Posted on 02/12/2002 1:33:23 PM PST by simicyber
Traditional Values Coalition Opinion Editorial For publication on or after Wednesday, February 13, 2002 NEA And GLSEN Seek To Stifle Free Speech By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
Washington, DC – The National Education Association (NEA) and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) are teaming up this year to violate the free speech and religious freedom rights of millions of school children. They’re not honest enough to clearly state this as their goal, but it is their objective.
These two groups are engaged in a campaign to establish "anti-harassment" and "anti-discrimination" policies on school campuses that will prohibit students from engaging in honest discussions about the behavior of homosexuality.
Those students who wish to express medically-based or morally-based opposition to homosexuality as a lifestyle will be punished if they dare speak out. The NEA is encouraging pro-homosexual students and teachers to become the equivalent of Nazi Brown Shirts on campus. These Brown Shirts will report any student who dares to exercise his freedom of speech or religious beliefs guaranteed under our U.S. Constitution. One can assume that these students will be herded into "retraining" programs to force them to change their attitudes toward homosexual behavior.
Homosexuals and their NEA allies have created a new "hate crime" on campuses. It’s called the "hate-motivated incident." This may involve something as simple as a student expressing his disapproval of sodomy or verbalizing the truth that homosexual sex frequently leads to HIV infection and death.
GLSEN is sponsoring a "Day of Silence," on April 10 on campuses where it has established homosexual recruitment programs known as Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs. The "Day of Silence" is supposed to dramatize the fear and persecution that homosexual students allegedly experience at the hands of "heterosexism" and the mythical mental illness called "homophobia." (Homophobia is a term created by homosexual activists to stigmatize any person who opposes the normalization of sodomy in our culture.)
The primary goal of this "Day of Silence" is to force school officials to institute draconian anti-free speech policies that will prohibit any rational discussion of homosexuality as a self-destructive sexual behavior. The truth is that this behavior inevitably results in high rates of anal cancer, HIV infections, and devastating bowel diseases from anal intercourse. Yet GLSEN and the NEA would forbid students or teachers from discussing these serious health risks.
Before school officials rush headlong into supporting these anti-religion and anti-free speech policies, they would do well to consider a federal appeals court ruling on this issue in February, 2001. In "Saxe vs. State College Area School District," a panel of judges ruled that a local high school’s anti-harassment policy was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was brought by Pennsylvania State University Professor David Warren Saxe on behalf of two Christian students. These students maintained that the school’s anti-free speech policy benefiting homosexuals was violating their right to freedom of religion and speech. They won. The court noted that the Constitution does not protect people from being offended by the opinions of others. That’s what freedom of speech is all about.
In January, 2002 a federal judge ruled in favor of a Minnesota high school student who wore a "Straight Pride" sweatshirt to school. He wore it to protest the school’s pro-homosexual policies. The student was told he couldn’t wear the shirt because it "offended" homosexuals on campus. He sued the school and won the case. The judge ruled that this student had the constitutional right to express his beliefs.
Unless schools officials are looking forward to facing costly lawsuits—which they will lose—they would be wise to ignore the anti-free speech rants of both the NEA and GLSEN.
In addition, school officials would be wise to learn why the Broward County School Board in Florida voted against a GLSEN partnership in October, 2001. School officials were angered when they discovered the contents of a GLSEN workbook designed to teach 11- to 13-year-old children a series of 16 filthy words dealing with homosexuality. The Broward School Board chairman was so offended by these words that he refused to allow them to be read at the meeting. Yet this is what GLSEN wants to teach our children.
It is ironic that GLSEN is willing to stifle the freedom of speech of those who oppose homosexuality, yet is eager to teach young teenagers words so obscene that a School Board member wouldn’t say them out loud. Something is very wrong with this picture. Traditional Values Coalition is an interdenominational public policy organization representing more than 43,000 churches across the United States. For more information, contact Sharone Carmona at 202-547-8570. TVC's Web site is:
This is shocking! I don't believe it! They've never tried that before! < /sarcasm >
The Democrats have been very successful at using this tactic in the media. They've very successfully equated mainstream conservatives to hate, racism, and affiliation with radical fringe groups like the KKK (while rewarding Democrat participation in radical fringe groups like NOW and PETA).
In the media:
Republican=racist
Republican=mean,brutal,cold-hearted
Republican=destroy the environment to reward rich people
Republican=pro-rich,anti-working-man
The tactic has worked so well that they are now expanding their customer base by slipping it to the kiddies directly at school where their parents cannot offer a rebuttal.
And this is why we homeschool. I understand parents can offer a rebuttal at night, but I decided at some point that what was the point of REEDUCATING and DEPROGRAMMING my children every night and weekend. It seemed a waste of EVERYONE'S time and directly conflicted with time we could spend together as a family. It also seemed confusing to the children. Now we can introduce difficult concepts w/in the framework of our beliefs and under our tutelage. My fear is by the time my free thinkers and defenders of the Constituation and faith get out there, the Constitution will be trashed and elements of faith banned. God help us.
And this is why we homeschool. I understand parents can offer a rebuttal at night, but I decided at some point that what was the point of REEDUCATING and DEPROGRAMMING my children every night and weekend. It seemed a waste of EVERYONE'S time and directly conflicted with time we could spend together as a family. It also seemed confusing to the children. Now we can introduce difficult concepts w/in the framework of our beliefs and under our tutelage. My fear is by the time my free thinkers and defenders of the Constituation and faith get out there, the Constitution will be trashed and elements of faith banned. God help us.
We're just a bunch of cave dwellers, doncha know. ;o/
The NEA is threatened by homeschoolers. The success we prove (as a whole) is giving them reason (?) to fear us. Talk about Homeschoolaphobic!
What really makes them crazy is when a homeschooled kid wins a science fair or gets a scholarship after topping out the SATs. (Most people also don't know that the SATs were watered down a few years ago to make them much easier because the average scores were getting embarrassingly lower every year and the education establishment couldn't rationalize it anymore.)
I have an NRA sticker on my car...next to a bumper sticker that reads: I'm outta estrogen and I have a gun. Guess I'm one of the whackos, huh? :o)
You're right about the SAT's. Back in my day we weren't allowed to bring in calculators for the math part of the exam. Not only has the exam eased up, you can bring in calculators!
glory
Want to do something? Go here:
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for links, tools, & instructions about how to contact a pile of different people, and how to send a link to this story right here ( or anywhere else ) to a "mass email" using Outlook Express.
LOL! I take claim to having "April 1st--National Evolutionists Day" on my car. It's actually appropriate right now with the haggling to get in ANY teaching that would challenge the THEORY of evolution in the classrooms here in Ohio.
BUMP for everything you posted, you intolerant cave dweller!
Good one! I needed a chuckle this morning. :O)
Spookie, are you going to put all the bedding, including p.j.'s into a CLEAN trash bag? As in that's the last thing into the truck, first thing out? Huh? Are ya? Betcha ole whatzhername didn't think of THAT either! Ha.
I know I'm making myself sound like an intolerant, bigoted pig. I pretty much don't care who is gay, just leave me the heck alone about it and I'll leave you alone. AND LEAVE MY KIDS ALONE. I send my kids to school to learn to read and write, etc. They don't kick kids who are different. They don't hit anyone. They don't spit on anyone. They are taught the Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". If bullies are a problem, then handle the bullying. Don't talk to my babies about gay issues. As a loving parent, I’ve got their sex education covered. I don’t need the government to do it for me. 7 year olds don't even know what sex is. Turn them loose and let them play. Get over it! Big freaking deal who is gay or straight.
I'm so sick of this crap! Let kids be kids and teach them to be nice. That's all there is to it. Liberals have to complicate life and make a big deal out of everything. You don't have to insert all these little "especially's" to teach children to be kind.
I know this references Canada, but I think it is important for all to know that the homo agenda is being thrust upon us everywhere.
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