The legislative work session in Augusta on Tuesday was a follow-up to the public hearing last Wednesday at the Civic Center. It was far from an ordinary hearing, with thousands of homosexual activists in attendance, many dressed in red.  One pro-family supporter took a quick tally of the license plates in the parking lot, and found that about forty percent of the cars were from out-of-state.

Testimony from the public dragged on for hours, only to be interrupted by a fire alarm around 5:30. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Larry Bliss, an open homosexual who currently lives with a male 'partner,' called on the public to leave out any testimony that was redundant -  a difficult task for the homosexual rights lobby, which bases it argument on emotional appeal, and not on reason.

Not all of the testimony was run-of-the-mill. A nine year-old girl, peaking out from behind the speakers podium, gave a tearful appeal why her lesbian god-mother should be allowed to marry another woman.

The pro-family side produced the most memorable moments of the hearing. Al Lowberg, a pro-family activist from Washington, Maine, was jeered and subjected to obscenities when he said that one motive behind the push for same sex marriage was child molestation. Lowberg's remarks about child molestation were widely repeated in the media in the days following the hearing. Lowberg also gave a clear statement on the New Testament teaching on homosexuality, a fact which did not endear him to the crowd.

The most telling moment of the hearing came when a conservative Libertarian, a Native American, described how his wife left him for a lesbian. Unlike Lowberg's remarks, this speaker's heartfelt, painful revelation was greeted with a loud chorus of applause and cheers. This prompted the chairman of the hearing, Senator Larry Bliss, to plead with the audience for quiet, decency, and decorum. "Please, please……" Bliss urged repeatedly.

All this raises a painfully obvious question. "If homosexual rights activists support marriage, why are they cheering adultery and divorce?"  The fact is that homosexual "marriage" can never be based on equality and civil rights. It can only be based on perversion. And perversion cannot be sold to the public on the basis of reason and logic; but it can be sold to the public on the basis of emotion and tabloid thinking.