GLSEN’s Day of Silence is still a month-and-a-half away, but Exodus International is already mobilizing antigay teens in schools across North America with Exodus’ misnamed “Day of Truth” campaign.
The DOT mobilizes antigay churches and students to harass LGBT students and their friends, and — under the guise of so-called “conversation” — to lobby schools to exclude LGBT students from schools’ antibullying policies.
In a press release last week, Exodus applauded its past successes in convincing antigay youths to be ignorant, misinformed, and sanctimonious toward their lesbian and gay “friends.” (If you’re wondering why Exodus doesn’t mention transgender students, it’s because the organization effectively denies the existence of people who are not conventionally male or female, equating them with drag queens.)
“One girl in particular asked me if it was hard because I have a friend that is a lesbian. I told her that “yes” it is hard, but I’m not going to give up on her. I think that God has so many awesome plans for that girl and for the rest of us. The Day of Truth is something that is so awesome!” – A high school freshman in Arizona
“I was so glad to hear about the Day of Truth. My daughter is a freshman.. and we have both been in shock that the school counselor would promote a club to encourage gay lifestyles. We need to pray for these kids and people encouraging this sinful and deadly lifestyle and give our kids a voice to proclaim the truth.” – Pam, a parent
“I still disagree with your views, and I always will. However, you’ve expressed your views in a polite and forthright manner, without being confrontational, and I wanted to tell you that I very much appreciate that.” – An adult who does not support Exodus International’s views on homosexuality
Please note that Exodus lacked sufficient integrity to identify these people for purposes of confirmation; that none of these people indicate any knowledge of specific truths about their friends and children; none of them acknowledge the violence and harassment that is happening against their LGBT classmates; none of them admit the truth that Exodus ex-gay counseling programs are a dismal failure; and that the two antigay poster-persons view the task of having gay friends or relatives as a chore — or worse, a threat. That’s Exodus-style “love” for you.
Truth Wins Out urges schools and GSAs around the country to become alert to Exodus’ possible formation, in coming months, of affiliate student groups that intend to harass and ostracize religious and sexual minorities — and to sabotage nascent efforts by parents and friends of assaulted youths to make schools safer for LGBT students.
It is generally understood that today’s youth are more supportive of equality for gay and lesbian people. Faced with losing the next generation, fundamentalists are ferociously scrambling to capture the minds of youth through homeschooling and the subversion of public education. By sequestering students at home or creating public schools where the only drink served in the cafeteria is Kool-Aid, they hope to reprogram tomorrow’s leaders.
It appears America’s religious fanatics are modeling their efforts on the success of radical Islamists in the Middle East, who reversed the trend of secularization in the region by hijacking education. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this phenomenon:
Beginning in the 1970s, the trend in Yemen, Morocco, Egypt and the Persian Gulf “was to Islamicize education as a way to fight the left…”
…Then, in 1979, after the Saudi ruling family was shaken by an attack in Mecca from its own Wahabi fundamentalists, the Saudi regime, to fend off the anger of its Wahabis, gave them free rein to Islamicize education and social life in Saudi Arabia and neighboring states.
The rest is a very sad and tragic history.
In America, according to the Aug. 7, 2009 edition of The Economist magazine, the number of children who are home-schooled—1.5 million—has doubled in the past decade, and 83 percent of home-schooling families do so for religious or moral reasons.
It is important to realize that the goal of many in the homeschooling movement is to create an army of zealot zombies who are committed to transforming America into a fundamentalist “Christian Nation.”
“We are not home-schooling our kids just so they can read,” said Michael Farris, the founder of the Home School Legal Defense. “The most common thing I hear is parents telling me they want their kids to be on the Supreme Court. And if we put enough kids in the farm system, some may get to the major leagues.”
Many of the cult-kiddies are coming of age and have already infiltrated Washington. Homeschoolers are well represented on Capitol Hill, and they played a disproportionate role in George W. Bush’s administration.
While many of these students are educated in terms of test scores, they may lack critical thinking skills. In a sense, they are like computers with large hard drives that have been programmed with faulty software. No matter how fast they compute they always arrive at same flawed conclusions based on the Biblical bugs planted early in their memory chips.
For example, Children’s Conferences International hosts events across the nation for homeschoolers. Their “2010 theme” is science fiction, except to keep the minds of the children pure there will be no extraterrestrials allowed.
“Parents won’t have to worry about their children learning about aliens or some mysterious force in this fun filled futuristic space age theme,” according to their website. “Children WILL learn important life lessons about trusting God, faith over atheism, and the dangers of being enamored by the world.”
Instead of E.T. and space, these poor children have to endure crazy, spaced out adults determined to strip-mine their minds and corrupt their imaginations. In my view, this is a form of child abuse and deprives these students of real childhood experiences, while making them closed-minded.
Of course, funneling children into homeschooling is not enough for these predators. In order to succeed, the extreme right must hijack the curriculum of public schools. They are already making serious inroads in Texas, with zealots on the state school board rewriting history textbooks. This is vitally important because Texas is such a large consumer of textbooks, that they essentially have the ability to set the standards for much of the nation. So, if history is rewritten in Austin, the revisions will likely appear in your state as well.
One leader of the public school putsch, according to a recent cover story in The New York Times Magazine, is Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Texas Board of Education. In 2008, she published a book called, “One Nation Under God” where she wrote: “Hence, the only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the Founding Fathers is from a biblical worldview.” She also stated, “this battle for our nation’s children and who will control their education and training is crucial to our success for reclaiming our nation.”
For all of her passion, Dunbar is opposed to public education, writing of, “The inappropriateness of a state-created taxpayer-supported school system,” and says that sending children to public schools is akin to, “throwing them into the enemy’s flames, even as the children of Israel threw their children to Molech.”
Clearly, Dunbar’s real agenda is infiltrating the school system in order to destroy it.
When it comes to support, the next generation was supposed to be a wash. However, this successful trajectory is threatened if we allow today’s youth to be brainwashed. While paying attention to school boards is boring, it must become a priority for all Americans who want schools to be about education instead of indoctrination.
Focus on the Family today applauded a Missouri senate panel’s endorsement of legislation which Focus claims would merely protect religious freedom.
In fact, the legislation does the opposite:
The legislation, Senate Resolution 31, establishes a ballot issue to amend the state constitution. The amendment would permit conservative Christians to impose official prayer and official religious symbols in public schools — against the will (and the faith) of Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, atheist, and liberal Christian parents.
The Resolution would violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It is poorly written and, while likely to increase litigation, may be difficult to enforce, according to Leigh Hunt Greenhaw in an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The real purpose of the law is to scare conservative voters into believing, falsely, that their right to pray is under fire so that they will go to the polls and vote for extremist candidates who are intolerant of religious minorities. The Post-Dispatch writer observes:
The proposed amendment to Section 5 could be a partisan strategy. If voters hear our right to pray is endangered and that an amendment to the Missouri Constitution is needed to protect it, they might come out to vote for it. And those that do might well favor candidates and parties that have supported the amendment.
Focus and its Missouri affiliate hinted at this true intent in today’s statement:
Joe Ortwerths, executive director of the Missouri Family Policy Council, said his group promoted Senate Joint Resolution 31, because groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, for example, are trying to convince public school officials that freedom of religious expression cannot be permitted in public settings.
The Christian Rightists deliberately mischaracterize the ACLU’s defense of individual religious freedom — in particular, the freedom of minorities to pray as they wish without official school interference or official religious indoctrination.
The “religious freedom” that Focus and Missouri’s Christian Right seek is a freedom from the religion of others, not religious freedom for all.
Focus on the Family today celebrated opposition in Wyoming to the Anti-Defamation League and a program by the ADL called “No Place for Hate.”
Focus objects in particular to the program’s repudiation of hatred toward LGBT students — and applauds two schools in the Platte County School District for siding with local bullies who demanded that banners exclude LGBT students from the anti-hate message.
The Tuscaloosa News reported yesterday that a state legislator has prefiled a bill, with the support of the governor, to prohibit public universities from offering employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
But the same lawmaker is willing to subsidize unmarried heterosexuals who shack up.
The legislation penalizes the state’s taxpayers in order to subsidize the benefits of heterosexual bureaucrats, based on the religious bias of evangelicals who oppose religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
Rep. DuWayne Bridges said taxes should not be used to treat state workers equally. He said it is objectionable to “subsidize same-sex lifestyles” but offered no apparent objection to subsidized benefits for unmarried heterosexual couples.
Contrary to Bridges’ assertion that “liberals” engage in social engineering, it is he and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley who seek use taxpayer money to reward sectarian religious activists’ favored bureaucrats and to cheat skilled and accomplished government workers out of equal benefits.
Bridges also applauded the notion of Alabama voters deciding who is or isn’t entitled to constitutional rights, when they voted to ban marriage equality. The new bill will be introduced to the state legislature in January.
What next — a bill to require universities to hire only conservative Christians?
Focus on the Family complained tonight that “Alabama schools are now required to write stricter anti-bullying policies, thanks to language in a bill that opens the door to the gay agenda.”
But Focus political writer Josh Montez (pictured) doesn’t seem to know the difference between a bill and a law; he uses the two terms interchangeably.
He may be referring to the Student Harassment Prevention Act, which goes into effect Oct. 1. (PDF copy of the Act.) The legislation empowers the state department of education to develop a model policy for local districts to receive reports of harassment and to punish perpetrators. In particular, the law directs the department to develop “a procedure for the development of a nonexhaustive list of the specific personal characteristics of a student which may often lead to harassment. Based upon experience, a local board of education may add, but not remove, characteristics from the list.”
In other words, the state might specify race and religion for statewide protection; a local district might add sexual orientation to its local policy.
Until now, there haven’t been any legal repercussions from bullying and it’s an issue the state has long needed to address, said longtime educator Lisa Moses, of Florence, who said bullying is one area addressed in another new piece of legislation known as Taylor’s Law. Under that law, a student’s behavior at school, including bullying, can delay the student from acquiring a driver’s license.
“Bullying has too long been ignored on the school level and has somewhat been accepted with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude,” Moses said. “Kids need to be able to report these things anonymously, but they don’t trust that it will be kept quiet and they’re scared.” …
The issue came to a head in April when 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide at his Atlanta-area home after his parents say he was repeatedly tormented in school. District officials denied it, and an independent review found bullying wasn’t a factor, a conclusion his family rejects.
Until now, Alabama children have been completely unprotected:
Alabama’s law covers grades pre-kindergarten through 12th. The sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Betty Carol Graham, D-Alexander City, said the new Alabama law was three years in the making and grew out of the rise in suicides among youth in the state and nation.
Focus on the Family objects to the law’s attention to “the motivations and ‘characteristics’ of victims, rather than on the wrong actions of the bullies.”
In other words, Focus believes that bullying is not really bullying in the case of certain types of victims. Focus believes that the distinction between “bullying” and physical action to correct homosexual youths should be decided not by the community or police, but by individual bullies and antigay faculty members.
Focus offers applause to Betty Peters, a member of the Alabama education board, who (Focus claims) said gay activists are “encouraging like-minded individuals to sign up for local committees that will be responsible for writing similar policies. She encouraged parents who oppose the gay agenda to do the same.”
Focus warns:
Parents should watch out for attempts to mandate special protections for “gender identity” and “sexual orientation”— which can pave the way for pro-gay curriculum and mandatory “diversity” training.
Focus believes other characteristics of students may be protected from bullying — but not gender identity or sexual orientation.
Josh Montez, Focus’ staff writer, fails to inform readers that Peters is a member of the American Family Association, Alabama Republican Assembly, Eagle Forum, and Christian Coalition. Peters wants creationism to be taught in schools. She was the lone no-vote on state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton’s recommendation that Alabama participate in a state-led initiative to develop common core standards for English and mathematics. Peters also opposed President Obama’s speech to school children.
Peters’ Eagle Forum membership is worth remembering — we shall revisit this momentarily.
Montez also failed to tell readers about the experiences of bullied students and faculty. According to radio station WBHM-FM in Birmingham:
…Critics say that merely implying that gay students are protected is not enough. The result, they say, is that no one is safe, even those who are just perceived gay.
Experts say that these days children are hearing more anti-gay language in school. Carly Friedman is a Samford University psychology professor and research consultant for the Alabama Safe Schools Coalition. Friedman is surveying Alabama students to gauge how often they hear gay slurs in school.
“We are seeing an increase in things like, Oh that’s so gay, You’re such a fag. These words that we are hearing more often I think that really can have an effect on young people.”
She’s found that they don’t concentrate as well, they skip class, and they have higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. Friedman adds that gay slurs affect all youth. …
But people like Eunie Smith, president of Eagle Forum of Alabama, a conservative activist group, say homosexuality shouldn’t be talked about in schools, much less tolerated.”Well, young people are highly impressionable. And for the schools to provide some special status for those who would perceive themselves to be homosexual…would be to legitimize and therefore to encourage these unhealthy lifestyles.”
Smith and Peters — both of them, leaders within the Eagle Forum — object to safety for LGBT students despite those students’ safe and responsible lifestyles, and even when those students’ parents and churches accept them. In the view of Smith and Peters, antigay parents and students enjoy a “religious freedom” to slander and bully others: a freedom that supersedes the personal and religious freedom of LGBT students and their families.
But Focus’s Montez does not share any of this information with readers.
Focus says Montez obtained a bachelor’s degree in communication from Moody Bible Institute. One wonders what kind of communication is really taught at Moody.
Two California Christian-Right organizations — the Capitol Resource Institute and Pacific Justice Institute — say that if antigay parents want to teach their children to bully gay classmates, the schools shouldn’t stand in their way.
The two organizations further contend that their own “religious freedom” trumps the religious and personal freedom of the bullied students and their parents.
According to Edge, parents suing the Alameda Unified School District near Oakland claimed the schools’ anti-bullying lessons are “being foisted on kindergartners” and that they saw the curriculum as a form of “indoctrination” in antiviolence and civility — traits which to them, apparently, are effeminate and sissyish. Edge continues:
But other parents who support the curriculum argue that the lessons are vital for countering school bullying.
The lessons consist of 45-minute videos shown once during the course of the school year. Kindergartners learn about teasing and how it can be hurtful; issues of sexual orientation are included in the presentation shown to fifth-graders, which is the last year that the anti-bullying presentations are required in the Alameda Unified School District.
The lessons commenced after kindergartners repeatedly hurled antigay epithets at classmates. Antigay parents want that behavior to continue.
It’s that sort of bullying among the very youngest children that the curriculum is intended to address, say supporters of the program like Carrie Brash, a mother quoted in the article as saying that her daughter had to endure harassment from schoolmates who would strike up a chorus of, “Lesbian, lesbian, your mom’s a lesbian,” in order to torment her.
Antigay parents teach their children to insult not only their classmates, but those classmates’ parents. The objective: Drive people they don’t like out of the public-school system and out of their neighborhoods.
The lawsuit seeks to recall the school board and replace the members with Christian Rightists.
“If homophobia is allowed to flourish under the protection of religious freedom, then any form of bigotry can be justified.”
It appears that the Christian Right will not rest until they are the only people in California, Michigan, and other states who are permitted to enjoy religious freedom and protection from angry, violent mobs.
The Michigan state senate voted Wednesday to reject a measure that would protect students from violence committed on the basis of sexual orientation. Opponents of the bill do not object to legislation protecting students on the basis of race or religion; their sole objection is to the protection of gay students from violence.
Democratic Sen. Glenn Anderson said:
It is imperative that we compel public schools to protect students from bullying in the academic environment by adopting a policy to deal with this destructive behavior.
Anderson’s measure lost on a vote of 21 to 16, according to the Michigan Messenger.
This move by the senate is the second recent example of Michigan officials protecting antigay violence.
In recent months. former ex-gay Patrick McAlvey has come forward to accuse Exodus member activist Mike Jones of sexually accosting him during “ex-gay” therapy sessions. Jones’ ex-gay activist website is hosted by Michigan State University. The university has refused to withdraw its taxpayer-subsidized hosting of Jones’ “Corduroy Stone” website, and both Jones and Exodus president Alan Chambers refuse to respond to the allegations.
Worse, perhaps, than the senators who support antigay bullying are those Republicans who say that protecting any student from bullying is too expensive. According to the Messenger:
[Some] Senate Republicans took a different tact in the floor debate Wednesday. They argued the bill could result in numerous lawsuits against public schools across Michigan.
“[The bill] is written in such a way as to guaruntee lawsuits against employees or the school,” said Sen. Alan Cropsey, a Republican from DeWitt. “This will turn every incident of bullying into a lawsuit, and cost the schools hundreds of millions.”
Schools across the nation are already being sued by parents of battered gay students; the parents accuse school faculty of failing to protect their children. So long as Michigan singles out gay youths and young adults for abuse, the lawsuits in that state are likely to escalate.
Students at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks are protesting a long series of on-campus lectures by an “ex-gay” proponent of antigay prejudice.
Edward Delgado, a deacon at an Anchorage Baptist church, on Saturday launched a series of 14 lectures against sexual honesty. Delgado contends that honesty about one’s sexual orientation requires adherence to a non-existent “homosexual lifestyle” of “promiscuity, abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse.” He further argues that people with a predominant same-sex orientation can only achieve “freedom” through conformity to antigay evangelical bigotry, misleading assertions of heterosexuality, shame regarding one’s same-sex attraction, sexless marriage, or lifelong celibacy.
While Delgado is not listed as a member of Exodus International, his poster slogan is borrowed from past Exodus billboards which imply that all gay people are — or should be — inherently lonely and confused. Delgado’s poster refers students to Exodus International and to “ex-gay” political activist Joe Dallas.
According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Chancellor Brian Rogers said he wouldn’t order the poster removed.
Rogers said he wants a “welcoming and inclusive university” but said tolerance of opposing views and freedom of speech are at the core of the campus’ values.
No one appears to have been invited to offer “opposing views” to Delgado, however.
In his self-promotions, Delgado speaks about his “life of homosexuality” as a Southern California teen, when — according to the News-Miner — he says he had 10 male sex partners by age 19: A tally not much different from many heterosexual teen-agers. Delgado asserts that his own unfulfilling lifestyle choices must be representative of all gay people. “The things that I speak [against gay people] are not a lie, because I’ve lived these things,” he said.
Delgado is now married with two sons — though the Daily News-Miner does not say whether Delgado is sexually active with his wife, whether he is (or ever was) predominantly same-sex attracted, or whether the sons are his through biology or adoption.
Members of a campus gay-straight alliance planned to counter Delgado’s smears against healthy and well-adjusted members of the academic community with “Stop the Hate” T-shirts and literature, according to Queers United.
It’s been a heady couple of weeks for gay activists — and it keeps getting better. There were twin marriage victories in the unlikely states of Vermont and Iowa — doubling the number of places where gay people can get hitched. If that wasn’t enough, the New York Times reports that New York Gov. David Paterson will unveil plans this week to introduce marriage equality legislation.
On New York City’s Upper West Side, The Jewish Alliance for Change presented a benefit concert on Monday evening for marriage equality that featured a stunning array of stars. I spoke at the event and followed Linda Lavin — who played the lead in the television show “Alice.” It was exhilarating to be among the Broadway glitz and glamour. Most important, the event encapsulated what the movement has worked decades to achieve: broad mainstream support and cultural acceptance.
Unfortunately, while our movement bathed in the well-deserved spotlight, not everyone felt its warm glow. There are still gay people — particularly of school age — who feel the cool sting of homophobia. They are teased, harassed, humiliated and beaten on a daily basis. They enter the schoolyard in sheer terror — as if it were a prison yard ruled by fearsome gangs. (Read More)
Weekly Column
But Focus political writer Josh Montez (pictured) doesn’t seem to know the difference between a bill and a law; he uses the two terms interchangeably.
Focus offers applause to Betty Peters, a member of the Alabama education board, who (Focus claims) said gay activists are “encouraging like-minded individuals to sign up for local committees that will be responsible for writing similar policies. She encouraged parents who oppose the gay agenda to do the same.”
Edward Delgado, a deacon at an 
