Good conservative news

By God's grace, CitizenLink® and our associated groups in the states have helped to advance truth and righteousness in the culture, with results that are tremendously encouraging. Let me share with you a few of those results:

Pre-born children will have a better chance at life thanks to important ultrasound legislation passed in several states. As a result, abortion-minded women will have a chance to see their babies onscreen, and we know how effective that is in saving lives.

Critical religious liberty protections were passed.

Deceptive gambling schemes have been defeated in numerous states—sparing tens of thousands of individuals and families the devastating consequences of gambling addiction.

And there's more:
Public-school textbooks around the nation will have more truth about American history—and less political correctness—thanks to a huge win in one key state.

Parental rights have been strengthened with a landmark victory in another state. The central role of parents is protected when it comes to education, sexual materials, medical records and much more.

Decency and the innocence of children have been safeguarded by the successful defeat of a bill that would have allowed adult bookstores to flourish.

And the homosexual lobby has been dealt severe setbacks by the defeat of bills in two states. One of those would have—in the name of transgender rights—allowed men to use women's bathrooms.

Those victories came from all over the country1 in states like Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

But without friends like you on our team—providing the support that you do—none of this would have happened. So I mean it when I say thank you for the impact that you have had around the country.

EQUIPPING OUR ALLIES FOR EFFECTIVE ACTION

There's another way that you help to win state battles like these when you invest in CitizenLink. That is by helping us to form and equip state-level organizations that then lead the efforts at the local level.

Nearly every one of the victories I've recounted were led at the local level by groups that CitizenLink helped organize. When CitizenLink (then Focus on the Family Action) was started in 2004, few of the Focus-associated state organizations had family advocacy arms (such as CitizenLink is for Focus on the Family®). Since then, we've helped most of our more than three dozen state groups establish such family advocacy arms, and we regularly help them be more effective through training, networking and strategic advice. This summer, in fact, CitizenLink team members trained more than 30 of these groups on key aspects of organizational effectiveness.
This behind-the-scenes work is not something I talk a lot about, but it's another way that your prayers and support are building the infrastructure of the pro-family movement around the country.

WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN: PREPARING FOR VICTORY THIS FALL

Still, despite these recent wins, we have our work cut out for us in the states. That's because the other side—particularly those devoted to redefining marriage—have poured huge resources into state races in the last two elections.

Frankly, they've done this because they've learned a new axiom of modern politics: When the people vote, marriage wins. Thus, homosexual mega-donors like Tim Gill have poured millions into state legislative races. Their goal? To defeat pro-marriage legislators and give control to politicians who will block votes on marriage amendments in their legislatures. As a result, in many states that don't allow amendments to be put on the ballot by petition, the people never have a chance to vote.

That's what happened in Indiana, where Democrats took over the state House in 2006, and Speaker Pat Bauer has blocked votes on marriage ever since; similar story in Pennsylvania.
It's what happened in Iowa as well. As a result, the state Supreme Court was free to impose same-sex unions on the Hawkeye State. And in New Hampshire, the strategy actually resulted in narrow legislative passage of same-sex marriage last year.
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