Gay politics in the classroom

APRIL 5, 2010

With the annual Day of Silence scheduled for April 16th this month, many people still do not know what it is or the agenda behind it. The innocuous sounding title is misleading for what really is an agenda-driven, social cause, taking place as a school event.

During the four years my son attended public high school, his school and the entire school district promoted the annual “Day of Silence,” as did as many other schools and districts in the state and country.  Several of his teachers had gay speakers speak to classes about their lifestyle, and even answered students’ questions about sexual experiences. Despite the attempted indoctrination using public schools, as well as the outrage expressed by parents, this event continues.

The Day of Silence is a guilt and agenda driven waste of a school day, promoting a political and cultural agenda under the guise of “tolerance,” and encouraging students not to speak for the entire school day. “On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools” according to the Web site.

The Day of Silence Web site explains its mission: “Day of Silence , a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in collaboration with the United States Student Association (USSA), is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bias unacceptable in schools take a day-long vow of silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment — in effect, the silencing — experienced by LGBT students and their allies.

In many schools, an entire week is devoted to the cause. Teachers are provided materials and are instructed, “You can also help students negotiate with administrators and other students who may oppose the Day of Silence.” Promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), teachers often invite gay speakers to classrooms to speak and to share their experiences.

The misleading rhetoric is deliberate. Kevin Jennings, the founder of the gay-activist group GLSEN, which promotes gay clubs in high schools, middle schools and even grade schools, is the driving force behind the annual Day of Silence “celebration of homosexuality” in thousands of schools across the country.

If the name Kevin Jennings rings a bell, it is because Jennings is the gay activist appointed “Safe Schools Czar” by the Obama administration and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, to oversee public classroom safety, and “safety” in the nation’s public schools.

Jennings promoted educational programs like “No Name-Calling Week,” “Day of Silence,” “Ally Week,” and “TransAction” day. Jennings campaigned against language like “that’s so gay” calling it “anti-LGBT,” and “hate speech.” Jennings wrote the foreword for the book, Queering Elementary Education and has penned several books of his own including Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son (an autobiography), Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School and College Students, 
Telling Tales Out of School, 
One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories, 1st and 2^nd Edition.

The Day of Silence takes place during an entire day of school during classroom time. Students who sympathize with the gay rights movement are advised to present their teachers with a card written by the organizers at GLSEN. “Please understand my reasons for not speaking today,” the card reads “I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending that silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?”

In early December 2009, Jim Hoft from Gateway Pundit and Scott Baker from Breitbart TV.com broke the news that Kevin Jennings, as the Safe Schools czar, was promoting sexually explicit books for classroom use. GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books that it claims “furthers our mission to ensure safe schools for all students.” These are the books that GLSEN’s directors apparently think all kids should be reading. “Gay kids should read them to raise their self-esteem, and straight kids should read them in order to become more aware and tolerant and stop bullying gay kids,” according to Hoft and Baker.  Through GLSEN’s online ordering system, called “GLSEN BookLink,” featured prominently on their Web site, teachers can buy the books to use as required classroom assignments, and students can buy them to read on their own.

According to Baker, every title they read, from the random selections out of a group of 100 books for children grades 7-12, had not only pornographic and X-rated anecdotes and stories, but explicit descriptions of sexual acts between young children, as well as stories that seemed to promote child-adult sexual relationships, and tales of public sex – from the group promoting the Day of Silence in schools.

Day of Silence is not about promoting tolerance, and the issue of “safe schools” should not be used to promote the gay agenda amongst gender-confused youth within the school system. Every school can make its students safe without highlighting this agenda. There are diverse opinions on this issue, but it is not legitimate to teach in a public school that one opinion is preferable to another. Tolerance and civility are necessary in a civilized society, but actively indoctrinating America’s youth in America’s classrooms on a controversial social issue is an agenda that should not be tolerated or considered “safe.”

GLSEN’s recommended reading list of books

Gateway Pundit’s report: click here

–Katy Grimes