Letter From the Editor -- Great!

Hey, this is great. The Sentinel is a local newspaper, you have to pay to see it online, so I'm including this whole letter to -- and from -- the editor.

This is classic. The materials that are mentioned in Regina Griggs' letter are teacher resources, yet she wants readers to think they are being used in the class. Teachers can read whatever they need to, to get up to speed on issues that they may have little knowledge of. The school board recommended some reading. These things don't go into the classroom, but a teacher might very well wonder, how do you talk to a gay student? How do you treat them?

The best part of this is the editor's response at the end. Beautiful.

LETTERS To the editor;

In Brian J. Karem's editorial (Extreme distortion compounded by a bed of lies), Mr. Karem says that the Montgomery County public schools are not pressing a pro-homosexual agenda. We beg to differ. As a member of the Committee which drafted the new sex education curriculum for approval by the MC Board of Education, we can confirm that both the Committee and Board approved as school resources literature published by gay activist groups while censoring ex-gay materials and other points of view.

One approved resource, published by the gay activist organization Triangle Foundation, defines "ex-gay" by claiming that “few say their homosexual attraction has changed." There are no footnotes accompanying this statement, so it is a biased opinion of ex-gays voiced by a gay advocacy group. Yet the Board refused to approve our definition of ex-gay even though we were appointed to the Committee to represent the Montgomery County ex-gay community!

One pamphlet approved by the Board encourages confused and impressionable youth to immediately self-identify as homosexual. Students and teachers are instructed on how to facilitate this transition by changing the school environment to explicitly discuss sexual behaviors, use language such as "partner" instead of spouse, post safe zone stickers for gay youth, invite gay speakers to address students, etc.

Another approved resource recommends that schools establish unisex bathrooms for transgender students. And yet another approved pamphlet urges teachers to refer students to specified gay-friendly religions. No alternate theology is presented.

The Board refuses to explain why it approved these materials as school resources while rejecting materials with other points of view. We urge the Board to present all of the facts on sexual orientation in a fair and balanced manner.

Regina Griggs
Executive Director
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays
PFOX

Editor’s note;

So, run for the school board. As Harry Truman said, any jackass can kick down a barn. It takes a lot more effort to build one. Tolerance for others is a hard lesson to learn for some, and for a group purporting to be friendly, you certainly sound angry. That anger aside, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. But, it would be nice if those who often claim to be Christian were more Christian in their attitudes toward others. Turn the other cheek comes to mind.