Matt Barber

J. Matt Barber is an associate dean at Liberty University School of Law -- a law school founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell -- and director of cultural affairs with the school's conservative legal action group, Liberty Counsel. He was previously policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women for America. He is former corporate outreach director and current board member of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. Barber holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy degree from Regent University, as well as a law degree.

Background
Barber had been writing articles critical of homosexuality on right-wing websites for years, but came to prominence after the publisher of one column he wrote noted his employer at the time, Allstate Insurance. Barber claimed that Allstate fired him over the article, then enlisted attorney David Gibbs III to sue Allstate over his termination. Allstate responded that "Allstate has never terminated an employee for expressing their personal views on their own time. Any allegation to that effect is false." Allstate further claimed that Barber was fired "because he used the company's information technology systems and other resources for his personal journalism activities, many of which took place on company time." Barber's case became a cause celebre among right-wing groups with an anti-gay agenda. The lawsuit was settled in February 2006 under confidential terms.

After his firing, Barber became a coordinator for Jim Oberweis' 2006 Illinois gubernatorial campaign, then joined Americans for Truth About Homosexuality and, later, Concerned Women for America. In June 2008, Barber moved from CWfA to the positions at Liberty University and Liberty Counsel.

Anti-gay rhetoric
In his writings, Barber frequently uses rhetoric that attacks and belittles gays, lesbians and transgendered people and reinforces stereotypes about them:
 * From a January 2007 column on gays in the military: "Move over National Guard and Green Berets – make way for the avant-garde and Lavender Berets."
 * A March 2007 column bashed "left-wing storm troopers" and referenced a "6-foot-4-inch homosexual linebacker who likes to wear lipstick and high-heels."
 * A May 2007 WorldNetDaily article quoted Barber describing cross-dressers as people who "get their jollies from wearing a dress, high heels and lipstick."
 * Barber wrote of the birth of the child of Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, and her lesbian partner: "[T]he conditions under which Ms. Cheney has chosen to bring this child into the world are to be condemned."
 * Barber asserted that former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey "admitted in his memoirs that he fancied doing the toilet bowl tango with strange men at truck stops."
 * In a column, Barber told the story of a "burly truck driver" who "got twitterpated by the way pantyhose felt against his skin and eventually made the self-determination that he was, in fact, a woman trapped in a man's body," which somehow means that "parents may well be forced to explain to Junior why Ms. Johnson at parochial school has a five o'clock shadow, calves like Schwarzenegger, an Adam's apple the size of a golf ball and is stuffed into a miniskirt like a 10-pound turkey in a 5-pound bag." He further asserted that a federal ban on discrimination against gays and transsexuals means that female employees will be "forced to share bathroom facilities with any male employee who got his jollies from wearing a dress."
 * Barber called the idea of gays in the military "radical San Francisco-style social experimentation," adding: "If the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News and the SLDN [Servicemembers Legal Defense Network] really want to do something to support our troops and help the military, they should abandon their attempts to radically alter and undermine the armed forces, pipe down, put a cork in it and let our brave fighting men and women win this war on terror."
 * Barber claimed that homosexuals want to "[r]epeal all laws governing the age of sexual consent," adding, "It would legally allow pedophiles, and homosexuals who were so inclined, to access your children and teens for their own predatory sexual gratification - so long as those children 'consented' to having sex." In fact, advocacy groups such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force have denounced sexual abuse of children.
 * Barber called for "a fitting redefinition of so-called 'homophobia,' that being 'Homophobia: the rational fear that 'gay sex' will kill you!' " Barber added: "The fact that we don't have mandatory surgeon general warnings on the side of condom wrappers is a testament to the power and influence wielded by the radical homosexual lobby."