(AgapePress) - All 186 state legislators in Maine were a no-show for a recent pro-family gathering that included a presentation on how public schools are promoting homosexuality to children.

The event was hosted by the Christian Civic League of Maine and featured keynote speaker Peter LaBarbera of the Culture and Family Institute. Although every legislator in the entire state of Maine received an invitation to the gathering via first-class mail and was offered a free lunch, not one lawmaker attended.

Civic League president Michael Heath says the lack of interest was disappointing -- but not surprising.

"The reason I'm not surprised is because this is a busy time of year for the legislators," Heath says. "The reason I'm disappointed is because the horror of what is being done with Maine taxpayer dollars is beyond imagining. I learned that when I attended this fifth statewide 'Civil Rights Team' conference put on by the attorney general's office."

Heath says that conference -- from which he was barred -- was organized by the attorney general's office and was billed as a seminar to teach public school students "tolerance and respect for everyone." He says instead of doing that, the conference legitimized the homosexual lifestyle. In addition, he was told his group would only be allowed to have two observers at any one workshop at the seminar.

According to Heath, kids at that workshop heard a pro-homosexual testimonial.

"In the workshop entitled 'GLBTQ Youth' -- which stands for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and 'questioning' or 'queer' -- a gal in her early twenties talked with 13-year-old middle-school students about how she is a man trapped in a woman's body, and two-and-a-half years ago notified her parents and began taking testosterone," he says.

Heath says shortly before the conference began, volunteers from the attorney general's office discouraged school children from accepting pro-family literature distributed by Heath and his supporters outside the Augusta Civic Center.

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