Posted on 06/18/2006 6:28:31 AM PDT by Man50D
Angered by what they see as the promotion of homosexuality in schools, thousands of American parents are banding together to demand that their children be taught that it is possible to stop being gay.
Organizations such as Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (Jonah) and Inqueery are trying to ensure that their view is aired alongside gay rights messages.
A high school in New Hampshire allowed an "ex-gay" activist to address pupils on Civil Rights Day last year.
In Colorado, education officials are pondering whether to hand out a pamphlet to teachers suggesting that "conversion therapy" - a combination of prayer and counselling - can reform homosexual tendencies.
Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus International, an umbrella for ex-gay support groups, said: "The gay community says that you can't change. But there is an alternative. Now more and more teenagers are able to see there are two sides to this issue."
Mr Chambers, 34, was drawn to men from boyhood. "I didn't choose to feel gay. When I was 11, I found myself struggling with same-sex attraction issues. I was told by a school counsellor that there was nothing I could do about it. I had to accept I was gay. That made me want to die."
At 18, he joined a local Christian group in Florida and was convinced that it was possible to change. He renounced his previous sexual leanings, and within eight years he was married.
He now has two children under two. "My life couldn't be more different," he said. "I am one of tens of thousands of men and women who have overcome homosexuality."
Melissa Fryrear, of Focus on the Family, a Christian conservative group, was a lesbian for a decade.
She attributes her former orientation to "having been violated by a man outside my family when I was a child", a lack of an emotional bond with her mother and a frequently absent father. "I had 30 or 40 relationships in those years. I didn't see any stability around me.
When I was coming to the end of my proverbial rope, I discovered there was a biblical sexual ethic outlined in scripture and I started to hear wonderful stories of people who had overcome homosexuality."
Regina Griggs, the executive director of PFOX, said: "People are not born gay and there's never been a test that has found a gay gene. It's a free speech and equal access issue. We want children to have all the facts, not just the outlandish statements and bias of one side."
She became involved in PFOX when her teenage son announced that he was gay. 'But he's at the point where he admits now that change is possible.
"I have never sat him down and handcuffed him and said, 'I'm taking you to a therapist'. His decision is his decision. We love one another and we're no different from any other family."
Miss Fryrear, 40, said she faces more discrimination as an "ex-gay" than she did as a lesbian. "It seems that gay and lesbian activists want me to go into the closet. I have been called things I could never repeat to my mother.
"I have had death threats. I have to travel with personal security. I get a Christmas card each year with human faeces smeared on it."
Unlike some hardline Christians, Mr Chambers and Miss Fryrear accept that homosexual feelings may be genuine, arguing that they are a complex mixture of innate tendencies, childhood factors and personality traits.
Mr Chambers suggested that he would never completely shake off his past. "I'm not above being tempted. I'm human," he said. "But it's not something that rules my life.
I am attracted and committed to my wife and I have developed heterosexual feelings in general. I choose to live beyond these things and they don't control me any more."
Ron Schlittler, the deputy executive director of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the "ex-gay" arguments were potentially damaging to young people. "Conversion therapy is snake oil - it's really suppression therapy.
Their basic premise is that gay people don't exist but are basically confused heterosexuals who need help."
This is not just an issue of tolerance towards homosexuals. It is an active movement encouraging kids to commit homosexual acts.
Ping!
I think rational wisdom would allow them their right to express their feelings. Why wouldn't they be allowed?
I wouldn't hang that one on the mantle.
Seriously, this is rather queer behavior for someone who calls himself "gay," isn't it?
Excellent point. Mr. Chambers we don't chose our feelings, we chose our perspective and our behavior. You do not have to act on the LIE you're being fed by evil.
I agree. Unfortunately, the left runs the institution by and large and they and their homosexual giddiness won't allow it.
Progress!
Its all about increasing the odds.
Right now, a homosexual has about a 2% chance of finding another homosexual and that one could be an ugly duck... to improve their odds, they want to teach children its OK to be homosexual.
This will make it easier for them to solicit 15 year olds at their most vulnerable point in life. Imagine some girl doesn't get asked to the prom and she is crying and sad when her homosexual friend asks her to go. I have seen so many straights pulled into that lifestyle during a breakup or rebound. Once in, they are adored and pulled in by the group till they can't get out.
How did we as a nation ever survive as long as we did when schools simply taught us how to read, write, do math and science and maybe know a little history and geography?
ROTFL! Now, that's clever.
the problem is, why are we involving schoolchildren in this debate at all?
This should be illegal.
"Rational" is the operative word here. There is nothing rational about militant homosexuals, nor of the whole "progressive" agenda. Anything that interferes with the promotion of that agenda is rejected. It is Satan's agenda and he is in control of the public schools, where he dominates through his willing pawns, like the MEA and the ACLU. The schools are a target rich environment for him and he isn't about to give them up without a fight.
I once had a supervisor that was queer. He used to brag about his ability to convert young guys to homosexuality.
Oops! Make that "NEA." Haven't had enough coffee yet.
G-d doesn't make junk.
Miss Fryrear, 40, said she faces more discrimination as an "ex-gay" than she did as a lesbian.Hm, another oppressed group. You think the ACLU will also get its arms around this one?
While I don't bellieve there is a "gay gene" either, there may, in some cases, be a predisposition toward homosexuality that may have a genetic component; however, whether or not to act on it is a matter of choice. Many people are born with a predisposition toward alcoholism, but nowhere in scripture does that give anybody license to be a drunk. Paul said that we all have our crosses to bear. Mine is that if I eat half of what a normal person eats, I gain weight. It doesn't give me an excuse to be a glutton. The alcoholic has to be careful about exposure to alcohol and someone with homesexual tendencies needs to be more cautious in same sex friendships. It doesn't mean it's easy, but I don't remember reading anywhere in scripture that life is easy.
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