Is there a ‘gay agenda’ that I should be worried about?
Written by: Mike | December 13th, 2007When people use the term “gay agenda,” it can bring many different things to mind. While it’s important to reach out to and love those people in your world who call themselves gay or lesbian, or who are struggling, you also need to be aware that there is a movement to reshape our culture–and it pays no small attention to the hearts and minds of young people.
Not every gay-identified person participates in these often militant efforts, but the efforts are very real and they have specific goals when it comes to youth. Those goals include:
- Promoting homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles as healthy, positive and normal.
- Disintegrating all meaning of gender.
- Silencing and vilifying any different point of view.
- Undermining parental authority to indoctrinate kids.
- Rewriting Christian principles.
- Polarizing students, so that anyone who is not “gay-affirming” is labeled a bigot.
These may seem like pretty extreme statements, but there are several organizations and tens of millions of dollars a year dedicated to these goals.
GLSEN and GSA’s
Most notable among these organizations is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), an educational lobbying and activist group that is the primary force behind the promotion of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in high schools, middle schools and universities nationwide.
Their ‘resources’
A quick browse through the books GLSEN recommends for 7th through 12th graders will give you a glimpse into the value system they want the next generation to adopt. Here’s a look:
Free Your Mind by Ellen Bass and Kate Kaufman, for instance, is a comprehensive guide-to-life for youth who think they may be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. In truth, this book is full of deceptive, dangerous advice. Teens are encouraged to find “meaningful new relationships” via gay and lesbian chat rooms on the internet. The book also greatly overstates the protection offered by condoms, and lists “bathing together” and mutual masturbation as “safe” sexual practices.
Furthermore, Free Your Mind attacks the faith of teens. Throughout several chapters, young people are repeatedly urged to leave their churches if they do not embrace homosexuality. A whole chapter is devoted to “debunking” the Bible.
“…there isn’t any single truth…The one thing you really should beware of in life is when any human being tells you that they have the truth. Run as fast as you can. No one has the truth.” (Free Your Mind, p. 274)
Another book GLSEN recommends for teens, Revolutionary Voices, portrays dangerous lifestyles as positive forms of “diversity.” In the book, one young man shares his story of doing “sex work” involving cross-dressing and sadomasochsim. Revolutionary Voices calls these things an “empowering experience.”
The GSA Network also produced Beyond the Binary, a “gender activism” guide that encourages students to fight the notion that we are made male and female. The booklet teaches that gender is arbitrary, that one can move back and forth between genders, be both at the same time, or invent a new gender altogether–and that schools and other individuals should be forced to recognize these assumed “genders.”
Other controversies
The state of Massachusetts has always been at the forefront of homosexual activism. At least two years in a row, GLSEN (funded by state tax revenue) hosted workshops on school grounds, in which students received graphic instruction on how to perform different homosexual acts. Sex “kits” were passed out, and after a sweeping public outcry, parents were banned when the event was repeated.
More recently, the GSA Network in California elected a man to its Board of Directors who was widely known as a pornographer who peddled pictures of young men to x-rated magazines. When contacted and asked whether they were aware of this individual’s activities, no one from the GSA Network responded. The board member, however, subsequently stepped down.
The actions and attitudes of those who run these organizations don’t quite reflect those of the kids who actually take part in the clubs themselves. Most teens who join GSA’s (who are not all gay-identified) are drawn to the ideals of safety, equality and tolerance that these organizations espouse. What they get, though, is a deceptive and destructive crash-course in immorality.
School Policies
Gay advocacy groups spend millions lobbying every level of government in order to have an impact on school policies and curriculum. California is an example of where they’ve had the most success. The State Senate there has passed bills requiring schools to portray homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles positively through “Tolerance Training.” Other legislation would force schools to allow transgender-identified students to use opposite-sex bathrooms and locker rooms.
As a matter of course, these activists seek to shut parents out while they are changing the educational system. The legislation mentioned above explicitly states that parents are not to be notified about “Tolerance Training” courses, and are not allowed to opt their children out of them.
So What Can You Do?
It’s so important for Christian parents to be involve themselves and communicate with the school. Make sure you know about meetings with school board and faculty members that parents can have access to. Find out the best way to stay up to date on changes in curriculum and policy in your district.
Christian legal groups like the Alliance Defense Fund can advise and support parents facing legal issues with their local districts and governments.
The most effective response to this growing movement, though, comes through Christian students. More than anyone, they have a greater freedom of opportunity to share the truth and love of the Gospel on their campuses. So make sure your youth pastor is educating and equipping students with the truth about these issues. We’ve got some great resources available to help them do that.
Students also have the most freedom (legally speaking) to bring Christian-themed information and resource onto their campuses. Through special campaigns like Allies, Too and the Day of Truth, young Christians can have a huge impact on public schools.
Related Links:
The World According to PFLAG: Why PFLAG and Children Don’t Mix from the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)
7 Responses to “Is there a ‘gay agenda’ that I should be worried about?”
Leave a Reply
You must be to post a comment.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
It is more than unfortunate that in the “land of the free” parents
no longer have the right to know what their own children are being
taught. My child is only able to talk with friends at his school
about Christ, but Bible studies, praying, Or passing out tracks is
not allowed. Quite a quiet agenda, Parents beware. Be majorly
involved in your child’s education.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I think gays won’t have an “agenda” if many stop discriminating
against them.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:36 am
I would just like to say that
this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read, there is no
“gay agenda” we aren’t trying to brainwash your children or
whatever your so worried about, there’s nothing wrong with being
gay and it doesn’t need to be “fixed” You can’t change who you are
and telling people that the way they feel and the people they love
is wrong is a hateful thing to do and only encourages self hate and
pain
January 18th, 2010 at 10:22 am
adamandsteve, there is certainly a gay agenda out there. Many groups are going into schools and talking to kids that are as young as kindergartners, trying to influence them in agreeing that homosexuality is ok. Now, regardless of your beliefs on the issue, parents have a right to KNOW and decide on what their children hear in school. Sexuality is so complex and doesn’t even cross the mind of a 5 year old who just wants to color in coloring books and play in the sand box, that there is no need or reason for someone to go in and educate these small children on a topic they don’t even care about. But, people do it, all to try to influence these small minds into believing homosexuality is normal and okay. Your sexuality isn’t who you are – who you are attracted to doesn’t define you. We are so much more than our sexuality…and to limit our identity to our sexual impulses is unfortunate. We aren’t here to change gay people into “straight” people. We are here to share a life-changing man named Jesus Christ who is a restorer of the broken. We are here for people who do not want to be gay, who believe their homosexual feelings conflict with their Christian worldview. We help them, we don’t force them to change. Many of us who work at Exodus have found freedom from a gay identity, and have experienced an incredible healing of our souls and identities in Christ. There are people in the world thirsting after hope and freedom from homosexual feelings. We have found “water” and want to share it with them. Those who don’t want to change we respect and love them all the same. But our message is for the hurting and for those who want hope outside of the born gay always gay rhetoric. I don’t believe that, and from my experience walking away from homosexuality, that rhetoric is absolutely false. Our message isn’t “You’re wrong!” – it’s “God has so much more for you!”
January 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
I don’t see why it’s so terrible for children to be accepting, it’s
not like people are teaching them to be gay, I don’t understand the
basis of a “gay agenda” what exactly DES that mean? People are
trying to teach your children not to discriminate? Being gay isn’t
that confusing, two people love eachother, there doesn’t have to be
a certain gender that your attracted to and yes maybe there are
parents who don’t want children to know it’s ok to be gay, does
that make it ok though? So what your saying is there’s nothing
wrong with being gay but you can do better? I’m acctually very
interested in knowing how exactly that happened? You were gay, and
you decided you didn’t want to be because why? Why doesn’t god love
gays? And how did you fix it? You prayed and decided you were
straight?….
January 21st, 2010 at 1:30 pm
There is an agenda to make people approve of homosexuality. If you don’t approve then you hate people who are gay and you are a bigot. That’s the agenda and there is something wrong with it. People have a right to their own beliefs. And disagreeing with a person’s homosexuality doesn’t equate hatred or bigotry. There is a gay agenda being promulgated in schools causing gender confusion. People teach kids as young as kindergartners that if Johnny likes Bobby, then he is gay. Kids that young can’t wrap their minds around sexuality. At that point cooties keep boys away from girls and vice versa. If they’re being taught that being gay is not liking someone of the opposite sex, that can instill confusion.
I didn’t say there is nothing wrong with being gay. I personally believe the homosexuality is not God’s created intent for humanity. In my own experience I did find something much better. I grew up feeling so insecure and inadequate. I always felt like I wasn’t one of the guys. I was craving for male attention and love. I came out and began to find love in physical ways, but I was never satisfied. But, when I decided to walk away from a gay identity God blessed me with awesome, healthy guys that poured into my life, showed me love, cared for me in non-sexual ways. That was much more fulfilling than any sexual act with another guy. I realized that all along I was just starving for healthy male affection and deep, meaningful relationships with other guys. Through those relationships I became more confident in my masculinity and more secure in who I was.
I left homosexuality behind because I knew if I wanted to pursue Christ I had to let that go. It wasn’t a switch I just turned off. I had to work through and heal from wounds of my past involving my dad, male peers, and sexual abuse. I had to step out of my comfort zone and begin to interact with guys. I found a life I never knew before. When I began the healing journey my decision to stay away from homosexuality was based on the fact that I had found better – great guys who loved me and encouraged me in my masculinity and that my identity wasn’t in who I was attracted to.
God does love gay people. He loves all people and wants to meet people where they are and urge them on to the place He wants them to be.
March 21st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
This is so shocking and this “agenda” goes completely against a lot of principles God has set before us. I am extremely disgusted by the fact that A: Parents are being shut out and have no say in their child’s decision or participation in these events. These children and others that identify themselves as GLBT are being mislead and are exposed to things that they do not need to be exposed to. Did the bible not say that the hearts of the fathers will turn to the children and the hearts of the children will turn to the fathers. Parents are so important in the involvement of their childrens lives. We need to honor our mother and father because God has commanded us to do so. By shutting out parents then there is no way for the children to honor them. Without our parents there to guide us to do the right thing, we are lost because it’s almost the same thing as saying that we don’t need God to be in direction of our own lives. B: I am appalled at the fact that this organization GLSEN is leading everyone in the wrong direction. I cannot believe they banned parents from their events just because the parents were very concerned. I would be too if my child was being shown how to have homosexual sex in a graphic manner and came home with a sex kit. Of course, I would be just as shocked if it were heterosexual sex. It’s one thing to teach an adolescent (or someone who is age appropriate) the dangers of having sex and what you should be aware of. It’s another to give graphic instruction on how to have sex of any kind and then give materials to promote it. I’m sorry if I sound so angry, but I have heard enough lies from the world. Yes, I have gone through homosexuality and is still struggling with it. However, through God’s grace he gives me strength to make it through another day and become stronger to win this fight. It breaks my heart when people, especially children, are being lied to everyday. We may not understand why homosexuality occurs physically, but as Christians we do understand that there is a God that can deliver us from any struggle or battle. We also understand that he loves us and wants us to be with him. We also understand that we must speak the truth and be ministers to those that are lost and dying. I wish the church would stop letting the world guide their principles and start reaching out to everyone including those that struggle with homosexuality. As I said before, we may not understand everything, but we all have some common unity on biblical principles. We need not to be bigots, but share the love of God. We need to let the lost and dying know that there is a God that loves them and that he can be healer, provider, deliver, reconciler, strong tower, and so much more. He can be anything you need him to be. We just need to have faith and trust in him.