PFOX promotes "ex-gay" therapy in public schools

At Montgomery County high schools in Maryland, fliers are being handed out that encourage LGBTQ teens to change their sexual orientation.  The leaflets are attached to the kids' report cards - and school administrators claim they're powerless to stop this anti-gay newspeak.

Michael Bimbaum writes on Washington Post:  The fliers, from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (that only "befriends" gays who are ashamed of their sexual orientation), were distributed Thursday alongside report cards by teachers at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. The group says it delivered them to about half the county's high schools this week and plans to do the same at the remaining high schools at the end of the school year.  The schools are required to distribute literature that isn't deemed hate speech from any registered nonprofit organization four times a year, the result of a 2006 lawsuit. 

And who in those communities are determining what constitutes hate speech?  A local committee of anti-gay Christians?  Some would argue that religious propaganda which encourages self-loathing among LGBTQ students by telling them they need to "change" is hate speech.

School officials said that while they aren't always happy with everything that goes home with students, their hands are tied by the results of the litigation.  "These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum, but that curriculum focuses on respect, and we respect freedom of speech," said Patricia O'Neill, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education."  The flier, printed on one side of a sheet of paper, says that "every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity."

There is no valid scientific research to back up that assertion.  There are, however, numerous studies showing that the "reparative therapy" championed by PFOX is ineffective and even harmful to children.  Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association warn that "ex-gay" programs are injurious to mental health.  They can even lead to suicide.

At the bottom, it includes a disclaimer that the content is not sponsored by the Montgomery County Board of Education, the school or the superintendent. "We believe that people have the right to seek change if they're unhappy," said Regina Griggs, the (PFOX) director. "No one's telling anybody that they have to support our position."

The next time fliers are passed out with report cards in Maryland, they should include a message that encourages high school students to reject religious organizations that promote homophobia.  These new fliers could illustrate the terrible consequences of intolerance with photos of youngsters like Lawrence King, Shaquille Wisdom, Carl Walker-Hoover, Shaun Dykes, Jaheem Herrera and hundreds of others who have been, quite literally, hated to death. 

(Pictured top: Jaheem Herrera, suicide victim taunted with gay slurs; murder victim Lawrence King; PFOX's "change" flier.)

Comments

[Georgette Orwell]

You find a registered nonprofit organization to sponsor it, and I'll design and produce the flyer.

[Bee Girl]

I'd donate money to that cause.

[Aggie, Fair Haven, Vt.]

If I taught in that system, I'd be sorely tempted to take matters into my own hands.

[Ames]

Religion is a choice and every year millions of people become Ex-Believers. Maryland would be a good place for a chapter of Parents and Friends of Ex-Believers and Believers. They would have access to thousands of school kids with their message, four times each year: "People have the right to seek change if they're unhappy with the crazy ideas of religious fanatics."

I wonder how that would go over in Montgomery County?