For more about Bradley Fowler - who served 19 years in prison, renounced his Baptist heritage and found his salvation as a homosexual - read this book review:

Bradley Fowler Turns Life Around

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer Sun Jul 20, 1:06 PM ET

NEW YORK - Television news' royalty will fly in to meet Barack Obama during this week's overseas trip: CBS chief anchor Katie Couric in Jordan on Tuesday, ABC's Charles Gibson in Israel on Wednesday and NBC's Brian Williams in Germany on Thursday.

The anchor blessing defines the trip as a Major Event and — much like a "Saturday Night Live" skit in February that depicted a press corps fawning over Obama — raises anew the issue of fairness in campaign coverage.

Read entire article here.

Unbelievable.

NYT REJECTS MCCAIN'S EDITORIAL; SHOULD 'MIRROR' OBAMA
Mon Jul 21 2008 12:00:25 ET

An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES -- less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The paper's decision to refuse McCain's direct rebuttal to Obama's 'My Plan for Iraq' has ignited explosive charges of media bias in top Republican circles.

'It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece,' NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain's staff. 'I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.'

Drudge exclusive here.

This piece originally appeared in World magazine June 13, 1998 - my Father's Day tribute.

His Little Girl

I remember the day my dad left. He knelt and hugged me and cried. The skimpy dress of a five year old girl couldn't protect me from the chill that gathered around my arms and legs. The scratchy tickly whiskers - would I feel them no more? The arms that felt so safe - would they be gone forever?

What would it be like not to have a father?

The years to come provided harsh answers to those questions. Mine was not a carefree childhood. Shuffled with two brothers between foster home, relatives, and - when things worked out - my mother, I toughed out the tough times. My innocence gave way early on to a cynic's world view: Don't depend on anyone and no one will disappoint you.

As anyone without a father will agree, the loss doesn't end when you grow up. The scars are like the glossy, too-tight skin that grows over a deep wound. Beneath the protective cover lies too much tenderness.

For the longest time I didn't know about the tenderness. I tended the gloss - taking control of my future, acquiring a good education, rising above the pattern of my family's past. I guess you might say with no one to believe in, I learned to believe in myself.

Only when this unsustainable strategy dropped me down and out - and more alone than ever - did I finally face my fatherlessness.

So it was in my thirties - sensing what was missing was spiritual - that I finally launched a search for God. For someone like me, the New Age movement held enormous appeal. Here I could wander into nooks and crannies, borrowing this and that to construct an image of god to mesh with my own deficiencies. Crippled by the lack of a real father in my life, seeing God only as some remote and impersonal force, my hope was that through understanding, I could appropriate the force - recognizing God within me - then manipulate it to find happiness.

With my eyes on the ground, happiness was as high as I could aim my sight. I wouldn't have thought to seek His love.

And yet how amazingly unconditional and enduring His love remained for me! No matter how I misunderstood him, how well he continued to understand me. How patiently He waited as I wandered - for seven more years protecting me from harm, continuing to draw me nearer, gradually softening my heart.

My husband helped to soften me - though I never could have told him then. Watching him father our children was like peeking through a frosted pane into a warm and cozy place I'd never known. Although seeing my children experience a happy childhood was the next best thing to having one myself, how I wished sometimes to climb inside and receive that kind of love myself.

Oh, how ready I was the moment I first heard God was my father! How easy it was to believe He loved me, had a plan for my life, and through Jesus Christ would have relationship with me. Of course, I wanted a Father! At last, I was someone's little girl!

To this day, seventeen years later, I cannot approach God intellectually, but only as a child. Yet He has never asked me to do more. With no reservations, I feel His love: Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. (Psalm 27:10)
Is it not a miracle that someone who missed an earthly father's love can be healed to receive the love of the Heavenly Father? But isn't He Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals?

The greatest privilege of all: to call him Abba, Father.

According to Vines Word Dictionary, "Abba is a word framed by the lips of infants and betokens unreasoning trust. Father expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent confidence of a child."

I remember once before he left, my father carrying me home in his arms as blood gushed from a jagged cut on my foot. I was four and I was frightened, hoping that my father could take care of me. But though that day he bound and stopped the bleeding, no earthly father could have healed the wounded heart he later left behind.

That hurt cried out for the love of a Heavenly Father.

And so I will always be His grateful little girl - trusting, dependent, and filled with faith in the arms that will never let me go.

Photo credit: Cyrus Muller

The Winds of Fate

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sails,
And Not the gales,
That tell us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As we voyage along through life,
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

I've shared here the long saga of my SD tracking me down through Classmates.com after 20 years of non-communication (preceded by 5 contacts in the previous 30 years). The story of finding out he is a convicted sex offender (13 year old victim), my attempt at a compassionate confrontation, his denials laced with hateful invective towards me, and finally my confrontation about the times he tried to seduce me - which is why I could not believe his protestations of innocence (for the whole soap opera, read Family skeletons: breaking free).

Several months have passed and I had breathed a sigh of relief - this chapter is finished.

Unfortunately, I did have a response from the SD last week, in which he not only denied what happened, but spun a lewd and lascivious fantasy of my showing him topless pictures and appearing dressed only in bikini pants while visiting him. And if that weren't bad enough, he lambasted me yet again at length for my "phony" religion and self-righteousness.

The guy is 81 years old!! I owe him nothing. And though when he approached me two years ago to have some sort of relationship I was ready to forgive and see what God would do. But some people evidently die with their hearts like stone, unable to be honest with themselves or to receive forgiveness.

Had I not been through the things I've been through - which have made me arguably too tough in some ways - I would be absolutely shattered. And at some deeper level I probably am.

But I know one thing. This is the end for me of ever, ever communicating with this twisted, perverted man. I wrote:

You are very sick. Your response proves you are indeed delusional.

Never contact me again.

One other thing you should know about me is that I survived a horrible past by leaving my family far behind. I haven't written this before, but I also have a brother who is a convicted sex offender (his daughter) - also unrepentant and belligerent in his claim: "I am not a pedophile."

A couple of readers have asked how I handle writing openly about my family. I would say that first of all, I do not consider these people my family. As far as breaking their privacy, these men do not have the same last name as I do. However, their privacy is already broken because of their crimes: if you knew their last names you would find them in the National Sex Offenders Registry. Thank God that we still offer some redress for women and children who are victims - and some way to warn others that they are in their midst.

I write about these things to show others who come from trashy, disgusting backgrounds that by the grace of God we are not bound by the chains that these men have chosen to continue wearing. I write to show that we do indeed have a choice to choose darkness or light.

I also write to remind us that we are not victims, but sinners just like them. I've done my share of hurting others. The only thing that separates me from these vile men is that I've acknowledged my sin and received forgiveness. I'm no better than they are, except through the intervention of a loving and gracious God and a Savior whose redemption I have gratefully received.

I will never forget where I came from and I will give thanks every day for God's lifting me up from the darkness and allowing me - with a dedicated partner/husband/friend - to become a generational turning point, becoming an intentional parent and learning to give my children what was not given to me: a decent, secure, and loving upbringing. Not perfect, of course, but intentional - always striving to become more loving, more conformed to the image of Christ.

My kids will make their own choices. But I have great hope that my own family line will not go down this dark and terrible path ever again.

I write about this openly not because I am proud - I am filled with horror and shame when I think about my roots and I hate to tell my children about them. On the other hand, I feel I must tell my children so they will appreciate what God has done in their lives. And I must tell others so they will see the glory of God as it is painted in one family's life.

He truly rescued us. My children are blessed to have a father who has been loving and kind and protective - and I have done a lot of healing just watching the relationship of Sophia and Maddy with their dad.

But as for me, the only Father I will ever know is the one who saved me from disaster and will never, ever let me go.
~~~~~~~~
See also A father to the fatherless.

*I have not one, but three tattoos (circa 1970 or so).

*I am terrified of roller coasters and ferris wheels.

*I don’t like gardening or sushi. I've tried gardening and may give it another try someday. But the idea of sushi makes my stomach turn.

*I’ve lived in 20 different places, scattered through 12 states.

*I’ve interviewed Chuck Colson and been interviewed by James Dobson.

What are your five things? Share in the comments or give us a link.

Here are some things I’ve watched so far this summer with various family groupings. Since I've got a lot going on with packing, these are just some short, personal observations - not so much a formal review as though we were having coffee and chatting. You can fill in the blanks by checking PI or RT for more thoughts.

All available on DVD:

Lars and the Real Girl

A grieving young man, unable to connect with people after the death of his parents, finally finds hope in the form of a full-size plastic doll, which he treats with complete dignity and respect because – as he tells his brother and sister-in-law – she’s religious and old-fashioned. So convincing is his love for her, that his small town friends and neighbors put aside their skepticism and begin to lavish her with love too. It is that love – and the careful low-key ministration of a compassionate therapist which finally enable him to deal with his grief and find his way back to health.

Hmmm. Putting the plot down like that just doesn’t capture the incredible sweetness and light of this movie. What sounds like a completely implausible situation becomes completely real because of the impeccable casting and direction. This is a gem and my teens loved it too, saying they would love to see it again.

Water

Set in India circa 1930, this film focuses on a house of widows, but frequently references the political rumblings of Ghandi’s attempts to awaken and enlighten his countrymen to the injustices of British rule and their own cruel customs – like the one that would condemn an 8-year-old girl to an arranged marriage with a 50-year-old man, who in short order leaves her widow – condemning her to a life of exile, poverty and exploitation.

This was a heavy movie which I watched alone. The only part I found inauthentic was the casting of the costar and romantic lead with a gorgeous European-looking woman rather than a more authentic-looking Indian woman. I found it very distracting and wondered how Indian women felt about it.

This was a movie meant to deliver a political message regarding the plight of the 40 million shunned and impoverished widows currently suffering under the old law. Deepa Mehta, the woman director, was denounced and religious riots shut down production several times.

The Great Debaters

Tripp and I watched this movie, based on the true story of a pre-civil rights era debate team from a small black college who worked hard to end up debating at Harvard. Denzel Washington plays the college professor who moonlights as a community organizer. His counterfoil is a handsome young black student who also lives two lives – only his second life is destructive to himself and those around him. The film falters at the literary/philosophical contrast that could be drawn by these two men’s differing responses to racism by presenting both as equally valid responses – while one involves personal risk for the sake of others, and the second is just personal risk to fulfill the desire to escape.

This film had an HBO feel about it. The costumes were too perfect and the cast was too beautiful. Again, the two women cast as leads were very thin, fashionable and light-skinned with Anglo features. That women of other races are held to the standards of beauty of Caucasian not only in American movies but in foreign ones is a problem. I would rather see people who look real.

Not a waste of time by any means, but not a must-see either. On the other hand, the preview/trailer on the DVD is for Akeelah and the Bee, which reminded me how much I loved that and would love to see it again. Why not rent that one instead?

Be Kind Rewind

I read a review that raved about this, prompting me to watch it one day with my kids. A fantastic tale set in the blighted inner city, in which the owner of a shop renting VHS tapes leaves the store in the care of a young man ( the excellent Mos Def) with a crazy friend (Jack Black). When Black’s shenanigans end in the entire stock being demagnetized, the friends team up to dub the blank tapes with their own remakes of old favorites like Ghostbusters, Robobcop, and Driving Miss Daisy. The results are mildly amusing, though I didn’t find myself laughing out loud, just smiling and chuckling now and then.

The kids and I thought this was not a waste of time, but not worth a second time around.

Bella

Watched this with Sophia and Maddy. Here the female lead is very believable looking, which means she can by Everywoman. The male lead is impossibly beautiful, but that’s because he was a Hispanic superstar/high roller who committed his life to Christ and set about changing his career path to reflect the deeper values he now holds - see Eduardo Verastegui: The Man Behind Bella . This film is a movie about unwanted pregnancy and the fear of a woman alone. It is also about a fatal mistake that in the blink of an eye can change lives forever. And it is about choices, redemption and hope.

Because of its pro-life message it was panned by the critics. When it comes to movies with an agenda, American critics love those that agree with their own, but reject those that don’t – which is why a movie about India’s mistreatment of widows receives acclaim while one with a prolife theme is panned simply for being pro-life.

This movie painted a loving portrait of the Mexican family in America - very appealing.

Persepolis

Zach was out when the rest of the family watched this unusual film. He has been put on notice by his sisters that it is a must-see. I rented this based on Rotten Tomatoes 96% rating and its recommendation:

Concensus: Persepolis is an emotionally powerful, dramatically enthralling autobiographical gem. The film's simple black-and-white images are effective and bold, helping to place the focus on the poignant and sometimes heartbreaking coming of age story. Marjane Satrapi's bestselling graphic novel springs to life and flourishes on film, making Persepolis not only one of the year's best animated films, but one of the year's best films overall.

Persepolis tells the story of Iranian revolution – from the perspective of a little girl living an everyday life in the midst of staggering political changes. Because I love this angle to studying other cultures, I count this unusual movie as a gem. The only strange note was that since she eventually went into exile, the movie is in French rather than Farsi, which would have made it sound more authentic.

With subtitles – and if you think you don’t like subtitles, all I can say is that making peace with them will open up many new worlds through movies. When my children were too young to read, I simply held them on my lap and quietly read them aloud as we watched together.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

This 1972 classic by Franco Zefirelli – where every scene is like a painting – has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it in a church basement in San Francisco. It was 1977 and I was a wasted drug addict, but I somehow ended up there for a showing by a group of hippies who used to travel the country in a school bus showing the movine to spread the Gospel. Though I did not begin my recovery until 1980, I consider it one of the early seeds God planted to show me a path to redemption and hope.

In 1983, Tripp and I had been married for a few months, I was pregnant with Josh and we were already separated. At Easter, I invited him to see a showing at the Parkside Theater on Taraval Street in San Francisco. We cried together afterwards and were reconciled. Though we still had lots of painful struggles to go through – as two emotional cripples trying to make a new start and build a better family than we had known – we never separated again.

Over the years, this movie has continued to speak to us and our children – different things as we grow and bring more to the experience of watching it. With some of us recently converted to Catholicism, we wanted to watch it from this perspective. It still takes my breath away.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon tells the story of Francis of Assisi – of his selflessness and boundless love for Christ as well as for "the least of these," and of his Christ-like humility in the face of adversity. At a time when the church was in desperate need of reformation, it also illustrates the constant need for reformation in our individual hearts.

With music by Donovan, you can see the hippie, free-spirit appeal. But this movie has played a large part in the Curtis Family history and still speaks to our hearts today.

My favorite of the new releases is Lars and the Real Girl, followed by Persepolis.

Last night we started the John Adams HBO series. And also on our must-see-again list is The Mission. Will report back on these soon.

Feel free to add your comments and recommendations!

This is amazing!! At least for a household of book lovers like ours.

Last year, Angie told me about PaperbackSwap - where you list your books (hardbacks too) and agree to send them free as people order them (usually 2.23 media mail).

For every book you sell, you get a point which you can then use to order a book FREE from their huge database. And when you sign up and list 10 books, they give you two points to start ordering stuff right away.

I signed up immediately and within 10 minutes had listed 10 books and ordered a book I've been looking for (in hardback too!). Two of the books I listed were on people's waiting lists and I'd packed them off and made two more points within a week.

Since then I've sent over 250 books and received over 250. Which sounds like a lot, but there are five AVID readers involved here.

When I signed up, Angie got a point because I listed her as my referral. The link above is coded so that if you use it to sign up yourself, I will get a point on my account.

But I would tell you even if there were no points for referrals. I would tell you, because Paperback Swap has been so totally COOL!

As of today, Paperback Swap has 2,316,106 books listed and hundreds of members online listing more at any given time. Any kind of book you're looking for - and some are hardback editions. I entered the keyword Early Reader this morning and there were 1645 listed. 22 Elisabeth Elliot. 338 Cliffs Notes. 238 Dr. Dobson. 1 Beth Moore. A few Dr. and Martha Sears. 116 Narnia. 207 Tolkien Lord of the Rings books.

Oh - and here's a great feature: if you want a book that's not listed, you can put it on your wish list and you'll be notified as soon as someone else lists it. We've received many books we were looking for this way - including some of the Adventures of TinTin and even a couple textbooks for my college kids.
~~~~~~~~
btw, if you have signed up for Paperback Swap through my site in the past six months, please let me know as there was something wrong with my encoding and I did not receive credit for the referral.

The Focus on the Family radio program has been elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame, joining such historic programs as Your Hit Parade, The Shadow, Little Orphan Annie and Orson Welles' famous Mercury Theater.

The following comments were given by Dr. James Dobson at a staff assembly this morning:

"I've made a living putting thoughts into words throughout my adult life, but it is difficult to express how I feel about this honor. I am especially pleased because the wonderful people at Focus on the Family deserve it. Our radio program has not been a solo effort. It has been a symphony performed by more than 10,000 people over the past 32 years. I am indebted to them all.

Read article here.

Thanks to all of you who voted for Dr. Dobson.

More on the science behind motherhood:

Baby's smile gives mom a natural high

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A baby's smile does more than warm a mother's heart -- it also lights up the reward centers of her brain, according to the results of a brain imaging study.

The finding, investigators say, could go a long way in helping researchers dissect the unique bond between mother and infant and how it sometimes goes wrong.

"The relationship between mothers and infants is critical for child development," Dr. Lane Strathearn, of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston noted in a statement.

"For whatever reason, in some cases, that relationship doesn't develop normally. Neglect and abuse can result, with devastating effects on a child's development," Strathearn explained.

Read entire article here.

See also Breastfeeding, oxytocin and love

Photo: Benjamin Michael Curtis circa 1986

How are you doing? Hope you're having a fabulous summer.

I'm writing to see if any of your boys wear a cpap for sleep apnea. If so, do you have any advice on HOW to get a 4 year old with downs plus lots of sensory issues to wear one? Or, do you know anyone who's gone through this that i might talk to? Feeling a bit overwhelmed about this whole thing.

Thanks so much!
Jenny Fitzgerald

And anyone who questioned what was going on was labeled a bigot or a homophobe or worse.

It was in response to this craziness that I published this in the Marin Independent Journal 5/20/2002:

Homosexual Groups Use Classic Propaganda Techniques to Gain Ground in Public Schools

I was 16 riding the bus when a middle-aged man sank into the seat next to me. He wasn’t big, but his body took up too much space. I could feel his thigh pressing against mine. I scrunched in closer to the window. I felt it again. I scrunched some more.

I remember the fear that if I made a fuss, it might look like there was something wrong with me, the intimidation that kept me from confronting the situation head-on.

And so I learned that bullying can take many forms.

This seems to be what has happened in Novato, where gay rights activists have marched in under the banner of “safe schools” and “tolerance” stereotyping those with legitimate questions and stifling any reasoned response.

It’s been a year since the Novato controversy erupted with a “diversity committee” – of which no one seems to know the exact origin – eager to implement a pro-homosexual K-12 curriculum. Still, the battle rages on with the homosexual lobby importing support from San Francisco and for school board meetings and special showings of That’s a Family! to seek support from parents who haven’t yet chosen sides. is aimed at K-6 graders..

That’s a Family! – aimed K-6 students – uses a backdrop of cheerful music, colors, and graphics to frame a series of vignettes of nontraditional families. There are adopted kids as well as kids growing up with parents of different races, grandparents, single mothers, divorced parents, and finally Two Mommies and Two Daddies. Backers claim it will eliminate “hate speech” and harassment which they claim are rife on elementary school campuses in Novato.

Yet, the insistently upbeat portrayal of these children – some of whom discuss difficult circumstances like being taken by grandmothers from drug-addicted mothers – seems very dysfunctional, minimalizing the sadness and confusion felt by children powerless over their parents’ choices. The film’s creators claim they want to have every child see their lives reflected back at them. Yet not a single traditional family is in the mix, ignoring tons of scientific research on the devastation caused by divorce and fatherlessness.

In addition to external pressure to implement a pro-homosexual curriculum, the high school Gay Straight Alliance – heavily backed by adult gay rights organizations – is demanding classroom time to teach things like “Famous Queer People in History” (their title, not mine – and conveniently dead, so who’s to say?).

Hard to believe any school board member anywhere would actually consider such a proposal. Yet concerns from parents, teachers, and the curriculum committee – as well as parliamentary procedures and school board regulations – have been brushed aside in the rush to pacify an ever-more-demanding political group.

To understand the strings by which Novato citizens are being pulled, consider this definition from the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), an educational organization created in 1937:

...propaganda is opinion expressed for the purpose of influencing
actions of individuals or groups...The propagandist tries to “put something
across,” good or bad. . . [and] seldom wants careful scrutiny and criticism
....The scientist, on the other hand, is always prepared and wants the most
careful scrutiny and criticism of his facts and ideas.

The IPA lists seven basic propaganda devices:

Name-Calling – People with questions are labeled “homophobes,” as though they run on fear rather than reason. Spectrum, a gay activist group actively assisting Novato High School students, solicits funds to fight “religious conservatives,” a stereotype which doesn’t fit all their opposition.

Glittering Generalities – While Name-Calling leads followers to condemn without thinking, the Glittering Generality manipulates them to approve without examining the evidence. Words like “tolerance” and “diversity” become banners for those who refuse to practice these virtues themselves.

Euphemisms – Words and images can make unpleasant realities more palatable – as in That’s a Family! It is possible to teach kindness and respect without such inauthentic spin.

Transfer – Gay activists have borrowed legitimacy by allying themselves with racial minorities, bypassing careful analysis of some very real distinctions.

Testimonial – Think Rosie O’Donnell.

Plain Folks – Think the Two-Mommy and Two-Daddy households in That’s A Family who testify to being just like every other family.

Bandwagon – Presented with a paradigm of “tolerance”or “homophobia” many jump on the bandwagon without closely examining the real issues or the ramifications for the future.

Propagandists use emotions to push and pull, using fear to steer attention away from real discussion and toward a quick solution – the one they want. Spectrum pleads for donations to continue its “life-saving work,” as though only their agenda can prevent gay teen suicide.

I’m not the only one who remains unconvinced that organizations like Spectrum offer the best answers for kids. Camille Paglia – a philosophy professor famous for her outspoken lesbianism and her intellectual independence – charges that gay activists are using “questionable and overblown” teen suicide statistics to whip up a case for their intrusion into public schools.

She writes, “In most cases, the suicide attempts are probably not due to homophobic persecution but to troubled family relations – which may be the source of the social maladjustment and homosexual impulses in the first place. Trumpeting gayness in adolescents short-circuits their psychological inquiry and growth.”

She concludes: “The intrusion of militant gay activism into primary schools does more harm than good by encouraging adolescents to define themselves prematurely as gay, when in fact most teens are wracked by instability, insecurity, and doubt.”

Unfortunately, there’s been no room for such authentic discussion in Novato. For Californians here and elsewhere who’ve been dealing with the same uncomfortable feeling of being bullied on the bus, I submit these seven reasons why.

We moved to Virginia four months after this was published. Since then I've covered similar stuff in Massachusetts. I offer this here because I know it is difficult to rise above the hatred of those who do not want you to have the freedom to express your opinion - but I want to provide some talking points for traditional parents.

Believe me, the gay political machine is working nonstop to polish theirs.

It may be too late for California and Massachusetts to reestablish sanity in their schools - to return to an educational as opposed to a social engineering agenda - but those of you in more traditional states need to be ready to defend your public schools.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this series:
Homosexual propaganda in public schools
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 1
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 2
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 3

This Question/Answer piece appeared in Salon magazine as part of Camille Paglia's standing column. Paglia is a brilliant philosophy professor who adores football and happens to be a lesbian. What is remarkable about Paglia is her ability to think outside the box: she formulates her opinions based on her own cultural observations and not on the Gay Party Line:

Dear Camille:

I am a black, conservative female. I am proud to say that you are one of my heroes. I would like your opinion of the following press release, which I am forwarding to you. It's regarding the Gay Youth Pride Day. Now, according to some, I may have no right to have an opinion about this, because of my heterosexuality. However, I think some in the so-called "gay community" take this pride thing a bit too far. As a 19-year-old, openly straight female, I really don't understand the need for the self-anointed leaders of the gay rights movement to draw gay youngsters into their self-indulgent politics. Am I misguided or insensitive in my approach to the "young gay dilemma"?

Your conservative admirer in Va.

Dear Conservative:

The psychological turmoil of adolescents at sexual awakening cannot be underestimated. Everything is in flux -- impulses, fears, dreams, with simultaneous longings for independence and for protection by adults. What I dislike about the push of organized gay activism into high schools is that it imposes a rigid political paradigm on a stage of life that is in rapid, painful transition for everyone, gay or straight.

As an equity feminist, as well as an open lesbian, I oppose special protections for any group, including my own. Teachers and administrators should obviously not permit physical harassment of any kind on school property, but verbal epithets, however offensive or hurtful, have First Amendment protection. The PC thought police, having been defeated on college campuses after the court-ordered banning of the fascist speech codes, are now oozing their way into high schools. "Hate" cannot be stopped by authoritarian manipulation but by slow social change, which may take generations.

The Internet has been a boon to lonely gay teens in geographically remote areas -- but, of course, computers still remain largely a white middle-class luxury. I find very suspicious the statistics about teen suicides with which gay activists badger the media. If gay teens are indeed attempting suicide at a higher rate than straight teens, perhaps more questions need to be asked about the genesis of homosexuality. The intolerable sense of isolation may precede the homosexuality, rather than vice versa.

I have written repeatedly about my theory that homosexuality is an adaptation, rather than an innate trait, and that it is reinforced by habit. With its cant terms of "oppression" and "bigotry," gay activism, encouraged by the scientific illiteracy of academic postmodernism, wants to deny that there is a heterosexual norm. This is madness. We need more art and history and less politics in primary education. Art gives the young the psychological and spiritual tools for authentic self-discovery. And art is where sexual dissenters have contributed the most to the human record.

In short, I agree with your concern about the Trojan Horse of gay activism, which is being dragged into high schools under the false flag of compassion. Young people who oppose homosexuality for any reason have a constitutional right to express their views, in or out of the classroom. Whatever they may privately believe as individuals, educators have a professional obligation to remain ideologically neutral in their treatment of students.

Thought-provoking stuff.

The problem with the gay political agenda - as I've said before - is that it does not allow discussion. Organizations like GLSEN are eager to push confused kids into declaring their gayness and want to be free to provide them with information and support, but they are threatened by people who've chosen to leave the homosexual lifestyle and by organizations offering information or help to those who want to leave.

The key here is choice - informed choice. Freedom of speech and free flow of information. But thanks to organizations like GLSEN, the National Education Association will allow booths at their conventions promoting their agenda among public school teachers, while organizations offering any kind of support for students who want help returning to heterosexuality are banned (read more here).

Isn't that strange? What are they afraid of? It's like Planned Parenthood refusing to allow prospective abortion customers to be given all the facts concerning their baby's development. This whole control of information is so characteristic of the Left. They know what's good for you and your kids. And if you question they're judgment, why you're just a fanatic and a hatemonger!

Parents have a reason to be wary of Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools as they are backed by adult organizations like GLSEN, which is very intent on proselytizing in public schools - actively recruiting kids to declare themselves homosexual and censoring other choices.
~~~~~~~~~~~
In this series:
Homosexual propaganda in public schools
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 1
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 2
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 3

Washington Post tells kids homosexuality is fine
Robert Knight

Throwing aside even a pretense of fairness, The Washington Post openly promoted homosexuality to teens in a front page article on Monday about a 15-year-old boy "coming out" to embrace his "gay identity." The Post included a video about the boy, Saro Harvey.

Post reporter Theresa Vargas's article, "Owning His Gay Identity – at 15 Years Old," was an entirely one-sided advertisement for more school "anti-bullying" policies, which often evolve into pro-homosexual re-education campaigns.

Vargas chose to cite two pro-homosexual organizations GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). She failed, however, to include any statements from experts who oppose the encouragement of homosexuality among the young. She also ignored the many recent alarming health reports about soaring sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, among young gay men.

Read entire article here.

In this series:
Homosexual propaganda in public schools
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 1
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 2
Teens need freedom from pressure to choose gay labels - Part 3