"Ex-Gay" Fliers Distributed At Maryland High Schools
 

Potomac students get fliers saying therapy turns gays straight


By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 2010; B03

Some Montgomery County high schools passed out fliers this week from an organization that contends gays can become heterosexual through therapy, and the schools say they cannot prevent the use of their distribution system by such groups.

The fliers, from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, were distributed Thursday alongside report cards by teachers at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. The group says it delivered them to about half the county's high schools this week and plans to do the same at the remaining high schools at the end of the school year.

The schools are required to distribute literature that isn't deemed hate speech from any registered nonprofit organization four times a year, the result of a 2006 lawsuit, said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Schools.

School officials said that while they aren't always happy with everything that goes home with students, their hands are tied by the results of the litigation.

"These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum, but that curriculum focuses on respect, and we respect freedom of speech," said Patricia O'Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase), president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

The flier, printed on one side of a sheet of paper, says that "every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity." At the bottom, it includes a disclaimer that the content is not sponsored by the Montgomery County Board of Education, the school or the superintendent.

The head of the group said that the effort is simply a way to distribute information.

"We believe that people have the right to seek change if they're unhappy," said Regina Griggs, the organization's director. "No one's telling anybody that they have to support our position."

She said the group had distributed the fliers in Montgomery schools in past years, though it wasn't done last year.

I'm really disappointed to hear about this.

The fact that a public school is distributing information on and promoting a therapy that frowned upon by mainstream medical and psychological associations is infuriating.



I'm going to look for more info on that, because the words required and any sound like BS.

I really don't fully understand HOW this can happen--don't they have a choice as to WHICH non-profit literature is handout out ?? --with their report cards even, ffs!!

The religious right are always talking about bringing the gay *lifestyle* into the school system, but, then, this is allowed?



Thanks for looking more into it, Semantics.

I completely agree that this is hate literature.

What a destructive message to send to students! To those who are bigoted, it will just reinforce their notions that there is something wrong that needs to be cured with their fellow queer classmates.

For those queer students, well, we all know the stats on depression, bullying and rates of suicide.

I'm just beside myself with anger at this story.

Do they REALLY think it's a "lifestyle choice"?
 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRhVcJsypg&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Mom Spanked the Gay Out of Me![/ame]

by the sound of him, i think she missed some gay.

otherwise, hot story.

How sad. I hope it gets pulled asap.

Andrew
:vigil: