When you read this post, ask yourself: If “transsexuality” is a healthy lifestyle option, why is it necessary for the government (taxpayers) to extend grants for disease treatment and mental health counseling?

Excerpted from UCSF to Close Trans Programs, by Heather Cassell, published Mar 8, 2007, in Bay Area Reporter:

The University of California at San Francisco’s Transitions and Transgender Resource and Neighborhood Space projects are scheduled to close July 1 because grants that fund the programs are ending.

The only projects of their kind in the Bay Area, the closures will leave an estimated 1,300 transgender and gender variant people who have used the services during the past four years without anywhere to go.

The Transitions Project, housed under the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF, has an annual budget of $450,000…

But on July 1, the three major grants that fund the programs – including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Drug Abuse – will end, according to Susan Kegeles, co-director of CAPS.

Continue reading in Bay Area Reporter…

Note: We have a suggestion as to where these 1300 precious human beings should go: to a Bible-believing church where they can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be healed emotionally and spiritually.

Please read — We need your help!

“Day of Silence” is an annual event promoted by Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and is scheduled for April 18 this year. (Some schools observe “Day of Silence” on a different date, a few days or a week before or after the official date.)

Last year over 4,000 schools and 500,000 students participated, allowing junior high and high school students who identify as homosexual, bisexual, or “transgender” (or as an “ally”) to remain silent through the day (including in class) as a protest against alleged injustices toward “GLBT” students.

Americans for Truth, Mission America, and other pro-family groups are working together to compile a list of schools that plan to allow “Day of Silence” (including the date of the planned observance).

TAKE ACTION — Please call your local junior high and high school and ask:

• Do you have a Gay-Straight Alliance?
• Will any students participate in GLSEN’s “Day of Silence”?
• If so, will it take place on April 18 or on another date?

Please contact us with what you learn — we’ll need the name of the school, city and state, and the answers to the three questions above.

From our very fine friends at Christian Civic League of Maine: Is this the kind of man you would care to have invited to perform at your son’s elementary or junior high school? In the homosexual activist social sphere, Lew Alessio is considered not just normal, but laudable. Meet their “Homosexual of the Year”…

From Lew Knows Leather, by Mike Hein, published Mar 21, 2007, by Christian Civic League of Maine:

New York’s “New American Leathermen”, 2001

Homosexual activist Lewis (Lew) Alessio of Greene, Maine was recently announced by EqualityMaine to be the 2007 recipient of the Cameron Duncan Award. The annual award is the radical homosexual lobbying group’s ‘homosexual of the year’ award. The award was presented to Alessio at EqualityMaine’s 23rd Annual Awards Banquet on March 10 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.

The EqualityMaine press release spoke of Alessio as a homosexual demonstrating “extraordinary accomplishment, commitment, and service within the AIDS community” and “an outstanding leader in Maine’s gay community.” Lew Alessio is better known in the central Maine community as being the leader of a homosexual men’s social club called “ Just Guys.” The “Just Guys” motto from their website is “… the new men’s social group for men who have sex with men.” The group meets at MaineGeneral Heath’s Green Street location, located immediately adjacent to the Green Street United Methodist Church in Augusta.

New York Leathermen Contestants

Less well known is Alessio’s recent past, where he competed, and was named 1st runner up, in a homosexual leather bondage fetishist contest in 2001 in New York City. Alessio placed 1st Runner Up in the homosexual leather bondage “New American Leatherman 2001” according to the homosexual leather bondage fetish website Leatherweb.com. Later that same year, Alessio “married” his homosexual partner, Jim Shaffer.

Besides being a leather bondage fetishist and leader of a homosexual sex men-only social club, Alessio is also self-employed as part of the theater troupe “Actors Theater of Maine.” The State of Maine Arts directory website states the theater group charges $500 per performance and caters primarily to children, from pre-kindergarden to 8th grade. Alessio’s ‘Actors Theater of Maine’ troupe stages plays that “all use students in the performances along with the professional casts. [The performances] are accompanied by extensive teaching materials,” according to the Maine government website.

A glimpse of our future unless you stand…

From UK Government Program Teaching Four-Year-Olds about Homosexuality, by Gudrun Schultz, published Mar 16, 2007, by LifeSite News:

Primary schools in the United Kingdom have begun teaching children as young as four about homosexuality, in anticipation of new anti-discrimination laws coming into effect next month, the Daily Mail reported earlier today.

Homosexuality-themed story books are being used in fourteen schools to introduce the children to the homosexual lifestyle. Among the texts in use are “King and King,” a fairy-tale about a prince who rejects three princesses before falling in love with another prince, “Spacegirl Pukes,” about a little girl with two mommies, and “And Tango Makes Three,” telling the story of two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo.

The schools are participating in a new government-funded program that is aimed at studying the best approach to familiarize school children with homosexual relationships — the study results will be made available to all schools to assist them in utilizing the books to normalize homosexuality.

The £600,000 No Outsiders program also includes workshops for local councils to help with the implementation of the Equality Act banning discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, taking effect April 6.

Excerpted from The Wide Spectrum Of Sex-Ed Courses, by Daniel de Vise, published Mar 18, 2007, by Washington Post:

In Seattle public schools, sexual orientation is taught in ninth-grade health class, a one-day session that uses vignettes about fictitious teens to illustrate same-sex and opposite-sex attraction. But the topic can arise as early as grade 5, in discussions on the many changes that accompany puberty…

“This is probably the last big issue around sexuality education,” said Martha Kempner, spokeswoman for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in New York, a group that advocates comprehensive sex education. “And I think we are seeing that many of the controversies today revolve in some way around sexual orientation.”

…Homosexuality is one of many topics covered under the umbrella of “comprehensive” sex education, which teaches students how to be comfortable with their sexuality and safe in sexual practice.

Seattle teachers tell ninth-grade health classes, “There are probably some people here who are gay, lesbian and bisexual… Some people here may believe that homosexual behavior is wrong.” Students take a sexual-orientation quiz: When do people first realize they are gay? (Answer: usually by their teens.) If one of your parents is gay or lesbian, are the chances greater that you will be, too? (Answer: no.)…

Chiasson said “countless” schools and school systems include homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality in their curricula. Although few mainstream textbooks devote space to the topic, she said in an e-mail, “good teachers utilize supplemental materials to complement textbooks’ limitations.”

[Note from AFTAH: Pay close attention to this author’s conclusion which reveals the attitude toward tax-paying parents who don’t want their children exposed to homosexuality in public school:]

Many states, including Virginia and Maryland, explicitly permit parents to opt out if they don’t like the lessons. Or, they can simply withdraw from the school.

Continue reading in Washington Post…

Highland Park High School is in District 113, as is Deerfield High School whose “Freshman Advisory” class has recently been the subject of much controversy. We commend the administrators at HPHS for this decision. Perhaps HPHS teachers and parents can explain to Mr. Hurwitz why standards for what is taught in Illinois public school classrooms ought not be equivalent to those of what might be seen on Saturday Night Live.

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Excerpted from School Disinvites Comedy Troupe, by Lisa Black, published Mar 19, 2007, by Chicago Tribune:

Highland Park High School officials who fear that a sketch comedy troupe’s material is not appropriate for students have rescinded an invitation for the group to perform during a three-day arts festival in April…

The chairwoman of Highland Park’s Fine Arts Department “was concerned at the point she received a description of their presentation,” said Suzan Hebson, assistant superintendent for human resources. She said the discussions occurred at least a month before the Deerfield controversy erupted.

“I understand they had concerns recognizing this is an educational classroom environment and not a nightclub entertainment sort of function,” Hebson said.

Last week, DeGrazia shared some sketches with administrators, agreeing to cancel a skit that was deemed offensive. The skit portrayed a militaristic high school drum major who is gay but overly defensive in insisting he’s not gay, while none of the other band members care.

Comic Thread performed at the 2005 Focus event, and school officials objected to a skit called “Great Moments in Amish Pornography.” The theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey” blared as an Amish woman revealed her ankles and an Amish man lowered his suspender straps, DeGrazia said...

Two years ago, school board member Joel Hurwitz took issue with administrators sharing complaints about Comic Thread with the group.

“The material is not new to our students or beyond their maturity level,” wrote Hurwitz, a lawyer, who could not be reached Friday for further comment. “Our Fine Arts Department has not achieved excellence by censoring performances to satisfy the sensitivities of fringe elements within our community who are uncomfortable with mainstream culture.”

Continue reading in Chicago Tribune…

We’ll be posting more on this story, so stay tuned…

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Excerpted from Parents Fume Over Salacious Sex Lesson, by Tracy Dell’Angela, published Mar 10, 2007, by Chicago Tribune:

8th graders forced to read graphic material aloud in the classroom

Excerpted from Policy Changing After Gay Porn Studio Lauded, by Cecilia M. Vega, published Mar 3, 2007, by San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco Mayor (pictured right) Gavin Newsom’s administration will change its policy on issuing laudatory proclamations after a gay porn studio was honored last week without the mayor’s knowledge, city officials said Friday.

Conservative activists and pundits nationwide belittled the city after Newsom’s office declared Feb. 23 to be Colt Studio Day, honoring the 40th anniversary of a San Francisco movie company whose Web site invites visitors to “come inside to experience the hottest man-on-man action.”

…The proclamation was written by Neighborhood Services staffers after they learned state Assemblyman Mark Leno (pictured left), D-San Francisco, and city Treasurer Jose Cisneros had issued similar commendations.

Neither of those elected officials expressed regrets Friday.

Leno attended the company’s anniversary party Feb. 23 and publicly thanked Colt Studio for producing images he said contributed to his development as a gay man. On Friday, he issued a statement saying Colt produces “adult, gay, male home entertainment.”

“The owners of the studio are taxpaying, law-abiding San Francisco employers who promote safe sex,” Leno (pictured left) said. “With a war out of control and the planet’s temperature rising, I would have hoped Bill O’Reilly had more pressing issues to discuss. Clearly, with his viewership currently plummeting, he thinks denigrating gay male entertainment will be his lifeline.”

Cisneros (pictured right), who sent a representative to the anniversary party, said Friday that issuing a proclamation to Colt Studio “was fine. We acknowledged a business that has been in business for a long time.”

…O’Reilly also chastised city officials Tuesday during his show “The O’Reilly Factor.”

“There is not another city in the country that has ever had a ‘gay porn day,’ ” he said. “And you wonder why San Francisco values is mocked and your city is mocked and it’s looked upon as a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.”

This is the second time in recent months that the pornography business in the city has been in the news. In December, the online porn company Kink.com bought the old armory on Mission Street, where it now films X-rated bondage videos…

Continue reading at San Francisco Chronicle…