News Release: Lower Merion Warned of Dangers

News Release
For Immediate Release:  September 14, 2010
Contact:  Diane Gramley  1.814.271.9078

Lower Merion Township Warned of the Dangers of Passing Human Relations Ordinance

(Harrisburg) – The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide traditional values organization, has contacted the Board of Commissioners of Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County and warned them of the dangerous consequences if they pass the proposed human relations ordinance which includes ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ language.

“Increasingly homosexual activists are pulling the victim card and saying they are being discriminated against, without a real story of discrimination to tell.   There is no historic documented proof of discrimination against homosexuals – they have never been forced to sit at the back of the bus nor have they ever been forced to drink from a ‘gay-only’ water fountain.  Homosexual activists are trying to hijack the civil rights movement and Lower Merion Township is their next target in an effort to normalize a dangerous lifestyle,” remarked Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

The AFA of PA sent a fax to the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners.  It includes some of the following concerns:

• Even though Chapter 93, Sections C and D of the draft ordinance seek to say otherwise, this ordinance DOES validate a lifestyle which creates a public health risk – increased incidences of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea and other STDs. Recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control reaffirm that the vast majority of HIV/AIDS cases are men who have sex with men.
• Chapter 93, Section 2 J concerning ‘Public Accommodations” states this ordinance “shall not include any accommodations which are in their nature distinctly private.”  Who gets to decide what is “in their nature distinctly private?”  Transgender activists will DEMAND to use the bathroom of their choice, locker and shower rooms at the local pool will not be exempt!
• A June 10, 1999 article found in Bay Windows, New England’s largest homosexual newspaper, contains a quote from openly homosexual Congressman Barney Frank.  The article was about a federal level bill similar to what your township is considering.  Congressman Frank said, “I’ve talked with transgender activists and what they want—and what we will be forced to defend—is for people with penises who identify as women to be able to shower with other women.  There are no votes for that. And if that is the price for this bill, it is wrong.”  He was citing the activists’ handbook which states that a person’s declared gender is the one by which he or she should be recognized.
• Additionally, there are 30 known sexual orientations including pedophilia, bestiality, and sado-masochism.  If this ordinance passes, other groups will attempt to expand the definition of sexual orientation currently in the ordinance to include their ‘sexual orientation.’  (The AFA of PA has video documentation of this fact.)
• Does a Boy Scout troop use any of the township’s facilities or parks?  If this ordinance passes, the Boy Scouts will be targeted by homosexual activists as has been evidenced by Philadelphia’s attempt to evict the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council from the headquarters they built and have maintained since 1929 on property the 1928 City Council gave them free use of in perpetuity.  In a February 4, 2004 Scranton Times article, Stephen Glassman, Chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission agreed with the AFA of PA that such ordinances could prevent the Boy Scouts from using government facilities and parks.

Passage of such ordinances will be discriminatory against people with deeply held religious beliefs that engaging in homosexual acts are sinful, against the Boy Scouts, Salvation Army and Catholic Charities.  It may not happen immediately, but it will happen.  Philadelphia passed such an ordinance in1982 and it was not until 2002 that they began trying to evict the Boy Scouts from their headquarters.

# # #