Group launches national campaign to include ex-gay resources in sex-ed curricula

Baltimore, Md., Jan 15, 2006 / 22:00 pm

A nonprofit group that is working to impact the national debate on homosexuality—by letting everyone know that no one is born with same-sex attraction and that change is possible—is launching a national effort to have this view included in sex-education curricula across the country.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays won a lawsuit last May. The group had initially demanded that the board include information about changing from homosexual to heterosexual in its sex-education curriculum, but the school board and superintendent refused. The group then filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery County, Maryland Board.

In a landmark decision May 5, U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. stated that the present curriculum was an egregious form of discrimination. He also noted that only gay-affirming materials are allowed into schools and ex-gay resources are censored. The judge recognized the group’s First Amendment rights.

“The wisdom of approving a curriculum which prohibits students from discussing one viewpoint of a controversial subject goes to the very essence of that First Amendment faith,” the judge wrote in his judgment.

“The merit of Plaintiffs' viewpoint -- be it right, wrong, discriminatory, or just -- is of no consequence,” the judge continued. “Rather, the Court is concerned with ensuring that the Plaintiffs' free speech rights are not restricted merely because they voice an unpopular viewpoint. No matter the importance of an idea to its believers, or how objectionable it may be to its detractors, the diversity of our democratic fabric is sewn together by the belief that the path to freedom lies in the opportunity for rival positions to be equally heard and discussed”

“Our battle has just begun,” Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays said in a press release. “We won’t rest until all students across America know the truth that change is possible and ex-gays exist. We want our children to know that they have options.”

The group is asking supporters to donate funds to pay for its national campaign for which it needs to create, print and distribute new materials and resources to educate students about the possibility of changing from a homosexual to a heterosexual orientation.