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from Gay Activism in the Schools
Pamphlet to Schools
Discourages Reorientation Therapy:
A Daunting List of Organizations Signs On
A new pamphlet, "Just the Facts: Sexual Orientation and Youth," was recently
distributed to all 14,700 school superintendants around the country to advise
them to reject reparative-type therapies and religiously-based ex-gay ministries.
The publication is described as a "Primer for Principals, Educators, and School
Personnel." It is endorsed by a remarkable "Who's Who" of health and education
organizations.
Ironically, while the pamphlet advocates one particular view of homosexuality,
its name is "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth." And it omits
all of the facts about the hazards associated with a gay lifestyle.
Warning against reorientation therapy and ex-gay ministry, the tone of the
pamphlet is ominous. Referring to reparative-type therapies, it places the word
"treatment" in scare quotes. It puts school officials on notice that if they do
not permit the establishment of gay student clubs on campus, they could face a
lawsuit for failing to offer those students "equal protection under the law."
Counselors are warned that sexual-reorientation type therapy could result in
legal action against the school because such therapy "discriminates" against gays
and lesbians and could result in psychological harm -- in legal-liability terms,
"personal injury" -- to the student. Distribution of NARTH's type of literature
is warned against by the pamphlet as being "discriminatory and biased."
A student referral to a religiously-based ministry is also called unethical
because it would constitute a violation of church and state. But ironically, the
pamphlet then offers the names of two "faith organizations" as resources. Both
are radical gay groups, one being New Ways Ministry, a Catholic group rejected by
the Catholic Church as doctrinally heretical.
The pamphlet was paid for by the National Education Association, Michael Dively,
the American Psychological Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the
National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of
Social Workers.
Additional organizations endorsing the pamphlet are the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Association of
School Administrators, the American School Health Association, the Interfaith
Alliance Foundation.
Exodus International's Bob Davies was strongly critical of the pamphlet's
message. "What parent, teacher, friend or minister would encourage a child to
engage in life-threatening behavior?" he asked.
Regeneration Ministries' Alan Medinger agreed. "It is absolutely criminal to
take a confused kid and lead him into a life that could kill him."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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