The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network has given a pro-family organization in Washington a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop delivering a video that asserted it handed out a "gay" sex guide to the public.
GLSEN, founded by President Obama's onetime "Safe Schools Czar" Kevin Jennings, said in the letter to the Family Research Council that the "false statements in the FRC video can do real and lasting harm to our work."
"FRC has made those false and defamatory statements in an obvious effort to raise money, undermine GLSEN's work and maintain the status quo: school systems where LGBT students face unacceptable levels of harassment and violence and where anti-LGBT bias is a weapon of choice for bullies," the letter says.
In the video, FRC President Tony Perkins states it was at a GLSEN conference that the offensive material, the "Little Black Book," was "put in the hands of 5th through 9th graders" by GLSEN and the state public schools in Massachusetts.
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The book was available at a GLSEN conference in 2005, but GLSEN officials said they did not bring it and hand it out.
The disputed statements are in the video:
An Alternet report on the letter said the Boston Globe had reported that the "Little Black Book" was brought to the GLSEN conference by the Fenway Community Health organization, which had rented a table.
The report said the homosexual promotional material, published by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, was described as using "vivid descriptions and colloquial terms to describe the ways HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented and spread."
The report quoted Stephen Boswell of Fenway saying the organization "regrets accidentally making available a small number of copies of the Little Black Book, an HIV-prevention publication for gay and bisexual men over the age of 18, at an event where young people were present."
The same report included an explanation from Sean Haley, GLSEN executive director, that the organization had "clear policies that sexually explicit material of any kind will not be made available at the conference."
He was quoted saying, "Had I seen the book, I would have asked them to put it away."
And he added at the time, "We're just going to have to be more rigorous in our review of materials."
He admitted about half of the 500 people at the event were students.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies groups that oppose homosexuality or are critical of the advance of homosexual "rights" as "hate groups," confirms that the book "did appear at the conference, but it was not sponsored nor brought by GLSEN."
The FRC declined to comment on the dispute, but Brian Camenker of the Massachusetts pro-family group MassResistance, who appears in the FRC video, defended the accuracy of the video.
On the video, he says, "This is so disgusting that I can't really read it to you."
He noted the book explains how to accomplish various sex acts and how to meet other kids or men who are homosexual.
"Everything I said was true," he explained to WND.
He said GLSEN actually made several different statements about the controversy, first denying the book was at the conference, then accusing its critics of "smuggling" the book in, then admitting it was there. The most recent blames an outside organization for bringing it.
"The truth is no human being should be shown that [material]," Camenker said. "It is so disgusting."
"There's no possibility GLSEN couldn't have known about it. It was clear out in the open on tables to give to kids," he said.
Whether GLSEN brought the book or someone else brought the book and handed it out at a GLSEN conference, he said, "is splitting hairs."
In was in the middle of 2009 when WND reported Jennings' federal appointment to oversee
"safety" in the nation's public schools after he had boasted of using the same theme to promote homosexuality and other alternative sexual lifestyles to students.
WND reported how Jennings founded GLSEN, his influence over a conference for teachers and children that included instruction in various homosexual acts such as "fisting," multiple efforts at the congressional level to have him removed, his responsiveness when a porn publisher asked for his help in writing a book, his financial sponsorship of radical homosexual art and his membership in the sometimes-violent radical Act Up homosexual organization.
At the Washington Times, a series of editorials addressed worried over Jennings' influence on children when he was appointed.
"Teaching children sexual techniques is simply not appropriate. Unfortunately, it is part of a consistent pattern by some homosexual activists to promote underage homosexuality while pretending that their mission is simply to promote tolerance for so-called alternative lifestyles," the newspaper said.
"It is outrageous that someone involved in this scandal is being paid by the taxpayers to serve in a high-powered position at the Education Department, of all places. At some point, [Education Secretary Arne] Duncan, Mr. Jennings, Obama administration spokesmen and the president himself are going to have to start answering questions about all this. Refusing to do so won't make the issue go away."