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CHICAGO, Illinois, September 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A convicted homosexual sex predator has employed threats and scare tactics to harass a pro-family website dedicated to revealing the truth about homosexuality.  

The homosexual predator’s uncanny success in shutting down pro-family websites provides further evidence of an anti-conservative censorship crisis in corporate America.

The entire website for Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org) was shut down for more than two weeks beginning August 24 after a convicted homosexual sex offender, Adam Flanders, threatened a lawsuit against FirstLight Fiber, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for AFTAH’s web host company. Flanders claimed his mugshot photo from a 2006 assault arrest against a minor boy was “copyrighted” material.

“Flanders, a homosexual activist, is a registered sex offender in both Maine and California, where he now lives,” explained Peter LaBarbera, founder of AFTAH and a former LifeSiteNews writer. “He pleaded guilty in 2008 to ‘Sexual Abuse of a Minor’ involving a boy aged 14 or 15. He also admitted to engaging in homosexual sex with his then-14-year-old ‘boyfriend’ when he (Flanders) was 18 – in a 2007 public letter exposing a Maine ‘gay youth’ club. Later, Flanders sought to retract the letter and demanded that websites take it down.”

LaBarbera said that Flanders has a long history of making “litigious and mendacious threats containing absurd, exaggerated and sometimes nonsensical claims against pro-family leaders and websites that have exposed his past criminal offenses and other actions.”

“AFTAH will not take it down because it is obviously in the public domain and not ‘owned’ by Flanders,” said LaBarbera, who notes that mugshots are routinely used in news stories and political ads.

Pro-family website weighs legal options

LaBarbera and Jared Heath, CEO of Altha Technology, AFTAH’s web host company, are weighing their legal options against Flanders and FirstLight Fiber, the ISP that capitulated to his spurious email demand.

Another ISP, HostGator, took down an AFTAH temporary site which was created to replace AFTAH’s original site after it had been forced to go dark. That site, “Americans For Truth Censored,” remains down.

“Flanders’ reckless actions and the ISPs that bowed to them have caused me and Jared Heath, the ex-Marine who runs AFTAH’s web host company, severe emotional and mental distress. They also have caused us significant financial harm and damage to our reputations,” said LaBarbera.“I know Flanders wants to erase his crimes from the web, especially his ‘Sexual Abuse of a Minor’ conviction, but we will never give in to his intimidation tactics.”

Anti-conservative censorship crisis in corporate America

FirstLight took down the entire AFTAH website on August 24, 2018, three days after receiving an “abuse” complaint demanding “removal of copyrighted content pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).” The AFTAH site has been up since September 10 using a separate IP address, but Flanders is continually working to take it down, and is again threatening legal action against LaBarbera and Heath.

“FirstLight’s reckless takedown of an entire pro-family website containing thousands of articles – based on a single email containing outlandish assertions by a homosexual activist trying to erase his criminal history – demonstrates the growing crisis of anti-conservative censorship in corporate America,” said LaBarbera.

Long history of harassment against pro-family organizations

In an AFTAH press release, LaBarbera provided a brief history of “Flanders’ previous outrageous and litigious stunts”:

  • Web Bully: In 2005, Flanders, who resided in Belfast, Maine, created a cruel online image (at right) distorting Christian singer Paulie Heath’s visage on her Amazon.com page. He did it because he despised the pro-family actions of her husband, Mike Heath, then director of the Christian Civic League of Maine. The grotesque web graphic caused severe distress to Paulie Heath and her family.
  • In 2007, Flanders distributed a public letter, as an open homosexual and LGBT advocate, exposing the sordid goings-on, including inappropriate sexual behavior between adults and children, at a Maine “gay youth” club. Later, he reversed course and sought to retract his published letter. When Brian Camenker of MassResistance, who had published the letter, bravely refused to take it down, Flanders went after his web host company, HostExcellence, which shut down Camenker’s site. Flanders then sought a bizarre “order of protection” against Camenker from a Belfast, Maine judge – even though Camenker had never even contacted Flanders. Ultimately, the judge’s order was thrown out in court.
  • In 2012, Flanders sued Camenker for defamation for $1 million, throwing a bunch of charges at the founder of MassResistance. In his bizarre complaint, Flanders questioned his own authorship of his 2007 open letter exposing illegalities at a “gay youth” club. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit with the help of the Thomas More Society.
  • In 2012, another threatening email by Flanders led Vimeo to drop more than 200 streaming videos of “Roadkill Radio News,” a conservative site. Flanders cited his bizarre “protection” order against Camenker and claimed it was violated by a Roadkill interview with Camenker in which the Massachusetts pro-family hero discussed Flanders’ litigious assault against him and MassResistance. Roadkill hired pro-family attorney Chuck Limandri, who accused Vimeo of a breach of contract, and Vimeo restored the Roadkill videos.
  • Flanders also made various threats against LifeSiteNews during the summer of 2012. He demanded the removal of the July 12 LifeSiteNews report regarding his lawsuit against Mass Resistance, threatened to pursue litigation against LifeSiteNews, and noted that he had contacted LifeSiteNews’ web hosting company, aiming to have LifeSiteNews removed from their servers. After consulting with prominent litigation legal counsel, LifeSiteNews rejected Flander’s charges.

This summer, using the same deceptive threat tactics, Flanders contacted HostGator, the IP company for AFTAH’s temporary site, AmericansForTruthCensored.com, demanding that the company take down the site.  

HostGator capitulated to Flanders’ threats, which claimed Americans For Truth is a “hate group” and demanded removal of his mugshot photo which was also posted there. HostGator gave AFTAH’s web host, Altha Technology, 48 hours to take down the photo.

After first reversing its takedown order in favor of AFTAH, the company went back to its original position based on Flanders’ false claims and shut down the site. The site remains dark.

Gullible corporations

“Flanders sends emails claiming [the] mugshot from [his] assault arrest against a teen boy is ‘copyrighted’ property,” lamented LaBarbera, “and two gullible corporations buy it,”  resulting in disastrous consequences for his organization. 

Additional troubling images cited in this report can be viewed at the Americans for Truth about Homosexuality website, which, for the moment, is up and running again.

Write to Doug Mainwaring at [email protected]