The Top 20 Skirmishes in the Battle Over Homosexuality in the Schools

Warning: Graphic Content

Linda Harvey

Intolerance and hatred are ugly attitudes, yet in today’s schools, hostility is often the greeting for traditional values. Adults are likely to be treated like adversaries at their neighborhood schools if they don’t want acceptance of homosexuality or cross-dressing to be a part of youth education.

Nationwide, reports of the suppression of religious freedom and parental rights are coming in as never before, all because educators too often try to mold youth attitudes regardless of what families believe. Many support the acceptance of homosexuality among students and faculty, and will ignore or even deliberately undermine community concerns.

The picture is not all negative, though. There are some signs that America is slowly grasping the depth of the problem. Sometimes it is the advocates of the homosexual agenda whose views are expelled. School officials have lost jobs, projects have been halted and even court decisions have in some cases put an end to the nonsense.

The list of incidents, with both positive and negative outcomes, is growing as the battle intensifies. Here’s a list of twenty recent events/trends in the battle over homosexuality in the schools. It is just a small representation of many such incidents nationwide.

1. Middle school students were recruited in West Virginia schools to serve on “civil rights action” teams. Students as young as sixth grade were trained by local police to listen for and report statements of peers that were “hateful” regarding homosexuality. The project was funded by the U.S. Safe and Drug Free Schools program. The effort, which originated out of the state Attorney General’s office, came to a halt last year once pro-family groups exposed it through the media. In Maine, 2,000 students attended a Civil Rights Team conference in April 2003 as part of a similar effort in that state. Pro-family volunteers and pastors tried to hand out literature at the conference with a different viewpoint, including testimony of an ex-homosexual. Apparently organizers of this taxpayer-funded event had coached the students in advance, because many students refused to accept the brochures at this conference on “diversity,” where students heard one young woman speaker describe her testosterone hormone therapy to change her gender to male.
2. A conference for teachers, middle and high school students at Tufts University in March 2000 erupted in a controversy that became known as “Fistgate.” Students at one of the workshops, billed for “youth only ages 14-21,” learned explicit details of high-risk homosexual practices, including the practice of “fisting” which involves the insertion of a fist into a rectum or vagina. The instructors were three professionals from the Massachusetts Departments of Education and Health. A workshop participant secretly taped the workshop and when tapes were released to the public, a firestorm of controversy erupted, but the liberals prevailed in Massachusetts, and the conference has returned to Tufts every year since, just without that particular workshop. GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, one of the conference sponsors, sued the person who taped the workshop and another pro-family activist who wrote about the workshop. It is estimated that these two could incur over $200,000 in legal defense costs. The three workshop instructors were meanwhile dismissed, but one was later re-hired.
3. The national 2003 Day of Silence (DOS) event, organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), was observed in April by a reported 200,000 students in 2,000 middle and high schools. Students and some teachers remained silent all day to protest “discrimination” against homosexuals. At Evansville High School in Wisconsin, Christian students who countered the DOS by praying and sharing Bible verses in the school commons were given unexcused absences. The Silence students, by contrast, were permitted to publicize the event through posters and over the intercom, as well as being given a “safe room” for use that day if they believed they were being harassed.
4. Over 2,000 people protested the forced establishment of a homosexual club at the high school in Boyd County (Ashland) Kentucky. The ACLU sued the school which eventually succumbed to pressure. The club proceeded as an approved non-curricular activity in 2003.
5. In Novato, CA (Marin County), parents sued the schools after a pro-homosexual play called “Cootie Shots” was shown to two elementary schools. Parental opt-out forms were ignored and children saw the play without parental notification or approval. The play portrays those who don’t accept homosexuality as hateful and bigoted. The suit was dismissed by parents in 2003. The former principal had been replaced by a parent-friendly administrator, and a working parental opt-out program established. “Cootie Shots” includes the song, to be performed by a grade school age boy, “Mommy’s High Heels,” in which the boy is supposed to proudly reveal he’s wearing his mom’s shoes.
6. Belying the usual claims that homosexual clubs for youth don’t focus on homosexual sex, members of California “gay-straight alliances” (GSA’s) marched in the San Francisco Gay Pride parade on June 29, 2003.These high school and some middle school students mingled alongside openly nude men and topless women as well as proponents of sado-masochism. Simulated sex acts were performed along the parade route, and signs like “Sodomize me, it’s legal!” celebrated the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Texas’ sodomy law. Police stood quietly by and made no attempt to arrest the naked celebrants. The homosexual advocate group GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) brought many of the GSA members to the parade in a yellow school bus. The organization PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) also marched in the parade.
7. At Murphy Junior High School in Stony Creek, NY (Long Island) in 2002, a middle school homosexual club was formed following an “outreach” effort by the homosexual club at the local high school. The author of a graphic homosexual novel called Rainbow Boys was invited to speak to the middle school group. This book includes graphic descriptions of heterosexual oral sex as well as homosexual anal sex between a 17 year-old boy and an adult male he recently met via the Internet. Parents and students who objected to the high school and middle school promotion of homosexuality were reportedly verbally harassed to the point of police involvement. As a result, the principal of the middle school and several teachers have reportedly left the school.
8. At James Madison High School, Vienna, VA, students heard a homosexual man, formerly married with children but now living with a homosexual lover, speak at a school assembly in March 2003 on the need for homosexuals to be able to adopt children. The speech was part of “Sexual Equality Awareness Week.” One class called “Combating Intolerance” gave extra credit for attending presentations by PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). No opposing viewpoint was offered to students. Reportedly, PFLAG brochures are distributed to guidance counselors at the school. (For a review of PFLAG’s acceptance of sexually deviant activities, see Mission America’s report, “The World According to PFLAG: Why PFLAG and Children Don’t Mix” at www.missionamerica.com .)
9. The award-winning student news publication of Upper Arlington High School, Columbus, OH, published a ten page insert in April 2001 about “growing up gay.” It featured a detailed biography of a “gay” male student, including abuse by his father, and his visits to homosexual bars. Sidebar articles included one depicting Exodus International and ex-homosexuals as frauds, and repeating unsubstantiated claims about one man’s return to homosexuality, without contacting him for a statement. Another sidebar spoke glowingly about a local church which performed homosexual commitment ceremonies. Phone numbers and web sites supporting youth homosexuality were also published. One letter in opposition and a paid ad about coming out of homosexuality were the only opposing viewpoints offered in a later issue. Administration officials supported the publication’s right to publish this misleading material.
10. In St. Paul, Minnesota, high school student Elliott Chambers was suspended for wearing a sweatshirt with the message “Straight Pride” and a drawing of a man and woman holding hands. He wore the shirt after witnessing the school’s heavy promotion of homosexuality, including the posting of numerous “safe zone” pink triangles in classrooms and offices throughout the school. The principal told Chambers and his parents they were “homophobes.” A U.S. District court ruled that Elliott could return to school and that his rights had been violated.
11. In Arcata, California in 2002, a ninth grade class was instructed by a guest speaker from Planned Parenthood to form a circle. The speaker posed questions and students who responded affirmatively remained standing. When asked, “Do you have a religious belief about homosexuality that considers it a sin and wrong?” the remaining students were subjected to hostile follow-up questions.
12. At Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, MI in 2002, a homosexual club demanded that the school’s Christian Club adopt a policy of “non-discrimination” based on sexual orientation, as the school itself had done. The Christian club refused, citing its religious beliefs and constitutional rights. After a threatened law suit by the Christian club, the homosexual club backed off. In addition, the school changed its policy.
13. Over 100 “safe zone” pink triangles decorated the doors of classrooms and offices at a school in Olympia Fields, IL in 2002. These are used by homosexual activists to designate acceptance of homosexuality and by implication, to stigmatize those who object. School board members voted to have them removed after parent objections.
14. In the San Leandro CA school district, a married teacher won a case in 2002 defended by the National Education Association after he talked to his class about respecting “gays, lesbians and bisexuals.” Parents complained and the teacher was reprimanded. He sued and won the case based on his rights of free speech.
15. Parent Mary Clossey complained about her son’s reading requirement at Newton North High School in Newton Massachusetts in 2001. It included the book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky which included passages on sex between a boy and a dog, man-boy sex, anal sex between boys, male masturbation and female masturbation with a hot dog. Her calls to the mayor were never returned and school officials were disrespectful, so she filed a criminal complaint against the teacher for corrupting a minor. But after trying repeatedly, she was never able to meet with the district attorney. Clossey discovered that the book was on a reading list given to every student. She received a letter from the district attorney informing her that the state’s schools and libraries were immune from laws relating to exposing children to pornography.
16. School boards in Portage, MI and Winston Salem, NC both nixed adding “sexual orientation” to their school districts non-discrimination policies in 2002. Such policies, now in effect in many U.S. schools, have been used to force pro-homosexual clubs, curricula and events on schools.
17. Parent Debra Loveless of St. Louis sued Metro High School after trying to attend a school event sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Loveless was blocked from the school assembly and ushered out of the school by an armed official. She had already exempted her daughter from attending, but wanted to observe the content first-hand.
18. After a bitter and controversial battle, the school district of Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) voted in 2002 to allow the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to provide tolerance training for psychologists, teachers and social workers at its schools over the next five years. (For more information about the sexually deviant practices accepted by GLSEN, see our paper, “Children At Risk,” on the Mission America web site at www.missionamerica.com .)
19. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Minnesota ruled in 2002 that Carla Cruzan, a teacher at Southwest High School, had to share a restroom with a cross-dressing male librarian. The male, David Nielsen, now goes by the name of Debra Davis. He wanted to be able to use the same general restroom as the female staff. Many of the female staff were reportedly unhappy with the arrangement, but Cruzan was the only one who sued. She was told by the court she should use a unisex single restroom if she preferred.
20. In Wilmette, IL, middle school principal Donald Reed returned to school as Deanna Reed in the fall of 2001 after sex change surgery over the summer. Instead of dismissing the principal, the district retained him and held “counseling” opportunities for students and parents to smooth over the transition. A male art teacher in Eastchester, NY returned to school as a woman, and a Northbook, IL science teacher also had female-to-male sex change surgery before returning to her/his teaching post.

Again, these are just a sample of many, many similar incidents around the country. If you have news about the promotion of homosexuality in your schools, please let us know by e-mailing us at editor@missionamerica.com .

Print Article