Please contact state officials and tell them to rein in this outrageous violation of individual freedom and privacy rights:

Governor Jennifer Granholm 517-373-3400
Attorney General Mike Cox 517-373-1110

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“A single, 31-year-old woman in Michigan who posted a note on her church bulletin board seeking a ‘Christian roommate’ to share her residence has been cited by the state for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against those of other faiths. The complaint signed by Tyra Khan, a ‘Civil Rights Representative’ of the state of Michigan Department of Civil Rights, surfaced when the Alliance Defense Fund announced today it was representing the woman. …’Christians shouldn’t live in fear of being punished by the government for being Christians. It is completely absurd to try to penalize a single Christian woman for privately seeking a Christian roommate at church – an obviously legal and constitutionally protected activity,’ said (attorney Joel) Oster, a senior legal counsel with the ADF.”

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WORLD NET DAILY
Washington, D.C.
October 21, 2010

Woman seeks ‘Christian roommate,’ state cites her for discrimination Michigan alleges notice posted on church billboard breaks rules

By Bob Unruh

A single, 31-year-old woman in Michigan who posted a note on her church bulletin board seeking a “Christian roommate” to share her residence has been cited by the state for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against those of other faiths.

The complaint signed by Tyra Khan, a “Civil Rights Representative” of the state of Michigan Department of Civil Rights, surfaced when the Alliance Defense Fund announced today it was representing the woman.

ADF spokesman Joel Oster confirmed the organization sent a letter to the state explaining that such housing rules don’t apply to people living in their own homes and wanting to share their resources.

“[Tricia] is a single lady looking for a roommate. She is not a landlord. She does not own a management company. She does not run an apartment complex. She is a single person seeking to have a roommate live with her in her house,” the letter said.

“She is not prohibited by either federal law or state law from seeking a Christian roommate. Neither Title VII of the US Fair Housing Civil Rights Act of 1968 nor the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act No. 453 prevents a woman like [her] from seeking a Christian roommate.”

The letter asked for an immediate dismissal of the case, but Oster confirmed to WND today that he had not received a response.

WND contacted the agency’s spokesman, Harold Core, who said the case had been determined to be legitimate and the investigation was continuing.

The complaint

He cited a regulation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and explained the state of Michigan agrees to enforce federal regulations.

He said section 604C states it is a “violation to make, print or publish or cause to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference” for a list of nondiscrimination categories, including religious belief.

The complaint specifically alleges the woman’s statement, “I am looking for a Christian roommate,” prevents people of “other faiths” from contacting the woman and making arrangements to share her home with her.

Core declined to respond to questions about the complications that could arise should a full range of nondiscrimination factors, such as race, age and sex, be applied.

“The Fair Housing law is very clear,” he warned. “You cannot advertising for preferences on certain … situations.”

“Free speech isn’t the same as … a housing opportunity,” he said.

“Christians shouldn’t live in fear of being punished by the government for being Christians. It is completely absurd to try to penalize a single Christian woman for privately seeking a Christian roommate at church – an obviously legal and constitutionally protected activity,” said Oster, a senior legal counsel with the ADF.

“Not content to just lock Christians and their beliefs into the four walls of their church or home, some groups also want to invade those walls and force their own ideas upon them by force of law,” he said.

The person who filed the complaint, whose identity was being protected by the state, complained about the “advertisement which contained the following sentence: ‘I am looking for a Christian roommate, …’ The claimant believes the statement expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths.”

The state, which got the complaint from the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan, a private organization, ordered the defendant to provide information about her agent, the names and addresses of her management personnel, a copy of her anti-discrimination policy, addresses of her properties, tenants, witnesses and a copy of the advertisement.

The Fair Housing Center could not be reached for a comment.

The state also warned, “You must preserve all records relevant to this complaint until final disposition is issued by the department and until litigation and all appeals are concluded. Revelant records, would, for example, include records relating to the aggrieved person and all persons similarly situated.”

http://www.wnd.com:80/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=218349
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HOLLAND SENTINEL
Holland, Michigan
October 21, 2010

Is Holland ready? City commission
tackles Gay Rights Ordinance tonight

By Peter Daining and Stephen Kloosterman

HOLLAND, Mi. — Dustin Lance Black has his fingers crossed.

The Academy Award-winning screenwriter has his eye on Holland this week, with city officials revisiting the idea of an anti-discrimination ordinance that would protect gay residents from housing or job discrimination.

It’s a particularly poignant topic, Black says, considering the high number of gay teens who have committed suicide in recent months.

“I’m very happy to hear Holland is having those conversations,” Black said. “It’s become clear that people listen to the messages of their communities, which way too often are saying gay and lesbian people are somehow second class or not worthy of protection.”

Holland’s Human Relations Commission tackles the thorny issue at 6 p.m. today at City Hall. It’s unclear yet if the panel will vote on whether to add protections for residents based on their sexual orientation; they have been studying the issue during the summer.

“I couldn’t say for sure whether it will be tomorrow or next month,” said Community/Human Relations coordinator Al Serrano. “But it’s probably somewhere in that time period.”

One Holland gay business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, has first-hand experience with gay discrimination in Holland — while buying a home.

He, and his partner, were packing to move to Holland to care for an ill family member; the moving van was booked, the closing date set. Just three days away from the closing date, they hit a bump in the road.

The condominium board did not want to grant permission for them to move in. The problem? The couple’s sexual orientation. The partners flew in to meet with the board.

“You’re saying we can’t live here because you don’t like gays?” he recalled saying. “Why can’t you just live somewhere else?” the condo board member replied.

The couple’s lawyer explained it is perfectly legal in Holland to deny housing to gay couples.

“Everyone I’ve told has been rather shocked to discover it’s completely legal to deny a person a home based on homosexuality,” he said. “I think it’s extremely important that this last bastion of civil rights be forged.”

Interfaith Congregation Chaplain Bill Freeman asked Holland City Council to consider an anti-discrimination ordinance this summer to guard against housing, education, job and other discriminations based on sexual orientation.

“This isn’t a question about what’s in the Bible, this is a question about what’s in the Constitution, and the Constitution talks about equal rights for all — and that’s what we’re talking about.”

American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn said the suggestion was “radically out of step with the values of the people of Holland.” He said 64 percent of voters in the Holland area had voted to approve the Marriage Protection Amendment in 2004, and that an anti-discrimination ordinance could be easily overturned by a public referendum.

Since this summer, the Human Relations Committee has been gathering information and having discussions in order to decide on a recommendation to City Council. Freeman is optimistic about today’s meeting.

“This could be one of the big steps,” Freeman said.

Gay rights became a hot button issue in Holland when Hope College banned filmmaker Black from hosting a discussion of his Academy Award-winning film at a campus sexuality forum last fall.

Eventually, Hope is Ready hosted Black off-campus at the Park Theatre for a discussion and screening of his film, “Milk,” a biopic of Harvey Milk, the first gay politician elected to public office in the U.S.

“Some people don’t understand why it’s important,” Black said. “It’s so that gay and lesbian people — and there are plenty of gay and lesbian people in Holland. I met many of them — can feel free to live authentically as who they are with their self esteems intact.”
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/feature/x2030533328/Is-Holland-ready-City-Council-tackles-Gay-Rights-Ordinance-tonight
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MICHIGAN PUBLIC RADIO
Grand Rapids, Michigan
October 21, 2010

Holland to consider adding gender identity,
sexual orientation to anti-discrimination laws

by Lindsey Smith

HOLLAND, MI — The board has been studying the issue for months. They took it up at the request of Reverend Bill Freeman. The Holland pastor says those who spoke against expanding protections to those groups embody why it’s needed. “I mean to be homosexual, or to be a lesbian or gay person in Holland – it would seem to be problematic. Because there are so many people who oppose them – oppose their existence,” Freeman said.

The crowd of more than 80 people was evenly divided. Most of those opposing the change worry it would discriminate against them by forcing them to ignore their moral values against homosexuality. Unlike a person’s skin color, Holland resident Joe Stafford says being gay is a chosen behavior. “If an ordinance is passed, we will automatically discriminate against good upright members of the community whose only wrong is they have a conviction that is based on history, nature and religion that homosexuality is wrong,” Stafford said.

Holland City Council does not have to follow the recommendation. It’s unclear when the council will make their decision.

Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Detroit are among several other Michigan cities that have passed similar ordinances.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1716033/West.Side.Stories/Holland.to.consider.adding.gender.identity..sexual.orientation.to.anti-discrimination.laws
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Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution via credit card online:
https://www.campaigncontribution.com/version6/process/info.asp?id=1700&jid=

Or mail your contribution to PO Box 1904, Midland, Michigan 48641.

Thanks as always for your support!

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

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“Traditional institutions in (Holland) are pushing back, with some warning of a slippery slope to moral relativism. ‘I think it (the proposed anti-discrimination ordinance) will lead to other things,’ said the Rev. Ralph Houston of Immanuel Reformed Church In Fennville. ‘It adds some respectability to (homosexual behavior.)’

In Houston’s view, the best authority on the issue can be found in the Bible, in verses in Leviticus and Romans that condemn homosexuality. ‘If the Bible is true, then we better stick to what the Bible says about homosexuality,’ Houston said. Nonetheless, Houston asserted that Holland needs no gay rights ordinance because he sees no evidence of discrimination.”

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GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
Grand Rapids, Michigan
October 20, 2010

How conservative Holland became
latest battleground for gay rights
by Ted Roelofs | The Grand Rapids Press

HOLLAND — Given its conservative reputation, Holland might seem unlikely ground to launch a battle for gay rights.

A group called Holland is Ready insists this bastion of traditional values is precisely the community where such a fight must be won.
“If that is the perception of a place, it’s perhaps even more important we do this,” said the Rev. Jennifer Adams, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Holland.

“I believe Holland is far more diverse than communities beyond Holland have recognized.”
There are many others, some well known, invested in this cause as well. They include Jeff Padnos, president of Louis Padnos Iron & Metal in Holland. Padnos believes the time has come for this city to assure equal treatment of all.

“As we try to grow and diversity our economy, this is going to be a factor that people are looking at in terms of where they choose to be. It’s symbolic of what kind of place we want to be.
“Do we want to be inclusive or understanding or not?”

The issue bubbled to the surface across several fronts in the past year, from a proposal that Holland’s City Council adopt a gay anti-discrimination measure to a clash at Hope College over a campus appearance by Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter of an Oscar-winning movie about gay activist Harvey Milk.
The former could come to ahead this week as a city panel is expected to discuss the proposal to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In July, a full-page ad in the Holland Sentinel further stirred the pot as it attacked the proposed city ordinance and what it termed the “myths” of homosexuality. The ad said it was sponsored by the Holland Township company Request Foods and the Family Research Council.
After threats of a boycott by Campbell Soup Co. — for whom Request Foods is a contractor — Request Foods distanced itself from the ad saying it was paid for by an investor “without our management team’s knowledge or permission.”

Dozens of letters to the editor and online comments at the Holland Sentinel, some civil, others not, reveal a community divided. Many were critical of the ad.
One online writer commented: “Ignorance is a sad thing. Ignorance based on faith is dangerous.”
But another warned that the annual Tulip Time parade could be one with “a Gay Rights float, but no Right to Life float. Perfect.”
While the issue simmers, 2010 Hope College graduate Emily West said it might surprise some just how many students at this college with historic ties to the Reformed Church are ready for change.

The former editor-in-chief of the student newspaper recalled a meeting she and some others called in 2009 after college officials blocked an appearance by screenwriter Black to discuss issues raised by the film “Milk.”
“Over a hundred people showed up for the meeting,” said West, 22. “I was shocked.”

In denying Black’s appearance, college officials cited a 1995 policy which says the college will “not provide recognition, financial or logistical support for groups whose purposes include the advocacy or moral legitimization of homosexual behavior.”
Officials said Black could speak to students about his craft but not gay rights.

That led to formation of the group called Hope is Ready, which West said submitted the names of 745 people, including 342 students demanding repeal of the policy. Not long after, gay rights proponents formed Holland is Ready as the cause mushroomed into a community-wide issue.
West said organizers have continued to collect the signatures of more students and Hope graduates since then.
Alumni lending support to the cause include Arend Lubbers, former president of Grand Valley State University. Lubbers is a 1953 Hope graduate and son of Irwin Lubbers, Hope’s president from 1945 to 1963.

“There should be complete inclusiveness at Hope College,” Lubbers said.
Not unexpectedly, traditional institutions in the area are pushing back, with some warning of a slippery slope to moral relativism.
“I think it (the proposed anti-discrimination ordinance) will lead to other things,” said the Rev. Ralph Houston of Immanuel Reformed Church In Fennville.

“It adds some respectability to (homosexual behavior.)”
In Houston’s view, the best authority on the issue can be found in the Bible, in verses in Leviticus and Romans that condemn homosexuality.

“If the Bible is true, then we better stick to what the Bible says about homosexuality,” Houston said.
Nonetheless, Houston asserted that Holland needs no gay rights ordinance because he sees no evidence of discrimination.

“I don’t think anyone in Holland would dare discriminate on the basis of homosexuality,” he said.
That is among the issues put to Holland’s Human Relations Commission as it weighs a proposal to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. City council members in July directed the advisory body to study the issue and return with a recommendation.

The commission is expected to discuss the matter at its Thursday meeting.
“I imagine there will be some kind of action,” said commission chairman Ralph Kickert.

Kickert declined to predict what that might be, or whether the City Council would adopt a gay rights ordinance if the commission recommends it.
Many expect the issue to be settled by referendum.

In 2009, voters in Kalamazoo rejected a referendum that would have repealed the city’s gay protection ordinance by 62 percent to 38 percent. Several other Michigan cities, including Grand Rapids, Grand Ledge, Lansing, East Lansing, Detroit and Ann Arbor have measures protecting gay residents.
Padnos President Jeff Padnos believes that in five or 10 years Holland will have resolved the issue and moved on.

“I think it’s going to be behind us. Holland is a way more diverse place than people think.
“It’s just a matter of time.”
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/10/how_conservative_holland_becam.html
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“In a 4-3 vote, the Saline School Board decided not to change its non-discrimination policy. Education attorney LaRae Munk, a board member with the American Famly Association of Michigan, tells One News Now the amendment ‘would have added as protected classes from discrimination sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.’ …’They all reiterated that they needed to have zero tolerance for bullying of anybody, not just those in that special interest group,’ Munk adds. …The education attorney (said)…the four board members ‘didn’t act like politicians and just do what was popular, but acted like statesmen and did what was right.’”

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ONE NEWS NOW
Tupelo, Mississippi
October 18, 2010

Michigan activist: School bullying policy OK as is
by Bill Bumpas

A school board in Michigan has rejected a proposal that would have given special protected class status to students who engage in homosexual behavior and cross-dressing.

In a 4-3 vote, the Saline School Board decided not to change its non-discrimination policy. Education attorney LaRae Munk, a board member with the American Family Association of Michigan, tells OneNewsNow the amendment “would have added as protected classes from discrimination sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.” But “board members voted against the change, saying that the issue that was really present was bullying and that they’ve got an excellent bullying policy.”

What they have decided is that the policy simply needs better enforcement.

“They all reiterated that they needed to have zero tolerance for bulling of anybody, not just those in that special interest group,” Munk adds.

She feels that “God showed up” in Saline because she was convinced that the board was going to change the policy until the vote actually took place. The education attorney thinks the country should send a big “thank you” to the four board members “who didn’t act like politicians and just do what was popular, but acted like statesmen and did what was right.”

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1208506
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“(Kansas State University family studies professor Walter Schumm’s) study on sexual orientation…says that gay and lesbian parents are far more likely to have children who become gay. …(W)hen the study restricted the results so that they included only children in their 20s — presumably after they’d been able to work out any adolescent confusion or experimentation — 58 percent of the children of lesbians called themselves gay, and 33 percent of the children of gay men called themselves gay. About 5 to 10 percent of the children of straight parents call themselves gay, Schumm says.

Schumm next went macro, poring over an anthropological study of various cultures’ acceptance of homosexuality. He found that when communities welcome gays and lesbians, “89 percent feature higher rates of homosexual behavior.”

… And across all his data…he noticed how lesbians begat more lesbians. …(quoting) the stories of young women, describing how being gay was never frowned upon in their household, and so that ‘option’ was available to them. …Schumm also finds evidence of gay mothers pushing their daughters, upset over a relationship with a man, to ‘try out women.’ …(T)he literature shows some lesbians ‘have a hatred of men that’s intense,’ Schumm says.”

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AOL NEWS
New York, New York
October 17, 2010

Study: Gay parents more likely to have gay kids
by Paul Kix, AOL News

Walter Schumm knows what he’s about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had.

When one such researcher, Paul Cameron, published a paper in 2006 arguing that children of gay parents were more likely to be gay themselves, the response from the academic press was virulent, to say nothing of the popular press; the Southern Poverty Law Center, for instance, equated Cameron to a Nazi.

Not all of the vitriol was hyperbolic. Cameron does not tolerate gay people. He believes that “homosexual practice is injurious to society.”

The gay press, as far back as the 1980s, labeled Cameron “the most dangerous anti-gay voice in America.” Though Cameron was the first to publish papers on the dangers of secondhand smoke, the scientific community has abandoned him. The American Psychological Association long since dropped him from its membership for an “ethical” violation.

Today, Cameron is the founder and chairman of the Family Research Institute, whose “overriding mission” is to publish “empirical research on issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality.”

Schumm doesn’t go for that sort of research. After Cameron’s 2006 paper, Schumm listened as the academic community stated certainty of two things: Cameron was an idiotic bigot; and the existing literature showed little to no societal, cultural or parental influence on sexual orientation.

Schumm began investigating the second premise. “I just want to know the truth about something,” he tells AOL News. And he found it strange that parents can influence so many facets of their children’s lives — but not in any way their sexual orientation.

Lawyers for the state of Florida heard of Schumm’s fledgling research and invited him in 2008 to testify in a case. The state’s Department of Children and Families was attempting to uphold a ban on gay and lesbian parents adopting children. Schumm’s testimony actually ended up aiding the gay parents in the trial.

He said: “Gay parents can be good foster parents,” and “The decision to permit homosexuals to adopt is best made by the judiciary on a case by case basis.”

Schumm tells AOL News that he agreed to testify as one of the state’s witnesses only if his evidence was not “slanted” for or against gay rights.

But also in his testimony was an inkling of the robust research Schumm has just completed. His study on sexual orientation, out next month, says that gay and lesbian parents are far more likely to have children who become gay. “I’m trying to prove that it’s not 100 percent genetic,” Schumm tells AOL News.

His study is a meta-analysis of existing work. First, Schumm extrapolated data from 10 books on gay parenting; Cameron, for what it’s worth, had only looked at three, and offered no statistical analysis in his paper. Schumm skewed his data so that only self-identified gay and lesbian children would be labeled as such.

This is important because sometimes Schumm would come across a passage of children of gay parents who said they were “adamant about not declaring their sexual orientation at all.” These people would be labeled straight, even though the passage’s implication was that they were gay.

Schumm concluded that children of lesbian parents identified themselves as gay 31 percent of the time; children of gay men had gay children 19 percent of the time, and children of a lesbian mother and gay father had at least one gay child 25 percent of the time.

Furthermore, when the study restricted the results so that they included only children in their 20s — presumably after they’d been able to work out any adolescent confusion or experimentation — 58 percent of the children of lesbians called themselves gay, and 33 percent of the children of gay men called themselves gay. (About 5 to 10 percent of the children of straight parents call themselves gay, Schumm says.)

Schumm next went macro, poring over an anthropological study of various cultures’ acceptance of homosexuality. He found that when communities welcome gays and lesbians, “89 percent feature higher rates of homosexual behavior.”

Finally, Schumm looked at the existing academic studies, the ones used to pillory Cameron’s work. In all there are 26 such studies. Schumm ran the numbers from them and concluded that, surprisingly, 20 percent of the kids of gay parents were gay themselves. When children only 17 or older were included in the analysis, 28 percent were gay.

Abbie Goldberg is a psychology professor at Clark University, and the author of “Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle,” which this year won the Distinguished Book Award from the APA. She hasn’t read Schumm’s study, only seen the abstract. But she says, in general, that a meta-analysis of this nature relies on sample sizes that are often too small and may furthermore brim with participants whose perspective is firmly aligned with the LGBT community. In other words, they’re aware of these sorts of studies and seek them out.

“The fundamental problem with this [type of meta-analysis] is such samples tend to be biased,” Goldberg tells AOL News.

Schumm says he guarded against that by seeking out so many different works. And across all his data — the 10 books he consulted, the anthropological study, the scientific articles — he noticed how lesbians begat more lesbians. In Schumm’s study, he quotes from the extant literature the stories of young women, describing how being gay was never frowned upon in their household, and so that “option” was available to them. That said, Schumm also finds evidence of gay mothers pushing their daughters, upset over a relationship with a man, to “try out women.”

But couldn’t gay men also tell their sons this? Yes, but Schumm tells AOL News that most gay men have at some point been with a woman, so they understand why their sons might date them. Whereas the literature shows some lesbians “have a hatred of men that’s intense,” Schumm says.

Schumm says it shouldn’t have taken until 2010 to do the meta-analysis. Too often his colleagues impose “liberal or progressive political interpretations” on their studies, which inhibit further inquiry. “It’s kind of sad,” he tells AOL News.

As if expecting a political backlash himself, Schumm concludes his study with a quote from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. “All truth passes through three stages: First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

http://www.aolnews.com:80/science/article/study-gay-parents-more-likely-to-have-gay-kids/19668089?ncid=webmail
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