Tony Perkins, head of Family Research Council, had harsh words for those behind a new educational booklet about homosexuality. (Photo courtesy of americansfortruth.com)
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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, March 07, 2008
A coalition led by the American Psychological Association sent a booklet to about 12,000 administrators in February, arguing that schools should refrain from teaching high school students about “ex-gay” conversion therapy.
On Feb. 8, the Just the Facts coalition sent the publication, called “Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth,” to every superintendent in the nation who is in charge of at least one high school.
Clinton Anderson, who is gay and the director of the APA’s LGBT Concerns Office, said the coalition issued the booklet to counter efforts that promoted teaching about “ex-gay” ministries or conversion therapy. It’s designed to be used by educators as a resource. It is not meant to be handed out to students.
“We wanted to lay out our reasoning … and hopefully give schools some good information to counter that promotion,” he said.
Efforts to update the primer, published in 1999, began in June 2006 when the APA noticed what it saw as an upsurge in efforts for schools to teach about reparative therapy. Anderson said one catalyst for renewing the publication was the case of Zack Stark, a gay blogger who in 2005 was sent by his parents to be “cured” of his sexuality at an “ex-gay” camp.
The work to produce the booklet and distribute it to superintendents cost about $15,000, Anderson said.
The 20-page primer suggests some reasons why gay students may feel compelled to disclose their sexuality to others.
“Such disclosure is an expression of a normal tendency to want to share personal information about oneself with important others and should be respected as such,” the booklet states.
Another section of the booklet states various organizations’ positions on homosexuality and conversion therapy. The section includes a 2000 statement from the APA stating that the validity of conversion therapy is questionable and that practitioners should refrain from attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation.
The booklet argues that teaching about “ex-gay” therapy would be unconstitutional. Such teachings would violate separation of church and state because “ex-gay” beliefs are often based on religious grounds, the booklet states. And teaching about “ex-gay” therapy violates the 14th Amendment provision for equal treatment because, according to the booklet, such teaching could make gay students uncomfortable.
Organizations in the 13-member Just the Facts coalition include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators.
Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said his organization endorsed the primer because it believes “all children ought to get a quality education.”
“We have an affirmative obligation to provide an environment where every child has the best chance to succeed and that means that they’re looked at with dignity and respect,” he said.
His organization had received no feedback from school administrators on the booklet, Hunter said.
Anderson said the APA had also seen virtually no response from the booklet except for Christian organizations criticizing its content.
Melissa Fryrear, a self-identified former homosexual and director of the gender issues department at Focus on the Family, called the publication “gay-affirming, biased [and] unfair.”
“It only offers one perspective to what we know are very difficult issues surrounding homosexuality,” she said.
Focus on the Family is the only group that the publication identifies by name as a “religion-based organization” working for the promotion of sexual orientation conversion therapy.
Fryrear said the booklet is “demoralizing” for youths who do not want to identify as gay and yet experience homosexual feelings. Students, particularly those of faith, should be able to know about other opportunities, she said.
Fryrear said Christians can overcome homosexual feelings through “not a method per se, or a therapy option per se, [but a] relationship with Jesus Christ and [a] commitment then to want to live in agreement with biblical teaching,” she said.
Tony Perkins, president of the über-conservative Family Research Council, had harsh words for the booklet.
In an interview with the Christian Post, an online religious news agency, Perkins reiterated his long-held position that the NEA and the APA are “using their influence to transform public schools into incubators for their radical social agendas.”
The viability of conversion therapy has, of course, been widely debated with some claiming to have overcome homosexuality completely, some identifying as straight and in opposite-sex relationships but confessing to ongoing gay desires and others who say trying to change one’s sexual orientation is not only a waste of time but can be harmful as well. The Blade has profiled members of each camp in previous stories.
Fryrear said her organization agrees with some positions stated in the booklet, such as how no factor has been found to determine sexual orientation.
The organization also agrees with the sentiment that young people who experience homosexual feelings are still valuable to their families. Focus on the Family “absolutely agree[s]” that the school environment should be a place where young people should be able to share with others what they are struggling with, she said.
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