After complaints that students at Montgomery Blair High School may learn that homosexual behavior is a choice, rather than "innate" as taught in the sex education curriculum for the past few years, the Montgomery County school board barred non-profit organizations from distributing fliers.
-- From "School system changes its policy on backpack fliers" by Jen Bondeson, Staff Writer, Maryland Gazette 6/26/12
The Montgomery County Board of Education voted on Monday to change its policy on “backpack fliers.” Starting in the coming school year, nonprofits will not be allowed to have their fliers distributed to middle school and high school students.
The decision came on a recommendation of the school system’s policy committee, which was given the task of reviewing the policy after a flier sent home by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays this school year provoked complaints from some school officials and gay rights advocates.
Laura Berthiaume (Dist. 2) of Rockville was the only board member to vote against the policy changes Monday, saying the change might negatively impact membership in nonprofits, such as Boy Scouts and youth leagues, and that changing the rules might hurt the school system’s community bond.
Under law, the school system is not able to pick which nonprofit’s fliers it sends home, so the system must allow all or none.
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From "Montgomery school board bans nonprofits from distributing fliers at middle, high schools" by Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post 6/26/12
The old policy permitted nonprofit groups to send fliers home with middle and high school students four times a year, unless the message was considered hate speech. The right was upheld in federal court several years ago, after a religious group sued the school system for refusing to distribute fliers promoting its after-school Bible study programs.
Debate over the district’s flier program was renewed in February after Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, a Virginia-based group, distributed fliers to five high schools with the message that homosexuality is not innate and that gay people can change their identities. PFOX has been distributing fliers in Montgomery schools for several years.
Many students and educators, including Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr, protested the message, calling it intolerant and potentially harmful to gay students.
Starr said Monday that it was important to rethink the policy. “We have to confront and be very sensitive to the health and well-being of our LGBT students.”
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From "Homosexual Activists Want to Censor Ex-'Gay' Message" by Jim Brown, American Family Radio News - AgapePress
The handout distributed by [PFOX] states its belief "in unconditional love for family members with same-sex attractions" and its goal of seeking "to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against former homosexuals." PFOX executive director Regina Griggs says those who are raising angry objections to the flyer distribution are demonstrating intolerance. Also, she feels they are obstructing a legitimate effort to provide young people with certain facts about homosexuality.
These pro-homosexual tolerance and diversity advocates generally "see ex-gays as nonexistent," the PFOX official contends. And when former homosexuals are introduced to society, she says, many homosexual activists become afraid that this "confuses the public and may actually be a deterrent to gay marriage and other civil rights that they believe they deserve."
Last year, PFOX won a lawsuit challenging Montgomery County's sexual education curriculum. In that case, a federal judge ordered the school system to toss out the biased, pro-homosexuality curriculum that made derogatory comments about Christian views on homosexual behavior.
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