Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

BACKLASH in Education
When the video, Elementary: Talking About Gay and Lesbian Issues in School aired across
the country, groups opposing the use of the schools to promote homosexuality staged
protests. In San Antonio, Texas, 200 protestors picketed Public Broadcasting station KLRN to
protest the showing (Dorsett:1999).
The normalization of homosexuality became ‘politically correct’ in academic and
educational settings. Silence was no longer imposed upon those supporting gay rights, rather
those seeking to challenge the usefulness of the gay lifestyle were violently attacked and
intimidated when they spoke out. Diversity training, when led by trainers with agendas,
became sessions of intimidation. Courtney Halligan, a student at the University of Delaware
was not opposed to attending a required diversity training session. Halligan soon changed her
mind. In one-on-one group sessions in the dormitory, white students were made to feel like
racists. Students were encouraged to speak openly about their sexuality and gay students felt
pressured to publicly out themselves.
In response to student complaints and pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education, a Philadelphia-based civil liberties advocacy group that monitors freedom of speech
issues on campuses, the university suspended the program. Dr. Michael Gilbert, the school’s
vice president for student life, said, ” The university had good intentions in initiating a program
to teach students to be tolerant of those who are different from them, but the way the
program was run was unacceptable” (Watson,2008).
Parents Shut Out
Nondiscrimination laws and diversity education opened the door for educational materials
to promote and encourage homosexuality. When same-sex ‘marriage’ became legal in
Massachusetts in 2003 the school room doors were thrown open to sexual activists and shut to
keep parents out. In Newton, Mass. The rainbow flag is flown instead of the American flag at
some schools. Pro-homosexual picture books were placed in the classrooms in the name of
tolerance and diversity.
Robin Wirthlin was puzzled when her 2 nd grade son, Joey, came home and reported to her
a story about a prince who married another prince. He recapped the story about the prince
who didn’t like the princesses his mother brought home. He fell in love with a prince and
married him. Wirthlin was concerned that they were reading books like this to gradeschoolers.
She questioned the teacher, who informed her that it was her responsibility to
fulfill the school district’s mandate to read pro-gay lifestyle books to her students . The year
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
11 | P a g e