Massachusetts News Staff

January 26--Boston kicked off a campaign Monday to hire a Diversity Coordinator whose job it will be to organize Gay/Straight Alliances in Boston public schools.

"We will not stop," said Superintendent Thomas Payzant at the announcement ceremony at Boston High School, "until it’s okay to talk about human beings who have a different sexual orientation." 

One parent, who asked not to be identified, commented afterward, "I don’t know what he’s talking about. Kids have other things to talk about besides being gay. What he wants to do is brainwash kids. I don’t like it." 

The person selected for the $45,000 a year position will be expected to educate students and parents about gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender issues, and organize diversity clubs in each school to promote acceptance of the GLBT agenda. 

Christopher Horan, executive secretary of the School Committee and a member of the GLBT task force, says the creation of this new position is a positive development.

Under current state law, however, before a school system can adopt a program that involves "human sexuality issues," school officials must "ensure parental/guardian notification" and "afford parents or guardians the flexibility to exempt their children." 

The state law is not followed where the dissemination of informational brochures and/or official encouragement of students to voluntarily participate in human sexuality discussions is concerned. The law covers "curriculum"; brochures are viewed as merely informational and clubs are voluntary associations that gather after school. 

A bill submitted by Rep. Mary Jeanette Murray (R) of Cohasett, co-sponsored by Democrats Martin Walsh and Eugene O’Flaherty, would tighten the language somewhat and "mandate" that school districts ensure that parents have a right "to enroll their children through written notification to the school, in a manner reasonably similar to other elective courses offered by the school district. " The bill was reported to Ways and Means in a new draft last August. Under the redrafted bill, courses would have to be "clearly identified [as] non-mandatory elective courses in which parents or guardians may choose to enroll their children." The new version of the bill, while not addressing the more informal distribution of pamphlets or ‘voluntary’ after school meetings, does shift the emphasis on schools to notify parents of what is being taught under the guise of human sexuality education. The amended law also requires that schools make every reasonable effort to provide parents or guardians with course curricula, instead of mere broad outlines.

Joe Doyle, Executive Director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts found the position in Boston troubling. As he sees it, "It’s an attempt to create a hostile environment to those students who adhere to traditional moral values, and to silence and punish criticism of homosexual behavior." Doyle said he believes the law "will result in limitations of free speech and discrimination against Catholic, Evangelicals and others. It desperately underscores the need to have genuine school choice in the form of vouchers and tuition tax credits so that Catholic and other students will no longer be held hostage to an ideologically coercive government-run public school system."
 

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