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