Schools Can Stop Bullying without Promoting Homosexuality or Gender Confusion
Image via WikipediaPeter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, warned that a White House “Bullying Prevention Summit” today may promote a pro-homosexuality agenda in schools in the guise of stopping cruelty between students.
“Schools administrators and teachers must ensure a safe and protective learning environment for all students, but they can do so without injecting divisive ‘sexual orientation’ and radical ‘transgender’ politics into the classroom,”
LaBarbera said. “There is a real danger that ‘anti-bullying’ policies will be used to curtail any speech in schools critical of homosexuality, and create curricula that discriminate against religious students who believe homosexual behavior is morally wrong.”
President Obama has invited pro-homosexual activists from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and other pro-LGBT groups to the summit.
LaBarbera also opposes a federal bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA)—supported by Senate Democrats and lone Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL)—as “a Trojan Horse that would push politically correct agendas about homosexuality and ‘transgenderism’ in schools in the name of stopping bullying.”
LaBarbera said a key anti-bullying watchdog—BullyPolice.org—specifically recommends AGAINST “defining victims” in bullying legislation: “Defining victims will slow the process of lawmaking, dividing political parties who will argue over which victims get special rights over other victims,” states aBullyPolice document suggesting a model anti-bullying law.
Interestingly, the pro-homosexual Keen News Service reports that the proposed federal anti-bullying bill goes further than most state anti-bullying bills:
“A federal law could help students even though states have been passing their own anti-bullying laws, said Kara Suffredini, executive director of Mass Equality, the leading LGBT advocacy organization in Massachusetts. The SSIA [Safe Schools Improvement Act], she said, goes further than most state laws in providing a specific enforcement mechanism—the withholding of funds.
It also goes further than most states, including Massachusetts, in its reporting requirements and in prohibiting bullying based upon specific, enumerated characteristics, such as sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Yet another pro-homosexual bill, the re-introduced Student Non-discrimination Act (SNDA), also has the potential to create an intrusive federal bureaucracy that will pressure schools to either enact pro-“gay” programs or lose federal funding.
Keen reports: “SNDA states that elementary and secondary schools must not discriminate against students on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity in any program or activity receiving federal funds, or they will risk losing those funds. ‘Discrimination,’ under SNDA, includes harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
A third bill, the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act, “establishes similar anti-bullying requirements for colleges and universities receiving federal student aid.” It is named after a Rutgers student who committed suicide last year after being videotaped in a homo-sexual situation with another man.
LaBarbera said the homosexual and “transgender” activist components in each of the bills are unnecessary:
“Schools can and must protect EVERY child—including those confused about their sexual or gender identity. But they must never use ‘bullying prevention’ to engage in one-sided advocacy about homosexuality, thereby discriminating against Christian, Jewish and Muslim students who believe homosexual practice is wrong.”
AFTAH is joining Mission America April 1-2 in Columbus, OH to co-sponsor an educational “Truth Academy” on how to respond to the aggressive homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda; the theme is: “The Hate Labeling of Christians: Why it’s Happening and What We Can Do.”
