AFTAH Joins April 17 Walkout of Pro-Homosexuality Student Day of Silence

Homosexual “youth pride parade” in Massachusetts in 2007. For more photos, see this Mass Resistance photo-story. 

TAKE ACTION: spread the word about the student walkout to protest the pro-homosexual-activist “Day of Silence” — on Friday, April 17 –by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network). Find out if your children’s (middle or high) school is endorsing the Day of Silence by allowing students (or teachers) to go “silent” during class time — thus disrupting the learning environment of all students.

IMPORTANT CAUTIONARY NOTE: from Laurie Higgins of Illinois Family Institute: “Do not ask any administrator, school board member, or teacher if the school sponsors, endorses, or supports DOS. Schools do not technically sponsor the Day of Silence. Technically, it is students, often students in the Gay-Straight Alliance, who sponsor it. Many administrators will tell you that they do not sponsor the DOS when, in fact, they do permit students and sometimes even teachers to remain silent during instructional time. Also ask administrators whether they permit teachers to create lesson plans to accommodate student silence.”

Higgins also suggests e-mailing your child’s teachers individually to see how they are handling the “Day of Silence” protest. There is a wealth of good information available on the Day of Silence Walkout at IFI’s website.

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Note from Peter LaBarbera: Folks, it’s no secret that American public schools are failing at teaching the basics. So they need to get out of the values-adjustment (or should I say values-subversion) business.  The “Day of Silence” is a thinly-veiled attempt to propagandize students using the time-tested technique of hyping homosexuals as victims. The “gay-victim” gig is getting very old, especially when one considers that the homosexual lobby is in the vanguard of: viciously demonizing Christians like Dr. James Dobson and equating religious moral teachings with “hate”; working to deny Christians the right to live by their own moral code; and “silencing” viewpoints with which they disagree.

Help make the DOS walkout a success by spreading the word. Report back findings about your local school to Americans For Truth at americansfortruth@comcast.net.

The following is adapted from a release put out by the Illinois Family Institute, which is leading the DOS Walkout campaign this year.

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Parents: Keep Students Home — Schools  Stop Politicizing Our Classrooms

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is part of a national coalition of pro-family organizations urging parents to call their children out of school on April 17. This is the day designated for this year’s Day of Silence when students and/or teachers will purposely remain silent during instructional time to protest so-called discrimination and gain sympathy for students who identify as homosexual or transgender.

The Day of Silence is a yearly event sponsored by the partisan political action group, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The implicit purpose is to undermine the belief that homosexuality is immoral. It is the belief of the sponsors of the Walkout that parents should no longer passively accept the political usurpation of taxpayer funded public school classrooms through student silence.

The DOS requires that teachers either create activities around or exempt silent students from any activity that involves speaking. DOS participants have a captive audience, many of whom disagree with and are made uncomfortable by the politicization of their classroom.

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute explains that “While in the public school setting, it is legitimate to teach students that there exist diverse opinions on this issue, it is not legitimate to imply that one of those opinions is preferable to another. While it is appropriate to teach students that tolerance requires that society should treat all with civility, it is not appropriate to teach that tolerance requires students to accept the view that homosexual conduct is moral.”

Higgins further emphasizes that “The worthy end of eliminating harassment does not justify the means of exploiting instructional time.” The First Amendment already allows DOS participants to wear t-shirts or put up posters, but according to a document co-written by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, a “school can regulate what students say. . . and it can also insist that students respond to questions, make presentations, etc.” Students and teachers should not be allowed to exploit instructional time to advance their socio- political goals.

Parents are encouraged to call their children’s middle schools and high schools to ask whether the administration and/or teachers will permit students to remain silent during class on the Day of Silence. If so, parents can express their opposition by calling their children out of school on that day and sending letters of explanation to their administrators, their children’s teachers, and all school board members.
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Anti-DOS Walkout Endorsed by: Abiding Truth Ministries; American Family Association (AFA) Michigan; AFA Pennsylvania; AFA National; Americans for Truth About Homosexuality; Association of Maryland Families; Called2Action; Campaign for Children and Families; Citizens for Community Values of Ohio; Coalition of Conscience; Community Issues Council; Concerned Women for America National; Concerned Women for America Washington; Culture Campaign; Faith2Action; Faith, Family & Freedom Alliance; Illinois Family Institute; Indiana Voice; Liberty Alliance Action; Liberty Counsel; Maine Family Policy Council; MassResistance; Mission America; Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX);

NOTE: We commend the great work that Illinois Family Institute has done on this year’s walkout project, and the tremendous job that Linda Harvey of Mission America has done over the years in exposing the Day of Silence and other youth-oriented homosexuality-/transsexuality-promoting agendas.