Colorado Independent contributor Sofia Resnick discussed Focus on the Family’s South Carolina affiliate the Palmetto Family Council, the group’s “Family 2012″ challenge and its potential influence on South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary with Free Speech TV this week.
At a hearing on the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Al Franken took issue with the testimony of Tom Minnery, the head of Focus on the Family’s political arm, CitizenLink. After Minnery cited a government study he said showed that the children of married gay and lesbian couples fared worse than married opposite-sex couples, Franken flatly stated that Minnery was wrong and called into question any further testimony from Minnery.
Provided South Carolina’s GOP can raise enough money to host the coveted first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary, the state will significantly impact which Republican is nominated to face off with President Obama in 2012. A South Carolina conservative policy group, the Palmetto Family Council, has seized on this spotlight to communicate its top issues to the 2012 presidential contenders; issues the group has influenced in past state debates all while receiving federal money to aid their case.
The Colorado Springs Pride Festival is coming of age in its 21st year of celebrating the local GLBT community, yet it still faces opposition from those within local government.
If you’re a Republican and you want to be president, there are a number of people around the country considered king makers, and one of them is in Colorado Springs.
The latest ruling in the legal battle over California’s anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, like all other rulings and semi-rulings and arguments and positions in the battle, has poked up a hornet’s nest of cheers and complaints from supporters and opponents of gay marriage. Yet momentum in general seems to be turning fast against the anti-gay marriage forces and it is the same in the latest clash.
In wake of news that major Republican donors are funding the push to legalize gay marriage in New York, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family is touting efforts to “save traditional marriage” there led by the National Organization for Marriage and the New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation. NOM has reportedly raised a million dollars to spend on its anti-gay marriage campaign and Family Research Foundation leader Reverend Jason McGuire is riding around the state on a “Mayday for Marriage” bus tour rallying supporters. “Where were you when they tried to redefine marriage?” he reportedly asks the people who turn up at tour stops. “What will you say to future generations?”
Anti-gay rights groups around the country will see a cash infusion over the next two years through a plan called “Ignite an Enduring Cultural Transformation.” And the groups are remaining mum about who is responsible.
Speaker of the House John Boehner has contracted high-profile conservative attorney Paul Clement to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on behalf of House of Representatives. Boehner has agreed to pay Clement initially up to $500,000 to defend the law, although analysts say that figure is sure to rise. Colorado Springs Christian right organization Focus on the Family celebrated the arrangement, touting Clement’s resume as one of the nation’s top attorneys.
Teenagers who live in politically conservative parts of the country are more depressed and suicidal than teens who live in politically progressive parts of the country, according to a study by Columbia University psychologist Mark Hatzenbuehler published this week. The study comes as the nation, spurred by media coverage of recent tragic youth deaths, reckons with the fact that school harassment drives gay young people in particular to depression and suicide. It also comes in the wake of competing days dedicated to drawing attention to school bullying, the Day of Silence organized by gay rights groups and the Day of Dialogue organized by Colorado Springs-based Christian group Focus on the Family.
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