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.
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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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