Metro DC Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and the Rainbow Youth Alliance (RYA) sent the following letter this week to the Montgomery County Public Schools’ Board of Education.
The school district — located in an otherwise liberal area of Maryland adjoining Washington, D.C. — falsely claims to be required by court rulings to host the antigay fliers of an organization whose leaders call for the imprisonment of all LGBT people, including parents and students. (TWO encourages the SPLC to take note.)
Visit Teach The Facts for complete local background, or check out Truth Wins Out’s articles about PFOX efforts to undermine public education in Maryland.
Here’s the letter:
The Honorable Patricia O’Neill, President
Mongtomery County Board of Education
Montgomery County Public Schools
850 Hungerford Drive
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Re: Flyer distribution by PFOX
Dear President O’Neill:
Fliers from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) recently were distributed to Montgomery County high school students. See Potomac high-schoolers get note saying therapy can turn gays straight. These fliers (a copy of which is attached) were distributed in accordance with official MCPS policy, which was modified to be consistent with the decision in Child Evangelism Fellowship v. MCPS, 457 F.3d 376 (4th Cir. 2006). The PFOX fliers tell students that gay people can become straight through “therapies.” We know that the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held, in Child Evangelism Fellowship, that the MCPS flyer distribution program was a “quasi public forum,” as to which there could be no “viewpoint” discrimination.
But, if MCPS wishes to continue the distribution program in its high schools, does Child Evangelism Fellowship require MCPS to distribute fliers that advocate doctrines relating to health that are in direct conflict with the consensus of the mainstream medical and mental health community? Alternatively, if the United States Constitution requires allowing the PFOX distribution in the event that MCPS maintains a distribution program for MCPS high schools, would it be better public policy to terminate the high school distribution program altogether?
The Metro DC Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) asks this second question, even though PFLAG has itself utilized the program since 2006, and plans to distribute its own fliers (in conjunction with the Rainbow Youth Alliance) this coming April. (A copy of that flyer is attached). It is imperative that the dangerous assertions set forth by PFOX not be distributed under MCPS auspices. By asserting that people can decide to change their sexual orientation, PFOX promotes a doctrine that has been discredited by every American mainstream medical and mental health professional association. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in a report available here, states that the American Psychiatric Association has found that “homosexuality [is] . . . not a mental disorder.” The AAP further concludes that “sexual orientation is not a choice; that is, individuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual,” nor is it something “that voluntarily can be changed.” Indeed, the American Medical Association explicitly opposes “therapies” based on the incorrect premise that gay people are ill or that they should change their sexual orientation. See AMA Policy Number H-160.991 Health Care Needs of the Homosexual Population, available here.
In fact, MCPS itself provides as a resource for pupil personnel workers the American Psychological Association’s Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel. This publication was developed expressly for school personnel and is endorsed by 13 other organizations, including the American School Counselors Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the AAP. It explicitly states that “the nation’s leading professional medical, health, and mental health organizations do not support efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation through therapy and have raised serious concerns about the potential harm from such efforts.” PDF document at pp. 8 and 9.
PFOX is not a benign organization; the contrary is the case. One of its board members is Peter Sprigg, who served as a representative of PFOX on the Board of Education’ Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development from 2007 to 2009. Just a few weeks ago, on February 2, 2010, Mr. Sprigg stated, on MSNBC’s Hardball program, that he advocates the criminalization of “gay behavior”: At the end of discussion on the inclusion of gays in the military (specifically, at the 8 minute, 38 second mark), Mr. Sprigg was asked by host Chris Mathews if “gay behavior” should be outlawed. Mr. Sprigg responded that “I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.” Then Mr. Mathews, presumably to make certain that Mr. Sprigg understood what he had just said, asked, “So we should outlaw gay behavior?” Mr. Sprigg replied, “Yes.”
It may be regrettable that Mr. Sprigg currently is one of 15 members on the Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development, whose responsibilities include the review of materials for health classes that may address matters of sexual orientation. (We recognize that none of the appointments made in 2009 were based on organizational affiliation.) But it is far worse than regrettable for his views and those of the organization he represents to be propagated under MCPS auspices. While we are fully aware of the fliers’ mandated disclaimer (which is in small, fine print at the bottom of the PFOX flyer), we have heard enough complaints regarding the unnecessary hurtfulness of the PFOX fliers that we strongly believe the fliers have no legitimate place in MCPS.
Moreover, the history of negative mental health outcomes from such “therapies” could open up MCPS to legal liability. For example, suppose a 14-year old ninth grader, who recognizes he is gay but is under enormous peer and other pressure to be straight, receives the flyer and as a consequence seeks out a therapy endorsed by PFOX? The student may not know that the promoted therapy has been deemed dangerous by the AMA. As the therapy fails to change his feelings, he becomes more and more depressed, leading to suicide. See Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation, at p. 42 (”attempts to change sexual orientation may cause or excerbate stress and poor mental health in some individuals, including depression and suicidal thoughts”). Would there be a wrongful death lawsuit that could succeed against MCPS, particularly since MCPS is already in possession of the information discussing the dangers? It is not at all clear that the required disclaimer on the flyer would insulate MCPS from such liability.
Whether MCPS may, consistent with the Child Evangelism Fellowship decision, bar the PFOX fliers without eliminating the flyer distribution program in the high schools altogether may be an open question. But what is not an open question is that PFOX promotes medically discredited therapies that are dangerous to children’s health.
We stand ready to work with the Board of Education and MCPS to find ways to deal with this threat to students’ well-being.
Sincerely,
David S. Fishback
Advocacy Chair, Metro DC PFLAG
Olney, Maryland
Stephanie Kreps
Co-founder, Rainbow Youth Alliance
Secretary, Metro DC PFLAG
Gaithersburg, Maryland
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Mike,
Thank you for posting our letter to the Montgomery County Board of Education. I urge everyone to read the whole letter.
With all due respect, it is not accurate to say that MCPS “falsely claims to be required by court rulings to host the antigay fliers of an organization whose leaders call for the imprisonment of all LGBT people, including parents and students.” As you can see from the letter, there is a real legal question as to whether the fliers can be banned IF the school system chooses to continue with the general flyer distribution program in the high schools. It is simply not fair to impune MCPS’s motives here. The MCPS people with whom I have been in contact thus far are as horrified by the PFOX flyer as we are. We are working with MCPS to deal with the situation.
This is not a situation in which MCPS is caught between PFOX on one side and PFLAG on the other. As the letter demonstrates, it is PFOX on one side and MCPS, PFLAG, and the rest of our community in Montgomery County on the other.
Comment by David S. Fishback — February 23, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
David:
I don’t necessarily agree with you. MCPS is not on our side if they are allowing this flier. They may be sympathetic and good people, but they should never have let that flier see the light of day based on the fact it came from PFOX.
It is plainly obvious to any thinking person that PFOX presents a clear and present danger to children and is a hate group. This is not debatable and the evidence is incontrovertible.
Yet, MCPS put politics ahead of children and delivered them directly into the hands of unstable, politically motivated and extremely dangerous con artists.
The flier is more than simply a flier. It is a conduit to PFOX’s website, which puts children in the hands of people like Richard Cohen.
Either our side made a poor case showing that PFOX is a hate group or the MCPS was not listening to the facts. If we expect to win, we must connect the dots.
This is not about free speech, it is about protecting children from a bizarre group of predator, quack therapists who are a threat to children.
I think you are giving too much credit to MCPS. They have failed to keep children out of harm’s way. Thus,they have failed at the most basic and elementary part of their job.
This one paragraph in the letter is on the right track:
PFOX is not a benign organization; the contrary is the case….”
Our case should narrowly focus specifically on the insanity of PFOX….it is the easiest case to make and the one that is winnable.
Comment by Wayne Besen — February 23, 2010 @ 6:52 pm
I just glanced at the PFOX website. In less that two minutes I clicked, “Ex-Gay Speakers.”
http://pfox.org/equal_access.html
It goes to the above link, which was written by Arthur Abba Goldberg – an ex-convict.
A FU*^@#^ EX-CON IS IN CHARGE OF PFOX’S SPEAKER PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/02/7116/
Why on earth was that not the lead in PFLAG’s letter?
Here is your headline: “PFOX uses flier to send send MCPS students to ex-con.”
End of story. Game, set, match. Flier gone from schools. You win. They lose. That simple.
You know, Truth Wins Out has tried to stay out of this controversy out of respect for local organizations. But, we are available and we don’t miss things like ex-cons running PFOX’s speaker’s bureau.
Comment by Wayne Besen — February 23, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
Wayne,
Thanks for your suggestion. While this would be another arrow in our quiver, the fact that PFOX is run by people like this ex-con would not make a difference legally if the flyer program were to continue. But the proposition that the PFOX approach contradicts standard medical and health care practice might be a winning legal ground to keep the program while barring PFOX. If a full legal analysis shows that that would be consistent with judicial precedent, then the Board will need to decide whether it is more expeditious to change the flyer program and defend a lawsuit, or whether it would be more expeditious to eliminate the high school flyer program altogether. The goals is to prevent these anti-health fliers from being distributed. How we do that is not yet clear. What is clear to me is that the Board of Education is on our side. We are working with them, not against them.
Comment by David S. Fishback — February 23, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
Reading Arthur Abba Goldberg’ plea for “Equal Access”, I was struck by this clause:
“At a time when former homosexuals and lesbians are facing increasing intolerance…”
This tired old complaint of “intolerance” has been heard time and again from the “ex-gay” brigade during the past few years. Similarly, an anti-gay fundamentalist lady, writing last year on a conservative Anglican web-site in the wake of a NARTH presentation in London, whinged that “reparative therapy” had been “shouted down”.
Such charges are laughable. One might just as well complain that kidnappings by extra-terrestrials have been “shouted down”, or accuse such bodies as CSI (Center for Skeptical Inquiry) and UK-Skeptics of intolerance.
What “ex-gay” claims are being met with is severe and amply justified scepticism. Scepticism is not intolerance.
Comment by William — February 24, 2010 @ 8:50 am
Sounds like it’s time to elect new school board members. Sexual deviancy is a bad example to innocent public school students.
This is a case of perverts, PFLAG and liberal overpaid educrats on one side versus good morals and families on the other. I wonder which will win come election day?
Comment by Kenny Rodgers — March 4, 2010 @ 11:26 am
Kenny, gayness is normal for minority of the population. People on the side of morals and families recognize that loving same sex relationships harm no one and are a good thing. It is you and your kind that stand against morals and destroy families. Your evil may win on election day and if so enjoy your bigotry while it lasts, the tide is shifting and your kind is being replaced.
Comment by Priya Lynn — March 4, 2010 @ 11:45 am
Kenny: “good morals and families
You mean one consisting of child sacrifices, polygyny, women as property, incest, rape, and contempt? Because that’s the “good family” that you folks seem to be supporting with all your bible thumping.
Comment by Gyeong Hwa Pak — March 4, 2010 @ 1:12 pm