From: anderj2@vccsouth29.its.rpi.edu (Jason Anderson)
Subject: Pro-Gay school program receives protests
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 20:50:15 GMT

Hello all,

I saw this article from UPI about a Brooklyn school program, called ``Children
of the Rainbow.''  I think some of you might find it interesting...


The following is copyright 1992 by UPI, and it is reposted with permission 
from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.local.new_york.  For
more info on ClariNet, write to info@clarinet.com or phone 1-800-USE-NETS.

	NEW YORK (UPI) -- Nearly 200 vitriolic parents Wednesday rallied in
City Hall park to protest a school program that encourages respect for
students with gay parents and for gay people in general.
	``You can't teach a child what their parents don't want them to
learn,'' Dolores Ayling screamed into a microphone at a rally sponsored
by the Brooklyn-based Concerned Parents for Educational Accountability.
	Among about 150 cheering protesters were signs that said, 
``Homosexuality is not normal,'' in protest of the city's multicultural
curriculum, ``Children of the Rainbow.''
	Some in the crowd said they feared the program would encourage their
children to be gay themselves.
	``They're trying to confuse them and make them accept it for
themselves,'' said Barbara Kay, 35, a mother of three from Governor's
Island.
	``I don't believe the homosexual lifestyle should be taught in the
schools. It's not an acceptable lifestyle for us,'' she said, adding, 
``It's not what we send them to school to learn. It's not going to help
them get better jobs.''
	Her neighbor, 34-year-old Martha Bottoms, agreed emphatically,
shouting, ``They're teaching our children that it is normal to accept
this. They're trying to teach our children that it's OK.''
	Frances Kunreuther, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin
Institute, a gay youth counseling group, defended the curriculum, saying
it does not teach about sex but about ``who likes each other.''
	``The idea that we convert, promote or make people to be gay is a
stereotype that proves the need for this kind of education,'' she said.
	The Rainbow program was introduced last year for First Graders, with
revisions for some older grades, but was rejected by five of the 32
school districts. Those that rejected it must submit alternative
proposals by Oct. 31, said Board of Education spokesman Frank Sabrino.
	``That's ludicous,'' he said of the parents' fears. ``The point of
this curriculum is to sensitize teachers and students to the fact that
students, classmates and fellow citizens are going to come from homes of
varied strtuctures -- single and two-parent, divorced, adopted, foster
and gay.''
	Chancellor Joseph Fernandez supports the program, he said, ``because
bias or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has to be
condemned with the same vigor and force as you would condemn bias based
on race, ethnicity or whatever.''
	Ayling threatened to organize a strike against public schools and
called for Fernandez' resignation.
	The Lesbian Avengers, a newly formed group, planned a different
response, however, promising to go to P.S. 87 in Queens on the first day
of school, Sept. 9.
	The action was to be a protest of the rejection of the Rainbow
program by District 24, which includes P.S. 87 in the Middle Village
section.

-End of Article


Jason
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