June 2002
ST. LOUIS—A pro-family organization in California says it has received calls from concerned parents in Missouri over the growing influence homosexuals are having in public schools.
Scott Lively, president of the Pro-Family Law Center in Citrus Heights, Calif., told The Washington Times in May that Missouri is among the states in which a growing number of parents are alarmed at the blatant promotion of homosexuality in public schools. "It’s a national campaign that is being pushed by homosexual activists, and that campaign is to homosexualize the public-school environment," Lively told the newspaper.
"One of the goals is to create a voting majority within the high school students who would be in favor of gay perspectives. These are activists who got in positions of authority and use it to advance a selfish social agenda, and, frankly, that’s evil." Many of the calls are coming from parents in the Kirkwood city schools, a suburb in St. Louis County, that has been in turmoil for several years regarding overt homosexual-political activism on behalf of certain administrative staff as well as students, said Kerry Messer, president of the Missouri Family Network, an organization committed to defending the traditional family.
"But the problem is not limited to the Kirkwood School District, it is only at a more advanced stage at that particular location," he said. "The homosexual activist lobby is aggressively pursuing multi-faceted programs in attempts to endear young people to both the homo-sexual lifestyle or to at least have a sym-pathetic attitude toward such."
Among the homosexual activists leading the charge—under the guise of pre-venting discrimination against homosexual students and promoting "diversity"—is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN now has chapters in St. Louis and Kansas City and it was the St. Louis chapter that triggered a lawsuit filed by a St. Louis mother after she was prevented from observing a school-sponsored assembly conducted by GLSEN in October.
GLSEN has intensified its efforts to promote homosexuality to schoolchildren in recent months. GLSEN was behind the publishing of Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel which was sent to 15,000 public school districts across the country in 1999. Just the Facts defends the sexual legitimacy of gay, lesbian and bisexual students in public schools.
"Many deeply religious people and a number of religious congregations and denominations are supportive and accepting of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, "the publication states. GLSEN claims through its "student pride" program that it "is the only national network of student-led Gay-Straight Alliances in schools across the nation." GLSEN has more than 90 chapters nationwide and there are now more than 700 schools in 46 states with Gay-Straight Alliances.
Just the Facts caught Southern Baptists’ eyes last year when it was learned the liberal, ecumenical Interfaith Alliance was part of a 10-organization coalition that produced the publication for GLSEN.
Counted among The Interfaith Alliance’s board of directors is David Curry, the moderate Texan who leads the anti-Southern Baptist Convention "Mainstream" and "Baptist Committed" organizations springing up in states throughout the SBC. Curry has been a leader in the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ move away from the SBC and serves on the coordinating council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a splinter organization comprised of former Southern Baptists who oppose the conservative direction of the SBC.
Another moderate Baptist, Carole Shields, as president of the liberal People for the American Way, has led the battle in the courts to defend GLSEN’s Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools, according to ViewPoint, a publication published by the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association. Shields is a past board member of the Baptist Joint Committee for Public Affairs’ (BJCPA). The BJCPA was defunded several years ago by the SBC, but continues to receive funds from the CBF.
As part of its intensifying activity in Missouri, GLSEN issued a "study" in April that The Kansas City Star presented in a story that featured no opposing view-point. The "study" claims to have found that "teachers’ compassion for gay youths often is compromised by conservative Midwest values and fears of alienating parents who have religious beliefs about homosexuality," The Star reported.