P.S.  Why would parents entrust their children to adults who proudly call themselves and their sexual agenda “queer”?  And are we surprised that such a movement actually has spawned groups built around such vile perversions as “fisting”?

[WARNING: Very Graphic Sexual Language; sex acts and perversions described just as they were in group conversations between adults and underage youth at the GLSEN-sponsored conference in Boston in 2000]

“What’s Fisting?”: That’s the question that a teenager asked an adult at a Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN)-sponsored conference at Tufts University in Boston in 2000. (GLSEN was founded by Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s pick to head up the “Safe Schools” wing at the Department of Education.) What followed from this perverse question was a detailed explanation of this disgusting perversion, including “how-to” advise on how to “fist” (hand/arm-anal and -vaginal penetration) “correctly.” At left is the logo of the Chicago group MAFIA, Mid-America Fists in Action, Inc., a homosexual club that holds “fisting parties” for men into this vile and dangerous perversion. (MAFIA holds “fisting” parties every year at Chicago’s International Mr. Leather.)

TAKE ACTION: Kevin Jennings wants to use schools to “promote homosexuality.” His group has repeatedly exposed children to harmful and promiscuous “gay” sexual behaviors and exhibited a recklessness toward youth that should disqualify him and GLSEN from working in any school anywhere. Call your Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to call for the withdrawal of Jennings as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Also call or write President Obama (202-456-1414) and Education Secretary Arne Duncan (arne.duncan@ed.gov; 202-401-3000) and urge them not to reward Jennings and GLSEN with this influential appointment.

_________________________________

The following affidavit is reprinted from the Lambda Report newsletter (April 2000), published by Peter LaBarbera, which preceded Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. On April 18, 2000, Scott Whiteman submitted an affidavit, excerpted below, describing the March 25 conference of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Boston to the Hon. Martha Coakley, District Attorney for Middlesex County, Mass.

LaBarbera and Massachusetts pro-family advocate Brian Camenker had advised Whiteman to secretly tape the “What They Didn’t Tell You About Queer Sex & Sexuality In Health Class” youth panel – presuming that: 1) highly inappropriate discussions would occur; 2) homosexuality advocates likely would deny that the controversial talks actually took place; and 3) the subject matter would be so shocking and outrageous that nobody would believe Whiteman unless he provided proof of the actual GLSEN workshop. Those predictions proved to be right on the money as Whiteman’s “undercover” audiotape –– the basis of what came to be known in conservative circles as “Fistgate” –– provided the most damning evidence to date of homosexual activists’ breathtaking irresponsibility toward children in their care.

Homosexual activists ended up suing Whiteman and Camenker for making the secret recording — incredibly citing the “privacy” rights of the students in the “Queer Sex & Sexuality” workshop. For an even more detailed report on the GLSEN “Fistgate” seminars, see MassResistance’s website.

Following is Whiteman’s affidavit (emphasis added in bold):
_____________________________________

It is my belief that three public servants should be investigated for their involvement in the corruption of minors at a recent student/teacher conference in Medford. Additionally, as the conference was supported by several publicly funded and private groups and the Department of Education, I believe that they may have some liability for the corruption of children.

On the weekend of March 25, 2000, I attended the tenth annual “GLSEN/BOSTON & Project 10 East Teach Out!” conference at Tufts University. GLSEN is a national Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, led by Kevin Jennings a former Massachusetts teacher. GLSEN works with teachers and students throughout the nation and claims to fight what they deem “homophobia.” GLSEN/BOSTON is headed by Wallace Bachman and receives some funding from the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth and the Massachusetts Department of Education through the Safe Schools Program.

I attended two workshops while at the conference that should be brought to your attention. In the first workshop, entitled “What They Didn’t Tell You About Queer Sex & Sexuality In Health Class: A Workshop For Youth Only ages 14-21,” the three homosexual presenters acting in their professional capacities coaxed about 20 children into talking openly and graphically about homosexual sex. The three presenters were:

• Margot E. Abels, Coordinator, HIV/AIDS Program, Massachusetts Department of Education, self-proclaimed lesbian
• Julie Netherland, Coordinator, HIV/AIDS Program, Massachusetts Department of Education, self-proclaimed lesbian
• Michael Gaucher, Consultant, HIV/AIDS Program, Massachusetts Department of Education, self-proclaimed “gay” man

The workshop syllabus was a follows:

This workshop for youth addresses what is different for glbt (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual) youth when it comes to sex, dating, relationships, HIV etc. Come and discuss the questions you couldn’t or didn’t ask in health class. What’s it like to be young, queer and beginning to date? Are lesbians at rick for HIV? What does it to identify as queer and still be sexually active with the opposite sex? Who can you talk to about these things? And, why aren’t queer issues addressed in Sex Ed classes? We will address the information you want about queer sexuality and some of the politics that prevent us from getting our needs met.

The workshop opened by the three public employees asking the children how they know, as gay people, whether or not they’ve had sex. Questions were thrown around the room about whether oral sex was “sex,” to which the Department of Public Health employee stated, “If that’s not sex, then the number of times I’ve had sex has dramatically decreased; from a mountain to a valley, baby.” Eventually the answer presented itself, and it was determined that whenever an orifice was filled with genitalia, then sex had occurred. In coming to that conclusion, one student, egged on by the Department of Public Health employee, said in response to the question, “What orifices are we talking about?”:

Michael Gaucher: “Don’t be shy, honey; you can do it.”
Student: “Youth mouth.”
Gaucher: “Okay.”
Student: “Your ass.”
Gaucher: “There you go.”
Student: “Your pussy. That kind of place.”

By my estimation, that child was just about 16 years old.

But since sex occurred when an orifice was filled, the next question was obviously whether lesbians could “have sex.” At one point, Margot Abels asked whether a dildo [fake penis] had to be involved; could one be too big or too small; and where would students go to get these questions answered?

The children were asked to role play at this point. The scene was set up like this: One student was a “young lesbian who’s really attracted to another woman, and it’s really coming down to the with and you’re thinking about having sex.” The other student played the “hip GSA (gay, straight alliance) lesbian advisor, who you feel you can talk to.” In effect, Michael Gaucher was telling these high school aged children that they should be talking about lesbian sex, oral-vaginal contact, or “carpet munching,” as one student called it, with a teacher. The student asked whether it would smell like fish.

“What’s Fisting?”
At one point in the session, there was a five-minute break so that all of the teenagers could write down their questions for the homosexual presenters. The first question was read by Julie Netherland: “What’s fisting?”

A student answered this question by informing the class that “fisting” is when you put your “whole hand into the ass or pussy” of another. When a few of the students winced, Gaucher, the Department of Public Health employee, offered, “A little known fact about fisting, you don’t make a fist, like this. It’s like this,” forming his hand into the shape of a tear drop rather than a balled fist. He informed the children that it was much easier [this way].

Margot Abels told the students that “fisting” is not about forcing your have into somebody’s “hole, opening or orifice” if they don’t want it there. She said that “usually” the person was very relaxed, and opened him or herself up to the other. She informed the class that it is a very emotional and intense experience.

At this point, a child of about 16 asked why someone would want to do that. He said that if the hand were pulled out quickly, the whole thing didn’t sound very appealing to him. Abels responded by pointing out that although fisting “often gets a really bad rap,” it usually isn’t about the pain, “not that we’re putting that down.” She informed the student and the class that “fisting” was “an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with.” Thus Gaucher provided the “how-to” of this lascivious act, and Abels the incentive. When a teen asked the question, “why,” Margot Abels provided comfort to the children, to “put them into an exploratory mode.”

Gaucher then read the students’ next question: “Do lesbians rub their clits [clitorises] together?”

Gaucher and Abels asked if it was possible, and whether someone would do a “hand-diagram” for the class. No one volunteered, but a girl who I estimate was 15 or 16 stepped up to the board and draw a three foot high vagina, and labeled each of the labia, the clitoris, and “put up inside the ‘G’-spot.” While drawing, Gaucher told her to use the “pink” chalk, to which Abels responded, “not everyone is pink, honey.” All of the youths laughed.

After the chalk vagina was complete, the children remarked about the size of the “clit,” and the presenters stated that that was a gifted woman. Then, Abels informed all of the young girls that indeed, you can rub your “clitori” together, either with or without your clothes on, and “you can definitely orgasm from it.” Gaucher told the entire class that “these is a name for this: tribadism.” Which he wrote on the board, and told one girl who I estimate was 14 years old to bring that vocabulary word back to Bedford, where she apparently went to school. Julie Netherland, the other Department of Education consultant, informed the children that this lesbian sex act wasn’t too difficult, because “when you are sexually around, your clit gets bigger.”

Gaucher then read the following from a card: “Cum [semen] and calories: Spit versus swallow and the health concerns.” He informed the children that although he didn’t know the caloric count of male ejaculation, he has “heard that it’s sweeter if people eat celery.” The public employee thereafter asked, “Is it rude not to swallow?” Many of the high school boys mumbled, “No,” by one, about the age of 16, said emphatically, “Oh no!” Another student, against about the age of 16, offered his advice on avoiding HIV/AIDS transmission while giving oral sex: do not brush your teeth or eat course food for four hours before you “go down on a guy…because then you probably don’t want to be swallowing cum.”

Another question submitted to the presenters was whether oral sex was a better with tongue rings. A 16-year-old student murmured, “yes,” to which all of the children laughed. Gaucher said, “There you have it,” and said something to the effect that the debate on that issue had ended.

Advising the Teachers
The second session which I attended was far less graphic, but potentially more dangerous. This session was presented by the same three public employees in their professional capacity and was titled, “Putting the ‘Sex’ Back Into Sexual Orientation: Classroom Strategies for Health & Sexuality Educators.”

The workshop syllabus read as follows:

What does it mean to say “being gay, lesbian and bisexual isn’t about sex?” Where do queer youth get their information about sex and sexuality? How can we deny that sexuality is central for all of us? How do we learn to address the unique concerns of queer youth? What about the epidemiology and risk behavior data concerning sexual activity, HIV and pregnancy for queer kids? This workshop is for educators to examine strategies for integrating sexuality education and HIV prevention content specific to gay, lesbian and bisexual students into the classroom and GSA’s. Data will be presented, exercises from the GSA/HIV Prevention Project will be shared and additional strategies will be discussed.

These three presenters who had just instructed a group of 14- to 18-year-olds on how to properly position your hand for “fisting” now assumed the task of teaching teachers how to facilitate discussions about “queer” sex with their students. Several of the attending teachers asked to review the questions which the students had submitted earlier.

Margot Abels opened by telling the room full of teachers (and two high school students), “We always feel like we are fighting against people who say publicly, who say privately, that being queer is not at all about sex…We believe otherwise. We think that sex is central to every single one of us, and particularly queer youth.”

Abels, Julie Netherland and Michael Gaucher reviewed a few “campaigns” that have been used to demonstrate to homosexual youth how to best “be safe.”

The campaign, “Respect yourself, protect yourself,” was praised as effective in getting the message to kids that they should use protection, but since it made children who didn’t protect themselves feel bad, ultimately it was judged a poor message.

Gaucher asked if children [are] “with an older partner, [whom] they are not feeling they can discuss things with, does that mean that they don’t respect themselves?” My question is why does Gaucher not consider boys having sexual relations with men, either with or without a condom, to be a problem. Let me put this into perspective. If I, a 26-year-old man, were to approach a 16-year-old girl for sexual intercourse, wouldn’t I end up in trouble? Yet public employees, who are bound by law to report abuse under [Massachusetts] rule §51(A), are concerned more with how the young sodomized boy feels that whether he is being sodomized at all. This is absolutely outrageous.

The campaign, “No sex, no problem,” was ridiculed, as it assumed that children could opt not to have sex. Additionally, it made those children who had already had sex feel bad, or think they had a problem, since they had sex.

After reviewing a few of the campaigns, Abels described the project she works on. The “Gay/Straight Alliance HIV Education Project” goes around five different schools each year conducting up to eight HIV prevention sessions in that school’s gay club. These same presenters who just told a group of children how to properly position their hands for “fisting” were now telling a room full of educators that they would visit their schools and conduct their workshops for their students.

One participant remarked halfway through that Abels just wasn’t “talking to” her, since she, the participant, was a lesbian-middle school teacher. She wanted to know specifically what she could do to facilitate discussions about homosexuality in middle school. After I left that session, I met a few people and we compared notes. I was told of another session entitled, “Struggles & Triumphs of Including Homosexuality in a Middle School Curriculum.” Christine L. Hoyle, Special Education Teacher and workshop presenter, told the story of how she turned the Holocaust portion of her curriculum into a gay affirming section. Ms. Hoyle allowed the group at the conference to watch a video which she had her students produce and which was narrated by a seventh grade girl. This girl told the audience that ancient Greeks “encouraged homosexuals; in fact, it was considered normal for an adolescent boy to have an older, wiser man as his lover.” In effect, this teacher informed her adolescent students that it is okay if an older man approaches them for sexual gratification.

I have a compendium of resources and information which I obtained at the conference encouraging young children to become actively engaged in homosexual activities. I approached the Sidney Borum Community Health Center table to obtain a cassette sized “pocket sex” kit, which included two condoms, two antiseptic “moist” towelettes, and six bandages, which were for when the sex got really rough according to the high school-aged volunteer behind the desk. I now have a countless supply of condoms supplied by both Sidney Borum and Planned Parenthood, all of which was for the taking by any child who wanted them…

I am extremely troubled by what I learned at the GLSEN conference, and even more troubled…that it was led largely by Department of Education employees and was supported by Commissioner [David] Driscoll and the Department of Education, which is demonstrated by [Driscoll’s] attached letter [of support] to participants as well as the Department’s endorsement of the conference by offering six Professional Development Activities hours for teachers attending the conference.

The specific areas in the law I am asking for you to investigate are the abrogation of Massachusetts General Laws, ch. 272, § 2, 4, and 28: Enticing away a person for prostitution or sexual intercourse; Inducing person under 18 to have sexual intercourse; and Matter harmful to minors, dissemination; possession; defenses, respectively…

I swear under oath and the pains and penalties of perjury that everything written within this letter, to be best of my knowledge and recollection, is true and factually accurate.

Scott T. Whiteman
Peabody, Massachusetts

Of course, we now know that Jennings was heavily involved in the anti-religious homosexual extremist group ACT UP — so the case for dumping this conservative-Christian-hating activist just keeps getting stronger. I’m starting to hope that he stays on at the Department Education — because we’ve never had an opportunity like this to teach Americans about GLSEN’s manipulative, child-corrupting agenda. Stay tuned: much more coming from AFTAH on Jennings — including his absurdly “queer” take on the “sexual orientation” of one of America’s most revered presidents. —- Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. If you want a quick education on how depraved the pro-homosexual Left is in this country, consider their main defense of Jennings with regard to the underage sophomore student whom he counseled as a private high school teacher: a boy named Brewster who apparently was seduced by an older homosexual man who picked him up in a public restroom. When Jennings told the story, he said the boy was 15, but it appears Brewster was actually 16 at the time of the seduction. Thus the predatory sex did not violate the Age of Consent law in Massachusetts — a highly technical point that the left-wing group Media Matters and various homosexual activist sites are relying on to buttress Jennings’ case. (Upon learning of the encounter, Jennings wrote that he told the boy, “It’s OK to be gay,” as if the “man-boy” sex somehow confirms homosexual “orientation.”

A list of AFTAH articles on Jennings and GLSEN follows the letter (emphasis and links added):

October 15, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration. It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.

As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools—an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

Equally troubling is Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.

As the “safe schools” czar, Mr. Jennings is also charged with ensuring our schools and students are drug free. It is clear that Mr. Jennings is unfit to serve in this capacity, as well. His own history of unrepentant drug and alcohol abuse indicates that he is of the opinion that getting drunk and high as a young person is acceptable. In his memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, Mr. Jennings describes his use of illegal drugs, without expressing regret or acknowledging the devastating effects illegal drug use can have on a person’s life.

Everyone that deals with the education of the most vulnerable must be a positive role model. Our children are not blessed with the wisdom to discern and reject. Children presume the adults who educate them are approved by the larger society and their parents. Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free. You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.

Given these very serious issues with Mr. Jennings’ record, we urge you to remove him immediately.

Sincerely,

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)

Alexander
Aderholt
Akin
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Bartlett
Barton
Boozman
Broun
Brown, H.
Carter
Chaffetz
Coffman
Cole
Conaway
Davis, Geoff
Fallin
Fleming
Foxx
Franks
Garrett
Gingrey
Gohmert
Hunter
Issa
Jordan
Lamborn
Latta
LuetkemeyerMarchant
McClintock
McHenry
McKeon
McMorris
Mica
Miller, J.
Myrick
Neugebauer
Olson, P.
Pence
Pitts
Posey
Rogers (AL)
Rooney
Ryan, Paul
Shuster
Smith, C
Smith, L.
Wamp
Westmoreland
Jones, Walter

_______________________________________

AFTAH Articles on Kevin Jennings and GLSEN:

• Kevin Jennings’ 1997 Transcript: ‘Promoting Homosexuality’ in Schools and Praising Pro-NAMBLA ‘Gay’ Activist Harry Hay
• BREAKING: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Chief Kevin Jennings Used Pro-Pedophile, pro-NAMBLA Publisher for First Three Books
• GLSEN Founder and Obama Education Appointee Kevin Jennings Said ‘[F- -k] ‘em’ to Religious Right — in a Church
• ‘Gay’ Leader Kevin Jennings Says Dream Is to ‘Promote Homosexuality’ in Schools
• Obama Appointee Kevin Jennings Can’t Remember Saying the F-Word to Bash Christians — in a Church
• Was Troubled Teen Seduced by Adult Homosexual and Counseled by GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings Really ‘Gay’?
• AFTAH Calls on Obama and Education Sec. Arne Duncan to Withdraw Nomination of Homosexual Extremist Bigot and GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings to Preside over ‘Safe Schools’
• LISTEN: Audio of Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Czar Kevin Jennings: Told Teen Student ‘Brewster’ that he Hoped he Used a Condom in Sex with Homosexual Predator
• Washington Times: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Czar Kevin Jennings Enabled Sexual Predator of Teen Boy
• Kevin Jennings’ Statement on ‘Brewster’ Incident: Too Little, Too Late
• Letter - No Shame on Jennings-Alyson Publications-NAMBLA story?
• ‘What’s Fisting?’ Scott Whiteman’s Affidavit on the 2000 GLSEN ‘Fistgate’ Scandal
• Listen Online: LaBarbera, Harvey Discuss Kevin Jennings Appointment at Dept. of Education
• GLSEN’s Indoctrination Agenda: How One Teacher Explained Her Lesbianism to Kindergartners
• Kevin Jennings’ Legacy: ‘Gay Youth Pride’ in Boston
• Rep. Steve King Wants Homosexuality-Promoter Kevin Jennings Gone as ‘Safe Schools’ Chief
• Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Chief Kevin Jennings Gave Dual Histories of Mom’s Participation in ‘Gay Pride’ March
• Educational Malpractice: Waubonsie Valley High School in Naperville, IL, Promotes GLSEN’s ‘Day of Silence’

——————————————————————————–
From: ColdCountry [mailto:--------]
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 7:55 AM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: [AFT Web Site] Kevin Jennings

The following message was sent from the Americans for Truth Web site:

__________________________

Re: “BREAKING: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Chief Kevin Jennings Used Pro-Pedophile, pro-NAMBLA Publisher for First Two Books” … Gee, that’s huge! Does he also drive the same make car as Ted Bundy? And why are you still pushing that lie about an “underage” boy, when we now know [Brewster -- a sophomore student counseled by Jennings after the boy had a sexual encounter with an older man] he was not underage? [The Age of Consent in Massachusetts is 16.] Have you no shame at all?

__________________________

AFTAH’s Response:

Dear Sir, it appears that it is you who has no shame. Yes, we think it’s scandalous to be linked in any way to an organization that encourages predatory, exploitative man-boy sex. It would be like signing up with a pro-Nazi publishing house. And in my mind, under 18 is “under age.” How sad and pathetic that your “gay” movement is resting on the technicality that Brewster was (allegedly) 16 and not 15 (as his teacher Jennings recollected) — to absolve Jennings of his reckless counsel to the boy.

[Editor's Note: we erroneously first reported that only Kevin Jennings' first two books were published by Alyson Publications; a third, Telling Tales Out of School, was also published by the pedophilia-positive company.]

Soft on NAMBLA? The pro-pedophilia book was published by the same homosexual company, the now-defunct Alyson Publications, that Kevin Jennings used to publish his first two books.

By Peter LaBarbera

President Obama’s “Safe Schools” chief, homosexual activist Kevin Jennings, used a pro-pedophile (and pro-NAMBLA) publishing company, Alyson Publications, to produce his first two books, Americans For Truth has learned.

Jennings is already under fire for praising his hero, early homosexual activist Harry Hay, despite Hay’s longtime,  dedicated support of NAMBLA — the North American Man/Boy Love Association, which advocates for sex between men and boys. (Jennings’ praise of Hay was first reported by AFTAH’s Lambda Report in 1998 based on a GLSEN conference where Jennings spoke the previous year.) Moreover, many have questioned Jennings’ judgment — as a private high school teacher — for failing to report to authorities an apparent seduction by an adult man of one of his sophomore students. In his book, Jennings describes using the situation to confirm the student, Brewster, as “gay.”

These three books by Jennings were published by the now-defunct Alyson Publications:

• Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School and College Students (1994); and
• One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories (1994)
• Telling Tales Out of School (2000)

Below is a reproduction of Americans For Truth’s debut press release, issued in 1993, highlighting Alyson’s pro-pederasty connections. This release was the debut edition of “Lambda Report,” a newsletter monitoring the “gay” activist movement that actually preceded AFTAH.

Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) — and a one-time activist with the homosexual extremist group ACT UP — is a man of words, who has devoted his life to promoting his version of “human rights” to students. So why did he choose to publish his first two books with a company that was pedophile- and NAMBLA-friendly?

Nazi Analogy

We agree with the anonymous San Francisco blogger Zombietime that NAMBLA — and adult-child sex in general — deserves the same societal stigma that is reserved for open Nazis in our culture. [Read Zombietime's thorough critique of the liberal, pro-Obama group Media Matters' biased defense of Jennings HERE.] So how could an educated professional and a teacher who would devote his life ostensibly to protecting vulnerable children not know of or research the pro-pedophilia bent of his publishing firm?

The (male) homosexual movement’s evident greater tolerance for pedophilia compared to the rest of society does not exonerate Jennings in any way. Imagine if it was learned that a presidential appointee dealing with Middle Eastern affairs had written two books using a Nazi-sympathetic publisher who denies the holocaust. Most published authors are careful of their reputation and affiliations; why wasn’t Jennings? Or did he simply agree with Alyson Publications founder Sasha Alyson that pedophilia is “a legitimate area for exploration” (see below)? Will Jennings issue the statement condemning NAMBLA that some have demanded of him? — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Here is Lambda Report’s original press release from 1993 (emphasis added):

_______________________________

Lambda Report [flagship publication of Americans For Truth] News Release

Contact: Greg Mueller or Tom Kilgannon: …                  March 1, 1993

PUBLISHER OF PRO-GAY BOOKS FOR KIDS ALSO CATERS TO CHILD MOLESTERS

WASHINGTON—The publisher of pro-gay books for children is also one of the nation’s leading independent producers of literature catering to pedophiles, according to an exclusive investigation by Lambda Report, a new newsletter on the homosexual movement.

Alyson Publications of Boston, which created Daddy’s Roommate, Heather Has Two Mommies, and other pro-homosexual children’s books, also publishes such works as:

• Macho Sluts, a collection of short stories including one in which a lesbian has sadomasochistic sex with her own 13-year-old daughter;
• The Age Taboo, an anthology of arguments for pedophilia; and
• Pedophilia: The Radical Case;  and a range of other books.

“It’s outrageous that the same company that markets books that condition children to accept homosexuality also peddles instructions on how pedophiles can have sex with children without getting caught,” said Lambda Report editor Peter LaBarbera.  “We hope to balance the debate in school districts across the country that are considering these books in their curriculum.”

When questioned by Lambda Report about the pro-pedophile views in his adult books, publisher Sasha Alyson said, “I think it’s something that is a legitimate area for exploration.”  He declined to discuss further his views on pedophilia.

Other pro-pedophile works published or marketed by Alyson include:

• The Alyson Almanac.  A homosexual trivia book, the Almanac directs pedophile readers to the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), characterizing the group’s purpose as to “educate society” on the “positive nature” of sex between men and boys;
• Gay Sex:  A Manual for Men Who Love Men.  In a section on “pedophilia,” the book provides seven recommendations offered by NAMBLA to help pedophiles avoid angry parents and the police;
• One Teenage In 10:  Writings by Gay and Lesbian Youth.  Aimed at teenagers, the book contains a chapter by Bill Andriette, the [then] current editor of NAMBLA Bulletin;
• Spartacus International Gay Guide.  This travel guide for mainstream gays also helps pedophiles to connect with support groups then they travel abroad.  It also tells where to find boy prostitutes in foreign countries—including specific streets and parks.

Lambda Report is a monthly newsletter published by the Citizens’ Rights Foundation [Note: this name was later changed to Americans For Truth About Homosexuality], a new Washington-based group formed to report on the homosexual movement.  “Homosexuals are the one special interest group that has escaped serious public scrutiny,”  LaBarbera said, Lambda Report is dedicated to providing that scrutiny.”

Lambda Report is making its debut issue in the midst of new controversies over gays in education, culture, politics, and the armed forces.  It relies mainly on gay sources to report on the homosexual agenda and how it affects the lives of ordinary Americans.

NAMBLA Tips: A previous edition of this book, Gay Sex: A Manual for Men Who Love Men, included a section on “pedophilia” that reprinted NAMBLA’s advice for pedophiles on how to avoid angry parents and the police.

By Peter LaBarbera

Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s appointee to head up the “Safe and Drug-Free Schools” agency at the Department of Education, gives speeches on “gay history” but can’t seem to get his own straight (no pun intended).

At Americans For Truth, we have long observed that Jennings has a flair for the dramatic — and a penchant for anti-Christian bigotry (see his vulgar church condemnation of the “religious right” HERE).  But there are contradictions and obvious exaggerations in the various tellings of his life story — and self-serving memory lapses, such as when Jennings — who preaches “Respect for All” — told an NPR reporter that he couldn’t remember using the F-word in a church to tell Christian conservatives to “Drop dead!“

Also, given Jennings’ professional history of distorting the Bible’s clear teachings against homosexual behavior, and his skewed take on other facets of the debate over homosexuality — e.g., denying the reality that many people have left the homosexual lifestyle — it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he plays loose with the facts, as this decade-old AFTAH article demonstrates.

The following is reprinted from Americans For Truth’s flagship publication, Lambda Report (April-May 2000). An online GLSEN article provided in the first version (”Mom Too Sick to March”), but today the same link connects only to the organization’s current articles and not the story cited]. However, that first version is closest to the one Jennings used in his third book, a memoir titled Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son. We have added the 2006 book version at bottom for sake of comparison. Note the bold portions:

_____________________________

Kevin Jennings’ Dual Histories

Lambda Report, April-May 2000

Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network [GLSEN; after a name change from the original Gay, Lesbian, Straight Teachers' Network (GLSTN)], gives speeches on “gay” history and taught history at two private academies. But he seems to give out contradictory information about his own past, as the following accounts — from his own [GLSEN's] and another “gay” publication (quoting him) — attest:

VERSION ONE:

Mom Too Sick to March:

“…For the first time, my hometown of Winston-Salem was going to have a Gay Pride March, and I was invited home to speak at it. I called Mom to let her know…without missing a beat, Mom replied, ‘I’ve been reading about this march and I figured you were coming, so I’ve already made plans to march with you.’

“June came and my Mom didn’t actually march. Now on oxygen full-time, she was only able to come to the workshop I gave the day before the March. But, for the first time, she heard me speak in public about what has become my life’s work — helping lesbian/gay kids escape the bigotry with which I grew up….”

–Kevin Jennings, “Home for the Holidays,” GLSEN Blackboard Online, Dec. 1996, see [this link now links to a different, current article:] http://www.glsen.org/pages/sections/people/citizens/005.aricle

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VERSION TWO:

Brave Mom Marched:

“In 1996, Jennings was invited…to speak on the occasion of Winston-Salem’s first ever GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) Pride Parade … [H]e phoned his mother to make sure that she was OK with this. She had a surprise for him: she planned to be marching side-by-side with him. When the day came, ‘There she was in 90 degree heat and 100 percent humidity, my mother, at age 74 — my mother with emphysema and lung cancer — out there with her portable oxygen tank she must take wherever she goes. And she marched down the streets of her town, in a city where everyone knows her as REV. Jennings’ widow. And, I say, if my mother can come that far, surely we all can come that far, too…Our victory is inevitable.’”

– John Quinlan quoting Kevin Jennings, reporting for Alternative Family Magazine, “Leadership profile” on Jennings, Summer 1999, Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 38. [Note: we could not find this article online -- the magazine appears to be defunct. It's former web domain is inoperative and we could not locate an online archive. However, Quinlan's AFM piece is cited as a source HERE.]

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ADDENDUM: Jennings’ mom apparently does NOT march in 2006 version of story in his autobiographical book, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son:

The following is the version of the story found in Jennings’ 2006 autobiography. Note that there is no mention of his mother “marching down” the street for “gay pride,” although she apparently lugged her oxygen tank to her son’s talk. Jennings writes:

In 1996, the North Carolina Gay Pride celebration was to held in Winston-Salem for the first time and, as perhaps the most famous homosexual from Winston-Salem, I was asked if I would speak at it. This was taking things to a new level: Mom lived there and everybody would now know, if they had somehow missed me on national news. I decided I had to call her and ask how she felt about it. If she was profoundly uncomfortable, I wasn’t going to do it.

The phone call was a bizarre experience… I began to explain about the march and Mom interrupted. “Oh, Kevin, I know about the march and I figured you were coming,” she began. “I have already made plans to do with you.” Now it was my turn to be struck silent. “So, what were you calling about, Kevin?”

… A few weeks before the march, Mom was diagnosed with emphysema (three packs a day for fifty years will do that to you). She was just put on oxygen to help with her increasingly labored breathing and given a portable oxygen tank to toke with her when she left the house. Now my concern shifted: should she be coming out to an event in the middle of a June North Carolina day, which means ninety-degree heat and 100 percent humidity? I said maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. She brushed aside my concerns, saying she wasn’t going to stop living just because she had to lug around some dumb oxygen thing.

So there we were at the Pride Festival, where I focused my talk on gay history. Mom loved it (after all, she was the one who had dragged me to the public library and the Civil War battlefields and taught me to love history in the first place) and said she learned a lot. She was delighted to meet so many people who thought so highly of her son, and she would brag about my Harvard degree and the organization I started and my books. I bragged about her for starting the PFLAG chapter in Winston-Salem, and people hugged her for doing it. A good time, indeed, was had by all. …

– Jennings, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir of Growing Up, Coming Out, and Changing America’s Schools, pp. 237-238.

NOTE TO READERS: the following Americans For Truth transcript, derived from an audiotape recording of a speech made at a 1997 GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) conference, is at the source for the current “Harry Hay-NAMBLA” controversy surrounding GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings — President Obama’s “Safe Schools” deputy at the Department of Education. (The left-wing group Media Matters cites it HERE.) This transcript was provided by Brian Burt, then a volunteer writer/reporter for the Americans For Truth publication “Lambda Report.” We will endeavor to provide the tape to the public to counteract the absurd attempts to discredit this and other first-hand AFTAH reports on Jennings and GLSEN simply because AFTAH is a conservative organization. — Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.org

P.S. It would seem fairly easy for Jennings to clarify his position on NAMBLA — all he has to do is issue a clear statement of his opposition to this evil “man-boy love” organization. Homosexual activist groups and leaders similarly denounced NAMBLA — which marched in early “gay pride” parades and whose “right” to do so was enthusiastically defended by “gay” icon Harry Hay –  when they perceived that being tied to the notorious pederasty group was an impediment to their progress.

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Have Kevin Jennings and GLSEN almost won? Obama Department of Education appointee Kevin Jennings looked forward to the day when people would shrug their shoulders at the news that “gay” groups like the one he founded (GLSEN) are “promoting homosexuality” in schools. Has America become so corrupt and decadent that this “queer” activist’s twisted vision has become true?  TAKE ACTION: write Education Secretary Arne Duncan (arne.duncan@ed.gov) or call him (202-401-3000) with the message that you do not want your tax dollars spent on “promoting homosexuality” in schools. Also, urge your Senators and Congressman (202-224-3121) to call on Duncan to withdraw the appointment of Jennings — an anti-religious bigot who said (in a church) “[F**k] ‘em” and “Drop dead” to religious traditionalists — as “Safe School” Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Education. Photo at left is from MassResistance’s coverage of the 2009 homosexual “Youth Pride” parade.

The following transcript of a 1997 speech by Kevin Jennings is reprinted from the Lambda Report, Jan.-Feb. 1998 [LR, published by Peter LaBarbera, preceded Americans For Truth About Homosexuality]:

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GLSEN’s Jennings: ‘That is our mission from this day forward’

The following is a transcript of GLSEN founder and executive director Kevin Jennings’ comments before “Looking to the Future” panel at GLSEN’s Mid-Atlantic conference, held October 25, 1997 at the Grace Church School in New York City. A few incidental words and phrases have been removed for clarity:

Two years ago, one of our board members, one named Ann Simon, was called to testify before Congress when they had hearings on the promotion of homosexuality in schools. And we were busy putting out press releases, and saying, ‘We’re not promoting homosexuality, that’s not what our program’s about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ And my best friend, who’s a straight women who lives in London, e-mailed me…and she said, ‘So what if you are?’ And I thought of how I can get so wrapped up in my own defensiveness, and…the day-to-day struggle, and stuff, that being finished might some day mean that most straight people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say ‘Yeah, who cares?’ because they wouldn’t necessarily equate homosexuality with something bad that you would not want to promote. And when we were talking there, and Mike said, ‘You know, and I’d like five years from now—right now let’s face it, for large swells of people they think of GLSEN and kids, and they think, ‘GLSEN is bad for kids.’ They do because of their stereotypes and misinformation—I’d like five years from now for most Americans when they hear the word GLSEN to think, ‘Ooh, that’s good for kids.’’

I’d like you to step back for a second if you can, and I know that many of you here are going to return to meetings on Monday where the euphoria of today will dissipate quite quickly…But if you could just close your eyes for a second. I know this is very Californian. Close your eyes for a second and think, ‘What would the world look like if we were through with our work? If we were done. If we could close the doors on 27th street [GLSEN’s New York City headquarters], and shut down the chapters, and disband the board. What would be happening?’… [Audience responses]

…As the son of a Baptist preacher from North Carolina…I can remember a time when having a conference like this, for me, certainly as a teenager, seemed completely impossible. And I would see in certain people’s faces when people would say certain things, or this visioning part, and we’d get little snickers, like,  ‘Yeah, [bulls--t].’ This is the only thing that can stop us, is if we believe that our dreams cannot come true.

One of the people that’s always inspired me is Harry Hay, who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America. In 1948, he tried to get people to join the Mattachine Society [the first American homosexual “rights” group]. It took him two years to find one other person who would join. Well, [in] 1993, Harry Hay marched with a million people in Washington, who thought he had a good idea 40 years before. Everybody thought Harry Hay was crazy in 1948, and they knew something about him which he apparently did not—they were right, he was crazy. You are all crazy. We are all crazy. All of us who are thinking this way are crazy, because you know what? Sane people keep the world the same [sh*tty] old way it is now. It’s the people who think, ‘No, I can envision a day when straight people say, ‘So what if you’re promoting homosexuality?’ Or straight kids say, ‘Hey, why don’t you and your boyfriend come over before you go to the prom and try on your tuxes on at my house?’ That if we believe that can happen, we can make it happen. The only thing that will stop us is our lack of faith that we can make it happen. That is our mission from this day forward. To not lose our faith, to not lose our belief that the world can, indeed, be a different place. And think how much can change in one lifetime if in Harry Hay’s one very short life, he saw change from not even one person willing to join him to a million people willing to travel to Washington to join him. You can see the same changed happen in your lifetime if you believe you can.’’

– Brian Burt, Lambda Report, Jan.-Feb. 1998

Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network and President Obama’s new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Rainbow Agenda in Schools: GLSEN, the group that President Obama’s “Safe Schools” advisor, Kevin Jennings, founded, promotes books like “Rainbow Boys” that recklessly advance the idea that homosexuality and “gay” sex are normative. Read pro-family advocate Linda Harvey’s description of “Rainbow Boys” HERE. Who decided that America’s taxpayer-funded schools would become pro-homosexuality indoctrination zones?

Leave it to Matt Barber to get to the heart of a matter, in this case the scandalous appointment of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) founder Kevin Jennings to head up President Obama’s “Safe Schools” efforts. The real issue in this controversy is Jennings’ promotion of homosexual and gender-confused lifestyles — to innocent children in schools, using stealth tactics and misleading euphemisms like, well… “safe schools.” Since when did tax-funded schools become pro-homosexuality indoctrination zones for impressionable kids?

Homosexual practice is wrong (sinful), unnatural, physically destructive — and most important, changeable (hence the many ex-”gays” living happy lives). Homosexuality is not and never will be the basis for a healthy “identity.” Even if Jennings hadn’t failed to report a predatory situation involving one of his sophomore students (”Brewster”); even if he he hadn’t used the F-word in a church to denounce the “religious right”; or if he had never presided over “Fistgate” — an unbelievable educational atrocity in which Massachusetts minors were given perverted “how-to” talks about “fisting” by homosexual adults — Jennings should be removed from his government job because his whole life’s work is to promote immoral sexual and gender lifestyles to children.

Come hear Matt as the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s fundraising banquet on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL. And if you can, pay for a student or your pastor to come — to encourage you to do so, we’ll cut the price in half from $50 to just $25/student or pastor. Young people and our spiritual leaders need to hear Matt’s bold, unapologetic approach to the “culture wars.” You can sign up online using the “Online Banquet Sign-up” form at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Thank you! — Peter LaBarbera

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Here is Matt’s piece on Kevin Jennings:

Commies, Fascists and Perverts, Oh My!

By Matt Barber
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Obama’s inner-circle is shaping-up like the bar scene from Star Wars. It’s a swollen throng of unaccountable czars and policy advisors comprised of some of the most bizarre fringe leftists imaginable. As mom always said, you’re known by the company you keep and Obama keeps some downright creepy company.

Here’s a sampling: First, we have disgraced former green-jobs czar Van “tinfoil hat” Jones. Jones, a self avowed communist and 9-11 “truther,” was forced to resign after revelations of his extremism became public.

Then there’s science czar John Holdren, the unzipped Harvard professor who wants a “Planetary Regime” to control world population through compulsory sterilization and forced abortion.

And of course there’s the administration’s very own Dr. Dolittle: regulatory czar Cass Sunstien, who advocates that animals be allowed to sue people.

But perhaps the creepiest of Obama’s advisers is “safe schools” chief Kevin Jennings. Jennings – an open homosexual activist – is former director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), a highly controversial group of adult homosexual activists who promote sexual anarchy and tacitly work to normalize the criminal practice of pederasty.

GLSEN’s primary purpose is to push dangerous and even deadly homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors in our government schools on children as young as five. So bold is Jennings in his promotion of homosexual behavior among children that he even penned the foreword to a book entitled “Queering Elementary Education.” (I don’t know about you, but Jennings and his ilk will “queer” my elementary-age kids over my dead body.)

A number of Jennings past activities disqualify him from holding any position relating to children; but a recently revealed scandal involving an exchange between him and a former tenth-grade student leaves no doubt that he’s unfit to serve in his current capacity. Jennings has admitted that while he was a teacher, a boy –– whom he understood to be 15 years-old –– shared that he had been sodomized by an “older man” who lured him home from a bus stop toilet.

Of course any reasonable teacher would have immediately called police and notified the student’s parents. But Kevin Jennings –– an anti-Christian bigot who once said of Christians: “F – k ‘em! … Drop Dead!” [in a church]– is anything but reasonable. Instead, he affirmed both the man-boy homosexual encounter and the boy’s “gayness,” flippantly telling him, “I hope you knew to use a condom.” (Jennings recently admitted that he “should have handled this situation differently” but, as of yet, has arrogantly refused to step-down or even apologize).

Still, Jennings’ cavalier attitude toward adult-child sex should really come as no surprise. In a1997 speech he voiced his admiration for Harry Hay, longtime advocate of the homosexual/pedophile group NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love Association.)

According to NAMBLA’s website, Hay made the following statement in a 1983 address: “I also would like to say at this point that it seems to me that in the gay community the people who should be running interference for NAMBLA are the parents and friends of gays. Because if the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world. And they would be welcoming this, and welcoming the opportunity for young gay kids to have the kind of experience that they would need.”

Sickening, right? Shocking, no? Well, not to Kevin Jennings. His take? He gushed, “One of the people that’s always inspired me is Harry Hay.”

But, again, this should come as no surprise. Homosexual/pedophile groups like NAMBLA and homosexual activist groups have long been brothers-in-arms. In many instances, members of both groups are one-in-the-same. According to the non-partisan homosexual activist watchdog organization Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, NAMBLA marched alongside “gay” activist groups in “gay pride” parades for years until it became politically burdensome for homosexual activists to continue allowing them to do so.

As with “gay” activist pioneer Harry Hay, legalizing adult-child sex has long been a goal of many homosexual activists (for years, overtly and today, covertly). Boys and teens utilized for homosex are referred to as “chicken” in “gay” lexicon.

In fact, part of homosexual activists “1972 Gay Rights Platform” called for the “repeal [of] all laws governing the age of sexual consent.” This should send a chill down the spine of any parent. Such a repeal would legally allow homosexuals and pedophiles to access your children and teens for their own predatory sexual gratification – so long as those children “consented” to having sex (like the boy who confided in Jennings).

To be sure, Jennings is no stranger to scandal. In a 2000 GLSEN sponsored event, adult homosexual activists were caught in an ACORN-style sting teaching children as young as 13 the horrific practice of “fisting.” (For a definition click here, it’s not fit to print). Jennings’ response? He defended the event and even filed suit in an attempt to cover-up the scandal.

But “cover-up” is at the very core of Jennings’ strategy. In 1995, while summarizing his political approach of manipulation and indoctrination, he warned fellow homosexual activists to hide their true motives and avoid using language about “promoting homosexuality.” Instead, he astutely observed that “the effective reframing of this issue” through the disingenuous use of propagandist euphemisms such as “safety” and “violence” was “the key to…success.”

It’s worked like a charm.

But rather than being appointed by Obama to such a position of power and prestige, both Kevin Jennings and GLSEN should be held liable for engaging in reckless educational malpractice. By promoting and facilitating homosexual behavior among children, they demonstrably place children at risk.

Multiple studies have established, for instance, that homosexual conduct, especially among males, is considerably more hazardous to one’s health than a lifetime of chain smoking.

One such study – conducted by pro-“gay” researchers in Canada – was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE) in 1997.  (see the study here: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/3/657.pdf)

While the medical consensus is that smoking knocks from two to 10 years off an individual’s life expectancy, the IJE study found that homosexual conduct shortens the lifespan of “gays” by an astounding “8 to 20 years” – more than twice that of smoking.

“[U]nder even the most liberal assumptions,” concluded the researchers, “gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871. … [L]ife expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men.”

The risks associated with homosexual conduct are so drastic, in fact, that U.S. health regulations prohibit men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have had sex with MSM, from ever donating blood. (Yet Jennings and GLSEN encourage children to engage in the very behaviors that – for quantifiable health related reasons – would preclude them from giving blood … ever.)

Consider that, according to the Food and Drug Administration, MSM, “have  an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors.”

Adults and children who engage in homosexual conduct – especially males – are also susceptible – at an astronomical rate – to nearly all other forms of sexually transmitted disease (STD).  For example, the Hepatitis B virus is about five to six times more prevalent among “gays,” and Hepatitis C is twice as common.

Furthermore, a 2007 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, although homosexuals make-up only a fraction of the population (one to two percent), they account for an epidemic 64 percent of all syphilis cases.

So, all of this begs the question: Why on God’s earth is this Kevin Jennings nut – whose entire life’s work has irrefutably placed children at risk – in charge of promoting “safe schools”? He’s even bragged in his personal memoirs about his own drug and alcohol abuse.

Indeed, Obama’s Jennings appointment was a gold medal blunder among a litany of Olympic-sized missteps. If his administration seeks to salvage any modicum of rapidly waning credibility, the President must force Jennings to step down and denounce his reckless behavior.

Every day Jennings remains in place is another day he hurts Obama; but more importantly, it’s another day he hurts children.

The real scandal is that Jennings was ever appointed in the first place. He must go and he must go now.

J. Matt Barber is Director of Cultural Affairs with Liberty Counsel and also serves as Associate Dean with Liberty University School of Law. He is also a Board Member of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality.

FRC’s Oct. 5 “Washington Update” follows:

“The totality of [GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings'] life has been the promotion of homosexuality, and much of it within education.” — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)

King of the Hill Takes on Czar of the Schools
The Obama administration is spending precious capital protecting its Safe Schools “czar,” but many believe that loyalty carries more political risk than reward. Last week, Kevin Jennings’s “aw, shucks” response to covering up child sexual abuse should have sounded the alarm over at the Department of Education. Instead, Secretary Arne Duncan used the opportunity to praise Jennings as “uniquely qualified” to serve on the team. That may not be the consensus for much longer, since FRC has uncovered a series of op-eds that show Jennings’s incredible hostility toward Christianity.

In at least two Huffington Post columns, Jennings attacks people of faith with complete and utter disdain. When the former director of GLSEN tried to implement a series of Gay Straight Alliances in classrooms back in 2007, Jennings described a Christian who fought the idea as having “not-yet-fully evolved views maybe because of his proximity to the Everglades (from whose ooze he may have recently climbed), [but] I can’t dismiss them as the ravings of a single troglodyte. Instead, they represent a classic example of how right-wing extremists continually try to mislead the public about the nature and purpose of GSAs.”

In another article, “Recruit, Recruit, Recruit!” Jennings called Christian students “hypocrites” and mocked the members of Young Life for trying to evangelize their friends. At one point in the column, Jennings says, “…[T]hey want everyone to have to believe the way they do.” Ironically, that’s what Jennings’ movement has been pushing for all along: forced acceptance! He and his activist friends want tolerance, but not for others.

Maybe that’s why leaders like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) are calling for Jennings ’s head. “The totality of his life,” King says, “has been the promotion of homosexuality, and much of it within education.” His work, says Rep. King, is “a political movement… It’s not about protecting kids, it’s about promoting homosexuality and demanding public affirmation… President Obama should fire Kevin Jennings immediately.”

Obviously, the only “unique qualification” Jennings possesses is an ability to practice the same kind of intimidation his office is trying to prevent. As FRC has said for four months, a man charged with creating safe schools can’t possibly achieve it by turning America’s classrooms into a hostile environment for kids with religious beliefs. Otherwise, we’ve allowed the anti-bullying boss to become the biggest bully of all! For more information on what you can do to stop Jennings, visit our site.

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Here is the original Americans For Truth “Lambda Report” article reporting Kevin Jennings’ comment at a GLSEN conference in 1997 that he indeed looks forward to the day when “promoting homosexuality” in schools will be seen in a positive light:

“‘Gay’ Leader Kevin Jennings Says Dream Is to ‘Promote Homosexuality’ in Schools”

TAKE ACTION: Call and write your U.S. Congressman and Senators and urge them to push for the replacement of Education Secretary Arne Duncan (below, right) and Kevin Jennings (left), the Obama appointee put in charge of “Safe and Drug Free Schools.” Jennings — who raised money for Obama’s election — is an embarrassment to the whole notion of “safe schools,” and is on record advocating the outright “promotion” of homosexuality to schoolchildren K-12. (Homosexual behavior is hardly “safe,” as evidenced by the disproportionately high incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases among homosexuals.) Jennings must go, as should Sec. Duncan for ignoring the appeals of countless American parents outraged at the promotion of his aggressively anti-Christian bigot who presided over the “Fistgate” scandal and used a predatory homosexual seduction of one of his sophomore students to confirm the victimized boy as “gay.” Call/write Congress at: 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org.

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The following article is reprinted from Illinois Family Institute:

Help Oust Kevin Jennings — ‘School Safety Czar’

By Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute, Sept. 30, 2009

The indefensible decision of [Education Secretary] Arne Duncan to appoint radical homosexual activist and founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Kevin Jennings, to the position of Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools is finally generating the public opposition it deserves.

Criticism of Jennings is coming from multiple sources all over the country. From small and large pro-family organizations to the Washington Times to Sean Hannity — all are calling for Jennings to resign or be terminated. Now is the time to act. Call or email your representatives and senators to politely demand the ousting of Kevin Jennings who is at least as unsuitable and controversial an appointment as the former “Green Czar” Van Jones was.

Jennings began his career in education as a teacher in a private Massachusetts boarding school. He has written and spoken about an incident that occurred when he was teaching there in which a troubled 15-year-old boy confessed to Jennings that he was having a sexual relationship with an older man he had met in a Boston bus station bathroom. Jennings’ response to this troubled teen was to advise him to use condoms. Even more troubling, Jennings failed to fulfill his legal obligation to report sexual activity between an adult and a child under the age of 18. When Jennings’ professional misconduct was reported to the National Education Association (NEA) by the chair of the NEA Republican Educator’s Caucus, Jennings threatened a lawsuit against the teacher who reported it.

For a fascinating expose of this disturbing chapter in Jennings’ disturbing life, read these articles by Grove City College professor, Warren Throckmorton:

• “Remembering Brewster”
• “The saga of Kevin Jennings and Brewster: Enter Robertson”

Fortunately, Jennings left teaching but unfortunately for the nation went on to found GLSEN, whose mission is to use public funds and public education to normalize homosexuality. GLSEN was the sponsor of the notorious sexuality workshop “Teach Out” held at Tufts University in 2000 where students as young as 14 were exposed to graphic descriptions of deviant sexual practices by adult homosexual “educators.” This workshop has come to be known as “Fistgate” because of one particular [horrific] sexual practice taught to teens. [WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION:"Fisting" is a sadomasochistic perversion emerging from the homosexual subculture -- in which a man inserts his hand and then forearm up the rectum and into the colon of another man (for sexual pleasure); among some lesbians or straight sadomasochists into this dangerous act, the hand and arm are inserted deep into the vagina. "Fistgate" came to light because a concerned parent secretly taped the GLSEN-sponsored workshop. You can listen to the incredible Boston "Fistgate" audiotape and read a transcript of the outrageous discussion with underage students HERE on the MassResistance website. Kevin Jennings never directly apologized on behalf of GLSEN for this this scandal; in fact, GLSEN and other homosexual activist organizations attacked conservatives for "violating the privacy" of the students who were secretly audiotaped by Scott Whiteman, the Massachusetts citizen who taped the workshop, thus providing the world the evidence of GLSEN's corruption of children.]

In addition, GLSEN is the sponsor of the annual Day of Silence, a pro-homosexual protest that takes place in thousands of high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools around the country every year. On this day, students are encouraged and permitted to remain silent all day even during class in support of GLSEN’s view of homosexuality.

On September 30, 2009, twenty-one years after the boarding school debacle and with public pressure mounting, Jennings finally issued this rationalization:

“Twenty-one years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers.”

How convenient.

His “mishandling” of the incident wasn’t really his fault. Oh no, it was a lack of “training,” “guidance,” and “preparedness.” How could a 24-year-old teacher be expected to know that he should report sexual activity between a teen under his charge and an adult male whom the teen met in a bus station bathroom located almost an hour from the boarding school where the teen lived? If only the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools had existed then with a zealous homosexual activist at the helm, Jennings would have known exactly what to do.

Kevin Jennings violated both professional standards of ethics as well as Massachusetts law. He has publicly expressed contempt for theologically orthodox Christianity and Christians and has spent his entire adult life trying to exploit public education to effect social changes that reflect his sexual preferences and unproven, controversial, and perverse views of homosexuality. His appointment to the Department of Education is an unmitigated outrage that must be opposed.

 “Well, boys aren’t supposed to kiss boys and girls aren’t supposed to kiss girls.” – Kindergarten student in East Hartford, CT, responding to lesbian teacher and GLSEN activist Geraldine Burke revealing to the class that she kisses her girlfriend. Burke later compared her lesbian kisses to affectionate kisses between family members.

GLSEN Corrupts Children: the organization founded by Kevin Jennings, GLSEN, advocates teaching very young children — who don’t even know what sex is yet — one-sided lessons about homosexuality and transsexuality.

The following story is reprinted from The Lambda Report, the now-defunct printed flagship publication of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. It is the first part of a story about 1999 GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network) conference held that year in Atlanta. Kevin Jennings — whose appointment as Barack Obama’s “safe schools” czar in the Department of Education is now embroiled in controversy — founded GLSEN, which promotes the acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality to children in K-12 schools. We found some updated information on Burke on two homosexual activist websites, which follows the article below.

The following is based on AFTAH’s firsthand attendance at the 1999 GLSEN conference:

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How One Teacher Defended Her Lesbianism to Kindergartners

GLSEN panelist compares lesbian kiss to parental love

By Peter LaBarbera, Lambda Report, Fall-Winter 1999

ATLANTA — A lesbian gym teacher who told her kindergarten students  that kissing her female partner was like a father lovingly kissing his son or an affectionate kiss between sisters was applauded for her “honesty” at a national conference for pro-homosexual educators, held here October 1-4 [1999].

“I will tell you that your heart tells you who to love,” retired elementary school teacher Geraldine Burke said she told her young students, after one of them started the discussion by asking if she had a husband. Burke–who taught gym class for 30 years in East Hartford, Connecticut — related the story as a panelist at the third annual conference of the Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a fast-growing homosexual activist group. Her workshop was titled, “Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, except What to Do When I Hear the Word ‘Fag’ or ‘Dyke’ in Class.”

Burke’s was one of several panels at the GLSEN conference devoted to advancing homosexuality-positive attitudes among elementary school children — the most controversial part of GLSEN’s agenda. In recent years, “gay” education activists have championed the “right” of teachers to discuss their homosexuality in the classroom, as Burke did with her young charges.

She explained that at her school she was “out” as a lesbian to the principal and to most of the teaching staff, and that it was important for her to be “authentic” about her sexual identity. According to Burke, one day a student in her gym class asked if she had a husband. She said no, and then another student asked if she had a boyfriend. Burke said no. “As a matter of fact … I have a girlfriend.” After some of the children said, “Ohhhh!” as if shocked, they asked her if she kissed her girlfriend. Burke said that she did.

The kids responded again, “Ohhhh!” When she asked what was wrong, one of the students said, “Well, boys aren’t supposed to kiss boys and girls aren’t supposed to kiss girls.”

Burke then responded,” Some people think it’s OK, and some people think it’s not OK,” speaking of homosexuality.

Then the gym teacher asked one of the boys in her class,” Do you ever kiss your father goodnight?” He replied, “Yes.” She then asked one of the girls, “Do you ever kiss your sister to show her that you love her?” “Yes,” the girl responded. Burke then used the analogy between those kisses and her lesbian kisses as she told the children, “Some people will tell you that you shouldn’t love some people [but] … your hearts tells you who to love.” She said the next question was: “When is gym?” as the students moved on to other matters.

Burke said that she informed the school principal about how she “outed” herself to the students in class. She said that neither she nor the principal ever heard back from any parents about the sensitive conversation.

“This was a very, very important teachable moment … I was not in any way going to lie to my students,” Burke said of her conversation with the kindergarten gym class. “At the elementary level, the teachable moments are the really critical ones.”

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More Information about Geraldine Burke:

We found some more current information on Geraldine Burke online in a newsletter of PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Hartford (CT). The March-April 2009 PFLAG-Hartford newsletter reports:

Geraldine Burke is a retired elementary physical education teacher. She taught in East Hartford at the preschool through sixth grade level for most of her career. She has been an activist for LGBT civil rights since 1989, serving on the boards of GLSEN CT; True Colors, Inc.; Stonewall Speakers; and CT Stonewall Foundation, Inc.

Upon her retirement as a public school educator, in 1999, she expanded her passion to be a change agent and became more involved as a Stonewall Speaker and served as State Coordinator of Engagements from June 2001 until February 2006. She recently stepped down from the board of directors after serving for four years and continues to participate as a panelist. … Geraldine lives her woman-loving self openly and as an equal in the world.

(PFLAG newsletter: http://www.pflaghartford.org/caring/caringV18N2.pdf)

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From the conference, “True Colors XV: A Global Perspective on Sexual and Gender Minority Youth,” March 13-15, 2008, sponsored by True Colors, Inc. (”True Colors works to create a world where youth, adults and families of all sexual orientations and gender identities are valued and affirmed. We challenge all forms of oppression through education, training, advocacy, youth leadership development, mentoring and direct services to youth and those responsible for their well-being.”)

A Successful Model for Effecting Change in School Climate for Middle & High School Students, Faculty, and Administration: LGBT Personal Stories with Q & A

Same and different gender loving, pan sexual, and transgender people, and supportive allies from the Stonewall Speakers will present the model used when speaking at schools, colleges, workplaces and communities of faith. The goal of this group is to educate the community at large regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. This program is informative to the general population and at the same time supports the mostly closeted queer students, families, and teachers in our schools and workplaces. This model has been presented for almost twenty years in more than 100 high schools in CT through integration into Health, Psychology, Current Issues and Human Sexuality classes as well as Diversity and Teen Awareness days.

Geraldine Burke is a member of the Board of Directors of the CT Stonewall Foundation, which provides funding and direction for the Stonewall Speakers program. She formerly served on the Boards of GLSEN and True Colors and was Stonewall Speakers state coordinator from 2001 – January 2007. As an activist for the civil rights of same gender loving, pan sexual, transgender, and intersex people, Geraldine finds her involvement with Stonewall Speakers both rewarding and fulfilling.

Source: http://www.ourtruecolors.org/cfs/TC15/TC15Guide.pdf

Folks, AFTAH has been on the story of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) founder Kevin Jennings (right) for quite some time. A version of this article first appeared in the Fall-Winter 1999 issue of Lambda Report — then the flagship publication of Americans For Truth:

Was Troubled Teen Really ‘Gay’?

By Peter LaBarbera, Lambda Report, Fall-Winter 1999

Did the nation’s leading proponent of pro-homosexuality programs in schools help convince a boy seduced by an older homosexual man that he had a positive “gay” identity? Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), writes in his book, “One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell their Stories,” about one of his students, Brewster, with whom he would have a special relationship.

The 1994 book, edited by Jennings, is a collection of testimonials by homosexual educators. In telling his own story, Jennings writes:

I remember Brewster, a sophomore boy who I came to know in 1987, my first year of teaching at Concord Academy [high school], in Concord, Massachusetts. Brewster was a charming but troubled kid. His grades didn’t match up with his potential, his attendance could be irregular, and he often seemed a little out of it. He was clearly using substance [drugs or alcohol] regularly, and was not very happy with himself. But I didn’t have a clue as to why — at least not at first.

Jennings continues telling how at Concord he decided to be open about his homosexuality with his students, including Brewster. He wore a ring “that symbolized my commitment to my partner,” and rather than hide its meaning, he chose to reveal its homosexual significance to his inquisitive students. To his surprise, Jennings writes, Brewster and the other students were not shocked by his revelation and “didn’t seem to care much at all about my being gay.”

Then Jennings recalls:

Toward the end of my first year, during the spring of 1988, Brewster appeared in my office in the tow of one of my advisees, a wonderful young woman to whom I had been “out” [as a homosexual] for a long time. “Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,” she intoned ominously. Brewster squirmed at the prospect of telling, and we sat silently for a short while. On a hunch, I suddenly asked, “What’s his name?” Brewster eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.

Jennings writes with satisfaction that he had helped Brewster realize that “It’s OK to be gay.” He said several years later he saw the former student at a Boston restaurant catering to homosexuals, but has not seen him since.

Jennings and other GLSEN activists are frequently invited to address teachers. He turned down request by this writer (publisher of Lambda Report and president of Americans For Truth) for an interview, and accused me of using “deceitful” reporting techniques — even though I have attended several GLSEN events, including this year’s [1999] “Teaching Respect for All” conference, openly.

Washington Times editorial: “In this one case in which Mr. (Kevin) Jennings had a real chance to protect a boy [Brewster] from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.”

Note: interviewed this morning on Chicago Christian radio station WMBI (Moody Bible radio), Laurie Higgins of Illinois Family Institute — a former high school writing instructor — said that all school teachers and administrators are trained to report potential abuse of students. Jennings failed to report the sexual contact between a homosexual adult man and Jennings’ sophomore student, Brewster. Note: the quality is poor from this audio from a homosexual activist event in which Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), recounts his advice to Brewster:

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Other articles about GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings on AFTAH’s site:

GLSEN Founder and Obama Education Appointee Kevin Jennings Said ‘[F- -k] ‘em’ to Religious Right — in a Church

Washington Times: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Czar Kevin Jennings Enabled Sexual Predator of Teen Boy

Obama Appointee Kevin Jennings Can’t Remember Saying the F-Word to Bash Christians — in a Church

‘Gay’ Leader Kevin Jennings Says Dream Is to ‘Promote Homosexuality’ in Schools

Listen Online: LaBarbera, Harvey Discuss Kevin Jennings Appointment at Dept. of Education

AFTAH Calls on Obama and Education Sec. Arne Duncan to Withdraw Nomination of Homosexual Extremist Bigot and GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings to Preside over ‘Safe Schools’

VIDEO: LaBarbera Speaks Out on Obama Marriage Hypocrisy, Kevin Jennings and GLSEN ‘Fistgate’ Scandal

At the President’s Pleasure…

‘Safe school czar’ encouraged child sex with an older man

A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an “older man.” At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings [right], is President Obama’s “safe school czar.” It’s getting hard to keep track of all of this president’s problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.

In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.

According to Mr. Jennings’ own description in a new audiotape discovered by Fox News, the 15-year-old boy met the “older man” in a “bus station bathroom” and was taken to the older man’s home that night. When some details about the case became public, Mr. Jennings threatened to sue another teacher who called his failure to report the statutory rape “unethical.” Mr. Jennings’ defenders asserted that there was no evidence that he was aware the student had sex with the older man.

However, the new audiotape contradicts this claim. In 2000, Mr. Jennings gave a talk to the Iowa chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group that promotes homosexuality in schools. On the tape, Mr. Jennings recollected that he told the student to make sure “to use a condom” when he was with the older man. That he actively encouraged the relationship is reinforced by Mr. Jennings’ own description in his 1994 book, “One Teacher in 10.” In that account, the teacher boasts how he allayed the student’s concerns about the relationship to such a degree that the 15-year-old “left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.”

Mr. Jennings’ denials about these events reveal a lack of remorse….

[Click HERE to read the rest of the Washington Times editorial.]

Peter LaBarbera

Check out FoxNews.com’s first major piece on the controversy surrounding Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s “Safe Schools” Education Department appointee and the nation’s leading activist promoting homosexuality in schools. Much of the article’s information against Jennings — including Brian Burt’s firsthand piece from a GLSEN conference exposing Jennings’ open desire to “promote homosexuality” in schools — came from Americans For Truth’s work (and that of our previous publication, Lambda Report).

What the FOX report left out was that Jennings used the F-word in 2002 to convey his hatred of the “religious right,” in a church no less. He says he can’t recollect” making the comment. Back in 2002, Americans For Truth and this writer (then writing for Concerned Women for America), obtained the audio tape from Jennings talk at the liberal Marble Collegiate Church in New York City — which I transcribed for the 2002 report by CWA below. (The tape has since been misplaced and FOX won’t report Jennings’ church expletive until an audio of the speech is produced.)

Here’s our AFTAH article highlighting the CWA paper exposing Jennings and GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, which he founded :

GLSEN’S JENNINGS: !&%#! THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT!

Addressing a church audience on March 20, 2000 in New York City — just days before “Fistgate” — GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings offered a stinging (and quite intolerant) assessment of how to deal with religious conservatives:

“Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we’ll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle]   over to our side. That’s really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit — I’m trying to find a way to say this. I’m trying not to say, ‘[F—] ‘em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead!” — Kevin Jennings speech to Marble Collegiate Church, March 20, 2000.

“[It should be noted that GLSEN and Jennings make heavy use of the words “respect” and “tolerance” in their public rhetoric and in descriptions of their programs. GLSEN’s also sponsors a “No Name Calling Week,” which includes “No Dissing” in its advice to kids as part of a school-based program to “eliminate bullying.”]

Now you would think that telling conservative Christians to “Drop dead!” and using the F-word to describe your hatred of them is something you’d remember. But according to the liberal website Think Progress:

There appears to be no full transcript available of this 2000 speech; it seems to first appear in a 2002 article on the right-wing website Concerned Women for America. The same day that article was published (4/10/02), Jennings told NPR that he had “no recollection of [that] quote whatsoever.”

Note how Jennings did not flat out deny making the nasty anti-Christian comments, but just said that he cannot recollect making them. It could be possible that Jennings — whose paper trail of “religious right”-bashing is extensive — is the type of profane liberal whose habit of cussing is so entrenched that even doing so in church would not be memorable.

We are searching Americans For Truth’s research archives for the tape of the Jennings speech — to jog his memory. The tape is apparently no longer available from the pro-homosexual Marble Collegiate Church, based in New York City. Calls by AFTAH to the church requesting the tape went unanswered, and FOX News also was unsuccessful in its attempts to secure a copy.

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The following is excerpted from the FoxNews.com report, “Critics Assail Obama’s ‘Safe Schools’ Czar, Say He’s Wrong Man for the Job,” by Maxim Lott:

Conservatives are up in arms about the appointment of Kevin Jennings, Obama’s director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, saying he is too radical for the job.

Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools. In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide. He has also published six books on gay rights and education, including one that describes his own experiences as a closeted gay student. …

In 1997, according to a transcript put together by Brian J. Burt, managing editor of the student-run Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Jennings said he hoped that promoting homosexuality in schools would be considered fine in the future.

“One of our board members” was called to testify before Congress when they had hearings on the promotion of homosexuality in schools,” Jennings said. “And we were busy putting out press releases, and saying, “We’re not promoting homosexuality, that’s not what our program’s about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…. ‘

“Being finished might someday mean that most straight people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say ‘Yeah, who cares?’ because they wouldn’t necessarily equate homosexuality with something bad that you would not want to promote.”

The group Jennings founded has also been accused of promoting homosexuality in schools. At a GLSEN conference in 2000, co-sponsored with the Massachusetts Department of Education, the group landed in hot water when it was revealed that it had included an educational seminar for kids that graphically described some unorthodox sex techniques.

A state official who spoke to teens at the conference said:

“Fisting (forcing one’s entire hand into another person’s rectum or vagina) often gets a bad rap….[It's] an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with…[and] to put you into an exploratory mode.”

At the time, Jennings said he had concerns about events at the conference, but he also criticized attendees who filmed it.

“From what I’ve heard, I have concerns as well,” Jennings told the Boston Globe in May 2000. “GLSEN believes that children do have a right to accurate, safer sex education, but this needs to be delivered in an age-appropriate and sensitive manner.

“What troubles me is the people who have the tape know what our mission is, they know that our work is about preventing harassment and they know that session was not the totality of what was offered at a conference with over 50 sessions,” he said.

But Peter LaBarbera, President of “Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, said Jennings’ reaction was weak and unacceptable.

“He never really apologized. If a conservative group had done that, they would be out of business,” LaBarbera said.

The religious right is also alarmed by Jennings’ personal views about religion. In his memoir, he wrote of his views while he was in high school:

“What had [God] done for me, other than make me feel shame and guilt? Squat. Screw you, buddy — I don’t need you around anymore, I decided.

“The Baptist Church had left me only a legacy of self-hatred, shame, and disappointment, and I wanted no more of it or its Father. The long erosion of my faith was now complete, and I, for many years, reacted violently to anyone who professed any kind of religion. Decades passed before I opened a Bible again.”

Terkel said Jennings was writing about a “low point” in his life, and he now considers himself a religious person.

“Since then he has been involved in the Union Theological Seminary,” she said. “He does consider himself religious. He tithes — I just don’t see any evidence that he is hostile to religion.”

Jennings is on the board of the Union Theological Seminary, which describes itself as “progressive and evangelical.”

Another controversy from Jennings’ past concerns an account in his 1994 book, “One Teacher In 10,” about how, as a teacher, he knew a high school sophomore named Brewster who was “involved” with an “older man”:

“Out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.”

The account led Diane Lenning, head of the National Education Association’s Republican Educators Caucus, to criticize Jennings in 2004 for not alerting school and state authorities about the boy’s situation, calling Jennings’ failure to do so an “unethical practice.”

Jennings threatened to sue Lenning for libel, saying she had no evidence that he knew the student in question was sexually active, or that he failed to report the situation.

But a professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, Warren Throckmorton, has produced an audio recording of a speech Jennings gave in 2000 at a GLSEN rally in Iowa, in which Jennings made it clear that he believed the student was sexually active:

“I said, ‘What were you doing in Boston on a school night, Brewster?’ He got very quiet, and he finally looked at me and said, ‘Well I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old’ I looked at Brewster and said, ‘You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.’” [Audio is available on the professor's Web site.]

The Washington Times reported in 2004 that “state authorities said Mr. Jennings filed no report in 1988.” A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department for Children and Families, the department to which Jennings — as a Massachusetts teacher — would have been legally obliged to report the situation, did not return calls from FOXNews.com.

GLSEN spokesman Daryl Presgraves told FOXNews.com that all the attacks on Jennings were hate-motivated smears, but he declined to address individual issues.

“From falsehoods to misrepresentations to things taken out of context to outright smears — all of which have been fully debunked — these groups will stop at nothing to ensure that no effective action is taken to address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in America’s schools.

“They have failed to derail and slander GLSEN’s well-respected work in the education world, which includes partnerships with numerous national education organizations, and they now seek to tarnish Kevin Jennings’ highly regarded career as an educator.”

Peter LaBarbera, president and founder of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, opens AFTAH’s June 17, 2009 press conference on President Obama’s radical homosexual agenda. LaBarbera exposes Obama’s hypocrisy on traditional marriage, and plays the infamous “Fistgate” audiotape revealing how — at a “gay youth” event — underage girls and boys were exposed to graphic verbal “how-to” lessons on “fisting” and other homosexual perversions. (Fistgate occurred at a “queer” youth panel as part of a 2000 conference sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.) GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings was appointed by President Obama to head up the Dep’t of Education’s “Safe and Drug-Free Schools” agency. A DVD of the AFTAH press conference in Chicago is available for $20 postpaid. Designate “Obama press conference” with your online donation or send your check to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

This pro-family press conference — largely ignored by the dominant liberal media — was organized by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at the Liberty Counsel (and an AFTAH Board Member), was fired by Allstate Insurance Company in 2005 because he wrote an online article — on his own time — critical of organized homosexuality. Since then, he has risen to his current position as one of Americas leading defenders of natural marriage and family. He will be the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s fund-raising banquet outside Chicago on Oct. 24, 2009.

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TAKE ACTION: Call your U.S. Congressman and Senators and oppose “Hate Crimes” (S 909), ENDA (Employment Nondiscrimination Act) and all aspects of President Obama’s homosexual/transsexual agenda (see below). Call or write: 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org.

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Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
www.americansfortruth.com

June 29, 2009; Contact AFTAH at americansfortruth@comcast.net

AFTAH Warns of Obama’s Radical Homosexual Agenda as President Meets Today with Gay Activists

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) warns that President Obama will likely renew his radical promises to homosexual activists today at a White House “Pride Month” reception –– promises that, if fulfilled, will undermine the freedoms of the majority of Americans who affirm marriage and healthy, time-tested Judeo-Christian sexual values in their daily lives.

This afternoon, President Obama will meet with homosexual and transsexual activists at a “Reception for LGBT Pride Month.” AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera reminds voters that Obama has no mandate for his comprehensive “gay” agenda, since these agenda items were barely discussed in the general election campaign:

• Obama’s commitment to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act –– which could force pro-traditional-marriage states to recognize out-of-state homosexual “marriages”;
• Obama’s plans to homosexualize the U.S. military despite the plea of 1,100 high-ranking retired military officers not to overturn current law declaring homosexuality incompatible with military service;
• Obama’s plans to create federal workplace “rights” based on transsexuality;
• Obama’s Faith Advisory appointment of Harry Knox, who called the pope a “discredited leader” and homosexuality a “gift from God,” thus mocking holy Scripture;
•  Obama’s appointment of Kevin Jennings to head up “Safe Schools” at the Department of Education. As founder of Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Jennings presided over the 2000 “Fistgate” scandal in which a GLSEN-sponsored workshop exposed underage children to graphic discussions by homosexual adults on how to perform dangerous and bizarre gay perversions; Jennings also said “[F**k] ‘em” and “Drop dead” to religious conservatives in a 2000 speech [click HERE to read Scott Whiteman's shocking "Fistgate" affidavit];
• Obama’s appointment of John Berry as Office of Personnel Management Director, strategically placed to advance homosexual activism throughout the federal government;
• Obama’s agenda of federalizing pro-homosexual “hate crimes” and employment law (ENDA) –– which would undermine Americans’ freedoms and vastly increase the power of the state to punish moral-minded citizens by promoting homosexuality and gender confusion as official government policy;
• Obama’s goal to homosexualize immigration laws, thus further undermining marriage and incentivizing the immigration of homosexuals –– adding new stress to an already burdened system;
• The White House’s honoring of “gay pride” and radical, anti-Christian bigots like homosexual icon Frank Kameny –– who smears religious conservatives as “Christianofascists” –– and who cynically proclaims, despite being an atheist, that “gay is godly”; [Note: Kameny is also "Bestiality-tolerant"];
• Obama’s promotion of homosexual adoption, which (for intentionally fatherless lesbian-led households), contradicts his commitment to responsible fatherhood.

Homosexual activist icon Frank Kameny (left) with Obama’s homosexual director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), John Berry.

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Media Advisory

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

June 16, 2009; Contact: Angela at 847-722-5330; americansfortruth@comcast.net

Coalition Press Conference: Obama’s Appointments and Policies Reflect Extreme Homosexual Agenda

CHICAGO, Ill. – Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is organizing a news conference Wednesday, June 17th at 11:00 AM, to highlight President Obama’s radical homosexual appointments and overall “gay” agenda:

Where: 29 South LaSalle Street, Suite 610, Chicago, IL
When: Wednesday., June 17, 11:00 AM
Who: Scheduled speakers:

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel;
Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R);
Hiram Crawford, pro-family, pro-life advocate, Chicago;
Mary Ann Hackett, Catholic Citizens of Illinois;
Diane Gramley, American Family Association of Pennsylvania;
David Smith, Illinois Family Institute;
Pastor Larry Rogers, Israel Methodist Community Church, Chicago;
Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Pro-Life Law Center;
Pastor Calvin Lindstrom, Church of Christian Liberty, Arlington Heights, IL

What: press event drawing attention to Obama’s emerging homosexual- and transsexual activist agenda:

• Obama’s radical appointments including anti-traditional-Catholic Harry Knox (of the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign) and Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) founder Kevin Jennings;
• Hate Crimes bill;
• Obama’s radical promise to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Clinton in 1996);
• Obama’s ENDA (Employment Nondiscrimination Act) plans to force businesses to approve of homosexuality;
• Obama’s plan to homosexualize the U.S. military (repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”);
• Obama’s confusion about Christianity, the Bible and homosexual practice;
• Obama’s lack of mandate to push the envelope on homosexual and transsexual issues

“Americans are largely ignorant about President Obama’s extreme pro-homosexual goals, which includes repealing DOMA and homosexualizing the U.S. military,” said AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera. “We are thrilled that these organizations and leaders are coming together to expose Obama’s ‘gay’ and transsexual agenda –– for which he has zero mandate because these issues were almost completely ignored in the general election campaign.”

Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel attorney and AFTAH board member, said: “By pledging his support for every demand of extremist homosexual pressure groups, President Obama has revealed himself to be out of step with those he serves. For example, he has promised to homosexualize the military supplanting sound judgment with San Francisco vice. It’s dangerously irresponsible for the President to place political correctness above national security. Now is not the time for sexual revolution in this nation. Now is the time to return to the family values that made America great.”
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Americans For Truth Needs You! … Give $25 and Get a Free Book

We need your financial help and prayers to keep fighting the powerful “queer” lobby.  If you will help Americans For Truth with a tax-deductible gift of $25 or more, we will send you a free copy of the hard-cover book Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far, by the late Dr. Charles Socarides, who dedicated his life to understanding homosexuality and helping people overcome it.  Will you consider a gift of $25, $100, $500 or even $1,000 or more to help Americans For Truth fight the powerful, well-financed Homosexual Lobby?  You can make your gift online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate, or mail your gift to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

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Folks, when it comes to the homosexual/transsexual “queer” activist movement, it seems the continuous story line is: Can it get any weirder, any more perverse? And then it does. Our good friends over at MassResistance once again have done the hard work of exposing part of the REAL homosexual youth agenda — you know, the one in which adult homosexual activists recklessly expose vulnerable young people to adult sexual perverts and harmful lifestyles. This is hardly the first “gay youth” scandal.

Take the time to read this shocking eye-witness story and then ask yourself: how is it that President Obama has the “audacity” to promote a man, Education Department “Safe Schools” czar Kevin Jennings, whose organization (GLSEN) has for more than a decade promoted all things transsexual to youth — yes, in the name of “safety.” This “transgender prom” travesty is part of Jennings’ perverse legacy — GLSEN has sponsored or been associated with other events that corrupted and endangered youth, like the notorious “Fistgate” episode, and a GLSEN conference in Chicago in which pornographic homosexual magazines advertising “gay” sex clubs and leather bars were passed out to underage youth.

Bottom line: such recklessness toward youth would never be tolerated if it weren’t part of a left-wing, politically correct agenda. It is wrong and incredibly irresponsible to use American schools to “promote homosexuality”, transsexuality, bisexuality — and, God help us, sexual sadism — to young people. TAKE ACTION: Please call and write Education Secretary Arne Duncan (arne.duncan@ed.gov; 202-401-3000) and politely urge him to withdraw his appointment of homosexual extremist and anti-Christian bigot Kevin Jennings as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com

Excerpts from MassResistance’s exposé below:

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Excerpted from the MassResistance article, “State-supported ‘Transgender Prom’ for kids (’22 or younger’) in Boston City Hall: Your worst nightmare”:

On May 9, 2009, the state-sponsored homosexual “Youth Pride Day”, with kids from middle schools and high schools across the state, ended with a “Transgender Prom” in Boston City Hall. This was fully supported by Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston City Council. It was run by BAGLY (Boston Alliance for Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth), an organization seated on the state-funded Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth.

The event was officially for “youth 22 years old and under”. But there were all kinds of bizarre adults wandering everywhere.

Max, a 20-year-old college student, attended for the first time. This is what your government and the homosexual movement are doing with your kids.

Below is Max’s report:

What I saw at the “transgender prom”

By “Max” (20-year-old college student)

On May 9, 2009, the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (BAGLY) held its 7th prom inside of Boston City Hall. I decided to attend, paying the $10 admission fee in order to see what kind of event the radical organization would stage inside an official government building. I remained in the building for an hour and a half and found the events inside disturbing, depraved and outright criminal….

No questions asked
Officially, the prom was open to youth 22 and younger, however, as I entered the building, neither my nor anyone else’s identification was checked, even of those in the line who were quite obviously older than 22. As I neared the entrance in the line, I witnessed two very tall older men wearing bleach blonde wigs, dresses and make-up come up the front of the line and enter the event without any interference from the people manning the entrance. I was not surprised when I saw that one of the individuals manning the entrance was Grace Sterling Stowell, a transsexual activist who specializes in the recruiting middle and high school children [and who is also an active member of the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth]….

Near the only entrance to the dance floor, I saw and spoke to a man dressed in a soldier-style garb made entirely of leather. He looked 45 years old and was wearing a red sash that introduced him as “Mr. Boston Leather”. He immediately gave me his card and identified himself as a “leather BDSM fetishist.” I was disgusted and disturbed that this individual was allowed to attend an event where so many young children were gathered. The man was wearing a white tag which would identify him as a chaperone. The self-professed fetishist was free to recruit and harass kids as young as 14 or 15! (He stood at the entrance and gave his “businses card” to children as they entered the dance area.)

As I circled the dance floor once more, I spotted young teen homosexual couples, kissing in almost every alcove in the room. The fact that the kids, with their hair painted purple, green, red and wearing clothing colored with the gay rainbow, were so young added to the perversion of the event. How many 14 or 15 year olds “know” that they are homosexuals? How many of these kids were brainwashed into thinking so by “Mr. Leather” and his kind? …

In conclusion, I am not sure if anyone who has not attended an event like this can truly grasp the perversion and disturbing nature of this “prom”. As a young person who has been exposed to many disturbing things within today’s youth culture, I believed I was prepared to deal with what I saw at the 2009 BAGLY Prom. Minutes after entering the event, I discovered that I was not.

I want to make my conclusions plain and clear to those reading this:

This “prom” was a recruiting propaganda event. The middle-aged fetishists handing out cards, the adult transsexuals dancing with underage school kids, the lack of supervision on the part of the organizers accomplished one goal and one goal only: to recruit as many teenagers as possible to the homosexual cause….

Read the full MassResistance account here: “State-supported “Transgender Prom” for kids (”22 or younger”) in Boston City Hall: Your worst nightmare”

Promoting Homosexuality: Kevin Jennings, Obama appointee and founder of the Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network, said in 1997 that he looked forward to the day when parents would react to reports that schools are “promoting homosexuality” by saying, “Yeah, who cares?”

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GLSEN leaders contend that effective redefinition of the next generation’s attitude toward homosexuality requires the positive portrayals of homosexuality starting in kindergarten.  According to GLSEN activist Jaki Williams, children at that age are “developing their superego,” and “that’s when the saturation process needs to begin.”

Dear Readers,

AFTAH has been exposing the radical agenda of Kevin Jennings and the organization he founded –  the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) — for a long time. This article on a GLSEN conference in New York City was first published in the Lambda Report [the publication that preceded Americans For Truth About Homosexuality], in early 1998.

Brian Burt’s firsthand report reveals both the frankness of Jennings and fellow homosexual activists in expressing their revolutionary goals, and GLSEN’s agenda of manipulating very young minds to support homosexuality. The “saturation process” quotation above should give pause to even liberal-minded parents who might be wary of GLSEN’s utilitarian strategy of supplanting the parents’ role in guiding their children’s moral upbringing with teacher-activists intent on indoctrinating even kindergartners (!!) in the celebration of homosexuality.

Kevin Jennings has been appointed by President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for the Department of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. We will be loading all Lambda Report articles online, including others about GLSEN and Jennings. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com
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‘Gay’ Leader Kevin Jennings Says Dream Is to ‘Promote Homosexuality’ in Schools
GLSEN Speakers Tout ‘Gay’ Lessons for Kindergartners

By Brian J. Burt

January/February 1998, Lambda Report, Americans For Truth

NEW YORK CITY—The head of a homosexual teachers group said he looks forward to the day when “promoting homosexuality” in schools will be seen in a positive light, while others at a recent conference sponsored by his organization advocated exposing kindergartners to pro-homosexual lessons.

“I can envision a day when straight people say, ‘So what if you’re promoting homosexuality,’” said Kevin Jennings, cofounder and executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), at an October 25 conference here. “Or straight kids [will] say [to a male homosexual friend], ‘Hey, why don’t you and your boyfriend come over before you go to prom and try your tuxes on at my house?’

“[I]f we believe that can happen, we can make it happen,” Jennings said, making his comments at a “Looking to the Future” panel discussion that was part of GLSEN’s 4th Annual Mid-Atlantic Conference. Entitled “From Dirt Road to Cyberspace: LGBT Issues in Education for the 21st Century,” the all-day event featured over 40 separate workshops and a staged “town hall” for the media led by lesbian activist and tennis star Martina Navratilova.

Jennings acknowledged that his organization has vehemently denied the charge that it promote homosexuality in schools. He recalled that when GLSEN board member Ann Simon testified before Congress two years ago [1996], at hearings examining the “promotion of homosexuality in the schools,” GLSEN was “busy putting out press releases, and saying ‘We’re not promoting homosexuality, that’s not what our program’s about.’”

Jennings said that after the congressional hearing, his best friend wrote him asking, “So what if you are?” He said regretfully that he had gotten “wrapped up in…[his] own defensiveness and the day-to-day struggle.” Now, Jennings said he realizes that GLSEN’s work will be done when “most straight people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality [in our schools], would say, ‘Yeah, who cares?’”

Before passing around collection plates, he submitted a final wish: “Right now, let’s face it. For large swells of people, they think of GLSEN and kids, and they think ‘GLSEN’ is bad for kids…I’d like five years from now for most Americans when they hear the word ‘GLSEN’ to think ‘Ooh, that’s good for kids.’”

Conflicting Messages
Since its founding in Boston three years ago, GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Teachers’ Network, or GLSTN) has publicly billed itself as an organization focused on addressing and ending “the destructive effects of anti-gay bias in schools across the country.” Asked whether its ultimate mission went beyond the “teaching of respect for all”—the title of a GLSEN instructional video featuring Jennings—and into the realm of promoting homosexuality, GLSEN has consistently responded with an emphatic “no.” At the conference, however, GLSEN leaders painted two different portraits of its vision for the coming millennium.

With cameras from ABC’s 20/20, MTV and other national media outlets rolling, lesbian activist Navratilova prompted the eight “town hall” panelists to relate their experiences with antihomosexual harassment in our nation’s schools. Speakers recounted their experiences as observers and victims of violence against “gay” students, and discussed the academic decline and suicidal tendencies allegedly resulting from those attacks. These students and parents cited “physical safety” as their main concern, and voiced shared goal of working with GLSEN to create “safe schools,” where “tolerance” would be universally practiced.

When asked to discuss the best approach for pursuing that objective, the panelists favored a low-key approach of incorporating homosexual issues into general classroom discussions of human diversity.

“[Homo]sexuality shouldn’t be such a dig deal in schools; it shouldn’t be brought up like ‘We’re gonna talk about being gay today,’ because that’s just showing…that like we have an agenda or something…[J]ust incorporate it,” explained panelists Cassandra Lewis, a high school senior from Southern California.

After the “town hall meeting” concluded and the media had left the building, the 210 attendees broke into private workshop groups, where GLSEN presenters expounded a markedly different vision for the future. Denouncing the quest for “tolerance” as a “condescending campaign for the second-class citizenry” —— as one speaker put it —— the presenters spoke frankly about their goal to have homosexuality open “affirmed” and celebrated” in American’s schools.

“I don’t want to be tolerated. I don’t want to be put up with. I want to be…celebrated,” said Stephen Glassman, a GLSEN chapter board member from New Oxford, Pennsylvania, Karen Kalteissen, host of a workshop on “Conversing with the Christian Community,” explained,

“Tolerance is the most minimalist virtue I can think of, and I’m not even sure I want to put it under the category of minimalist.”

Kindergarten “Tolerance” Lesson
Throughout these discussions, GLSEN’s “safe school” tolerance campaign was identified as a “stepping stone” to the goal of complete curriculum revision. Dialoguing about the legal liability that could be linked to incidents of antihomosexual violence was said to be a highly effective way to “get the ear” of administrators and board members. Once school leaders recognize the need for tolerant classrooms, activists can present their homosexual curriculum model as a means of accomplishing that objective.

“We might start with people who…say, ‘Well, I can go as far as tolerance,’ and then we build from there,” Kalteissen said. “And our job, I believe, is to move them down the scale…Tolerance is not enough, let’s keep going.”

During the workshop sessions, activists presented tools for changing curricula at all levels—from kindergarten through high school. Topics ranged from “Inclusive Kindergarten,” “Inclusive Elementary School Curriculum,” and “Re-envisioning High School Literature,” to “Stir Things Up: How to Start a Gay-Straight Alliance,” “Hey Faggot! Hey Dyke!,” and “Very Queer Kids.”

GLSEN leaders contend that effective redefinition of the next generation’s attitude toward homosexuality requires the positive portrayals of homosexuality starting in kindergarten.  According to Jaki Williams, a GLSEN activist and teacher at the Packer Collegiate School (in New York), children at that age are “developing their superego,” and “that’s when the saturation process needs to begin.”

In her “Inclusive Kindergarten” workshop, Williams explained that “five-year-olds really are very interested in the big questions. They’re very interested in sex, death, and love, and they ask those questions, and they talk about them. And we want to help them find the answers…on their level.” To initiate conversation, Williams said, she has her class read a variety of books which endorse homosexuality, including Asha’s Mums, My Two Uncles, Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy’s Roommate, and One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads. She also hosts a viewing of the video Both of My Moms’ Names are Judy.

While kindergarteners were found to be “open” to discussions about the homosexual model, their limited intellectual developments made full comprehension of these concepts difficult. Group members suggested the solution was a careful reexamination of the language used in the classroom. Speakers advocated repeated use of the words “gay” and “lesbian,” and encouraged more explicit explanations of the homosexual behaviors.

A former teacher relayed her experience, arguing that it is not enough to say, “Oh well I do this umbrella anti-bias thing and therefore I’m talking about diversity.” She explained that children need constant exposure to homosexual words and images. “It’s really a conditioning process.”

Another workshop participant agreed, saying, “I think looking at language is so essential…I think we need to [being by] say[ing] this is the bedroom that Harriet and Susan sleep in.

A kindergarten teacher from Alexandria, Virginia in the audience agreed. She claimed such graphic descriptions force children to develop accurate images to go along with the “gay” vocabulary. She credited her success to the highly progressive paradigm her school district embraced, and the academic freedom which it provided her. Her only complain was that it had not yet acquiesced to classroom demonstrations of contraceptive use.

Addressing Parents
Throughout the conference, only a few participants directly addressed the issue of parental opposition to GLSEN’s vision. In her kindergarten workshop, Williams recounted how she answered the questions of one pupil’s parents who were concerned when their child arrived home with what she admitted was a provocative brochure on bias, produced by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

When the husband expressed concern during a parents’ night about the factual content of her unstructured diversity question-and-answer sessions, Williams said she reassured him by explaining that facts are a product of and vary according to one’s individual perspective. To avoid engaging in fruitless debate about the wisdom of promoting homosexuality, she sent the parents home with other handouts extolling the principles of diversity and equity in education.
Other GLSEN activists were less willing to engage in dialogue with concerned parents.

“There aren’t two sides to working toward ending homophobia,” said Imani Matthews, a teacher at Riverdale Country School in New York. “There isn’t a loving presenter of the other side.”

“[T]he nature of homosexuality [is]…not what we’re talking about…It’s about fighting homophobia and heterosexism,” Matthews said.

Some administrators said the best way to handle problems with parental opposition was simply to avoid them. Instead of sending home a letter alerting parents to the proposed curriculum, activists encourage ed teachers to move forward independently with the incorporation of pro-“gay” materials.

Redefining the Family
To bring together the day’s lessons, GLSEN sponsored a “Looking to the Future” panel discussion. Fielding questions and comments from the audience, the five activists and professionals explained that progress is sometimes “a slow process.” Tactics for change included “coming out” by teachers and school administrators, more effective use of the media, recapturing language necessary to frame the debate, developing better relationships with straight allies, direct confrontation of known anti-gay individuals, and engaging political leaders on the local level.

While “safe” learning environments were cited as a “critical objective,” the discussion echoed the workshops’ emphasis on a curriculum that promoted homosexuality.

“A child has…been screwed by the educational system if they are not actively…helped to see the glory of diversity as part of the classroom experience,” said Terry Boggis, cofounder and director of Center Kids, a lobbying group for “LGB” (lesbian, gay, bisexual) families.

Redefining the concept of family is a central component of the desired curriculum. Panelists explained that progress will only occur when educators recognize that “rigid” familial constructs are no longer viable—and that, instead, in the words of a popular homosexual activist slogan, “love makes a family.”

Panelists underscored the alleged decline of the nuclear family, which, in Boggis’ view, “hardly doesn’t exist anymore.”

She explained, “As we look at curriculum, we are looking for schools that include a more creative and broader definition of family. That people are…allowing children in their classrooms to claim whomever they define as their family members, and have that be OK…good friends, neighbors, or patron saints.”

Earlier, in her “Creating a Safe School Environment from an Administrator’s Point of View” workshop, panelist Elaine Winder, principal at the Little Red School House (in Manhattan), expounded on the changing family structure and the growing population of homosexual parents.