Illinois Family Institute's Reaction to Equality Illinois Challenge of their Amendment Petition

Leftist Coalition Hurls Unfounded Charges at IFI's LaBarbera, Smith; Help Us Defend Marriage Vote!

6/29/2006 11:03:00 AM
By Peter LaBarbera,
Illinois Family Institute


The ACLU is serious--are we?
The ACLU, Gay Liberation Network and other leftist groups are dead serious in pursuing their evil agenda of redefining God's design for marriage. Are we as serious in defending truth? Please make a gift today to help cover IFI's legal defense of the Marriage Protection Referendum.


A Special Appeal from the IFI Executive Director:

The leftist coalition group Fair Illinois--which includes ACLU-Illinois, the church-protesting extremists at Gay Liberation Network, People for the American Way, and the "gay" pressure group Equality Illinois--filed its official objection Monday against the Protect Marriage Illinois referendum. Their complaint specifically names myself (except "Peter "LaBarbara" is misspelled twice) and IFI Senior Policy Analyst David Smith, who has worked harder and put in more hours than anyone else to get this referendum on the ballot.

The ACLU and friends are claiming that there is evidence "indicative of fraud" in the signatures that Dave and I and others filed--another false allegation in their desperate campaign to keep you and all Illinois voters from being able to cast a "Yes" vote for marriage in November.

TAKE ACTION: Please do what you can to help our expensive legal effort to keep the Marriage Protection Referendum on the ballot in November:
1) Make a tax-deductible gift to IFI one of three easy ways:


calling IFI at 630-790-8370 and making a credit card gift over the phone; or
mailing in a donation to:
Illinois Family Institute
799 Roosevelt Rd., Suite 3-208
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137


2) Please keep us and this effort in your prayers. God continues to bless our efforts -- let's keep asking Him for His divine protection and assistance. ("If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31)

Background: 13 boxes of challenges
Yesterday we picked up a copy of Fair Illinois' filings with the State Board of Elections-- a total of 13 boxes objecting to around 100,000 of our 347,000 signatures. Of course, the ACLU, Gay Liberation Network et al have the right to challenge our signatures, and the Board of Elections will disallow signatures for people who are not registered to vote.

However, the leftist coalition goes well beyond just targeting unregistered voters. They falsely allege "fraud"--specifically naming myself and Smith --and then go on to hurl the same spurious, throw-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink charges as the ACLU and pro-homosexual groups make in every state where they seek to deny voters the opportunity to defend marriage.

Just look at Point 30 of Fair Illinois' legal objection to our filing--demonstrating that their campaign is more about thwarting democracy than "fairness":
"The Petitions are invalid in their entirety because the advisory question of public policy is biased and argumentative in violation of Article 111, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution. 111.Const. 1970, Art. 111, 5 3."

Biased and argumentative? Our marriage referendum simply asks Illinois citizens to vote "Yes" or "No" on the following:
"Shall the General Assembly submit an amendment to Article IX of the Illinois State Constitution to the voters of the State of Illinois at large at the next General Election stating as follows:
'To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State'?"


Of course, the ACLU-led coalition's claim is hogwash and only shows the level to which they will sink to discredit our efforts to preserve God's design for marriage.
Point 29 of the leftist coalition's objection reads:
29. The Petitions are invalid in their entirety because the advisory question of public policy is vague and ambiguous in violation of Article 111, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution. 111.Const.1970, Art. 111, 5 3."

You get the idea. The Left in this country hates the movement to defend traditional (that is, real) marriage and family, and they will use any subterfuge they can think of to stop us.
It's that simple. Just ask the Boy Scouts of America, who have been brought to their knees and slandered endlessly by the ACLU and well-funded homosexual legal groups such as the Lambda Legal Defense Fund--all because they wanted to live by their own creed of guiding boys to be "morally straight" and believe in God.

Are we serious?
The other side is dead serious in pursuing its evil agenda. Are we as serious in defending truth?

Please stand by as we awaite a ruling from the State Board of Elections , which will be holding a hearing in Chicago on Wednesday, July 5th and possibly reveal the results of its official "sampling" of our marriage petitions. If we pass the sample, we are one step closer to getting on the ballot. We will send daily updates on the situation if necessary.

IFI will also provide further analysis of the "Fair Illinois" coalition's objection filing in another e-mail. Please call IFI at 630-790-8370 if you have any problems with Paypal or need assistance in any way. Thanks for your sacrificial gifts and heartfelt prayers to support our efforts to preserve marriage in Illinois!

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera
Executive Director
Illinois Family Institute
info@illinoisfamily.org

P.S. A special note of thanks goes to our good friends at Alliance Defense Fund for their generous help in financing IFI's legal defense of the PMI referendum. ADF has shown true servant leadership, assisting our defense-of-marriage campaign every step of the way. We are grateful for their fine work in defending the marriage here in Illinois and across the nation.