
By: Rod Swift
Re: The Anti-Gay Agenda..

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From: "Freedom Writer" August 1994/Institute of First Amendment 
Studies

GLEN EYRIE:
The organized assault on gay rights
By Skipp Porteous

In 1990, The Freedom Writer announced the "rebirth" of the religious
right. At that time, many observers thought the movement had run out
of steam. Insiders knew better. "By the end of the decade," declared
evangelist Paul Cain, "the whole earth will view the church in a
different light. The church will no longer be mocked and despised,
but either loved or feared."

Our readers were among the first to learn of the religious right's new
two-fold plan of attack. In a simple but effective move, the religious
right changed its focus from national politics to local politics.
Additionally, the hard right abandoned its haphazard approach to politics
and instituted long-term planning to achieve its ultimate objectives.

Now, the mainstream media is working hard to bring its reporting up to
speed. Recently, The New York Times reported on the religious right's
efforts to take over the Republican Party. In the November/December
1991 issue of The Freedom Writer, Frederick Clarkson wrote that the
Christian Coalition "intends to take over the Republican Party from the
inside, and elect thousands of right-wing Christians to state and local
office -- as well as the Congress -- through a massive and disciplined
bloc of voters." He continued, "At their recent 'Road to Victory'
national leadership conference in Virginia Beach, almost every session
was devoted to instruction in the mechanics of how to do it."

At that 1991 "Road to Victory" conference, Gary Bauer, of the Family
Research Council (an arm of Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family
ministry) set the tone for the conference: "Obviously, this conference
is about the 1992 elections," he said. The reason this and all elections
are important, Bauer observed, is because "We are engaged in a social,
political, cultural civil war."

While effective, the strategy of focusing on local elections and
planning for the long-haul is not enough. A movement requires another
ingredient. For years, in the shadow of communism, the hard right had a
villain. And they milked it for all it was worth. The religious right
took it a step further and ferociously attacked "secular humanism," a
philosophy the Rev. Tim LaHaye called "the world's most dangerous
religion."

With the fall of communism, however, the hard right lost a valuable
element of its crusade. The movement was desperately in need of a new
devil. For a while, the hard right rode on the wave of anti-abortion
sentiment. Abortion is a losing political issue, though, and the
religious right has, to a large degree, let the ultra-radicals in the
movement deal with it. (One should not think that the fight to preserve
choice is over. In some ways, that war is intensifying, simply because
of the radical element carrying on the fight against abortion 
rights.)

The radical right thinks it has found the missing ingredient, the
important social issue to galvanize the movement. It is "the militant
homosexuals," or "the gay agenda."

For almost three years now, the majority of fund raising material coming
from the religious right has focused on gay rights. These vicious and
hysterical fund raising letters are proven moneymakers. Most of the top
religious right groups have picked up on this theme.

Groups such as the Oregon Citizens Alliance and Colorado for Family
Values (CFV), started fighting gay rights in their states at the grass
roots. They introduced the term "special rights," to imply that gays and
lesbians wanted more than equal rights. Only recently have larger
national groups become involved in strategy and planning.

CFV succeeded in passing Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied equal
protection for gays and lesbians. Amendment 2, the only statewide
anti-gay rights measure to be approved by voters, was struck down by
Colorado courts as unconsitutional.

Encouraged by its limited success, CFV held a small conference last
year to discuss future strategy. As a result, CVF produced The Colorado
Model, a workbook designed to help anti-gay activists in other states
ban gay rights. The $95 workbook came with nine audio tapes featuring
the conference speakers. A newer version comes with two video tapes.
Conference speakers appear on one. The other video, "The Gay Agenda,"
is a scurrilous film about gays and lesbians. With hundreds of
thousands of copies in circulation, "The Gay Agenda" greatly influenced
Colorado's vote against gay rights.

Because leaders of religious right groups around the country responded
so favorably to CFV's material and leadership in fighting gay rights,
the Colorado group scheduled another conference.

According to a May 19, 1994 article in The Washington Times, "Leaders
of anti-homosexual-rights groups across the nation wrapped up two days
of top-secret meetings" in Colorado Springs. Representatives of about
35 state and national religious right organizations attended the meeting,
according to the article. The purpose of the meeting concerned policy
and strategy in dealing with the gay rights movement in the United 
States.

The Washington Times reporter, Valerie Richardson, noted that she was
banned from the meeting because the sponsoring group, Colorado for
Family Values, attempted to suppress media coverage. Nevertheless,
Richardson's article got our attention and contained enough data for The
Freedom Writer to launch an investigation of the clandestine 
conference.

The conference, The Washington Times article said, took place at the
"gated" Glen Eyrie Conference Center. Glen Eyrie is operated by the
Navigators, an evangelical group based in Colorado Springs.

The Freedom Writer commissioned a researcher and a photographer in
Colorado Springs to go out to the conference center and look around.
After clearance from the security people at the main gate, the two
enjoyed limited access to the grounds.

The centerpiece of Glen Eyrie is a massive stone castle. Various
dwelling places, or dormitories, dot the surrounding mountainous
landscape. The CFV conference, attended by about 40 people, was held
on a second floor meeting room in the castle.

Some members of conservative Christian groups in Colorado Springs
provided helpful information, and, bit-by-bit, we pieced together the
names of most of the people from about twenty states who attended the
conference. In talking with some of them, we confirmed names, and
gathered more information.

Some individuals interviewed by The Freedom Writer for this article
were extremely closed-mouthed, while others even denied attending. One,
in particular, was deceitful. Representative Darlene Cornfield of Kansas
told The Freedom Writer, "I was not there. I don't know where that came
from! I don't know why anyone would say I was there when I wasn't."

Judy Thomas, a reporter for The Wichita Eagle, told The Freedom Writer
that Jim McDavitt of the Kansas Education Watch Network told her that
he attended the conference with Darlene Cornfield. The significance of
a state representative at this meeting was not lost; that's why we
called Cornfield.

Cornfield, a conservative Christian, is up for reelection in November.
Outspoken about her beliefs, Cornfield told The Freedom Writer, "I
believe the Lord wanted me in the Legislature." She told us that she
is anti-choice, and opposed to gay rights. "I just believe the Bible
from cover to cover," she said.

Asked if there is any reason she wouldn't want someone to know she
attended a conference of this type, Cornfield responded, "Of course
not, everything I do is wide open."

Next, we called the Kansas Education Watch Network and talked to
"Mary," McDavitt's secretary. She said McDavitt was away, and she
denied knowing anything about any conference in Colorado Springs. We
learned later that McDavitt was away speaking at a religious right
conference in Indianapolis.

Apparently, McDavitt told Judy Thomas of The Wichita Eagle that the
conference dealt with a number of different issues -- not just gay
rights. However, this was not the case. It focused solely on devising
a strategy to deprive gays and lesbians of equal rights.

The whole story came out when someone in Colorado Springs obtained
conference tapes from the Navigators. Recordings of the ten conference
speakers are contained on seven tapes. One speaker, Robert Skolrood,
president of the National Legal Foundation, even referred to the
wonderful work in Kansas of Darlene Cornfield, "who is sitting in
the audience."

One conference attendee, Patricia Houston, of Warriors Not Wimps For
Jesus, based in Las Cruces, New Mexico, offered high praise for Jim
McDavitt of Kansas. "He was on fire for the Lord!" she told The
Freedom Writer. "He had information much further along than anyone
else. I learned a lot from him."

Houston expressed surprise that not everyone at the conference was a
born-again Christian. She mentioned that one of the speakers, Judith
Reisman, is Jewish. Houston said that McDavitt "witnessed strongly"
to Reisman, trying to convert her.

"It was nice to see a legislator there," Houston continued, referring
to Darlene Cornfield. According to Houston, McDavitt and Cornfield
came together.

Houston said she attended the conference with Margaret Kramer, a
spokesperson for a New Mexico group called Mothers Against Bad
Government. According to Houston, the religious right of New Mexico
is concerned about legislators who support gay rights.

"We have two people," Houston said, "two of our most powerful
legislators, who openly endorse the homosexual movement." "One of
them," she added, "has a son who is homosexual." "The legislator
with the gay son," she claimed, "is Manny Aragon, and the other
legislator is Raymond Sanchez."

Since 1973, another legislator, Tom Rutherford, has been, according
to Houston, "introducing pro-homosexual legislation." "Though he's
never come out and announced it," Houston said, "I've since found
out he is homosexual."

Houston said that she was impressed by the number of men at the
conference, including Jim Woodall, a vice president for management
of Concerned Women for America. "You know, men are the leaders of
the country," she said.

According to Will Perkins, the purpose of the conference was "to
come out of here with a plan...how we can impact this nation -- our
groups, our collective voices out there. If we have a good, strong,
coordinated approach... they don't know who to shoot at if we have
all of us out there."

"We need to hold pastors and churches and denominations accountable,"
Perkins continued, "who are condoning homosexual behavior. And [we
need to] make the public realize that they are also condoning
adultery, fornication, bestiality, and polygamy."

"I feel," Perkins said, "that there is not a more important meeting
being held in these United States as is being held here these next
two days. If we lose this battle, there are no more moral absolutes
left for this nation."

Robert Linden, the conference moderator picked up Perkins' theme.
"The absolute values that were established by God," he proclaimed,
"are still absolute."

John Eldridge, the first speaker, brought "greetings and warm
regards from Dr. Dobson of Focus on the Family." "Dr. Dobson,"
Eldridge told the group, "and those of us at Focus on the Family
in the public policy fight, see this issue as one of the key issues
of our time. So much hinges on what happens with the full agenda
of the militant gay movement."

Eldridge outlined an agenda for the religious right to follow in its
assault on gay rights. The agenda must:

  * Change public perception about gay rights
  * Use ideas and language that appeal to the public
  * Create the impression that the anti-gay movement is a grass-roots
      movement
  * Use lay people to keep the anti-gay movement going
  * Develop a long-term project to convince evangelical pastors to
      support the anti-gay movement.

We need to "tell America WHY heterosexuality is best for individuals
and society." "That case," he said, "needs to be made strongly, and
supported by what Americans consider 'gospel truth,' -- that is
empirical science. That is the high priest of our culture."

"Shrewdly," Eldrige continued, "we need to show why society needs to
make certain demands on people sexually." He said that public perception
has to be changed. "We must never appear to be attempting to rob anyone
of their rights -- their constitutional rights. We must never appear to
be mean-spirited or bigoted. We must be shrewd to get consensus for our
position by appealing to shared values and concern, and issues of
fairness and justice."

Eldridge stressed that the anti-gay movement must be "perceived as a
genuine grass roots uprising." He said that "home rule" is important,
because a top-down approach doesn't work. If a community perceives that
an outside, national group is behind local activism, the community will
rebel against it. So, the perception of grass-roots organizing, or home
rule, is critical. He explained that this is why Focus on the Family
is staying in the background. His national group, he noted, is like
an 800-pound giant compared to Colorado for Family Values, which has
a half dozen people in a one-room office. (During the conference,
Frank York of Focus on the Family admitted that Focus on the Family
now has a $150 million dollar-a-year budget.)

"I would not say this in other cultural contexts," Eldridge
explained, "but the gay agenda has all the elements of that which
is truly evil. It is deceptive at every turn. It is destroying the
souls and lives of those who embrace it."

John Eldridge said several things troubled him greatly. "As an
evangelical, there is no question that the church, being a house
divided -- having the Mel Whites, the Peggy Campolos, and that sort
of thing -- is extraordinary damaging to our movement." (Mel White is
the gay ghost writer who formerly worked with Jerry Falwell, Pat
Robertson, Billy Graham, and Oliver North. He tells his extraordinary
story in his fascinating book, Stranger at the Gate. Peggy Campolo
is the wife of the popular evangelical motivational speaker Tony
Campolo. The Campolos have expressed sympathy for gay rights.)

More than one speaker, including Eldridge, said that the anti-gay rights
movement is being led by lay people, not the clergy. "Pastors are
terrified that this issue will split their churches," Eldridge remarked.
"The local church is a mess. The pastors are a long-term project."

Robert Skolrood, president of the National Legal Foundation also
expressed ill feelings towards evangelical ministers. "Our pastors
don't know anything," Skolrood declared. "And most of them are 
wimps."

Skolrood, an attorney who formerly worked for Pat Robertson, sometimes
speaks more like a faith healer than a lawyer. He described the war
against gay rights as "a spiritual battle" and spoke of the need to
keep "demons from polluting the word of God."

Pastors aren't the only ones avoiding the controversial gay rights
issue, Skolrood said, but "Christian legal organizations don't want
to touch the issue." He said his group is available to help other
groups initiate state referendums against gay rights.

Frank York, another Focus on the Family spokesperson, also addressed
the gathering. He focused on computer and fax technology, which he
explained "is an essential part of the battle we're in."

York encourage the group to use computers and facsimile machines to
broadcast communications to: phone trees, congressmen and other
politicians, conservative college newspapers, and churches.

Besides using computers to communicate within the religious right, York
suggested that computers be used to gather intelligence on the enemy.
"You have to know your enemy," he said. "Gays and lesbians are a large
part of the Internet."

Monitoring on-line computer services, York said, "is an intelligence-
gathering operation. They're not aware that you're gathering this
information. It's very important to gather intelligence this way." He
claimed that by monitoring online computer services he learned in
advance of a lesbian sit-in at Focus on the Family.

One speaker, Judith Reisman, a self-professed sex expert, perpetrated
the myth that gays try to recruit heterosexuals, bringing them into
"the homosexual lifestyle."

"I would suggest to you," she said, "that while the homosexual
population may right now be one to two percent, hold your breath,
people, because the recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere.
You'll be seeing, I would say, twenty percent or more, probably thirty
percent, or even more than that, of the young population will be
moving into homosexual activity."

Buzz Harris, who works with Sue Hyde in the New England office of the
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's "Fight the Right Project," said,
"They want to stoke the flames of internalized homophobia in a attempt
to 'convert' us to heterosexuality." "It is irrelevant," he continued,
"to their closed-minded world view that the American Psychological
Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the U.N.'s World
Health Organization have all stated clearly for many years that
bisexuality and homosexuality are a normal and healthy part of human
love and sexual expression."

In concluding her talk, Reisman said, "You will not ever be able to do
anything about homosexuality until you address pornography in the church,
pornography in your own lives; it is interlocked and related."

After all the speakers made their presentations, the group held a
series of brainstorming sessions. The final session led to the top
two "Primary Strategies."

Comprised of two main parts, the first "Primary Strategy" involves
"Information & Data Exchange" and "Media." Under "Information & Data
Exchange," the group aims to establish a computer network using a
bulletin board service (BBS) or a commercial on-line service such as
America Online (AOL). Focus on the Family, incidentally, is considering
AOL as a way to distribute some of its publications.

The second part of "Information & Data Exchange" is the development
of a central clearinghouse, with different organizations handling the
following responsibilities:

   * A gay office holders and activists data bank
   * Information resources about ministries to convert gays
   * Record anti-gay successes
   * Record anti-gay defeats
   * Track scientific literature
   * Monitor corporations/who they fund/where they spend their
       advertising dollars
   * Religious tracking/where evangelical churches and pastors stand
       on gay rights
   * Monitor people in the media/their stand on gay rights
   * Monitor national and state political candidates and gay office holders
   * Monitor crimes committed by gays
   * News clipping service

The second part of the first "Primary Strategy" deals with the media.
The group hopes to "get all conservative organizations united to promote
a mass-media/legislative blitz on Dr. Kinsey's child abuse data, calling
for investigation and cessation of all tax money funding sexuality
programs, until Kinsey's scientific fraud is proven."

The second aspect of dealing with the media involves writing letters
and placing phone calls. The group plans to blitz newspapers with
letters, and radio talk shows with phone calls. One aspect of this
is to "I.D. favorable educators and get them involved with letters to
the editor and interviews." They also plan to buy radio ads in order
to "access radio programs to reveal truth of homosexual lifestyle vs.
heterosexual marriage." Finally, the media blitz involves the
development of "a base of letter writers and callers who can respond
on a regular basis to editorials and news stories."

The second of the two "Primary Strategies" deals with "Legislative/Legal"
concepts. First, the anti-gay proponents want to "enact legislation
rewarding traditional families with tax rewards." Another long-term goal
is to "pass resolutions in legislatures in the 50 states to affirm that
the traditional mom and dad family is the superior or ideal model."

Their political agenda includes:

  * Voter guides
  * Precinct organization
  * Leadership development
  * Campaigning
  * Voter education in the area of school board candidates and candidates
      for state legislators
  * Fund raising

Particular attention should be paid to one other area of the anti-gay
right agenda. It is the implementation of "Project Spotlight." This is
a highly organized and detailed model currently underway in Ohio. The
goal is to take over all the legislative bodies in the state,
including city councils and the state legislature. A crucial part of
the plan is to identify exactly where every elected official and
candidate stands on gay rights. The next step is to get 25% of the
voters to sign a pledge not to vote for any candidate who supports
gay rights. In this way, Project Spotlight is designed to defeat
any candidate who supports gay rights. After the designated
law-making bodies are taken over, the next step is to introduce new
laws that ban gay rights.

The religious right is convinced that pornography and homosexuality
are inextricably linked. The assumption is also made that organized
crime controls most of the production of pornography. Therefore, the
religious right concludes that gay rights lobbying is funded by
organized crime. With this in mind, the religious right intends to
"Educate the grassroots that homosexual, pornography and organized
crime lobbying is [sic] one and the same."

Finally, the anti-gay rights movement is developing a litigation
strategy. To do this, it plans to share research, resources, and
coordinate involvement at the trial level. It intends to offer
"legal support for workers being sued by homosexuals." This
presumably deals with harassment in the workplace.

In its effort to deny gays and lesbians equal rights with other
citizens, the religious right wants to take its agenda all the way
to the Supreme Court. Currently, the movement is seeking the best
case to take to the High Court. Utilizing "political experts,
constitutional lawyers, and public relations experts," it has
proposed the formation of an "advisory board to formulate the
best case to take to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The Freedom Writer finds it significant that Dr. James Dobson and his
Focus on the Family believe that gay rights is one of the most
important issues of our times. Focus on the Family is arguably the
most influential of all the religious right groups, leading in
resources, outreach, and organization. The involvement of Focus on
the Family in the anti-gay rights movement has profound implications.

Hopefully, Americans concerned about true rights for all people,
regardless of religion, race, national origin, sex, or sexual
orientation, will see the anti-gay rights movement as another ploy by
the radical religious right to take political power.
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Sidebar: WHO WAS THERE?

Speakers:
  * Will Perkins
      Chairman of Colorado for Family Values
  * Robert Linden
      Conference moderator and a production manager at Hewlett Packard
  * John Eldridge
      Director, Seminar & Research, Public Policy Division, Focus on
      the Family
  * Robert Skolrood
      president, National Legal Foundation
  * Col. Ronald Ray
      USMCR
  * Judith Reisman
      Institute for Media Education, pornography researcher
  * Dr. Paul Cameron
      Chairman of the Family Research Institute
  * Peter LaBarbera
      Accuracy in Media, past editor of Concerned Women for America's
      Family Voice magazine, and current editor of Lambda Report, an
      anti-gay publication
  * Frank York
      Editor at Focus on the Family
  * Phil Butler
      Public Policy, Focus on the Family
  * Kevin Tebedo
      Executive director of Colorado for Family Values

Groups represented:
  Accuracy in Media, American Family Association of Florida, American
  Family Association of Ohio, American Family Association of Texas,
  Christian Coalition of Colorado, Christian Coalition of New York,
  Colorado Eagle Forum, Colorado for Family Values, Concerned Women
  for America of Colorado, Conservative Caucus, Equal Rights Not
  Special Rights, Family Defense Council, Family Research Institute,
  Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Institute for Media
  Education, National Legal Foundation, Oregon Citizens Alliance,
  Traditional Values Coalition, U.S. Taxpayers Party,

States represented:
  Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky,
  Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island,
  Texas, Virginia, Washington
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Sidebar: CONFERENCE SPEAKERS BARE HIDDEN AGENDA
By Mike Shaver

From the beginning, gay rights proponents have claimed that anti-gay
measures like Amendment 2 are driven by individuals and organizations
with an exclusive religious agenda, inherently at odds with basic
notions of pluralism and political inclusion.

The anti-gay forces' success, therefore, has required establishing
political credibility in the mantra "equal rights, not special
rights." As important as this claim was during the Amendment 2
campaign, taped sessions and documents from the Colorado for Family
Values conference contained no references to this slogan, which was
described by many as the genius of Amendment 2. Could it be that this
was less about rights and more about a larger objective?

Robert Skolrood, who heads the organization that worked with Colorado
for Family Values to draft and defend Amendment 2, prefaced his legal
talk by emphasizing, "As you know, it's a spiritual battle and we at
the National Legal Foundation use II Corinthians 10:3-5 as our
scripture... Although we lead normal human lives, the battle we are
fighting is on the spiritual level."

More revealing is the list of "foundational principles" which
summarizes the conference. The list appears to be a set of agreed-upon
tenets which came out of the group sessions following the presentations.

Objectives include getting elected officials to expose gay-friendly
legislation and public policy, eliminating government dollars and
resources which are "the result of improper behavior brought on by
their lifestyle (ex. AIDS) [sic]," and stressing family values so
that "homosexuality would be regarded as a sad pathology by
implication." Standing in marked contrast to these principles is
item three, which reads simply, "Spiritual revival."

This item may have been inspired by Ron Ray, an active and
vociferous critic of gays serving in the military. His presentation
included several minutes of a religiously charged rhetoric.

"We're going to have to remember His standard," Ray said. "And then
we can have repentance, because the problem is the church... Once we
have repentance, we can have revival. Once we have the smoothing of
the Holy Spirit, we can have restoration... All of us are working
very hard at restoration, and the sad thing is that we're going to
be bound by God's objective order.

"Sodomy, Sodom and Gomorrah, means the end or termination point...
When you accept it in the law order, they have rendered thy word
void, now the Lord will have to move."

Ronald Ray and Bob Skolrood were not alone in drawing on this theme.
John Eldridge, who noted that Focus on the Family president James
Dobson sees the issue of homosexuality as "one of the key issues of
our age," outlined the work that Focus is doing to "raise the
consciousness of the vast majority of Christians in the country
who are woefully ignorant on these issues." Noting that the church
is "slowly waking up," Eldridge promised that evangelical churches
would turn "the great ship of evangelism back toward social 
engagement."

While these comments appear to stray from the conference theme, they
bring to light what appears to be a shared motive of exclusion in the
name of religion which is often hidden from the debate when the issue
of gay rights unfolds in the public arena.

(Mike Shaver is director of the Citizens Project in Colorado 
Springs.)
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