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Aug 18, 2001 By
Dennis Garrou This column is intended to provide an alternative perspective to a recent guest editorial and related articles in our community’s discussion of homosexuality. We are dealing with a multifaceted subject. On the aspect of safe schools, it’s my perception that there are two distinct issues being disguised as one. The first is one on which I believe everyone can agree: Safety in our schools and our community. No one, be it undersized kids, oversized kids, people who look unusual, or people who are struggling with their identities, should have to live in fear of intimidation, harassment, bullying or assault in our schools or anywhere else. No rational, responsible person would question that. But a second issue is being piggy-backed onto this issue, and it should be addressed separately in a calm and studied manner apart from the anguish and hysteria of a high-profile murder. It is the issue of equal access. We need to recognize that there are other programs besides pro-homosexual curricula, such as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). "Safe Schools" for dealing with respect and safety in schools. Here’s why we must look for better alternatives: In the Aug. 7 Cortez Journal, Betsy Stephens of PFLAG said, "The death of Fred Martinez has given us the impetous (sic) we needed to get this program implemented in the Four Corners." Apart from the blatant opportunism this remark represents by using a young man’s death for the political purpose of advancing a program, what we must here in that remark is that there is a program into which they wish to guide our children. I call on our school-board members and administrators to
recognize that not only does PFLAG have a program to teach respect and an
agenda advocating acceptance of their positions, but other worthy
organizations also have excellent program to address these vital issues of
safety, respect, compassion and wholesome and healthy ways of living
without the moral and medical liabilities attached to the homosexual
agenda. What has that agenda done for this nation in the last 20 years? "A new study in Seattle found a sharp increase in the number of HIV-positive gay men reporting unprotected anal sex from 10 percent in 1998, to 20 percent in 2000." The article quotes Dr. Helene Gayle, National Center for Disease Control’s AIDS chief: "We really are at a very critical point in this epidemic. We must work to ensure that the plateaus that we’ve reached will not remain plateaus — or worse, given some of the trends that we’re seeing, evolve into a newly expanding epidemic." The article concludes by saying that in AIDS’ 20-year history, "775,000 cases had been reported in the United States. Nearly 450,000 of those patients have died." Not only has AIDS had a catastrophic impact on our populace, but so have the accompanying sexually transmitted epidemics of amoebiasis, rectal gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis B and cervical cancer. Gay activists would have us believe that if we throw enough money and research at these epidemics, they will eventually be wiped out. Perhaps. But this ignores a more basic issue and obstacle — that of human design. It would be naive to think that homosexual activity is merely a neutral, sanitized platonic activity opposed only by narrow-minded religious zealots. The reason the Bible opposes homosexuality is because it is contrary to God’s obvious design of human beings, now often with lethal consequences. Jesus encompassed this issue of design and sexuality when He said, "At the beginning of creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together (a man and a woman) let man not separate" (Mark 10: 6 - 9). People are dying in large numbers because of the transmission of disease through sex outside of monogamous marriage between one man and one woman! When the question was asked last week, "Who’s being killed here?" the answer is not only homosexual people who have unjustly suffered at the hands of bigots and criminals (as some regrettably have), but the answer is also that gay people are dying in overwhelmingly larger numbers at their own hands due to unrestrained immoral behavior. I don’t want to see a single one of the homosexual people I know die — for any reason. They have many wonderful qualities this world needs. They are in many ways outstanding members of our community. I don’t want to see promiscuous heterosexuals die, either. But I will not sit by and watch more people be led down the primrose path to their own destruction through deception, the hiding and manipulation of the facts, interference with and restriction of previously successful methods of epidemiology, and the ignorance of the guidance God has been provided in Holy Scripture without raising my voice to say that it doesn’t have to be this way. I would deeply regret seeing our school officials implement a program purported to bring mutual respect and safety that condones a lifestyle that destroys our children’s health. It is ironic that PFLAG publicly opposes intimidation of students but is perfectly willing to intimidate school officials with the threat of federal lawsuits in an attempt to implement its potentially fatal program. Don’t fall into the trap of buying a program under duress, particularly one that condones high-risk behavior that has contributed to the needless premature deaths of over 450,000 people and that is being imported here under the Trojan horse of safety. We don’t have to sacrifice morality and health to achieve safety and respect. |
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