“This is social insanity, and further proof that modern liberalism is completely bankrupt in its escalating kowtowing to deviance and enthusiastic promotion of sex/gender confusion. If corporate executives allow themselves to be “bullied” by HRC into covering these tragic, body-disfiguring procedures for the severely gender-confused, they will cause more men and women to commit this ultimate rebellion against their Creator. The harsh truth is: American corporations are incentivizing sin and self-destructive behavior, and ultimately our culture’s descent into evil. These ‘Sex Reassingnment Surgeries’ (the PC term for them) are horrifying and the ultimate Crime Against Nature…”
~Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
Remember that less-than-honest argument against Heathcare Reform put forward by Matt Barber and Matt Staver of the Liberty Council, Martha Kleder of the Concerned Women For America, and “Chaplain” Gordon James Klingenschmitt of the Pray In Jesus Name Project, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association and Peter LaBarbera of the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality? The one where ObamaCare was going to be Obama Tranny-Care — with the government mandated “sex change operations”?
Well Matt, Matt, Martha, Gordon, and Peter, I’m still waiting for those government mandated “sex change operations” (better stated in this context as genital reconstruction surgery, by the way). Should I start holding my breath waiting wanting for my Obama Tranny-Care genital reconstruction surgery?
Well, holding my breath here probably wouldn’t be a great idea.
What I totally “get” though regarding religious right discussions of “sex change operations” is always discussed in terms of how transsexual people — especially transsexuals who identify with the transgender community — are freakish bogeymen contributing to the moral downfall of America. Trans people seem to be perceived as foreign, scary, and extreme people to these religious right Christians; they perceive trans people to be such an affront to their vision of societal sex and gender norms that they can’t seem to help bringing us up over and over again — holding us up as freaks in a freak show.
An, you know how much Peter LaBarbera loves things he perceives as gay and freaky, so it shouldn’t any surprise at all that Peter LaBarbera has yet again pulled out the evil bogeymen of transsexual people — and genital reconstruction surgery — out of his antigay playbook again. It doesn’t matter that all trans people aren’t gay, lesbian, or bisexual — LaBarbera publicly fretting about what he labels genital mutilation done by gender confused people as treatment for a recognized medical condition is him standing up those whom he perceives to be homosexuals, and the homosexual agenda. In his Americans For Truth About Homosexuality piece New HRC Corporate Scorecard Demands Coverage of Transsexual ‘Sex-Change’ Operations; Will businesses cave to homosexual lobby group’s brazen demands? he states the following:
[More below the fold.]
Folks, every time I think I’ve seen it all regarding the Homosexual Lobby’s fanatical demands, they come up with something new that dumbfounds me in its astonishing arrogance and chutzpah.
Check this out: the anti-Christian, anti-Bible (and yes, anti-God) homosexual lobby group Human Wrongs Rights Campaign (HRC) has added coverage for transsexual sex-change operations to its 2012 Corporate Scorecard criteria. These perverse criteria gauge how compliant major corporations are to HRC’s radical homosexual/bisexual/transsexual agenda. The D.C.-based lobby organzation wants at least ,000 in “health” coverage for tranny sex-change operations for the corporation to get a perfect rating.
Like many within the religious right, Peter LaBarbera can’t seem to grasp the differences between gay and trans people, can’t seem to stay away from pejoratives (“tranny” in this case), and can’t seem to grasp that his own Bible not only doesn’t condemn genital surgeries, but also highlights the Godliness of gender variant people. LaBarbera also claims that the HRC is anti-Christian and Anti-Bible while failing to acknowledge that the HRC does put significant focus on religion and faith. Further in LaBarbera’s piece:
The following is an excerpt of what HRC stipulates for its revised 2012 Corporate Scorecard “Criteria 3.0” (yes, they upgrade them periodically, like Microsoft Windows) under “Health Insurance for Transgender Employees and Dependents”). If a corporation agrees to this for 2012 — and all of HRC’s other homosexual/transsexual demands [see this AFTAH article on the current rating criteria] — it gets a 100 percent rating:
LaBarbera then quotes from the HRC’s 2012 Corporate Scorecard “Criteria 3.0”:
Benefits available to other employees must extend to transgender individuals.
Where available for employees, the following benefits should all extend to transgender individuals, including for services related to transgender transition (e.g., medically necessary services related to sex reassignment):
• Short term medical leave
• Mental health benefits
• Pharmaceutical coverage (e.g., for hormone replacement therapies)
• Coverage for medical visits or laboratory services
• Coverage for reconstructive surgical procedures related to sex reassignment
LaBarbera then adds the quote from the beginning of this piece, and this:
Suffice it to say that I have great pity for anyone who would even consider doing this to his or her body – they desperately need help and God’s love – but you and I should NEVER be forced to subsidize these sickening operations – and especially not with our tax dollars. (Next week: how the Obama administration is telling LGBT activists to lobby for “sex change” operations to be covered under “Obama-care.”)
One last thing: just as homosexual militants insist on propagandistic, pro-“gay” programs in schools to stop “bullying,” they want Americans to subsidize transsexual sex-change operations in the name of ending “systematic discrimination” against “transgenders.” No doubt the left-leaning media will echo their demands. Are you feeling manipulated yet? Me, too.
Well, not me too on the manipulation. And good golly gosh, I can hardly wait for his piece on how “Obama-care” doesn’t really didn’t cover genital reconstruction surgery — as he and his peers apparently engaged in bald-faced lying about to say it did — and then explain to all of us how the Obama Administration is telling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) to lobby for “sex change” operations to be covered under “Obama-care.”
And, of course, he again used me as his “tranny” poster child for transgender people, transsexual people, and people who identify as both transgender and transsexual. He again used my picture of me from 2004; again he again lied about my personal history in saying this in the caption that I left my wife and children, and then adds an indirect statement from my ex-spouse that inaccurately indicates when she first learned that my gender expression sometimes didn’t match societal sex and gender norms. What any of LaBarbera’s comments about me has to do with the HRC’s standards for trans people in their Corporate Equality Index in just beyond me — he just seems to get personal pleasure in acting in an uncivil and un-Christian way towards me.
It’s beyond me how Peter LaBarbera doesn’t understand that his personal attacks against me — based pretty much only on my transsexual and transgender identifications — really identify him as a transphobic bigot.
This is the United States of America. We are all guaranteed in our constitution the right to petition our lawmakers, and we can, and no doubt should, aim to have our elected representatives in our government represent legislative goals we want accomplished. We don’t live in a theocracy where only religious right Christians have a voice in our representative democracy. It works with businesses too — if LGBT organizations can petition businesses to make a difference in how LGBT people are treated in the nation’s workplaces, then that is something our LGBT civil rights organizations can, and no doubt should, be doing.
If I were going to complain about the HRC’s efforts regarding healthcare on behalf of trans people, it would be that they didn’t move quickly on this to my liking.
If I were going to complain about Peter LaBarbera’s behavior regarding trans people — well, Peter LaBarbera doesn’t understand that his repeated use of antitransgender pejoratives indicate he’s a transphobic bigot.
I hope no one ever manages to shut LaBarbera up. He has the right to free speech, for sure, and he should be free to exercise it. Beyond that though, I find his over-the-top style of writing quite entertaining. And, he makes a good case, by the negative example of his bigotry of trans people, as well as lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, of the real world need for LGBT people to be treated with dignity and respect by both government and corporate America.
