What is PFOX doing in my child's classroom?

Call me crazy, but I think the people who should have the most say about what our children learn are the educators we hire for their expertise, the Board of Education, whom we elect, and the parents of Montgomery County's children. Now, you need only be a taxpayer in Montgomery County to vote for members of the Board of Education, so all MC citizens can have a say. And that's fair—you don't have to actually be a parent to have a vested interest in the education of our youth—you could be a grandparent, or simply a neighbor who cares deeply about children.

But I have a serious problem with a national organization with a clear right-wing agenda and very deep pockets insinuating itself into my child's classroom.

PFOX stands for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, and is a Christian-based national organization created by James Dobson's Family Reasearch Council. PFOX seems to primarily be interested in promoting the idea that gay people can change orientation, and that homosexuality is a psychological and psychiatric disorder.

Since 1973, the American Psychological Association has maintained that this is innacurate. And in 1999, a host of professional organizations debunked those theories.

I do not accept the belief that gay people are sick—I've known too many wonderful people in my life, who happened to be gay, to believe that. But whether or not they can change orientation is something I'm not concerned with right now (and if that is possible, whether or not it's desirable is another question altogether.) I'm not a scientist, and I'm nobody's expert on orientation. But, even if I give PFOX the benefit of the doubt, and assume that their premise may be true, that still would not explain to me...why are they in my child's classroom?

Why are they so intent on influencing what your kids and mine will learn?

One fact that really makes me suspicious of this group is that ours is not the only community where they have actively fought against tolerance for gays. (And it's really ironic that they fight against tolerance while portraying themselves as victims of intolerance.)

In 2002, PFOX planned a rally before a Fairfax School Board meeting to protest a proposed amendment to add homosexuality ("sexual orientation") as a category to Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools' nondiscrimination code. According to the Concerned Women of America's web site, 2 of the planned speakers at the rally were Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX, and Estella Salvatierra, who is listed as a "civil rights attorney and vice president of PFOX."

So they're not just in Montgomery County, but in Fairfax County too, trying to influence educational policies and curricula.

PFOX has had a representative on the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development, the group that worked on this issue for 3 years and proposed the new curriculum. And lately, PFOX has been in the media complaining about "their views" not being included in the final curriculum. According to David Fishback, the Committee's Chair, the views that PFOX promoted and that the committee ultimately rejected were all predicated on the idea that homosexuality is sinful, or a disease.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, PFOX doesn't believe that gay kids deserve to be included in nondiscrimination codes, and they do think these kids should be told they have a disease—even though there is no scientific basis for such claims. Because of the religious beliefs of a few people who do believe that to be true, the Montgomery County Board of Education is now being bullied by a group who represents themselves (in a letter to the editor in today's Gazette) as "your neighbors, friends and fellow taxpayers seeking to halt a serious discrimination aimed at our families, cultural background, children and county."

But is that really an accurate description of who they are? If this group is truly who they say they are, then why is a national organization like PFOX publicly promoting their views, and posting messages on school-related listserves promoting the recall group's web sites?

And why is a local issue affecting our community, and our kids all of a sudden appearing on the web sites of national right-wing organizations—organizations who just happen to be friends of PFOX?

Here are just a few:

• Concerned Women of America on this issue
  
• NARTH (National Association for Research & Theraphy of Homosexuality), on this issue
  
• Dr.Throckmorton.com on this issue
  

If you think it's just coincidental that soon after PFOX gets involved in this, all of a sudden numerous other right-wing organizations with no clear ties to our community start promoting the views of the recall group, then take a look at the connections.

According to this web site, PFOX and Concerned Women of America have close ties:

"It's time that people trapped in homosexuality know that they have a choice," said Robert Knight, director of CWA's Culture and Family Institute and a PFOX board member. "Homosexual activists have peddled the unsubstantiated 'born-that-way' notion and left people without hope. The ads feature real people and real hope."

And according to Townhall.com, a conservative web site, Dr. Throckmorton and PFOX also have close ties:

Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Grove City College, Pa., and a supporter of the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, or PFOX, said the coalition aims to correctly portray the current state of research concerning sexual orientation.

And NARTH, PFOX, and Dr. Throckmorton all seem to be quite cozy, as in this instance, in which Throckmorton talks about PFOX on NARTH's web site.

Now these groups and individuals have the right to have any opinion they want to about what happens in Montgomery County. But they DO NOT have a right to control what our children learn. But apparently, that won't keeping them from trying.

In this memo, PFOX spells out their legal strategies and explains how they plan to influence what other peoples' children will learn (pay special attention to the last list item):

From: PFOX
Date: October 21, 2003 12:40:48 PM EDT
To: PFOX@topica.com
Subject: Ex-Gay lawsuits
Reply-To: pfox_exgays@hotmail.com

I am delighted to report that the ex-gay movement now has a "legal offense/defense arm" which wishes to work closely with each of our member organizations. The attorneys are eager to find and to litigate on behalf of individual clients (or class actions on behalf of groups) a series of legal cases, anywhere within the U.S.A., to challenge the notion that people are born gay and, further, to gain access for our message that a healing strategy exists for those with unwanted same-sex attractions. In each case, we need to show the harm caused and to identify an appropriate defendant(s).

To help provide some ideas for each of you to consider, the attorneys are looking for fact patterns where a patient's right to treatment may have been violated, or equal access for the "ex-gay" message has been
denied, or tort cases where a physical or emotional harm occurred to a client because of the fraudulent message that people are born that way.

Some examples of such fact patterns may include:

* HMO Discrimination -- client of therapist is denied insurance coverage for reparative therapy when same insurance company would cover gay affirmative therapy

* Emotional and Physical Harm -- individual receives hepatitis C, HIV, or other ailments because school counselors, psychologists etc. provide message that they should engage in gay affirmative sex. (Of course, if someone died, their estate or legal guardians may be an appropriate plaintiff).

* Emotional and Physical Harm -- Sue gay or porn magazines where message delivered about wonders of gay affirmative sex and an individual can be shown to have relied on such advice.

* Emotional and Physical Harm -- person undergoes sex reassignment surgery because of gay affirmative messages and subsequently regrets such action because of later acquired knowledge that reparative healing strategy for gender identity deficit existed and this alternative was not provided or actively discouraged as an option to consider.

* Endangerment of Minors -- cases where inner city at risk youth were improperly advised to engage in gay sex and suicide or lesser emotional and physicial harm occurred.

* Endangerment of Minors -- Sex education classes where advice given that anal sex is safe for receptive partner as long as condom is in use and individual contracted any one of the innumerable illness which are directly proximate to such activity.

* Equal Access Denied -- equal protection of the law cases where gay affirmative message is provided without corresponding gender affirming message being given equal time

* Endangerment of Minors -- actions on behalf of children who are placed with two mommies or two daddies (or a single placement) when a mother and father placement was available.

* Undue Economic Burden -- Where burden is placed on private business to provide domestic partnership benefits.

* Endangerment of Minors -- Inappropriate mentoring (gay affirmative message) cases in Big Brother/Big Sister programs where specific harm to an individual occurred.

* Equal Access -- Public School or other governmental environments where gender affirming process message is shut out and gay affirmative message is exclusively provided

The above are only illustrative examples. If someone has an idea for a case or an issue they feel may be appropriate, please do not hesitate to contact me, either by phone or email. Initially I am willing to serve as a liason to the attorneys. It is important to note that they will be working pro bono on these cases.

Best regards,
Arthur at jonahhelp@aol.com
PFOX -- Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays
Box 561, Fort Belvoir VA 22060
703-360-2225
pfox_exgays@hotmail.com
www.pfox.org

If you believe that you have the right to decide what your children will learn, and not a national organization like PFOX, then please join us, and help us to fight for that right.