Posted on 08/03/2004 5:48:23 PM PDT by scripter
Former homosexuals who had renounced same-sex relations were called "offensive" by delegates to this month's annual convention of the 2.7-million-member National Education Association (NEA).
"I'm really offended that you're even here," a delegate wearing the rainbow emblem of the NEA Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Caucus told a supporter of the new NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus.
The Ex-Gay Educators Caucus distributed literature explaining that scientific research shows that homosexuality is not "a fixed, inborn trait."
Other opponents of the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus, whose exhibit was permitted for the first time at this year's union gathering at the D.C. Convention Center, also challenged the NEA's claim of being democratic and diverse.
One delegate who visited the exhibit told caucus members that there was "a special place in hell for us," said caucus founder Jeralee Smith from California, an elementary special-education teacher and former lesbian.
She said another NEA delegate remarked, "You might as well set up a Ku Klux Klan booth right next to you."
Noe Gutierrez Jr. of California, a former homosexual activist who is now a member of the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus, said the intolerance was a shocking repudiation of anti-prejudice views voiced by advocacy groups and the NEA.
"Prejudice is assuming you know someone before you take the time to know them," said Mr. Gutierrez, who was featured as a spokesman in a 1998 Public Broadcasting Service TV special on presenting homosexual issues in the schools.
"People made the association between us and gay-bashers," he said. "I mean, they definitely lumped us in with a whole lot of bad and came to our booth with that attitude, not open in any way to learning. Isn't that funny? So at an educators caucus, there is no learning taking place. No one who came to yell at us or who could be angry with us came with an open mind or were ready to learn anything."
Opposition to the message of the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus is led by Kevin Jennings, a former private school teacher in Massachusetts and founder of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network. Mr. Jennings is a partner with the NEA in promoting acceptance of homosexuality through curriculum materials in the nation's schools as early as kindergarten and elementary grades. He was given the NEA's human rights "creative leadership" award at this year's convention.
"Ex-gay messages have no place in our nation's public schools," Mr. Jennings said in a publication of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network. "A line has been drawn. There is no 'other side' when you're talking about lesbian, gay and bisexual students."
Warren Throckmorton, past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, disagreed.
"Kids want to understand themselves. It's very early in life to make a definition about one's sexual identity. Educators should give kids options to wait awhile, to consider a straight identity if they would rather that," he said.
"If you've got teachers in schools telling kids that their same-sex attractions mean they are gay, they could foreclose on the option of waiting awhile to discover their sexual identity and their option to discover their heterosexual potential. The earlier that you decide on a sexual label, the more likely you are to experiment with sex."
But homosexual advocates within the NEA and outside groups sent out word that this was an important battle for them.
"The two issues that have been at the forefront for us this year have been the 'ex-gay caucus' and the marriage amendment," Tom Nicholas and Cathy Figel, chairmen of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Caucus, said in a message to the convention. "On the ex-gay issue, we are currently working with [NEA] President Reg Weaver to get to the delegates accurate information regarding reparative therapy."
The efforts of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Caucus prompted the NEA to distribute to all 9,000 convention delegates copies of a 12-page 1999 brochure produced by the union, "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel."
The brochure's central premise is that homosexuality is an inborn and immutable trait.
The Ex-Gay Educators Caucus, with Mr. Throckmorton's help, objected to NEA leaders that science does not support that view and persuaded Mr. Weaver to allow them to provide NEA delegates their six-page response titled "Respect and the Facts: How to Have Both in the Sexual Orientation Debate."
The NEA printed the response, which stated: "There is no consensus in current research to show that sexual orientation is a fixed, inborn trait. We believe sexual attractions are the product of nature and nurture and that sexual identity is a flexible experience for many people."
Miss Smith and Mr. Gutierrez say their own changes in sexual orientation are proof that homosexuality is not embedded in a person at birth.
Miss Smith said she became involved in homosexuality as the result of being sexually exploited when she was 15 by a female dean at the private school she attended. She says she might not have pursued homosexuality had it not been for that early experience.
"Young people who may not want to embrace the gay identity are not being given any hope," she said. "The stories of people who have not taken that choice are not being revealed, and there's a repression of information on the other side of the [pro-homosexual] viewpoint. And so we have to speak up."
Mr. Gutierrez says he "came out" as a homosexual at age 16, but by 24, "I felt empty, I felt dissatisfied, disillusioned."
Mr. Gutierrez, the son of a Pentecostal minister, says, "My whole identity had been swallowed up in my gay identity."
He says he objects to the way children are taught in schools that homosexuality is all right, but are denied other options for dealing with same-sex attraction as adolescents. The message given in many schools is: "If you're experiencing feelings of same-sex attraction, the only way you're going to be happy is to adopt them into a gay identity," he says.
The Ex-Gay Educators Caucus has a different message.
"At the very core of our stance is that gays can change, and we want to be there for the student who is unhappy about adopting a gay identity and who very much wants to explore venues toward change, toward being heterosexually identified," Mr. Gutierrez says.
"GLSEN activist and New York kindergarten teacher Jaki Williams said starting in kindergarten is a must, since children at that age are still developing their ideas about the world around them. Even at that age, she said, “the saturation process needs to begin.”
What has always made this so completely and utterly underhanded and disgusting besides the material is the fact that they KNOW at 5 most parents will not even be broaching this topic so they are the ones to introduce it in a positive light. They seek to play stealth by introducing long before the parents intend to and without regard for whether the parent approves of the topic being taught regardless of its slant. SICK bastards. This type of thing is what convinces me that they are really out there hoping to recruit children. Why else introduce it earlier and earlier unless to normalize it and put it in a positive light long before the parents will introduce the topic? What would be the point otherwise? To stop hateful behavior? Gee, I"m only 34 and this subject was only minimally broached in health class as a teen--people my age seem to tolerate homosexuals just fine even if we do not approve of the lifestyle. The only way they could lend creedence to that issue is if there is a sharp rise in homosexual homicides committed by populations who don't approve of that lifestyle and it isn't happening which leads me back to what seems to be their ultimate wish and that is to boost their numbers in so many years via indoctrinating children that this is acceptable behavior for those children when they grow up.
Thanks for the link to the printable version. I couldn't find the original with a cursory look, but once at the printable version I found the link to the original.
What a sick POS creature this bastard is. What he's done counseling that boy the way he did was to put in his mind not only that homosexuality is ok, but that pedophilic homosexuality is ok--if this young man had any leanings that way due to his abuse, he's encouraged it. If that young men EVER touches a child, he should be made directly responsible for his encouragement.
I cry to think this young man was not told what he really needed to hear. That the man who did this to him was a sick predator gay or not and that he should not let it shape his sexual identity since it was not his fault and doese not mean he's gay. Someone as dangerous as Jennings, I would not put it past him using this young man's hurt to fulfill his own sick desires. Poor child, such a diservice done to him. Instead of "living with his boyfriend" if he'd been counseled adequately, he would likely be engaged to a wonderful girl and well on the way to healing from what was done to him. Instead he gets to live the abuse reaped on him over and over again--he punishes himself continually despite what Jennings would like to think.
This is so true and is the main reason for my tagline.
I think you either posted or pointed us to an excellent article some time ago. An article that is long but so very worth the read. It's an article that should be read by everyone involved in this debate. Here's a link to the article:
Defeating Gay ArgumentsIn the above you read about (among other things) the importance of defining terms and keeping the debate on subject. A crucial read for those who want hone their debate skills. Read it. Learn it. Use it.
NEA is not very high on my list of respected organizations...
And rightfully so:
The National Education Association: Emphasis on the Ass
We are all busy doing our OWN jobs every day, and parents shouldn't have to worry that their children are being subjected to influences they don't agree with or condone.
Indeed. Keeping an eye on and exposing the homosexual agenda takes loads of time and financial resources, and most parents and other concerned citizens can't do it full time. But the major homosexual organizations can, because they are well funded and have full time staff -- and their staff and directors are very well paid. It's their full-time job to promote their agenda across America. All day, every day:
An excerpt from "GLAAD’s Garry earns top salary among gay leaders - Compensation for heads of 18 national gay groups lower than association ‘median’"
"Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, had the highest salary among the heads of America’s 18 national gay civil rights organizations with a paid staff in 2002, the latest year for which non-profit groups were required by law to disclose salary information to the IRS and the public.
A survey of salaries of the heads of the 18 groups, conducted by the Washington Blade, shows that that Garry received a 2002 salary of $198,730 and additional benefits of $9,930, for a total compensation package of $208,666...
The 18 national gay groups are among the thousands of non-profit organizations in the United States that must file annual reports with the IRS disclosing financial information, including the salaries of their chief operating officers. The IRS, which grants these organizations an exemption from paying taxes on all of their income, requires the groups to submit the salary and other financial data on an IRS 990 Form, which must also be released to the public upon request...
In 2002, Birch’s $201,486 compensation package came at a time when HRC’s annual revenue was $20.5 million and the group raised an additional $7 million to help pay for a new headquarters building, making HRC by far the nation’s largest gay political group..."
Here are the salaries for 2002 that they have listed for the top officials of the top five homosexual activist organizations ( and since they have great influence in the public schools, the data for PFLAG is also included ):
| Organization | Annual Revenue | Salary | Benefits |
| Human Rights Campaign/ HRC Foundation | $20.5 million | $193,513 | $7,973 |
| Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund | $7.6 million | $178,500 | $21,834 |
| Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) | $4.4 million | $198,730 | $9,930 |
| Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) | $3.1 million | $152,900 | $12,232 |
| National Gay & Lesbian Task Force/ NGLTF Policy Institute | $3 million | $150,000 |
| Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) | $2.6 million | $78,317 |
All of these and other homosexual activist organizations are supported by various corporate sponsors:
An excerpt from "Hurricane GLSEN" by Marc Fey, TownHall.com, September 28, 2003
"It’s not just that they are generously funded, though they certainly are. Revenues for 2001 were $3.35 million, and this year’s conference was liberally supported by Kodak, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, and IBM whose logos were emblazoned on banners, brochures, and conference freebies. For the close to 500 people in attendance, including about 100 junior high and senior high students, the companies hoped to capture this powerful purchasing sector—gays and youth—arguably two of the most powerful buying sectors in America today."
Who funds Homosexual and Lesbian Groups
And here's an example of how some of HRC's money is used to indoctrinate kids:
Human Rights Campaign Foundation invades saturday morning cartoons (My title)
( More later... )
wow - good stuff there!
While Clinton tricked us with the 'don't ask, don't tell' policies, these organizations were plugging away attempting to legitimize everything homosexual. Now look where we are.
You're welcome! I've been working on documentation and compiling links for your Index of Links thread. I hope to get some of it posted this weekend.
An excerpt from "Message of Voters in Missouri Against Gay Marriage Leaves Backers Discouraged: HUGE PRIMARY TURNOUT"
The spending had been lopsided here, with supporters of gay marriage spending $450,000 to fight the measure with television advertising and polling, compared with $19,000 spent by opponents.
"Still, we were just a little bit out-organized," said Seth Kilbourn, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington group that helped pay for the Missouri opposition. "We can't let that happen again."
I think I'm going to get sick that Lambda brings in any money let alone several million a year. Truly disgusting. The contributors to that "special interest" should be under close scrutiny imo.
Naturally the leftists attack and show their famous "tolerance".
It is "Free Speech" when you are spouting their talking points. It is "hate" when you disagree.
BTTT
Well said. In schools they are indeed targeting children as young as kindergarten.
This is a must-read article. I've emailed it across the nation and the recipients have emailed it to others.
Bump!
Bump yet again.
Fascinating. Educators who want to present only one side of a story, and only one narrow, carefully vetted set of so-called "facts."
BTTT
This is a very significant statement:
Mr. Gutierrez, the son of a Pentecostal minister, says, "My whole identity had been swallowed up in my gay identity."
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