Obama Campaign's Kevin Jennings' Real Work

For anyone who thought I lost my mind or was exaggerating when I said that GLSEN wants to force kindergartners to embrace and support homosexuality, take a look at the following article from FoxNews.com:

School Clams Up on 'Gay' Pledge Cards Given to Kindergartners

Yep, the card used by the kindergarten teacher is produced by GLSEN, the group Kevin Jennings founded -- the same Kevin Jennings who works for the Barack Obama campaign.

Are these the values you want your President to promote?

Thanks to Protect Marriage California for providing the scan of the "pledge card".

Obama's connection to GLSEN

Excerpts from article by Marcia Segelstein

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has had relationships with some questionable characters. Bill Ayers, unrepentant former domestic terrorist, is one. Despite evidence to the contrary -- and with the mainstream media turning a blind eye -- Obama has succeeded in dismissing his association as minimal and meaningless. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is another. While there's no denying the fact that Wright was Obama's pastor, and that Wright married the Obamas and baptized their children, Obama managed to distance himself from Wright after the fact, claiming he was no longer the man he'd once known.

But there is another questionable character associated with Obama, and there's no denying the relationship this time. This questionable character is Kevin Jennings. Jennings is the founder of GLSEN -- the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. ...

Courtesy of GLSEN's website, you can get a list of "recommended books" for every age group, starting with kindergarten, to introduce children to the subject of homosexuality.

In Massachusetts, GLSEN is infamous for what's become known as "fistgate." On March 25, 2000, GLSEN sponsored, along with the Massachusetts Department of Education, a taxpayer-funded conference. Its goals included putting Gay/Straight Alliances into more Massachusetts schools, and expanding homosexual teaching into lower grades. Many gay-friendly teachers (who received development credits for being there) and administrators attended, along with students who were bussed in from their home districts.

One particular workshop was listed as a "youth only, ages 14-21" session, run by three self-professed gay presenters. Thanks to two members of a local Parents' Rights Coalition who secretly taped the session, we know exactly what happened. One of the teachers asked the assembled students what "fisting" meant. Following a descriptive definition, another of the adult presenters proceeded to demonstrate the proper formation of the hand for this sexual act. After a student of about 16 said that it didn't sound very appealing, the third adult presenter calmed his concerns. This technique, she explained, "often gets a really bad rap," and that it was "an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with." Other homosexual acts were discussed and described in detail.

Here's some of what Marjorie King wrote about GLSEN for City Journal back in 2003:

"GLSEN often presents itself as a civil rights organization, saying it is only after 'tolerance' and 'understanding' for a victim group...But it is, in fact, a radical organization that...seeks to transform the culture and instruction of every public school, so that children will learn to equate 'heterosexism' – the favoring of heterosexuality as normal – with other evils like racism and sexism and will grow up pondering their sexual orientation and the fluidity of their sexual identity... One of the major goals of GLSEN...is to reform public school curricula and teaching so that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender – or LGBT – themes are always central and always presented in the approved light."

Jennings himself spoke about the importance of "framing" the debate in a speech he gave in March of 1995 to the Human Rights Campaign Fund Leadership Conference called "Winning the Culture War." Here's a small portion of what he said:

"In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one."

Kevin Jennings wrote the foreword to the book Queering Elementary Education, which offers essays on "Locating a Place for Gay and Lesbian Themes in Elementary Reading, Writing and Talking." (Interestingly enough, Bill Ayers wrote a glowing blurb for the back of the book.)

Kevin Jennings now works for the Obama campaign, as fundraising co-chair for the LGBT community.

• Does Obama support the radical homosexual agenda that Jennings and GLSEN, the organization he founded, have already managed to impose in public schools across the country?

• Would Obama defend the GLSEN-sponsored conference at which teenagers were given explicit descriptions of homosexual acts?

The American public has a right to know.

TOPIC: The NEA's Homosexual Agenda
As you've read on The Sope-Bocks previously, the NEA has a radical agenda that promotes homosexuality to the point of obsession. While perusing news headlines today, I ran across the following story that supports my assertions:

Teacher: NEA Uses School Safety Rhetoric to Push Homosexual Agenda
by Jim Brown, Bill Fancher, and Jenni Parker
A former chairman of the National Education Association's Ex-Gay Educators Caucus says the NEA is engaging in a "big misinformation campaign" with the goal of changing public opinion on homosexuality, starting with the youngest generation. The NEA has unveiled a new web page [Caution: This page contains pro-homosexual material] on "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students," stating that the educators' union is "committed" to fighting harassment, bullying, and discrimination aimed at those students.
The page cites statistics from a study published by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, and even provides a link to an interview with that group's founder, homosexual activist Kevin Jennings.
Conservative critics of Jennings have blasted him for promoting what they see as radical pro-homosexual policies and ideas. Culture and media critic Bob Knight of the Media Research Center calls the GLSEN founder a "very controversial" figure, one "who has covered up an incident of molestation [of a 15-year-old boy by a homosexual man], who presided over a session in Massachusetts in which kids as young as 14 were exposed to graphic descriptions of homosexual sex acts," and who has said he wants children, even kindergartners, to be acquainted with homosexuality.
The NEA's web page on GLBT students provides a link to an NEA Today article and interview with Jennings called "Safe Schools for Everyone." In it, the homosexual activist advocates teachers helping to combat the problem of harassment faced by GLBT students -- by working "to create a classroom culture of respect and acceptance from day one."
California teacher Jeralee Smith, who founded the NEA's Conservative Educator Caucus and formerly chaired the union's Ex-Gay Educators Caucus, says the new web page on GLBT students is all part of the union's ongoing agenda to legitimize homosexuality. However, she says she hopes this latest move by the national organization will finally open the eyes of some of its members. "Maybe, finally," Smith comments, "some of the conservative and Christian teachers and other faiths who take issue with children being urged to adopt a gay identity" will recognize the NEA's pro-homosexual agenda for what it is. "Maybe, finally, some of these people will really believe that this is what their dues money is going for," she says.

Is the NEA Helping to Spread GLSEN Misinformation?
In July, at the NEA's annual convention, the educators union voted overwhelmingly to endorse legal same-sex civil unions and same-sex "marriages." And now, with its new web page on GLBT students, Smith feels the NEA is using misinformation in an effort to change public attitudes toward homosexuality, and she suspects the union's embrace of GLSEN's "safe schools" rhetoric is little more than a smokescreen for its support for and collaboration with the activist organization's agenda.
According to GLSEN's 2005 National School Climate Survey, homosexual students were five times more likely than the general population of students to report having skipped school in the last month because of safety concerns and were twice as likely as the general population of students to report having no plans to pursue any post-secondary education. The survey also found homosexual students who reported experiencing harassment had an average grade point average a half point lower than that of homosexual students who were not harassed.
Jennings, as quoted in NEA Today, says the "safe schools" initiative is "not about how you feel about gay people, it's about making sure all of our students achieve.' However, Smith believes the NEA's and GLSEN's special emphasis on GLBT youth is telling. She says the NEA has no business encouraging students to adopt a homosexual identity, and the organization needs to recognize that all students are equally deserving of a safe learning environment. "Children -- by children, I mean anyone younger than 18 -- need to all be protected from any kind of harassment at school," the California teacher insists. "I teach physically handicapped children," she notes; "my kids look different from everyone else in very obvious ways, and kids like mine are much more likely to get bullied and harassed at school." Also telling, Smith suggests, is which data the National Education Association chooses to report about GLBT students, and what it chooses to omit. She notes, for instance, that the NEA's new web page does not provide statistics about the many young people who have had same-sex sexual encounters in the past but have since abandoned such behavior.

If you are an educator, or have one in the family, it's time to make sure they know exactly what the NEA is doing with their dues. Do you really want that money going to a group that promotes showing kindergarteners films depicting gay men tongue kissing each other? Do you really want your money going to a group that favors having school-connected abortion clinics, yet opposes parental notification rights? Isn't it time the NEA was called into check and held accountable?