'Coordinated' Campaign Targets Military Ban on Homosexuals
by Chad Groening
September 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative military watchdog says homosexual-rights groups are engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign to try to convince Congress to lift the ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
The New York Times reports that pro-homosexual activists are engaged in a renewed effort to lift the ban on homosexual conduct by publicizing the stories of potential homosexual recruits or former members of the service who are homosexual. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, explains what is happening. "[Young homosexuals are] going to recruiting offices ... saying they want to sign up, and [when they are told they cannot serve] they are creating media events all over the country and even internationally," says Donnelly. "They're going to about 30 states, according to some news reports."
The former Pentagon committee member says it apparent the visits to recruitment centers are coordinated because, as she notes, "these stories don't show up in major media repeatedly over a period of weeks by accident."
"There is an organization called Soulforce based in one state, then there is another group that was based in San Francisco that showed up in Virginia," she says. "I do see the markings of a professional public relations campaign."
There is little doubt about Soulforce's involvement in the campaign. The pro-homosexual organization's website admits to sponsoring a program called "Right to Serve" -- a 30-city "awareness" campaign designed to bring attention to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Donnelly is convinced the campaign is part of a strategy to get Congress to repeal the law banning homosexual conduct in the military -- and organizers, she believes, have a broader agenda.
"I think the people involved here do not have the best interests of the military at heart," says Donnelly. "They never have. They are promoting an agenda to normalize homosexuality in America using the military as a battering ram to promote that broader agenda."
Donnelly says she doubts Congress will change the law that clearly bans practicing homosexuals from the military. It is unfortunate, she comments, that former President Bill Clinton blurred the law with his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy -- a policy that Soulforce says is "rooted firmly in religion-based bigotry."
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
