An agenda to undermine parents’ most deeply-held religious convictions is aggressively making its way into our schools, and you can do something about it by donating to Family Leader, one of the few national organizations fighting this issue at school and standing up for parents who don’t want their children confused about sexuality and gender. Donate by clicking here. Your support makes a difference.
The Family Leader Foundation works to develop public policy that supports traditional marriage and family, parents’ rights and religious liberty as well as fights pornography and the homosexual agenda in the classroom. It seeks to energize citizens through education and publishes the www.familyleader.net website to update and analyze issues of critical importance right now. Michelle Anderson serves as the executive vice-president of the Family Leader Foundation.
It’s another start of the school year and with all the apprehension about new schools, classmates, and teachers, you can add one more item to the list—homosexual advocacy directed at your school children.
It is common for a minority of people to seek to remake the society of which they are a part in their own image. This is certainly true in our times, which could arguably be called “the age of minority rule”. For instance, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans recognize a supreme God, there have been a determined minority of people in our society that sought to remake our culture—including what it holds sacred and inviolate. For years they have succeeded in enthroning a godless, secular, humanist view of the world in the public square. But over the last decade they have set their sites on a more specific target—the equalization and normalization of homosexuality with heterosexuality.
The leaders of this movement figured out a long time ago that their efforts in the legislative arena are not effective, they have had little success at the ballot box, and their efforts certainly haven’t changed, as they say, hearts and minds. In the judicial branch they have been much more effective in getting their agenda implemented, but again, changing hearts and minds has been harder to come by. So their current, and by far most effective front, which is certain to change hearts and minds, is the very fabric of our culture—the education system. As one homosexual activist stated, “schools play a key role in teaching and reinforcing the dominant values of the culture and this holds especially true in areas of gender and sexuality.”[i] Therefore, by flooding the schools (along with the entertainment/media industry), they will be able to guarantee a change of not only policy but also hearts & minds in the younger generation.
While indoctrination in schools in one form or another has been going on for decades, two factors have shifted the momentum away from the majority—traditional family proponents. The first is that the overwhelming federal presence and mandates now in every locality has opened an avenue for the homosexual agenda to change the entire American culture. Second, homosexual activists have found a new stealth way of indoctrinating our children—“anti-bullying” or “safe schools” policies. It is a brilliant tactic, because lets face it, what parent would not be a proponent of anti-bullying policies. Even suggesting a problem with such policies, as was the case in a recent Denver Post[ii] and Newser[iii] article, can be an invitation to ridicule and a label of extremist.
Let me state for the record, unequivocally, that any harassment or bullying of someone because of their sexual orientation is wrong and should not be tolerated, plain and simple. We should teach our children to respect and treat others with kindness, especially those that may be “different”. Strong policies against any form of bullying for any reason against any child should be in place at every school. (For an excellent model anti-bullying policy crafted by attorneys for use at your school, see this link[iv].) So what could possibly be negative about these “safe-schools” and “anti-bullying” initiatives of which we’re talking? Absolutely nothing, on the principle of it—it’s in the not-so-un”intended” consequences that there’s a problem.
What’s the Problem?
The specific anti-bullying and safe schools policies that groups like GLSEN[v] (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network—the primary homosexual activist organization for schools) are pushing into schools specifically name sexual orientation and gender identification as special categories for protection. The legal effect of specifying these specific groups is that it can open the way for reverse discrimination of those who personally oppose this lifestyle from expressing their views without being labeled as a bully or creating an “unsafe” environment. The hidden, but purposeful agenda of those who create these policies is to associate all objections to homosexuality with “hate” and “discrimination,” thus intimidating and marginalizing those who disagree with the lifestyle, and in the case below actually taking away parental rights. This outcome is not theoretical, it has already been demonstrated in several states.
A Case Study
For example, in Alameda, CA on the same day that Proposition 8—a law defining marriage between a man and a woman—was upheld in the state supreme court, the “Alameda school board pushed through a curriculum that promoted homosexuality and gay marriage to elementary kids. Parents who objected discovered they could not opt their kids out of this teaching—even if it conflicted with their family’s most deeply held religious convictions. So how did the school board justify promotion of same-sex marriage to 6, 7 and 8 year olds on the very same day the state’s highest court upheld the definition of traditional marriage? Pay close attention to this: Alameda education officials adopted the curriculum in the name of fighting bullying. They justified their actions by citing state and local ‘student safety’ and ‘nondiscrimination’ policies that include protection for ‘sexual orientation’. ‘These laws and policies mandate public schools prevent discrimination and harassment based on legally protected categories. The laws and policies explicitly state that we must protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and staff.”[vi] So, “basically, the school officials interpreted legally mandated “protection” to mean forced homosexuality teaching for all.”
The parents tried to fight back by filing a lawsuit asking for the right to opt out their kids. To make their case, the parents cited a provision in the California education code granting parents the right to opt kids out of school health instruction if it conflicted with families’ religious beliefs. But the judge determined the bullying lessons didn’t qualify as health instruction—and therefore the opt-out provision didn’t apply. The judge also specified that ‘any opt out right’ is ‘outweighed by the policies against discrimination and harassment of students from LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] families.’”[vii]
This scenario and others like it have already played out in several other states such as Massachusetts, Iowa, New Jersey, and Minnesota. These are not accidental consequences, but intentional outcomes.
Leverage to Introduce Homosexual Curriculum in Schools
As the influential homosexual activist organization Human Rights Campaign recognized, schools with safe-schools policies of the kind we’re referring to may be more open to homosexual curriculum. They have created just such a curriculum called the “Welcoming Schools Guide” which brings “an LGBT-inclusive approach to addressing family diversity, gender stereotyping and bullying and name-calling in K-5 learning environments.
”[viii] They openly state that, “Welcoming Schools also includes very specific attention to family diversity, including LGBT families, anti-LGBT bias and gender stereotyping within discussions of bullying.
If your school has already adopted or is planning to adopt an anti-bullying program, you can work to integrate material from Welcoming Schools to enhance the impact on your school.”[ix] They boast that, “Welcoming Schools has been piloted and evaluated in three school districts in Calif., Mass. and Minn. With the completion of the pilots, the project will move toward broader distribution of the Welcoming Schools Guide.”[x]
“The creators of the Welcoming Schools curriculum, the Human Rights Campaign, claim that this curriculum is all about teaching ‘diversity’ and preventing ‘name calling.’ But lesson plans within the curriculum—such as the ‘Family Diversity Photo Puzzle’— reveal that it’s more about indoctrination. For instance, the ‘Diversity Photo Puzzle,’ designed for kids in the first through third grades, gives children puzzle pieces depicting photographs of people. Children are told to arrange the photos into seven families. But lo and behold, after they begin the assignment, they find themselves forced to ‘create some families with adults of the same gender’ and to ‘make decisions about whether to label the adults as two mothers,’ explains the lesson plan guide. It’s difficult to find a more blatant example of indoctrination than that.”[xi]
Therefore, as you can plainly see from their own words, the homosexual activists’ intent is to use the noble effort of eradicating bullying as leverage to push homosexuality-themed curricula in schools. GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), is an activist group dedicated to promoting homosexuality to public school kids all the way down to kindergarten and has advocated taking a “whole-school approach, incorporating gay issues into extracurricular activities, assemblies, faculty and parent education programs and across the curriculum in every class.
Some additional curricula in the form of videos that are currently being used in many schools across the nation that you need to watch out for:
• It’s a Family (for elementary schools)
is a documentary that “breaks new ground in helping children in grades K-8 understand the different shapes families take today.”[xii]
• Let’s Get Real (for middle schools) “helps open dialogue about the underlying prejudice- related to issues such as gender identity, race, national origin, class, religion, sexual orientation and more-that is fueling the bullying epidemic.”[xiii]
• Straightlaced (for high schools)
“illustrate(s) the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all of our lives.”[xiv]
Nurturing” & “Admiring” Homosexuality
The radical agenda of the homosexual activists’ behind these efforts in the schools and elsewhere is not about preventing the mistreatment of those who identify as LGBT. Their ultimate objective might surprise even those who accept their efforts. You see, its not even enough for someone to accept or to have a “live and let live attitude” toward homosexuality, transgender, etc, according to GLSEN; that attitude is still “homophobic.” You have to actively support and ultimately be an advocate for the cause to be considered to have a “positive” attitude. In the teacher training manual, “Tackling LGBT Issues in School” from GLSEN & Planned Parenthood, they provide the “Homophobic Scale” to be taught to “high school & above.” In this scale the “homophobic levels of attitude” are:
1. Repulsion: Homosexuality is seen as a “crime against nature.” Gays/lesbians are sick, crazy, immoral, sinful, wicked, etc. Anything is justified to change them: prison, hospitalization, negative behavior therapy, electroshock therapy, etc
2. Pity: Heterosexual chauvinism. Heterosexuality is more mature and certainly to be preferred. Any possibility of “becoming straight” should be reinforced, and those who seem to be born “that way” should be pitied, “the poor dears.”
3. Tolerance: Homosexuality is just a phase of adolescent development that many people go through and most people “grow out of.” Thus, lesbians/gays are less mature than “straights” and should be treated with the protectiveness and indulgence one uses with a child. Lesbians/gays should not be given positions of authority because they are still working through their adolescent behavior
4. Acceptance: Still implies there is something to accept. Characterized by such statements as “You’re not a lesbian to me, you’re a person!” or “What you do in bed is your own business,” or “That’s fine with me as long as you don’t flaunt it!”
Whereas the “positive levels of attitude” are: (Notice the ACLU position is the bare-minimum)
1. Support: The basic ACLU position. Work to safeguard the rights of lesbians and gays. People at this level may be uncomfortable themselves, but they are aware of the homophobic climate and the irrational unfairness
2. Admiration: Acknowledges that being lesbian/gay in our society takes strength. People at this level are willing to truly examine their homophobic attitudes, values and behaviors
3. Appreciation: Value the diversity of people and see lesbians/gays as a valid part of that diversity. These people are willing to combat homophobia in themselves and others.
4. Nurturance: Assumes that gay/lesbian people are indispensable in our society. They view lesbians/gays with genuine affection and delight, and are willing to be allies and advocates [xv]
So, by getting their safe-schools agenda into the schools, they can move society into not just “tolerance” and “acceptance,” because those are still “homophobic” in their eyes, but to viewing homosexuality as “indispensable” where people will be “willing to be allies and advocates” for homosexuality.
According to GLSN, it is homophobic to believe that heterosexuality is the norm, is healthier or better in anyway. It is homophobic to assume that only heterosexuality is right, good, or legitimate. It is homophobic to belong to a church that teaches heterosexuality as the norm and sees homosexuality as sinful or immoral. Should the homosexual advocacy come to your school, a religious child will be taught that he and his parents are homophobes. So much for tolerance.
Take Action!
1. “Be proactive. Don’t wait until inappropriate material gets into classrooms, or your child’s hands, to do something about it. Once bad policies and curricula get in, it’s very hard to get them out. Educate school personnel and elected officials”[xvi] by using resources such as Family Leader.net www.familyleader.net and TrueTolerance to help you get the best information and data available on this issue to your school officials.
2. “Promote the right solution. Recognize that bullying and peer abuse is wrong and should be stopped. But this can and should be done without politicizing classrooms and introducing controversial, sexual topics to children. Implement strong and objective policies that prohibit bullying for any reason against any child. Counteract bad policies by offering an effective and legally sound alternative like the model anti-bullying policy developed by the Alliance Defense Fund.
3. Avoid creating special categories for protection. Policies that single out certain characteristics for special protections are counterproductive. They put the focus on the wrong place — on the characteristics of the victim, rather than on the actions of the bullies. Plus, listing certain categories creates a system ripe for reverse discrimination.
4. Use statistics to make your case. Statistics clearly show that bullying is widespread among children for a wide variety of reasons. Thus, children are best served by a policy that gives equal protection to everyone and does not single out certain characteristics as being more worthy of protection than others.
(Access up-to-date statistics and talking points in the “bullying resources” section of TrueTolerance.
org.)
5. Counteract deception with facts. Use facts to expose deceptive indoctrination. In the “What Parents Should Know” box, True Tolerance.org provides concrete examples of so-called tolerance lessons that gay-advocacy groups use to brainwash young children. Use this information to provide documentation to your school officials and concerned citizens.”[xvii]
6. Gather with Other Concerned Parents. There’s strength and more influence in numbers. Gather together other parents who share your concerns and approach the school together. Not only is this moral support for you, but most school officials are more reactive when they can see a number of parents have concerns.
7. Get Media Attention. There are a few things school administrators are vigilant about avoiding, negative media attention and lawsuits. While lawsuits are a last option if your parental rights have been infringed on, usually you can accomplish your goals through the previous steps. If however all your efforts are fruitless, let the school know you will be notifying your local media, and then do it! Chances are if you and several other parents are concerned, many other parents will be too. Just this summer when the media reported on a Helena, MT school district’s decision to include homosexuality in elementary ed. curriculum, 500 people attended the school board meeting and stopped it.
For more excellent resources on this subject see:
- True Tolerance. A project of Focus on the Family which specifically deals with homosexual advocacy in the schools: https://www.truetolerance.org/
- Citizen Link’s “Parents’ Beware” article: https://www.truetolerance.org/p9_June_Jul_Citizen_10_antibullying.pdf
- Model anti-bullying policy: https://www.truetolerance.org/ADFmodelbullyingpolicy.pdf
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[i] Elizabeth Meyer, Teaching sexuality: How much can we expect from classroom teachers? Psychology Today, Jul 21, 2010.
[ii] Electa Draper, “Focus on Family says anti-bullying efforts in schools push gay agenda,” Denver Post, 8/29/2010 .
[iii] Evann Gastaldo, “Anti-Bully Campaigns a Front for Gay Agenda”, Newser, August 31, 2010,
[iv] This policy was carefully researched and crafted by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys. This policy can be used or implemented at either the state or local level, and is comprehensive in all respects, carefully balancing the rights of children with the rights of administrators and educators. Without advancing any sexual or other agendas, this policy successfully prohibits all forms of bullying, for any reason, and cannot be argued to exclude any particular child, or class of children, who are vulnerable to being bullied. You can find the policy here .
[v] Last year President Obama appointed a federal “safe schools czar”, Kevin Jennings, who is the founder and director of GLSEN.
[vi] Alameda Unified School District. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Ensuring Safe Schools in Alameda Unified School District: Addressing Issues of Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity. Community Forums: Feb. 4, 2009-Otis School; Feb. 5, 2009-Washington School. Page 9. Accessible here. 5 Balde v. Alameda Unified School District (2009). Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, Order No. RG 09-468037. Accessible here. Quoted in, Candi Cushman, “The Problem With Politicized Bullying Policies,” .
[v] Balde v. Alameda Unified School District (2009). Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, Order No. RG 09-468037. Accessible here . Quoted in, Candi Cushman, “The Problem With Politicized Bullying Policies,”.
[vi] “About,”.
[vii] “Bullying & Name Calling,” (emphasis added)