Researcher/Educator Blasts GLSEN's 'Balanced' Material on Homosexual Unions

by Jim Brown
April 14, 2004

(AgapePress) - A sexual orientation researcher is denouncing new high school curriculum from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) dealing with same-sex "marriage."

GLSEN's curriculum purports to present a fair and balanced discussion of marriage. But Dr. Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania who has written a 24-page critical review of the material, says both sides of the debate are not presented in the curriculum.

"There were 18 references ... to books and videos and websites in this curriculum, and 15 of them were pro-gay marriage," the researcher notes. "There was only one reference to a Vatican statement against gay marriage that could have been considered negative -- all other materials were either neutral or pro-gay marriage."

Throckmorton is urging high schools not to adopt the GLSEN curriculum because the controversial learning materials contain numerous inaccuracies.

"The curriculum states that same-sex and opposite-sex couples function similarly in terms of their commitment and the length of time that their relationships last," he points out. "Well, we know that's not true; we know that, on average, the relationships of same-sex couples don't last nearly as long as heterosexual couples or marriages."

Throckmorton says the GLSEN curriculum is not only biased, but also coercive. Students, he says, are told their moral judgments on the issue do not matter. He says the material is also very impractical because GLSEN wants schools to take up to three weeks to present units on homosexual marriage. According to the educator, that is the same amount of time most teachers spend on the Civil War.