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04/14/2010

Their Focus on the Family is firm -- unless Peter LaBarbera wishes to adjust it

by Jeremy Hooper

Because of pressure from from overheated, SPLC-recognized equal rights foe Peter LaBarbera, Focus on the Family has repudiated a past comment that one of their own had made in regards to a potential LGB Supreme Court nominee's sexual orientation. FOtF's Tom Minnery now says to LaBarbera exclusively:

“ It has been reported that we would not oppose any U.S. Supreme Court nominee over their ’sexual orientation.’ Our Judicial Analyst [ Bruce Hausknecht ] made a statement to this effect in an interview with The Plum Line. To be honest, this is one of those conversations we’d like to ‘do over.’ We can assure you that we recognize that homosexual behavior is a sin and does not reflect God’s created intent and desire for humanity. Further, we at Focus do affirm that character and moral rectitude should be key considerations in appointing members of the judiciary, especially in the case of the highest court in the land. Sexual behavior–be it heterosexual or homosexual–certainly lies at the heart of personal morality. ” [Source]

So rather than stand on the conviction that it is record that matters and not sexual orientation, Focus on the Family has chosen to align itself with a man who personally attacks people's weddings, personally attacks transgender individuals for no reason whatsoever, publicly mocks a six-year-old girl and her family as a way of making a point about a state's marriage ruling, asks readers to send emails to an underage teenager so that the young gay man might "find and receive godly counsel and escape the clutches of a sin movement that endangers body and soul," and whose body of beyond-the-pale work (including repeated links to discredited researcher Paul Cameron) has twice attracted the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have allowed themselves to be bullied, tossing one of their own colleagues under the bus so that they can retain a name that is synonymous with opposing LGBT people for no virtue larger than their orientation. They have capitulated on their stance on judges, so that they could themselves seem more judgmental.

So there ya have it: Regardless of qualifications, all of this nation's openly gay judges are automatically off the consideration list for SCOTUS. So says Americans For Truth. So says Colorado Springers for Capitulation.

**

**Hausknecht's earlier comment:

“We agree with Senator Sessions,” Bruce Hausknecht, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family, which was founded by top religious right figure James Dobson, told me a few minutes ago. “The issue is not their sexual orientation. It’s whether they are a good judge or not.”



Their sexual orientation “should never come up,” he continued. “It’s not even pertinent to the equation.”

Top Religious Right Group: We Won’t Oppose Gay SCOTUS Pick [Plum Line]

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