Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the
homosexual rights movement’s current political agenda. In
Part 1,
WorldNetDaily examined homosexual activists’ intense push for “hate
crimes” legislation — and the groundswell of opposition to it. Part 2 deals
the various “anti-hate” and tolerance programs currently being used in the
nation’s public schools to foster tolerance and affirmation of the
homosexual lifestyle.
While gearing up for their next legislative battle in the wake of the
Senate’s defeat of the “Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” homosexual rights
organizations are actively engaged in their other major battlefront — the
nation’s public school classrooms.
“Those who commit hate crimes develop their anti-gay attitudes at a
young age, and can feel encouraged toward violence if they see prejudice
tolerated all around them,” said the
Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund, a homosexual legal organization, in its
Spring/Summer 1999 newsletter. Lambda recommends the widespread use of
anti-bigotry and anti-violence programs in schools to change any
“prejudicial” attitudes toward homosexuals.
To advance their agenda of influencing the nation’s public school
population, homosexual activist groups have found a major benefactor in
President Clinton. The president convened the White House Conference on Hate
Crimes at George Washington University in November 1997, during which he
announced a major push for law enforcement and prevention initiatives to
deal with “hate crimes.” Attending the conference were 350 leaders from law
enforcement agencies, members of Congress, Secretary of Education Richard
Riley, and Attorney General Janet Reno. Since then, a proliferation of
educational materials, websites, and other tools have sprung into being, all
aimed at influencing the attitudes and beliefs of America’s school children.
‘Hate crimes’ initiatives in operation
Attorney General Janet Reno has instituted a
Kid’s Page, designed to help children deal with issues of
prejudice. Although the children’s part of the site gives examples involving
race, religion, and culture, the “Parents’ and Teachers’ Page” adds “sexual
orientation” to the list of criteria defining prejudice.
Under Reno, the Department of Justice has established a “Hate Crimes
Initiative” program designed to create a partnership between law enforcement
officers and educators. The
Hate Crimes Initiative website offers resources for
law enforcement as well as materials for teaching tolerance and diversity in
elementary and secondary schools. Offering links to various groups that have
developed “anti-hate” and tolerance-teaching materials, the site also links
to the Center on Hate and Extremism; Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays; The New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project;
the Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance; and the Anti-Defamation
League, among others.
The Anti-Defamation League’s materials for
teachers, for example, describe how educators should respond to
“hate-motivated” behaviors in school. The Anti-Defamation League tells
teachers to be alert to “hate incidents” — expressions of hostility against
a person or property because of the victim’s “race, religion, disability,
gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation…. This may include such behavior as
non-threatening name-calling, using racial slurs, or disseminating racist
leaflets.”
The document further advises teachers to work with school officials to set
up policies and reporting procedures, and teachers are urged to have their
students report “hate incidents” or crimes to school officials.
Another educational tool produced by the Anti-Defamation League is “Hate
Crimes: ADL Blueprint for Action,” prepared, according to the group, “in
conjunction with President Bill Clinton’s November 1997 White House
Conference on Hate Crimes.” In addition to a catalog of more than 200 titles
and resources for educators, titled, “ADL Resources for Classroom and
Community,” the organization also offers, “The Religious Right: The Assault
on Tolerance & Pluralism in America.”
The Department of Education has set up a Safe and Drug-free Schools website that offers a free
downloadable booklet, “Preventing Youth Hate Crime: A Manual for Schools and
Communities.” It describes various anti-violence programs in use in public
schools and provides the reader with guidelines for setting up a
“School-Based Hate Prevention Program.”
The National Education Association is another
organization promoting anti-bigotry curricula. During its July, 1999
national convention, the giant teachers’ union passed a resolution on
“Racism, Sexism, and Sexual Orientation,” stating the group “believes in the
equality of all individuals. Discrimination and stereotyping based on such
factors as race, gender, immigration status, physical disabilities,
ethnicity, occupation, and sexual orientation must be eliminated.”
Dissenter ‘shouldn’t be allowed anywhere’
Wayne Besen, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign,
a Washington, D.C.-based homosexual lobbying group,
believes “anti-hate” and tolerance programs are essential for public school
children. While there’s room for free speech in school, he says, it is
unacceptable for gay teens to be humiliated or terrorized in schools. He
adds that when he was in high school, one gay teen “had to leave the school”
because he was so terrorized.
WorldNetDaily asked Besen how he would react if he heard that Dr. Joseph
Nicolosi, a therapist who helps homosexuals leave the homosexual lifestyle,
had been invited to a public school to discuss his therapy.
“The first thing I would say is that Dr. Nicolosi shouldn’t be allowed
anywhere,” replied Besen.
According to Besen, Nicolosi doesn’t keep statistics showing his success
rate. “He bilks his patients. He creates life-long patients.” Besen adds
that Nicolosi has a “higher defection rate [among his patients] than the
Cuban baseball team.”
Besen also charged that Nicolosi cannot show more than a handful of
individuals who have gone through his therapy and stayed straight for more
than ten years. “We have all kinds of ex-ex-gays who have been through this.
I can’t think of a single ex-gay who isn’t on the payroll of the religious
right or running a ministry out there. They make up to $70,000 a year to say
they’ve changed. I could walk out of this building right now and get people
for that kind of money who would say they used to be from Pluto and now they
‘re from Mars. That’s not impressive. You can get anyone to say anything for
that kind of money. That’s the kind of money they’re making. They’re on the
dole.”
Asked to respond to Besen’s accusations, Nicolosi said: “My claim of
success is a third, a third, and a third: One third don’t change; a third
show significant improvement; and a third are cured.” Nicolosi also took
exception to Besen’s comment about how few ex-gays are really cured.
“There are many men and women around the country who are leading very
quiet lives who have come out of homosexuality. … These individuals have
told me they don’t want their children to know, or they don’t want their
community to know. This is one of the problems we face in this dialog,
because we’re not hearing from the former homosexuals.”
However, Nicolosi’s organization, the National Association for
Research and Therapy of Homosexuality will soon be
publishing a major study of 800 ex-homosexuals who have successfully
overcome their homosexuality.
Recruiting homosexuals or teaching tolerance?
The Traditional Values Coalition,
a pro-family organization based in Washington, D.C., notes that the Clinton
administration has announced a $300 million “Safer Learning Environments”
program to deal with violence and prejudice. At the center of this effort is
a program called “Healing the Hate,” which urges educators to develop a
“hate crime” prevention policy for their schools.
Shortly after President Clinton’s “hate crimes” summit, says Coalition
spokesman Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, her organization began tracking the
extent of federally-funded anti-bigotry curricula being used in public
schools.
Traditional Values Coalition found the “Healing the Hate” curriculum had
a disturbing anti-Christian bias, Lafferty says. The curriculum tells the
story of a white supremacist, and links racism with Baptists and
Pentecostals. A vocabulary section within the curriculum charges there are
institutionalized prejudices within religious organizations.
“What prejudices are they talking about? That Christians believe that
homosexuality is a sin and abortion is murder?” asks Laffery.
“In another curriculum,
young children are told to role play being
lesbians,” she added.
While Lafferty agrees that children should not be allowed to pick on each
other because of their differences, her organization maintains the real
purpose behind these anti-bigotry materials is the targeting of children to
accept the homosexual lifestyle.
She also points to the dangers inherent in teachers being required to
report “hate incidents” in public schools.
“If your child stands up in class and says that homosexuality is a sin
or that abortion is murder, this is considered a hate incident. They
[homosexuals] want local law enforcement officials to come-goose stepping
into your home or your child’s classroom if your child has engaged in a hate
incident.”
With the widespread use of anti-bigotry materials in public schools, says
Laffery, “what has happened is that homosexuals and liberals have figured
out a way to get the federal government to fund their political agenda.”