from Gay Activism in the Schools

The American Civil Liberties Union in cooperation with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, won a major victory on January 6, 2004, against the Morgan Hill, California school district.

The ACLU victory was a $1.1 million settlement against the school district over the district's alleged failure to protect six homosexual students from harassment in 1998. In addition to the $1.1 settlement, the ACLU also won a requirement that all school district administrators, teachers, campus monitors, custodians, school safety officers, and bus drivers take a pro-homosexual sensitivity training program.

Beginning in the 2004-2005 school year, the district will also require peer-to-peer training for all 9th graders on "anti-gay harassment." All 7th graders will be required to take classes on anti-gay harassment as well. Student handbooks and school policy manuals will be revised to state that "harassment and discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity is expressly prohibited under district policies and state law." This policy will remain in effect in the school district until June 30, 2008.

The inclusion of protections for "gender identity" will create a new set of challenges for school officials. "Gender identity" refers to drag queens, cross-dressers, and transsexuals (all included under the umbrella term, "transgender"). Under this new policy, school officials will apparently be prohibited from banning male students from attending school wearing the apparel of the opposite sex.

In an ACLU press release on this victory dated January 6, 2004, the group says: "The mandatory annual training program for both students and staff should serve as a model for schools everywhere that care about protecting their students from harassment. We hope that the outcome in this case will make suing other school districts less necessary."

The Morgan Hill victory has been lauded by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), an organization that has established more than 1,000 Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Clubs on junior high and high school campuses.

In addition, GLSEN, in cooperation with The National Center for Lesbian Rights, has developed a resource designed to require other school districts to affirm homosexuality on campuses through GSA clubs. The document, "Fifteen Expensive Reasons Why Safe Schools Legislation is in Your State's Best Interest," lists numerous court cases that have ruled in favor of homosexual clubs on campuses.

Does Control of Bullying
Require Affirmation of Alternative Sexualities?

The difficulty in dealing effectively with bullying is that there are no firm statistics on the rate of harassment on campuses, nor are there any consistent definitions of what these terms mean, Nicolosi added. In addition, there is usually no distinction between name-calling and more aggressive behaviors such as pushing or hitting.

"Harassment must be dealt with in schools," Nicolosi said, "but the imposition of a pro-homosexual training program will bring with it a whole host of new problems and will ultimately endanger the very children this program is designed to protect."

Are students who engage in homosexual conduct harassed more often than other students? Not necessarily, according to a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, by The Royal College of Psychiatrists (December, 2003).

The study, "Mental health and quality of life of gay men and lesbians in England and Wales," interviewed 2,430 individuals, including male and female homosexuals and transgenders on their mental health. The study noted: "Violence and bullying were more commonly reported by lesbians than heterosexual women, but there were few differences on these factors between the gay and heterosexual men. Bullying at school was reported no more often in gay than heterosexual men, but the gay men who had been bullied regarded their sexual orientation as the main provocation."

The British study showed that both male and female homosexuals have far more serious mental and physical problems than do their heterosexual counterparts. The study noted, for example, that, "More than a quarter of gay men and almost a third of lesbians reported that they had ever harmed themselves deliberately...Gay men were more likely than heterosexual men ... and lesbians were more likely than heterosexual women to have consulted a mental health professional."

The study also noted: "Gay men and lesbians reported more psychological distress than heterosexual men and women, despite similar levels of social support and quality of physical health. They were also more likely to have used recreational drugs, and lesbians were more likely than heterosexual women to drink excessively."

The study ended with the observation that "prejudice in society" could lead to the greater psychological distress, or there was another possibility--that "gay men and lesbians may have lifestyles that make them vulnerable to psychological disorder. Such lifestyles may include increased use of drugs and alcohol."

"No School Should Be Required To Promote Homosexuality"

1. No school district should have its policies imposed on it from the outside by organizations like the ACLU. The school district should be free to establish its own policies, relying upon local community and parental input.

2. The Morgan Hill settlement violates parental rights and the rights of all students and teachers who do not wish to support the normalization of homosexual conduct on campuses.

3. The ACLU settlement imposes a gay agenda on the school district and promotes a lifestyle that is fraught with psychological and physical health dangers.

4. Children should not be held captive to a training program that will openly promote homosexual behavior as normal and equally as legitimate as heterosexual behavior.

Dr. Nicolosi noted some of the recent statistics on the dangers of homosexual conduct:

• The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League reported in 2002, that, "In the country, half of all new [HIV] infections are among youth thirteen to twenty-four years old."
• In 1999, the Medical Institute for Sexual Health reported: "Homosexual men are at significantly increased risk of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, anal cancer, gonorrhea and gastrointestinal infections as a result of their sexual practices."
• In October, 1999, the Archives of General Psychiatry published two studies on homosexual behavior. The journal noted: "These studies contain arguably the best published data on the association between homosexuality and psychopathology, and both converge on the same unhappy conclusions: homosexual people are at substantially high risk for some forms of emotional problems, including suicide, major depression, and anxiety disorder."
• In 1998, the American Journal of Public Health, reported that self-identified homosexuals are: Nine times more likely than heterosexuals to use alcohol on a daily basis; six times more likely to report having recently used cocaine; 19 times more likely to have used cocaine ten or more times during a month; five times more likely to have used other illegal drugs, including cocaine, 20 or more times in their lives; seven times more likely to have used an injectable, illegal drug.

Updated: 8 February 2008

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