Posted on 09/28/2006 5:55:01 AM PDT by grjr21
The Philadelphia School District has received about 120 complaints - including one from a parent who said she would keep her child out of school for the entire month of October - because the district recognized Gay and Lesbian History Month on its school calendars.
Gay and Lesbian History Month was added for the first time this year in an effort to be more inclusive and follow a long-standing district policy requiring equity for all races and minority groups, said Cecilia Cummings, the district's senior vice president for communications and community relations. It is one of four special history months noted, along with Hispanic Heritage in September, African American in February, and Asian Pacific American in May.
Cummings said the district was not planning to roll out any districtwide curriculum or hold celebrations to coincide with the month, although individual schools with gay-straight alliances may have observances. The uproar in response to the calendar addition was not unexpected.
"We knew that this would be controversial," Cummings said. "When you deal with diversity, there are some hot-button issues that emerge."
An irate Senita Watson went to school district headquarters yesterday to find out how she could homeschool her daughter for the month of October. She won't let her 7-year-old second grader attend Emlen School during that period, she said.
"How can you celebrate gay and lesbian month? What are you going to teach my daughter?" asked Watson, who said she was calling on other parents to boycott the district in October. "They need to have a nonviolence month, not a gay and lesbian month... . Our children have enough to worry about with drugs."
Cummings said that about 200,000 calendars had been sent to parents, agencies affiliated with the district, and other district partners, and that there had been some calls of support for recognizing gay history month. The publication is paid for by the district. The calendar controversy was the talk of the Mary Mason show on WHAT-AM (1340) Tuesday.
Greg Wade, president of the district's Home and School Council, the parents group, said he supports the decision to include gay history month.
"I understand that there are many people out there who have their problems with the gay community, but they're part of our community, and we, as a council, have to support every parent and every student in our school district," he said.
Kevin Jennings, executive director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) in New York, said mayors, including Rudy Giuliani, and governors have recognized gay history month.
"It's not exactly a fringe concept," said Jennings, a former high school history teacher and one of the founders of gay history month, first recognized in 1995.
He praised the district for adding the month to the calendar and said it also should do more to teach the history of gays and lesbians. A study released by the group this week showed that gay and lesbian students continue to be victims of bullying and harassment in Pennsylvania schools.
In schools where the history is raised in the curriculum, only 17 percent of gay and lesbian students reported feeling unsafe, as opposed to 32 percent in schools where it is not taught, he said.
Cummings said there had been some reports of the district's gay and lesbian students being harassed.
The district has received complaints about its calendars in the past, but never as many as the gay history month notation has generated, she said.
Some people complain about African American history month each year, she said.
" 'Why isn't there a white male history month?' we'll hear," she said.
One person this year complained about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan being mentioned, because that person had a relative die in the 9/11 attacks, she said.
"They said they couldn't bring the calendar in their home because of Ramadan being noted," Cummings said.
The calendar also notes special Jewish holidays, the International Day of Disabled Persons on Dec. 3, and the National Day of Silence Against Anti-Gay Bullying on April 18.
"We have our policy that says the district is committed to foster knowledge and respect for all," she said.
Cummings said a decision on whether to include gay history month on next year's calendars would be made later.
"Our calendar this year is a celebration of diversity. Whether it will continue to be the theme in years to come, we're not sure," she said.
Which one is not like the other
Hispanic
Asian
African American
Gay
A MONTH for Diversity Celebration?!!! It used to be a day, then a week, and now a month?!
What a waste of school time and taxpayers money. Soon it will be a whole year and any demand for teaching math or English (with the exception of diverse gay literature) will be prosecuted as a hate crime.
And if you don't like it, you can just take a flying leap!
Have to? How about cannibals? Celebrate them! Pedophiles? Celebrate them, they are part of the community! When are we going to have "Murderers Month?" Mafia Month? How about Bestiality Month? Celebrate!
What, precisely, is "Homosexual History", anyway?
It will probably include some lecture about how Mel Brooks was a bad man for including the "French Mistake" sketch in "Blazing Saddles".
Regards, Ivan
What about White Fat Chick history month?
Or Albino History Month.
Or people who have Brown Hair/Freckles Month.
Or a celebration of people who have a Sixth Toe History Month.
Good Lord!! They just got Hispanic History month going, give me a break!
It's yet another way for 2-3% of the population to leagaly push the queer agenda.
How about a "Promiscuous History Month" celebrating the sexual preferences and achievements of big-time "playas" like Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Geraldo Rivera and that girl Debbie from Dallas?
"The Scarlet Letter" would be required reading so that students could understand what it was like when such people were oppressed.
What, precisely, is "Homosexual History", anyway?"
Sodom and Gomorrah?
An irate Senita Watson went to school district headquarters yesterday to find out how she could homeschool her daughter for the month of October"
Good strategy: approach the foxes and ask how to keep the hens safe?
Diversity???? Where is the mention of Christian month?
or some other equally graphic, repulsive, homosexual practice.
Sorry for being so graphic in my comment, but this kind aggressive homosexual agenda indoctrination, especially when targeted at young people, really pisses me off.
I think it requires an aggressive, graphic response.
Dr Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi "Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment" could learn a few things from these [expletive deleted].
As much as I hate Islamofacists, I think they have gotten one thing right.
The practice of publicly stoning homosexuals to death (Although I can think of some better ways to take care of the organizers of this attack on America).
(glad I got that off my chest, time to run to the gym and beat up on the machines to burn off some anger)
Christianity is not diverse enough.
This whole situation makes me sick. Why can't the schools just teach the basics and leave the rest of this nonsense alone?
History from the bottom up....
Just... ouch!
Worse, it's an inside joke: within the history professoriat, "history from the bottom up" was the battle cry of the leftists and revisionists in the '60s and '70s. These are the people (now tenured, I'm afraid, and who swollow (another ouch!) all this) who wanted to replace traditional political and intellectual history - the history of the elites, they said - with the stories of the forgotten, the common people - hence to write history from their perspective, i.e. "history from the bottom up."
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