How can students in the United States of America be allowed to promote the acceptance of homosexuality (e.g., the national Day of Silence) but not criticize it? Remember: many people of faith (and others) do not agree with the modern, trendy notion of “gayness” as personhood — i.e., that it is a part of a person’s intrinsic identity. Instead, they view homosexuality as changeable, unnatural and/or sinful behavior, as evidenced by the many men and women who once considered themselves “gay” but have since left their homosexual lifestyle behind.

Judge Hart’s decision creates classic viewpoint discrimination in a public, taxpayer-funded forum (schools) and we hope ultimately that it will be struck down in appeal. I trust that even some of our “gay” critics will see how this ruling is incompatible with the First Amendment.– Peter LaBarbera

Associate Press reports: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C266716%2C00.html

Judge Upholds Illinois School’s Ban on ‘Be Happy, Not Gay’ Shirt

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
CHICAGO — Two Neuqua Valley High School [in Naperville, Illinois] students won’t be able to wear T-shirts saying “Be Happy, Not Gay,” to school on Thursday following a judge’s ruling.

U.S. District Judge William T. Hart ruled in favor of the high school Tuesday in a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the students to wear the shirts the day after Wednesday’s National Day of Silence.

On the Day of Silence, students can refrain from speaking as an effort to protest discrimination against homosexuals.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund is representing Heidi Zamecnik of Naperville and Alexander Nuxoll of Bolingbrook in a lawsuit that claims Zamecnik’s rights were violated last year when she wasn’t allowed to wear the shirt in school.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian litigation group, will appeal the judge’s decision on the preliminary injunction to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, attorney Jonathan Scruggs said. The lawsuit is still pending.

Scruggs said the school is violating the students’ rights to free speech by banning the shirt.

“The school cannot silence speech merely because some people find it offensive,” Scruggs said. “We believe that’s the core of what the First Amendment protects.”

Jack Canna, an attorney for Indian Prairie Unit School District 204, said banning the shirt is part of a policy “to preserve the notion that kids shouldn’t make negative or derogatory comments about other students.”

Messages left by The Associated Press with the Indian Prairie Unit School District 204 and Neuqua Valley High School were not immediately returned Wednesday morning.

By Peter LaBarbera

At right is a facsimile of the “Day of Silence Card,” which Waubonsie Valley High School in Naperville, IL is urging students to pass out in school tomorrow (Wed., April 18th); to view a clear version in PDF, click HERE.

The following is excerpted from a letter I sent to school authorities at Waubonsie Valley High School (WVHS) in Naperville, Illinois, concerning their promotion and endorsement of the “Day of Silence,” an in-school pro-homosexual protest in which students go silent all day [to protest alleged anti-homosexual oppression]. My children attend public schools in Naperville.

To read Waubonsie’s online announcement about the Day of Silence (DOS), click HERE. To view a PDF of the “Day of Silence Card” that WVHS is promoting to students (to present to their teachers and fellow students), click HERE.  For more information on the parental/student boycott of schools promoting the Day of Silence, go to the NotOurKids.com website. And for information on Alliance Defense Fund’s “Day of Truth” designed to counter the DOS, click HERE.

___________________________

April 7, 2007

Re: Waubonsie Valley HS web announcement: “Second Annual Day of Silence”: http://www.ipsd.org/newsevents/news_item_detail.asp?id=14568

Dear District 204 Faculty & Waubonsie School Administrators and Teachers,

I was deeply distressed to read the web posting concerning Waubonsie High School’s outright promotion of GLSEN’s national Day of Silence (tomorrow). Because you have chosen to embrace and officially endorse this event — which clearly advances one side of the controversial moral issue of homosexuality and will disrupt the learning environment at WVHS — my wife and I will be pulling our son … from school tomorrow (Wed, April 18th), and will encourage other parents to do the same.

We will also work to advance a policy of strict neutrality [at WVHS] on the issue of homosexuality and other moral conscience issues at Waubonsie and District 204 in the months and years ahead….

We respectfully ask: how does it promote an environment that is conducive to learning to encourage students to present a card to their teachers informing them that they will “remain silent for the entire day, including class….” (emphasis added) on the Day of Silence, Wed., April 18th? What about the students who do not agree with homosexual behavior, for religious, moral or other reasons? Or what about students who come to school to learn, and are not interested in crusading for social causes during school hours? Doesn’t it concern you that these students will be unfairly subjected to this propaganda exercise — and that their right to be educated in a non-politicized atmosphere will be violated?

We are concerned because the “gay” student club at WVHS, Identity — alone among all the extra-curricular student clubs — deals with a highly controversial moral and social issue that has severe implications for students’ health and spiritual well-being. Nobody doubts the merit of the other student clubs. It is as dubious to portray Day of Silence as an innocuous event about tolerance as it is to say that Identity is like any other student club.

We do not view homosexuality as an issue of innate identity but changeable behavior which is immoral in the eyes of the Creator. Some common “gay” sexual behaviors are also very high risk (unsafe), as evidenced by this quotation — not by Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson — but by homosexual writer Jack Hart (pardon the graphic content):

Many sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) occur more often among gay men than in the general population. Several factors contribute to this difference: Gay men have the opportunity to engage in sex with more people than do most heterosexual men, and some practices common among gays — especially rimming [anal-oral intercourse] and anal intercourse — are highly efficient at transmitting disease. (Gay Sex: A Manual for Men Who Love Men, Allyson Books, 1998, pp. 212-213)

There are countless other credible resources I could cite documenting the health risks of homosexual behaviors. (See Dr. John Diggs’ paper, “The Health Risks of Gay Sex.”)  Are the GLBT and “questioning” students at WVHS made aware of these risks? Do parents know about them? (I was told by [a Waubonsie Valley HS official] that a student can attend Identity meetings without his or her parents’ knowledge or approval.) Moreover, because I have personally met or interviewed dozens of former homosexuals, I do not view this as an issue of “civil rights.” (There are no ex-African Americans or ex-Latinos.) In fact, I am concerned that homosexual activist groups like GLSEN — the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, an acronym which you failed to define in your web posting about the Day of Silence — are strongly prejudiced against tradition-minded students and their parents.

Consider this highly “intolerant” and bigoted quote disparaging religious conservatives from GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings made in a church in 2000:

“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–k] ’em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead!” (Source: audiotape from event, cited in a paper I wrote for Concerned Women for America, “When Silence Would Have Been Golden”)

When schools delve into the promotion of one side of a controversial moral issue like homosexuality, or join with controversial groups like GLSEN, it naturally discriminates against students on the other side.  Several weeks ago, I attended a District 204 Diversity meeting dealing with gay issues. I voiced concern about the biased nature of the presentation — which was reliant on information provided by GLSEN — hardly an objective source and in fact one that has a record of radical activism. Here are just two more black marks on GLSEN’s record (please forgive the graphic content, but this is what pre-teen children were exposed to):

1) GLSEN-backed 2000 “Fistgate” scandal in Massachusetts: (see http://massresistance.org/docs/issues/fistgate/massnews.html) At a GLSEN-sponsored conference at Tufts U., on March 25, 2000, three homosexual activists employed by the Massachusetts Departments of Health and Education led a youth workshop titled “What They Didn’t Tell You about Queer Sex & Sexuality in Health Class” — part of the annual Boston-GLSEN “Teach Out” conference held at Tufts University. The “Queer Sex” session, advertised to “youth only ages 14 to 21,” was attended by Massachusetts family advocate Scott Whitemen, who taped it while standing in the back of the room.

In the workshop, instructor Michael Gaucher, prompted by a teen’s question, verbally guided the students on the mechanics of “fisting” — a homosexual slang term for a sadistic sex act in which a man inserts his hand and arm into another person’s anal cavity. Another instructor, Margot Abels, said fisting “often gets a really bad rap,” and described it innocuously as “an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with.” Abels and Gaucher also guided the students on techniques of oral sodomy and lesbian sex.

[NOTE: I think I am correct that GLSEN never issued an apology to the public for sponsoring this heinous event that corrupted innocent children.]

2) At GLSEN’s conference in Arlington Heights, IL [a suburb of Chicago], in 2000, all participants, including dozens of high school-aged kids, could pick up a homosexual “Visitor’s Companion” — which advertised Chicago’s gay “leather” bars, a gay sex club and a homosexual bathhouse (where men go for anonymous sexual liaisons with other men) called “Steamworks,” which was advertised as a “24-hour men’s gym/sauna.”

If GLSEN were a conservative or Christian group and committed such reckless acts endangering youth, do you think they would still be promoted as a credible source by public schools? Were you aware of GLSEN’s scandals? Do you think Naperville and Aurora parents would countenance any WVHS involvement with GLSEN if they know of this organization’s reckless and radical track record? (For more information on GLSEN’s 2000 conference, click on this link: http://www.geocities.com/sirokai/shininglight/gradeschoolkids.htm.)

Frankly, I am stunned that after another concerned 204 parent and I voiced our objections to District 204’s bias on homosexual issues at the 204 Diversity meeting, you have chosen to so blatantly promote an activist pro-homosexual event like the DOS that has angered parents across the nation.

We regard your promotion of GLSEN’s Day of Silence event as educational malpractice and the misuse of your authority granted to you by tax-paying and voting parents (most of whom probably have no idea that Waubonsie VHS is being used for this pro-gay social protest tomorrow). By promoting this massive, in-school distraction, despite claims that this is merely about “tolerance,” you are harming the educational process and directly undermining parents’ rights to guide their own children’s understanding on this important moral question.

Please also consider this document by the Citizens for Community Values on the “Legal Liability Associated with Homosexuality Education in Public Schools.”

I would like to request a meeting to discuss this matter … Also, I would request any data you have on GLBT students being harassed at WVHS in this and the past few years. If there is truly a problem of WVHS administrators and teachers being unable to protect gay-identified kids, the public deserves to know about it.  For the record, our position is that no child should be abused or harassed, but that schools can safeguard all kids without reference to any special criteria such as “sexual orientation.”

Thank you for your urgent consideration of this matter. Needless to say, it is no small thing for us to intentionally pull our child from school, but we feel that you have given us no choice by endorsing this activist, pro-gay protest.

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera

Naperville, Illinois parent

By Peter LaBarbera

Iliinois homosexual activist Rick Garcia equates advocates for concerned parents with Nazis 

Americans For Truth has joined the pro-family coalition NotOurKids.com — calling on parents across the nation to pull their kids from school if the school endorses or encourages the pro-homosexual “Day of Silence.” The annual event is the brainchild of the radical group GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), of Massachusetts “Fistgate” notoriety.

Day of Silence is a propaganda exercise for schools designed to engender sympathy toward GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) lifestyles. Many schools now officially back this disruptive, pro-homosexual event — so we’re calling on parents to pull their children out of school that day (Wed., April 18 this year). How did we get to the point in our society where schools would be used to promote acceptance of immoral homosexual behaviors and gender confusion (transgenderism)?

Many schools — especially in metropolitan areas — have become PC propaganda centers, and it’s way past time for parents to take a stand. Promoting unhealthy, changeable and immoral behaviors like homosexuality and bisexuality — especially to vulnerable teens (even middle schoolers!) –– lacks compassion.  Click HERE for a list of schools likely to be (or potentially) participating in the “Day of Silence.” 

Beware: it can be tricky to nail down a school’s policy on DOS because administrators will often claim that they are NOT endorsing the pro-homosexual event, yet then they will still allow students to remain silent that day — an obvious acquiescence to politicized behavior that disrupts the educational process.

For an idea of how GLSEN-friendly teachers use the classroom to promote the “victimhood” of homosexuals as a minority, click HERE to view a GLSEN document, “Lesson Plan: The Silencing Effect of Anti-LGBT Name-Calling.”  From the “Lesson Plan”:

“Instruct students to freewrite about one or both of the following topics: 1) How it feels to silence oneself and be silenced by others; and/or 2) What the Day of Silence means to them, and why they do or don’t think the Day of Silence is necessary in their school.”

Folks, this isn’t education, it’s ‘Gay’ Advocacy Training 101!

Concerned Parents = Nazis?

Rick Garcia, Illinois’ top homosexual activist, responded to the “Not Our Kids” press release below by saying that our pro-family coalition is advocating “animosity and bigotry” rather than a healthy school environment. Garcia told the Naperville [Illinois] Sun: “These people sound like they’d be perfect for Nazi Germany…Let’s burn books so our perfect children are not tainted. Not our kids, well they are your kids. If they think they’re going to keep their kids from gay people or a discussion of homosexuality anywhere, they are delusional.”  (Click HERE for ex-“gay” and Not Our Kids spokesman Steve Bennett’s response to Garcia’s nonsense.)

Nazi Germany? Burning books? Delusional parents?  So much for the homosexual advocates’ “no name calling” campaign. Can you see why your children are more likely to be indoctrinated than educated when the “gay” agenda elbows its way into their school? 

Americans For Truth and NotOurKids.com will have more information on the Parent/Student Pullout of the Day of Silence (Wed., April 18th) and practical information on what you as a parent or taxpayer can do in future e-mails.

THIS ARTICLE IS OBSOLETE: there is no reliable published list of schools participating in the Day of Silence in 2009. For more information, go to Illinois Family Institute’s website at www.illinoisfamily.org.

My friend Linda Harvey of Mission America has done so much over the years to educate parents across America about the homosexual (GLBT: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activist agenda in schools. Below is Linda’s compilation of potential (likely?) middle and high schools participating in the GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) “Day of Silence” on Wed., April 18th.

Check the list below or check Mission America’s updated online list of schools, understanding that it is NOT a comprehensive list because the other side no longer widely publicizes which schools are taking part, as it did in years past.– Peter LaBarbera

Linda writes:

Parents: Here’s something you can do about the pro-homosexual Day of Silence

Protect your kids — keep them at home!

Boycott the DAY of SILENCE!

Parents: Keep your kids home if your school is officially holding, or benignly allowing, this pro-homosexual event.

Scheduled for April 18, some schools are observing it on other days, so check with your local school. Ask your child also–they probably know!

From the information we have based on current homosexual clubs as well as past Day of Silence participation and school homosexual activism, the following schools are those participating.

(Note: If we have listed a school in error, we apologize, and will issue a correction immediately. Please e-mail us with your correction, at editor@missionamerica.com.)

This is the list as of late afternoon, Tuesday, March 28. GO TO MISSION AMERICA’s WEBSITE (www.missionamerica.com) TO SEE THE UPDATED LIST.

Schools removed from this 2007 posting …

Every year, the radical group GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), of Massachusetts “Fistgate” notoriety, promotes a propaganda exercise in schools called the “Day of Silence,” to engender sympathy toward GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) lifestyles. Many schools now officially back this disruptive, pro-homosexual event — so we’re calling on parents to pull their children out of school that day (Wed., April 18 this year). Parents can use the day to educate their children about the homosexual activist movement and other harmful social agendas, or to pray for people and students caught up in the homosexual lifestyle.

Or, students can just read a good book at home. Time spent doing that would be far preferable to indulging in GLSEN’s pro-homosexuality groupthink. Our schools have become PC propaganda centers, and it’s way past time for parents to take a stand. Promoting unhealthy, changeable and immoral behaviors like homosexuality and bisexuality — especially to vulnerable teens (even middle schoolers!) — lacks compassion. Here is a list of schools likely to be participating in the “Day of Silence”: http://www.missionamerica.com/agenda.php?articlenum=66. — Peter LaBarbera

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact NotOurKids.com Media Coordinator – Irene Bennett (203) 926-6960

[Among the groups joining NotOurKids are: Americans For Truth, Mission America, Concerned Women for America, Culture Campaign, American Family Association of Pennsylvania, and Stephen Bennett Ministries]

Visit www.NotOurKids.com/media.html

WASHINGTON, March 27 / — A national pro-family coalition, www.NotOurKids.com, is calling upon parents to keep their children home from school on April 18 — to avoid GLSEN’s homosexual “Day of Silence,” in which students and some supportive faculty intentionally remain silent throughout the school day to protest alleged oppression of homosexuals.

“Day of Silence” (DOS) is an annual event promoted by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, and is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18 this year.  (Some schools observe DOS a few days earlier or later than the official date.) In 2006, over 4,000 junior highs, high schools, and colleges participated in DOS, according to GLSEN.

Many school district superintendents, principals, and faculty members also endorse, promote or allow DOS — subjecting traditional students to pro-“gay” activism that violates their religious beliefs and right to a non-politicized education. To find out what schools are likely participating in this year’s DOS, please visit: http://www.missionamerica.com/agenda.php?articlenum=66.

According to GLSEN, on last year’s Day of Silence, over 500,000 students nationwide were confronted with mute homosexual peers and “allies” wearing stickers and passing out cards, which stated (in part):

“… My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?”

www.NotOurKids.com is a coalition of pro-family groups who object to the disruptive political hijacking of America’s classrooms by pro-homosexual advocates. www.NotOurKids.com educates parents, teachers and America about the deceptive agenda behind GLSEN’s Day of Silence. The coalition seeks to protect America’s youth from being pressured to approve of homosexual, bisexual, or “transgender” behavior.

“Teenagers deserve an opportunity to study English, history, math, and science — without being subjected to pro-homosexual proselytizing sanctioned by school authorities. Students shouldn’t be forced to self-censor or adopt beliefs contrary to those of their parents and places of worship,” said Linda Harvey of Mission America, a coalition member.  “Even the strongest of our junior high and high school children are not equipped to serve as frontline soldiers in this culture war.”

For a complete list of the coalition’s sponsoring groups, please visit www.NotOurKids.com.

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.

By Peter LaBarbera

Flee from sexual immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
— I Corinthians 6:18

Warning: Honest yet offensive descriptions of supposedly “moral” homosexual sex acts follow.

I am fascinated by the media debate launched by Gen. Pace’s simple and true statement that homosexual acts are immoral. Post-modern (read: post-Christian) liberals — who think they’re smarter than the rest of us — are apoplectic, but my heart is lifted. Isn’t moral clarity wonderful? The alternative to Pace’s honest agreement with God’s morality (no polls here) is Sen. John Warner’s and other pandering politicians’ — and the media’s — moral confusion.

If homosexual acts are not immoral, then are they moral? I know it’s disgusting, but think for a moment about what homosexual sodomy is: Dr. John Diggs says it’s almost as if anal sex “was created to spread disease.” “Gay” writer Jack Hart states that “some practices common among gays — especially rimming [“orally stimulating the anus,” according to another “gay” enthusiast] and anal intercourse — are highly efficient ways of transmitting disease.”

Highly efficient at transmitting disease… makes sense. What is immoral and unnatural is also often very dangerous. Turns out that deviant sex and normal sex are not “equal.”

Yet our schools are telling kids that “being gay” is fine — come join our “Gay/Straight Alliance” school club! Now that’s immoral.

We should demand answers from the equivocating politicians and agnostic media: is it moral for men to engage in anal sodomy with one another? Is it moral for a man to stick his sex organ in the anus or mouth of another man? What about licking another man’s anus, as an act of pleasure? (Again, “rimming” … yuck…. no wonder “gay” advocates call this the “ick factor” and avoid publicly discussing actual homosexual behaviors like the plague.)

Is “sex” between women — sadly, a popular feature in straight male pornography — moral? Is it moral when lesbians use “sex toys” to mimic normal sex or anal sex?

Are you starting to see why the other side would rather be talking in euphemisms — equality, discrimination, “sexual orientation,” “same-sex love” and “gay” — rather than the morality of homosexual acts?

And do you see why they are desperate to block messages about healthy and happy ex-“gays,” like my friend Stephen Bennett or ex-lesbian Charlene Cothran, from reaching the public?

Of course, typical of situational ethics, the same “gay” activists who scold us for “inequality” and “discrimination” have no problem — at least for now — discriminating against the “polyamory” activists who yearn for multiple-partner marriages.

Upon what authority?

Another question for the “gays” and their allies: on what basis do you declare sex acts between persons of the same sex moral (not immoral)? Please tell us so we can instruct our children and appropriately re-configure our Bibles — like “gay” actor Ian McKellen, who rips out the parts of the Bible condemning homosexuality from the Gideon Bible when he stays at hotels.

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality,
but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
— I Corinthians 6:13

The liberals’ and libertarians’ folly is that they pretend to have greater authority than God to decide these issues. (Sadly, a large chunk of America has also lost its fear of God: a new Culture & Media Institute survey found that only 52 percent of U.S. respondents “say they believe the Bible is God’s authoritative word” on how to live.) But the secularists have nothing to substitute for Biblical truth but lies and ideologies that hurt people. (Another “gay” activist, Bob Hattoy, who made a famous anti-Reagan, anti-Bush speak at the Democrats’ ’92 convention, died prematurely of AIDS — at 56 — last week.)

We spend so much time crafting palatable “public policy” positions that we almost forget that homosexuality is first and foremost a moral issue. Clear messages like Gen. Pace’s, backed by reason, will turn idealistic young people’s minds back toward the truth. Let’s make our policy arguments, to be sure, but shed our defensiveness and be clearly moral, yet humble, like Gen. Pace.

Moral-minded people owe the good general a debt of gratitude for having the courage in this cowardly and confused age to speak the Truth and publicly agree with God about immoral homosexual acts.

From Illinois Family Institute, where Lora Sue Hauser serves as School Issues Advisor:

Click HERE to read the confidentiality agreement
that Deerfield High School freshmen were asked to sign prior to being confronted with
a panel of students who identify as homosexual, bisexual, and “transgendered.”

WARNING: The pdf includes…

• The confidentiality agreement (2 pages), plus
• “Terminology Game Cards” used in Deerfield’s Freshman Advisory,”
• Excerpts from Alex Sanchez’s book Rainbow Boys which is replete with vulgar language and sexual content (Alex Sanchez was invited to speak at DHS in 2005),
• A list of “gay” bars linked (via the GLBT National Health Center) on Alex Sanchez’s website (which he promoted to students), and
• Objectionable excerpts from The Heidi Chronicles, which was perfomed for freshmen — without parental notice or consent — at DHS in 2001.