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OTTAWA, Ontario, March 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Canadian women’s organization which speaks on behalf of women who support traditional family values has come under heavy attack by homosexual activist groups for being invited by the government as a partner organization to nominate worthy candidates to be awarded the Diamond Jubilee Medal. The award commemorates the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the Throne as Queen of Canada.

To celebrate the anniversary, the Governor General of Canada will be awarding medals to 60,000 deserving Canadians for their significant contributions and achievements. REAL Women of Canada has been asked to recommend 33 deserving people for medals in the “social and volunteer” category.

When homosexual activist groups were not asked to participate in the process of nominating recipients of the medals, they used the occasion to attack REAL women and to push their agenda.

Steve Collins from Metro Ottawa called the Woman’s group “kooky” for what he said was their “rail against abortion, gay marriage and the other perceived threats to the Canadian family.”

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“I usually find them a reliable source of a chuckle or an eye-roll,” he wrote.

Matt Salton, programming director of Reelout, a gay film festival in Kingston, started an online petition to have the Woman’s group struck off the government list as a partner organization for medal selection.

“The bile that they spew on their website is so offensive, it’s not a matter of opinion. It’s just as far as I’m concerned hate, and they should have no part in (the Jubilee medals) whatsoever,” he said.

Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, a pro-homosexual group known for making vitriolic attacks on Christian values, told the gay news service Xtra that the government should have selected other women’s groups who are “very progressive, aren’t homophobic and transphobic, and deserve to be at the table.”

Casey Oraa, vice-chair of Queer Ontario criticized REAL Woman for “such narrow definitions of who Canadians are and what women should do”.

Gwen Landolt, vice president of REAL Women Canada, told LifeSiteNews that she believes that the homosexual activist groups “just want to suppress the opinions and voice of anyone in Canada on any subject if that person does not support them and their own agenda.”

“In other words, the only people who are allowed to speak publicly in their view are those who support their agenda. And that’s highly intolerant. We are in a democracy last I knew and everybody should have a voice, but they are just incredibly intolerant of anybody who doesn’t support their agenda.”

On their website, REAL Women of Canada state their support for permanent marriage based on traditional values, which they say is “possible, desirable and urgently needed in Canada today.” They also state their belief that the family is society’s most important unit and that every family member, born or unborn, is of equal value. And finally, they state their conviction that laws should continue to protect traditional marriage and families. REAL is an acronym for Realistic, Equal, and Active for Life.

“The homosexual community just gets incensed if anybody who doesn’t support their agenda is given some recognition or some role to play in society,” said Landolt. “They just want to suppress the views of others who don’t support them.”

Landolt believes that it was reasonable for the government to ask them to help select worthy medal recipients.

“We have a broad number of issues we deal with. We have chapters in every province and in a lot of the major cities in Canada and we are in contact with people on a number of issues. A lot of our members are from small towns in Canada and I think it’s just reasonable that the government would want us as a source for selecting people who often do something that is very beneficial to their community but who never get recognized.”

“I think it was just reasonable for them to approach us and put us on the list as one of their partners because they want to recognize people who are often unheralded by the mainstream media.”

Diane Watts of Real Women told Metro Ottawa that she and her organization are making a firm democratic stand against the homosexual verbal onslaught.

“I know people are objecting to our being chosen, and our position is that we’re Canadian citizens and we have a right to express our pro-family views and we’re honoured to be chosen by the Governor General,” she said.