FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tax-Payers Should Not Be Forced To Pay For Prejudice, Says TWO
Burlington, Vt. – Truth Wins Out denounced an 11-state scheme today where taxpayers finance scholarships for parochial schools that preach prejudice 
and demonize LGBT students. These indoctrination programs should be immediately dismantled and no further tax money should be funneled into exclusionary schools that preach divisiveness and hate under the guise of religious instruction, says TWO.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for prejudice and subsidize schools that demonize LGBT students,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The ugly message sent by these schools is that gay students are inferior and unworthy of an education. This causes immense psychological damage to LGBT youth and promotes bullying.”
The tax credit scholarships began in Arizona in 1997 and have expanded to 11 states, according to an article by Kim Severson in today’s New York Times. The scholarships let individuals and businesses receive state tax credits for thousands of dollars in donations to nonprofit groups that funnel the money to private schools – many with harsh anti-gay policies.
A new report by the Southern Education Foundation claims that at least 115 religious-based schools in Georgia receiving scholarship money have virulently antigay policies. However, since the law limits public information on the scholarship program, the number could be much higher. Steve Suitts, the vice president of the foundation and the author of the report, said that as many as a third of the schools in the scholarship program have strict antigay policies or adhere to a religious philosophy that holds homosexuality as immoral or a sin.
As a result, his report says, public money is being spent by private educational institutions that “punish, denounce and even demonize students in the name of religion solely because they are gay, state that they are homosexual, happen to have same-sex parents or guardians, or express support or tolerance for gay students at school, away from school or at home.”
Aside for questions about their constitutionality, such programs are especially cruel for LGBT teenagers who are coming to grips with their sexuality in a sometimes-homophobic culture.
“These programs kick teens at a vulnerable time in their development when they most need love and support,” said TWO’s Besen. “It is unconscionable that state money is being wasted on schools that teach hate and seek to stigmatize LGBT teenagers.”
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
They shouldn’t receive any money because they are religious schools
I agree. No scholarship money for religious institutions. Time to make sure we have separation of church and state even for funding alternative education to public schools when students will be subjected to such character ‘violence.’ Being gay and growing up in the 50′s and 60′s in public schools where staff were definitely prejudiced against LGBT and living through religious harrassment in our Southern Baptist Church because I was gay did me no good then and would do students today no good either.
It is sad that certain churches have so much power that separation of church and state becomes a useless slogan.
These Churches, including the LDS, the Roman Catholic Church, and the
Southern Baptist churches are acting very much like State Churches that want to dictate private and public policy.
They used to burn gays and others at the stake. Now they are engaged in mean spirited abuse of young gay people both in their institutions and everywhere they can reach out and hurt someone.
This is why I don’t think its really good for gays to join the Boy Scouts, even if they do allow it. Gays are best to stay away from the Boy Scouts because their morals are based on religion. Gays should stay away from religious groups like this or they will be bullied.