Pro-Homosexual Video for Schools Features Man Who is Now Straight
by Jim Brown
June 23, 2004
(AgapePress) - A school-related committee in Maryland is being accused of hiding information from teachers and students about a popular video concerning homosexual issues. The makers of that video are not disclosing a little-known fact about one of the young men featured in the film.
The video, called "It's Elementary," is being used in Montgomery County and other school districts across the U.S. as a resource to desensitize elementary students to the issue of homosexuality. However, the county's Citizen's Advisory Committee for Family Life and Human Development has refused to notify students and teachers that one of the young homosexual men featured in the film, Noe Gutierrez, has since left the homosexual lifestyle.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton is a researcher on sexual orientation and issues surrounding homosexuality. The associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania says it would enhance the objective of "tolerance for all people" if the county would be forthright about Gutierrez.
"To keep the information that Mr. Gutierrez has completely changed his sexual identity away from kids would prevent them from knowing that ex-gays exist," the researcher explains. "If nobody's going to tell kids in school that change is possible, how will they found it out?"
Gutierrez wrote a letter requesting that if "It's Elementary" is used, students should be aware that he is no longer homosexual.
Throckmorton is himself putting together plans to produce a video about "gay-to-straight" change. He asked "It's Elementary" producers Helen Cohen and Debra Chasnoff for permission to use portions of Gutierrez' appearance on their video in his documentary.
"I thought perhaps in the spirit of fairness and tolerance that they might allow us to use the clip of Mr. Gutierrez as a gay man in our new project that tells Mr. Gutierrez' story as an ex-gay man," Throckmorton explains. "However they refused to do that." He says the filmmakers evidently feel that others knowing of Gutierrez' change would undermine their project.
Throckmorton's documentary on former homosexuals, titled "I Do Exist," is available on DVD next week. The project features Gutierrez and four other former homosexuals.
