YOU MUST BOW AT THE LGBT ALTAR OR ELSE

Article by Michael Brown, Christian Press Op-Ed Contributor

Do you remember when the main goal of LGBT activism was creating an atmosphere of “tolerance and acceptance”? Those days are long gone, and the goalposts have been moved dramatically. Today, if you do not partake in the public, mandatory celebration of LGBT pride, you will be marked and you will be ostracized. If you don’t believe me, just ask NHL hockey player Ivan Provorov.

Provorov, who is from Russia and plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, declined to participate in pregame warmups for the Flyer’s LGBT pride night since he would have been required to wear a pride-themed jersey.

He explained to reporters, “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion [which is Russian Orthodox]. That’s all I’m going to say.”

In other words, if someone identifies as LGBT, that’s their business, and he respects that. He has his own religious beliefs which dictate how he lives, and he would ask others to respect that. Live and let live.

Flyers coach John Tortorella was supportive of Provorov’s choice, explaining that the team made clear where it stood on LGBT pride. As for Provorov himself, Tortorella said that “he is being true to himself and to his religion. This has to do with his beliefs and his religion. That is one thing I respect about Provy, he is always true to himself, so that’s where we’re at with that.”

But not everyone was as tolerant (remember that word?). According to hockey journalist Pierre LeBrun, if Provorov really respected the LGBT community, he would have participated in the event and worn the jersey. To paraphrase, “Who gives a hoot about his religious convictions? To respect someone means to celebrate who they are and what they do, even if it is in fundamental contradiction to one’s own beliefs and convictions.”

Hockey commentator Gord Miller seconded LeBrun’s sentiments, adding that Provorov should have been banned from playing in the game. After all, he tweeted, “Freedom of expression doesn’t give you freedom from the consequences of your words or actions.” To paraphrase again, “Failure to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride has serious professional consequences!”

Sports and comedy writer Rachael Millanta was even more blunt, calling Provorov “ignorant, obnoxious, and homophobic,” also referring to people like him as “bigots” who “hide behind their cherry-picked religion.”

Oh, the beauty of open-minded, liberal tolerance!

So, by Provorov following the consistent Christian teachings of the last 2,000 years (or, more broadly, the consistent biblical teachings of the last 3,000+ years), he is an ignorant, obnoxious and homophobic bigot who is cherry-picking his beliefs.

The same can be said for the tens of millions of Russian Orthodox Christians who share these beliefs, along with many hundreds of millions of other Christians of like heart and like mind.

In short, you cannot graciously disagree. You cannot respectfully opt-out. Instead, you must deny your convictions, rewrite the Bible, run roughshod over your faith, and publicly celebrate something you believe to be wrong. Otherwise, you are a crass human being and a small-minded bigot. Those are your only choices!

Already in 2011 in my book A Queer Thing Happened to America, I could point to the Riddle Homophobia Scale, used in schools to evaluate whether the students were “homophobic.” According to the scale, both tolerance and acceptance were considered homophobic, since homosexuality was not something to “tolerate” or “accept.”

Instead, the only way not to be homophobic was to embrace a “positive” attitude which called for “support, admiration, appreciation, and nurturance.”

Yes, if you don’t want to be a homophobe, you must admire your lesbian friend. You must nurture your transgender colleague’s new identity. Otherwise, you will be marked.

Are you surprised? Well, consider this: “The Riddle homophobia scale was developed by Dorothy Riddle in 1973–74 while she was overseeing research for the American Psychological Association Task Force on Gays and Lesbians.”

That’s how far back it goes, although it wasn’t widely released until 1994. That’s why I started my article with this question: “Do you remember when the main goal of LGBT activism was creating an atmosphere of ‘tolerance and acceptance?’”

Most young people, including young adults, do not remember this time because they never experienced it. Instead, they have grown up with the choice to celebrate LGBT pride or be branded, to comply publicly or be ousted.

That’s why one of the chapters in my forthcoming book Why Have So Many Christians Left the Faith is titled, “If Gay Is Good, Christianity Is Bad.” That’s how much the tables have turned, even though the testimony of Scripture remains as clear today as it has ever been.

One of my colleagues, who is now a pastor, worked for years as a computer programmer with Bank of America. He told me that little by little, he was getting pushed out of his job through LGBT activism. By the time he quit, every employee, let alone higher-level managers or executives, could see on your bio whether you identified as an LGBT ally. If not, you could virtually kiss your career advancements goodbye.

Provorov is just the latest example of this reverse bigoted, small-minded, judgmentalism which leaves us with only one ethical choice: We will continue to love our LGBT neighbor as ourselves and we will refuse to back down on our convictions regardless of cost or consequence. That’s what Jesus would have us do.

There is a week-long celebration of Gay Pride in Sydney at the moment with 12.000 marchers including our Prime Minister and other politicians.

Article from “The Age” newspaper February 25th, 2023

“Anthony Albanese made history on Saturday night when he became the first Australian prime minister to march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

“It’s unfortunate that I am the first, but this is a celebration of modern Australia … a diverse and inclusive Australia,” he said.

“We need to be a country that respects everyone for who they are.”

Marching in his 35th Mardi Gras, Albanese paid tribute to the 78ers – the protesters from the original march 45 years ago ″⁣who were thrown in jail”.

THE RESULT OF REJECTING GOD AND HIS HELP

Ollie Davies was 26 years old and at the lowest ebb of his life when he made a decision to come out as a trans woman.

Estranged from his family, he was suffering from depression, anxiety, and behavioural problems as well as a crisis of self-identity. He existed in what felt like a dissociative state. “I felt as if I had no free will,” Mr. Davies says. “I was completely nihilistic and lonely and self-­hating and had no self-esteem. I was experiencing a total loss of identity and lack of sense of self.”

Mr. Davies, who was openly ­bisexual, had never questioned his gender identity as a child or young adult. But when people within his group of queer activist friends repeatedly suggested to him that he was trans, he began to believe it was true. “Ultimately it came from suggestions from others, people just started suggesting that I question my gender,” Mr. Davies said.

When Mr. Davies announced his decision to transition, the ­affirmation was immediate and intoxicating.

“Everyone I knew put trans people on a pedestal,” Mr. Davies says. “It was fashionable. I knew it would be celebrated and ­promoted. At first, it was euphoric. I felt like coming out as trans was my coming home and the key to everything that was wrong in my life.”

But, despite signing up for hormone therapy enthusiastically, being a woman never felt right. “These feelings of negative self-image and negative self-reflection became a downward spiral, and I kept trying to solve the problem further by being more of a woman,” he says. “And it just became more and more incongruent with who I am and what is natural for me. I came to realise it was a waste of time and a delusion.”

Ollie and Genevieve

In 2019, while still living as a woman, Mr. Davies met Genevieve Hassett and fell in love at first sight. “We were both fairly deep into the woke trans ideology,” Ms. Hassett says. “But the more I got to know Ollie the more I realised there was a lot of underlying stuff. I think he felt shame about being a man.”

There are no reliable statistics on how many people identify as transgender in Australia, but there is no doubt the numbers are on the rise. The number of children presenting at gender clinics has exploded in recent years and some predict Australia will begin to see legal actions as in the UK from those who allege they have been harmed by affirmative care.

Mr. Davies has now completed his transition back to being a man. He and Genevieve want to have a baby, but he is infertile from the ­effects of oestrogen on his body. “It’s devastating,” Ms. Hassett says. Mr. Davies now wants to ­publicly challenge what he describes as an activist-driven ­approach to diagnosing and treating gender dysphoria.

He questions the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPath) standards of care that gender-­affirmative doctors follow, which specify clinicians should take a ­patient-led, “affirmation enablement” informed consent approach “that recognises the patient is the final authority on their own gender”.

“The gender-affirming approach in medicine I think is a complete mistake,” Mr. Davies says. “I’ve seen an enormous amount of anecdotal evidence, ­including in my own life, that there are inadequate safeguards. I think that what has happened to me is just the thin edge of a massive iceberg.

“In my experience, people are inadequately educated about the risks when they initiate the process of transitioning, or even not told about them at all. It seems to me that to just say ‘we must affirm’ is just utterly failing those people and actually causing harm.

Trans health doctors under AusPath insist a mental health assessment is not required in order to facilitate a person to transition because “being trans is not a ­pathology”. But in the fallout from the ordered closure of London’s Tavistock Transgender Clinic, there is now active debate in medicine in Australia about how to care for young people raising gender concerns.

But Mr. Davies believes if doctors had properly assessed his mental health, probed his motivations, and taken an ordinary ­exploratory clinical approach, he may have taken a different path. “I think that in Australia there are hundreds of people like me who now regret it,” he says. “And I think that soon there will be thousands.”

BIG BUSINESS TRYING TO OVERTURN LEGISLATION TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM LGBT MANIA

Texas businesses have signed a statement opposing 2 bills that would ban boys who identify as female from competing in girls’ sports and ban the use of experimental puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and the genital mutilation of minors suffering from gender dysphoria. Forty-three companies have deemed the bills as “divisive” and signed a statement advocating for trans-identified athletes to compete in girls’ sports and for minors to be able to obtain elective cosmetic surgeries such as double mastectomies, phalloplasties and orchiectomies (testicle removal). “We are concerned to see a resurgence of efforts to exclude transgender youth from full participation in their communities, to criminalize or ban best-practice medical care that is proven to save lives,” reads the statement posted by Texas Competes, an LGBT advocacy organization.

This is just another “end times” sign indicating the speed with which God and His values are being driven out of His world. As I have stated countless times now, those with a knowledge of the many prophecies God has given in His Word will not be taken by surprise when persecution escalates for those Christians that speak out the truth about the coming wrath of God that will be poured out on an unrepentant world.

Los Angeles drag queen Xochi Mochi took part in Drag Queen Story Hour at Long Beach public library in October 2017. A widely-shared photo of the event is authentic.

Signatories to the statement include Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Dell Technologies, Dow, Facebook, IBM, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, PayPal and United Airlines. Evidence that big business is controlled by Satan and his demons.

Note the strategy: Texas Competes says it’s “not a political or lobbying organization” but rather a coalition of 1,400 companies that do business in Texas seeking to “provide a unified voice for the Texas business community on the clear economic and business case for a Texas that offers fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.” The statement, signed by the 43 businesses, comes as Texas lawmakers seek to advance SB 29, which would require “public school students to compete in interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex.” The Texas Senate has already passed the bill. The legislation is now under consideration in the state’s House of Representatives.

Please pray for these Texas lawmakers as they are also working to pass SB 1646, which would amend “the definition of abuse of a child” to include “administering or supplying, or consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of, a puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment.” The Senate has yet to vote on this legislation. The 43 companies asserted that such bills, if they were to become law, would ” … send a message that is at odds with the Texas we know, and with our own efforts to attract and retain the best talent and to compete for business. We will continue to oppose any unnecessary, divisive measures that would damage Texas’ reputation and make our customers, our visitors, and our employees and their families feel unwelcome or unsafe.”

The companies also expressed support for “the inclusion of LGBTQ people in non-discrimination laws, including policy that would update Texas’ non-discrimination laws to include LGBTQ people.” Eighty-six companies based across the United States (including some that are listed in the Texas Competes statement) have signed onto a separate yet similar statement crafted by the LGBT activist organizations Human Rights Campaign and the Freedom for All Americans Education Fund. The statement, titled “Business Statement on Anti-LGBTQ Legislation,” expressed deep concern over “the bills being introduced in statehouses across the country that single out LGBTQ individuals, many specifically targeting transgender youth, for exclusion or differential treatment.”