GAY TRUTH

The chair of the California LGBT Caucus recently introduced a bill to outlaw Christians and others with a Biblical view of sexuality from helping people with unwanted same-sex desires or gender identity confusion. Assemblyman Evan Low’s bill, AB 2943 , declares “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual” as illegal under state’s consumer fraud law. The implications of this legislation spread far beyond regulating the type of counselling offered by licensed counsellors, who are already banned from helping minors with unwanted same-sex attractions . Several legal experts have confirmed that this bill targets the ability of religious non-profits, churches, and pastors from teaching and practising their faith regarding sexual orientation and gender. “The language used in this bill casts a wide net calculated to entangle religious institutions and ministers,” said Kevin Snider, Chief Counsel Pacific Justice Institute . “

Image via Wikipedia NEW YORK, January 13, 2012 ( C-FAM ) Tension between free speech advocacy and efforts to curb “hate speech” has arisen over the past year as the result of recent initiatives at the United Nations (UN) and by the Obama administration. Freedom of opinion and expression have long been recognized as fundamental, and a recent UN Human Rights Committee “ General Comment ” affirmed these twin liberties as “the foundation stone for every free and democratic society.” Yet while heralding these bedrock rights, others are seeking to curtail criticism of homosexual behavior and shelter certain religions from “defamation.” Such efforts also butt against religious liberty and conscience rights, two other bright constellations in the firmament of fundamental rights. The tension became evident in a 2010 initiative by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which sought to reconcile broad free speech protections found in Article 19 of the International C