Unlikely Hero Battles Maryland Homosexual Bill
By Peter LaBarbera
November/December 2001 Family Voice

Editor's Note: Regrettably, the ACLU and others aggressively opposing Maryland's statewide referendum succeeded. On November 2, on advice of legal counsel, the volunteers of TakeBackMaryland.org reluctantly conceded they no longer had enough signatures to qualify for a referendum—even though more than enough signatures had previously been certified by the Maryland election board. Thus, Maryland became the 12th U.S. state to have a pro-homosexual “sexual orientation” law on the books.

Anyone who ever doubted that one man can make a difference should examine the life of Tres (pronounced “Tray”) Kerns, who is leading a David-against-Goliath battle in Maryland.

Kerns heads up an unlikely band of grassroots activists who formed “TakeBackMaryland.org” and launched a successful petition drive to stop an impending “gay rights” law in its tracks. The Non-Discrimination Act of 2001 was slated to go into effect October 1, but will instead be put up for statewide referendum on Election Day 2002. That is, unless Maryland’s pro-homosexual lobby succeeds in its desperate attempt to overturn the ballot drive through the courts.

Few had given Kerns and his “Take Back” volunteers much of a chance to gather the 46,128 signatures needed to put the “gay” law up for referendum, thereby enabling Marylanders to vote on it. So when they turned in the final signatures on June 30, bringing the total to almost 60,000, they shocked the state’s political establishment. On July 19, the Maryland election board validated 47,539 signatures, enough to force a statewide referendum. Now “gay” activists are claiming that “Take Back” volunteers misled people and are suing election board officials to overturn certification of the signatures. Kerns says the lawsuit is “completely frivolous” and that the homosexual lobby is afraid of a popular vote on the issue.

“Imagine if we picked up the paper and read that the state approved discrimination against Jews … or had authorized prejudice against women,” fulminated Glendening in an August speech denouncing the “mean-spirited referendum effort.”

Glendening’s diatribe did not shock veteran pro-family opponents of “gay” activism. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, homosexual militants began comparing Christian conservatives to the Taliban, Afghanistan’s extremist Islamic regime. In states like Oregon and Maine, where extended debates on “gay” issues have taken place, homosexuals and their allies have routinely castigated pro-family groups, all in the name of “tolerance.”

But Glendening’s crusade is personal. Citing the death of his brother from AIDS, the governor has made enactment of a state pro-homosexual “sexual orientation” law a top priority. At press time, Kerns and other TakeBackMaryland.org leaders were concerned that the governor’s “gay” advocacy would undermine his administration’s defense of the state election board against the prohomosexual lawsuit. Kerns fears there is a real prospect that the lawsuit could succeed.

A Childhood Victim
Kerns’ public opposition to “gay rights” has led him to openly discuss a painful childhood memory—his molestation by a male camp counselor. The year was 1970, and young Tres attended a now-defunct summer camp called “Camp Happy Hollow.” Kerns was awakened in the middle of the night to the sight of a large man—the head of the boys’ camp—fondling him. This happened several times.

“You’re 10 years old, you’ve got this big guy over you, and you’re scared to death,” Kerns told Family Voice. “You don’t say anything. I would cry myself to sleep asking God why He let this happen to me.”

When he finally lashed out at the predator, the assaults stopped. Kerns did not begin talking publicly about the pedophile abuse until two years ago, during a debate on a local “sexual orientation” initiative. Homosexual activists have accused him of exploiting the incident, but Kerns said that is because they like to be the only ones who cast themselves as victims.

Get Informed, Get Involved
Kerns, 41, is a relative newcomer to the pro-family political scene. A salesman, husband and father of five from Severna Park, Maryland, a pleasant, tree-lined community outside Baltimore, in 1998 he became aware that a prestigious Episcopal high school nearby, St. Paul’s School for Girls, was promoting the acceptance of homosexuality through “tolerance” lessons.

Kerns (an alumnus of the adjoining St. Paul’s Schools for Boys) and a group of concerned parents sought help from outside pro-family groups, organized, and tried to reason with St. Paul’s officials—even holding a spirited parents’ rally against the homosexual policies. But the school’s headmistress mollified the parents by assuring them that the school did not have a “gay” agenda.

But rather than stop with its pro-homosexual programs, Kerns said, the school’s administrators merely “went underground,” even showing the pro-homosexual film It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School to the student body. The experience taught him that it is naive to think that parents will get a fair shake from liberal school administrators who already have their minds made up about “gay rights.”

“When the administrators have total control and want to push their agenda through, by the time the parents find out and try to mobilize against it, it’s too late,” he said.

“You’re not going to be able to convince these people,” he said. Instead, parents have to replace them or exert enough grassroots pressure to force them to relent.

Kerns also learned that “gay” advocates use deceit to further their cause. At St. Paul’s, school officials “effectively lied. … They appeased the parents and said what they needed to say, but there was nothing behind it.”

Tell the Truth
Aware of God’s call on this issue, Kerns set about educating others. He began collecting facts and scientific studies about the homosexual lifestyle—such as an International Journal of Epidemiology study that found a sampling of homosexual and bisexual men with AIDS had a life expectancy of 8-20 years less than their heterosexual counterparts. He assembled the data in large, three-ring binders.

As the information grew, he created a Web site with the help of friend and local pastor Matt Sine, who would later become co-chairman of TakeBackMaryland.org. The Web site is loaded with information, including summaries of scientific studies.

With his salesman’s background and friendly demeanor, Kerns quickly made an impression on those around him, including his pastor, David Whitney. Last year, the two men organized a massive pro-Boy Scouts rally in Cape St. Clair, Maryland, after the town’s homeowners’ association tried to end its 30-year sponsorship of a local Scout troop. The rally, which featured former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and Robert Knight, now Director of CWA’s Culture and Family Institute, led to a quick reversal by officials.

The year before, Kerns and fellow family advocates, including Doug Stiegler of the Maryland Family Protection Lobby, helped defeat an earlier version of the pro-homosexual “non-discrimination” act. The state’s homosexual lobby thought its passage was a sure thing because of Gov. Glendening’s support. For the first time in his administration, the governor testified on legislation before the Assembly—on behalf of the “gay” bill. Nevertheless, it ground to a halt in the state Senate.

“Truly it was God who guided us,” Kerns said of the surprise victory.

Kerns and his allies also helped dissuade the Maryland School Board from adding “sexual orientation” to its multicultural curricula requirements, by encouraging citizens to send letters to the usually faceless Board members—at their homes.

“All along the way, God was preparing us for a more important battle,” Kerns said.

This year, determined not to repeat the debacle of 1999, Glendening turned up the pressure on legislators. The arm-twisting worked, and in April the legislature passed the “Non-Discrimination Act of 2001,” which Glendening signed in an elaborate ceremony at the Statehouse in Annapolis on May 15.

However, the governor was less than enthused when Kerns and a band of volunteers showed up wearing their “TakeBackMaryland.org” T-shirts, stealing some critical press coverage from the event.

Miracle of 2001
With only about 75 days to gather 60,000 signatures (to provide a buffer for the estimated 20 percent that would be invalidated), Kerns, Sine, Stiegler and the rest of the “Take Back” team knew they needed a miracle to stop the pro-homosexual law.

“Take Back Maryland started from scratch,” Kerns said. “There wasn’t a huge grassroots network already in place like in other states. We pulled some core people together and said, ‘We’re going to do this.’

“Everybody thought it was a joke, but it just got bigger and bigger,” he said, noting that the coalition includes Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Despite logistical nightmares and low finances, the “Take Back” coalition managed to make two critical deadlines for signatures, and force a referendum vote on the “gay rights” measure (pending the homosexual lobby’s legal machinations).

“We have to give the credit to the Lord, because we never could have pulled this off by ourselves,” Kerns said.

Nice Guys Finish First
For those who know Tres Kerns well, as this writer does, his success is especially gratifying. The often disheveled Kerns, who received Jesus Christ as his Savior just a few years ago, is a regular family guy who must frustrate homosexual activists because he is easy to like—and hard to hate.

“Anyone who knows Tres is impressed by his open, generous nature,” said Knight of Culture and Family Institute. “He is the farthest thing from a ‘hater,’ but that doesn’t stop his opponents from repeatedly mischaracterizing him that way.”

How You Can Help

Pray that truth and justice will reign in the lawsuit that aims to discredit signatures for the referendum.  Praise God for Tres Kerns and others who have battled to obtain the referendum.  Act Consider donating your time or finances to TakeBackMaryland.org’s efforts.

Kerns seems to have an added measure of grace in dealing with the homosexual activists who now vilify him. He has learned that many homosexuals are the victims of molesters or premature sexual exposure and, as a victim himself, he has extra compassion.

Speaking of homosexuals, he said, “These are a bunch of broken people looking for love. When God came into my life, I didn’t want to hate homosexuals but to love them and help them overcome their problem.”

He urged Christians to protect children from encroaching homosexual activism in the schools by getting involved, standing up for God’s revealed truth, and proclaiming that Jesus Christ can deliver from sin.

“This is a defining issue for the Church, and it will divide believers from non-believers,” Kerns said. “I see too many people trying to play it down the middle. This issue is not going to let them do that. They are going to have to be either for or against what the Bible clearly teaches about homosexuality.”

Peter LaBarbera is senior policy analyst for CWA’s Culture and Family Institute and editor of the C&F Report, a free e-mail newsletter. He has specialized for more than 10 years in the homosexual issue.

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