Brian Camenker

Like Rep. Louie Gohmert, Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage also participated in pastor Rick Scarborough’s Tea Party Unity conference calls back in March, where he made the “libertarian” argument against legalizing same-sex marriage.

Brown commended his anti-gay organization for having been able to “motivate a lot of the Tea Party groups” along with “African American and Hispanic folks” around their shared fear that gay marriage will undermine the Constitution and jeopardize “the future of Western civilization.”

After discussing how NOM is “working with leaders like Senator [Marco] Rubio or Ted Cruz,” he warned that marriage equality will grow the size and scope of government. If the state recognizes same-sex unions, Brown claimed, then public officials will “use the power of the state to punish, repress and marginalize” anti-gay activists.

He said that NOM’s opposition to marriage equality rests on the “libertarian argument” that if the state refuses to “recognize the truth that marriage is by its nature the union of a man and a woman” then “you’re giving the power to the state to call black white and white black, to put a falsehood into the law and a state that can do that is a state that pretty much can do anything.”

This is an issue where we can get new blood to support the Constitution, I mean that’s what’s at stake, Constitutionalism. When you have African American and Hispanic folks stepping up and saying that we will stand up for traditional marriage, we can make inroads there. I think the local Tea Party groups that have helped us with marches, helped us in any way they can, they’ve understood that this is about marriage, this is about the future of Western civilization, but this is also about our Constitution and whether judges can willy nilly create law out of thin air and I think that that has helped motivate a lot of the Tea Party groups.

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We need leaders and we’re working with leaders like Senator [Marco] Rubio or Ted Cruz, or whoever they may be, who understand what’s at stake and will really lead the party and sort of counter some of these arguments. The second part of this is this false libertarian argument that somehow the state should just get out of marriage altogether. That is not going to happen. There is really one or two outcomes that’s going to happen in this: either we’re going to have the state embrace this new definition of marriage and use the power of the state to punish, repress and marginalize those of us that know that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, or we’re going to have the state recognize the truth about marriage.

Ours is actually a libertarian argument. We’re not arguing that the state create marriage, the state does not create marriage, but the state has to recognize the truth that marriage is by its nature the union of a man and a woman. When it abandons that truth, you’re giving the power to the state to call black white and white black, to put a falsehood into the law and a state that can do that is a state that pretty much can do anything.

Brown also fielded a question from notorious ant-gay activist Brian Camenker of MassResistance, who asked why NOM is not taking “a hard stance” against same-sex relationships and openly calling homosexuality “perverse” and “unnatural.”

Brown said that NOM tries to avoid making those arguments outright simply for tactical reasons as they are trying to sway Justice Anthony Kennedy and “it’s not likely that a stronger argument about homosexuality is really going to shift Kennedy.”

However, Brown said that other groups should continue “taking a harder line in focusing more on homosexuality.”

“Different groups need to do different things, not all groups have to do the same thing,” Brown explained. “So folks that are taking a harder line in focusing more on homosexuality, there need to be different groups doing different things.”

Camenker: It’s concerning to a lot of people that the arguments being used in the various court cases concede that homosexual relationships are legitimate and not a perversion or what have you, we just don’t like them, and we wonder if there was more of a hard stance that they are not legitimate, that it is perverse, unnatural and what have you, that we might have some better success in some of the cases.

The second part of the question is I understand that you’re at CPAC, what is it like being virtually the only pro-family, pro-marriage guy there? I’m very disturbed at the way CPAC is being run this year.

Brown: Whenever I’m asked about what I think about homosexuality, I’m very clear, I believe and as a Catholic I believe in the traditional teaching of our church. I think that sex is reserved for marriage, period. As far as the legal arguments go we may differ. I think a lot of the legal arguments have been made in the Prop 8 case especially have been made to speak to [Justice] Kennedy and Kennedy has already found in the Lawrence case, for example, that states can’t ban sodomy. So it’s not likely that a stronger argument about homosexuality is really going to shift Kennedy.

I know some people think we need to focus more on homosexuality. All I’ll say is that when asked I state what I believe and many of the religious supporters that we’ll have at the march clearly will stand up and proclaim biblical truth on marriage, but I’m not sure whether legally that is the best strategy. Also, different groups need to do different things, not all groups have to do the same thing. So folks that are taking a harder line in focusing more on homosexuality, there need to be different groups doing different things.

Brian Camenker of MassResistance appeared on VCY America’s Crosstalk yesterday to denounce efforts in Massachusetts aimed at protecting transgender students.

He claimed that LGBT rights advocates “take advantage of these very vulnerable kids at a vulnerable time in their lives,” arguing that homosexuals do not exist: “You know, a lot of doctors have said to me that nobody is homosexual, they are just heterosexuals with homosexual problems and yes, change is possible.”

Camenker even argued that educators who support the new policy on gender identity in schools are much like “Nazi concentration camp guards” who “are doing this horrible evil and they are just taking orders or something, they believe in it.”

It’s insanity. I mean a boy cannot change his sex; your DNA does not change and you can call yourself something different, you can dress differently, you can take hormones, you are always a boy. The damage that this does to everybody, including the person involved and everybody around, is just unfathomable. These school administrators, you know I mean you think of them as what the Nazi concentration camp guards must have been like where they are doing this horrible evil and they are just taking orders or something, they believe in it. People need to rise up because it is only going to get worse.

Brian Camenker’s group MassResistance is out with its analysis of the Religious Right’s failure in four states to ban same-sex marriage, and has concluded that equality opponents simply weren’t anti-gay enough. They accused the National Organization for Marriage and others of going to “great lengths not to criticize homosexuality” when they should have been working to “persuade the public through advertising that homosexual behavior was perverse, dysfunctional, and unhealthy” and exposing “the destructive nature of homosexual relationships.”

MassResistance explains that such advertisements are necessary because “in America the average person is emotionally and intellectually unequipped to confront the Orwellian and often vicious onslaught of propaganda, disinformation, threats, intimidation [and] confusion” about homosexuality, even comparing the plight of anti-gay activists to those resisting Communism in the Eastern Bloc.

At its root, "gay marriage" is really about the forced acceptance of homosexuality as a normal part of society. But both NOM and the state pro-family groups went to great lengths not to criticize homosexual behavior. They were very fearful of being perceived as "anti-gay" or "homophobic" especially in the liberal press. So they insisted on moderating everyone's messages. In Minnesota, for instance, activists were specifically told, "Don't make this a gay issue."

Those who deviated from this and took a more direct approach were shunned and even publicly criticized by the pro-family establishment. This included some of the vocal black churches in Maryland who wanted to quote the Bible, and activists in Maine and Minnesota who felt compelled to discuss the negative aspects homosexual behavior.

Except for some material posted on websites of the local pro-family groups, there were no attempts at all that we know of to persuade the public through advertising that homosexual behavior was perverse, dysfunctional, and unhealthy. Our side basically conceded that argument completely, and even went to lengths to state that "we're not anti-gay." The homosexual lobby took full advantage of that by aggressively portraying homosexuality as just another facet of normal human behavior.

This tactic is not sustainable, as it soon became clear. It certainly does not effectively counter the emotional strategies put forth by the homosexual lobby. At some point you have to engage in the real battle at hand.

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Furthermore, the groups running the campaign opposing gay marriage had an arsenal of weapons about homosexuality, homosexual behavior, and the destructive nature of homosexual relationships that they didn't use because it would not be "politically correct" and would likely anger the liberal media -- and because it wouldn't be seen as "nice." And when they finally were willing to use the very effective issue of schools forcing homosexuality on kids, it was too late.

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One thing is painfully clear: At this point in America the average person is emotionally and intellectually unequipped to confront the Orwellian and often vicious onslaught of propaganda, disinformation, threats, intimidation confusion -- and the force of law that often follows -- which engulfs us. That is something we must change.

Pope John Paul II famously observed that a major force that facilitated the collapse of the Soviet Union was the people who were no longer afraid to tell the truth. That's a beginning, along with internalizing the fact that we're in a war and not at a dinner party. And that being reactive instead of being aggressive only slows down our losses. All nonviolent movements understand that.

They also claimed that the push in Maryland to overturn the state’s marriage equality law may have failed due to…you guessed it, voter fraud!

During early voting in Maryland, in many cases the touch-screen machines which created paper ballots did not register the "no" votes on the marriage ballot question; instead it come out blank. One woman told us that she noticed hers came out blank, and she had to go back and re-vote on it. She said that this happened to many others she knew of, and that one person had to go back three times to get his "no" vote properly registered. This is outrageous.

At least one relatively conservative area in Maryland surprisingly voted "yes" for gay marriage. There is suspicion that some kind of voter fraud was behind that. "It was really startling that we lost there," one local activist told us.

We have been informed that pro-family attorneys are getting involved in the continuing counting of absentee ballots in some of the key areas where the vote was close.

Brian Camenker’s organization MassResistance is out with a new “report” arguing that the “homosexual and transgender movements” are using the FBI and CIA to “crack down on pro-family groups and citizens.” He appeared on Crosstalk with host Jim Schneider of VCY America yesterday to warn that efforts by the government agencies to create a more open workplace for their gay and lesbian employees and to engage with the gay community to prevent and prosecute anti-gay hate crimes is part of a pernicious plan that will “do a lot of damage” and harm the Religious Right. Camenker said he is “really scared” of the FBI now that it has become an “out homosexual organization” that is “embracing the gay agenda” by trying to stem the tide of anti-gay hate crimes.

Schneider: Brian, many have been appalled at the annual gay celebrations that President Obama has hosted at the White House and we’ve also seen the State Department hosting these celebrations, this year though we saw the Department of Defense surrender to gay pride events. But your revealing in a release that you sent out today about additional federal agencies that are involved in law enforcement and also surveillance that you have embraced the homosexual and transgender movements, namely that of the FBI and the CIA, Brian it is appalling.

Camenker: It’s unbelievable. The FBI is just unbelievable to see. They have started a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender program on their careers website and they apparently have even gone from there to embracing the gay agenda, having a gay advisory committee, welcoming homosexuals as FBI agents, getting involved with pride events, but more than that going to gay pride events and encouraging homosexual activists to report hate crimes and working with them against pro-family groups. So this is what we’re seeing the FBI doing according to their own writings and according to the writings of the gay newspapers. We have one on our website, one of the gay newspapers in San Francisco, ‘FBI Encourages LGBTs to Report Hate Crimes,’ it is very, very frightening to see. The FBI is very powerful and they can do a lot of damage if they are out to get you.

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Camenker: When an individual describes himself as being gay or lesbian, transgender or something, invariably that person is hostile to the pro-family position and is vigorous about pushing the entire agenda. We’ve seen that in the schools, we’ve seen that all over the place. We’re really scared about the FBI being this out homosexual organization.

Even the CIA isn’t safe from the “gay agenda.” “In the old days you thought of the CIA as being this internal spy organization but now what they are doing is they are actually participating in these activities” like gay pride events, lamenting that gays are no longer banned from serving in the agency. “Man, this is really, really, really bad,” Camenker said.

Towards the end of the program, the two decried California’s new law limiting the practice of harmful and discredited sexual orientation conversion therapy on minors. Camenker claimed that the delisting of homosexuality as a mental illness was a result of “an extreme terrorist movement in the medical community” and that indeed such therapy works as “there is a whole world of ex-gays around.” He warned that the California law will be especially bad for “these kids who have been preyed upon by the homosexual movement” and that homosexuality for them should be seen as “just a fad.” Later, Camenker agreed with a caller’s rant against homosexuality and said that it is not a sexual orientation but an “addiction.”

Camenker: Homosexuality and transgenderism and all of these things have traditionally been considered mental illness issues, in fact the transgenderism still is, it was only through an extreme terrorist movement in the medical community that changed that. There are successful groups around the country that work with people with homosexual, same-sex marriage issues, such as JONAH, which is a Jewish group, and Courage and NARTH and others, and there is a whole world of ex-gays around. I know several people who were very, very heavily involved with homosexual lifestyle, left it, have become married with kids and are leading just wonderful lives, and I’ve known kids who were gay activists who changed, who through some kind of therapy or working finally said ‘no I’m not really this at all’ and have left that lifestyle.

You have this whole world of people that have been healed of this and in California, the gay activists there pushed this thing through the legislature to ban that kind of counseling to people who want it if they are under eighteen. Unfortunately, some of the people who really need it are these kids who have been preyed upon by the homosexual movement and believe me I have known kids personally who have been preyed upon and thought they were gay and through the right kind of counseling understood that ‘no, it’s just a fad, I’m not really that way’ and are leading wonderful, productive lives and not even thinking about it, so this is terrible.

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Caller: I am sick and tired of homosexuality being called a sexual preference, it’s like saying ‘I don’t prefer you live therefore I have the right to murder you,’ or ‘I don’t prefer you own that car so I’m going to steal it from you,’ it is not a preference it is a deviancy. It’s against nature’s law, it’s against God’s law and for a long time was against the laws of the United States both federally, locally and regionally for states.

Schneider: I appreciate that Doug I believe that was pointed out because what we are hearing so much today is that it’s an orientation and that it is not a lifestyle that is being chosen and that’s why you used the word ‘preference,’ not an ‘orientation,’ in that people are choosing that. Doug, it is a deviation and it totally goes against nature itself, as well.

Camenker: ‘Preference’ is inaccurate; I think the caller is correct. It is a deviation or sort of an addiction, what have you, I think addiction is probably closer to what it is.

MassResistance has updated its report, “What same-sex ‘marriage’ has done to Massachusetts,” and the group’s head Brian Camenker appeared on VCY America’s Crosstalk to go down the list of all of the so-called negative impacts of marriage equality.

Anyone who thinks that same-sex "marriage" is a benign eccentricity which won't affect the average person should consider what it has done to Massachusetts since 2004. It's become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on everyone. The slippery slope is real. New radical demands never cease. What has happened in the last several years is truly frightening.

Camenker rehashed the typical claims about how gay rights is leading to anti-Christian persecution, but also told host Vice Eliason that marriage equality is responsible for an uptick in the state’s domestic violence cases. Experts say that domestic violence has increased nationwide, likely connected to economic stress, Massachusetts included.

But Camenker says gay couples are responsible for the increase, arguing that “the rates of domestic violence among homosexual couples is many, many times that of heterosexual couples,” which he alleges is a manifestation of “the dysfunctional nature of homosexual relationships.”

However, Jane Doe Inc. The Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence writes, “Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals are abused at approximately the same levels as heterosexual couples, but the abuse may be exacerbated by social isolation caused by societal oppression and discrimination.” The Center for American Progress also notes that “studies have found that domestic violence occurs among same-sex couples at comparable rates to straight couples,” not “many, many times that of heterosexual couples” as Camenker claims.

Eliason: Domestic violence, what’s happening in that field dealing with this new lifestyle?

Camenker: Well it’s well known that the rates of domestic violence among homosexual couples is many, many times that of heterosexual couples for all kinds of reasons. What’s happened in Massachusetts is that it has gotten so high that the legislature is having to budget more and more money, millions of dollars now, toward dealing with this problem up from a hundred thousand dollars just a few years go.

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Camenker: It’s interesting at homosexual related events, you know gay pride events and all this stuff, they’re handing out all this gay domestic violence, partner violence literature, which is funded by the state. Apparently this has become a big problem; it’s even being passed out at high school gay clubs and all of this stuff. You know, the dysfunctional nature of homosexual relationships, which nobody wants to talk about, is being manifest more and more we’re seeing.

While taking to Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera, Brian Camenker of MassResistance said that like racism, “homosexuality is unnatural,” and now “just like you had to have the Jim Crow laws to keep the races apart, you have to have these laws and diversity trainings and constant propaganda to keep it going.” Camenker explained that gay rights advocates are passing laws and disseminating “propaganda” with the aim of ending the freedom of speech, which he says they need to do since homosexuality “is generally repulsive to large numbers of people if not everybody”:

LaBarbera: Brian Camenker’s website MassResistance, that is hate, because they don’t like that Brian Camenker opposes homosexuality. This is the world we are living in and I think it’s tempting to laugh at it but if they keep going our First Amendment rights will be gone.

Camenker: There’s no question about it and that’s what they want. They want that to happen.

LaBarbera: They can’t handle a free and fair debate, where we can just talk about ideas, they have to censor everybody who opposes them?

Camenker: The problem that they have is that homosexual behavior in it of itself, to put it bluntly, is generally repulsive to large numbers of people if not everybody. In order to normalize this in any way there has to be this constant stream of propaganda.

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Camenker: Homosexuality is unnatural and you have to have, just like you had to have the Jim Crow laws to keep the races apart, you have to have these laws and diversity trainings and constant propaganda to keep it going.

Some anti-Romney conservative Christians are pulling out the stops to try to stop his momentum on Super Tuesday. Steve Strang, the publisher of Charisma, a magazine and online media outlet for Pentecostal Christians, sent his email followers a “Super Tuesday” message urging Christians to rally voters for Rick Santorum:  “This race is so close that Bible-believing Christians CAN MADE A DIFFERENCE and help Santorum get the momentum to win the nomination and then the general election.” 

Strang says Santorum is “squeaky clean” while Romney is a Mormon flip-flopper and Gingrich has a “deep character flaw.”

Strang also promotes anti-gay, anti-Romney, pro-Santorum robocalls being made in Ohio by anti-gay extremist Brian Camenker of MassResistance, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others under the name Jews and Christians Together.  Here’s the call script:

Hi, my name is Brian Camenker; I'm a Jew from Massachusetts.

And, this is Darcy Brandon; I'm a Christian from California. If you believe as we do that marriage and sexuality should only be between a man and a woman, please help us stop Mitt Romney.

As Governor, Romney signed 'Gay Youth Pride Day' proclamations, promoted homosexuality in our elementary schools, and unconstitutionally ordered state officals to make Massachusetts America's first same-sex marriage state. Romney supports open homosexuality in the military, the appointment of homosexual judges, and the ENDA law, making it illegal to fire a man who wears a dress and high heels to work, even if he's your kid's teacher. When you vote tomorrow, please vote for social sanity and Rick Santorum, NOT for homosexuality and Mitt Romney.

Rick Santorum is the ONLY candidate who can be trusted to uphold traditional marriage, a straight military, and the rights of American children to have both a mother and a father. This message paid for by Jews and Christians Together.org and not authorized by any candidate. To get the facts before you vote, visit Jews and Christians Together.org.

The Jews and Christians Together website is basically a one-pager linking to attacks on Romney by Camenker’s group MassResistance, information the group says was emailed to over a million Ohio residents on Sunday.  A press release about the robocalls quotes religious bigotry promoter Gary Cass, who produces videos attacking Obama’s faith and has attacked Mormonism for its "hostility to Christianity."  From the Jews and Christians Together press release:

Brian Camenker, president of Mass Resistance and compiler of much of that Romney research and one of the robo-call voices said, "Mitt Romney would be the most liberal Republican ever nominated for the Presidency. Romney is so far left, he spoke against the right of the Boy Scouts to screen-out homosexuals. Mitt Romney proved during the January 8 Meet the Press debate that he's still as far left on the gay agenda as always. He proudly announced, 'a member of my cabinet was gay. I appointed people to the bench regardless of their sexual orientation.' Asked when he last stood up and spoke out for increasing gay rights, Romney said 'Right now.'"

Dr. Gary Cass, president of DefendChristians.org and a member of Jews & Christians Together.org said, "We believe Rick Santorum is the only viable alternative to Romney. All Jews and Christians are aware that the Bible, from the Jewish Books of Moses to the Christian Gospels to the epistles of Saint Paul, commands God's faithful to love the sinner but hate the sin, and indeed to recognize homosexuality as sin. Romney, on the other hand, endorses homosexuality as a good choice for young people."

The vehemently anti-gay Massachusetts-based group MassResistance is now going after the Boston Red Sox for making a video against teen suicide and bullying, particularly bullying directed at LGBT children. MassResistance is led by Brian Camenker, who once said that anti-bullying efforts are part of a “very aggressive, fascist type of movement” of “homosexual activists.” The group attacked the Red Sox for endorsing the efforts of The Trevor Project and the It Gets Better Project, suicide-prevention groups that focus on LGBT youth, and accused them of being “supportive of the homosexual agenda or at best indifferent to how it affects children, their families, or society”:

The site itself and its companion site lead kids to homosexual pornography and homosexual groups with a history of targeting kids with graphic homosexual material. Far from "helping" troubled kids, these sites would add considerably to their psychological and medical trauma.

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But worse, the Boston Red Sox are helping the radical homosexual movement push their depraved agenda on troubled kids, many of whom probably need real help. They seem fine with that. By any rational measure, this is simply evil.

As we've pointed out, things ain't like they used to be. Today's Red Sox players, staff, and management are largely liberals who support the general left-wing agenda. Many of them are multi-millionaires who hang out with glitzy liberals and are disconnected with average parents trying to raise their kids. They are likely supportive of the homosexual agenda or at best indifferent to how it affects children, their families, or society.

Brian Camenker wrote in a letter [pdf] to the team that the “real victims are the vulnerable kids who come to them for help” and that the Red Sox should take down the video and “issue an apology to the public”:

Perhaps you did not sufficiently look into these before you got involved with them. The “It Gets Better” project bills itself as an anti-bullying and anti-suicide effort. But in fact it does practically nothing legitimate in that regard, and instead serves as a conduit for kids to extremely objectionable and outrageous homosexual activism.

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Neither Dan Savage nor anyone else closely associated with “It Gets Better” appears to have any legitimate qualifications for working with kids, and certainly not for dealing with the behavioral and psychological issues surrounding suicide. They are simply homosexual activists. The real victims are the vulnerable kids who come to them for help.

But possible even more disturbing is “The Trevor Project,” which the Red Sox video specifically leads kids to. It is purportedly a website of “resources” for kids to go to for “crisis intervention.” These “resources” tend to be homosexual activist organizations and other materials intended to normalize homosexuality, transgenderism, sadomasochism, and other extremely destructive behaviors in the minds of troubled kids. These are clearly designed by homosexual activists, not any kind of legitimate medical professionals.

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I would urge you to immediately remove the video, disassociate yourself with this entire sordid “project,” and issue an apology to the public.

Brian Camenker of MassResistance joined Peter LaBarbera to brag about his work in Maryland, where a marriage equality bill in the House of Delegates was pulled off the floor after it lacked the votes to pass. Camenker laughed at Christian delegates who backed the bill, and said calling marriage equality “civil rights” is “complete nonsense and idiocy.”

Listen:

Camenker: That’s something that really surprised, continues to surprise me Pete, is the complete nonsense and idiocy that these guys will believe. Some of these arguments from the gay marriage side were just so stupid, you know the “civil rights” argument for instance it was just I mean, how could anybody believe this nonsense? And they were just marching right in step; the cold water of anger from their constituents, boy that had an effect.

LaBarbera: You said “watching Bible-believing legislators repeat the “civil rights” platitudes was unbelievable,” so they’re being deluged with propaganda.

Camenker: Yeah, there was one guy in the Washington Post, one of the legislators, who said yes “I’m a Church-going, Bible-believing Christian, but I’m not going to let my religion interfere with my vote for civil rights.”

LaBarbera: “I’m not going to let my Christianity interfere with my pursuit of an evil agenda!” Oh brother.