Demonstrators Denounce Gay Pride Month in Schools

Calling the homosexual lifestyle “a sin” and a threat to traditional family values, about 130 parents, clergymen and youths demonstrated Monday against the Los Angeles school board’s recent proclamation of June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.

The demonstrators gathered at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s downtown headquarters to decry what they said was the district’s abandonment of “the three Rs” in favor of a social agenda.

“No longer is this the Los Angeles Board of Education--it’s the special-interest board of indoctrination,” said Eadie Gieb, president of Parents and Students United of the San Fernando Valley, which organized the event with the Valley-based Christian Coalition, a conservative lobby group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson.

“Why are they fixated not on education but on our children’s sexual lives? . . . What’s next--Bedroom 101?” she told a crowd of cheering supporters, some of whom have no children in district schools.

One protester waved a sign urging openly gay school board member Jeff Horton--author of the resolution--to “get back into the closet.”

In an unusual move, Gieb was followed to the lectern by school board member Barbara Boudreaux, who voted in favor of the resolution last month. But on Monday she spoke out against channeling district resources into “teaching gay and lesbianism” in the classroom, especially in the midst of the school system’s worst financial crisis.

“I want for nothing else except to get back to academics,” said Boudreaux. “The dignity of every human is important to me, (but) you cannot convince me that every one of 600,000 students is lesbian or gay.”

Boudreaux said she voted for the non-binding resolution because “it carried no weight” and was simply a recognition that some district’s students and employees are gay.

However, the resolution encourages schools and teachers “to find appropriate ways” to fulfill a recently adopted district policy on multicultural education, including “the contributions of gay and lesbian people in history and culture, and the current status of homosexuals as it relates to social policy, family diversity and human relations.”

Horton, who was surrounded by angry parents shouting epithets when he came out of the school district offices to speak with reporters, said the declaration cost the district no money. He said it was no different from proclamations celebrating African-American history, women’s history and Asian-Pacific-American heritage.

“That’s really the model for June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month,” he said. “There are kids who will breathe a big sigh of relief that someone acknowledges who they are, even if they’re not open about it.”

He said the resolution was primarily aimed at secondary school students, but added that children at the elementary level could understand certain concepts.

“In elementary school you can certainly talk about all the different varieties of love in a family and that families come in all forms,” he said. “Those things you can say without shocking a lot of kids.”

In a departure from usual practice after the board adopts such resolutions, the district issued no suggestions to its 625 schools on how to promote gay and lesbian pride. Officials said the reason was insufficient time between May 18, the date the resolution was passed, and the start of June.

Laura Hale, acting director of the district’s Gay and Lesbian Education Commission, said about 25 schools have requested an information packet assembled by the commission.

But Gieb and other parents, who complained that they were not notified of the resolution until after it was passed, expressed concern that the district would incorporate gay-oriented lessons into its curriculum.

Chad Henry, 15, of Canoga Park, the only student to speak at Monday’s “family appreciation” rally, told the crowd that he did not want to be taught about homosexuality.