DriveThru – Get What You Need

In case you were wondering where homosexual activism in public schools can eventually lead, Maine is giving a pretty good preview right now:

“… a boy who identifies himself as a girl is by law allowed to use girls bathrooms, locker rooms and participate on girls sports teams, or vice versa.”  That’s the summary from Maine’s Bangor Daily News, reporting on school guidelines currently under development by Maine’s Human Rights Commission.

So now we are on the cusp of allowing boys into girls restrooms based on their stated identity choice of the day. It’s hard to imagine an environment more sexually confusing for kids—or fraught with risky situations— than that.

At issue is the Maine Human Rights Commission’s efforts to adopt guidelines for schools on how to deal with gender-confused students. While they are being touted as just “guidelines,” the reality is that schools found in violation of the commission’s policies are more vulnerable to losing a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, according to the Bangor Daily News report,  gay activist groups—in particular, the local Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) chapter—have helped develop these guidelines. (GLSEN is the controversial group founded by “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings. It is devoted to promoting homosexuality and ”transgender” behavior to kids all the way down to the kindergarten level.)

The Maine School Management Association has raised concerns that the Human Rights Commission is overstepping its bounds by giving schools specific mandates. And then there’s concerns from both secondary schools and colleges about “fairness” issues in sports  and how teams are classified under NCAA guidelines.

This is just some of the chaos we will continue to see if identity politics and homosexual activism are given free rein in our public school systems.

For more about how transgender-activism is affecting schools’ and states’ policies, check out our “Transgender” Madness commentary.

Yesterday, The Denver Post brought to my attention yet another piece of legislation pending in the U.S.  House that gay activists could use as a political tool to force their will upon schools nationwide:

It’s called the Student Nondiscrimination Act, and it was proposed this week by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

That sounds nice, doesn’t it? I mean, who would be against preventing discrimination?  But this bill is more sinister than it sounds.  

If passed, it would use federal mandates to micromanage local school policy all the way down to the elementary level. It would do this by mandating that every public school in the nation enforce special protections for pro-gay categories like “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

Why is that a problem?

 First of all, it would open our schools up to a new wave of expensive lawsuits, at a time when they are already burdened by unprecedented litigation.

The proposed legislation calls for noncompliers to not only be liable for providing “compensatory damages” and in danger of losing grants, but also to be written up in a report that is filed with a U.S. House committee. The term draconian might be an understatement in this case.

And it’s unclear exactly how “discrimination” will be defined, which is concerning–especially in light of recent cases involving attempts to censor Christian student groups for having values deemed to conflict with pro-gay “nondiscrimination” policies.

Secondly, the bill would give gay activists the leverage they need to force their agenda—against parents’ will—into public schools, again, all the way down to the kindergarten level. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Just consider recent history.

If this legislation doesn’t make it through, supporters have a backup waiting in the wings that’s equally threatening to local control. It’s called the Safe Schools Improvement Act.

Both bills are heavily supported by the largest gay-activist groups in the nation, including the Human Rights Campaign and GLSEN (the organization created by “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings.)

As I explained to the The Denver Post, bullying is a serious problem that should be addressed (at the local level), but you can do so without sexualizing and politicizing the entire school environment. The emphasis should be on the wrong actions of the bullies, not on their “perceived” motivations.

Yesterday, I wrote about the Safe Space Kit that GLSEN wants to send to every middle and high school in the nation. The kit tells educators to use GLSEN’s controversial book list, which promotes sexually graphic content to kids.

But wait, there’s more.

In addition to the book list, the kit gives educators further information for sexualizing the school environment and undermining parental rights.

Let’s just look at a few examples:

• The kit gives educators a “Checklist” to ensure they’ve done enough to sexualize the school environment  (in their words, make it “LGBT-inclusive,” meaning lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender, and we’re still waiting for more letters of the alphabet to be added.)

Suggestions include to implement “a gender-neutral dress code,” “gender-neutral” bathrooms, curriculum infused with homosexual, bisexual and transgender themes, Valentine’s Day celebrations with same-sex couples, in addition to prom and homecoming events that “allow for gender-neutral alternatives to ‘King’ and ‘Queen.’ ” 

• Teachers are instructed to avoid using words like “husband” and “wife” in the classroom and to “avoid gendered pronouns” like “he” and “she.” And to “Promote LGBT events throughout the school…”

So basically, if GLSEN has its way, the concept of ‘male’ and ‘female’ and traditional marriage—and even basic English language pronouns—will be rendered absolutely meaningless to the average public school student.

• GLSEN also wants to undermine parents’ role as the primary nurturers and protectors of their children. For instance, the “safe space” kit makes it clear that 1) teachers are to encourage an environment where kids can “come out” to them and discuss their sexual problems, but that 2) teachers are not to share this information with parents or authorities.

“Let the student know that the conversation is confidential and that you won’t share the information with anyone else, unless they ask for your help,” instructs the GLSEN kit. (Hmm, this sounds suspiciously similar to “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings’ reported response to a teenager who confessed risky behavior.)

Forget about the parents—but “be prepared to refer them to a sympathetic counselor, a hotline, your school’s GSA or an LGBT youth group or community center.”

In other words, teachers are supposed to send your kids, without your knowledge, to left-wing, radical gay-activist groups in the community who will most likely tell them that sexual experimentation is normal and to be expected.

What was that about a “safe space” again?

Warning: Graphic content discussed below.

Come what may, GLSEN—the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network—seems determined to promote sexually explicit content to our school children.

There’s been a public outcry in recent weeks over books GLSEN recommends for kids as young as middle-school age—which graphically describe things like teen-adult sexual interactions in parks and public restrooms.

Despite all this, the organization is stubbornly continuing efforts to push this material into public schools.

Consider GLSEN’s current plea to help it win $1 million from Chase Bank’s Community Giving charity competition. (The bank is allowing social networkers to vote for their favorite charity to win the money.)

GLSEN has announced that if it wins the money, it will use it to send a “Safe Space Kit” to “to every middle and high school in the country.” 

So, just what is in this “Safe Space Kit”? Among other things, instructions to educators to “use GLSEN’s BookLink …  to find appropriate books for your curriculum. … to find grade-appropriate literature for your school library.”

Yup, you got it. The same exact book list that has such “grade-appropriate” offerings as Queer 13. This book, which GLSEN thinks is appropriate for 7^th graders, includes a detailed and extremely disturbing description of a boy being raped by an older man. Afterward the boy exults about how “The whole world of rest-room sex had opened itself up to me.” And that’s just one of the many graphically lewd anecdotes in this book and others on the list.

GLSEN may deem this “grade-appropriate” for 7^th graders. But the majority of U.S. citizens and responsibly thinking parents don’t. And they are outraged. But sadly, GLSEN and its founder—the Obama administration’s “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings—remain deaf to the outcry.

Yet more evidence revealing the dark side of GLSEN–the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network—has surfaced. (GLSEN is the group founded by President Obama’s “safe school’s czar,” Kevin Jennings.)

At issue this time is a GLSEN fundraiser featuring a theatrical play called Santa Claus is Coming Out!

GLSEN’s fundraiser invitation says the play depicts “Santa in his heartfelt struggle to reconcile his romantic relationship with Italian toy maker Giovanni Geppetto.” Pictures on a Web site promoting the production depict Santa in not-so-subtle sexually suggestive situations. The play also mocks those who support traditional values.

It’s sad that GLSEN, which claims that it wants to protect kids, has chosen to use a fundraising tool that perverts the innocence of Christmas and sexualizes the longtime, child-revered icon of Santa Claus.

Public comments made by the play’s writer and performer, Jeffrey Solomon,  provide more enlightening insight into the true agenda of homosexual activists and groups like GLSEN.

In recent interviews, Solomon explained that he “was inspired to write Santa Claus is Coming Out by his research into the parents’ rights movement to keep gay issues out of the classroom.”  He said the central message of his play is “a challenge to speak truthfully to children.” What is his version of “speaking truthfully?” Consider this anecdote Solomon shared:

I was dressed as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and I had a sign saying ‘Rudolph Supports Sexual Diversity.’ And the owner of the pharmacy on Commercial Street came out [shouting]. ‘I’ve got kids inside. Get out of here. They’re asking questions. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see that sign.’ … We love this lie of Santa Claus and when we mess with that ‘they’ [the anti-gay activists] get very upset. The same summer I was promoting the play, and I had the poster ‘Santa Claus is Coming Out.’ A straight couple with a very young boy about 7 asked me directions, and the kid was kind of looking at the poster. Suddenly, the mother clenched her hands over his eyes as I was giving them directions, and she held them there the whole conversation. And it’s very funny. In both these instances, the play is playing out in front of me.”  (“Santa Claus is Coming Out: An Interview with Actor-Writer Jeffrey Solomon,” by Deirdre Donovan, Nov. 29, 2009, TheaterScene.net)

Clearly homosexual activists like Solomon have no qualms about using shock tactics to expose children to homosexuality.  And it’s sad that GLSEN promotes these tactics.  Apparently, GLSEN wants to have it both ways: On one hand, it wants to be perceived as a mainstream group for public schools that’s worthy of parents’ trust. On the other, it wants the freedom to desensitize kids and attack parents’ God-given rights to protect their innocence.

On Friday’s Focus on the Family Action broadcast, Dr. James Dobson alerted listeners about recent actions taken by Congress and our President that could affect families and children for years to come.

He was joined by three members of our public policy team—myself as the education analyst; Tom Minnery, our Vice President; and Carrie Earll, the director of the Issues-Analysis team. Here’s a quick run down:

We began the broadcast by discussing our alarm over the appointment of “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings, including his commitment to pushing homosexual advocacy into schools down to the kindergarten level.

Also topping the list of concerns was President Obama’s pledge to work to overturn a federal law protecting traditional, man-woman marriage (the Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA).

When Tom Minnery pointed out that the President’s pledge actually contradicts traditional-marriage measures passed in at least 45 states, Dr. Dobson expressed his distress: “Can you imagine, now, that the President of the United States stands up there and essentially contradicts and defies the will of the American people in 45 states? What gall!”

Also discussed was the “hate crimes” legislation, recently passed by the U.S. Congress. Carrie Earll expressed her concern about the “aiding and abetting” section that’s attached to the bill, which could eventually be used to attack pastors who dare to preach about homosexuality.

To listen to the whole broadcast, click here.

On Friday afternoon, I was interviewed by Politico writer Josh Gerstein. He wanted to know why Focus on the Family Action was concerned about the following events: 1) President Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign; 2) President Obama’s nomination of Professor Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and 3) Kevin Jennings’ appointment to the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

While I appreciate his effort to include our perspective in the article, I was disappointed to see that he left out the main point: For us, this is about religious freedom.

Our top concern regarding all three of these events, I told Mr. Gerstein, is the erosion of religious liberty. Through these recent appointments—and through pledges made to the largest homosexual advocacy group in the nation—President Obama is pandering to activists who want to silence Christians, not only in the work realm, but in public education and political life in general.

This is very frightening to people of faith.

Let’s take the three events one at a time:

President Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign. Among other things, President Obama pledged to eradicate a federal law defending traditional marriage. We need only look to Massachusetts, the first state to legalize full-fledged gay marriage, to understand the threat this poses to both parental rights and religious freedoms. Parents in that state are now being told they can’t exempt their 2^nd graders from lessons about same-sex marriage—even if it conflicts with their most deeply held religious convictions.

The intolerance of same-sex marriage advocates was on display for all to see during the debate over California’s Prop. 8, which added wording to the state constitution defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. Prop. 8 supporters were subjected to vehement blackballing and even physical attacks. Church buildings were defaced and some people lost their jobs because of their stance.

Nomination of Prof. Feldblum: The President also nominated Georgetown law professor Chai Feldblum to serve on a commission that enforces the nation’s federal employment laws. This is disturbing considering that Feldblum has repeatedly stated that when it comes to a conflict between religious liberty and homosexual activists’ goals (or “sexual liberty” as she terms it)—homosexual activists should win most of the time. This is not comforting to many faith-based business owners, such as Christian day-care operators who receive federal grants and don’t want to be forced to promote gay marriage to preschoolers.

Appointment of Kevin Jennings: I also pointed out to Mr. Gerstein that Kevin Jennings has publicly attacked a mainstream, Christian student group—Young Life. Not to mention his 17-year track record of twisting “safe schools” into a tool for pushing a one-sided agenda into public schools that displays no tolerance for Christian or socially conservative points of view.

The Politico article failed to give any coverage of these religious-freedom concerns, focusing instead on a detailed litany of  “civil rights” demands by homosexual activist groups. If you fall for the semantics—“prohibiting workplace discrimination,” “expanding gay rights”—in the article, this all sounds pretty innocuous.

But the untold story is the very real threat these policies pose to religious freedoms, which is made abundantly clear by the public statements of those pushing them.

More troubling information keeps coming to light on the Obama Administration’s “safe schools czar”—Kevin Jennings.  The new revelations are very disturbing to people of faith who value their religious freedoms.

Now, a column that Jennings wrote for the The Huffington Post has come to light, in which he made a skewering attack on a well-known, mainstream Christian student group, Young Life. He accuses the club of  “ ‘baiting and switching’ to suck young people in.”

In the same column, he also attacks the Texas “Religious Viewpoint Antidiscrimination” law, which was passed to protect students of faith from having their free speech censored in public schools.

This is frightening to parents and students of faith who expect taxpayer funded government education to be neutral and respectful toward all viewpoints, including theirs!

These are just two incidents in a long list of frightening statements that Kevin Jennings and the group he founded—GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network—have made about socially conservative and religious viewpoints. For more examples, click here.

Why is there such a loud outcry over the new “Safe Schools Czar”—Kevin Jennings?

One big reason is that he has a 17-year track record of using the “safe schools” mantra to push a one-sided agenda into schools that has no tolerance for socially conservative or Christian viewpoints.

He did this through the group he founded, GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Just a few examples:

• In a student-club manual, GLSEN defines “community oppression” for kids with this example: “A lesbian attends a house of worship that preaches homosexuality is a sin.”

This is frightening to people of faith: The organization Jennings crafted defines “oppression” as a sermon that doesn’t align with a pro-gay interpretation of the Bible.

• GLSEN recommends a “Homophobia Scale” lesson for high school age students. The scale says that “acceptance” and “tolerance” are “homophobic” attitudes. But “positive levels of attitudes” are “admiration” and “nurturance.”

• GLSEN promotes gender confusion to kids, defining “transphobia” as “Having the sex one was assigned printed on one’s driver’s license…”

• In his book, Becoming Visible—a compilation of suggested studies on homosexuality—Jennings recommends a “heterosexual questionnaire” for students to expose “heterosexism.” Question No. 5: “If you have never slept with someone of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn’t prefer that? Is it possible you merely need a good gay experience?”

To learn more about why people are opposing Jennings’ appointment, click here.