Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Assault on Free Speech in Montgomery County MD

Worldnetdaily.com alerts us to an attempt to stifle the free speech of Christians who attempt to advise Montgomery County students that they can be free of same-sex attractions.  Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) distributed a flyer that contained this sentence, "former homosexuals do not think something is wrong with them because they decided to fulfill their heterosexual potential by overcoming unwanted same-sex attractions."   Does that sound like "hate speech" to you?  Rather, it sounds like PFOX might be protesting hate speech that is directed at those who left the gay lifestyle.

Being distributed at the same time was another flyer from the gay rights group Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.  Among other things, this flyer encouraged students to seek "gay-friendly congregations".  Now one might think that competing ideas such as those espoused by their respective organizations would be accorded equal free-speech rights, correct?  Well, silly us!  PFOX had to complain to the Board of Education directors, stating that several teachers harrassed them.  Need we wonder if the PFLAG folks had to file the same complaint?

Enter now an outfit called change.org.  A brief perusal of the general website indicates that they're a left-wing outfit from California and that one of their services is to create and conduct online petitions for their clients.  (They do this by collecting demographic info; mail list sales, anyone?) At the behest of personages yet known, they've decided to start a petition to ban PFOX from distributing its flyers.  For an example of its flavor, one paragraph is, "Why are public school students receiving handouts from an organization like this? The President of the Montgomery County Public School board even went on record to say that the PFOX fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum. So why give students information that defy what you teach them in class?"

Let me translate from left-wing gobblygoop to real intent.  "Why are public school students receiving information that runs counter to left-wing party line?  The board president even went on record to say that the PFOX flyers are counter to the dictates of the liberal-controlled NEA and Planned Parenthood!  So why give students information that defy what you force-feed them in class?  Egads!  The students might start thinking for themselves without the guidance of the public school nannies controlling their every thought!  We simply cannot tolerate any of THAT going on now, can we??  Call out the storm troopers and quash those rebels now!!!"

Get the picture?

The goal of change.org is to collect 1,500 signatures.  They claim to have garnered about 1,200 hundred, at the time of this writing.  I took random looks at some of the pages of signers.  They seem to be from everywhere - California, Georgia, Colorado, etc.  I even saw one from England and one from Germany.  However, of all the signers on the pages that I saw, not one was from Montgomery County!  I suspect that as a result of the liberals who troll this blog, they'll attempt to change that in a jiffy.  So what difference should all these far-flung signers make on Montgomery County policy?  I suggest that they should not make one iota of difference.  They are officials elected by Montgomery County citizens.  They are answerable only to Montgomery County citizens.  Now all these other folks can sign weird petitions and bloviate all they want, but they really have no voice in the governance of Montgomery County affairs.

I don't have fancy software to do an online petition (and to collect your demographic information and sell/rent it later).  However, in order to facilitate your own actions on this matter, below is a simple letter that you can copy and paste (edit as you see fit) into your email program to contact Patricial O'Neill (President of the Board of Education) and Dr. Jerry Weast (Superintendent of Schools).  Their contact information is below the letter

NOW THE LETTER
Dear Ms. O'Neill and Dr. Weast,

Among the many skills to be attained by students of public education is an ability to receive information offered by those who espouse varying (and opposing) viewpoints.  They should be able to examine all data and make decisions accordingly, and according to their own values.  In order for that to happen, there must be free exchange of ideas.

I understand that you are receiving complaints from individuals who object to flyers being distributed by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).  The basis of these complaints is that the information set forth in those flyers conflicts with viewpoints put forth in official curriculums.  Some who have complained against PFOX do so by calling their information "hate speech".  Those who use that derogatory term do so only because the information being offered does not conform to their peculiar proclivities.  That does not constitute valid basis for denying PFOX the same rights that are not being denied to Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), who distributed their flyers to students at the same time.

Since Montgomery County prides itself on valuing diversity and tolerance and respect for free speech, we urge the School Board to extend those considerations to Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays as they would to any other organization.  Thank you.

END OF LETTER.  Please sign your name and your street address, to document your status as a Montgomery County constituent.

Contact information for Ms. O'Neill and Dr Weast:
Tel: 301-320-7600
Fax: 301-320-7601
Address:
Carver Educational Services
Center, Room 123
850 Hungerford Drive
Rockville, Maryland 20850
email boe@mcpsmd.org (all board members will be copied: Dr Weast's email isn't publicized)

UPDATE - Please see the comments below for the individual email addresses of Dr. Weast and Ms. O'Neill

6 comments:

  1. They will not be able to ban them. This was the issue w/ the Boy Scouts a couple of years ago and BSA won. Whether the school system likes it or not, unless it deals with something illegal -- like child porn or drugs -- fliers will go out four times per year. The group is just trying to make a name for itself, get $$ and an email list.

    AWashingtonDCCatholic

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  2. I wish I could take comfort in that thought. However, given what the Montgomery County Council did with that pregnancy center bill, I'd put nothing past them. There remains that treacherous duo of Duchy Trachenberg and Dana Beyer. Might their recent success embolden them to try to ban "hate speech" from public schools? I think we dare not be asleep at the wheel on this one, and to let these folks know that we're paying attention and that we will be pro-active going forward. The fact that the PFOX people were allegedly harrassed by Mont County teachers is enough of an outrage.

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  3. Jerry_D_Weast@mcpsmd.org

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  4. Thank you for that information. Ms. O'Neill's individual address is Patricia_O'Neill@mcpsmd.org

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  5. Well, "beat the pope to a pulp" may not sound like hate speech to me in view of what her Prada-wearing self, the pope Benedicta has said about gays like my brother. (But what can I expect from the papists? right?) And yet, I am sure that that phrase would qualify as hate speech under the regulations.

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  6. Anonymous of Feb 18th, what "regualation" are you talking about? Go to the change.org site that I linked to above. Their petition specifically targets PFOX. When PFOX members say, "former homosexuals do not think something is wrong with them..", many are talking from their own experiences. Under this "brave new world order free of all hate speech" utopia that you seem to envision, will people be allowed to talk from their own experiences, if those experiences are not deemed "politically correct" by liberal honchos? All we want is for PFOX to be extended the same courtesies that are being extended to PFLAG. What is so difficult to understand about that? And by the way - handing someone a flyer advocating a way of life, which the recipient is free to accept or decline, is not to advocate violence.

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