Ed Vitagliano

AFA Journal news editor

July 2008 – Three recent incidents demonstrate the growing power of homosexual activists and their sympathetic allies to suppress the voices of any who disagree.

▶ Shouted down 
At Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, a speech by Ryan Sorba, author of The Born Gay Hoax, was cut short when lesbian activists invaded and hijacked the meeting.

Sorba was properly invited by the Smith College Republicans, who reserved a hall in the library on campus. But according to MassResistance, a pro-family group in Massachusetts, soon after Sorba began speaking about his book, some audience members started chanting slogans and pounding on pots and pans.

Shortly thereafter, a MassResistance witness said “people began to climb into the room through the windows, and a group stormed the podium and stood in front of it screaming and jumping up and down. Then dozens of people began running throughout the room and screaming, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” (See video at www.massresistance.org.)

Although there were two uniformed police officers and a security guard present, the protesters were allowed to continue disrupting the speech despite the fact that such activity is unlawful in Massachusetts. No arrests were made.

In fact, police finally ordered Sorba – not the protesters – to leave for his own safety.

▶ Shut down
A national symposium on religion and homosexuality, planned for the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) annual spring meeting, was canceled after a prominent homosexual participant backed out and gay activists threatened to protest.

Titled “Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension,” the symposium had been planned for months and appeared to have APA support, according to WorldNetDaily.

Participants included V. Gene Robinson, the controversial homosexual  consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire by the Episcopal Church in 2003; Warren Throckmorton, a Grove City College professor and clinician who has written extensively on therapy for homosexuals who want to leave that lifestyle; and Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

However, Robinson backed out a week before the symposium. According to The Washington Times, Robinson said, “It became clear to me in the last couple of weeks that just my showing up and letting this event happen … lends credibility to that so-called therapy” helping homosexuals leave that lifestyle.

The Gay City News and the Washington Blade called for the APA to drop the workshop, and the psychiatric organization did so, although it claimed the decision was unrelated to gay protests.

Throckmorton said he was “skeptical” of the group’s disclaimer. “The APA committee approved this six months ago. But when gay activists learned about it, they felt my views on homosexuality are conservative and they didn’t agree with them,” he said. “So they threatened to protest.”

▶ Shut out
The vice president for human resources at University of Toledo was fired from her job after she wrote an op-ed piece in a local newspaper which stated that she does not believe sexual orientation is the same as race.

Crystal Dixon, an African-American Christian, was responding to an earlier editorial in the Toledo Free Press, in which editor-in-chief Michael S. Miller asked readers to support the gay rights movement. He called opposition to the movement “prejudice,” “condescending” and “evil.”

Dixon wrote, “I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.’ Here’s why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.” On the other hand, she said, thousands of homosexuals have left the lifestyle through the help of Christian ministries.

In response, University of Toledo President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs wrote a guest column for the newspaper in which he said that Dixon’s “comments do not accord with the values” of the school. “It is necessary, therefore, for me to repudiate much of her writing. …” Jacobs promised that the university would be “taking certain internal actions” in the matter.

The school acted swiftly. The day after Jacob’s column, Dixon was placed on unpaid leave. Less than two weeks later, she was fired.

Dixon said she plans to take legal action to get her job back from University of Toledo. “To say that I cannot have a personal opinion regarding the practice of some humans and not be effective in my job as a human resources leader is preposterous,” she told local CBS news affiliate WTOL.