Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay

I thought I'd do a Google search on the Illinois Family Institute's Peter LaBarbera (see previous post) to see what else occupies the time of this upstanding, "pro-family" paragon.

Quick answer: Not much.

For a dude who is presumably vehemently anti-gay, he certainly spends a lot of time focusing on gay sex, gay events, gay life, gay activities and gay men.

Pam Spaulding already compiled all the goods on her web site, Pam's House Blend. I love her headline there: "Get To Know Your American Taliban: Peter LaBabera."

My favorite citation on that page is a tip-off from Eva from the blog Lloydletta's Nooz and Comments, who says:

When he worked for the Concerned Women, his job was going to gay days at Disney, SF gay pride, all gay events in Bush White House (for gay employees) — etc. for "research."

Peter has a rather large gay porn collection — more "research" — and this year, as ED of the Illinois Family Institute, felt it necessary to attend International Mr Leather in Chicago — also for "research" purposes.

He does get on gay lists and lurk — to gather intelligence (kind of like what you do with the actual freeper quotes).

But, wait! There's more. Pam's headline and item on August 12, 2005:

It's Clear Now: Peter LaBarbera Has To Be A Friend Of Dorothy

Let me ask you: Have you ever attended a street festival or town fair that has a booth hosted by a perversion center where men engage in despicable and dangerous acts with other men? Only in Chicago, and YOU are apparently already paying to promote it!

— Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute, Peter LaBarbera, doing his "undercover research" at a gay street fest

Read Peter's latest "exposé" of the "homosexual underground" — he can't stay away from the S&M and leather. We report, you decide:

…As I strode down Halsted street at Market Days, I came upon a man who was "MC" for the Cell Block stand. "Cell Block" is a Chicago "leather bar" catering to sadomasochists. The man had the words "Sex Pig" tattooed" on his back, signaling his "sexual orientation" toward the most extreme homosexual acts, which are way too gross to describe here.

…At the table for the Howard Brown Health Center, I picked up a flier titled "A Men's Guide to Safer Leather Sex." The same group distributed a card for TYRA, the Transgender Youth Resource and Advocacy Group, "a support group for transgender and questioning youth." Gee, I wonder what kind of answers the pro-transsexual folks at TYRA and Howard Brown give to the "questioning" youth that enter their doors.

Wayne Besen has more!:

It is not surprising that The Illinois Family Institute's Peter LaBarbera has once more inserted himself into a gay leather extravaganza. For more than a decade, he has enthusiastically attended such events to either complain or conduct "research" for the right. In my book, Anything But Straight, Wade Richards, once an ex-gay (he's now ex-ex) who worked with LaBarbera, said he had a bizarre backroom with piles of gay porno mags and leather costumes so he could go undercover at these events.

"Peter was very intense," said Richards in Anything But Straight (Pg. 77). "The office freaked me out. I had never seen so much gay pornography in my whole life...It was crazy...[there were] thousands [of gay magazines] — all kinds...[He said they were] for research...I had no clue what fisting was until I met Peter LaBarbera...It was a crazy experience."

I'm just saying, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'll be on the lookout for Peter the next time I'm in Chicago. I invite all my friends there to do the same. I'm posting some pictures so you know who to look for — and who to photograph in any (un)compromising position.