How Pansexuality is Being Taught to Our Kids and Our Culture
(To boys)”If you like sexual relationships with older gay men and will flourish in these relationships go for it...Pick older gay men carefully. And remember that society will make it very difficult for you to meet and mix with older gay men.”
THE GAY MEN'S WELLNESS GUIDE, Robert E. Penn, from the National Gay and Lesbian Health Association, Henry Holt and Co., New York, NY, 1997, p. 346.
-------------------------------------
"At some point, almost everybody gets a 'crush' on someone of the same sex...One or two sexual experiences with someone of the same sex may not mean you're gay, either - just as one or two sexual experiences with someone of the opposite sex may not mean you're straight...many straight people have same-sex sexual experiences.....Dr. Alfred Kinsey, the world's best-known sex researcher, concluded from his research that almost nobody is purely straight or gay ..." (From brochure, “Be Yourself,” published for youth by PFLAG, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, p.5).
----------------------------------------
“Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony. It was wrong, it was foolish, it was inexcusable...I am a gay American..” (New Jersey Governor James McGreevey in a news conference on August 12, 2004.)
---------------------------------------------
From a BOSTON GLOBE article in 2001: “David, a sophomore at Newton South High School, was puzzled by his reaction to an older boy he met at summer camp.... “There was something about him that turned me on,” said David, 16. “I don’t know why.” David was scared to talk to his family and friends about his feelings, but he found a sympathetic ear at school: Newton South’s “gay-straight alliance.” Today, David, who has a girlfriend, considers himself bisexual. But he hasn’t been romantically interested in any boy other than the one at camp. Because he doesn’t want to have sex before he is married, it would be difficult for him to act on such feelings if he had them. “I’m hoping to have a wife who says, ‘Sure, why not?’” he said. “You know what I mean? Just experiment.” ( “Gay-straight alliance taking hold in schools,” Scott S. Greenberger, BOSTON GLOBE, April 15, 2001).
----------------------------------------------
"Humans are diverse, and individual sexual feelings and behavior change over time....Bisexuality threatens the accepted way of looking at the world by calling into question the validity of rigid sexual categories, and encourages acknowledgement of the existence of a diverse range of sexuality... It is important to have the freedom to choose the type of sexual and affectional relationships that are right for the people involved, whatever their sexual orientation." (PFLAG Bisexuality Resource Packet, pages 4-5.)
-----------------------------------------------
"In fact, the Bible says very little about homosexuality. Amidst the hundreds of thousands of other teachings, responsibilities, laws and prohibitions, there are only a handful of statements that might possibly apply to sex between men - and none that address lesbian sexuality." ( Erroneous claim that ignores Romans 1:26 and many clear passages prohibiting homosexuality, from FREE YOUR MIND: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth - and Their Allies,Ellen Bass and Kate Kaufman,HarperPerennial,1996, p. 279.)
---------------------------------------------
Some rather unorthodox advice is given in the book QUEER KIDS: The Challenges and Promise for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth( Robert E. Owens, Jr., Ph.D., Harrington Park Press, 1998). These tips are given for the "special" needs of homosexual youth who are runaways or have been kicked out of their homes, and therefore live in residential shelters. "Agency policies must recognize the sexual behavior of adolescents...Residential facilities should distinguish clearly between normal, healthy and harmful, exploitative sexual behavior regardless of the gender or orientation of the youths involved.... Within Child Protective Services Guidelines, youths should be allowed privacy and dignity regarding sexuality. Discrete times and places should be provided to allow for private masturbation." (pp.157-158) This book is recommended for adults on the GLSEN web site, www.glsen.org .
--------------------------------------------
The president and founder of GLSEN is featured in an anecdote in another book:
"Toward the end of my first year, during the spring of 1988, Brewster appeared in my office in the tow of one of my advisees, ...to whom I had been 'out' for a long time. 'Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,' she intoned ominously....On a hunch, I suddenly asked, 'What's his name?' Brewster's eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face...." (Kevin Jennings, former teacher and current president of GLSEN, describing his interaction with a male student, in ONE TEACHER IN TEN: Gay and lesbian educators tell their stories, Kevin Jennings, ed., Alyson Publications, 1994, p.25.)
---------------------------------------
On the MTV program for teens, “Undressed,” two male characters were homosexual lovers. One of them finds himself attracted to a female friend, and confesses to her that he’s bisexual, but his lover doesn’t know. He explains by asking her to be honest--hasn’t she ever had at least a little attraction to another girl? After she admits that she has, he says that to stretch out that feeling is what being a bisexual is like. (MTV, 12:00-1:00 am, September 5, 2000).
----------------------------------------
The cover story in NEWSWEEK on July 17, 1995, was on bisexuality. “Stephen Getman and Linda Kamenetsky look just like the couple next door -- and that’s the problem. Steph, a self-described ‘gender radical,’ and Linda are both bisexual and work hard to establish that identity. He sometimes wears dresses or makeup to a party; she’ll slip on a tuxedo. Sometimes they paint their fingernails together. ‘There is no doubt I’m a man, but I would like to see the bounds of what’s appropriate for that gender expanded,’ Steph says....Both Steph, 30, and Linda, 47, have been married as well as in serious gay relationships. They’ve been together for three years and, while committed to each other, ‘we’re open to incorporating a third person,’ says Steph, who works for a gay, lesbian and bi Roman Catholic advocacy group in Washington. ‘Sexuality is fluid. There is no such thing as normal,’ he says.” (NEWSWEEK, July 17, 1995, page 46)
------------------------------------
From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, in review of ON THE DOWN LOW: A Journey Into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men by J.L. King (Broadway Books, 2004):
Black men living "on the down low," or DL as they refer to it, don’t consider themselves gay; they only "get with" men from their gym, church or club who, like themselves, lead "normal, straight lives" with girlfriends or wives in tow. They’re so deep in denial of their homosexual desires, King writes, that these men rarely practice safe sex when indulging in a little same-sex "somethin’ somethin’." "To put on a condom is to think about what you are doing," explains King, who was on the DL for 25 years.
----------------------------------------------------
HARMFUL TO MINORS: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, by Judith Levine (University of Minnesota Press, April 2002)
“A radical, refreshing, and long overdue reassessment of how we think and act about children's and teens' sexuality.” (Publishers’ information and overview from University of Minnesota Press) “Sex is a wonderful, crucial part of growing up, and children and teens can enjoy the pleasures of the body and be safe, too. In this important and controversial book, Judith Levine makes this argument and goes further, asserting that America's attempts to protect children from sex are worse than ineffectual. It is the assumption of danger and the exclusive focus on protection-what Levine terms "the sexual politics of fear"-that are themselves harmful to minors. Through interviews with young people and their parents, stories drawn from today's headlines, visits to classrooms and clinics, and a look back at the ways sex among children and teenagers has been viewed throughout history, Judith Levine debunks some of the dominant myths of our society. She examines and challenges widespread anxieties (pedophilia, stranger kidnapping, Internet pornography) and sacred cows (abstinence-based sex education, statutory rape laws). “
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize;Named one of history's 40 Most Influential Books on Sexuality by SIECUS,the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States.
Print Article
