Contact: Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth, 312-324-3787, americansfortruth@gmail.com
 
CHICAGO, Nov. 6, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- The most dangerous legislation ever to come out of the revolutionary "gay" activist movement – the federal "Equality Act," which proposes adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as protected classes in the Civil Rights code – hangs in the balance as Americans go to the polls today.
 
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised that if the Democrat Party wins back the House and she becomes Speaker Pelosi, a top priority will be passing the Equality Act, which now has 198 co-sponsors in the House, all but two of them Democrats.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org) president Peter LaBarbera has renamed the Equality Act the "Criminalizing Christianity Act" and called it a "gay and transgender lawyers' dream bill." It would effectively criminalize traditional morality and undermine religious liberty by punishing Americans for living out their conscience on issues like unnatural homosexual "marriage" ceremonies and taxpayer funding of grotesque transsexual "sex-reassignment surgeries" (masquerading as "health care").

In an excellent article summarizing the Equality Act, Heritage Foundation scholar Ryan Anderson writes, "By making 'gender identity' a protected class, the government would force Americans to embrace transgender ideology in a variety of settings...elevating "gender identity" to a protected class across our federal antidiscrimination laws could impose a nationwide transgender bathroom policy, a nationwide pronoun policy, a nationwide sex-reassignment health care mandate...."

[Anderson's reference to a “pronoun policy" suggests government punishments for people who use "he" or "him" to describe biological males who purport to be "women," like "Caitlyn" Jenner. In defiance of biology and DNA, LGBTQ activists insist that everyone use whatever pronoun and newfangled descriptors they demand to describe the gender-confused.]

LaBarbera warned that LGBTQ activists have mounted an unprecedented electoral effort on behalf of openly LGBTQ Democratic and pro-homosexual/trans-agenda candidates--with the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) lobby organization, alone spending $26 million targeting six battleground states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.

And yet, "Republican candidates and conservative alternative media are mostly silent on the homosexual agenda, following the lead of the reflexively liberal 'mainstream' media, whose love of all things LGBTQ is eclipsed only by their hatred of Donald Trump," he said.

LaBarbera said too many Republicans are petrified of the vocal LGBTQ Lobby, and offered two examples of the GOP's curious silence on homosexual issues in the mid-terms:

• Arizona Democrat Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema, an irreligious ex-Mormon, openly describes herself as a "bisexual," and yet this is rarely mentioned by conservatives highlighting her radical record. Until recently, "bisexuality" was regarded as extreme, even by many homosexuals. (Sinema supports the Equality Act; HRC endorsed her as a "staunch advocate for the LGBTQ community" and the "first openly bisexual member of the House.")
   
• In New Hampshire's Congressional District 1, openly homosexual Democrat candidate Chris Pappas (also endorsed by HRC) boasts about his support for abortion-on-demand, taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the LGBTQ Equality Act and legislative bans on "conversion therapy" (pro-heterosexual talk therapy for people with unwanted homosexual desires). Meanwhile, the website of his opponent, Republican Eddie Edwards, ignores these social issues.

"While social media corporation's liberal censorship is a huge problem, conservatives' SELF-censorship is a bigger problem," LaBarbera said. "If Christians and conservatives are afraid to even discuss the homosexual agenda, how can we ever hope to defeat it?" He urged a wholesale rejection of political correctness as modeled by President Trump.

"Here's the bottom line: the same social leftists who decades ago whined, 'Don't impose your morality on us!' are working hard to impose their anti-Christian IMMORALITY on everyone—and that's exactly what the federal Equality Act would do. In the guise of expanding 'civil rights,' it would force Americans to honor 'Gay' instead of God, corrupting children and crushing freedom in the process."

In the days leading up to today's election, LaBarbera has been interviewed by several Christian media outlets to discuss the LGBTQ election blitz and Republicans' sexual morality self-censorship, including: AFA's "One News Now," AFR's "Janet Mefferd Live," VCY America's "Crosstalk" and AFA of Pennsylvania's radio talk show.