FRC Series 1: But What About the Children???

Time to dig in, kiddies. 


The first two points I'm going to cover go hand in hand. The first is how marriage equality being legalized in Massachusetts has resulted in the 'indoctrination' of the state's children; and the second is a specific example of this, and the repercussions faced when attempting to be a 'good parent' and block your children from exposure to gays.


So. Let's start with the opening of the video. 


Cue the sound-bites about how the government is now "directly attacking a major world religion for its doctrinal principles"...good, good. Okay, now let's bring in the Indiana Jones-ish background music and a picture of Tony Perkins, President of the FRC, riding into battle in the backseat of his chauffeured car. Now we're on a roll! Next, a close up of our friend Tony, throwing out the big hook - "I'm here to show you the impact of same-sex marriage on your sons and daughters."


BAM!!! Cue video cover art - three small, frightened children peeking out from between their fingers at the horrible, terrible...wedding cake with two grooms on top?? That was the best they could do? No porn images or lesbians kissing gratuitously at their sundown wedding? No pastors bitch-slapping the Pride signs out of gays' hands? I'm disappointed in you people. 


If you still have two brain cells left to rub together, you're probably rolling your eyes by this point in the video - maybe even chuckling a little. Because you're still hoping it's all a big joke. Even through the requisite digs at Obama for not upholding DOMA in court (which I promise we'll get back to later), the way these people are talking makes it sound as though the gays are about to lay waste to the entire nation, then swoop in on rainbow wings and snatch away your babies for their own foul purposes. It's just so over-the-top, you're thinking. This can't be for real.


It's not until the badly-Photoshopped image of a small boy on the steps of the Supreme Court holding a white sign with red letters reading, "SAVE YOUR KIDS", that my smile started to fade a little.


Wait, wait, wait...was that what I thought it was? Rewind...play...SERIOUSLY!? Okay, so now this organization is going to set about telling me how to save my poor, innocent child from the scary gay agenda. Alright then, lay it on me.


And then they did.


Kris Mineau is the President of the Massachusetts Family Institute. We see an action shot of him driving to and then entering his office, with this voiceover, "We in Massachusetts have had same-sex marriage forced upon us for seven years now. And the first level of impact was in our schools...our children are being indoctrinated to same-sex marriage, and the rightness, the correctness of homosexuality." 


Indoctrinated into what? Equality? Tolerance? Diversity? Unfortunately no, that is not how they see it at all. They see their children being eaten alive by corrosive sin that has been forced upon them as normal. And the man at the forefront of that school of thought is David Parker.


Mr. Parker is a Massachusetts father who flipped his proverbial lid when his son came home from school with a 'Diversity Book Bag'. Inside this book bag were materials covering all different types of people and families, with one book in particular titled, Who's in a Family? by Robert Skutch. Featured in this book are families of all configurations - a mother/father/child family, a grandmother/grandchildren family, a single mother/child family, etc. All of these were okay, but when he came across a family that included gay & lesbian parents, all hell broke loose (so to speak).


Before we are told what the Parkers did to try and protect their child, we are shown another couple - Rob and Robin Wirthlin - who also have a major complaint against their child's school. Apparently their 7-year-old son was present in a classroom where the book King and King was read. This is a fairy tale story about a prince who falls in love with another prince and marries him. After emailing the teacher with their concerns, they were told that yes, it was a book concerning two princes that fall in love, and gave them the name of the book so that they could research it themselves. And then we're suddenly back to David Parker.


He and his wife Tonia say that after the Diversity Book Bag came home, they realized the "intention of the administrators and teachers was to affirm these relationships and gay marriage in the minds of children". The couple went to the school and requested parental notification when these kinds of issues are presented by an adult within the school system, and the option to opt their child out of receiving that information. They were told it was not a parental notification issue, because same-sex marriage was legal in Massachusetts, and therefore the administration and/or teachers could broach the subject at any time with the children.


At this point, Tonia Parker apparently forgot that her children were at a public school, and informed the school representative that they were not respecting the Parker's parental rights, and were "...presenting that which is sin as though it is not to our son, and we cannot allow that."


Okay, let's take a little break here and address that last little bit. Obviously Mrs. Parker has every right to believe whatever she chooses regarding homosexuality and marriage equality. No one is questioning that or suggesting otherwise. However, she placed her child in a public school. The public school system is representative of all demographics and all diverse groups that enter its doors. It is not, in any manner or by any stretch of the imagination, beholden to any particular dogma, religion, or spiritual doctrine. Therefore the school had no compunction to observe or even really take into consideration the Parkers' personal religious beliefs when it came down to curriculum. Just as they had no compunction to provide any other religious group within their walls with their observances or restrictions. Because it is a public school. Public. Not private. 


If you want your child to be exposed only to that which you choose for them, then you need to invest in an institution that believes and follows the same religious path you do. If you do not, and you place your child in the hands of the public at large, you must be aware and prepared that things you do not necessarily agree with will be presented to them throughout their educational stay. Instead of making this common sense deduction, the Parkers decided to take it a step further and demand yet another meeting with school administrators, which the school indulgently allowed (even though the answer had clearly been given). 


Before we learn the truth of this meeting, however, we get a great sound-bite from David, where he claims in regard to the school, "The accommodation they gave was to put me in handcuffs and send me to jail. They were willing to handcuff a father and send him to jail." Now, if you heard this for the first time, and had no research or truth to rely on (read: you are a sheeple who automatically swallows whatever you're told), I can see how it would infuriate you. But here again we see the genius of this organization, and how they twist the facts to wring out the most "we were wronged!" sympathetic plea. 


The truth of the matter is, David and Tonia Parker went into that school meeting already knowing what the answer to their 'demand' was. After receiving the answer they knew was coming, they then refused to leave the administrator's office - even after they were asked repeatedly to leave peacefully. Eventually Mr. Parker sent his wife to the car, but he remained where he was, refusing to leave until he got the answer he wanted. Which was not going to happen, of course. The school informed him that if he did not leave of his own free will they would be forced to call the police. David did not budge. What David did do, however, as the school was making that phone call, was to make phone calls of his own. He placed several calls during that time period to ensure that a crowd - complete with cameras - would be outside the school when he was led out in handcuffs. But, you know, this was all about his kid. If you would like to read more in-depth about this, you can click here to read a full examination of the incident.


The only thing sicker than this man using his supposed 'faith' and 'peaceful protest' to achieve his 15 minutes of fame is the tears he tries really hard to shed while describing the whole horrible incident, and how he was "just trying to be a good father". A good father would not have had to be led out in handcuffs. A good father would have read that book - and if he truly didn't believe what was in it - would teach his child that there are all kinds of people in the world. And while we may not agree with them all, they are all human beings and deserving of our respect as such. That is what a good father would have done. 


Instead, the Parkers went on to sue the school system, based on the fact that it presented a homosexual household as 'okay'. Surprising no one but the Parkers, the case was dismissed. They go on to talk about how the judge in the case, Judge Mark Wolf, spoke about how impressionable kids are and that it is the school's job to change children's minds and tell them it is okay to be gay, and that they could be gay, too. 


Yes, what a horrible, horrible thing to tell these children...especially the ones contemplating suicide because they think they are irreparably broken. And the ones being bullied every day by kids of people like the Parkers, who think homosexuality is so disgusting that it should never be spoken of around children except to condemn it. 


After more of the same, we cut to Dr. Julie Hamilton, President of the NARTH organization (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality). These are the people who organized the "Love Won Out" symposiums, extolling the (false and inflated) successes of ex-gay reparative therapy. She claims the nation is doing our youth a great disservice, because "children and teenagers are at an impressionable age...they're still figuring out who they are, and when they label themselves they can close out other options". 


And when they label themselves they find an identity. They find a community. Even if they don't label themselves as anything but "not straight". It gives them strength and power and a sense of belonging. The validation of others like them who are not afraid to live authentically in the face of prejudice and ignorance. Ah...I can see now why she wouldn't want that. 


Let's skip ahead then to Brian Camenker, President of MassResistance.org. He shows us a book he calls "so disgusting I can't even read it to you!", the Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century that is handed out in high schools. His main focus when describing this book is to say that it shows teenagers how to perform homosexual sex acts. I hate to break it to Mr. Camenker, but I'd bet my rainbow feather boa these kids already have those down. 


What the book actually does, is inform and educate queer kids how to protect themselves in sexual situations. He does finally acknowledge this, although he has to get his little dig in, "...tells how to practice safe - gay - sex acts, and where to meet other kids who are homosexual or homosexual men." Now, I haven't read this little tome myself, so I cannot say for sure, but any booklet put out by the Boston Department of Health, the Massachusetts Department of Health, and the STOP AIDS Project of San Francisco is not all that likely to be pointing out which bathroom stalls teenage guys can find horny gay men waiting. Of course, that's another reason our friend Brian has an issue with this booklet - it's paid for by public dollars. Because, you know, if you don't tell kids about how to protect themselves during sexual acts they won't do them. Right? Right. Moving on...


The last point in this terribly long post is regarding the insanely bogus 'study' that one Peter Spigg puts forth regarding how at-risk the children are that are in same-sex homes. Mr. Spigg is (shock, surprise!) the Senior Fellow of Policy Studies for the FRC. Now, in this position, one would think our dear Peter would at least be semi-familiar with the concept of ratios. Sadly, we would be wrong. But if one is so inclined to be a sheeple, this would be an absolute call to action. If one is not inclined to be a sheeple, but rather a thinking individual that actually follows the bouncing ball when being presented with information, one will see a proposed conclusion drawn from nothing more than the thin air from between Mr. Spigg's ears. 


He proposes a study (unnamed and not cited, of course) of 262 children raised by same-sex couples. This study finds that a shocking percentage of these children turn out to be gay or bi themselves. For instance, in a gay male led household, the male children of these same-sex couples are 16%-57% more likely to identify as gay or bisexual! The female children raised by lesbians are at even more risk - 33%-57% are likely to identify as lesbian or bisexual! Compare that to the 3.5% of gay or bisexual people in the total population, and you have a ratio of 5 to 15 times as likely to be gay or bisexual if raised by homosexual couples!!! Alert the media! Alert the military! DEFCON 5! Level Orange! Oh...wait...


Then it clicks - for those of us with the ability to form our own thoughts. The insanity and balls on this guy are impressive, I'll give you. Even if we set aside the fact that he did not do any studies with a comparable set of kids raised in mother/father homes, and even if we do not pay attention to the fact that there's almost a 40% margin of error in his first study, it becomes quite clear that our poor Mr. Spigg has either lost his marbles or drank the kool-aid. He just took the percentages from a closed, limited demographic study, and used them to create a ratio per the NATIONAL average of the TOTAL POPULATION of the U.S., raised in all different kinds of homes, to strike fear into the hearts of America. Why isn't this man a politician again? 


In case you're still confused, let me explain again. The percentages collected in his supposed study are the percentage of children in that study that identified as gay or lesbian. So those that identified as gay or lesbian out of the 262 children polled. He is comparing those percentages, factored from his closed, controlled study, to the percentage of people from the total population of the United States that identify as gay or lesbian or bisexual, and then claiming that proves that same-sex led households create a 5 to 15 times more likely scenario where the child will turn out something other than straight. 


Do you see what we are dealing with here? This is the information that is being eaten up like it's covered in cool whip by the Religious Right. It would be comical if it weren't so frightening. And make no mistake - it is frightening. The mob mentality is in full swing here, people, and the only thing that is going to stop this train of ignorance is those of us who know the truth having the cojones to step up and speak it.


Education is the only thing that is going to win this fight. You cannot legislate people's hearts, as much as we wish sometimes that were true. We have to change hearts and minds before we can change the laws and expect it to have any effect on our daily lives, or on our children's daily lives. Bullying is acceptable as long as the kids that are doing it are validated by society. Despising gay people is okay because they're sick and perverted. These are the things we must speak to. These things I have written are what we must fight against. 


These parents that want to "protect" their children forget that homosexuals are parents too. And we want to protect our children every bit as much, if not more, from their ignorance. So one book out of thousands in the library actually reflects what our kids live at home. Is that really cause for revolt? Are we really that much of a threat? 


They go on and on about the "gay agenda". Do you know what this "gay's" agenda is? Make sure kids do homework, buy milk, feed cats and dogs, sew school costume, comfort child with broken heart from a fight with a friend, make birthday cakes, find five minutes to snuggle on the couch with my kids' other mother before we both crash out in front of the TV at the end of the day, and help to create a world where our children do not have to prove they are just as worthy as everyone else of love and respect and dignity. 


That's my agenda. What's yours?