This column was published in the Lewiston Sun Journal on Sunday, May 11, 2008.

The iron chains and sturdy hawsers our Yankee forebears used to steady their sailing vessels were massive and strong, strong enough to launch a six-masted schooner at Bath or to hold the Battleship Maine at anchor in Havana harbor. Yet even these chains seem small compared to the Great Chain once laid across the Hudson River to blockade an invading British navy. A marvel of Yankee industry and ingenuity, the Great Chain spanned six hundred yards, weighed forty-five tons, and was made from hundreds of links, each more than two feet in length.

There is a chain that is mightier yet, one spun from something as light and as hard to see as a spider's thread. This subtlest of threads is made from suggestion, deceit, and insinuation. One thread is spun out, laid onto another, and woven together until it becomes strong enough to pull down entire nations. 

The first link in the chain was forged by Wilhelm Reich, a psychoanalyst and radical activist. In 1929 Reich published a book entitled "The Sexual Revolution, or Sex in the Culture War." The ultimate goal of Reich's proposed sexual revolution, oddly enough, had nothing to do with sexual morality. Its goal was to bring about a real revolution by undermining the institution of the family.    

The sixties saw the birth of the radical wing of the Sexual Revolution, the gay rights movement - a movement which started with the Stonewall Riots in 1967. It took three decades of activism and unrelenting propaganda for society to accept homosexuality as normal. Now that that goal has been achieved, even worse forms of deviant behavior are being promoted. This gradual acceptance of deviant behavior --  which the liberal establishment would have you believe is progress --  was achieved in an incremental fashion.   

The Christian Civic League is often criticized for fighting the gay rights movement to the exclusion of all other issues. This of course, is not true. The League is active in a number of other areas, and that includes anti-gambling efforts, and most recently flood relief for the people of northern Maine. 

The League is neither anti-gay nor bigoted. Gay rights activists have employed the strategy of name-calling from the very beginning. It is important for the public to realize that anyone who opposes homosexuality as abnormal is immediately pilloried as "narrow" or "bigoted." As I write these words, the English parliament is debating a bill which would impose a seven-year sentence on anyone who says homosexuality is not normal.

The League is not obsessed with the gay rights issue. Our response is proportioned to the threat posed by those who would undermine the institution of the family. Since the gay rights movement advances incrementally, the best strategy to oppose their efforts is a broadly-worded referendum. We are firm in our conviction that no law can exist which is not based on a moral right. We are convinced that the gay rights movement is based on the flawed premise that homosexual acts and societal relationships based on homosexuality are ethical and normal. We therefore oppose any special rights in the fields of employment, housing, same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and the like. 

Two years ago, the League fought the introduction of an obscenity-laden book "Girl Interrupted" into the curriculum of Orono High School. Even the most hard-bitten among us was deeply shaken by the language in the book. One character in the novel, a teen-age girl, was praised for her ingenious attempt at suicide by setting herself on fire.   

Not soon after, the League opposed a curriculum in Westbrook which introduced the subject of birth control for middle school students. The curriculum also sought to normalize homosexuality in the mind of kindergartners. The worst aspects of the curriculum came to light only after the League joined with a concerned Westbrook parent to request information about the curriculum under a Freedom of Information Access request.

Since then, matters have deteriorated. Recently, the League opposed the school-sponsored use of birth control at King Middle School in Portland. The fair-minded among us have to conclude that, yes, enemies of the family really do exist. We cannot predict what new challenges await us, but we can vow to keep on fighting those who would pull down the institution of the family.

Michael S. Heath is the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine.  He is gathering signatures to reject special rights.  Learn more at http://www.leaguerecord.com