Fort Lauderdale honoring anti-LGBTQ hate group and leader who endorsed nightmarishly homophobic booklet

Why is the Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners and its openly gay mayor honoring a hate group whose leader endorsed this extremely homophobic booklet?

According to The New Civil Rights Movement:

Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s City Commissioners Tuesday evening will honor Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Westminster Academy. Included in those proclamations is the church’s founder, Dr. D. James Kennedy, whose D. James Kennedy Ministries appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups.  Fort Lauderdale’s mayor, who is also its first gay mayor, Dean Trantalis, will sign the proclamations making March 21, 2021 Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Day and Westminster Academy Day, as South Florida Gay News reports. 

  . . . A search of the D. James Kennedy Ministries website shows hundreds of articles on homosexuality. Some of them include “Freedom from Homosexuality through the Gospel,” “Brazen Attacks on Marriage,” and “Sexual Anarchy Puts Religious Liberty at Risk.” Truth Wins Out, an LGBT equality non-profit, calls the proclamations “no different than honoring the KKK.” “It’s outrageous to honor Coral Ridge. It is no different than honoring the KKK. This church lied about LGBT people, produced hate propaganda and perpetuated the “ex-gay” hoax. They have NEVER apologized for ruining lives. Stop this madness!”

Now no doubt our opposition will pull the "religious liberty" card along with the "gays should show tolerance for religious opinions" card, thus attempting to lead us into an annoying back and forth which will serve to yet again elevate the false gay vs. religion narrative. But allow me to add something to the mix which I hope will blow away that narrative. 

When it comes to the late James Kennedy and the Coral Ridge Ministries, we are not talking about entities who have "simple religious opposition" to homosexuality. Kennedy and his ministry targeted LGBTQ people without restraint or apology. They may have given the standard phony claim of having "compassion for homosexuals," but they were guided by pure animus and hate.

Naturally,  I have the receipts. So to speak.

Truth Wins Out sent out a press release which contained an item having to do with Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries, and little ole me:

Researcher Alvin McEwen points out that Kennedy also endorsed a horrifying anti-LGBTQ cartoon book, Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternative Deathstyle. The book libels LGBTQ people with fake statistics, such as “41% more gays than heterosexuals admitted to shoplifting!”

That would be this booklet here. Though it came out in the mid 1980s, it reflects the position Kennedy and Coral Ridge took towards LGBTQ people. And it was a position Kennedy kept until the time of his death and Coral Ridge has not moved away from even now:

And here is Kennedy's endorsement on the back cover. It's the first one:

In his endorsement, Kennedy said:

"Dick Hafer (the comic book's author) has produced a very accurate portrayal of homosexuality and the problem it poses to our nation and civilization. This unique book deserves an open-minded reading by all Americans, and especially by those who serve in leadership capacities."

Accurate? Really?  I happen to have snippets of this booklet which Kennedy called an "accurate portrayal of homosexuality."  What you are about to see is neither satire nor comedy. The author of booklet, Dick Hafer, was downright serious about the way he portrayed us. He believed this is how we are, as did those who endorsed his booklet.  As you view these image, ask yourself what the hell is the Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners and the city's openly gay mayor thinking?

It's rather sad when some of us get so successful that we forget where we came from and those who attempted to hold us back. 

(click on the images to make them bigger)

Editor's note - I own an original copy of Deathstyle, but if you want to see more images from the booklet, go to these links.