Focus Wins Out in Suit Over Ex-Homosexual Conference Ads
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
October 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - Focus on the Family has settled a lawsuit and will now be allowed to advertise a pro-family conference on public bus shelters in the Florida city where the ministry had previously run into opposition.
Last year Focus on the Family wanted to advertise its "Love Won Out" conference on bus stop shelters in the Clearwater, Florida, area. These conferences are dynamic, one-day events designed to educate the public about addressing, understanding, and preventing or overcoming homosexuality, particularly in youth. "Love Won Out" conferences are held in different parts of the U.S. throughout the year.
Officials with the Pinellas SunCoast Transit Authority (PSTA) objected to the message of the conference ads, which stated it is possible for a person to leave the homosexual lifestyle. Therefore, the transit authority denied Focus on the Family's request to place the ads, the officials claiming they felt the pro-family ads were disrespectful.
Focus on the Family contacted Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based civil liberties education and legal defense organization, which sued PSTA on the ministry's behalf. Mat Staver, general counsel and president of Liberty Counsel, says after some mediation, a settlement was eventually reached in the case.
Mat Staver | |
The "good news," Staver reports, is that the language of the Advertisement Transit Shelter Agreement, which deals with advertising on the bus transit shelters, has been amended. Focus on the Family will hereafter be permitted to promote its pro-family conferences on these shelters as other advertisers do, without interference from PSTA."Focus will now come back to the Tampa, Florida, area to conduct another 'Love Won Out' conference," Staver says, "and this time they'll be able to advertise that conference just like any other individual or group that wants to advertise on these bus shelters."
The Liberty Counsel spokesman says he and the rest of his staff are pleased that all parties in the case were able to reach an amicable settlement. However, he emphasizes that the kind of discrimination the transit authority officials were committing against the Christian organization simply must not be tolerated.
"Our First Amendment certainly guarantees the right to freedom of speech," Staver says, "and just because you don't agree with the message is no reason to censor it."
Tom Minnery, vice president of policy for Focus on the Family, notes that the ministry is planning to hold another "Love Won Out" conference in the Clearwater area in the near future. He says the ministry is looking forward to this next opportunity to "educate the public about overcoming homosexuality in youth."
