Ex-Gay Ministry Targets Key Senators in Hate Crime Ad Campaign
Pro-family organizations launched a national ad campaign asking senators to vote against upcoming hate crimes legislation, which they fear would give greater recognition to homosexuals than heterosexuals. Homosexual activists protest the ads, which they say, are "misleading."
The nation's largest ex-homosexual ministry, Exodus International, along with nineteen other pro-family organizations launched "Campaign for Blind Justice," on Dec. 12, and is asking Congress to preserve equal justice for every American, regardless of sexual preference.
“Hate crime laws erase the inherent worth and dignity of each person by choosing to grant more protection rights to some and not others,” said Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International and former homosexual. “As former homosexuals, we are calling upon the Senate to ensure that our value as individuals and our rights to equal justice are preserved as well.”
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"Such a law means that the two straight men who killed Matthew Shepard would receive a harsher sentence than the two homosexual men who raped, tortured, and killed 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising," states Exodus. “There is no moral difference between these two crimes, but under new federal ‘hate crimes’ legislation, one would be punished more severely than the other."
The black and white ad, to which homosexual activists are protesting, features four former homosexuals with the words, “Why would anyone vote for unequal justice? Hate crimes laws say that we are more valuable as homosexuals than we are now as former homosexuals.”
The ads ran in several newspapers across the country, including The Orlando Sentinel, The Indianapolis Star, The Nevada Appeal and Roll Call.
Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign – the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization – responded to the ad in a released statement.
"Hate crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation, either gay or straight, remain in the top three of all reported hate crime categories," he stated. "But local law enforcement officials don't have the tools they need to fight hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans."
"Covering both gay and straight victims equally, this bill is also supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans," he added.
The House of Representatives passed hate crimes legislation that added sexual orientation, gender and disability to protections covered by federal hate crime law in September. So far, the bill has passed in the House, and a Senate version of the bill will be voted on early next year.
