Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest sanctuary state scam:

Illegal aliens who crash our borders can find sanctuary in California. Women who want to abort their child, but live in states with restrictive abortion laws, can come to California to have a doctor kill their baby. Now young boys and girls who are sexually confused, and who live in states where puberty blockers and chemical castration are considered child abuse, can go to California where they will be “treated.”

The contempt that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has for America’s sovereignty is on a par with his contempt for state’s rights and parental rights. All this from a man who helped kill his own mother in 2002, at a time when assisted suicide was a felony in California!

On September 29, Newsom signed a bill, sponsored by a homosexual activist and state senator, Scott Wiener, that legally shields parents and young people who come to California for sex-reassignment surgery from being penalized in their home state. The goal is to undercut the right of states to ban this form of child abuse.

This policy comes on the heels of Newsom’s billboard campaign targeting states that have restrictive abortion laws. Thanks to Newsom, California is not only a sanctuary state for women seeking easy access to an abortionist, his state’s taxpayers are paying for billboards in seven states advertising how welcoming California is to mothers seeking to end their unborn child’s life. In Mississippi and Oklahoma, the billboards even quote the New Testament in support of the killings.

Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, declared California a sanctuary state for illegal aliens in 2017. Newsom went beyond Brown in suing the Trump administration for building a wall to keep the illegals out. Last week he signed a law granting a state ID to illegal aliens.

On August 30, California lawmakers heard the testimony of Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old girl who described what happened to her when she was 15. At the time she was considering transition surgery.

“My parents were told that the options were transition or suicide. They complied because they were not offered any other treatment solution for my distress. My distraught parents wanted me alive, so they listened to my doctors. I was placed on puberty blockers and testosterone after expressing my gender dysphoria to my therapists, and I was approved for a double mastectomy all by the age of 15.”

She then got pointed. “Who here really believes that as a 15-year-old, I should have had my healthy breasts removed or that should have been an option? SB 107 will open the floodgates for confused children like me to get the gender interventions that many so regret. I am the canary in the coal mine.”

No professionals were there to counteract the advice she and her parents were given.

“So I easily fell prey to the narrative that if I felt different and did not want to be a highly sexualized girl, I must be a boy. I obsessed over becoming a boy. I believed that all my insecurities and anxiety would magically disappear once I transitioned. The mental health professionals did not try to dissuade me of this delusional belief. I was fast-tracked into medical transition after I was diagnosed with dysphoria in California.”

The day after this young woman told her story, the state senate voted 30-9 to make California a sanctuary state for transgender youth and their families. Every Democrat voted for it and every Republican voted against it. And now Gov. Newsom has made it official.

Contact Newsom’s executive secretary, Jim DeBoo: Jim.Deboo@gov.ca.gov

The Bridge Eco Village, located inside a former Catholic school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is a development company that services disadvantaged people. Together with Rotten Concepts, a design company that specializes in haunted fare, the two entities are currently holding an event that attracted the attention of the Catholic League. Here is Bill Donohue’s response.

Feel free to contact them.

September 29, 2022

Gary Gilliam
The Bridge Eco Village
thebridgehbg@gmail.com

Dennis Miller
Rotten Concepts
rchauntdesigns@gmail.com

Dear Sirs:

The idea of using a former Catholic school as the site for a Halloween “haunted house”—that is what is going on at the former Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg—seems bizarre, to say the least. But it is more than bizarre for “The Unholy Schoolhouse” to feature “demonic nuns and damned teachers,” instructing visitors that they will be “risking not only your life, but your faith and your very souls.” And according to Dennis Miller, “It’s going to be creepy nuns, creepy priests.”

Why are you are demonizing nuns and priests? The mission statement of Empower the Bridge Foundation says that it serves people “suffering from systemic oppression.” Why, then, the need to trash Catholics?

To relieve the objections that many Catholics have, all you have to do is excise the more offensive fare. Please do so.

Sincerely,

William Donohue Ph.D.
President

Catholic League president Bill Donohue sent the following letter to the Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy today:

September 28, 2022

Lieutenant General Richard Clark
Superintendent
2304 Cadet Drive, Ste. 3300
USAF Academy, CO 80840-5001

Dear Lt. Gen. Clark:

In my role as president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I regularly address contemporary cultural issues that are of interest to the Catholic League’s constituency. I am writing to you because there is something going on at the Air Force Academy that merits a response.

To be specific, the Brooke Owens Fellowship is problematic on several levels. The problem is not that it discriminates against men—there are legitimate reasons to have programs that are exclusive to men, or to women—the issue is who qualifies for the program. The application form says it is targeted at “undergraduate women and gender minorities interested in aerospace.”

Gender minorities? Who are these people? The form says the following persons may apply: “cisgender woman, transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority.”

Why is the Air Force Academy peddling this fiction? There is no need to call women “cisgender women.” Nature, and nature’s God, have made it crystal clear that there are only two sexes: man and woman. Transgender women are men who for some psychological reason consider themselves to be a woman. They do not menstruate and they cannot get pregnant. If you have evidence that disputes this, please forward it to me.

I am serious in wanting to read the scientific evidence that proves I am wrong. I can assure you I will provide you with the scientific evidence that proves I am right.

The fiction doesn’t end there. There is no such person—in the history of the world—who is literally non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, or genderqueer. They are concepts made up by academics. They may exist on the blackboard, but in the real world they do not exist.

As a sociologist, I am well aware of the postmodern roots of transgenderism. It is a pernicious ideology that rejects the existence of truth. It is not based on scholarship, empirical evidence or data of any kind. Indeed, it defies reason. To be frank, it is a hoax.

I think you know that what I have said is true. The shame of it is that you have succumbed to pressure stemming from activists who have no interest in the noble mission of the Air Force Academy. As someone who was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force, I find your position irresponsible and indefensible.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Frank Kendall, Secretary of the Air Force
Gen. Charles O. Brown, Jr., Air Force Chief of Staff

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on California Gov. Gavin Newsom:

Any man who helps to kill his mother is capable of invoking the Bible to justify killing children. That man is California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On September 15, he tweeted, “To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your health.”

This was a master spin job. States that pass laws protecting the right of an unborn baby to enjoy the freedoms guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence, which includes the unalienable right to life, are labeled “anti-freedom.” Moreover, pregnant women who agree to abort their baby are, according to Newsom, making decisions about their own health, not decisions about the health of their baby.

Newsom didn’t settle for a tweet. On social media he showed pictures of billboards going up in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and South Dakota. “Texas doesn’t own your body” is an example. A total of 18 pro-abortion billboards are being erected.

As vile as these billboards are, they are nothing compared to the ones slated for Mississippi and Oklahoma. Those billboards include a passage from Scripture: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.” Mark 12:31

This is not in bad taste—it is demonic. To advertise in other states for women to come to California to have their children killed—in the name of God—is demonic.

This is not the first time Newsom has engaged in behavior that can properly be called evil.

In May, 2002, his mother decided to end her life via assisted suicide. Newsom recalled, “She left me a message, because I was too busy. ‘Hope you’re well. Next Wednesday will be the last day for me. Hope you can make it.’”

According to his sister, Hilary, who has a cassette of what was said, he was consumed with his own well-being, not his mother’s. After he crossed his arms and jammed his hands into his armpits, he said, “I have P.T.S.D., and this is bringing it all back.” It was all about himself.

Newsom explained his role in his mother’s death with aplomb. “The night before we gave her the drugs, I cooked her dinner, hard-boiled eggs, and she told me, ‘Get out of politics.’ She was worried about the stress on me.”

This account has been ignored by the media. If anyone doubts the veracity of this macabre story, click here (see the bottom of p. 8). The New Yorker is hardly a right-wing source.

Ordinarily, it’s a nice gesture when a son cooks dinner for his ailing mother. But what kind of man cooks dinner for his mother before putting her down? The same kind of man who invokes the Bible to entice women from out of state to come to California to get rid of their unborn babies.

If these acts aren’t demonic, the word has no meaning.

Contact the executive secretary to Gov. Newsom, Jim DeBoo: Jim.DeBoo@gov.ca.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a remark made today on TV that libels Catholics:

In the September 26 edition of the Fox News show, “Outnumbered,” guest Sharon Osbourne said, “most of the Nazis were Catholic.”

She is wrong. Hitler drew most of his support from Protestants. In fact,  Catholics provided the greatest resistance to him. Sociologist Richard F. Hamilton, author of Who Voted for Hitler, settled this matter decades ago.

Hitler’s mother was Catholic but his father thought religion was a scam. In his early years, Hitler turned strongly against Christianity, which he later sought to crush; he especially hated the Catholic Church. Moreover, as sociologists Samuel and Pearl Oliner found, no group risked their lives in greater number to save Jews than Catholics (see The Altruistic Personality).

It does not help when uninformed people poison the airwaves with libelous untruths about Catholics.

The SWAT team arrest of a pro-life activist from Pennsylvania, coupled with the FBI’s passive response to violence committed by abortion-rights activists, explains Bill Donohue’s request for an investigation.

September 26, 2022

Hon. Chuck Grassley
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Grassley:

In your role as the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I am asking you to convene an investigation, and/or a hearing, on the FBI’s behavior regarding pro-life and abortion-rights activists. There seems to be much interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by pro-life activists, yet  little interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by abortion-rights activists. Bias of this kind is politically motivated and must stop.

To be specific, on September 23, Mark Houck, a pro-life activist from Kintnersville, Pennsylvania was arrested by some two dozen SWAT team agents—they came to his house with guns drawn—on grounds that he assaulted an abortion-rights patient escort at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia on October 13, 2021. He is being charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).

Houck says he shoved a man who had been harassing his 12-year-old son in front of the clinic during one of his sidewalk counseling sessions. The charges were reportedly dismissed by the District Court in Philadelphia.

I am not in a position to judge the veracity of the account offered by the FBI or Houck. But it surely seems that the FBI overreacted in its handling of this matter. Houck had seven children at home as the SWAT team pounded on his door, showing up fully armored, yelling at him to open it.

This kind of overreaction for a minor infraction of the law is deeply troubling, and it becomes even more troubling when paired with the underreaction by the Department of Justice when the pro-life side is targeted.

On June 17, 2022, I wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to “immediately deploy the full resources of the Department of Justice to apprehend and prosecute domestic terrorists who have recently attacked Catholic individuals, vandalized Catholic churches and torched Catholic-operated crisis pregnancy centers.”

I provided Attorney General Garland with specifics. “We have witnessed a rash of vandalism against Catholic churches, firebombings of crisis pregnancy centers (many of which are run by Catholics), Masses being interrupted, illegal protests outside the homes of Catholic Supreme Court Justices, and an attempted murder of one of the Catholic Justices.” I explicitly cited the work of Jane’s Revenge.

On June 29, we published a list of 16 instances of violence committed by abortion-rights protesters. We now have a list of dozens of Catholic entities, mostly churches, that have been vandalized or otherwise desecrated. (See the attachments.)

Not only did I not receive a response from the attorney general, there have been no news stories on SWAT teams crashing the homes of abortion-rights terrorists. Yet there have been many instances of violence that make “shoving” someone look like child’s play.

I implore you to get to the bottom of this duplicity.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees

Catholic League president Bill Donohue questions why STD rates are exploding again:

David Harvey is executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. He recently called the spike in Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) “out of control.” Syphilis cases are now at their highest rate since 1991 and the total cases hit its highest since 1948. HIV is up 16 percent from last year.

As usual, those most responsible are not white people, Asians, heterosexuals or women: blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and homosexuals have the highest rates. Drug use and alcohol use are contributing to risky behavior.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “In the U.S., gay men are more likely to smoke than are heterosexual men and gay men are more likely to deal with alcoholism than is the general population.” Moreover, the latest news comes on the heels of monkeypox, a disease that is overwhelmingly driven by gay sexual behavior.

In other words, self-destructive behavior is taking a toll on those who refuse to tap the brakes that God gave them. Even more bizarre, it was found that condom use is declining.

So what does Harvey’s group and other public health organizations suggest we do about this crisis? Spend more federal dollars—at least $500 million—for STD clinics. Also, Dr. Leandro Mena, director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, is calling for policies that reduce stigma.

Neither of these recommendations are based on scientific evidence. Indeed, they are postponing the day of reckoning and are therefore contributing to the problem they claim to check.

Take condoms. Is there anyone alive in the Western world who hasn’t heard about the wonders of condoms? Why is it when no one learned about condoms in school, and there was no massive educational campaign—including the free distribution of condoms in cities and on college campuses—that STDs were hardly a problem? Why is it that the more we spend to curtail this problem, the worse it gets?

In the fiscal year that ended in 2008, the New York City Health Department under Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave away 39,070,000 male condoms to community groups. That figure was more than double the rate from the previous fiscal year. The result: syphilis cases increased by 20 percent. What lesson did they draw from this? They said they would hand out 51.6 million condoms the next year.

Therefore, the idea of spending more federal dollars on entities that worship at the altar of condomania is positively absurd. These are nothing more than money-grabbing schemes designed to keep the incompetents in business.

WebMD has some commonsensical observations about anal sex that  homosexuals need to respect.

“The lining of the anus is thinner than the vagina, it lacks natural lubrication. That makes it much more vulnerable to tearing. Tears can allow viruses and bacteria to enter the bloodstream. This can include sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV. Studies have suggested that anal exposure to HIV poses 30 times more risk for the receptive partner than vaginal exposure.”

Translated this means that anal sex is abnormal, though few are willing to tell the truth. Consider the first sentence again. “The lining of the anus is thinner than the vagina, it lacks natural lubrication.” Why does it lack natural lubrication? Because the anus was not designed for penetration. Why don’t they teach that in the schools?

Every time we have another increase in STDs we hear about the need to lessen stigma. It never seems to occur to those who voice this position that the less stigma we have, the worse matters get.

Lest some think that stigma is cruel, think again. Stigma is a form of social punishment, but it carries no normative value. It only acquires moral meaning when we know the object of stigmatization.

The same people who are horrified about stigmatizing those who engage in reckless sex—it should not matter whether they are straight or gay—have no problem stigmatizing others. Trump supporters, conservatives on college campuses, conservatives who voice their politics in public, conservative blacks and Hispanics, conservatives on social media, people of faith—these people are routinely stigmatized by the “tolerant” ones.

Many of the elites in the healthcare industry have failed us. They overreacted with draconian measures during the Covid pandemic, now they are underreacting to the STD crisis. In both cases, they have allowed politics to impair their objectivity.

The following letter by Catholic League president Bill Donohue to the president of Vanderbilt explains why the university dodged a bullet.

September 22, 2022

Dr. Daniel Diermeier
Chancellor
Vanderbilt University
211 Kirkland Hall
Nashville, TN 37240

Dear Chancellor Diermeier:

In my role as president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, it is my responsibility to combat anti-Catholicism wherever it exists.

An incident allegedly occurred on your campus that was brought to my attention; I was about to address it when I learned that it had just been resolved. No matter, what allegedly was said, by someone who is a professor of pediatrics and law, is so disturbing that it merits a response.

Let me begin by commending officials at Vanderbilt University for acting so quickly to reply to internet stories regarding what appeared to be a very serious threat to the conscience rights of those who work at the Pediatric Transgender Clinic. To be specific, I am referring to comments attributed to Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton regarding staff members who invoke conscientious objections to performing sex-reassignment operations.

“If you are going to assert conscientious objection,” she is said to have commented to staff members, “you have to realize that that is problematic.” She is also quoted as saying, “I just want you to take home that saying that you’re not going to do something because of your conscientious—because of your religious beliefs, is not without consequences, and should not be without consequences (my italics).” She then apparently told them that “if you don’t want to do this kind of work, don’t work at Vanderbilt.”

The statement released by Vanderbilt on September 21 says, “Our policies allow employees to decline to participate in care they find morally objectionable, and do not permit discrimination against employees who choose to do so. This includes employees whose personal or religious beliefs do not support gender-affirming care for transgender persons.”

This is an excellent statement. My only concern is why Dr. Clayton would think that what she allegedly said could ever be seen as legal, never mind ethical. One would think that someone in her role as a health law expert would know better. I trust she has been told that conscience rights are integral to religious liberty and must be protected.

Thanks again for the professional response to this incident.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: Steven A. Webber, Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Chris Guthrie, Dean, Vanderbilt Law School
Ellen Wright Clayton
Gov. Bill Lee

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on NY Gov. Hochul:

The Catholic League’s offices are located directly across the street from Penn Station. No area in New York City has deteriorated more than this—it is the filthiest and most dangerous spot in Manhattan.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio did more to create this mess than anyone; the current mayor, Eric Adams, has not done nearly enough to rectify it. The person most to blame today is unquestionably Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Unlike most parts of New York, there is no neighborhood in this area. It is home to the train station, Madison Square Garden, Macy’s, stores, offices, eateries and bars. This is one reason why de Blasio dumped scores of homeless people here during the pandemic; he knew there would be no neighborhood opposition.

The riots that took place in New York in 2020, with de Blasio’s blessing, literally destroyed this part of the city. During one riot, the huge Footlocker store on the corner of 34th street and 7th avenue was broken into by looters who cleaned it out; they put their stash into a line of BMW’s waiting outside (camera footage proves it). The store is still empty.

Across the street from Footlocker there was an eatery, A&H, that workers in the area stopped for breakfast and lunch. It closed and remains an empty story. Dali, another eatery up the block, next to Macy’s, closed and is still unoccupied. Lenny’s, right outside Penn, trimmed its hours significantly.

Across the street and up the block from Macy’s there was a big eatery, Bread and Butter; it went under over the summer. A vitamin store also closed. Hale and Hearty left and no store has taken its place. Burger King recently shut down, reportedly because the homeless took it over. Down the block from us on 34th street, we lost a 7-11 and a Wendy’s. And due to construction inside Penn Station, almost every food station and bar has closed.

Having no amenities is one thing—being terrified to go to work is another.

Escort service has been available for women who work in the area and are afraid to walk to and from Penn Station. While things have improved lately, the number of deranged men in this area—many of whom are dangerous—would blow the mind of tourists. This explains why so many who live in New Jersey and Long Island elected to stay away for the past few years; they are only now returning.

All around Penn Station, one set of barriers after another have been erected, trying to discourage drug addicts and the mentally ill from hanging out. They are shaped in a manner to stop them from sitting down—many are pointed—so out of control have things become. Flower beds have been placed on rectangular cement structures to dissuade the underclass from camping out.

In front of my building, a man employed by the owners of the 45-story edifice is constantly hosing down the sidewalk in the morning, stopping the derelicts from sleeping or passing out there; otherwise few would feel safe walking over them to return to the office.

We have seen, or read reports of, men and women defecating and urinating in the street, changing clothes in ATM storefronts, running into traffic, shooting up, selling drugs, cursing out commuters, robbing them, assaulting them, and yes, even killing them. And nothing is done about it.

So where are the cops? They have been told to stand down. When they do make an arrest, because of bail reform and other pro-criminal legislation, offenders are released so quickly that the police have no incentive to risk their lives to do their job.

The Manhattan D.A., Alvin Bragg, is responsible for the catch-and-release policies that Hochul endorses. Mayor Adams has no authority to unseat him, but Hochul does: she can fire Bragg today. But she won’t.  Worse, she has the gall to insist that bail reform plays no role in the crime surge.

“The reforms were successful: Fewer New Yorkers are kept behind bars just because they can’t pay, and we’ve saved taxpayer dollars in the process.” That is Hochul’s position.

This is the way she thinks. She thinks the proper way to measure criminal reform laws is by counting the number of criminals who have not been sent to jail. She should instead do a head count of all those who have been robbed, assaulted, thrown onto train tracks, and murdered. Saving lives should matter more than the bucks saved.

Hochul’s fixation on money explains why her answer to the Penn Station area fiasco is to allow real estate developers to build one tower after another, thus destroying the livelihood of the few small businessmen who are left. Vornado Realty Trust is the big winner. It is owned by billionaire Steve Ross; he and his family have contributed hundreds of thousands to Hochul’s reelection campaign.

Hochul is not alone in allowing this deterioration, but she is one of the big reasons why the Penn Station area is such a disaster.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the radical pro-abortion agenda:

The New York Times reported on September 17 that those who want limits on abortion are “out of step” with public opinion. The Times is wrong. Consider the data from four different polling companies.

In June 2018, a Gallup poll found that only 13 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal in the last three months. In May 2022, a Pew Research Center survey revealed that only 19 percent said abortion should be legal in all cases. In June 2022, a Rasmussen poll reported that only 5 percent believe abortion should be legal in all cases. In July 2022, a Harvard poll found that 72 percent opposed abortion generally after 15 weeks.

It is those who want no limits on abortion who are wildly “out of step” with public opinion.

What about the horror stories peddled by the media about abortion performed to save the life of the mother, or in cases of incest or rape? They make up an estimated 1-2 percent of all abortions, and almost all   restrictive laws allow for such abortions.

If the media were fair, they would report on the most extreme defense of abortion being made by those on that side. For example, babies are being born alive as a result of a botched abortion and there is no national legislation banning it. Every time pro-life politicians seek to pass the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” they are stymied.

Before he was hounded from office for being an alleged predator, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo bragged how much he defended the rights of women by signing into law a provision that removed abortion from the criminal code. In practice, this meant that medical staff who did not act to treat a baby born alive as a result of a botched abortion could not be tried for this offense.

This is not abortion—it’s infanticide.

In 2019, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam famously commented on an abortion bill he was championing. “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensure between the physicians and the mother.” In other words, the baby would be denied his or her inalienable right to life.

For the most part, the media downplayed this story. At that time, they were much more interested in reporting on Northam’s blackface imitation of Michael Jackson, and other racist conduct he allegedly engaged in when he was a student in medical school. That was more important than his support for infanticide.

The media have also given short shrift to an incredibly extremist piece of congressional legislation, the “Women’s Health Protection Act.” As the bishops’ conference correctly notes, it “would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy through federal statute. Immediately upon passage, the WHPA would invalidate state laws banning abortion at any stage of pregnancy, including laws that prohibit abortion based on race, sex, disability, or other characteristics.”

So who is really “out of step”?