Feb 7, 2008 

Contact: E. Ray Moore, Jr., Chaplain (Lt. Col.) USAR Ret, Director of Exodus Mandate or Dr. Bruce Shortt, 803-714-1744. California Exodus contacts: www.Californiaexodus.org, press@californiaexodus.org

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, Feb. 7 /Christian Newswire/ — California Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation mandating that public school children be indoctrinated to accept as normal the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sexual deviancy. In the wake of the failed effort to obtain a referendum to repeal this legislation, a broad coalition of Christian grassroots organizations have endorsed the Campaign for Children and Families’ call for California families and churches to rescue their children from California’s public schools.

The growing coalition includes Eagle Forum, the Campaign for Children and Families, Exodus Mandate, and ten more sponsors, five of which are based in California. These organizations will be providing information to California parents and pastors concerning the new school legislation, how it mainstream’s sexual deviancy among children, and what alternatives to California’s public schools are available.

According to Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, “Many of us have worked to reform public schools. Unfortunately, SB 777 and the related legislation represent a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California’s schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children. Consequently, in California, parents must try to find alternatives to the public schools.”

Chairman for California Exodus is Dr. Ron Gleason, theologian and pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church, Yorba Linda, California and stated clerk of the South Coast Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. In accepting this assignment he said: “As a parent and grandparent, I want those near and dear to me to have quality education. This country excels in every social, economical, scientific, and political category known to man, but gets low grades on the education of its children. We should be leading the world in developing well-educated young people. This role is first and foremost the responsibility of parents.”

One California-based sponsor, Denise Kanter, Founder of Considering Homeschooling Ministry said, “We hope our ministry with its free resources and web site will encourage families to provide their children with a safe Biblical home education.” Dr. Robert Simonds, President of Citizens for Excellence in Education, also a California organization, added, “Now is the time for the pastors and churches to fulfill their role in rescuing their own children and helping society by providing K-12 Christian education too.”

Randy Thomasson of the California-based Campaign for Children and Families has witnessed the attack on parental rights and sexual indoctrination of children coming over the last several years, “First, the law allowed public schools to voluntarily promote homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality. Then, the law required public schools to accept homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual teachers as role models for impressionable children. Now, the law has been changed to effectively require the positive portrayal of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality to six million children in California government-controlled schools. To rescue their children, loving parents need to find an alternative to government schools, and every church needs to make it a priority to help parents be in charge of their children’s education again.”

E. Ray Moore, Jr., believes that it is urgent that the coalition make parents and pastors aware of how dangerous the new legislation is going to make public schools and that they must take up their God-given responsibilities with their children. In fact, according to Moore, “The Biblical and theological case for Christian families and churches to practice K-12 Christian schooling or home schooling is strong. Christians should begin with the belief that children belong to the Lord and are a stewardship of the family, not the state.”

Bruce Shortt, author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, notes, “Christians have already become numb to the moral relativism that is taught in all public schools today. Now children will be told that their sexual orientation and gender are relative, too. No longer will children raised in these schools understand that God made us male and female with different, but complementary roles. Instead, children will be taught that sexual orientation and gender are merely a matter of personal choice. Thus, children will be told that because there are many sexual orientations and gender identities, they simply have to reach their own conclusions about which sexual orientation and gender ‘possibilities’ are ‘right for them.’ Along with this will come the message that you really can’t tell wheth! er you like something unless you have tried it. The likely consequences of this for children, the institution of the family, our churches, and our culture are horrendous.”

Additional information can be found at, www.californiaexodus.org, www.savecalifornia.com, and www.exodusmandate.org.

List of sponsoring organizations: Phyllis Schlafly with Eagle Forum; Denise Kanter with Considering Homeschooling Ministry; Dr. Robert Simonds with Citizens for Excellence in Education; Star Parker with Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education; Patch Blakey with Association of Classical and Christian Schools; Dave and Kim d’Escoto with Dexios; Dan Smithwick with Nehemiah Institute; Alan Schaeffer with Alliance for Separation of School and State; Linda Harvey with Mission America; Randy Thomasson with Campaign for Children and families; and Dr. Ron Gleason with California Exodus.

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Please support the Exodus Mandate project FRONTLINE MINISTRIES Post Office Box 12072 Columbia, SC 29211-2072 or give online at :

http://www.exodusmandate.org/info-donate.htm

Yes, it’s already affecting the legal system. . .

We recently met with a mother who was preparing to take her local school system to court over a particular homosexual-related activity that she felt was going to affect her child in a destructive way. But when she discussed it with her lawyer (who specializes in dealing with public schools) the lawyer told her that the recent ruling by Federal Judge Mark Wolf in the David Parker case would make it difficult for her to win!

As you can imagine, the mother was shocked and very upset. But this is how important the David Parker lawsuit has become, not only here but around the country. And the national homosexual movement knows that – and is prepared to pull out all the stops to make sure that this lawsuit does not get to an appeal.

This also demonstrates that the current Parental Notification Law (Ch. 71, Sec. 32A) is now effectively useless, and a STRONG replacement is desperately needed! (Call your state reps & senators to let them know how important their support for the NEW Parents’ rights bill S321 is!)

 NOTE:

By Brian Camenker, MassResistance.org

In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell

MassResistance.org reports: 

National homosexual groups targeting children file in US First Circuit Court to stop appeal in David Parker lawsuit.

GLSEN and PFLAG, as well as GLAD all file appearance in case. Reveals nationwide importance of Parker’s court action. 

As David Parker’s lawyers prepare to appeal the ruling against his federal civil rights lawsuit against the Lexington School system, three major homosexual activist groups have officially filed their appearance in the case, and will be submitting amicus briefs as part of their effort to stop his appeal.

Read the official appearance document here:
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/parker_lawsuit/GLSEN_appearance_doc.pdf

David Parker, his wife, and another couple, the Wirthlins, are suing the Lexington, MA school system over the teaching and normalization of homosexual behavior in the elementary schools, purposefully without parents’ knowledge or consent, or ability to opt out.

Earlier this year, Federal District Court Judge Mark Wolf issued an unbelievable ruling against the Parkers which, among other things, gives schools in Massachusetts the right to teach homosexuality at will, without parents’ input, consent, or even knowledge. The Parkers are appealing.

Read Wolf’s disturbing ruling here:
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/parker_lawsuit/hearing_020707/hearing_dismissed.html

More on the Parkers’ case and events leading up to it.
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/parker/index.html

The three homosexual groups which have filed to take part in the defense of the school system are:

GLSEN – Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network
Very powerful national homosexual group targeting children in schools. This is the group that organizes the horrific “Gay-straight alliance” clubs, homosexual school assemblies, the “Day of Silence”, in schools around the country, and annual GLSEN conferences pushing the most extreme homosexual topics and issues on vulnerable kids. 

PFLAG – Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Also in public schools around the country, and in many ways even more destructive than GLSEN. Very heavy into transgenderism and related behaviors. Recent PFLAG conference also teamed up with the “New England Leather Alliance” which promotes bondage and sado-machosism.

GLAD – Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders
Well-funded and influential Massachusetts homosexual legal group (partially funded from public money) which specializes in suing government agencies and businesses to force them to accept homosexuality, transgenderism, public sex, and related behaviors. This was the group behind the Goodridge decision on same-sex “marriage” and which is pushing the new “transgender rights and hate crimes” bill.

(NOTE: We will be presenting more on the history and activities of these groups over the next few months.)

Piling on

These are just the latest pro-homosexual groups to be involved in the fight against David Parker (and all parents).

Pro-homosexual groups already involved in this case and continuing to fight against the Parkers include:

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• Human Rights Campaign (national homosexual organization, which gets funding from major US corporations)
• Massachusetts Teachers Association
• Respecting Differences (Lexington activist group)

There is no question that the national homosexual movement considers this a major threat to their ability to go into the public schools and proselytize children without the parents having any power to stop them. This case has already received considerable national media attention that will undoubtedly continue. The Parkers’ lawyers have indicated that they are prepared to fight this as far up the judicial ladder as is necessary to win.

What’s next?

This week the Parkers are to submit their brief to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Then, within approximately 40 days, the opposition will respond with their own brief. There will be a plaintiff’s response, and the judge will then decide whether to grant the appeal.

We will keep you informed on each development. See THIS RELATED David Parker story, also published by MassResistance.org.

 Charlene Cothran and David Parker: two heroes for truth coming to Chicago.

Folks, you won’t want to miss Americans For Truth’s first annual banquet, on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6:00 PM, outside Chicago, Illinois. This surely will be one of the most compelling and exciting evenings for defending truth in the area of homosexuality that you will ever experience!

Our dynamic speakers represent both sides of pro-family advocacy on this issue: the loving Gospel message of hope through Christ in overcoming unwanted same-sex desires – and the bold defense of truth in the public square, in this case parents’ right to protect their children from manipulative, pro-homosexual lessons in taxpayer-funded public schools. Here are the details:

WHAT: Americans For Truth Dinner Banquet: Celebrating Truth and the Freedom to Be Moral

 

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 5: Silent Auction 6:00 PM, Dinner 6:45 PM

 

WHERE: Lombard, Illinois, west of Chicago, location TBA; call AFTAH’s Banquet Coordinator at 312-315-6152 for information on room reservations for those coming from out of state. (It is easy to get cheap flights into Chicago’s O’Hare or Midway airports.)

 

WHO:  Keynote Speakers:

Charlene Cothran
Former lesbian who, after her dramatic Christian conversion, retooled her Venus Magazine from a publication for fellow “gay and lesbian” African Americans to a Christian magazine seeking to help men and women overcome homosexuality through Christ 

 

David Parker
Caring father who became a nationally known parents’ rights crusader after being arrested at his 1st-grade son’s Lexington, Mass., elementary school for insisting that he and his wife be notified before their son was exposed to any pro-homosexual teachings

ADMISSION:  $50 per person; table of ten, $500. Pay online HERE.

 

PAYMENT AND RESERVATIONS:  E-mail Americans For Truth at americansfortruth@comcast.net; or call AFTAH’s Banquet Coordinator at 312-315-6152 to reserve your seats. SEATING IS LIMITED SO DON’T DELAY.  Pay using your credit card using AFTAH’s new and improved Online Donation Page (designate ”Banquet” in the comments section). Or send checks payable to “Americans For Truth” at $50/person to: AFTAH, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  You may also pay by credit card by calling 312-315-6152.  

 

WHY:  At this special event, pro-family leaders will celebrate God’s power to transform men and women struggling with homosexuality; and expose the relentless attack on children’s innocence, parental rights and religious freedom by a “gay/transgender” lobby that seeks to discredit and silence the voice of faith in America.   

Why can’t schools simply ban all “bullying” or abuse of ANY students without getting into the homosexuality promotion business? — Peter LaBarbera

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From NEA’s website:

Rights Watch

Teaching Tolerance or Attacking Religion?

How far can schools go in teaching tolerance for gays and lesbians? Two federal courts tackle this thorny question.

It’s the latest battleground in the culture wars. In the wake of several high-profile cases holding school districts liable for failing to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) students from peer harassment, many schools have adopted training programs intended to reduce harassment and promote acceptance of GLBT students.

Some parents find these programs objectionable because they conflict with their deeply held religious belief that homosexuality is sinful, and they don’t want the schools to undermine their parental authority by teaching a contrary lesson.

Federal courts in Maryland and Kentucky recently struggled to resolve this conflict, with differing results.

In a dispute that is still ongoing, the Montgomery County (Maryland) Board of Education last year adopted a health education curriculum designed to teach tolerance of gays and lesbians. Among other things, course materials described as a “myth” the belief that “homosexuality is a sin” and characterized certain Christian religions as “intolerant and Biblically misguided” because they are “opposed to homosexuality.”

In a lawsuit filed in May 2005 by two groups of parents and citizens, a federal district court issued an injunction prohibiting the Maryland school district from implementing the curriculum. The court found that the course materials violate the Constitution by attacking the views of certain religions, while promoting the views of other religions that “are more friendly towards the homosexual lifestyle.”

The school district has agreed to revise the controversial curriculum. That process is still underway.

In the Kentucky case decided in February, a federal district court ruled that parents don’t have the right to have their children opt out of mandatory “student diversity training” designed to stop the harassment of GLBT students.

The program adopted by the Board of Education of Boyd County, Kentucky, consists of a one-hour video, followed by comments from an instructor and questions from students. Students who refuse to attend receive an unexcused absence.

The school district agreed to implement the mandatory training for both staff and students as part of the settlement of a 2003 lawsuit filed by GLBT students charging that the district had turned a blind eye to peer harassment and had illegally denied official recognition to a Gay Straight Alliance student club.

The parents had claimed that the training violated their right to practice their religion because the diversity training “promoted values contrary to their religious beliefs” and “attempted to change [their children’s] religious and ideological views regarding homosexuality.”

The court disagreed. Merely exposing students to “views [that are] contrary to their religious beliefs” does not infringe on their religious freedom, the court said. Plus, there was no evidence that any student “was compelled to disavow his or her religious beliefs” or to “endorse homosexuality.”

The court also ruled that the program did not violate the plaintiffs’ “parental rights” to direct the upbringing and religious training of their children. Parents, the court held, have no “fundamental right to dictate curriculum,” even where they may have “genuine moral disagreements with the school’s choice of subject matter.”

Of special note, the court rejected the parents’ reliance on the Maryland decision to challenge the Boyd County program. The Boyd County program, the court said, “is a far cry” from the curriculum struck down in Maryland, which denigrated several religions and attempted to “elevate certain religious views over others.”

The lesson from these two cases is simple: One way school districts can fulfill their legal obligation to provide a safe learning environment for GLBT students is to mandate anti-harassment training. And these lessons of tolerance can and should be taught without assailing religion.

As the judge in the Maryland case cautioned: School officials can “achieve the goals of advocating tolerance and providing health-related information” without teaching “such controversial topics as whether homosexuality is a sin, whether AIDS is God’s judgment on homosexuals, and whether churches that condemn homosexuality are on theologically solid ground.”

Read more about these court cases:

• The Maryland case: Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum v. Montgomery County Public Schools, ___ F.Supp. 2d ___ (D.Md. 2005)
• The Kentucky case: Morrison v. Board of Educ. of Boyd County, Kentucky, ___ F. Supp. 2d ___ (E.D.Ky. 2006)

—Michael D. Simpson, NEA Office of General Counsel

Excerpted from NEA Releases Controversial Statement on Website, published Jan 3, 2006, by Family News in Focus:

A ‘school safety’ link for the National Education Association says “a great public school is a fundamental right of every child, free from intimidation and harassment, and safe for all students, including those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered.” Linda Harvey with Mission America says the site uncovers an agenda.

“If anyone ever had a doubt before that there is a deliberate and well-funded and highly influential gay agenda in schools, then this should convince them that there is indeed that going on.”

She says the NEA is essentially saying in order to have safe schools we need to approve of homosexuality.

“That’s their recommendation, and it’s a false one; it’s a misleading one and one that is very likely to endanger millions of students.”

Finn Laursen with the Christian Educators Association agrees with the anti-bullying message, but says the NEA is treading into unsafe waters with its pro-gay, safe-school message.

“As parents and educators we ought to say, ‘No, we won’t tolerate harassment or bullying. But we shouldn’t be promoting something to our children that we know has major medical, psychological implications and as a Christian, we believe is sin.”

Laursen says the NEA can promote safe schools without promoting a political agenda.

Same-sex marriage is not the only goal of the gay rights movement. It’s becoming clear that another goal is the suppression of Americans’ First Amendment right to criticize the gay agenda.

The gay lobby tried a broadside attempt to censor criticism by passing a national “hate crimes” law. Fortunately, Congress didn’t pass that law, but gay activists are obviously trying to achieve much the same effect through political pressure and intimidation.

Scott Bloch, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in the Bush administration, has been targeted for termination because he removed “sexual orientation” from the list of anti-discrimination laws protecting employment at federal agencies. Bloch discovered that his Clinton-appointed predecessor, Elaine Kaplan, had unilaterally inserted “sexual orientation” in the list without any statutory authorization, so he removed it.

The gay lobby retaliated, instigating five investigations against Bloch. After all five cleared him of any wrongdoing, the response by the gay lobby was to initiate a sixth investigation.

Reportedly, Bloch has been told privately to resign, twice suggesting that he might be fired if he doesn’t. Letters from supporters caused the White House to back off before the election, but it is apparent that the Bush administration has no stomach for this fight and hopes Bloch will go quietly.

There have actually been very few complaints against the Bush administration about job discrimination against homosexuals. Bush just appointed open homosexual Mark Dybul as U.S. global AIDS coordinator, and when he was sworn in with the rank of ambassador, Secretary of Stat Condoleezza Rice praised his “wonderful family” and referred to his partner’s mother as Dybul’s “mother-in-law.”

Luis Padilla, an employee of a large corporation in Virginia, put this message on the rear window of his pickup truck: “Please, vote for marriage on Nov. 7.” His bosses ordered him to remove it because some people said it offended them.

Padilla then parked his truck on what he thought (apparently incorrectly) was outside company property, but he was fired anyway. After a couple of state legislators took up his cause, the company reinstated him.

Robert J. Smith, who served at a small salary as Maryland’s representative on the Washington Metro transit board, mentioned his religious views against homosexual conduct during an appearance on a cable television program. Although probably few saw the show, gay activists demanded that he be fired, and Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich complied.

Michael Campion, a psychologist with the Minneapolis Police Department, was suspended because of his past affiliation with a group critical of the gay lifestyle, despite reports of a good job performance. The city of Springfield, Ill., had previously terminated his services for the same reason. If Americans don’t resist such assaults on free speech, we could be headed down the Canadian road. Dozens of postal workers in Vancouver recently refused to deliver mail they called “homophobic.”

In Yale University‘s student newspaper, a columnist recently described that institution as “really, really gay. Like, totally gay.” Yet, when one e-mail expressed a dissenting view on Yale’s gay pride day, gay activists demanded reprisals against the dissenter.

Middlebury College now invites applicants to indicate if they are gay. The assistant director of admissions explained that gay students bring “a unique quality” to the college, which he said tries hard not “to be too homogeneous.” Public schools are a major battleground in the gays’ efforts to censor any criticism of their goals or lifestyle. Every year, the National Education Association passes resolutions not only demanding that schools not discriminate against sexual orientation, but also insisting that classroom language be monitored to punish “homophobia” and to “promote ‘acceptance’ and/or ‘respect’ instead of ‘tolerance’” of the gay lifestyle.

Taking their demands for censorship into the courts, gays have been winning. After Poway High School near San Diego endorsed the gay project called “Day of Silence,” the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the school in forbidding student Tyler Harper to wear a T-shirt with the words “Homosexuality is shameful, Romans 1:27.”

The dissenting judge pointed out the intolerance of those who claim they want tolerance for minority views. But Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who sided with the school, wrote that Tyler’s defenders “still don’t get the message.”

I am getting the message: For Reinhardt, gay rights means intolerance for free speech.

Clinton apologists once defended his scandalous conduct by saying it was “only about sex.” It’s increasingly clear that the gay ideology is about far more than sex; it assaults our fundamental right to free speech.

Continue reading at Townhall…

Here is a partial list of companies and organizations that supported the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force‘s radical “Creating Change” conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Nov 8-12, 2006:

• American Airlines
• Ameriprise Financial Services
• Bacardi
• Bell South
• Chipotle Grill
• Cingular
• Costco
• Merrill Lynch
• MS. Magazine
• National Education Association
• NARAL
• Panera Bread
• Planned Parenthood
• United Way of Miami Dade
• Washington Mutual Bank
• Wells Fargo

…For the first time, this year ninth-grade students will read a collection of short stories titled, “Am I Blue?” which is about people who have been affected by the coming-out experiences of youth…

Until two parent groups hired Liberty Counsel lawyers to stop it, a Maryland school district curriculum was about to teach 8th- and 10th-graders that Jesus condoned homosexuality because He never mentioned it by name, that Christians often use the Bible to justify hatred and that being homosexual is similar to being left-handed.

Some of the fuel behind the movement is coming from what many believe is an overly cozy alliance between the National Education Association (NEA) and gay activist organizations, such as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the nation’s leading pro-homosexuality education group.

“GLSEN is very closely aligned with the Gay-Lesbian caucus inside the NEA,” said Jeralee Smith, a California school teacher and the outgoing chair of the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators Caucus.

“When the NEA’s Gay Lesbian Caucus started, I’m sure they wanted to see a gay president in charge of the NEA,” Smith said. “Well, that happened when Bob Chase became president. Chase was outed as a gay man by the Washington Blade around the end of his term as NEA president.

“It was during Bob Chase’s presidency that the Sexual Orientation Task Force was initiated, giving a whole arm of NEA leadership to gay- lesbian -bisexual -transgender (GLBT) causes,” Smith said. “In 2002, a 60-page document detailing NEA’s support of GLBT causes was adopted by the NEA executive committee, and handed to NEA delegates as a report which, technically, didn’t even require a vote.”

Since that time, pro-homosexuality curricula have been steadily creeping into schools across the country, says Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).

“Programs like this are in all 50 states, and probably in every major county in the country,” Griggs said…

What if a student later becomes ill, after having been encouraged to embrace the lifestyle by a school program that deliberately withheld information about the risks? Could the student sue?

“I was recently contacted by somebody who, because of one-sided information being provided by doctors, went through a sex-change operation. His mental issues just got worse, and he now realizes this isn’t the choice anyone should make. He wants to sue because he wasn’t provided with full information.”

In the meantime, Lindevaldsen said,

“This is all politics. It’s all politics in the courts and it’s all politics in the schools. And the pawns are our children.”

• NEA passed a resolution supporting homosexual “marriage” and homosexual adoption.
• NEA recommended that GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender) issues training be required content for teacher credentialing. (Such training is usually biased strongly toward the homosexual activist side.)
• NEA upgraded their language from tolerance of homosexuality to acceptance and respect for homosexuality.
• NEA refused to pass this amendment: “To protect the rights of all students, the Association believes sexual contact between education professionals and minor students is unacceptable.”
• NEA signed a letter opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Do the initials “PTA” bring to mind innocuous parent-teacher meetings and parent-student school projects? Think again. The national Parent Teacher Association, fondly known as PTA, is under the leadership of chief executive officer Warlene Gary. Ms. Gary previously served as the National Education Association’s human rights director and that school union’s liaison to gay interest groups.

PTA bills itself as the “largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation.” It holds an annual convention and exhibition attended by public school teachers, students and parents. Last year’s convention theme was “diversity.” In keeping with PTA’s theme, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) applied for an exhibit booth. PTA rejected our application in favor of a gay organization’s application on the grounds that the gay organization was there to “educate parents on the topic of school bullying.” PTA also allowed the gay organization to hold a workshop.

When we visited the gay organization’s exhibit booth, we encountered materials that denounced therapy for homosexuals with unwanted same sex attractions, recommended anti-ex-gay publications, essentially denied the existence of former homosexuals (so much for tolerance and diversity), and urged the Southern Baptist Convention to vote against one of its resolutions on homosexuality in public school education.

What do these exhibit materials have to do with school bullying? Despite our repeated requests, PTA has yet to explain the discrepancy between “bullying” information and anti-ex-gay materials. It seems the only ones being bullied here are former homosexuals and their supporters.

The gay workshop materials included a “Heterosexist Challenge” quiz, a “What is Heterosexual Privilege” handout on marriage, a “Learning About Sexual Diversity at School in Every Discipline” chart outlining how students in math class can make pie charts of how many gay and transgender people are visible in their textbooks, and “What is Age Appropriate” materials instructing primary school children to learn that “there aren’t any girl colors and boy colors or girl games and boy games.” How are these workshop materials related to the bullying issue, as PTA claims? Indeed, what happened to the days when the PTA was concerned with educators teaching our children how to think rather than what to think?

One of the workshop’s power point slides was entitled “Failure to Protect” and stated: “Because of their own conservative moral or religious beliefs, or ignorance of the seriousness of the problem, many teachers and administrators turn a blind eye, or even tacitly approve of, GLBT harassment and discrimination.” This seems agenda driven. The real harassment and discrimination that parents should fear is the PTA sanctioned intolerance of conservatives and faith-based families.

This year PFOX again applied for a PTA exhibit booth and was again rejected although the same gay organization was accepted. PTA refuses to answer why it rejected our bullying material, which is actual anti-bullying information to help students instead of gay activist publications opposing heterosexual ‘privileges’ and denouncing former homosexuals. Is this what our children deserve from their PTA?

National PTA, which last year received a $480,000 grant from the Department of Labor, lobbies Congress to vote against school vouchers because it opposes using tax dollars to finance vouchers for private schools. But is it any wonder that families are asking Congress to support vouchers when PTA, in representing public school interests, allows a gay activist group to exhibit at its conference while censoring other family organizations?

PTA’s actions are a prime example of why taxpayers are demanding vouchers for students to attend private schools instead of increased federal spending for public schools. Parents deserve education for their children, not indoctrination. So think again when you see the initials “PTA.”

Copyright 2006 PFOX www.pfox.org This article may be reproduced in its entirety without alteration. Regina Griggs is Executive Director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), a non-profit organization serving families and the ex-gay community. Mrs. Griggs has been interviewed by numerous television, radio and print outlets, including TIME Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the Washington Times.

Media contact: 703-360-2225 or PFOX_News@verizon.net