In gearing up for its “Liberty Sunday” telecast this weekend, the Family Research Council suggested that the real-life examples of how the “homosexual agenda” is supposedly infringing on religious liberty would be “pro-homosexual ‘diversity’ training at work” and students being “subjected” to “pro-homosexual books or rhetoric in school.” In yesterday’s “Washington Update,” FRC President Tony Perkins named some of his guests:
You may remember us reporting last year on David Parker, the Lexington, Massachusetts father who was arrested because of insistence on being notified by school officials anytime homosexual topics were discussed in his son's classroom. He made this reasonable request after his six-year-old kindergartner came home from school with a "diversity" book bag and a book discussing homosexual relationships. A year later, the Worthlin family experienced a similar attack on their parental rights after their seven year old read "King and King" in his second grade classroom - a book promoting homosexual romance and same-sex "marriage." The Parkers and the Worthlins will be my guests at Liberty Sunday which will be held this weekend in Boston. You will hear from them and others on how the homosexual agenda is impacting religious liberties in Massachusetts and around the country.
As was widely reported, Parker was arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave the school without a signed agreement from the superintendent about gays being mentioned:
Parker said he met with school officials to gain those assurances and then refused to leave until he got them. Parker stayed at Estabrook School for more than two hours, according to Superintendent William J. Hurley, as officials and Lexington police urged him to leave. Finally, they arrested him for trespassing.
Parker, who refused to bail himself out of jail Wednesday night, said he spent the night in custody to prove a point.
Specifically, Parker’s demand was that the school guarantee that “Discussions concerning homosexuality issues will not take place in front of our son.” Apparently, notifying parents ahead of time that a book describing various family structures, including same-sex parents, would be voluntarily distributed was not enough:
Parents received notice about the book bag at the beginning of the year and the date that it was scheduled to be sent home with their child. The bag's contents also were put on display at a back-to-school night earlier in the school year, [PTA copresident Rachel F. Cortez] said, and parents are not required to have their child bring it home.
''The kids don't have to take them [the materials] home," she said. ''Parents can either opt out entirely or use whatever materials they want."
Parker’s apparently unilateral demand that the public school ensure his child was not exposed to any mention of same-sex families – in a state where same-sex marriage is legal – is exhibit #1 in FRC’s attempt to prove that what it calls the “homosexual agenda” “puts religious freedom on a course of extinction.”
