Darkside Rainbow

Don’t forget that tonight is the Democratic presidential debate on gay and lesbian issues, broadcasting both on the LOGO television channel and on the LOGO website at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.

We’ve talked about ex-gay/conversion therapy here before, as something that people do as a personal choice. I don’t agree with it, I don’t like it, but I can’t argue with someone’s right to follow that path if they really think it will make them happier with who they are. What I can argue with, however, is the recruitment for ex-gay therapy in public schools.

Ex-Gay Group Can Hand Out Fliers in Virginia Schools - Citizenlink.com

Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays (PFOX) is celebrating after settling a lawsuit with an Arlington, Va., school district. The group will be allowed to distribute fliers to middle school students with the message that change is possible for people who are dissatisfied with living homosexually.

The Arlington County Schools had refused to allow PFOX to send home or post the fliers, even though other groups were allowed that privilege, including gay organizations. That’s when the Christian Legal Society (CLS) and Alliance Defense Fund stepped in, prompting the school district to settle.

Timothy Tracey with CLS said PFOX now can get important information into the hands of students.

“I think this is a definite victory for the First Amendment,” he said. “It’s Arlington County Schools recognizing its obligation to the First Amendment to treat community groups evenhandedly.”

As with every issue, there are two angles to consider for this story. If groups like PFLAG or a school’s GSA are allowed to hand out fliers in public schools, groups like PFOX should be allowed to as well, right? The question is whether or not handing out those fliers is causing potential harm to the students.

I, personally, think that telling already-confused teenagers that their sexuality is unhealthy but that it can be “cured” is beyond harmful. It’s wrong, it’s disgusting, and it leaves me aching for the children who are told such things at an impressionable age and come to believe it, damaging their self-confidence and their growth into healthy adults. Those who believe that homosexuality is wrong, however, could say the same about the advocacy of a school’s gay-straight alliance or fliers distributed by PFLAG, and claim that the organizations are corrupting their children into homosexuality. It’s hard to view this case objectively, when the validity of it is based wholly on standing to one side or the other of a subjective morality debate. Trying to enforce equality for all only clouds the waters further.

Despite my obvious leanings, being gay myself and quite firmly believing there’s nothing wrong with it, I try to look at it by breaking it down into two simple statements of intent:

 
I don’t know about you, but I know which one of those I’d pick as more damaging to young, impressionable minds.

[sigh] And yet for me to say that I don’t think that PFOX should be allowed to distribute its materials would be hypocritical, and in denial of my belief in equality. I argue often for fair treatment of homosexuals based on my firm belief that we are deserving of the same human rights as anyone else, because we are all created equal under the eyes of whatever deity or mathematical concept or whatever you happen to believe in. However, equal rights doesn’t just mean fair treatment for me and what I believe in; it means fair treatment for everyone, including people whose stances I absolutely abhor. As long as they use only words and don’t actually force anyone into conversion therapy, they have the right. It pains me to admit that, to the point where I’m grinding my teeth trying to force the words out, but fair is fair.

But I’m still allowed to say that I don’t like it.

One can only trust that the parents and friends of these children will be enough to counteract the propaganda spread by groups like PFOX, and that in the end, no matter what happens, nothing harmful comes of it.

pflag, gsa, gay-straight alliance, equal rights, pfox, parents and friends of gays and ex-gays, cls, christian legal society