As organizations such as Focus on the Family vigorously work to stop schools from implementing anti-bullying policies that protect gay students, the Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is leading the charge against anti-bullying programs in Minnesota schools. MFC head Tom Prichard previously condemned schools for permitting Gay Straight Alliances, which he says have “kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” adding that “it’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle.” Barb Anderson of the MFC and the Parents Action League recently talked to rabidly anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality about why she thinks LGBT-rights groups like the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) are actually to blame for the bullying of gay students by promoting “homosexual propaganda” and targeting certain students for indoctrination.
Anderson singled out the Anoka-Hennepin School District for her group’s campaign. In July, a student committed suicide after he was relentlessly bullied for being gay, and his family and other advocates have asked the school district to strengthen their anti-bullying policies to protect LGBT students from pervasive bullying. Anderson accused safe-schools groups such as GLSEN of using the student’s suicide “as a Trojan horse” to instill “pro-gay training” in schools.
Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reports:
[Anderson] said that it was LGBT groups that caused the bullying because more students were coming out of the closet.
“That is one of the tactics that they are using now, to say that by not legitimizing and normalizing homosexuality, we are creating an atmosphere in the schools that is hostile to quote-end-quote gay kids,” she said. “What they are doing is just the opposite themselves. They are creating an environment where these children that are sexually confused suddenly become affirmed as a homosexual or that they are born that way, and then these kids are locked into a lifestyle with their choices limited, and many times this can be disastrous to them as they get into the behavior which leads to disease and death in some cases.”
She added, “So, it’s really… They are the ones that are contributing to an atmosphere that can even increase bullying as more kids get into this kind of a lifestyle.”
Specifically, she said that it was the fault of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network.
“They are the driving force, really the clearing house for all of the homosexual propaganda that is coming into the schools,” she said. “GLSEN also promotes getting gay themed literature for children to read which in most cases is extremely obscene and pornographic. They are also behind getting the Gay-Straight Alliances into the elementary schools as well.”
She added, “This is a real dangerous organization. They are what I would call a child corruption organization basically.”
She said the group is targeting “creative” and “unique” students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s Fred Moore Middle School where a GSA was created this year.
“It’s interesting that they targeted an arts school to begin with because a lot of times your have homosexual teachers in that type of environment working with students,” she said. “So these are students that tend to be sometimes very creative and unique in their personalities so it seems to be an area where they try to get in and get the students involved in gay themed productions as well.”
Anderson said that her group, the Parents Action League, has been pressing the school district to do away with GSAs.
“Because of the Equal Access act they feel that they have to allow this in the schools and they they have not been able to put a stop to it, but there are parents getting organized and trying to plead the case that this really is harmful to students,” she said. “It is not providing them with healthy information. None of this is based on truth or scientific fact, especially if they are telling kids they are born this way.”
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She added, “Really homosexual behavior is one of the most hazardous behaviors that kids could get into and start practicing.”
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“In the wake of that tragedy,” said Anderson, “we have had more of the pro-gay materials flooding into our school district, because they are using that as a Trojan horse, playing on the emotions of the people involved and, of course, this is just a horrendous tragedy for this family.”
Anderson continued, “But they are playing on the fact that we have got to get more of this in the schools so this doesn’t happen to other kids and so that’s where all this pro-gay training is coming in, and it’s making it harder for parents to stop it. It’s really coming in like a tsunami.”
She then praised the school board, “But we do have an outstanding policy. Our sexual orientation policy, which parents can look at on the Parents Action League website, that was written by our school board members and is in place and is the one piece that is keeping these types of pro-gay materials out of the school day.”
