Exodus: Live Out Loud

Middle School Cancels 'Gender-Switch' Day

From NewsBusters:

If a middle school in Northern California had on its events schedule a cross-dressing, gender-shift day encouraging children to attire themselves as a member of the opposite sex, wouldn't you expect liberal media members across the fruited plain to be all over the story?

Yet, according to Google News and LexisNexis searches, not one press outlet, including those near the situation in California, thought this matter was at all newsworthy.

   

Fortunately, as announced Tuesday by the Pacific Justice Institute, the event was canceled...

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UK Foster Parents Win Right to Live their Beliefs

From Times Online:

Andrea Williams of Christian Concern For Our Nation said: “This is a significant step forward for Christian freedoms in that the Council has agreed not to force Mr and Mrs Matherick to act against their Christian beliefs. This should be of enormous encouragement to all Christians who want to take up the important role of caring for vulnerable children.”

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UK Christians Forced Out of Foster Care by Gay Agenda

From LifeSite:

By Hilary White
CHARD, UK, October 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Christian couple in Somerset, UK, have been told by child services that they would be required to take teenaged foster children to homosexual support groups and teach the children placed in their care that homosexuality is normal. When the couple told officials at social services that it would violate their conscience to do so, the eleven year-old boy who had been placed with them was removed.

Somerset Council officials cited the recently passed Sexual Orientation Regulations when they decided that people who open their homes to children in need, must also discuss same-sex relationships and promote homosexuality as normal and “equal”.

Vincent and Pauline Matherick have looked after twenty-eight children since 2001 with an untarnished record as care givers. When the couple first started fostering, they took in young single mothers and their babies, but have recently had mostly primary school aged children. They told the Daily Telegraph that officials with the Somerset Council had told them that if a child in their care showed signs of interest in homosexuality, they would be expected to encourage them by taking them to a homosexual support group.

Vincent Matherick, a minister at the South Chard Christian Church and a primary school governor, told the Telegraph, “They were saying that we had to be prepared to talk about sexuality with 11 year-olds, which I don’t think is appropriate anyway...

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Schwarzeneggar Signs Pro-Homosexual Bills

From LifeSite:

California Governor Schwarzenegger Veto of Gay "Marriage" Made Meaningless by Other Bills

SACRAMENTO, October 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While most media coverage has been devoted to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of homosexual 'marriage', he has in fact nullified his own veto giving all the rights of marriage to other unions.  His opposition to the bill redefining marriage was based on the passage of Proposition 22 a referendum in 2000 which protected the traditional definition of marriage.

On Friday Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB 102, which awards married names to unmarried couples. AB 102 allows homosexual couples to hold themselves out as married by permitting them to choose the same surname upon registration of their "domestic partnership." The bill awards unmarried couples married last names, such as "Mr. and Mr. Smith" and "Mrs. and Mrs. Jones."

"Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians have created the public image of homosexual 'marriages' in California," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), in response to the signing of AB 102. "It's hypocritical for Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto homosexual 'marriage' licenses and at the very same time aggressively promote the public image of gay and lesbian 'marriages' in every community for every child to see."

In addition, Schwarzenegger signed AB 14, which requires more California businesses, as well as some churches and nonprofit organizations, to support and promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality.

AB 14 prohibits state funding for any program that does not support transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality. This means state-funded social services operated by churches and other houses of faith, which provide essential services to children and adults, could dry up.

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British Christians will not be Prosecuted for their Beliefs, Judge Rules

From LifeSite:

The homosexual political movement in Britain was dealt a rare setback this week as a Northern Irish court ruled to curb some parts of notorious regulations. The Sexual Orientation Regulations of the Equality Act, that came into effect in January, would have allowed gay activists in Northern Ireland to prosecute people expressing religious oppositions to the homosexual lifestyle. The judge struck down the harassment provisions appearing in the legislation for Northern Ireland but supported the Regulations in general. 

According to the ruling, Christians or other religious people will now be allowed to "express their disapproval" of homosexuality in public. 

In his 42-page judgement, Mr Justice Weatherup at the High Court in Belfast,  ordered that the provisions be set aside because not enough time had been allowed for consultation before the government introduced the legislation.

The Christian Institute, a nondenominational Christian charity, with a group of churches, launched a suit against the SOR's. The passage of the secondary legislation was met with protests from Christians, Jews and Muslims who saw in them further encroachment on the principles of religious freedom in the UK.

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Grandparents File Lawsuit over "Brokeback" Shown to 12-year-old

From the Associated Press:

A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film "Brokeback Mountain" in class.

The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her 8th grade class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year.

The film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.

Turner and her grandparents, Kenneth and LaVerne Richardson, are seeking around $500,000 in damages.

"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this," said Kenneth Richardson, Turner's guardian. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this."

According to the lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, the video was shown without permission from the students' parents and guardians.

The lawsuit also names Ashburn Principal Jewel Diaz and a substitute teacher, referred to as "Ms. Buford."

The substitute asked a student to shut the classroom door at the West Side school, saying: "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," according to the lawsuit.

Richardson said his granddaughter was traumatized by the movie and had to undergo psychological treatment and counseling.

In 2005, Richardson complained to school administrators about reading material that he said included curse words.

"This was the last straw," he said. "I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read. I told them it was against our faith."

Messages left over the weekend with CPS officials were not immediately returned.

School Allows Day of Truth - After Legal Pressure

A Danbury, CT high school, which fully endorsed the pro-gay Day of Silence, initially refused one student's right to express her own beliefs through the Day of Truth. That's when Alliance Defense Fund stepped in. From Inside Tennessee:

After receiving a letter from attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, the principal of Danbury High School agreed Wednesday to allow a student to promote and participate in the Day of Truth after first having prohibited the student from doing so.  The school officially endorses the Day of Silence, an event promoting the homosexual agenda, but had thwarted student Rosemary Shakro’s attempts to promote the Day of Truth by inviting a speaker to a club meeting and posting signs announcing the event.

“Christian students should be allowed to express their viewpoint just like any other student,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.  “The Day of Truth is an opportunity for Christian students to respectfully present a different viewpoint than students participating in the Day of Silence.  Allowing students to have a Day of Silence without allowing students to have a Day of Truth limits free speech and the free exchange of ideas.”

“We are pleased that we had the opportunity to explain the law so that the school could do the right thing and respect the First Amendment rights of this student and any other students that wish to observe the Day of Truth.  We hope other schools will follow this example for their students,” Bowman added.

Shakro wished to invite a guest speaker to her “Youth Alive” after-school club meeting this Thursday as part of activities leading up to the Day of Truth.  The school has allowed other clubs, such as the Gay-Straight Alliance, to have outside guests speak at school assemblies and club meetings.  However, the school’s principal, who prohibited a speaker for last year’s Day of Truth, prohibited this year’s speaker as well, saying that the Day of Truth is too “controversial” and “counteractive.”  The principal had also claimed that “anti-homosexual” speech is prohibited at the school and that the presentation could cause contention among students.

“In addition, the principal had prohibited the posting of signs in school hallways announcing the club meeting, nonsensically suggesting that the ‘All are welcome’ message on the sign was an invitation to the general public to trespass on school property,” Bowman noted.

Bowman sent a letter to the principal explaining the law, and the school now says that Shakro will be allowed to invite the speaker and to post signs announcing the meeting.

“According to the law, a school cannot allow students to promote one viewpoint and then prohibit promotion of another viewpoint.  School officials also cannot ban speech just because they think it’s unpopular or controversial.  We are very pleased that Rosemary’s constitutional rights will be respected,” said Bowman.

A copy of the letter sent to Danbury High School is  available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/ShakroLetter.pdf. 

NEA Shuts Out Advocate for Change

Courtesy of AgapePress:

A conservative educator from Pennsylvania received a chilly response while addressing delegates to the National Education Association's annual convention held in New Orleans earlier this month.

Sissy Jochmann, a second grade teacher from Pennsylvania and chair of the Conservative Educators Caucus, delivered a two-minute speech in which she urged the NEA to support students in their right to choose not to engage in homosexual behavior. But Jochmann says delegates booed and shouted angrily at her while she spoke.

Jochmann's speech called on the NEA to provide "a full range of information and support resources available on homosexuality" and to be more tolerant of people on all sides of the issue. But the audience met Jochmann's proposal with antagonistic heckling and jeers.

"At one point -- the representative assembly -- I was speaking to over 9,400 people. It was a thunderous roar -- they didn't even want to consider debating it," she says.

Apparently the powerful educators' union is less tolerant than it purports to be -- and Jochmann is not the first to call attention to the organization's double standards.

In an editorial written for the organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, Dr. Warren Throckmorton revealed that the NEA convention for the past two years has denied exhibit space to PFOX. Last year, convention organizers told PFOX, an organization that supports homosexuals' right to choose to change their sexual orientation, that no space was available -- although they continued to sell exhibition space to other groups. This year, the NEA refused even to accept the group's application.

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Canadian Official Fined for Stating Biblical Stance on Homosexuality

From AgapePress:

A Kamloops (British Columbia) City Council member will pay a hefty fine and also apologize for comments he made about homosexuality at a public meeting last summer. Those comments by the local politician led to a complaint being lodged with Canada’s Human Rights Commission and could have proceeded to a tribunal.

LifeSite News reports that John DeCicco, who is Catholic, made the remarks at a Kamloops City Council meeting in June of last year and repeated them to the media afterward, saying that homosexual acts were "not normal and not natural." A homosexual activist couple filed the human rights complaint against him in August.

DeCicco has now decided to accept a $1,000 fine and make a statement of apology in order to avoid a Human Rights Tribunal hearing. However, the Catholic city official says his opinion has not changed.

Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera says his group is warning Christians in the United States that they may face a choice similar to the one DeCicco faced if they allow hate crimes legislation to supplant the First Amendment. "We’re saying to American pastors and American politicians, ’What would you do if you were fined a thousand dollars for saying that homosexual behavior is not normal and is not natural ?’" LaBarbera notes.

What happened to the Canadian city councillor in this instance "is an incredible outrage," the Americans for Truth spokesman asserts. "Free speech," he laments, "is going the way of the dinosaur in Canada, it seems."

U.S. Christians need to take note of how laws in Canada are forcing its citizens to suppress their own speech, LaBarbera says. Such self-censorship puts the opportunity to speak the much-needed truth about homosexuality in danger of dying out altogether, he warns.

"When you have all the burdens of having to go before a tribunal and having to issue a public apology and endure public humiliation just for voicing your beliefs, then there is no longer freedom in that country," the pro-family advocate observes. "We hope and pray that this never happens in the United States of America," he says.

LaBarbera advises believers in the U.S. against self-censoring their speech as he believes many in Canada are choosing to do. Christians, he contends, must not let the truth die out by allowing themselves to be silenced.

Homosexually-Inclusive Sex-Ed Program Approved, Creates Controversy

School board says, "Bring it on."

From the Washington Post:

The Montgomery County Board of Education approved new sex-education lessons yesterday for the eighth and 10th grades that teach what it means to be homosexual but say little about how people become gay, resisting pressure from a divided community to define homosexuality as nature or nurture, right or wrong.

Approved by a unanimous vote, the lessons mark the first time Montgomery schools will introduce the topics of sexual orientation and homosexuality. The materials, including a new 10th-grade condom-demonstration DVD, will be field-tested in a handful of middle and high schools in spring, barring intervention by the courts.

Some school board members said they expect a lawsuit from the same community groups that persuaded a federal judge to halt a version of the curriculum in spring 2005. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. found that the curriculum presented one view of homosexuality, "that homosexuality is a natural and morally correct lifestyle," to the exclusion of all others.

"I believe we will be sued. That's okay. . . . Bring it on," said board member Sharon W. Cox (At Large).

Leaders of the protest groups said yesterday that they would consider their legal options and signaled that they have the same objection to the new curriculum as to the old one: They say it offers one viewpoint, favorable toward homosexuality, anal sex and premarital sex. Observers on both sides have predicted that "viewpoint neutrality," or lack thereof, would eventually form the basis of a lawsuit.

"Absolutely nothing is allowed to be said that is negative about homosexuality," said Ruth Jacobs, an infectious-disease specialist and member of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which, with Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, sued to block the curriculum in its first incarnation.

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