I know no safe depository of the
ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them
not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion,
the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 - Letter to William Charles Jarvis [September 28,
1820]
___________________________
My name is Robert Larimer Jr. and I am executive director of
Washington for Traditional Values (WTV). I am a 44 year resident of the state of
Washington and I am also a blue-collar factory worker and 22 year union member.
I have been a Chief Shop Steward, contract negotiator, union board member and,
recently, I helped to successfully turn back an effort to decertify or
"bust" my union. With over two decades of experience, I believe I am
well qualified to address the subject of fair and equitable working conditions
and treatment of employees and consumers.
Attempting to convince state workers to adopt new attitudes regarding
homosexuality, DSHS printed its "Task Force on Gay and Lesbian Concerns,
Final Report 1993." It should be noted that throughout this document,
produced with taxpayer dollars, the term "sexual minorities" is in
constant use. This casually ignores the fact that for 19 years, attempts by
pro-homosexual special interests to gain special, minority status have been
repeatedly defeated in Washington's Legislature.
While a majority of DSHS workers who responded to the department's own surveys
indicated that diversity training was not necessary, the "Task Force"
attempted to hold community hearings in which public testimony would demonstrate
a need for more sensitivity to "gay and lesbian concerns." The
community hearings were dismal failures due to lack of interest and attendance.
Not easily discouraged, the DSHS "Task Force" then held
"forums" in "facilities determined to be most "likely to
encourage local participation in a safe and supportive environment." This
actually meant that tax dollars were used so that DSHS representatives could go
on the road, holding meetings in gay bars such as JS PUMPS in Spokane, and at
Tacoma's 733 gay bar and dance club.
____________________________________
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a
state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 / Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey
[January 6, 1816]
By DSHS's own tally (pg. 11 of the Final Report), a maximum
total of 70 patrons of gay bars attended the above "forums" and
offered opinions which resulted in the recommendations in DSHS's Final Report on
Gay and Lesbian Concerns, 1993. Those recommendations include: {Pg. 24,}
-Promote Diversity As A Positive Value. (It is stated that "Heterosexism is
perhaps the most common form of discrimination facing sexual minorities in the
workplace." If there is a new state law creating and describing the
"crime" of heterosexism, we at WTV are not aware of it).
-Mandatory "Diversity Training" For All State Employees.
-DSHS Service Providers And Contractors Should Be Held To The Same Standards As
The Agency Regarding Non-Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation. This
unveils the determination of activists within state agencies to force private
businesses to acknowledge or even prefer so-called sexual minorities, or risk
the "chilling effect" (to borrow American Civil Liberties Union
rhetoric), of being disqualified to bid on state jobs.
-A Radical Redefinition Of Family To Be Recommended To The Legislature:
"Family shall be inclusive of . . . and other persons who reside in the
same home who have reciprocal and natural and/or moral duties to and do provide
support for one another." DSHS recommends that this wide-open definition be
used "wherever possible" and also calls for changes in federal law
consistent with the DSHS Task Force On Gay and Lesbian Concerns expanded
definition.
-DSHS Should Seek Sexual Minority Households For Foster Care. DSHS (the state),
would therefore actively push private practice into public policy and create its
own demand for "bedroom police." The word "seek" denotes not
only inclusion, but an actual discriminatory preference.
-DSHS Should Advocate For And Support Efforts To Revise Existing State Employee
Benefits Which Would Favorably Affect Employees With "Non-Traditional"
Families. Some pro-homosexual groups have denied an "agenda" of
special rights. Here, written in a state document, is proof of efforts to expand
the so-called "domestic partner" benefits already implemented in
Seattle. The preceding examples of DSHS’s past special-interest political
advocacy serve to demonstrate the necessity for HB 2024.
Employing former Governor Mike Lowry’s Executive Order 93-07 as its mandate,
the DSHS program SMI programs went so far as to recommend and begin to implement
the hiring of community workers who would be "advocates" for
homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in each of DSHS’s six
state regions. This is not surprising considering that Mike Lowry’s EO 93-07
actually created an "advocate" in the governor’s policy office whose
duty is to answer to the concerns of homosexuals and lesbians statewide.
____________________________
Phone: (360) 695-4845 FAX: (360) 750-7328
By the time the DSHS "Program Status Report" for the
Sexual Minority Initiative was published in November, 1994, the department had
progressed to an ambitious state-wide program of promoting the homosexual
political agenda, with the notion advanced throughout all DSHS divisions that
minority status should be assumed to apply to a group which can only be
identified and distinguished by its claimed sexual behaviors.
The most outrageous feature of the SMI is found on page 26 of the 1994 Program
Status Report under "Objectives: Juvenile Rehabilitation." Minor
children in the care and custody of DSHS are to be "assisted" in
"understanding their emerging feelings and sexual orientation." To aid
in this process, our government is to "Recruit successful sexual minority
citizens to act as volunteers/mentors for sexual minority residents and to
assist residents in transition/lifestyle planning." Once again, the state
calls upon itself to become a bedroom policeman, determining to its satisfaction
that it is indeed recruiting people who claim to practice specific sexual
behaviors.
After WTV had helped to expose the SMI programs to public scrutiny, some
features were terminated. The most questionable program, Division of Juvenile
Rehabilitation recruiting, was reinstated by then-Governor Lowry who’s
press-release defended this irresponsible move as evidence of his
"commitment to diversity." In a statement to the press, Lowry’s
press secretary Jordan Dey explained that this was necessary because of a high
suicide rate among homosexual youth.
WTV has learned that former Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dr.
Louis Sullivan has repudiated and distanced his department from a paper entitled
"Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide" by Paul Gibson, which had been
included as supporting documentation in the 1989 "Report of the
Secretary’s Task Force on Youth Suicide." Gibson’s paper, which was
never subjected to peer review, asserted that gay and lesbian youths may account
for one third of all youth suicides, that homosexual youths are two to three
times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, that suicide
is the leading cause of death among gay and lesbian youth, and that gay youth
suicide is caused by the internalization of "homophobia" and violence
directed at gays.
It is this information, repudiated by the Secretary of HHS, that is offered as
"government statistics" on suicide among homosexual youth. It should
not be relied on.
____________________________________________________
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 / Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey [January 6, 1816]
Washington for Traditional Values recommends that any government
agency wishing to respond to confused minor children in a compassionate manner
should, instead of enabling improper sexual experimentation and
"pairing" them with adult homosexual "mentors" for role
models, offer help regarding the biological realities human sexuality through
organizations made up of former homosexuals who have successfully and
permanently left that lifestyle.
We encourage the Legislature to examine the newly released "Hate and
Bias" incident reports from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and
Police Chiefs which show a continued drop in the numbers of complaints regarding
anti-homosexual incidents.
In the first 6 months of 1996, there were a total of only 16 "Sexual
Orientation Motivation" incidents. In a state of 5.5 million people, this
does not reflect a crisis requiring special programs in state government
agencies.
Sexual Minority Initiative or Sexual Orientation Initiative Programs in the
Department of Social and Health Services constitute political advocacy and
inappropriate cooperation in advancing the cause of a group which can be
identified only by claimed sexual conduct.
HB 2024 will stop this out-of-control, special-interest advocacy in the
Department of Social and Health Services.
Respectfully submitted:
Robert R. Larimer Jr.
Executive Director
WTV
____________________________
Phone: (360) 695-4845 FAX: (360) 750-7328
Email WTV: blairmer@e-z.net
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