The following is an Editorial Opinion published by the Deseret News. Editorial opinions represent the attitude of the newspaper. This editorial is an example of the clever way the "gay" activist movement is indoctrinating and conditioning the public. The article is replete with lies and sophistries. Our comments are in parentheses and bold. Please contact the Deseret News to protest this obvious attack on our religious and cultural values. Call 801.237.2100 and ask for Richard Hall, Managing Editor, or email him at rhall@desnews.com.

Gay-straight clubs issue is already settled
By Marjorie Cortez, Deseret Morning News. Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Marjorie Cortez is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635170017,00.html

Any discussion about reconsidering the appropriateness of gay-straight student alliances in Utah public schools is like picking a scab.

Don't go there. Please.

I say this as an observer of the previous GSA debates. They were painful and divisive discussions that literally divided communities. It's not something we should revisit. (We should revisit it until our values are upheld.)

Here's why. Most people's feelings about gays, lesbians, transgendered people and issues are deeply entrenched. Their feelings are colored by their personal experiences, religious beliefs and their study of issues. It's like debating abortion or the death penalty. There are few fence-sitters. (So because people strongly disagree we should stop discussions?)

When I covered this issue in the Salt Lake City School District in the 1990s, the debate quickly degenerated from its initial point — whether students at East High School could form a gay-straight alliance — to a referendum on homosexuality. People who opposed the club were labeled as bigots and gay-bashers. People who supported the club were demonized for attempting to "recruit" straight people into the gay agenda. The school board debate became a national platform for gay rights organizations as well as arch-conservative groups — each plying their respective agendas. (There are dozens of views until the truth comes out. Then, there's only one. This is it: gay clubs are based on deviant, abnormal, unhealthy sexual thoughts and behaviors. GLSEN devised GSAs to recruit children and teens into homosexuality in order to exploit them. Period.)

This was a local debate, but Congress basically decided the issue in 1984 when it passed the federal Equal Access Act. It's intent was to halt discrimination against religious clubs. (This is a lie. The EAA doesn't decide the gay club issue. It allows denial of any club that would be harmful or illegal by state law, which GSAs are. Utah code prohibits advocacy of homosexuality in schools. See our packet of info.)

In essence, the Equal Access Act spells out that curriculum clubs are run by schools. "But if kids want to get together and meet on other topics, if you open your door to any of those clubs, you open your door to all clubs," explains Martin Bates, assistant to the superintendent on legal issues and policy in Granite School District, in a recent Deseret Morning News report. (This is another lie that does not pass the reasonableness test. This issue is not about "all clubs or no clubs." No school would allow a pro-anorexia club, smokers club, drug users club or prostitution club, to name a few. The law allows schools to deny clubs for several reasons. But Bates obviously hopes we won't consider the ridiculousness of his statement. Educators expect us to accept what they say without question.)

The proper venue for this fight, if it indeed needs to be fought, would be Congress, but no one seems anxious to move on the point. (Wrong again. This is states-rights issue. You don't have to go to Congress to solve a local issue. Communities set standards and live by them. They elect local leaders to represent them.)

There's always the courts, you might say, but the courts have already answered this issue. There's little point in spending more taxpayer resources to address an issue that the courts have already ruled upon. (This is misinformation. Courts have ruled that schools can deny GSAs as in Caudillo v. Lubbock Independent School District. See our packet.)

The real question is, why do we want to open an old wound?

This issue rightly belongs in the hands of parents and local school boards. (Earlier she said it should be up to Congress.) If a school board permits a gay-straight alliance, it's up to individual families to decide whether their children can participate. (It's illegal in Utah to permit a GSA. If they break the law the school board needs to be replaced. See our packet.) If gay-straight alliances, as school principals represent, are doing service work and helping students to feel less isolated during their high school years, what's the harm of that? (This argument is a smoke screen. Don't be fooled. There are many wholesome ways to serve the emotional needs of students without establishing an illegal club based on sex.)

Frankly, I'm more concerned about the prevalence of suicide among young gays and lesbians and that "gay" and "lesbian" are used as pejorative terms in our junior highs and high schools. (More dangerous misinformation. See Dr. Douglas Gray, Utah Youth Suicide Study. "Gay" youth are no more likely to commit suicide than the general population.) Seemingly, there's a real need for support groups and greater compassion for our fellow travelers. (Authorizing deviant sex to kids is support and compassion? It's more like child abuse. This is an adult issue. GLSEN and others seek to introduce sex at the earliest age they can through homosexuality. We mustn't establish support groups for people advocating a lifestyle that leads kids to break age-of-consent laws.)

As much as I'd like to slam the brakes on this discussion before it goes any further, the reality is gay-straight alliances will be debated again and with great intensity. I'm not afraid of the debate. My fear is dividing communities — yet again — over an issue that is settled law. (It's actually the gay activists who are dividing the community by bringing in these issues and misrepresenting them. Right-thinking people are merely fighting for traditional values, truth and decency, which is their obligation. Her real fear is that the majority of the community, which believes in right and wrong and keeping the commandments of God, will prevail. Again, it isn't settled law, especially not in Utah.)

Somehow we have to reach a place in the discourse where the debate doesn't devolve into name-calling and cheap shots. (Our experience is that the only measurable name-calling going on is the personal attacks by the pro-"gay" advocates against those of us who defend the right. This well-planned and supported movement has spent many years conditioning the public with invented words, phrases, and talking points, and does its best to intimidate and villanize those who disagree with them.) Because when it's over, no one is going to remember the high-minded conversations. They'll remember, as they do from the East High debate nearly a decade ago, when it turned ugly. (This attitude is incredibly toxic and arrogant. Like the chronic wife-beater who says, "Let's put aside our differences and make up, honey," it belittles the fact that most people have strong religious and moral beliefs and wish to preserve America's wholesome, family value-based culture for their posterity. We are being bullied by the few who want to remake society in their own perverse image. The culture war is real. It is about good vs. evil. This editorial seeks to discount the values upon which America and its families stand.