Several families have filed a federal lawsuit against numerous Obama administration officials and the Virginia (Minnesota) School District for permitting a sexually confused boy to confront half-naked girls in their locker rooms. After the girls and their parents complained, the school suggested they use a private room, but the boy follows them there repeatedly and harasses them by raising his dress and otherwise exposing himself.
"No student should be forced to use private facilities at school, like locker rooms and restrooms, with students of the opposite sex. No government agency should hold hostage important education funding to advance an unlawful agenda."
Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF] is fighting a Virginia, Minnesota school district. The conservative group filed a lawsuit on the behalf of 11 families who want to stop the allowance of the opposite sex in their children’s locker rooms, Fox News reports. The lawsuit named Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Virginia School District #706, and Secretary of Education John King Jr. as defendants.
The lawsuit filed said that a transgender student, only identified as Student X, used the female locker rooms and restrooms and participated on girl athletic teams. The ADF said that Student X violated some girls by twerking in their presence, dancing to suggestive songs, and making jokes about a girl’s bra size.
According to the lawsuit, girls who were uncomfortable with Student X were told they could use another locker room. One student, called Plaintiff A, said that she was told she could change in an empty boy’s locker room but Student X followed her in there. Plaintiff A said there was nowhere to go for privacy.
The ADF lawsuit explains that the [federal] DOE and DOJ are unlawfully redefining the terms of Title IX, something that only Congress can alter, and are illegitimately forcing their political will on all public schools across the nation. As the lawsuit points out, no federal law requires schools to allow boys into girls’ locker rooms or girls into boys’ locker rooms, and other courts have rejected the agencies’ interpretation to the contrary. The lawsuit also explains that the DOE did not comply with key provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act when it adopted its rules.
The complaint explains some of the real concerns of students and parents, such as when a biologically male student who identifies as a female—and who is allowed to enter the girls’ locker room under the district’s policy—went on to dance in the locker room “in a sexually explicit manner—‘twerking,’ ‘grinding’ and dancing like he was on a ‘stripper pole’ to songs with explicit lyrics, including ‘Milkshake’ by Kelis. On another occasion, a female student saw the male student lift his dress to reveal his underwear while ‘grinding’ to the music.”
"What these girls are asking for is something that for all of American history has been the common-sense presumption, that you have facilities for girls, facilities for boys and any student that is uncomfortable with that — including the transgender student at the heart of this case, (who) they're not uncompassionate to — they would think the best thing would be for this student to have the option to use the ... restroom of (the student's) biological sex or to make one of the single-stall restrooms available for (the student) to use," said Matt Sharp, an attorney with the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious legal advocacy nonprofit group.
The lawsuit seeks to have the district's policy and the federal guidance declared unlawful, and a permanent injunction issued against both. It also seeks "an award of nominal damages in the amount of one dollar, and compensatory damages" for each plaintiff, along with legal fees.
Virginia Superintendent Noel Schmidt declined to comment Thursday, and the school district's attorney, John Colosimo, couldn't be reached for comment.
Political correctness is the objective as public schools debate calendars, but from one district to the next, their PC goal seems elusive.
"I have come to the difficult decision to discontinue the celebration of the dominant holidays until we can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else's view." -- Principal Scott Masini, Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota
Bruce Vento Elementary in St. Paul is joining other public schools in opting out of holiday celebrations as school officials strive to be more culturally sensitive and inclusive. The school has a predominantly Asian and black student body, and English is a second language for more than half of its pupils, who come from a range of faith backgrounds.
In a letter to parents last week, Principal Scott Masini said his rationale was to avoid "encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening a culture of tolerance and respect for all." He acknowledged it would be an unpopular decision for some.
The letter drew both criticism and support as it started circulating on social media, with some people praising the policy for its sensitivity to diverse cultures and others decrying it as political correctness. The Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis ran an editorial calling the decision misguided and urged Masini to reconsider.
As word spread, the school district issued a statement saying its longstanding policy "discourages programs and festivities that celebrate observances unless they are required by law." That means government holidays celebrating the birthdays of President George Washington, President Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., along with Veterans Day, are still OK.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced the addition of the new holiday to the school calendar in June.
The city school system will become only the second major urban school district in the nation, after San Francisco, to close on [the Asian] Lunar New Year.
When de Blasio announced in early March last year that the Mulsim holy days Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr would appear on this year's school calendar, Lunar New Year advocates began to push to have their holiday added.
The Department of Education was able to add the Lunar New Year holiday to the school calendar by consolidating two half-days previously designated for staff administrative work, of which neither could count toward the 180-day minimum, into one full day. This allowed room for the addition of the Lunar New Year without any loss in state aid-able days.
. . . the city's 12 congressional members sent a letter to de Blasio dated March 9, saying they were happy Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr would become public school holidays, but were "puzzled and concerned" about why Lunar New Year was left out. Four days later, city and state elected officials held a rally outside City Hall. On April 1, legislation was introduced in Albany to amend New York's education law to recognize Lunar New Year as a public school holiday for any city with one-million people — namely New York City.
Former Queens state Assemblyman Jimmy Meng, a Democrat, was the first to propose such a bill in 2005, but it failed to gain a sponsor in the state Senate. Meng's daughter Grace, a former state assemblywoman who is now a Democrat congresswoman from Queens, also introduced legislation in early 2009 with support from state Sen. Daniel Squadron, a Democrat whose district includes Chinatown.
After several months went by without any news, more than 40 elected officials, advocacy groups, and community leaders sent an open letter to de Blasio in June, saying his administration did not keep a promise to meet before the end of May for discussions. Around the same time, the state Senate unanimously approved a bill making Lunar New Year a public school holiday.
Following mounting pressure, the mayor, who controls the city's school system with state approval, announced on June 22 through Twitter that Lunar New Year would be added to the 2015-2016 calendar. The message was published in English, Chinese, and Korean.
Across the metro area and the country, schools are juggling sensitivity with holiday fun as student bodies become increasingly diverse. Several schools have turned to seasonal celebrations to include all students, and some have scaled back in-class celebrations to save teaching time.
[St. Paul's] Vento school is echoing that rationale in its decision to stop celebrating major holidays, to avoid “encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening a culture of tolerance and respect for all,” Masini said in the letter addressed to families. “My personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.”
Masini was cheered and jeered by people online. Some said fun was being sucked out of schools. He responded in a comment released by the school district Thursday. “I’m struggling with this and I don’t know what the right answer is,” he said. “But, what I do know is celebrating some holidays and not others is not inclusive of all of the students we serve.
Wayzata Public Schools no longer observes specific holidays, opting instead for seasonal celebrations, said spokeswoman Amy Parnell. Valentine’s Day is the only exception — certain schools still decide to recognize the holiday.
The policy reads, in part: “Schools shall discourage programs and festivities arranged to celebrate holidays and other special days, and shall strive to eliminate them, except where such observances are required by law.”
Exceptions to the policy are Veterans Day and the birthdays of Martin Luther King, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. When school is held on those days, state law says “at least one hour of the school program must be devoted to a patriotic observance of the day.”
[St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman Toya] Stewart Downey said Superintendent Valeria Silva supports the district’s policy on holiday observances. But the district will gather input from schools in case the school board wants to change the policy.
[Principal] Masini said the school no longer would celebrate Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas . . .
The federal government has strong-armed Deluxe Financial Services Corp. of Shoreview, Minnesota into an agreement to pay $115,000 and change its company policy to allow men into women's facilities. As part of the legal action, the Obama administration Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will be following up to ensure the company succumbs fully to the Gay Agenda.
The male employee, after beginning to show up for work in female clothing, complained in part, that Deluxe supervisors and coworkers referred to him using male pronouns.
According to EEOC’s complaint, Britney Austin was assigned the male sex at birth and presented as male when hired by the company. Ms. Austin performed her duties satisfactorily in the company’s Phoenix offices throughout a lengthy tenure. However, after she informed her supervisor that she was transgender and began to present as a woman at work, Deluxe refused to let her use the women’s restroom.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, including that based on transgender status and gender stereotyping. This includes subjecting an employee to different terms and conditions or a hostile work environment because of sex.
A suit filed by EEOC, EEOC v. Deluxe Financial Services, Inc., sought both monetary and injunctive relief. Britney Austin intervened in the lawsuit and asserted additional claims.
Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery issued a consent decree on Jan. 20 ordering Deluxe Financial Services Inc. to pay Britney Austin the amount and change its equal employment opportunity policies to prevent unlawful sex discrimination and harassment.
Montgomery also told the company to issue a letter of reference for future employers, change its national health benefits plan to delete any partial exclusion for health care based on transgender status and provide an annual report to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the complainant.
The company issued a letter of apology, which states, "We want to ensure you that we have made changes to our internal policies, including how we treat transgender employees' requests to change biographical information or use a restroom commensurate with their gender identity."
"The company has changed its policies to ensure that transgender employees may use a restroom commensurate with their gender identity, that the company will promptly correct that employee's sex designation and name in our internal records and systems, and that we will take hostile comments based on sex- stereotyping seriously, investigate them, and take prompt corrective and remedial action," the letter read.
In addition to requiring that Deluxe pay monetary damages to Ms. Austin, a three-year consent decree provides that Deluxe will issue a letter of apology to Ms. Austin and a letter of reference for future employers. The consent decree also provides that, as of January 1, 2016, Deluxe's national health benefits plan will not include any partial or categorical exclusion for otherwise medically necessary care based on transgender status.
"This settlement underscores EEOC's commitment to securing the rights of transgender individuals under Title VII in the federal courts," said EEOC General Counsel David Lopez. "This is our second such resolution and we hope that employers will take notice and begin to take proactive steps to prevent and eliminate discrimination against their transgender workers."
This is the third lawsuit filed by EEOC alleging discrimination on the basis of transgender status. In April, 2015, a Florida eye clinic paid $150,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit seeking relief for an employee who had been transitioning from male to female. EEOC also filed suit seeking relief for an employee of a Detroit area funeral home fired for transitioning from male to female, which is still pending.
Acting [EEOC] District Director Elizabeth Cadle added, "EEOC considers protecting transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees to be a strategic enforcement priority. We will continue to assure that transgender employees receive the full benefit of federal anti-discrimination laws in all industries."
Austin wasn’t allowed to use the women’s restroom and co-workers used hurtful epithets and intentionally used the wrong gender pronouns to refer to her, the EEOC said in a June complaint. The company denies having created or subjected Austin to a hostile workplace, and said it’s “fully committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful workplace,” according to the order.
“In the interest of resolving this matter, to avoid further cost of litigation, and as a result of having engaged in comprehensive settlement negotiations, the parties have agreed that this action should be resolved by entry of this decree,” Judge Montgomery wrote in Wednesday’s order.
The EEOC is represented in-house by Laurie A Vasichek, Iris Halpern and Michael H. Imdiecke. Austin is represented by Jillian T. Weiss and Ezra Young.
Deluxe is represented by Angela Beranek Brandt and David M. Wilk of Larson King LLP.
The case is Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Deluxe Financial Services Inc., case number 0:15-cv-02646, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
1) Include gender identity in your non-discrimination and no-harassment policies. If you’re a federal contractor, you should have done this a long time ago. If you’re not, then you should seriously consider adding it now.
2) Make sure your policies provide that discrimination against or harassment of individuals because of their transgender (and related) status will not be tolerated, whether the behavior comes from “employees, customers, agents, contractors, sub-contractors, clients,” or anyone else.
3) Make sure that employees understand that deliberately referring to a transgendered person by his or her “biological” gender, or by his or her original name, is considered discrimination and harassment by the EEOC.
. . .
5) A transgendered employee should be allowed to use the restroom “commensurate with their gender identity” without any limitations. Again, the EEOC’s position is that the employer may not ask for the medical records of the transgendered employee, or otherwise probe into his or her medical details before doing so. (This means an employer cannot make the employee wait to change restrooms until after he or she has had gender-reassignment surgery.)
. . .
7) The employer should conduct annual training for rank-and-file employees that includes discrimination based on gender identity, sex stereotyping, and gender dysphoria, and should penalize any employee who fails to complete the training on an annual basis.
To read the entire article above, and all ten steps, CLICK HERE.
Parents are organizing to combat the Gay Agenda "transgender activism" recently launched by administrators at Nova Classical Academy where a 5-year-old boy is being encouraged to dress like a girl. The public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota announced a new curriculum to train all students in the latest sexual revolution craze.
"Transgender is new to a lot of people. If we don't make intentional efforts to educate kids on certain things ... we are going to be putting out fires all the time." -- Eric Williams, Executive Director, Nova Classical Academy
The parents of a 5-year-old child who is gender nonconforming asked Nova Classical Academy to help make sure their student was not being bullied.
Outside groups stepped in and the school’s board got involved when other parents heard that faculty members were talking with children about such bullying. Now the Minnesota Family Council plans to hold a community meeting Tuesday at the school to discuss the issue.
Autumn Leva of the Minnesota Family Council, a Minneapolis-based Christian organization, said parents were uncomfortable with faculty reading about transgender issues to their children.
St. Paul Public Schools approved a gender inclusion policy in March, which says staff in the school district will respect students' gender identity and provide them with access to facilities that best align with that identity.
That includes bathrooms — which has some parents particularly riled up.
"Nova parents, however, are not sitting by quietly as the school puts their children at risk," a news release from the Minnesota Family Council said. "Nearly 400 parents have signed a petition opposing mixed-sex bathrooms. … Several parents have pulled their students out of Nova or off the waiting list."
Nova is considering the St. Paul Public Schools' inclusion policy but has not yet adopted it and has not made any decisions about who can use which bathrooms, Williams said.
Two sets of parents pulled their kindergartners out of Nova Classical Academy this school year after school officials announced they'd be "taking steps to support a student who is gender non-conforming."
In October, the school told parents it was planning to hold classroom conversations around a series of books about gender nonconformity in order to make the boy feel accepted and included. A large number of parents opted out of the sessions, which were revised to a reading of a passage about children whose gender identities don't align with gender norms.
School leaders since have organized a task force to consider curricular changes, adopted a resolution of support and held an information session about gender identity.
Jamie Knippel, who has three children attending Nova, doesn't understand why the school in St. Paul's West End has paid special attention to gender-nonconforming students. She said it should be enough for the school to teach all kids to be kind to each other and then address bullying case by case.
In the face of angry parents, officials of the Anoka-Hennepin County School District 11 are defending the choice of a multicultural "holiday" concert at Blaine (Minnesota) High School that included an out-of-season Islamic song of Ramadan with the all-to-familiar mandatory Muslim terrorist battle cry chant, which is translated "Allah is the greatest."
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Leading up to the Blaine High School holiday choir concert Thursday, criticism emerged on social media over the inclusion of the song "Eid Un Sa'Eid." . . . The nine-song concert also featured traditional Christian Christmas carols, like "Angels We Have Heard On High" and "Silent Night," as well as "Hanukkah Song," a traditional Jewish carol.
Students pick the songs for the concert, according to district spokeswoman Kay Villella.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is considered by believers to be the month in which the Quran was first revealed to the prophet Mohammed. In 2015, Ramadan fell between June 17 and July 17.
“Songs are not performed in a worship setting or to promote religion,” the district’s statement said. “but rather in [an] educational setting where students are learning and performing music.”
While the Ramadan song mentions brotherhood and peace, the district says that any student who doesn’t feel comfortable singing it doesn’t have to. Their grade will not be affected.
[A] parent, who didn’t want to be identified, told WCCO phone that considering the recent events in Paris and San Bernardino, singing a song about Allah would be “insensitive.”
“Students are involved in selecting these songs,” according to the statement. “Students of many faiths contribute songs representing their culture to include in this portion of the program.”
“Eid un Sa’Eid” was included in the holiday program last year as well, according to Kay Villella, assistant director of communication and public relations. To her knowledge, the district did not receive complaints about the song last year.
All over the world
Under the big-blue sky
Muslims unite to worship Allah
It’s a time of brotherhood, a time of peace
Muslims are singing praises to Allah
Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar
La Ilaaha Illa-Allahu
Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar wa Lillahil Hamd
Families are gathering
Remembering Allah
And that His Love is the Greatest by far
All Praise for You Allah
In the wake of Islamic terrorists killing and wounding hundreds in Paris, the Satanic Temple chapters in Minneapolis and San Jose are reaching out to local Muslims offering to protect them from (non-existent) ruthless American infidels.
“If there is anyone in the Minneapolis area who is Muslim and afraid to leave their home out of fear for some kind of backlash, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would be glad to escort you where you need to go without advertising our presence -- just big dudes walking you where you need to be.” -- Satanists of Minneapolis (Facebook post)
“I don't live in Minneapolis, but as an American Muslim, I'm glad to see you guys take up this effort and help out a marginalized group. Thank you for doing this and building bridges between communities.” -- Facebook reply comment
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Muslims in Minneapolis and San Jose, California, are receiving support from an unlikely ally: the Satanic Temple. The Minneapolis and San Jose chapters of the national organization, which describes itself as a group that “facilitates the communication and mobilization of politically aware Satanists, secularists and advocates for individual liberty,” posted to their website and Facebook pages offering to protect local Muslims who might be experiencing backlash after last Friday’s terror attacks.
Since the Minneapolis chapter extended the offer on Wednesday, the Facebook post has been shared more than 2,700 times and has been “liked” by more than 3,000 people. The San Jose chapter posted the same thing to its Facebook page on Tuesday.
“We are happy to be of service to our community. Unfortunately, we’ve had no takers as of yet,” Curt Landsman, a representative of the Minneapolis chapter, told International Business Times in an email. “We are doing this out of genuine care for our fellow men and women and not as a publicity stunt. We feel that statistically speaking, gun toting fundamentalist Christians are a much bigger threat than Muslims in our own community who have lived peacefully here for years.”
Since posting their offers earlier this week, both Satanist groups have been inundated with messages of support from well-wishers, and those inspired by the gesture. Writes one commenter: “I'm a Transgender, Israeli Jew and if I were in Minneapolis I would take you up on this. Thank you for your kindness. What good people you are.” Says another: “What a lovely gesture! As a Muslim and a human, thanks dudes!” All told, the offers have racked up thousands of likes and shares across Facebook.
. . . the Satanist groups’ offer of protection makes perfect sense coming from a faith who—despite their demonic-sounding name—focuses on “encourag[ing] benevolence and empathy among all people, reject[ing] tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be[ing] directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.”
Once again disproving the fairy tale of the "gay gene," multiple studies show that teenage girls who claim the label "lesbian" are more likely to become pregnant (by a male, obviously), and self-identified "gay boys" are more likely to impregnate (a girl, obviously). While liberals blame everyone else in society for these "unintended pregnancies," the Rainbow Health Initiative, a homosexual advocacy group, says the root causes include mental illness, sexual molestation as a child, and substance abuse.
". . . what was different for the boys is if they were ever forced to have sex, they were more likely to cause a pregnancy." -- Lisa Lindley, George Mason University (Fairfax, VA)
For the new study, reported in the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers used data from nearly 10,000 ethnically and racially diverse New York City high school students from 2005, 2007 and 2009. They included only students who reported having sex with a member of the opposite sex.
About 85 percent of female students identified as heterosexual and about 90 percent only had male sexual partners. Of the male students, 96 percent identified as heterosexual and 97 percent only had female sexual partners.
About 14 percent of females became pregnant, and about 11 percent of males got someone pregnant.
Overall, about 13 percent of heterosexual females and about 14 percent of females who only had male sexual partners had been pregnant, compared to about 23 percent of lesbian or bisexual females and about 20 percent of girls who had male and female sexual partners.
About 10 percent of heterosexual males and those who only had female sexual partners experienced a pregnancy, compared to about 29 percent of gay or bisexual males and about 38 percent of males with female and male sexual partners.
Formerly known as the Minnesota Organization on Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention, Teenwise analyzed data from Minnesota Department of Health data and the Minnesota Student Survey. The analysis found that twice as many adolescent lesbian females (50.9 percent) and gay males (48.7 percent) had had sex compared to straight females (23.5 percent) and straight males (25.9 percent). Bisexual males and females had the highest reported levels of sexual activity at 49.5 percent and 54.4 percent.
Bisexual females were five times more likely to have been pregnant than straight females at 8.2 percent vs. 1.5 percent. Lesbian and questioning females were also more likely to report having been pregnant at 6.6 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.
Gay males and males questioning their sexuality had the highest percent of reporting that they had gotten someone pregnant (9.9 percent vs. 2.4 percent for straight males). Bisexual males also had high rates of reporting having gotten someone pregnant at 8.9 percent.
. . . a much-ballyhooed study of teen sexual activity nationwide published in July . . . found that today’s youths are having less sex than previous generations. Less than half of teens older than 14 reported they’ve had intercourse, and the majority who were sexually active used some form of protection, according to the research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That LGBTQ youths are more likely to have had sex and to have experienced pregnancy than other teens didn’t surprise [executive director Judith] Kahn, with Teenwise Minnesota, but the extent of risk-taking behavior compared with straight teens came as a shock.
Sexual violence came up repeatedly in interviews of pregnant LGBTQ youths by researchers for Rainbow Health Initiative. Childhood sexual abuse was experienced by at least 5 of the 18 teens interviewed. In some cases, the sexual abuse led to their pregnancies.
To better address the problem, the federal government just issued an $18 million grant to Planned Parenthood in nine states — including Minnesota — to support programs aimed at reducing teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the LGBTQ population.
The pregnancy rate for teenagers who identify as lesbian or as bisexual is two to seven times greater than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a 2007 British Columbian study “Not Yet Equal: The Health of Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Youth in BC.” While the average teen birth rate is currently at an all-time low due in part to improved sexual education, this sexual education may be biased toward heterosexuals. The fact that sexual harassment and substance abuse has been found to be more common in lesbian and gay youth may also contribute to this disparity.
Joe Carter, an editor for The Gospel Coalition, writes that a reason could be that LGBQ teens claimed to have sex much more often than straight teens, as 50.9 percent of lesbian females and 48.7 percent of gay males said they had sex at least once compared with 23.5 percent of straight females and 25.9 percent of straight males.
"Over the past few years evangelical churches have made great strides in learning how to minister to those with same-sex attraction," Carter goes on to say. "But there is much more we could do for teens who identify as gay, lesbian, and bisexual. The fact that LGB teens are engaging in sexual activity with both sexes at a higher rate than their straight peers may be a symptom of loneliness, an unmet need for intimacy and connection, or unresolved emotional problems.
"Some people may be shocked by the high pregnancy rates among the lesbian and gay teens," Evan Lenow, assistant professor of ethics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Baptist Press in written comments. "However, this confirms what studies have shown for years. Individuals who identify as lesbian and gay are much more likely to experiment with sex and have many more sexual partners than their heterosexual counterparts. Some of these teens who identify as lesbian and gay may be simply experimenting with all types of sexual partnerships and thinking less about the ramifications of such experimentation."
Bob Stith, founder of Family and Gender Issues Ministries in Southlake, Texas, told BP data on teen sexual activity indicates "the sexual confusion of many of these young people." He suggested the distinction between homosexual and heterosexual teens often is not "quite so clear" as researchers imply.
"In the haste to break down biblical standards, our culture is experiencing a spiritual truth," Stith, the Southern Baptist Convention's former national strategist for gender issues, said in written comments. "Once you deny biblical truth, regardless of how 'spiritual' this process may sound, you will have greater difficulty determining where to draw the boundaries. And while some of those who redefine the boundaries may not" approve of the behavior of sexual active teenagers, "they have opened the door for each man doing what is right in his own eyes."
Torn between competing liberal special interest groups, the Minnesota Sports High School League (MSHSL) has chosen to advance the Gay Agenda at the expense of the feminists by enacting a state-wide policy applying to public schools, and even independent Christian schools, to allow boys to play on girls sports teams and giving the boys freedom to join the girls in the locker rooms and showers.
"I think it's unfair that you're giving boys the opportunity to proclaim themselves as girls just so they can play on a girls team and potentially take away our scholarships." -- Melanie Outcalt, 10th grade volleyball athlete
The policy, which will take effect next school year, allows transgender athletes to pick the team that fits with their gender identity and provides an appeal process for students whose schools turn down their request.
Supporters of the measure celebrated its passage as an important step toward making transgender students more comfortable and accepted in school . . .
The policy sparked an avalanche of public input, delaying a vote scheduled for October and spawning full-page ads from opposing groups that proclaimed the guidelines would mean "the end of girls' sports."
Opponents again urged the board Thursday to delay or scrap those guidelines, citing concerns about giving transgender athletes an unfair advantage on girls' teams and worries over transgender students in locker rooms. Several Republican lawmakers asked the board to let the Legislature handle the issue.
Board members began considering the policy in July, and tabled a vote in October for further review. There was no delay this time. Members discussed it for about 30 minutes then took a vote.
After the vote, board chair Scott McCready, who is activities director at St. Charles High School in southeastern Minnesota, said the policy was needed to guide school officials like him on how to include transgender athletes in sports.
Transgender students who want to play on the team of their choice will be required to submit statements from parents or a doctor to school officials. But they won't be required to show proof of hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery.
The board set out criteria for determining whether transgender students who were born male but identify as female can be eligible for girls’ teams at the nearly 500 schools in the league’s membership. State law already permits girls to compete in boys’ sports.
Eighteen of the 20 board members voted yes. Emmett Keenan, activities director at St. Cloud Cathedral, voted no. Paul McDonald of Ely, who was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton and participating in his first board meeting, abstained.
Chris McDonald, a league board member and debate coach at Eagan High School, said gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students "look to this board to provide equal access for all students."
Minnesota is the 33rd state to grant some sort of high-school sports accommodation to transgender students. [Autumn Leva, director of policy and communications at the Minnesota Family Council] said this wave happened very recently, so it’s too soon to chronicle the impact of the policies from around the country. She contends this is a major focal point of the gay rights agenda. Leva said state high-school athletic associations are under pressure to conform from the the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS, which is heavily influenced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN.
The MSHSL did adopt an exemption for religiously affiliated high schools, but Leva said that provides far less protection for those schools than the league would have Minnesotans believe.
“The league actually narrowed the exemption, so now if a private Christian school is not directly affiliated with a particular denomination or a specific church, they are not protected under this policy,” she said. “So they will have to comply. That’s all of our independent Christian schools.”
“Again, that will almost certainly lead to (transgender athletes) using the locker rooms of the opposite sex,” she said. “So we’ve got students’ privacy right implicated, putting students of opposite sex in very private settings, changing and using the restroom together. Obviously that’s a huge concern to students and parents.”
Leva added, “We’ve got Title IX implications and discrimination against female athletes, since our state statutes make very clear that we separate female teams for a reason, to ensure that they have an equal and fair opportunity to compete. This policy really flies in the face of that provision.”
Ordained clergy, including bishops, have been trying for decades to persuade Christian leaders of the United Methodist Church (UMC) to embrace the Gay Agenda, but after repeated defeats in denomination-wide votes, these desperate homosexual activists are adopting "scorched earth" tactics.
"Most folks, after 40 years of trying legislative solutions, realize they won't work. The way forward is to claim what we know to be true. And we're going to continue doing it in an aggressive way." -- Matt Berryman, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network (a formal homosexualist group within the UMC)
"The time for talking is over." -- UMC California Bishop Melvin Talbert
The intensity of the conflict was laid bare over the last several months, when the church tried, convicted and defrocked Frank Schaefer, a Pennsylvania pastor who presided at the wedding of his son to another man. Berryman said the case galvanized Methodists advocating for recognition of gay marriage, increasing donations to the group and traffic on Reconciling Ministries' online sites. Schaefer has since been traveling the country giving talks and sermons on gay acceptance.
Frustration over the lack of change fueled the new movement to openly defy church law, starting in 2011 in Minnesota and New York. Methodist ministers had already been quietly officiating at same-gender ceremonies in some communities for years. A few of the more publicly defiant clergy had faced formal complaints or had been tried by the church. But the public marriage pledges brought new energy to the campaign.
Last month, a new Methodist group formed called the Wesleyan Covenant Network to support theologically conservative Methodists and keep them from leaving the denomination. The meeting in Atlanta drew about 130 clergy and others. One speaker choked back tears while telling the group his son is considering entering ministry — but not in the United Methodist Church.
Almost daily, evidence mounts of defiant United Methodist clergy breaking church law on behalf of gays and lesbians as the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination struggles with what may be its most vexing rebellion in decades.
Every week, another Methodist minister “comes out” and acknowledges performing a same-sex wedding on the website of the New York-based Methodists in New Directions. So far, 14 clergy have made such disclosures; none has faced a church complaint, said Dorothee Benz, MIND spokeswoman.
“The defrocking of [UMC Pennsylvania pastor] Frank Schaefer brought great shame to our denomination and much pain to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters,” said Bishop Minerva G. Carcano of the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church.
She sees the growing movement challenging church policy as a turning point.
The Rev. Thomas Ogletree [80] will be tried March 10 for violating church law against officiating at gay unions, his spokeswoman, Dorothee Benz, said Friday. . . . Ogletree is a theologian, a former Yale Divinity School dean, and a retired elder in the church’s New York district, or Annual Conference. Some clergy had filed a complaint after his son’s 2012 wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times.
In the last few years, as gay marriage has gained legal recognition by US states, Methodists advocating for gays and lesbians have intensified their protests, hosting gay weddings in Methodist churches or officiating at ceremonies elsewhere.
Two other similar cases are pending within the Methodist church. The Rev. Stephen Heiss of the Upper New York Annual Conference is expected to face a church trial for presiding at same-sex marriages, including officiating at his daughter’s 2002 wedding. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, of the New York Annual Conference, is facing a formal complaint that she is a "self-avowed practicing" lesbian, or lives openly with a same-sex partner, which is barred by church law.
In addition to considering homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching", the UMC Book of Discipline also states that clergy cannot perform same-sex marriages.
Ogletree's actions were "injurious to the church", said Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, vice president and general manager of the conservative Methodist group Good News, according to the NY Times. "And it undermines the whole covenant of accountability that we share with each other as pastors," continued Lambrecht.
Rev. Stephen Heiss, of Tabernacle United Methodist Church, 83 Main St., Binghamton, and the Rev. Frank Schaefer, whose defrocking drew national media coverage and invigorated the same-sex marriage debate, want the 12 million member church to allow clergy to extend marriage ceremonies to everyone, regardless of sexual preference.
Schaefer will be the speaker at a 10:30 a.m. worship service Feb. 2 as Tabernacle celebrates the seventh anniversary of its decision to become a Reconciling Congregation.
A reconciling United Methodist congregation has formally adopted a statement to welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Reconciling Congregations are not officially endorsed by the United Methodist Church.
In the Southern Tier, several congregations have approved this welcoming statement, including Tabernacle and Centenary-Chenango Street churches in Binghamton, St. Paul’s in Ithaca and First United Methodist Church in Oneonta. . . .
The Rev. Trina Bose North and the Rev. Deborah Ingraham [of Edmond, Oklahoma] said their group, informally called Oklahoma United Methodists for Marriage Equality, wanted to counter the public statements made by the Rev. Robert Hayes Jr., Oklahoma United Methodist bishop, upholding the denomination's stance against same-gender marriage.
North [38] and Ingraham, 60, said Epworth United Methodist Church, where Ingraham is senior pastor, is part of the Reconciling Network, a network of United Methodist churches across the country working toward full inclusion for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the church.
. . . they said it's important that United Methodists who disagree with the prohibitions tied to homosexuality let people know how they feel.
. . . North and Ingraham said momentum for such public dissent is growing. They said 70 Oklahoma United Methodist clergy and 280 laypeople signed a 2011 statement in favor of the denomination changing its stance on same-sex marriage and ordination of openly gay individuals. Ingraham said the local statement tied in with a similar national statement called Altar for All.
The denomination's highest court, the Judicial Council, will review the Desert Southwest Annual Conference's "Marriage Equality Resolution" in April it was announced.
In the recently released docket for the Judicial Council, the reproduced resolution stated that the Conference took a stand in favor of gay marriage, even though the UMC Book of Discipline defines marriage as being between one man and one woman.
Last July, the Arizona-based Desert Southwest Annual Conference passed the "Marriage Equality Resolution," validating the regional body's open support for the pro-LGBT wing of the mainline protestant denomination.
Bishop Robert Hoshibata, head of the Conference, decided to allow the resolution and concluded that it did not conflict with the Book of Discipline.
In an “Open Letter to the Council of Bishops (COB)” released today, Wake Forest University professor and United Methodist polity expert the Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Frank asked the council “…for the sake of the unity of the church, to stop the trials.” “We need to engage our differences through “Christian conversation” within our conferences and particularly within our orders of elders. Church trials are “an expedient of last resort” and are not the way forward,” Frank wrote.
Frank believes that the constitution of the United Methodist Book of Discipline empowers the bishops to act in opposition to the will of the General Conference in the face of peril to the denomination.
Frank believes that it is within the power of the bishops to refrain from referring complaints to counsel for the church, and the subsequent church trials. “You have discretion as the chief pastors of the church over the manner, purpose, and conduct of any supervisory response and just resolution under ‘fair process.’”
To read the entire article above and the full text of Frank’s letter, CLICK HERE.
This week, the Bagley, Minnesota school district agreed that their action in October of forbidding an Egyptian-born, American Christian pastor from speaking in the school auditorium during non-school hours violated his right of free speech, and that of local taxpayers who organized the event. The school, bowing to pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) because the pastor planned to present evidence of Muslim violence against Christians, cancelled his speaking engagement.
"We asked to change the venue to the [Calvary Evangelical Free Church] because the speaker did not appear to coincide with school district policy." -- Steve Cairns, Superintendent of Bagley Public Schools, said in October.
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Originally slated to speak at the Bagley High School Sunday through Tuesday, [Usama] Dakdok’s location was shifted to the church. The school had received calls from people who disagreed with Dakdok’s anti-Islamic message.
Dakdok spoke at the Calvary Evangelical Free Church on Sunday and Monday before a full house, according to a representative of the church, with approximately a dozen protesters outside [decrying the message of Dakdok]. Pastor Rick Moore could not be reached for comment.
Dakdok describes himself as an Egyptian born Christian who was taught Islam in a government school in Egypt. He came to the United States in 1992 and has since been preaching his ministry in effort to, "reach out to the Muslim people with the word of Jesus Christ."
About a dozen individuals showed up on Sunday to protest Dakdok, the director of Straight Road Ministries, an organization seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity and "expose the lies of the enemy who is seeking to keep people away from the truth of salvation in Christ." Despite the presence of protesters, the audience was full for both Dakdok's Sunday and Monday sessions.
According to his website, Dakdok converted to Christianity as an 11-year-old and came to the United States in 1992. He holds a Master's Degree in Missiology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and founded The Straight Way in 2001.
Last December, Dakdok earned the ire of the Council of American-Islamic Relations Minnesota (CAIR-MN) in a talk titled, "The Truth about Islam," where he claimed that an Islamic revival in the country would lead Muslims to "start beheading your children and your grandchildren."
Dakdok also claimed that Muslims in America would "kill your children for not eating what is liked. For not eating the lawful foods" and alleged that for Msulims "killing you is a small matter."
Usama Dakdok was subjected to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by the Bagley Independent School. Dakdok was invited by residents of the small, northern city to share his story of growing up in Egypt, attending government schools, and witnessing the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims.
A local Bagley resident rented the auditorium for the dates of October 27-29, 2013. The school district revoked the use of the facility four days before the event after the local Council on American Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) affiliate created controversy.
After receiving Liberty Counsel’s letter, Bagley School District reversed the decision and confirmed that Mr. Dakdok may return to hold the event [sometime in the future].
“Usama Dakdok is a Christian originally from Egypt, who grew up in that country attending government schools where he was educated about Islam as the state religion. In Egypt, as a member of the Coptic ethnic minority, Mr. Dakdok has also personally witnessed the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims. As you may be aware in Egypt (as elsewhere), the Quran is explicitly cited as justification for the burning of churches, raping of women, murder of both sexes and all ages through beheading and other methods, forced ‘marriage’ of Christian women and girls to Muslim men and their forcible ‘conversion’ to Islam, payment of the ‘jizya’ tax for the privilege of remaining Christian,and other persecution that is inflicted upon members of the Coptic Christian ethnic and religious minority,” Liberty Counsel told the district.
So he is “uniquely qualified to give a Christian perspective about life under shariah (Islamic religious) law, and is a sought-after public speaker.”
Regarding his appearance in Minnesota, he had been invited by residents of the community to speak. A local resident, Tammy Godwin, made arrangements to use the school.
The national CAIR organization was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, and a review of the public record, including federal criminal court documents, past IRS 990 tax records and Federal Election Commission records detailing donor occupations, reveals that CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.
