• Legal scholars and same-sex marriage advocates have stated that elevating sexual orientation to a protected status in nondiscrimination laws is an important step on the incremental path to same sex marriage, overturning Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMA) and marriage amendments. [The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2317, ENDA and the Path to Same-Sex Marriage; Thomas M. Messner; September 18, 2009]
• Discrimination laws have always been based upon the immutable (unchangeable) characteristics of the groups seeking protection. These are race, gender, national origin, and physical/mental handicaps. Homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals cannot be easily identified. These are behaviors that can (and do) change and fluctuate.
• Our laws and our Constitution protect all Americans now; they do not specifically address these behaviors or the perception of these behaviors because they are behaviors not immutable characteristics that cause economic deprivation and powerlessness.
• The community that practices these behaviors wants their behavior legitimatized; adding these behaviors to discrimination law does that. These laws would give special protection to those who practice these behaviors. Homosexuality isn't what someone is, it is what they do.
• Claims that say that there is a gay gene or that the behavior cannot be helped or changed are not substantiated by science. The few studies that do exist have not been replicated - a key to scientific hypothesis. The American Psychological Association has revised their stand in a recently-published brochure stating there is no gay gene; there is no simple biological pathway to homosexuality. Their statement, There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles . . . [WorldNetDaily; American Psychological Association Revises Statement on Homosexuality.5-13-09]
• The claims of hate crimes against this community have been exaggerated to pass these laws giving special protection to those who practice homosexuality. In 2007 the FBI reported that a total of 1265 total incidents occurred in the entire U.S. and that number mostly involves the offenses of assault or intimidation. In fact, a large percentage of the incidents reported involve crimes perpetrated against homosexuals by homosexuals. These crimes are already punishable under law.
• The goal in passing these laws is to silence any objection to a lifestyle that carries extreme health risks to those practicing it and to the community at large. In addition, challenging long-held traditions based on a behavior will undermine the stability of our society. In marriage litigation throughout the country, same-sex marriage advocates have cited sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws in arguing that tradition marriage laws are unconstitutional. IBID
• When sexual orientation is added to law, the conclusion must be that all sexual behavior is equally valid. There are no good or bad choices, just inclinations. When an impediment is introduced to the moral order by the implication that all sexual behavior is equally valid, protections for the institutions of marriage and family are threatened.
• Religious exemptions and exemptions for fraternal orders such as the Boy Scouts are ultimately worthless. Regardless of language in the ordinances and laws, the Boy Scouts of America, who have the right to set their own membership standards, have been under continual attack for resisting demands for inclusion. In addition, a District of Columbia human rights commission ordered Georgetown University, a Catholic college, to violate church doctrine and sponsor a pro-homosexual group on campus. A court agreed, saying the District's sexual orientation law overrode the schools religious freedom.
• In Portland, Maine, city officials recently canceled a grant for a Salvation Army meals-on-wheels program for senior citizens because the Salvation Army won't provide marital benefits to homosexual employees, thus running afoul of the city's sexual orientation law. When the ordinance was introduced, it was portrayed as a way to ensure that people won't be fired for being gay, but it is now being used to promote gay marriage, bash the Boy Scouts and discriminate against Christian groups that hold to Biblical teaching.
• Sexual orientation does not necessarily just mean homosexuality; it is an umbrella term for numerous sexual behaviors, including paraphilias, which are sexual disorders. According to the therapeutic manual of the American Psychiatric Association, there are at least 20 distinctive sexual variations of sexual orientation, and possibly more. It could include:
• A man dressing as a woman; coming to work in women's clothing. (in spite of assurances in the bill that would not happen)
• A woman coming to work in man's clothing
• A person of indeterminate sex who insists on using either the men's room or the women's rest room
• A person of either sex who indulges a taste for extreme sexual promiscuity and pornography during work hours despite being charged with representing the company's tone and character
• A man who frequents prostitutes while on business trips and claims it is none of the company's business
• Most major homosexual activist organizations have added transgender discrimination to their list of causes
• Bi-sexuality
• Transgenderism: an umbrella term including transvestitism, drag queen/kings, and transsexualism
• Pedophilia
• Trans-sexuality
• Voyeurism
• Exhibitionism
• Fetishes including fantasies
• Public exposure of genitals
• Gender identity disorder which is a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, which is the desire to be, or the insistence that one is, of the other sex, along with persistent discomfort about one's assigned sex or a sense of the inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.
• Other paraphilias that are too offensive to list

Ending Modern-Day Slavery in Kansas
SB 353
January 27, 2010

Senator Owens and Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Concerned Women for America of Kansas is testifying in support of enhancing penalties for human trafficking.

Every year by estimates of the United States State Department, between 14,000 and 17,000 children and women are brought into the United States for the purpose of labor/sex trafficking and/or both. Some estimates run as high as 50,000. In addition, U.S. children are lured into a life of slavery by unscrupulous men and women with promises of modeling jobs, careers in acting, etc. These victims are preyed upon by unscrupulous and sophisticated networks of criminals who are making over $10 billion a year from enslaving them. The United Nations estimates that trafficking in persons is one of the top three sources of revenue for organized crime, behind drugs and weapons. The human beings lured into being trafficked end up in prostitution, sweatshops, farms, domestic work or other forms of involuntary servitude. Most are mistreated; threatened and degraded. Over half of the victims end up trafficked for sexual exploitation. The United Nations Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, defines it as: The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms, of coercion, of abduction, of frauds, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation.

CWA has been involved in working to combat sex trafficking for over a decade. Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D. Senior Fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute has served on two national task forces and worked to pass national legislation concerning human trafficking. The 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act is a step toward increasing world-wide efforts to stem the tide of human slavery. She has directed a federal grant to provide training to Mexican leaders to combat trafficking into the United States through its southern borders.

Human trafficking is a human rights violation and every major city in America is affected. The Kansas City area, because of the confluence of several interstates is a prime area for sex trafficking, particularly involving prostitution at local truck stops. Very recently a group of women were rescued from an operation that involved a massage parlor in the Overland Park area. Often women from outside the U.S. are lured, coerced or sold into prostitution and forced labor. Their passports are confiscated by those who enslave them; the language difficulties and their innate distrust of law enforcement make it difficult for them to escape. In addition they are often beaten, threatened and given drugs to ensure their compliance.

This bill provides for increased awareness of the evil phenomenon of modern-day slavery and through this legislation makes it possible to bring an end to this crime that is causing so much tragedy for so many vulnerable children and women.

We urge you to enhance protection for women and children in Kansas. We further urge you to add recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains, or so attempts, another person for the purposes of commercial sex acts or sexually-explicit performance, to labor or services. We feel "labor or services" equates prostitution and commercial sex transactions with work.

Concerned Women for America of Kansas
P. O. Box 11233
Shawnee Mission, KS 66207
Phone/Fax: 913-491-1380
Email: director@kansas.cwfa.org
Web site: kansas.cwfa.org