Diane Gramley Testimony April 11, 2011

NOTE: Diane Gramley is President of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, whose parent group was named one of 18 anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has been attending Board of Commissioners meetings since February 2011. She lives 300 miles away, in Venango County, in the western portion of the Pennsylvania.

Testimony April 11, 2011
Springfield Township, Montgomery
Diane Gramley
President, American Family Association of Pennsylvania
(814) 271.9078 or (814) 437. 5355

The American Family Association of Pennsylvania is a statewide traditional Values group advocating for marriage, family and children. This Board of Commissioners is considering an ordinance which would create a human relations Commission and include 'sexual orientation and gender identity' as protected classes along with that which the PA Human Relations Act includes.

I am assuming your definition for "sexual orientation" is actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality." But what about the other sexual orientations [pdf] — like sado-masochism, bestiality, incest or pedophilia? You say impossible, those actions are illegal. engaging in homosexual acts was illegal in Pennsylvania from William Penn's day until the mid 1990's.

In December David Epstein, the Columbia University political science professor accused of having a consensual 3-year-long affair with his 24-year-old daughter, made news again when his attorney asked, ""It's OK for homosexuals to do whatever they want in their own home," he continued. "How is this so different? We have to figure out why some behavior is tolerated and some is not."

Just last week two psychologists testified before a parliamentary session in Montreal on a bill related to sexual assault on children that pedophilia is a "sexual orientation" just like homosexuality or heterosexuality.

We already know that Susan Wright, the Founder of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom plans on going to those municipalities which have sexual orientation in their ordinances. She will come demanding that you include her sexual orientation also — bondage and sado-masochism. Here's the YouTube video. Once you open this Pandora's Box, where does it end?

Such ordinances irrationally establish special legal protection and 'rights' expressly on the basis of engaging in behavior that threatens both personal and public health, increasing the tax burden we bear to address public health costs. The CDC consistently acknowledges this in their reports on HIV/AIDS showing that men who have sex with men have higher incidences of HIV infection, anal cancer, and other STDs as is evidenced by the Jack Hart quote below:

(WARNING: offensive material)

"Many sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) occur more often among gay men than in the general population. Several factors contribute to this difference: Gay men have the opportunity to engage in sex with more people than do most heterosexual men, and some practices common in the gay community — especially rimming ["gay" slang for oral-anal stimulation] and anal intercourse [sodomy] — are highly efficient ways of transmitting disease....."

— Jack Hart, author, Gay Sex: A Manual for Men Who Love Men (Allyson Publications: Boston, 1991), p. 156, in section on "Sexually Transmitted Disease." The writer goes on to write that "the increasing acceptance of safer sex" has lessened the spread of STD's, and then discusses the "most common" sex-transmitted diseases other than AIDS confronting homosexual men, including: chlamydia, crab lice, giardiasis, gonorrhea, hepatitis-A and -B, herpes simplex, nongonococcal urethritis, scabies, syphillis, and venereal warts.

In February 2008 Matt Foreman, former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in an address to the National Conference on Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Equality in Detroit shocked attendees by calling HIV "a gay disease." Foreman further shocked attendees by himself referring to CDC data, saying that "with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi(-sexual), we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that."

Examples of the ramification in other places where these ordinances have passed:

• Christian photographers (small business owners) have been fined $7,000 [pdf] for not wanting to photograph a homosexual 'commitment' ceremony.
• Bakery in Indianapolis (small business owner) threatened with eviction from a city owned building because they would not bake cupcakes for a homosexual group on 'National Coming Out" Day.
• Salvation Army and Catholic Charities discriminated against when such ordinances have passed. (In 1997, the Salvation Army gave up $3.5 million in San Francisco city funding rather than submit to an order for them to offer "domestic partner" benefits to homosexual employees. In Washington, D.C., homosexual D.C. City Councilman David Catania boasted in crude terms in July 2001 about how he threatened Salvation Army officials over their policy on "sexual orientation.")
• Boy Scouts discriminated against — (1) Cradle of Liberty Scout Council is a perfect example. Even though in November the City and the Scouts agreed upon a settlement, the homosexual activists in Philadelphia continue fighting the agreement. Please note in paragraph 12 of this Philadelphia Gay News article that Stephen Glassman, chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission, is right in the thick of trying to throw out the Scouts. In the February 4, 2004 issue of the Scranton Times News I stated, "The ("non-discrimination") ordinance would force organizations like the Boy Scouts to admit gays contrary to their policies if the groups used city buildings or received city funding." Stephen Glassman said in the same issue that Gramley's interpretation is correct on how the ordinance could affect groups like the Boy Scouts. Additionally, it would also affect their use of municipal owned property. (2) Los Angeles Fire Department drops the BSA's Learning for Life Program
• Under Minnesota's sexual orientation law, a transgendered person filed suit after West Publishing, a large publisher of legal materials, requested the man stop using the women's restroom after female employees complained that the man, who dressed like a woman, used the women's bathroom. After several years of litigation, the employer "won" the legal case, but in the end had to pay significant amounts of money to defend this against this claim.

We strongly urge you to consider the full ramifications of this ordinance which is designed not to protect the civil rights of those with unchangeable characteristics, but is designed to give special rights to a small percentage of people because of the behavior in which they engage. Last week the Williams Institute (a homosexual affirming group) reported 1.7 percent of adult population identify as homosexual, 1.8 percent as bisexual and 700,000 as transgender. Homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders have not been forced to sit at the back of the bus, have not been prevented from voting or required to drink from separate water fountains — that is real discrimination. This ordinance is not needed. It has already been acknowledged that there have been no reported cases of discrimination. This ordinance is simply to overcome a perception that Springfield is not gay-friendly. I believe the fact that there have been no reported cases of discrimination speaks to Springfield Township's acceptance of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders.

* Some say this step needs to be taken before discrimination occurs. What's really needed is a stop light at every intersection because an accident may occur sometime and you must take action to address the matter before it happens. That makes more sense than this HR ordinance