By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
January 15, 2002

(AgapePress) - Pro-family advocates have reason to celebrate today, with two major developments in the battle against the advancing homosexual agenda. The civil-unions legislation in California has stalled in the state legislature -- and a federal court has ruled in favor of a student's right to wear a shirt bearing the words "Straight Pride."

AB 1338, a bill that would essentially make a "civil union" between two homosexual men or two lesbians equal in all respects to a marriage between a man and a woman, has stalled in the California State Legislature. Late Monday, Democrat Assemblyman Paul Koretz of West Hollywood -- the author of AB 1338 -- announced he was shelving his bill, but is planning to reintroduce the bill in the future.

In March 2000, voters in the Golden State overwhelmingly approved the Protection of Marriage Initiative (Proposition 22), a bill that strongly supported the rights of marriage only for a man and a woman. Several pro-family groups had complained that AB 1338 was an attempt to circumvent that decision by the citizens of the state and grant every benefit and privilege of marriage to homosexual couples. (See previous related story)

But Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, says pressure from pro-family citizens and organizations made Governor Gray Davis and Koretz "think twice" about overturning the people's vote on marriage during an election year. He notes the action by Koretz came on the same day that pro-family advocates rallied their constituents in protest to the bill and that Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family devoted his daily, nationwide radio broadcast to the topic.

Thomasson, however, is warning pro-family citizens not to become complacent. He says more homosexual "marriage" bills are waiting in the wings. In addition to Koretz's plans to reintroduce his bill at a later time, the pro-family leader says other Democratic legislators are considering introducing an omnibus domestic partners bill he says would "hijack more marriage rights for homosexual couples."

"If the homosexual activists and the Democrat[s] ... don't get same-sex marriage in one year with 'civil unions', they'll work for five years to tear apart marriage piece by piece and limb by limb with a series of homosexual 'partners' bills that will utterly destroy the uniqueness of marriage," Thomasson says.

He says pro-family citizens need to be vigilant and continue urging their state legislators to oppose any bill that gives any rights of marriage to homosexual "partners."

'Straight Pride' Vindicated
One year ago, Elliott Chambers -- a 16-year-old student at Woodbury High in St. Paul, Minnesota -- was ordered by the school's principal, Dana Babbitt, not to wear a shirt displaying the phrase "Straight Pride" because one student had complained about it. Elliott, along with his parents, filed a lawsuit with the help of the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy.

The suit alleged that the school's promotion of homosexuality and their attempt to silence Elliott's message constituted discrimination. Yesterday the U.S. district court in St. Paul ruled in Elliott's favor.

CLP chief counsel Steve Crampton says he is pleased that Elliott's rights have been vindicated by the court. But at the same time, he is disappointed at the hypocrisy of the school, which allowed the posting of pink triangles, the universal symbol for "gay pride," but tried to prohibit Elliott's "Straight Pride" message.

"[T]he actions of the school district, even in the aftermath of the preliminary injunction hearing, indicate nothing but an attitude of unwillingness to comply with the law and recognize the most basic rights to free speech in the mouths of students like Elliott Chambers who disagree with their school's politically correct approach on the issue of homosexuality," Crampton says.

In a press release, the Center says Babbitt acted quickly when a single student complained about being offended by the message on Elliott's shirt. By contrast, the release says, when Elliott's parents told Babbit they were offended by the pink triangles, he accused them of being "homophobes" and refused to remove them. Crampton says that is indicative of what he sees happening in the nation's public schools.

"Schools in America have devoted most of their time and resources to indoctrinating our students in politically correct attitudes and beliefs, and [have] left off the essentials of educating on academics and the ABCs," he says. "I believe that Woodbury High and most schools in America have thrown out the ABCs and brought in the PCAs -- politically correct attitudes."

Crampton says schools should spend more time on education, and less time on indoctrination.

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