ARTICLES

"Gay Days" at Santa Rosa High

A Glimpse into the Brave New World in California Schools

By Scott Lively

I have long warned that the agenda of the "gay" movement for public education is to turn schools into recruiting centers for homosexual activism. As I saw with my own eyes, Santa Rosa High School is one place where this agenda has been fully implemented. On April 9th of this year I was one of a panel of experts opposed to the "gay" agenda who had been allowed to make one 50-minute presentation during the second day of Diversity Week at the 1,750-student school. The principal, Mr. Waxman, considered this single slot sufficient to provide balance in a week-long program that included more than 20 hours of pro-homosexual indoctrination of students. The requirement of balance had been imposed on the school by the school board following a parental revolt the prior year, when a single Day of Diversity at another high school in the district failed to include opponents of the homosexual agenda.

This year, parents were better prepared, and on the first day of Diversity Week over a dozen of them went to school in the place of their teens. One group went immediately to the office of the new school superintendent, located just across the street from the school, to ask why the school had failed to provide balance as the parents had been promised. As it happened, the superintendent had written the school board policy requiring balance, and he in turn called Mr. Waxman into his office to face the parents. Meanwhile, other parents fanned out across campus to find out what had happened.

We discovered a comprehensive system for promoting homosexuality to students, complete with a taxpayer-funded staff facilitator and the approval of the administration.

The paid facilitator is a veteran "gay" activist named Jim Foster. Foster teaches what is called peer education at the school and also runs an off-campus community center called Positive Images where "gay" teens can mingle with older homosexuals. I met several members of Foster's eight-person peer education class, each of whom was an outspoken, self-identified homosexual, bisexual or transgendered teen. Each member of Foster's class receives the title of peer counselor, which appears to bestow upon its bearers special status in the student peer group. One member of the class whom I interviewed told me that it was the peer education class which had designed and sponsored diversity week The young man seemed unimpressed that the school had turned over the entire campus for a week to his team of "gay" activists-in-training. The week's schedule included at least four sessions on "homophobia," and additional hours devoted to gender issues, transexualism, and other topics. While prominent, homosexuality was not the only subject. Other sessions featured radical environmentalism, animal rights, veganism and reasons to hate America.

I took the opportunity to sit in on a "Panel on Homophobia" which took place in a classroom on the second floor. Nine or ten young people sat in a row on tables at the head of the room and addressed a standing-room-only crowd of their peers. They took turns giving testimonies about how joining the "gay" movement has changed their lives from misery to bliss. Each one began by establishing his or her credentials as a victim of "homophobia," then explained how he or she had "come out" as "gay", lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Each finished by reciting how much he or she now felt loved and accepted in the "gay" movement.

I spent a lot of time looking at the faces of the teens in the room. These seemed like typical, high school kids from middle- and upper-middle-class homes. I saw no hint of disapproval in their faces. They listened raptly and when the speakers talked about the pain of "homophobia," the audience clearly empathized with them. When the speakers offered the old chestnut that "no one would choose a lifestyle that evokes such hostility from others," the heads nodded. I wanted to challenge the sophistry that had duped these young minds, but I was only a spectator. One young man, who declared that he was a bisexual, openly attacked Christianity in his presentation and no one objected. A parent later told me that this young man, on his "bi days," comes to school in drag and uses the girls' restrooms. The school officials do not object.

Angered at what I had seen, I went to visit Mr. Waxman. He, stinging from his earlier meeting with parents in the superintendent's office, greeted me warily but was unwilling to concede any error in allowing the diversity week program or in the manner in which it was being conducted. He defended the unqualified use of the term "homophobia" and rejected the notion that 20-plus hours of one-sided pro-homosexual instruction amounted to indoctrination. It was clear that this man was not on the side of the parents. However, he did agree to try to find additional slots in the program for our speakers. I later headed one such addition in the art department, while a second group of parents headed another.

Upon leaving Mr. Waxman's office, I was confronted by a teenage girl who announced that she was the head of the "Gay Straight Alliance" club on the campus. Her overt purpose in addressing me was to gloat that the new club already had more than 40 members and was making huge strides in converting students to the "gay" cause. She searched my eyes as she told me and was visibly pleased that I was pained by the news. As she walked away, one of her companions said aloud, "I hope he dies."

Later, as I was leaving the campus, one of the parents called to me from across the parking lot and gestured me over to a car parked near the office. As I approached, I saw that its license plates read Pos Imag. It was Jim Foster's car. "Look on the seat," said the parent. There, as if placed to be noticed by passers-by, was a black and white poster. It was a picture of young boys around the age of puberty sitting together on some front porch steps. In big block letters at the bottom of the picture read the message "INCITE QUEERNESS." Nothing could have more perfectly captured the spirit of perversion that permeated this day of "diversity."

Scott Lively is an attorney, author and president of Abiding Truth Ministries. Other examples of his work may be found at www.abidingtruth.com.

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