AFA threatened with lawsuit for warning parents about video (SpongeBob Saga)

January 24, 2005 American Family Association P.O. Drawer 2440 Tupelo, MS 38803 URL: www.afa.net

AFA threatened with lawsuit for warning parents about video Tupelo, MS – American Family Association (AFA) has been threatened with a lawsuit because it warned parents of elementary school children of a video that leads them to a web site that promotes the acceptance of homosexuality. We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) has threatened the lawsuit because of an article appearing in the AFA Journal regarding the video, scheduled to be shown simultaneously on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and PBS on March 11. The video is a remake of the song "We Are Family" and also is scheduled to be shipped to 61,000 public and private schools. The article can be found at AFAJournal.org.

Schools are urged to use the video to promote the acceptance of diversity, including homosexuality. While the video itself does not overtly promote homosexuality, it serves as a hook to entice children and teachers to use the web site and the materials there such as teacher lesson plans, which explicitly promote the homosexual lifestyle. Lessons include such topics as "Talking About Being ‘Out'" and "Uncovering Attitudes about Sexual Orientation." In these lesson plans, teachers are taught how to introduce students to "the concepts of homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality."

"Parents need to be aware that their children could be required by the school to participate in a discussion promoting the homosexual lifestyle," said Donald E. Wildmon, AFA Chairman. "Innocent little children should not be encouraged to accept homosexuality by any teacher or other authority figure," he stated.

WAFF says the article caused WAFF to be "exposed to substantial public ridicule and harm." WAFF told AFA to "render a public apology" regarding the article, or WAFF would "commence an action in the United States District Court against (Wildmon) and the owners of the AFA Journal."

Wildmon responded that AFA would not offer a public apology. "Our facts are well documented and truthful," Wildmon said. "No apology is necessary for telling the truth."

The program uses characters familiar to the nation's children. These will include Arthur, Barney, Blue's Clues, Bob the Builder, The Book of Pooh, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dora the Explorer, Jimmy Neutron, Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch:The Series, Little Meremaid, Madeline, The Magic School Bus, The Mupplet Show, Rugrats, Sesame Street and SpongeBob SquarePants.

"Contrary to what many media accounts have said, this issue is not about Sponge Bob being homosexual. It is about an attempt to promote homosexuality to elementary school children," Wildmon stated.

One of the teacher's guides available online at the WAFF Web site is called "Writing for Change: Raising awareness of Difference, Power, & Discrimination." Full of politically correct lessons on feminism, it is also a primer for teachers who want to promote the homosexual lifestyle to children.

According to the teacher's guide, children should be taught to reject the idea "that women are ‘naturally' or innately drawn sexually and emotionally toward men, and men toward women," or that heterosexuality is normal and should be the only model for marriage.

Students are expected to be influenced by the lesson plans. One of the follow-up questions asks the kids: "How will understanding these definitions change your thinking about compulsory heterosexuality and homophobia?"

UPDATE: ( Posted by BykrBayb)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1327284/posts?page=371#371

Proof discovered of agenda in the Sponge Bob/Homosexual controversy.
Posted by BykrBayb to All; EdReform; PetroniusMaximus; WhiteGuy; nicmarlo; jwalsh07; Antoninus; ...
On News/Activism 01/25/2005 2:26:49 PM EST · 371 of 377

(Here's the ping list for this post. Just this post, not a permanent ping list. If you think somebody else needs pinging, go for it. All; EdReform; PetroniusMaximus; WhiteGuy; nicmarlo; jwalsh07; Antoninus; The Ghost of FReepers Past; Disambiguator; scripter)

I sent AFA a message through their website, telling them I have the teacher guide that was to accompany the video. I sent them a link to one of the files, and explained that there are about 100 more. I got an answer back from the Assistant to the Chairman requesting the rest of the files. I sent him the links, along with the following advice on how to authenticate them. This should be of interest to anyone who had questions.

Type the following into the Google search bar: http://www.wearefamilyfoundation.org/teachers/index.asp. That is a url registered to the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF). If you click on "a celebration of our common humanity" in the results, you’ll get the message “The page cannot be found.” That’s because WAFF removed it. Lower on the Google results page you will see other links. Click on "Show Google's cache of www.wearefamilyfoundation.org/teachers/index.asp". There is your proof that the page existed as shown on the date that Google says it did. That is only proof for that particular page. There is a slightly different method for verifying the remainder of the pages. You’ll notice the page you just retrieved looks strange without all the photos and icons, and none of the links work. That’s because each photo, icon and linked document is stored on it’s own url, and WAFF has removed them. However, each document you pull up will still list the url where missing documents from that page were stored. And the missing documents are still listed in Google’s cache. In the document you just pulled up, right click one of the links, and copy shortcut. Paste that shortcut into the Google search bar, and search. In some cases it will not return any results. If this happens, remove all of the shortcut except the filename {which is everything after the last slash (/)} and search again. Some of the results may be on a different server for tolerance.org. That’s where they got some if not all of their material. Keep that information also, because the filename is an exact match for WAFF’s filename, and the material is an exact match for WAFF’s material. Save the url for every page you visit, including the Google search pages, the documents you locate, everything. Another step you can take in verifying your results is to take a screen shot of each of your results. It’s time consuming, but may prove worth it.

The following is quoted information from materials that are to accompany the 'innocuous' video. With the recent public scrutiny some of the web page 'resources' have begun to mysteriously disappear?

No worry, thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine & Google -many of the pages are still available to document the objectively 'stealth' campaign to promote acceptance and tolerance of homosexulaity to grade school and pre-school aged children.

-small archived excerpts from various pages of the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) website:

WAFF - Writing for Change (Worksheet -- part of item 3, below, asking questions to prompt writing on sexual orientation of fellow students and the feelings the knowledge of their orientation generates)
WAFF - Tolerance Pledge (Tolerance Pledge that includes "...I pledge to have respect for people whose ... sexual identity [among other items listed]... [is] different from my own."
WAFF - Using This Guide ("Using This Guide" part of "Writing for Tolerance", includes the hope that this guide will "...reach people in a broad range of ages, classes, sexual orientations, [list continues] ...)
WAFF - List of Resources (list of resources including: American Psychological Association. "Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality." Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1998. By the Way, this is the FIRST resource listed!!; Also listed: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "Faith in Our Families: Parents, Families and Friends Talk About Religion and Homosexuality." Washington, DC: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, 1999; “Lesbian Baiting and Gay Baiting: How Homophobia is a Tool of Sexism.” 1991. (Of course, NO listings by PFOX or any other pro-gay-change/ex-gay resource)
WAFF - 101 Ways to Combat Prejudice: In Your Community (101 Ways to Combat Prejudice #93: Meet with school and community librarians and local bookstores to discuss ways to highlight literature that is representative of all cultures and sexual orientations.
WAFF - 101 Ways to Combat Prejudice: In Your School (101 Ways to Combat Prejudice #14: Initiate classroom discussions of terms such as anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, homophobia and bias. Then compose a list of definitions and post it in a prominent place. #40: Organize a No-Ethnic/Homophobic Humor Open-Mike Nite featuring stand-up comedy by students.
WAFF - Developing A Common Language "Developing A Common Language" is this: Heterosexism -- Heterosexism is prejudice and/or discrimination against people who are or who are perceived to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. Homophobia is the irrational fear of people who are believed to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual.
WAFF - "Miss America 2004 -- Tolerance Out, Understanding In" ("Miss America 2004 -- Tolerance Out, Understanding In" By Lauren Parker {Interviewing the Current Miss America, who is African-American}: "Dunlap also explains that 'acceptance' needs to spread far beyond black-white race issues, and far beyond race in general. 'America isn't just black and white, so I don't approach my platform from just a racial standpoint,' she says. 'It's about uplifting everyone--people of all varied religious beliefs, sexual orientations, class differences, cultural diversities, and the like.' "
WAFF - Guide Activities (PDF) ("We Are Family" Guide Activities geared to grades Pre-K through Grade 12, including: {from high school activity -- "Pyramid of Hate"} "...Ask the students if they can think of examples of genocide that occured due to race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, etc...."; {also from "Pyramid of Hate"} Student Handout including these questions: Have you Ever... Overheard a joke that made fun of a person of a different ethnic background, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation? Have You Ever... Been the target of name calling because of your ethnic group, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation? Have You Ever... Engaged in stereotyping (lumping together all people of a particular race, religion, or sexual orientation?)

Again, this WAFF effort amounts to denial of just discrimination and but stealth promotion of homosexuality to children.

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