Read Peter LaBarbera’s remarks about “Gay” History month in public schools HERE.

The following is excerpted from Gay History Month Sparks District Debate, by Susan Snyder, published Sept 28, 2006, in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

…Gay and Lesbian History Month was added for the first time this year in an effort to be more inclusive and follow a long-standing district policy requiring equity for all races and minority groups, said Cecilia Cummings, the district’s senior vice president for communications and community relations. It is one of four special history months noted, along with Hispanic Heritage in September, African American in February, and Asian Pacific American in May.

Cummings said the district was not planning to roll out any districtwide curriculum or hold celebrations to coincide with the month, although individual schools with gay-straight alliances may have observances. The uproar in response to the calendar addition was not unexpected.

“We knew that this would be controversial,” Cummings said. “When you deal with diversity, there are some hot-button issues that emerge.”

…Cummings said that about 200,000 calendars had been sent … The publication is paid for by the district.

Continue reading in The Philadelphia Inquirer…

Excerpted from Philadelphia School District Slates ‘Gay & Lesbian History Month’ for Oct., by Michael Foust, published Sept 28, 2006, by Baptist Press:

…”This shows the whole problem with gay activism and so-called gay rights,” Peter LaBarbera, president of the conservative group Americans for Truth, told Baptist Press. “If you promote so-called homosexual rights, by definition you have to undermine people’s religious rights and religious beliefs.

“If you have a gay history month, you’re basically saying, ‘This is a wonderful part of American history — homosexual history — let’s celebrate it and let’s teach the kids that this is like civil rights. Are they going to teach the role that homosexual behavior had in the onset of HIV and AIDS? Is that going to be part of the history?”

…LaBarbera, though, said there is no comparison between homosexuality and race.

“The schools are equating homosexuality with racial tolerance,” LaBarbera said. “Obviously, racial tolerance is accepted by 99.99 percent of Americans. But there’s a huge cultural divide on the issue of homosexuality, and the school district here is mimicking gay activists’ platitudes in response to this. There’s no respect for people who oppose homosexual behavior.

“They’re promoting one side of the issue to vulnerable and impressionable children. This is all about celebrating homosexuality, and there’s no consideration given for people from traditional faith households.”

Continue reading at Baptist Press…

Campaign for Children and Families (CA) PRESS RELEASE

Campaign for Children and Families is shocked and dismayed that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SB 1441 (Kuehl). Today’s disastrous action by Schwarzenegger means Christian and other faith-based colleges in California will be forced to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality if they accept students with Cal Grants.

“People of conscience are appalled that Arnold Schwarzenegger has trampled religious freedom to satisfy hyperactive sexual activists,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California-based pro-family organization. “SB 1441 will force religious colleges to either abandon their Biblical standards on sexuality, or reject students with state financial aid. Schwarzenegger is doing what Gray Davis did – trample religious freedom at the bidding of liberal activists from San Francisco and West Hollywood.”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger has two faces,” said Thomasson. “He speaks at churches and says he believes in religious freedom and family values, yet he’s stabbing pro-family Californians in the back. People of faith are suffering under Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s not the lesser of two evils, he’s doing evil.”

CCF had informed thousands of Californians about SB 1441, generating thousands of phone calls, faxes, and emails opposing this offensive bill. Last week, the Governor was faxed letters pleading for a veto by Christian colleges, including Westmont College (Santa Barbara), Shasta Bible College (Redding), The King’s College and Seminary (Van Nuys), Vanguard University (Costa Mesa), Life Pacific College (San Dimas), Trinity Law School (Santa Ana), William Jessup University (Rocklin), and Simpson University (Redding).

Supported only by Democrats in the California State Legislature, SB 1441 specifically requires “any program or activity that…receives any financial assistance from the state” to support transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality or lose state funding. SB 1441 contains no exemption for religious colleges and universities that accept students with Cal Grants, or child-care providers that accept CalWORKS vouchers.

Excerpted from City Council Shames Itself Over Pride, by Nicholas Owen, published Aug 2006, in San Diego News Notes:

By Nicholas Owen

…The July 29 parade lasted over three hours and included 185 contingents. Many entries featured scantily clad participants, mostly men, gyrating suggestively to loud, throbbing music. Float titles included “In Dmood for Decadence.” Simulated sex acts were performed in several entries, and many advertised gay bars, pornography vendors, and male prostitution businesses. A rider in the Rentboy.com convertible flashed the devil sign with his hand. Handouts to parade spectators included condoms, sexual lubricant samples, and literature promoting a pornographic web site. Numerous trash receptacles bearing the slogan “Got lube?” (advertising an anal sex lubricant) were placed along the parade route and in the festival venue inside Balboa Park.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag queen group in outlandish outfits parodying Catholic women religious, carried an “Asylum of the Tortured Heart” banner, mocking Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the Gay Pride festival, they provided crowd control and received an award for the “most outrageous contingent.”

A woman who was topless except for pasties walked alongside the parade. A man wearing a body thong covering only his genitals roller-skated by parade watchers in defiance of municipal code which prohibits nudity on public lands and defines it as being “devoid of an opaque covering which covers the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus or anal region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the areola thereof of any female person.”

…Several law enforcement and government agencies participated in the parade or had a booth at the festival, including San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender, the San Diego Fire Department, the Chula Vista Police Department, the Oceanside Police Department, the Harbor Police, and the San Diego Regional Airport Authority.

…[S]ponsors included Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo Bank, Cox Communications, Viejas Casino, Sparkletts Water, Starbucks Coffee, Verizon, Sirius Satellite Radio Sempra Energy, iSOLD It, Great American Credit Union, Kaiser Permanente, Travelocity, Yahoo, Smirnoff, Bud Light, Avis Car Rentals, Glaceau Vitamin Water, and the Old Globe Theatre.

…Participating churches and synagogues included All Saints Parish and Saint John the Beloved Cathedral of the Catholic Church of America (not affiliated with the true Catholic Church); Dignity, another group using the Catholic label but not sanctioned by the Catholic Church; Christ Chapel of North Park; Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral; Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad; Temple Emanu-El and the Metropolitan Community Church, founded by a homosexual “leatherman.” Participating schools included San Diego State University, UCSD, Cal State University San Marcos, and the San Diego Cooperative Charter School.

Continue reading in San Diego News Notes…

Excerpted from Campus Gay Point Average, by Sarah Schweitzer, published Aug 25, 2006, on Boston.com:

The Advocate, the national newsmagazine for gays and lesbians, published a 389-page book this month listing the 100 schools that it says offer the best discrimination protection, most friendly climate, and most extensive campus services for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students…
MIT, for one, made the top 100. The school is cited for having one of the nation’s oldest gay and lesbian student groups and for early on including both sexual orientation and gender identity in its nondiscrimination policy, yielding what the book, The Advocate College Guide, calls a high “gay point average.”

…The book arrives as surveys show that more gay and lesbian students are coming out at younger ages, often in high school, placing the climate of a college campus at the forefront of more students’ minds as they select schools.

…The book … identified a top 20, including Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Since 1992, the Princeton Review, has ranked the 20 schools that it considers the most and the least “gay community accepted.” This year, the review ranked New York University as most gay friendly and Notre Dame as most inhospitable.

Excerpted from Mexico Introduces Graphic Sex Education; Catholic Bishops in Outrage, by Peter J. Smith, published Aug 22, 2006, by LifeSite News:

Mexico’s federal government is forcing the nation’s schools to adopt biology textbooks that includes pornographic sex-education, which has evoked outrage from Mexico’s Catholic Bishops and state governors, who have demanded the government remove the explicit material.

“We agree with the necessity of sex education, but pornographic information is something else,” Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara told the Mexican newspaper Reforma. The cardinal excoriated the federal government for implementing the program, calling the decision “totalitarian” for neglecting to neither consult with the Church nor address the objections of parents who are the primary educators of their children.

The new sexual education course is directed at 7th graders and above, and is nothing less than a full fledged pornographic immersion course in sexual behaviors. The course (contained in chapter 4) tells students that homosexuality and masturbation are acceptable behaviors, includes pornographic pictures, and encourages students to find pornography off the internet.

The bald-faced perversion encouraged by the texts has infuriated Mexico’s Catholic Bishops, who steadfastly maintain that the new textbooks will give the youth an incomplete picture of human sexuality, and encourage them to experiment with promiscuous behavior or various sorts of sexual perversity.

Excerpted from Transgender Prisoners Fight For Surgery, published Aug 19, 2006, by Associated Press:

…Michelle Kosilek was Robert Kosilek when convicted in the killing of his wife. In 1993, while in prison, Kosilek legally changed his name to Michelle. Since then, Kosilek has been fighting with prison officials to complete her transformation into a woman.

Kosilek, 57, wants the state Department of Correction to pay for a sex-change operation. After two lawsuits and two trials, the decision now rests with a federal court judge…

The case is also being closely watched by attorneys and advocates across the country who say Kosilek is an example of the poor treatment transgendered inmates receive in prison.

Continue reading at 365Gay…

Excerpted from OSU Rated Among 100 Best Campuses for Gay Students, by Mary Ann Albright, published Aug 22, 2006, in Corvallis Gazette-Times:

Thanks to active clubs, supportive faculty and annual programs ranging from a “Guess the Hetero” game show to drag competitions to “Coming Out Week,” Oregon State University has been recognized as one of the nation’s top 100 campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Continue reading in Corvallis Gazette-Times…