🚀 go-pugleaf

What I have long suspected has been bourne out by Focus on the Family, a 
Radical Religious Right Group's, openly admitting in their newsletter that 
they spy and encourage spying on Gay Internet postings.

Here are excerpts of an accounting from their newsletter, just posted to 
Gaynet....

If you want more information on his sources, contact RICK CENDO.
 <cendo@spot.Colorado.EDU>

Also, if anyone on the RRR is reading this, PEACE!!!!

>Sender: gaynet-owner@queernet.org
>Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 13:46:25 -0600 (MDT)
>From: CENDO RICHARD <cendo@spot.Colorado.EDU>
>Subject: The secret conference to outlaw gays (3/3)
>Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9409011301.A25587-0100000@spot.Colorado.EDU>


PART 3 OF 3


        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
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 and Lesbian task Force's "Fight the Right Project," said,
"They want to stoke the flames of internalized homophobia in an 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 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 and Data Exchange," and "Media." "Under "Information and Data
Exchange," the group aims to establish a computer network using a bulletin
board service (BBS) or commercial on-line service such as America On Line
(AOL). Focus on the Family, incidentally, is considering AOL, as a way to
distribute some of its publications.

        The second part of "Information and 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 blitz on Dr. Kinzey'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
letter, and radio talk shows with phone calls. One aspect is to "ID
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 legislatures
        *       Fund raising

        Particular attention should be paid to one area of the anti-gay
right agenda.  It is the implementation of "Operation 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. After the designated
law-making bodies are taken over, the next step is to introduce new laws
that ban gay rights. [Ed. Note--For a fuller discussion of Operation
Spotlight, a more compete exploration will appear in the next GZ News).

        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 in 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 religious rights 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.