What do you get when you combine homosexual activists and the “drag queen caucus” of the National Education Association with innocent children in grade school classrooms?
You get the ironically-titled sewer soup called “Welcoming Schools.”1 It’s a plan by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to indoctrinate K-5 elementary school children and their somnambulant parents and teachers into the glories of homosexual home life and transvestite living, and the evils of believing in the traditional family.
The curriculum proclaims its welcome to “all” students and “all” families, inaccurately assuming some are born to be homosexuals. As far as we can tell, “all” students are welcomed into schools now. It’s harmful and disruptive behavior that is unwelcome in responsible schools, yet this curriculum celebrates it.
No one has to be involved in homosexuality; parents who embrace this behavior do so for their own self-interest, not the best interests of children, and rhetorical gamesmanship will never alter this fact. HRC doesn’t care about the outcome to the actual lives of actual children, as long as traditional voices are silenced and its agenda to normalize this conduct is achieved. It’s heartbreaking that such plans are devised by educators teaming up with hard-core activists. Some of these folks may have good intentions, but the direction they take kids is right off a cliff.
The Minnesota Family Council reported on this deceptive curriculum in 2008 as it was being pilot-tested in three elementary schools in Minneapolis:2
Using a wide range of pro-homosexual picture books and puppets (with lots of smiles and fun activities), the family will be redefined and children will be indoctrinated to approve of homosexuality and transgenderism, and admire same-sex couples raising children— before kids are even old enough to know what sexuality is or understand the unhealthy implications of homosexual behavior...Praise will be given to students in the Welcoming Schools curriculum who quickly conform and approve of homosexual behavior— ignoring the true biblical view of homosexuality.
“Welcoming Schools” also has earned the backing of Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association.3The “Welcoming Schools” brochure featuring Van Roekel’s written endorsement was distributed at the July 2010 NEA annual convention. It’s no big surprise that the head of this radical union, which fails to represent the values of most teachers, believes traditional sexual morality is dangerous for children. NEA has devolved into just another homosexual pressure group and as usual among these folks, honesty and genuine age-appropriateness are often AWOL.
Families in the context of “Welcoming Schools” are virtually any collection of people who decide to live with minors under the same roof, all lauded except for those who (horrors!) believe that the ideal is still a family with mom, dad and kids. The program brochure contains some lovely-sounding education-ese that gently rolls along until the discerning reader sees who’s behind it and figures out where this goes. As usual, it goes toward seven year olds who will “decide” to change genders and their numbskull applauding teachers; fifth-graders in all-school “gay” clubs; two women as “moms” who snarl at any suggestion they are aberrant; and appropriate contempt for heterosexuality and man/woman marriage, which is the real “hate” involved here.
One of the suggested activities is an evening family event including a pot-luck buffet or maybe even a showing of the film That’s a Family!, which attempts to normalize homosexual adults raising children. How welcome is the conservative Christian, Jewish or Muslim family at such an event? They are not, unless they keep their mouths shut or change their minds. Otherwise, they are welcome, yes — to remove their children from this school.
From the opening paragraphs talking about a shooting in a “gay” bar, the dots continue to be sloppily connected in the overview of the Welcoming Schools program. Shooting people remains a crime in this country, and what again does this have to do with schools? Ah—the point is, what the guy was thinking! He had an “anti-gay” attitude. And so, to keep children safe, any opposing attitudes must be purged from these “welcoming” schools, because of course, no one can possibly oppose homosexuality without becoming violent, or so the radicals want everyone to believe.
It is true schools need more civil behavior. Of course, kids should refrain from insults and name-calling. Yet who is defining what a “slur” is? If it’s these highly misguided advocates of kindergarten cross-dressing, an educational atmosphere that welcomes truth and a free exchange of responsible ideas –not to mention actual diversity of religious faith— is unlikely to prevail.
For instance, one Massachusetts teacher at a “Welcoming Schools” pilot site,4 relates her thoughts:
....it was just as the bell was about to ring, when I overheard Max, one of my fourth-graders say, “Lesbians are so weird. “ I wasn‘t sure what to say to him. I was taken aback. However, some of the other students stepped right in and said, “Where did you hear that? Don‘t you know that Amy‘s moms are lesbians? They aren‘t weird.” Max ended up feeling bad...
Let’s be realistic — Max is right. As far as their sexuality goes, lesbians are weird, deliberately so. They reject males as sex partners in favor of women. This is not how God created their bodies and these women are choosing fruitless, lifeless couplings.
But the “Welcoming Schools” program recommends that children be told, if they ask which of a child’s “two moms” is the real one, that, “They both are.”
Which is a lie. Only one individual is a person’s mom. And when we lie to kids, they will figure out another way to express reality. If we want more peaceful schools, we need to start with truth.
Kids know on a gut-level that homosexuality isn’t right, and Max’s language (just like, “That’s so gay”) is perhaps a last-ditch, clunky attempt of a kid to make sense in a truth-starved environment.
There’s a section of the program overview that claims, “We are talking about respect.” Well, okay then. Why not respectfully ask Max, “Why do you think that lesbians are weird?” And let him talk, and when he expresses concern about homosexual behavior, tell him that he is allowed to believe that!! But no — such ideas are not going to be permitted in the fascist climate of the “welcoming” schools. It’s an intensive indoctrination plan that leaves the sweetness and sanity of authentic boy/girl identities out in the cold. The HRC version of civility is a chilling denial of biological reality, divine design and the genuine well-being of children.
An alternate approach to an uncivil climate is to model kindness, common sense and sexual integrity. Let kids be kids, innocence included, while always tactfully but firmly rejecting the behavior of homosexuality. Counsel with sensitivity those who have such leanings. Homosexual desire is not inborn and it’s not constructive. And guess what? We will have truly civil schools, only they would be based on truth and virtue.
Just in case any parents consider opting out of a “Welcoming Schools” program, think again. When state education policy allows families to “opt-out” of sexuality lessons, HRC’s program will likely follow the examples set in the David Parker case (MA) and in the Alameda (CA) schools, where officials and supportive judges claimed indoctrination lessons aren’t about sexuality — they are about “family” and “anti-bullying.” Such spin hides the reality that this is deviant, harmful sexual behavior that no one needs to do.
Another fabrication of this curriculum is that students currently involved in homosexual or cross-gender behavior are arbitrarily excluded from school policies against bullying and violence. Yet it would be difficult to find even one school in the U.S. with a conduct code about bullying that excludes homosexually-inclined students. One would think it’s the norm sitting through the sob soprano section of this tiresome operetta. Only those embracing such delusion will sit through to the end of this pathetic tale; those who have the facts will walk out in Act One.
Homosexual behavior among children is currently not protected, thank the Lord, except in the most liberal and uncaring schools, but that’s a different story. The sad fact is there’s no acknowledgement here of the rising HIV incidence among young males who have sex with males. Where’s the concern about the futures of these kids for whom HRC is recommending early anal sex, or encouraging dangerous sex-change hormones or body- altering surgery for this supposedly “natural” inclination?
The “Welcoming Schools” curriculum advisory board5 reads like a who’s who of People Out to Ruin America. Among the “social justice” and “multiculturalism” experts is one teacher formerly affiliated with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a virulently anti-Christian and pro-homosexual group carrying a phony “tolerance” banner.
There are also several advisors from GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. GLSEN was founded by Kevin Jennings, now unfortunately Obama’s safe schools “czar”, under whose leadership his group chose to recommend, out of all the books available for seventh graders, such selections as Queer 13, where a thirteen–year-old boy has bathroom sex with an anonymous adult male. This is just, oh, well, a coming-of-age experience for boys “born this way” as homosexuals.
Here’s what Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com6 had to say about the books GLSEN recommends to kids:
We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.
It might be fair to say there’s a question of sound judgment among these folks.
Another advisor hails from the “GLBT” teachers’ caucus of the National Education Association, following the lead of its president. NEA certainly made its position clear in July 2010, when the delegates voted 70% to 30% against taking “no position” on same sex marriage. In other words, “we will continue to lobby for it and just try to stop us.” I don’t think many teachers realize this is how their dues are used.
To top off the whole crew of advisors is a psychiatrist affiliated with Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Washington, DC, who works with “gender variant” children. In other words, he supports and helps pre-adolescent children go ahead and make the life-changing decision to switch from boy to girl or vice versa. If there is a current iteration of child sacrifice, this has to be it. Advanced education once again is no guarantee of virtue, kindness and common sense. May God help him.
”Welcoming Schools” claims to be piloted in three school districts, with twelve schools nationwide having adopted this program.7 However, the Minneapolis "pilot" programs, supposedly implemented in three grade schools, look like a bust. At Hale Elementary, the program only lasted one year and created enormous controversy. The backers attempted to shove it through without appropriate curriculum review and when it was finally implemented following board protocol, six of the lessons were removed well as the core film, "That's a Family," as a result of perceived bias. The families we have talked with in Minneapolis tell us they do not believe it has been fully implemented anywhere in that school district, despite HRC claims.
An e-mail inquiry to the "Welcoming Schools" office asking for details on these "pilot programs" was unanswered.
Parents, be forewarned. Kids will learn to hate traditional values; some will develop tremendous insecurity and anxiety over just being a girl or boy. The more vulnerable kids will go on to adopt homosexual identities and enter that lifestyle and high-risk behavior. Most will turn away from authentic faith in their Creator God and savior, Jesus Christ.
Welcoming schools? Who’s kidding who? As usual, we have lie upon distortion upon lie that ends up as just exactly the opposite of anything that is positive, or helpful, or welcoming.
Families that truly care about their children will reject this program. We need to discourage homosexual conduct, not welcome it because broken lives are sure to be the result. It’s child corruption masking as diversity. My hope is that wise schools reject this radical activist nonsense.
Notes:
- http://www.hrc.org/documents/An_Introduction_to_Welcoming_Schools.pdf
- “Minneapolis Schools Targeted for Homosexual Indoctrination,” Barb Anderson, March 2008, at http://www.mfc.org/
- http://www.hrc.org/welcomingschools/
- An Introduction to Welcoming Schools http://www.hrc.org , page 49
- Welcoming Schools National Advisory Council, http://www.hrc.org/about_us/10485.htm
- http://biggovernment.com/
- http://www.sdgln.com/news/2010/04/09/berkley-schools-adopt-hrcs-welcoming-schools-guide-curriculum
