Carol Soelberg
Gay Straight Alliances Take Aim
at Parents' Values, Confuse Students
February 14 , 2008
"Every fall, millions of parents drop their children off at taxpayer-funded public schools, assuming that their children's education will provide what they need to be successful in life: strong academics, civility and responsibility. Unfortunately, many of these same parents have little or no idea of what is happening to their children once they pass through the classroom door. Instead of learning the three Rs or how to be good citizens like many of us were taught, they are learning how to reject the common values that many of their parents have tried hard to instill in them.”
Alan Sears and Craig Osten, “The Homosexual Agenda,” p. 46
Dear Friend of the Family,
In recent years, parents have been greatly concerned about the presence of Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in their children's schools. We have received calls from parents expressing their dismay and asking what can be done. Under the Federal Equal Access Act of 1984, as long as schools allow the formation of clubs, they cannot disallow the creation of GSA's. However, we have included some helpful suggestions and resources at the end of my message.
What are Gay Straight Alliances?
There are more than 3,000 GSA's in U.S. schools -- middle schools, high schools and colleges. The Alliances are student-initiated and student-run clubs in mostly public schools whose stated mission “is to provide a safe, supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) and straight ally youth to meet and discuss sexual orientation and gender identity issues, and to work to create a school environment free of discrimination, harassment, and intolerance.”
Certainly, everyone is in favor of safe schools. Children are bullied for many reasons, none of them acceptable. Nevertheless, GSA goes well beyond advocacy for safe school environments. GSA's intend to change schools through political activism.
The first GSA was started in Concord, Massachusetts by Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a leading homosexual pressure group. Gay Straight Alliances bring homosexual activism into the schools, demonize opposition and undermine parents' values. They do not contribute to the educational mission of schools. Among the strategies of homosexual activists exposed by Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund, and Craig Osten in their book, “The Homosexual Agenda,” are the following:
- Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and often as possible
- Portray gays as victims, not aggressive challengers
- Give homosexual protectors a “just” cause
- Make gays look good
- Make the victimizers look bad
Furthermore, Gay Straight Alliances seek to expose “heterosexism,” which GLSEN defines as “anti-LGBT sentiment and other forms of prejudice, such as racism, anti-Semitism, and sexism, which all represent ideological systems that deny, denigrate, and stigmatize people based on their behavior, identity, relationships, or community.” A more accurate definition of heterosexism is: “the political effort to diminish anything that accepts heterosexual behavior as the norm for society. These clubs contribute to gender and sexuality confusion among students, many promote early sex by explaining where students can get condoms and they have also encouraged children to form “civil unions.”
Bringing Political Activism into the Schools
The clubs claim they are not about sex and they do not exist to create dating opportunities. However, there is a “Gay Straight Alliance” dating website, and some clubs sponsor movie nights that feature films with nudity and sex.
GSA's are encouraged to survey their schools to assess the climate toward homosexuals and bisexuals. A school is identified as “hostile” if, among other reasons, the curricula is devoid of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-sexual (LGBT) themes and “book[s] and materials with LGBT content are nonexistent.” The clubs then take the information collected, likely to find the school out of compliance, and seek publicity in an attempt to change the school climate to make it “inclusive” – or open to “policy that protects and affirms LGBT people and to assure that proactive education about such policies exists.”
Club members are instructed on how to teach the teachers and pressure the school board to attain this “inclusive” level . A GSA email alert said: "[We must] infuse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer curriculum into history, social science, and literature classes."
GSA Activism vs. Parents
Parents from New Mexico and California have informed us that they were on the receiving end of hate-filled invectives from intolerant supporters of the GSA at their children's schools. Politely dissenting parents were mocked, ridiculed, laughed at, drowned out by loud music, booed and hissed. Parents were “stunned and speechless” at “the mob mentality” and some were so upset that they wanted to take their kids out of the school.
What Can You Do?
While you can't legally stop your children's school from forming a GSA, you may consider the following options:
- Have your state or school set up some standards on school clubs. To date, only the State of Utah has done so (see New York Times story below).
- It is important that parents and students be aware that Gay Straight Alliances are not the benign organizations they pretend to be.
- We have every right to defend our beliefs and our values, with dignity and civility, whether or not opponents conduct themselves in the same way.
- We must be assertive and instill our values in our children and inform them of the virtues of marriage and family, as well as inform them of attempts to overthrow the social institutions we hold dear.
Helpful Resources
UFI
Family Research Council
New York Times
Book
- “The Homosexual Agenda,” by Alan Sears and Craig Osten
Warm regards,
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