It’s apparently never too young to push social liberalism and call it “anti-bullying education.” Sunday’s Washington Post promoted D.C. schools with the headline “Redefining Family.” As usual, the Post featured happy color photographs of two lesbian moms – two on the front page of Metro, and two on the back page where the story continued.
Reporter Michael Alison Chandler began: “In the national push to prevent bullying, more elementary schools are introducing lessons about gay tolerance. Some lessons begin before the first day of kindergarten.”
Washington is just another ultraliberal city trying to create a “welcoming” environment for the gay agenda. There is no family arrangement that is superior, the schools are indoctrinating, and the story starts with pre-kindergarten students at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in northwest DC:
Teacher Melissa Grant said she doesn’t put any weight or value on one family structure over another. At this age, she said, children are very accepting. “They just kind of find it interesting,” she said.
The District, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, is joining San Francisco, Minneapolis and Cambridge, Mass., at the leading edge of an effort to make public schools more welcoming to gay students and families. A committee, organized in January 2011 with support from D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, developed a plan to increase awareness of gay issues and foster a more supportive environment in school. Twenty new school-based liaisons to the gay community are helping train teachers this year, and a contingent from the school system marched in the gay pride parade in June.
School officials say it’s important to start early, before children’s perceptions of gay life are dominated by playground put-downs.
Clearly the Post knows that there’s more substance to opposition to homosexuality than “playground put-downs,” but that’s how religious conservatism is demonized and dismissed by the liberal media. After the liberals capitalize on “highly publicized teen suicides tied to anti-gay bullying,” it’s time for “safety” education to be introduced:
Highly publicized teen suicides tied to anti-gay bullying have galvanized administrators to introduce tolerance and safety programs. These days, many openly gay and gay-friendly teenagers are bringing same-gender dates to the prom, putting on gay-themed school plays and creating gay-straight alliances.
In elementary schools, a growing number of openly gay — and legally married — parents are also pushing for change. They want their families to be reflected in classroom discussions and on back-to-school-night bulletin boards. Responses vary widely from school to school.
At Oyster-Adams, which serves 662 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade on two campuses, parents from some of the 20 or so gay families at the school met with teachers and the principal in January. The group helped persuade administrators to rethink the school’s approach to how classes handle Mother’s Day activities. This spring, the school will observe a “Family Day” that won’t exclude gay dads or other nontraditional families.
Chandler did include a very brief rebuttal from Candi Cushman of Focus on the Family, about 12 quoted words:
In a “hypersexualized” society, parents “want to protect their children’s innocence for as long as possible.”
Apparently "hypersexualized" is a matter of opinion. It was immediately challenged by about 50 quoted words from the organized advocates of pre-kindergarten gay education:
Anti-gay slurs “are part of the hidden curriculum in schools from Day One,” said Eliza Byard, executive director of the New York-based Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. “To let that stand with no balance and no response is an abdication of the responsibility on the part of schools, starting in kindergarten.”
The network launched a No Name Calling Week campaign eight years ago. It was initially aimed at middle school students, but many of 30,000 educators who downloaded the materials were from elementary schools. “By the time students are in middle school, the problem is at a fever pitch,” Byard said.
