Reaction To The PFOX Flyers Is Growing

TeachTheFacts.org first formed in late 2004 when our school district came under attack by rightwing extremists for its plan to implement a somewhat comprehensive sex-ed curriculum that included a condom-usage video and some objective and correct statements about sexual orientation. The most intense criticisms were about the sexual orientation part, with the arguments consisting mainly of a laundry-list of complaints about the stereotype of the gay man. One court document argued that if the schools taught about various orientations students will become gay, catch AIDS, and come back to sue the school district. Costing the taxpayers millions, see? That's why we shouldn't teach the facts. The two groups that filed lawsuits, over and over again, were the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever and PFOX. PFOX is not a friend of the school district, and PFOX is not a friend of any gay person. PFOX's premise is that being gay is bad, and their recommendation is that gay people should just quit it and turn straight.

It was a hard fight, and in the end our side won a decent curriculum but the other side intimidated the school district and kept important information out under the threat of more lawsuits. Some school board members made firm statements about the new curriculum, and in the end all of them except one predictable member voted in favor of it. But the reason TTF had to organize in the first place was that elected officials and their staff, in general, fear controversy.

The school district should not be handing out flyers to children telling them that gay people can choose to be straight. It is scientifically incorrect and morally indefensible to make students think there is something wrong with being gay, and that you can choose to change if you want. It is unhealthy advice for those students who are discovering they are gay or lesbian, and it is dangerous advice for the straight students, who will believe that their gay peers are that way because they decided to be. But our school district has agreed to spread just that message four times a year to high school students, and they do it without complaining. We had a progressive school board members tell The Post recently that "These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum" when the flyers directly contradict the health curriculum, and then she defended the district's freedom of speech to tell students the opposite of the truth. I don't think you'll find any other board members, and certainly not the Superintendent's office, speaking out about the PFOX flyers. They shrug their shoulders and say "the court ordered us to do this," and that's the end of it.

Montgomery County parents send their children off to school with the expectation that they will be educated and that they will be safe. They do not expect the school district to be giving their children literature from hate groups. It would be irresponsible to ignore a group like PFOX outside the school distributing poisonous flyers, this is not mere irresponsibility. The school district is actively packaging these flyers and using teacher resources and time that could be spent on education to give this hate literature to students. This goes beyond irresponsibility. It's not like they are negligent, MCPS is the active agent in this.

The schools are complying with their interpretation of Child Evangelism Fellowship v. Montgomery County Pub. Sch.. In that case the schools had refused to distribute flyers from a Christian evangelical group on grounds that it would have comprised "establishment of religion" by government -- the public schools. The court saw it the other way and said that forbidding the flyers amounted to interfering with the group's freedom of speech. That's one thing when it's a Sunday-school group, but it is absurd to think that the schools are required to hand out anybody's opinion, even when it directly contradicts important information that is taught in health classes. It is cheaper from a legal perspective, and that's apparently what drives the school district's decision to hand out PFOX's flyers for them. On the other hand, you can't ignore the fact that they have chosen to re-appoint Peter Sprigg, who has said on national television that he believes homosexual behavior should be criminalized, to a third term on the citizens advisory committee for sex education. Sprigg's view is certainly not representative of citizens of our county, but it appears that's what the school board and the Superintendent want.

I've been following some of the listserves' discussions of this topic. It appears that MCPS distributed the flyers at Walter Johnson, Seneca Valley, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Watkins Mill, and Richard Montgomery, probably others, and parents are very angry about it. Even the Parents Coalition listserve is having a discussion about this "PFOX Propaganda" (their subject line). Some members seem to think it is only fair to give "both sides" a chance to reach our county's young people, another guy said "Other than the fact that your CHOICE argument is completely ignorant, the bottom line is that these kind of Christian groups are trying to recruit our kids and they don’t belong there." I was curious to know where they'd fall on this one, it appears the main leaders do not like to see PFOX recruiting in our public schools.

At one of the schools, parents are gearing up a campaign to send emails to Regina Griggs at PFOX, protesting the flyers. I wouldn't bother. Regina lives for that kind of reaction, she's like Rush Limbaugh or Anne Coulter, her real goal is to get under your skin. She knows that gay people can't choose to be straight -- her own son is gay, and the whole reason for PFOX is that she wishes he would change, but he doesn't. It's a pitiful situation all the way around, and it is pathetic that our school district has bought into it. If you are going to protest, don't bother sending email to PFOX, they're just doing what their funding sources expect them to do. Send your emails to the MCPS Board of Education, the Superintendent, administrative staff inside Carver, their legal office, don't bother sending it to PFOX.

Somebody has created an online petition HERE. Go ahead and click on it.