marriage" has done to Massachusetts 
It's far worse than most people realize 
by Brian Camenker 
October 2008 Updated June 2012 
Anyone who thinks that same-sex “marriage” is a benign eccentricity which won’t affect 
the average person should consider what it has done to Massachusetts since 2004. 
It’s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on 
everyone. The slippery slope is real. New radical demands never cease. What has 
happened in the last several years is truly frightening. 
On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced its 
Goodridge opinion, declaring that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex “marriage.” 
Six months later, despite public outrage, homosexual “weddings” began to take place. 
And that was just the beginning . . . 
The public schools 
The homosexual “marriage” onslaught in public schools across the state started soon after 
the November 2003 court ruling. 
 At my own children's high school there was a school-wide assembly to celebrate 
same-sex “marriage” in early December 2003. It featured an array of speakers, 
including teachers at the school who announced that they would be “marrying” their 
same-sex partners and starting families, either through adoption or artificial 
insemination. Literature on same-sex marriage – how it is now a normal part of society – 
was handed out to the students. 
 Within months it was brought into the middle schools. In September 2004, an 8th grade 
teacher in Brookline, Mass., told National Public Radio that the marriage ruling 
had opened up the door for teaching homosexuality. “In my mind, I know that, ‘OK, this 
is legal now.' If somebody wants to challenge me, I'll say, ‘Give me a break. It's legal 
now,'” she told NPR. She added that she now discusses gay sex with her students as 
explicitly as she desires. For example, she said she tells the kids that lesbians can have 
vaginal intercourse using sex toys. 
 By the following year it was in elementary school curricula – with hostility toward 
parents who disagreed. Kindergartners in Lexington, Mass. were given copies of a 
picture book, Who’s in a Family?, telling them that same-sex couples are just another 
kind of family, just like their own parents. When David Parker – parent of a kindergartner 
– calmly refused to leave a school meeting unless officials agreed to notify him when 
discussing homosexuality or transgenderism with his son, the school had him arrested 
and jailed overnight. 
 The next year, second graders at the same school were read a book, King and 
King, about two men who fall in love and marry each other, ending with a picture of 
them kissing. When parents Robb and Robin Wirthlin complained, they were told that the 
school had no obligation to notify them or allow them to opt their child out. 
 In 2007 a federal judge ruled that because of “gay marriage” in Massachusetts, 
parents have no rights regarding the teaching of homosexual relationships in schools. 
The previous year the Parkers and Wirthlins had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit 
to force the schools to notify parents and allow them to opt out their elementary school 
children when homosexual-related subjects were taught. The federal judge dismissed the 
case. The appeals judges later upheld the first judge’s ruling that because same-sex 
marriage is legal in Massachusetts, the school actually had a duty to normalize homosexual relationships to children; and schools have no obligation to notify parents or let them opt 
out their children. Acceptance of homosexuality had become a matter of good citizenship! 
Think about that: Because same-sex marriage is “legal,” federal judges have ruled that the 
schools now have a duty to portray homosexual relationships as normal to children, despite 
what parents think or believe! The judges also allowed the school to overrule the 
Massachusetts parental notification law on this issue, with the claim that homosexuality or 
same-sex marriages are not“human sexuality issues” (to which the law refers). 
 School libraries have also radically changed. School libraries across the state, from 
elementary school to high school, now have expanding shelves of books to normalize 
homosexual behavior and “lifestyle” in the minds of kids, some of them quite explicit and 
even pornographic. Parents’ complaints are ignored or met with hostility. 
 A large, slick hardcover book celebrating Massachusetts homosexual marriages 
began to appearin many school libraries across the state. Titled Courting Equality, 
it was supplied to schools by a major homosexual activist organization. Its apparent 
purpose was to teach kids that “gay marriage” was a great civil rights victory. 
 It has become commonplace in Massachusetts schools for teachers to display 
photos of their same-sex “spouses” and occasionally bring their “spouses” to 
school functions. At one point, both high schools in my own town had principals who 
were “married” to their same-sex partners who came to school and were introduced to 
the students. 
 “Gay days” in schools are considered necessary to fight “intolerance” against same 
sex relationships. Hundreds of high schools and even middle schools across the state 
now hold “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender days.” In my own town, a school 
committee member announced that combating “homophobia” was now a top priority. 
The schools not only “celebrate” homosexual marriage, but have moved beyond to 
promote other behaviors such as cross-dressing and transsexuality. 
 As a result, many more children in Massachusetts appear to be self-identifying as 
“gay.” According to the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, given to students 
in high schools across the state, between 2005 and 2009 both the percentage of kids 
“identifying as gay” and who had same-sex contact rose by approximately 50%. 
Although this bi-annual survey is unscientific and largely unreliable, it still shows a 
disturbing trend among those students who chose to answer the estions in this way. 
(At a minimum, it implies that these answers are being encouraged.) 
 Once homosexuality is normalized, all boundaries begin to come down. The 
schools have already moved on to normalizing transgenderism (including cross-dressing 
and sex changes). The state-funded Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and 
Transgender Youth, which goes into schools with homosexual and transgender 
programs and activities for children, includes prominent activists who are transsexuals. 
 In 2006 a cross-dressing man undergoing a sex-change operation was brought 
into a third-grade class in Newton to teach the children that there are now “different 
kinds of families.” School officials told a mother that her complaints to the principal were 
considered “inappropriate behavior”! She ended up removing her child from the school. 
Public health 
 The Commissioner of the Mass. Dept. of Public Health, who is "married" to 
another man, told a crowd of kids at the state-sponsored Youth Pride event in 2007 that 
it’s “wonderful being gay” and he wants to make sure there’s enough HIV testing 
available for all of them. 
 The STD test required to obtain a marriage license was eliminated five months after 
same-sex “marriages” began in Massachusetts, by a bill quietly signed by Gov. Mitt 
Romney. This was despite an increase in syphilis cases and other STDs in homosexual 
men in Massachusetts at the time (according to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health). 
 In recent years state funding for HIV/AIDS programs has gone up considerably in 
Massachusetts, along with the proportion of homosexual-related cases. According 
to the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health, even though the total number of new 
HIV/AIDS diagnoses has declined, the proportion caused by male homosexual behavior 
rose by over 30% from 2000-2009. Thus, for the last several years the state has 
budgeted $30-$35 million per year for these programs. This dwarfs spending on any 
other viral disease that we are aware of. 
 A hideously obscene booklet on “gay” practices created by health officials was 
given out in a high school. Citing “the right to marry” as one of the “important 
challenges” in a place where “it’s a great time to be gay,” the Mass. Dept. of Public 
Health helped the AIDS Action Committee produce The Little Black Book: Queer in the 
21st Century. It was given to teens at Brookline High School on April 30, 2005. Among 
other things, it gives “tips” to boys on how to perform oral sex on other males, 
masturbate other males, and how to “safely” have someone urinate on you for sexual 
pleasure. It even included a directory of bars in Boston where young men meet for 
anonymous sex. 
Hospitals 
 Because of the purported necessity to cater to “LGBT health” issues, nearly every 
major Boston hospital has become an active supporter of the radical homosexual 
movement. This includes marching in the “Gay Pride” parades, holding homosexual 
events, and putting on numerous “gay health”-related seminars. This is one of the most 
disturbing things that’s happened since “gay marriage” became “legal.” 
 A major Boston hospital threatened to fire a physician when he objected to its 
promotion of homosexual behavior. In 2011 a prominent physician at Beth Israel 
Deaconess Medical Center in Boston – a large Harvard-affiliated hospital – objected to 
the hospital being involved with “Gay Pride” activities. He also pointed out to his 
superiors the medical health risks of homosexuality, and said that he and others at the 
hospital considered homosexual acts to be unnatural and immoral. The hospital then 
threatened to fire him, telling him that same-sex marriage is “legal” and that his 
comments constituted “harassment and discrimination.” After a “hearing” he was allowed 
to keep his job, but was told to apologize and to keep his opinions on these matters to 
himself. 
 In 2012 the Boston Medical Center purchased a prominent full-color ad (full page, 
inside cover) in the Boston Gay Pride guide book. The content? The entire ad 
promoted the hospital’s STD and AIDS clinics for the “pride” participants – particularly its 
screening services for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, hepatitis, and HIV.
Domestic violence 
 Every year more state money goes to deal with the high incidence of homosexual 
domestic violence. Since “gay marriage” began, Massachusetts has one of the highest 
proportions of homosexuals living as couples in the country. Given the extremely 
dysfunctional nature of homosexual relationships, the Massachusetts Legislature has felt 
the need to spend more and more money to deal with that problem. “Gay domestic 
violence programs” have also become a major lobbying push in the State House by the 
homosexual group MassEquality. This year it comprises a considerable portion of a $5.5 
million state budget item (according to MassEquality). This is up from $100,000 
budgeted in 2007. 
 “Gay domestic partner violence” literature (funded by the state) is now distributed 
at virtually every public homosexual event – including to children at “Youth Pride” 
events, GLSEN conferences, “gay straight alliance” high school clubs – and especially at 
the various events and parades during “Gay Pride” week. 
 It has become such a problem that a public candlelight vigil in downtown Boston 
is held every year by a coalition of Massachusetts homosexual groups “to remember 
victims of recent LGBT intimate partner violence, and to raise awareness of this 
important community issue.” 
Business and employment 
 All insurance in Massachusetts must now recognize same-sex “married” couples in 
their coverage. This includes auto insurance, health insurance, life insurance, etc. 
 Businesses must recognize same-sex “married” couples in all their benefits, 
activities, etc., regarding both employees and customers. 
 People can now get fired from their jobs for expressing religious objections to 
same-sex “marriage.” In 2009, a deputy manager at a Brookstone store in Boston was 
fired from his job for mentioning his belief to another manager who had kept bringing up 
the subject with him that day. Brookstone’s letter of termination (quoted on local TV 
news) said his comment was “inappropriate” because “in the State of Massachusetts, 
same-sex marriage is legal.” 
 The wedding industry is required to serve the homosexual community if 
requested. Wedding photographers, halls, caterers, etc., must accept same-sex 
marriage events or be held liable for discrimination. 
 Businesses are often “tested” for tolerance by homosexual activists. Groups of 
homosexual activists go into restaurants or bars and publicly kiss and fondle each other 
to test whether the establishment demonstrates sufficient “equality” — now that 
homosexual marriage is “legal.” Then they report “tolerance violators” to authorities, and 
businesses can be fined and punished. In fact, more and more overt displays of 
homosexual affection are seen in public places across the state to reinforce "marriage equality."
Legal profession and judicial system 
 The Massachusetts Bar Exam now tests lawyers on their knowledge of same-sex 
marriage "law." In 2007, a Boston man failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he 
refused to answer a question about homosexual marriage. 
 In many firms, lawyers in Massachusetts practicing family law must now attend 
seminars on homosexual "marriage." Issues regarding homosexual “families” are now 
firmly entrenched in the Massachusetts legal system. In addition, there are now several 
homosexual judges overseeing the Massachusetts family courts. 
 In 2011 the Governor appointed Barbara Lenk, a “married” lesbian activist, to be a 
state Supreme Court Justice. She has said that the interpretation of law “evolves and develops” because “minority groups [e.g., homosexuals] see certain things differently 
based on their own experiences.”
Adoption and birth certificates 
 In the year after the “gay marriage” ruling, the state’s adoption and foster care 
workers went through a massive indoctrination on “LGBT youth awareness.” This 
included employees and managers at the Mass. Dept. of Social Services. These 
sessions were run by the radical National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (which once 
awarded a “Leather Leadership Award” to the owner of a pornographic video company). 
The emphasis was that those working with children must be trained that homosexuality 
(and transgenderism) are normal. At one session, the trainer announced that the new 
motto is, “To tolerate is an assault; you have to accept” this behavior. 
 Homosexual “married” couples can now demand to be allowed to adopt children – 
through any agency. In 2006 Catholic Charities decided to abandon handling adoptions 
rather submit to regulations requiring them to allow homosexuals to adopt the children in 
their care. 
 Adoption agencies have said that 40% of their adoptions are to homosexual 
couples. Anecdotal reports also indicate that many adoption agencies now favor
homosexuals over normal couples. 
 In 2006 the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) honored two men 
“married” to each other as their “Parents of the Year.” The men had adopted a baby 
through DSS (against the wishes of the baby’s birth parents). According to news reports, 
the day after that adoption was final, DSS approached the men about adopting a second 
child. 
 The state-funded Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) has been 
pushing “GLBT” family formation and holds “adoption parties” where homosexual 
couples have been encouraged to attend (along with others) and see “available” children 
in person. MARE places prominent ads in GLBT publications. 
 Birth certificates in Massachusetts have been changed from “mother” and 
“father” to “mother/parent” and “father/parent.” Two men or two women can now be 
listed as the “parents” on birth certificates! Homosexuals who adopt can revise 
children’s’ existing birth certificates. 
 A court ruled in 2012 that if a child is “born of a same-sex marriage,” there is no 
need for adoption by a non-biological parent. Thus, they would both be the listed as 
the “parents” on the child’s birth certificate, without any formal proceedings necessary. 
(The other biological parent is not noted on the official birth certificate.) 
Government mandates 
 Marriage licenses and certificates in Massachusetts now have “Party A” and 
“Party B” instead of “husband” and “wife.” Imagine having a marriage license like 
that. 
 In 2004, Governor Mitt Romney ordered Justices of the Peace to perform 
homosexual marriages when requested or be fired. Several Justices of the Peace 
immediately decided to resign. That order still stands. Also Town Clerks were forced by 
the Governor’s office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 
 In 2008 Massachusetts changed the state Medicare laws to include homosexual 
“married” couples in the coverage. 
The public square 
 Since gay “marriage” began, public “Gay Pride” events have become more 
prominent in the public square. There are more politicians and corporations 
participating, and even police organizations take part. And the envelope gets pushed 
further and further. For example: the annual profane “Dyke March” through downtown 
Boston, and the 2008 “transgender” parade in Northampton that included bare-chested 
women who have had their breasts surgically removed (so they could “become” men). 
Governor Patrick even marched with his 17-year-old “out lesbian” daughter in the 2008 
Boston Pride event, right behind a sadomasochist “leather” group brandishing a black and 
blue flag, lashes and chains!
Churches being harassed 
Churches and religious people have been demonized, harassed and threatened – with no 
punishment for the perpetrators. Since the “gay marriage” ruling, those who publicly 
disagree with “gay marriage” or the normalcy of homosexuality – or hold events promoting 
traditional beliefs – are targets of militant retribution by homosexual activists. Police and 
public officials have shown no interest in stopping this. We are not aware of a single 
homosexual activist arrested (or charged with any “hate crime”) for disrupting a religious 
event or threatening and harassing people at a church. For example: 
 In 2012 someone threatened to burn down a Catholic Church in Acushnet which 
posted the words “Two men are friends, not spouses” on its outdoor sign. The 
church immediately received a flood of profane phone calls. At least one person 
threatened to burn down the church. An activist nailed a sign to church’s fence saying, 
“Spread love not hate.” Activists staged a protest outside of the Sunday Mass to 
intimidate parishioners with a sign saying, “It is legal for two men or women to be 
spouses.” Neither the police nor the District Attorney pursued the threats as a hate crime 
or other offense. 
 In 2010 a Catholic elementary school balked at letting a lesbian couple enroll their 
son. As a result, the school was excoriated in the media and even by the local liberal 
state representative as “discriminatory.” The privately-run Catholic Schools Foundation
then threatened to withhold funding to the school unless it relented. The Archdiocese 
eventually backed down and the school reversed its policy. 
 In 2009 angry homosexual activists terrorized the Park Street Church in Boston
while it was holding an ex-gay religious training session inside. They demonstrated next 
to the doors and windows with signs, screaming homosexual slogans. One of them held 
a bullhorn against the window outside the meeting, bellowing at the participants inside. 
Police did nothing to stop them, even though they were standing inside the historic 
cemetery adjacent to the church. 
 In 2006 dozens of screaming homosexual activists drowned out the speakers at 
an outdoor pro-marriage rally in Worcester organized by Catholic Vote, yelling “Bigots” 
and disgusting chants. Police did not stop them, even though the rally had a permit. 
When one of the rioters rushed the stage and started shouting, a rally organizer tried to 
lead her to the side. She subsequently sued that organizer for assault! He went through 
a four-day trial and was acquitted by a jury. But no charges were filed against any of the rioters. 
 In 2006 a group of homosexual activists with signs taunted and screamed at 
people entering and leaving the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in downtown 
Boston, which was holding a nationally televised pro-marriage event inside. 
 In 2005 hundreds of homosexual activists terrorized the Tremont Temple Baptist 
Church with makeshift coffins, screaming obscenities through loudspeakers as - 7 - 
the national pro-family group Focus on the Family held a religious conference inside. 
The crowd was so threatening that attendees could not leave the church for the lunch 
break. The Boston riot police stood in front of the church doors, but did nothing to 
disperse the protesters who were also completely blocking the street. 
The media 
 The Boston media regularly features articles and news stories using homosexual 
“married” couples where regular married couples would normally be used. It’s “equal,” 
they insist, so there must be no difference in how marriage is portrayed. Also, the 
newspaper advice columns now deal with homosexual "marriage" issues – and how to 
properly accept it. 
 A number of news reporters and TV anchors are “out” homosexuals (at least one 
openly “married”) who march in the “Gay Pride” parades and publicly participate in other 
homosexual events.
Politics 
 A climate of fear has kept politicians at all levels from disagreeing with or 
criticizing same-sex marriage since it became “legal.” Public officials are afraid of 
being accused of wanting to “take away rights.” Those who support traditional marriage 
rarely discuss it publicly. And this fear has expanded to suppress any meaningful debate 
on all homosexual related issues. Additionally, it has brought a feeling of intimidation 
among pro-family people across the state. 
 The Massachusetts Republican establishment has become arguably the most 
“pro-gay marriage” GOP in America. The state GOP House and Senate leaders now 
both publicly support “gay marriage,” as did the recent Mass. GOP candidates for 
Governor and Lt. Governor. GOP candidates for office are told not even to discuss it. 
 In April 2009, the Chairman of the Mass. Republican Party told a homosexual 
newspaper that the GOP would no longer oppose “gay marriage.” Then Chairman 
Jennifer Nassour, interviewed on the front page of Bay Windows, assured the gay 
community that the state GOP would “steer clear of social” issues such as “opposition to 
same-sex marriage and abortion.” The newly elected chairman, Bob Maginn, does not 
talk about the issue. 
 Every Massachusetts state-wide elected official and member of Congress (but 
one) now publicly supports “gay marriage.” The one (apparent) holdout, Republican 
US Senator Scott Brown, strenuously avoids the issue, saying that it’s “settled law” and not 
worth fighting over.
Rule of law 
 Same-sex “marriage” came to Massachusetts through a radical court’s narrow 
ruling. Because of that, there is an often depressing sense of helplessness that 
pervades this issue. The marriage statute was never changed, and it has been 
convincingly argued that the whole process was in violation of the state constitution. The 
Governor simply went along. And the Legislature acted to block popular votes on two 
separate constitutional amendments protecting marriage, after sufficient signatures had 
been gathered for each. The rule of law seems further lost with every new outrage 
imposed on the people.
 Even the Massachusetts Law Library (online) shows no law legalizing same-sex 
marriage, only a court opinion. It is a dangerous precedent to allow such sweeping 
judicial activism to stand as law, enabling everything that has followed from it. It should 
serve as a warning to states across the country. 
In conclusion 
Same-sex “marriage” hangs over society, hammering citizens with the force of law. Once it gets 
a foothold, society becomes more oppressive. Unfortunately, it was imposed on the people of 
Massachusetts through a combination of radical, arrogant judges and pitifully cowardly 
politicians. The homosexual movement has used that combination to its continued advantage 
around the country. 
It’s pretty clear that this radical movement is obsessed with marriage not because large 
numbers of homosexuals actually want to marry each other. A small percentage actually 
“marry.” (In fact, over the last several months, the Sunday Boston Globe’s marriage section 
hasn’t had any photos of homosexual marriages; at first it was full of them.) Research shows 
that homosexuals’ relationships are fundamentally dysfunctional on many levels, and real 
“marriage” as we know it isn’t something they can achieve, or even truly desire. 
The push for “gay marriage” is really is about putting the legal stamp of approval on 
homosexuality and forcing its acceptance on (otherwise unwilling) citizens and our social, political, 
and commercial institutions. 
To the rest of America: You've been forewarned.
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