What business to they have spreading "ex-gay" pamphlets at school?

You expect your kids to come home from school with homework, maybe a report card, or a note from the teacher. But would you expect your kids to come home with a flier from an ex-gay organization? At a public school no less?


Turn to Montgomery County, just outside of Washington, D.C., where a group of high school students were officially given literature from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), an ex-gay organization that believes that sexual orientation is a self-chosen identity, and collaborates with organizations who view homosexuality as destructive. What did the flier given to students say?


According to teachthefacts.org, the flier told students that if they were LGBT or knew someone who identified as LGBT, that they could change.


"Every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity through gender affirming programs, including therapy, faith based ministries, and other non-judgmental environments," the PFOX flier stated. 


"No 'gay gene' or gay center of the brain has been found. No medical test exists to determine if a person is homosexual. Sexual orientation is based on feelings and is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration."




This blog writer, a gay male teacher, finds such events very disturbing. As a young, gay high school student very much in the closet at the time (1981), I would have been horrified to have received such a pamphlet. I would have thought that they had "discovered" my secret and was being targeted. As a modern, stable gay man, I KNOW that being gay is not a choice, just as being "straight" isn't either. If it were a choice, in all likelihood I might have steered clear only because at the time I was so fearful of being "found out" and ridiculed or attacked or rejected (or all three at once).


This is another news piece that makes me wonder if I do live in the same country as these people do. Where is the outrage against this group for bringing this topic to the schools?