STOP SB 212 - The Bathroom Bill

Tired of letting the liberal politicians in Annapolis decide for you?  Were you steamed up about the passing of the Fairness for All Marylanders Act aka The Bathroom Bill.

Here is your chance to help get it on the ballot this November and let the people of Maryland decide:

http://www.mdpetitions.com/

Maryland Transgender Bill Killed

Maryland Senators today voted to quash a bill that would have added ‘transgender’ as a protected class when it comes to employment, credit, and housing discrimination.

The bill, called “Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act,” had been much-debated, even among gay rights activists, with some calling Senate members “discriminatory” for seemingly delaying its passage and others crying for its rejection, saying the bill did not go far enough in protection.

For more, go to LIFESITENEWS.COM

Too bad they did not do that for the "Dream Act" which was supported by the Maryland Catholic Conference. BTW, I know that the MCC was against this bill but I don't remember seeing anything on it. Do you?

Help Stop Maryland Senate Bill 566

This is the first of two bills which the Maryland General Assembly is attempting to pass that would represent an erosion of respect for human sexuality and disregard for our society's foundational relationship. Please help to fight it.

According to the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC):

Senate Bill 566 is a transgender rights bill that would codify in law a distinction between one's "gender identity" and one's "assigned sex at birth." The bill is well intentioned and the Church respects the dignity of each individual. However, such a distinction manifests an egregious violation of our society's basic understanding of the human person, and the natural complementarity of the sexes. As written, the bill does not include protections for religious institutions, which would be required to comply with the employment and other provisions of the bill in regards to transgendered individuals.


My only gripe I have with the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) on this is: Where the heck were they when we were fighting this in Montgomery County? They were AWOL.

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Stop Obama at Notre Dame. Click here to find out how.

Montgomery County Voters Disenfranchised - A New Follow-Up

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) as it currently stands is ineffective and in many instances, supports organizations which do not necessarily support Catholic teaching. It must be shut down and reorganized. Please boycott the CCHD. Read more here.

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As many of you know, the Montogmery County Council (MD) rammed thru a bill dealing with those with gender identity issues. A number of signatures were obtained and the measure was put on the ballot to be decided in November. A number of gay and lesbian groups (who claim that they are the most open minded and liberal thinking people) fought to have it thrown off the ballot on technicalities and were successful. Thereby, they disinfranchied almost a million voters.

Note that these same "liberal, open-minded" groups seems to tell us that the majority of residents were on their side. If so, then they should have let it remain to prove themselves correct. Maybe they knew, like the County Council, that they did not have the support of the majority of residents and had to force it on the citizens. I think they were very scared they were going to lose!

Well, it seems that the matter is back in court. (HOORAY!) According to the slightly incorrect article in the Montgomery County Gazette, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., also is asking the Montgomery County Circuit Court to grant a temporary restraining order voiding the law,

Who knows, maybe the voters will get their say.

Montgomery County Voters Disenfranchised - A Follow-Up

As my readers know, a law was rammed through the Montgomery County Council regarding gender identity. One of the problems with this law, is that there was no provision for religious institutions. They would be required to hire those who “felt that they were a woman or a man.” They would have to put up with those who decided since they felt like a woman, to use the woman’s restrooms.

The opposition has disenfranchised over a million voters by not allowing this bill to be put to a vote. They keep telling us that they were confident that the people of Montgomery County would not strike down this law, and yet, they spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fight it in court.

On Sunday, Sept. 28th, a Mr. Robert Nelson had a fantastic piece published in the Washington Post (can you believe it!). Here it is a part of the piece:

The Sept. 15 Metro article "Ruling Inspires New Hope for Transgender People," about the Maryland Court of Appeals' rejection of a petition drive to hold a referendum on Montgomery County's poorly constructed transgender anti-discrimination law, unfortunately omitted some of the significant objections to the law that have been raised by residents.

First, the "transgender" discrimination law never actually uses the word "transgender." It includes a broad definition of "gender identity" that lacks qualification or exemptions and that has caused many residents, business owners and religious leaders to speak out about the bill's defects. The county did extensive research on similar but quite different gender identity and gender expression bills from communities across the country, but the County Council needed to look no further than the city of Baltimore, the only other jurisdiction in Maryland with such a "gender identity" law.

Baltimore's definition of discrimination includes five exemptions that would have protected Montgomery County residents, but the County Council chose not to include them in its bill. Thousands of people wrote to the council voicing concerns, but the council ignored them. Thus residents had no recourse but to mount a petition drive.

The process of collecting petition signatures was proper and should not have been invalidated. In November, the Board of Elections determined that signatures from 5 percent of the active registered voters would be required to place a referendum on the bill on the ballot. That was fair, because including inactive voters would not be appropriate. Most of them are inactive for a reason -- they're not available. The Board of Elections validated signatures that were collected from 5.36 percent of active voters. It is grossly unfair to now contend that the petitions needed to include signatures from 5 percent of all registered voters, active and inactive.

Regrettably, council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) has taken this occasion to post inflammatory accusations on the county's Web site and to attempt to marginalize residents who take a different view from her own. Her Sept. 9 press release contained inaccuracies and distortions; it should be removed from the county's Web site immediately.

For example, in June I led a freedom-of-speech gathering outside an Equality Maryland gala. In her news release, Trachtenberg called my fellow demonstrators and me "anti-LGBT" and said we were holding signs "attacking all of us." I personally produced those signs, and they were not hateful. Two signs questioned why Equality Maryland was challenging the democratic process by suing the Board of Elections. Another sign thanked Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, who was attending the gala, for having his office file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Board of Elections in Equality Maryland's lawsuit.

And to make matters worse, the Archdiocese of Washington DC stood silently while this all happened.

Montgomery County Voters Disenfranchised!!

Well, the citizens of Montgomery County Maryland have been disenfranchised by Chief Judge Robert M. Bell and the Court of Appeals.

As you know, the Montgomery County Council rammed through a law giving special rights to those who are "transgendered" which would also force religious institutions to hire them, even it was against their beliefs.

The Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government fought the law and was able to get it on the ballot. The Montgomery County Circuit Court issued a 25-page opinion stating that advocates for the legislation were too late in challenging the signatures collected by Citizens for Responsible Government and certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

However, the radical left must have been really scared to allow this to get on the ballot (since I believe that allocated over $80,000 to fight this) because they took it to the Court of Appeals. The Court has not issued the full opinion on it.

The radical left who talks about every vote counting has disenfranchised hundreds of thousands.

And one of the worst parts, the Archdiocese of Washington DC was silent on this issue.

For shame!

Help Stop the MoCo Transgender Bill

The Montgomery County Council has approved the referendum language that will go on the ballot to stop the MoCo Transgender Bill.

Although the Citizens for a Responsible Government are fighting hard to stop this bill, which will discriminate against those who believe that this is an immoral lifestyle, they are fighting the well funded gay lobby. There is still a court challenge going on but with the grace of God, it will be defeated.

I have sent in a check, I hope that you will too: http://notmyshower.net/

By the way, remember, that one of the people who voted for this bill was the same person that the Catholic Standard, the Maryland Catholic Conference and the pastor of St. John the Baptist lauded.

And, you should note, that there has not even been one word in the Catholic Standard about this? Not one word.

For shame on the Archbishop and Mr. Zimmerman.

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Help defeat Montgomery County's Gender Identity Bill 23-07 this November. Go to http://notmyshower.net.

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Vote NObama '08

USCCB in dialog with Terrorist Supporters?

I came across this regarding the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.

As announced in a PR release by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "A newround of the Mid-Atlantic Muslim Catholic Dialogue," April 23-24, in Washington, looked at interreligious education in the United States. The meeting, which was convened by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Catholic representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, explored teaching about different religions in private and public institutions."

As the press release makes clear this event also included a high ranking member of the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] "The discussion follows upon a meeting in 2007 where Safaa Zarzour described the development of a Muslim-Catholic educational exchange by the Council of Islamic Societies of Greater Chicago and the Archdiocese of Chicago. Zarzour chaired a panel of Muslim representatives at the April 23-24 meeting." CAIR is widely understood to be a supporter of the Palestinian terrorist organization HAMAS as well as having been named as an unindicted co-conspiratorin the ongoing U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation, et. al., case the country's largest terror funding prosecution. Additionally, numerous CAIR officials have been convicted of terror related offenses, the most recently being Ghassan Elashi, founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR.

ICNA, the Islamic Circle of North America was founded in the early seventies as a da'wa propagation organization, its mission statement clearly identifies ICNA's purpose as one of establishing Islamic supremacy, "The goal of ICNA shall be to seek the pleasure of Allah (SWT) through the struggle of Iqamat-ud-Deen(establishment of the Islamic system of life) as spelled out in the Qur'an andthe Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. [and to] invite mankind to submit to the Creator by using all means of communications...

For more information, please go to Pipeline News.

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Please remember to help repeal Montgomery County's Gender Identity Bill 23-07. Go to http://www.notmyshower.net

Open Letter to the Editor of My Catholic Standard

Dear Mr. Zimmerman:

In your article, Maryland lawmakers consider measures to redefine marriage, allow gay ‘marriages’ (Feb. 21, 2008 page 7), you don’t mention any of any of the lawmakers, with the exception of one, who are either the sponsors or supporters of these measures.

For example, Sen. Richard S. Madaleno, Jr., has stated to me, in writing:

I am the Senate sponsor of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (SB290). As such, I have been working to extend the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. It is my view that the only way to confer all the rights of marriage to unmarried couples is through legislation like SB290.

Since you mention that bill in particular, I am surprised that you do not mention him. Why?

Is it because you don’t want to get any of them upset with My Catholic Standard?
Do you feel that if you name them, they will no longer support issues that the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) supports such as abolishing the death penalty or in-state tuition for illegal aliens?

Or is it, as a friend of mine has stated, there is fear in the Archdiocese that a number of Catholic clergy and religious may be “outed?”

Here is a prime opportunity to let Catholics know who is supporting our issues and who is not. Yet, you and the Catholic Standard have chosen to remain silent.
It cannot be because of space, since you have devoted pages to Lobby Night 2008, what would two or three more inches make to the article.

All I ask is why?

What is Msgr. Kazista thinking?

The Catholic Standard (Archdiocese of Washington DC) article praising Montgomery County Councilmember Marilyn Praisner is just replete with quotes made by members of the Catholic Church. Each time I read it, I find something new to write about. I am so glad I did not drop my subscription, this is the article that keeps on giving.

Msgr. Kazista (Pastor of St. John the Baptist Church Silver Spring MD) states that Praisner:

“put into practice …the Christian virtues of social justice, concern for children, their social welfare, their health. In her work, she showed concern for God’s creation and the environment."

First, note that Msgr. did not use the word “Catholic.” I find that in and of it self, interesting. In fact, he only uses the term Christian throughout the article.

Second, if she was so concerned for children, then why was she pro-abortion? Killing the unborn is not what I call being concerned for God’s creation.

Yet, Msgr. KaZista (and I do not know him, never met him) seems either to be ignorant of this or just ignores it.

Third, if she was so concerned for the children, then why did she vote for the Transgender Bill, which will allow men who are dressed as women into locker rooms? It has been reported that there have already been at least three incidents in the county.

Fourth, if she was so concerned about Christian virtues, then why did she not put an exemption for religious institutions into the Transgender Bill. There are none. We may be faced with a situation where a Catholic school will be sued for not hiring someone who is transgender.

Yet again, either Msgr. Kazista is either (1) ignorant of the Transgender Law (2) decided to ignore it and/or (3) is a silent supporter of it.

This leads me to once again point out that those who have been tasked to lead the faithful, are not only leading the faithful astray but making a mockery of those who attempt to live by their faith.

So, let me go back to my original question: What is Msgr. Kazista thinking? I think that the answer is that he is not.

All I can say is that Msgr. Kazista should be ashamed of himself.

Don't think this can happen here? Think again.

An Anglican Archbishop was fined almost $100,000 for not hiring a gay man and must undergo equal opportunities training in England. Read more about it here.

The Transgender Bill, which was rammed through (no pun intended) the Montgomery County Council, even though most residents were against it, makes no exception for religious institutions. So, if an Roman Catholic school refuses to hire a man, who believes he is a woman, then the institution can face some serious penalties.

This is your chance to help get it on the ballot in November and let the citizens decide. Take a moment to sign and send in the petition.

On a side note, where is Archbishop Wuerl on this one? Where is the Church?

They are silent.

That is shameful.

It will come back to haunt us.

Help Stop the MoCo Transgender Bill

Since the Archdiocese of Washington DC is doing nothing (and I mean nothing) about this, it is important that individuals take up the cause.

Therefore, I urge you to sign the petition to get this on the ballot. Once it is on the ballot, we have a fighting chance to stop it.

Here is the link to the petition.

Complete it properly and get it back to them before Feb. 25th.

Transgender Law Given A Pre-Test

...at a Sport and Health Club in Gaithersburg, a man wearing women's clothing walked into a women's locker room and his presence didn't go unseen by real women who were there changing. He never said a word to anyone who saw him.

For the full story, click here.

According to the law, which will go into effect in apx. a month, a man just has to "feel" he is a woman to be a "real woman."

Did we not warn that this would happen?

Now that this has taken place, will the Archdiocese of Washington DC say something or will they continue to remain silent?

Do they remain silent because they are attempting to protect some?

The Rot Within.

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the Montgomery County Transgender Bill. For a couple of days I kept asking, "Where was the Church? Why haven't they opposed this?"

Nothing was publicized by the Maryland Catholic Conference.

There was nothing in the Catholic Standard (the "official" newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington).

There was no statement by the Archbishop.

There was no statement in my parish bulletin.

Nothing, Nada, Zip.

When I asked a good friend of mine about this, he said, "The reason they are saying nothing is because they are hiding them." I thought about this, but said nothing.

A few days later, I was talking to another friend, someone who would know about such things. When I asked him about this he said: "They (the bishops, the Catholic press, etc.) have not said anything because they are scared that if they come out against this, there will be priests who are outed because they either do it or have relations with those who do."

When will Archbishop Wuerl come clean on this matter? When will Bishop Laverde (Arlington) come clean? When will Cardinals Egan (NY) and Mahoney (LA) come clean? When will they all come clean?

This, my friends, is the rot from within. There are a number of priests who are active homosexuals.

When will they get rid of the rot within?

A Time to Fight the Montgomery County Transgender Bill

The American Family Association, in conjunction with other groups, is attempting to fight the Montgomery Council Transgender Bill by placing it on the ballot.

According to the email I received:

A referendum which will give the people of the County the chance to vote on the issue next November. We would have to collect over 20,000 signatures to get the issue on the ballot. http://www.petitiononline.com/decency/petition.html. Please forward the on-line petition link and tell your friends about this issue. If everyone on our current email subscription list signs the petitions and get 20 friends to also sign, we have enough. Make sure you tell folks to check “make email address available to author” so that we can contact them with the official referendum signature information.

Please take a moment and share this with your family and friends. It can be stopped but only if you do not remain silent.

Again, the Catholic Standard makes no mention of the Transgender Bill by the Montgomery County Council in the Nov. 15, 2007 issue. Since they go to press early in the week, they would not have had time to publish an article on the passing of the bill but for crying out loud, they could have put something in the paper.

All I can say is "SHAME" on the Catholic Standard and on the editor, Mark Zimmerman.

I wonder how much longer they will remain silent on the issue.

Transgender Bill Passes, Catholic Church Silent

The Montgomery County (MD) Council passed a Transgender non-discrimination bill (Bill 23-07) today. One of the most frightening aspects is that there is no exemption for religious organizations.

So, we have a bill that could force Catholic schools to hire a transgender or transsexual teacher or even a principal. Wouldn’t that be an interesting sight in a second or third grade class.

However, what I find very interesting is that over the last few weeks, I saw no notice in the parish bulletin asking us to write to the Council, no word from the pastor (and I consider him to be a good priest), no mention of it neither in the Catholic Standard nor from the Maryland Catholic Conference. (I did receive emails from the American Family Association (AFA) asking me to contact the Council requesting them to vote against it. I did.)

I wonder how many of my fellow parishioners voted for these council members in the last election? I wonder how many will vote again for them again because they are “open-minded” and for “social justice?” I wonder when our Catholic leaders will stand up to these politicians or is it simply too late?

Soak the Rich but let's not worry about the MoCo Transgender Bill

The Catholic Standard (Nov. 8, 2007 Page 31) ran an article entitled: Taxes, health care and slots top MCC's concerns to state lawmakers. According to the article, Richard Dowling (MCC Exec. Director) said that the tax system should be guided by three principles: raising "adequate revenues to pay for the public needs of society, especially the basic needs of the poor, structured according to the principle of progressivity, so that those with relatively greater financial resources pay a higher rate of taxation," and families below the poverty line should not have to pay income taxes."

What is the "public needs of society?" Is it public safety? Is it a free elementary education? Is it a chicken in every pot? The problem with Mr. Dowling and the MCC is that they offer no definition of "basic needs." Is it is one of those open ended statements that can mean almost anything to anyone. To some it means an apartment with hot/cold running water, a fridge and a stove. To others, it means a one family house on an tract of land with two cars. Still to others, a vacation to Disney at least once in every child's lifetime.

There is also this "soak the rich" and the "government knows what to do best with your money" Marxist mentality at the MCC. As I said in my last posting, the more you hit people up with higher taxes, the less they are going to give to charity. When you reduce taxes, you actually increase revenue and when people keep more of their money, they usually donate more of it.

Now, while the MCC was looking to "soak the rich" they seemed to miss the entire effort by the Montgomery County Council to pass Bill 23-07 which was sponsored by Councilmembers Tractenbery, Ervin and Elrich. This bill would allow "Any place of public accommodation...must not...make any distinction based on gender identity." Gender identity is defined as "an individual's actual or perceived gender..." To quote a council member when asked by the mother of a 10 year old girl about this, the reply was: "I cannot absolutely put to rest your concern that girls might find themselves in a locker room or dressing room in the presence of a person who expresses or asserts herself as a woman but who still has male genitals..."

Where the heck was the MCC on this? Nowhere to be found.

I think that Archbishop Wuerl needs to hand out a couple of pink slips at the MCC starting with Mr. Dowling.