November-December 1996 – AFA of Texas topples Texas Triangle
One less homosexual newspaper is now espousing the virtues of the sinful lifestyle. The Texas Triangle printed its last edition October 10, thanks in large part to efforts of the American Family Association of Texas.
AFA of Texas helped orchestrate an advertiser boycott of the paper by showing mainstream companies exactly what the editorial content of the gay newspaper was about. Central to that editorial slant was a series of cartoons glorifying incest and pedophilia.
Editors of the gay paper deny the AFA efforts played any role in its demise and at one point actually claimed an increase in advertisers because of the AFA of Texas boycott. That stance is contradicted by a story in the Austin American Statesman which stated the publication had difficulty bringing in enough money from advertising sales to keep up with expenses. The mainstream Austin paper failed to report the AFA of Texas boycott in its story about the demise of the homosexual publication.
Pennsylvanians have adult night spot quaking
A scrappy bunch of protesters wearing blaze-orange construction vests have endured rain, snow, sleet and heat in their battle to shut down a strip joint near their neighborhood in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
The coalition, which numbers 160 volunteers and 40 substitutes, consists of teens and truck drivers, retirees and clergy. The group is literally working around the clock to warn people about the dangers of this particular strip club and pornography in general. The volunteers man two-hour, four-person shifts to act as a human humiliation barrier. “A lot of the guys that pull off the highway never make it inside because they get embarrassed and go back,” said Rose Diller the chairwoman of SCRAP, Shippensburg Citizens Rally Against Pornography. Just outside the joint’s privacy fence and facing an interstate, the group sponsors a billboard that declares: “Pornography Picket At This Exit.”
“We have had quite a few appeals for help from men who say that they are addicted to sex,” Diller said. “They tell us they have a beautiful wife at home and they ask us for prayers or for guidance. It happens periodically and unexpectedly. It’s really a jolt.”
Police say the strip club, The Presidential Suites, has been the site of police raids and actions including charges of prostitution, performing lewd sexual acts and liquor violations.
Paul Maurer, vice president of the National Coalition Against Pornography, said similar persistent efforts in communities across the nation have been successful.
Diller says already the club has cut its business hours in half, but adds SCRAP won’t be satisfied until the doors are padlocked.
Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA), 9/15/96
Porn peddler pointed out in Lone Star showdown
A coalition of pro-family groups led by AFA of Texas is trying to convince a statewide convenience store chain that there’s nothing to gain by peddling pornography. The effort was originally started by the Bexar County Christian Coalition and a group called Pornography Doesn’t Pay. Dallas Association for Decency and several local AFA affiliates are fighting against Diamond Shamrock in their respective communities.
Wyatt Roberts, executive director of AFA of Texas, and several other pro-family leaders met with Diamond Shamrock CEO Roger Hemminghaus who professes to be a Christian. According to Roberts, Hemminghaus said he was forced to make the decision to sell porn because he couldn’t find a publications distributor that would sell his company a mix of magazines without porn. When one of the pro-family leaders offered to find a distributor that would not make such a requirement, Hemminghaus flatly refused to even consider the option, Roberts said.
“We are going to continue doing business as usual,” says Julie Mead, company spokeswoman.
The boycott began when Diamond Shamrock purchased National Convenience Stores, which operates the Stop-N-Go chain. The purchase put over 2,000 stores under Diamond Shamrock’s management.
AFA of Texas is mounting a statewide petition drive. The petitions will be presented to Mr. Hemminghaus on November 20. Roberts and David Miller of AFA Tarrant County have planned a 17-city tour in which they will hold press conferences in front of Diamond Shamrock stores.
Another strategy involves the creation of a phone team made up of individuals who have committed to make five calls per week for five weeks to Diamond Shamrock board members and executives. Phone team volunteers should contact AFA of Texas at 512-472-9196.
Express-News, 7/10/96
Bus won’t stop at Disney World any longer
A Christian travel agency in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is declining to book tours to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in response to the entertainment company’s pro-homosexual activity. Bob Neff, Jr., General Manager of Bob Neff Tours, Inc., stated in a letter to a concerned citizen that his company “has put their Disney tours on hold and will not resume until they move away from their open homosexual support.”
Peggy Miller, vice-president of a decency organization called Good News Together We Stand, sent Neff information concerning the Disney boycott being promoted by AFA and other groups.
Letter convinces theater chain to take more care
A letter from a concerned father has moved a theater chain headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, to be more discerning about the content of its movie trailers. Mark Lundberg said when he took his seven-year-old son to see Fly Away Home, a PG-rated movie, the trailer before the feature promoted the movie Mirror and contained sexual language “unacceptable for a sevenyear-old.” Stephen L. Colson, senior vice-president of Cobb Theatres, responded to Lundberg’s concerns stating that he had “advised all [Cobb] theatres that the Mirror trailer should not show with Fly Away Home. Further, I have requested our Film Department contact Sony Pictures and advise them of this matter.”
Convenience store drops porn magazines
At least one outlet in the Sheetz convenience store chain is not selling Playboy and Penthouse magazines in response to the efforts of a Millersburg, Pennsylvania, couple and their friends.
Sondra Spotts said she and her husband Donald contacted the management of a newly opened Sheetz Store in her area and requested that they stop selling the porn magazines. “We began to alert friends and fellow Christians, including some pastors, about [the Sheetz] policy of selling pornographic magazines. We asked them to politely call both the local store and the chain’s office and request that the magazines be removed.” The local store pulled the magazines “temporarily” while a final decision was being made. Forty-five days later the magazines have not returned to the shelves.
Requests that the entire chain remove the magazines from all its stores have gone unanswered.
Sheetz stores are located in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Spotts suggests that letters from other concerned citizens in the four-state area might encourage the company to change its policy. Sheetz Stores, 5700 Sixth Avenue, Altoona, PA 16602, toll-free 800-487-5444.
Efforts strip community of objectionable film
After reading about the movie Striptease in the June AFA Journal, Alicejoy Taylor of Burlington, Oklahoma, wrote a local theater to ask the owner not to show the movie. She also contacted about 30 area churches asking members to write. “Evidently, [the theater owner] did receive enough letters and he has not shown the movie,” Taylor wrote AFA. “Actually, I was surprised! And thankful…Even in my little corner of the world, people were influenced for the good by your publication.” 
