K
Karin
Guest
NEA bolsters gays on policy, practices
By George Archibald
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 8, 2005
LOS ANGELES – The National Education Association ended its four-day
convention here with a big victory for members promoting homosexual advocacy, but
debate by conservatives seeking resolutions condemning adult-minor sexual contact
and supporting respect for “all living things” was cut off.
“It was a very obvious attempt to stifle dissent on issues with which they
disagree – biblical issues or issues on the political right,” said David
Kaiser, a retired teacher from Ohio, who was blocked from discussing his proposal to
strike language allowing the right to abortion from the union’s
family-planning policy.
The 9,000 delegates at the 2.7-million-member union’s yearly business meeting
also blocked a proposal by Ohio delegate Keith Gudorf to put the NEA on
record that its long time policy of “compassion and respect for all living things”
in an animal vivisection section also applied to humans in the family-planning
section.
Also blocked was a proposal by California delegate Diane Lenning, ousted
chairwoman of the NEA Republican Educators Caucus, to amend the union’s
sexual-assault policy to state that “the association deplores the advocacy of
adult/minor sexual contact.”
But convention delegates resoundingly referred the conservative delegates’
proposed resolution amendments to its national resolutions committee, thus
killing discussion and action at the meeting that ended Wednesday.
The convention handed the large Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus
approval of its proposal for the union to “develop a comprehensive strategy
to deal with the new and more sophisticated attacks on school curricula,
policies, and practices that support GLBT students, families, and staff members in
public schools.”
The “new business item” offered by the chairman of the homosexual caucus,
Connecticut delegate Thomas Nicholas, was predicated on his assertion that
“extremist groups are using increasingly sophisticated and aggressive tactics to
attack school districts with affirming GLBT policies, curriculum, and practices.”
Mr. Nicholas told the convention that a third of GLBT students drop out of
high school because of harassment and that four out of five daily face verbal or
physical harassment at school.
NEA President Reg Weaver stopped debate when booing interrupted Pennsylvania
delegate Sissy Jochmann, who said she opposed the proposal because
homosexual-affirming programs in schools fail to point out that “some people who have
same-sex attraction have changed … and instead have successfully actualized
their heterosexual potential and are now ex-gay.”
Mrs. Jochmann said youths who experience same-sex attraction “have a right to
hear the stories of former homosexuals and be exposed to the research that
validates them in order to help them make informed personal decisions.”
washingtontimes.com/national/20050708-124919-6209r.htm
By George Archibald
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 8, 2005
LOS ANGELES – The National Education Association ended its four-day
convention here with a big victory for members promoting homosexual advocacy, but
debate by conservatives seeking resolutions condemning adult-minor sexual contact
and supporting respect for “all living things” was cut off.
“It was a very obvious attempt to stifle dissent on issues with which they
disagree – biblical issues or issues on the political right,” said David
Kaiser, a retired teacher from Ohio, who was blocked from discussing his proposal to
strike language allowing the right to abortion from the union’s
family-planning policy.
The 9,000 delegates at the 2.7-million-member union’s yearly business meeting
also blocked a proposal by Ohio delegate Keith Gudorf to put the NEA on
record that its long time policy of “compassion and respect for all living things”
in an animal vivisection section also applied to humans in the family-planning
section.
Also blocked was a proposal by California delegate Diane Lenning, ousted
chairwoman of the NEA Republican Educators Caucus, to amend the union’s
sexual-assault policy to state that “the association deplores the advocacy of
adult/minor sexual contact.”
But convention delegates resoundingly referred the conservative delegates’
proposed resolution amendments to its national resolutions committee, thus
killing discussion and action at the meeting that ended Wednesday.
The convention handed the large Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus
approval of its proposal for the union to “develop a comprehensive strategy
to deal with the new and more sophisticated attacks on school curricula,
policies, and practices that support GLBT students, families, and staff members in
public schools.”
The “new business item” offered by the chairman of the homosexual caucus,
Connecticut delegate Thomas Nicholas, was predicated on his assertion that
“extremist groups are using increasingly sophisticated and aggressive tactics to
attack school districts with affirming GLBT policies, curriculum, and practices.”
Mr. Nicholas told the convention that a third of GLBT students drop out of
high school because of harassment and that four out of five daily face verbal or
physical harassment at school.
NEA President Reg Weaver stopped debate when booing interrupted Pennsylvania
delegate Sissy Jochmann, who said she opposed the proposal because
homosexual-affirming programs in schools fail to point out that “some people who have
same-sex attraction have changed … and instead have successfully actualized
their heterosexual potential and are now ex-gay.”
Mrs. Jochmann said youths who experience same-sex attraction “have a right to
hear the stories of former homosexuals and be exposed to the research that
validates them in order to help them make informed personal decisions.”
washingtontimes.com/national/20050708-124919-6209r.htm
