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News of the Day ... In Perspective12/28/2005PFOX victory on First Amendment grounds followed by ongoing controversy Last May, Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays (PFOX) announced a win in U.S. District Court in Maryland, in a lawsuit filed against the Montgomery County Board of Education. The suit complained that the public school sex-education curriculum advocated homosexuality and refused to allow the viewpoint that �change is possible and ex-gays exist.� Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., wrote: �The Court is extremely troubled by the willingness of Montgomery County Public Schools to venture�or perhaps more correctly bound�into the crossroads of controversy where religion, morality, and homosexuality converge�. However, the Revised Curriculum presents only one view on the subject�that homosexuality is a natural and morally correct lifestyle�to the exclusion of other perspectives.� Citing the importance of the First Amendment, the Judge stated that the �merit of Plaintiffs� (PFOX�s) viewpoint�be it right, wrong, discriminatory, or just�is of no consequence. Rather, the Court is concerned with ensuring that the Plaintiffs� free speech rights are not restricted merely because they voice an unpopular viewpoint�.� Controversy over the curriculum is ongoing. A Maryland School Board member recently appointed members of three �pro-homosexual� groups to its new Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development (CAC): the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL); Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); and Teach the Facts, which has close ties to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). A conservative parents group, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC), complains that that the board is not allowing the group to designate its own representative, though guaranteed a seat by the settlement agreement (Agape Press 12/19/05). Additional information:
�Homosexuality: Some Neglected Considerations� by Nathaniel S. Lehrman, M.D.,
Letters about Lehrman article
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