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Houston School Agrees to Allow ‘Gay-Straight Alliance’ 3/12/2003 Parents see 'silver lining' in consent requirement
The Houston-area Klein High School has reached a settlement allowing a student-run “gay”/straight alliance (GSA). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Marla Dukler, a junior at the school who identifies as a lesbian.
Under the agreement reached with the ACLU, all students wishing to participate in any extracurricular clubs must provide the school with a signed parental permission form. All posters and handouts from the club must have a non-endorsement clause attached, and all clubs are required to adhere to Texas state law, which prohibits minors from engaging in sexual activity.
“Gay” activists are hailing the ruling as the latest evidence that homosexual student clubs are unstoppable in schools, while family advocates received a “silver lining” victory with the parental permission clause.
Mission America President Linda Harvey doubts that Klein High School’s new GSA will be able to abide by state law.
“Homosexual clubs are always and foremost about sex. So any ‘gay’ club in Texas or any other state with a law prohibiting sexual activity of minors, is an offense to that law,” she told Culture & Family Report. “Gay activists often talk about empowering children to be sexual early with each other, which is why they are in the forefront of efforts to lower age-of-consent laws.”
According to the application submitted to school officials, the club was formed to promote tolerance and nondiscrimination regardless of “sexual orientation.”
“We’ll see some opposition,” Dukler told CNN, adding that she had experienced harassment from other students in the community. “But by educating the students and faculty, it will be a lot easier for me to walk the hallways and for students coming after me to walk the hallways.”
Won’t discuss sex?
But Harvey challenges that narrow mission statement for the club.
“These clubs will say they don’t discuss sex, but they usually do,” Harvey said. “And they certainly sponsor social activities that are centered around sex, like viewing ‘gay’-friendly movies, or recommending books with graphic sex as predominant themes.
“Here’s a good example,” Harvey continued. “A mother in a Long Island middle school called me last year and filled me in on the visit to their new middle school ‘gay’ club, by the author of the novel Rainbow Boys. His name was Alex Sanchez."
Harvey continues:
The book Rainbow Boys is about three 17-year-old boys who explore their homosexuality. It’s full of homo and hetero sex, masturbation fantasies and slang, boys obtaining porn magazines and movies, and sneaking around behind parents’ backs. In one situation in this book, one of the 17-year-olds goes into an Internet chat room, ‘meets’ a guy who he then agrees to go on a date with. The guy is 29 years old and they have unprotected anal sex on this date.
“These sixth, seventh and eighth graders listened to an author who writes about such matters, at a meeting of this ‘gay’ club,” Harvey added. “Parents and students must understand that these ‘GSA’ clubs promote the homosexual activists line, including celebrating immoral behavior, not some sort of innocent discussion of issues.”
Harvey added that most of the “gay” promotion done by GSA is done in the name of “safety” and “tolerance,” even though it is often blatantly bigoted against students holding a traditional moral and religious understanding of homosexuality as wrong.
New resource for parents
Harvey has just published a paper reviewing the books recommended by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which finds that many of the books condone: “the early sexualization of children”; kids “coming out” as homosexuals at a young age; bisexuality and other “fluid” sexual experimentation as a “right” for all students; “gay” meetings (including those with adults present) without parental knowledge; and anti-Christian, anti-religious themes.
Harvey’s paper, ”Children at Risk: GLSEN, Corruption and Crime”, is available on her website. Harvey has also produced a new video, ”No Tolerance for Truth: What Our Children Are Learning about Homosexuality, which can be ordered by regular mail through her site.
Parents strongly protested against the Houston-area GSA, and school district officials said they would have fought the lawsuit if they thought they could have won the case.
“The issue is that regardless of my personal feelings, the principal’s personal feelings or the community’s opinion, it is a matter of law (referring to the Equal Access Act),” Superintendent Jim Surratt told the Associated Press.
The Equal Access Act was passed by Congress primarily to protect student Bible clubs, but it is has become the homosexual activists’ main tool to force schools to accept “gay” clubs.
The ACLU has filed lawsuits in other states seeking to force the acceptance of “gay”/straight alliances. In January, a lawsuit was also filed against Boyd County High School in Cannonsburg, Kentucky.
You can make a difference
Find out if and where “Gay-Straight Alliance” (homosexual) student clubs are operating in your local area schools. Learn what they are promoting and telling their member students. Also, find out what school-wide “awareness” programs they are conducting in the school; request this information from the school principal if necessary. Getting reliable documentation on the GSA and pro-“gay” school programs is the first step toward countering these programs. Schools can also be reminded that they may face legal liabilities for promoting homosexuality to children. An excellent handbook, The Legal Liability Associated with Homosexuality Education in Public Schools, is available from Citizens for Community Values.
Also, you can take steps to ensure that your local libraries do not reflect only the politically-correct, pro-homosexual viewpoint. Go to your local school libraries and find out what books and resources they offer on the issue of “sexual orientation” (homosexuality). In many libraries, this is very easy to do, as you can plug in the word “gay” in the book catalog computer and then peruse all the available books on that topic. (Each book is linked to a short description of the book.) Many libraries also place their entire listings online, for viewing at home by the public. Compile a list of all books on the homosexual (and “transgender” and bisexual) issue at each library. If there is bias in favor of “gay rights” (as there is in most cosmopolitan areas), give the list to the person in charge of book acquisitions at the library and ask what they are doing to make sure both sides of the homosexuality debate are presented.
A great resource for “ex-gay” books and material is Regeneration Books. Call them at 410-661-0284 or send them an email and request their catalog of books and resources. Then discuss with the librarian how (not if) you can make these resources available to the public. In school-based libraries that carry various “gay”-positive books, the imperative is even greater that “ex-homosexual” books and those outlining the moral objections to (and health risks of) homosexuality be included in their collections. You can also donate books yourself to your local library, and that is often the only way some conservative materials make it on the shelves.
But be prepared for opposition: “gay” activists and liberals talk a good game when it comes to “inclusion” and “diversity,” but they often rigidly oppose making opposing viewpoints easily available to the public. Remember: libraries are taxpayer-funded institutions that should reflect their communities. For additional help, contact CFI at 202-488-7000.
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Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 |
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