August 3, 2016

by Gary Randall

An LGBT Global Summit was held within the Democrat Convention last week.

One of the leaders, activist Kevin Jennings, formerly with the Obama Administration’s Education Department, said, “The future of the LGBT movement hinges largely on the out come of this election.”

Another leader, the director of GLAD, told the global gathering, “Let’s dream bigger for a second and let’s think about all students–all students, not just LGBT students.”

They left their Summit with 4 goals for the coming year—much of which is aimed at your child. And your family. And your religious freedom.

Homosexual activist Kevin Jennings, a former high school teacher, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education in the Obama Administration, and founder of GLSEN—the Gay, Straight, Education Network– was one of several leaders of the summit.

Jennings, now executive director of the Arcus Foundation, also issued a warning to the activists, saying there are “two very different visions for LGBT equality in the Republican and Democratic platforms.”

Thankfully, he is right. We pray the Republicans will be true to the Party Platform.

Janson Wu, executive director of homosexual advocacy group GLAD, said, “We have got to do so much more around ensuring that LGBT children and young people are fully included, integrated, and celebrated in every aspect of life—in their families, and schools, and communities, and faith communities.”

The Heritage Foundation’s “The Signal” has done what they do so well: they have analyzed and summarized—with detail–the homosexual summit, and identified the 4 goals the activists are committed to achieve in the coming year.

The link above gives more details, but here is the essence of what was decided:

1. Passing The Equality Act

This is federal legislation. They are very focused on this and it is immediate.  Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), and David Cicilline (D-RI), have sponsored the bill. It would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity among prohibited categories of discrimination.

This act undermines free speech and religious liberty.  Ryan T. Anderson with Heritage Foundation says, “The bill does not protect equality before the law, but unnecessarily and unjustly violates freedom by creating privileges based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The homosexual activists have gathered a significant line-up of businesses and corporations to support their efforts. The list is included in the “Signal” link above.  The activists are certain big business will stay with them in getting this legislation passed and that some Republicans will support them as well.

2. Defeating State and Local Laws

These activists see state and local laws as the biggest threat to their agenda.  After the US Supreme Court ruled on same-sex “marriage,” many states have been energized to pass state legislation to protect their religious freedom, freedom of conscience rights so they can run their businesses, adoption agencies, charity and church organizations in accord with their deeply held religious beliefs.

These activists are specifically targeting states that have passed or are working to pass Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) after the 1993 federal law which is supposed to protect from discrimination or punishment those who believe marriage is between one man and one woman and that gender identity is based on biological sex.

The message to the activists was not to pay a lot of attention to those of us who believe that [marriage between men and women] — [i.e.,] “the bigots.”  Evan Wolfson, former head of “Freedom to Marry,” told the convention, “Religion is not the reason people are bigots, it’s the excuse.”

The activists plan to go state to state to strike down religious freedom measures and marginalize those who support the religious freedom measures. They plan to continue this until they can pass federal legislation that makes the state efforts no longer necessary. They gloated, “The tide is shifting” in their favor—“We finally got over being awkward and shy about talking about restrooms.” (laughter).

3. Going To Court

They will be focusing on the courts to advance their agenda, both federally and state by state.

One case they have their eyes on is one involving a Cabela’s store former transgender employee who is suing the company for not providing “reasonable” accommodations for her/his gender dysphoria.

The leaders told the audience they will be focusing resources on a few cases like the Cabela case, but not necessarily on local religious cases involving wedding services—bakers, florists, photographers, etc.  Why? Because, “We’re doing very well in those cases. We’ve won almost all of them.”

And regarding the Supreme Court, well, the leaders quoted some of what Justice Anthony Kennedy has said— “Kennedy says people are free to believe what ever they want to believe [and] that gives me significant hope the court will say that’s not what

To read this article in its entirety, go to: http://blog.faithandfreedom.us/2016/08/lgbt-2016-17-goals-target-all-students.html#more