On Thursday, May 29th, Governor Bill Ritter, with the stroke of his pen, signed into law legislation that made my lifestyle and convictions criminal. That’s when SB200 became law in the state of Colorado. The lifestyle and morality that were a part of my heritage for generations is now viewed with disfavor.
Now, as I stand outside of a movie theater bathroom or a swimming pool shower room door and guard the most precious thing in my life; my wife and daughter’s safety, modesty and privacy, I can no longer stop a man from entering a woman’s domain. (I will anyway, that’s why I’m a criminal!) For this violation of the law, an act that once was criminal, is now legitimate, and what was taught to me as a virtue is now a vice. Not only am I liable for civil penalties but criminal, as well as I can be sentenced for up to a year in jail.
I immediately contacted my State Representative, Wes McKinley to ask him what his stand was on this bill. He proudly told me he supported it. I brought to his attention the recent case in New Mexico that was in national news. A photographer refused to photograph a lesbian ceremony. The lesbian couple found another photographer who would and then turned around and sued the Christian photographer for standing up for her values. They won the suit and the photographer was fined over $6000.00. I asked Rep. McKinley if he thought this was right. He told me no and assured me that wouldn’t happen with this bill.
I then contacted my attorney who told me that SB200 does, indeed, open the door to this kind of litigation, and that I would have to be careful to not express my convictions in public in this kind of situation.
During further research on this bill, I found that Cathryn Hazouri, the executive director of the ACLU, testified in committee concerning this bill: “One may practice one’s religion in private; however, once a religious person comes into the public arena there are limitations in how the expression of their religion impacts others. ….. You give up some of your rights when you go into the public square.” Wow I didn’t know that. I was taught in school that these rights of free speech were “unalienable.” Apparently, gay rights trump heterosexual rights, as well as the first amendment.
So, as long as I keep my convictions to myself and only express them in my home or church, I’m legal. Somehow, I don’t think this is what the Bill of Rights meant. It appears that the radical homosexual agenda has determined that in this cultural war someone has to go back to the closet.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Old Testament speaks truth about the activist homosexual agenda. If this lifestyle is allowed full expression in a culture, it becomes a “violating” movement. It is not content to stop at tolerance and acceptance. It demands that I embrace and participate with it.
Will SB200 be the end of it? No. Next, hate crime legislation must be passed so that it is illegal for me to write this letter (as it is now illegal in Canada); then enforced homosexual/transsexual indoctrination of our children in the public educational system; finally, all other alternative forms of education must be outlawed. Impossible, you say? It’s already happened in California.
As I’m being forced into this “shotgun wedding” with the radical homosexual agenda, I hope it’s not too late to “speak now, or forever hold my peace.”
What is it called when you are forced, against your will, to participate in a sexual lifestyle that you find objectionable? I believe that is called “rape.” My state legislature has “violated” me and charged me with the crime.
God help us!
Mike Beecham
La Junta, CO
La Junta, Colo. —
