Apr 27, 2006  |  By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG  | COMMENTS     

Conservative groups are taking a page out of the gay activist playbook in a new effort to promote the "ex-gay" movement.

Liberty Counsel and Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays have launched a new campaign called "Change is Possible," which mimics the effort by gay rights advocates to create student clubs and participate in school-sponsored "diversity days."

Instead of gay-straight alliances, the "Change is Possible" campaign urges students to start "Gay to Straight" clubs.

The Alliance Defense Fund has even sponsored a "Day of Truth" to counteract the "Day of Silence," a day when students remain silent to protest harassment and discrimination targeted at gay students. The "Day of Truth"—scheduled for April 27, one day after the "Day of Silence"—was "established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective."

As part of the "Change is Possible" campaign, which was announced earlier this month, the Liberty Counsel website details "health statistics" for ex-gay student activists such as: "Acting out on same-sex attractions also has devastating psychological effects, including increased drug and alcohol abuse."

"If we’re having a diversity day, it ought to be really a diversity day and show different perspectives," said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel.

The University of Connecticut and Ohio State University already have resisted attempts to include ex-gays in diversity days, he said.

"We’re going to see if we can resolve the matter or [if we have to] resort to legal challenges," he said.

Last year, Liberty Counsel and PFOX sued the Montgomery County, Md. school district for excluding information about ex-gays in a revised sexual education curriculum and over complaints that it "normalized homosexuality."

"The reason PFOX got involved is because in Montgomery County we were denied equal access," said Regina Griggs, PFOX executive director. "We decided this doesn’t just exist in Montgomery County."

For Griggs, it’s an issue of tolerance.

"What parent wants to teach their children that tolerance for all people is not acceptable?" she said. "Teaching respect is key to all of this."

‘Cleverly disguised bigotry’

Critics argue that schools should not condone unsubstantiated, unscientific opinions by including those views in the curriculum or in a diversity day presentation.

"They have no more business in the health curriculum than flat-Earth theories in the geology curriculum," said David Fishback, a member of Teach the Facts, a Montgomery County parents group that formed to support a comprehensive sex-education program that addresses homosexuality.

"The ex-gay viewpoint is not just another viewpoint—it’s at odds with what our doctors tell us," said Fishback, echoing the American Psychological and American Psychiatric Associations, which have discredited ex-gay therapies. "Trying to slam round pegs into square holes, the pegs are going to get hurt."

Jim Kennedy, the Teach the Facts representative on the Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Committee, agreed, saying that the ex-gay issue is "cleverly disguised bigotry." The advisory committee is charged with reviewing the sex-education curriculum revisions.

"No matter how you look at it, the ex-gay camp is really an anti-gay camp," he said. "They really disguise it so the ugliness is hidden."

Both Fishback and Kennedy said that while school officials should not include ex-gay information in the curriculum, students should be permitted to form clubs.

Judy Hoff, the safe schools coordinator for Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, said that ex-gay ministries often make gay youth feel guilty, and their message can even lead to depression and suicide.

"As these efforts are getting younger and younger kids, it’s becoming more and more dangerous," she said.

Ken Choe, a staff attorney with the Lesbian & Gay Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that just as students can form gay-straight alliances, their peers can start "Gay to Straight" clubs.

The 1984 federal Equal Access Act requires that schools treat all student groups equally. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act was constitutional in Board of Education of Westside Community Schools vs. Mergens. The school was sued after it refused to recognize a religious student club.

Gay rights groups now use the 1984 Equal Access Act to ensure that schools permit gay student clubs.

"When talking about free expression you can’t have your cake and eat it, too," said Choe. "If you’re going to seek a constitutional protection you have to let others seek the same protection."

If a "Gay to Straight" club was created, school officials could use ...