School Officials Censor Biblical Views on Homosexuality

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
July 1, 2004

(AgapePress) - The Windsor Locks (Connecticut) School District has caved in to the demands of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union (CCLU), which recently threatened the district with an injunction if its officials allowed local clergy to give a biblical presentation on homosexuality at Windsor Locks High School.

This past May, Windsor Locks School District had permitted a group called the Stonewall Speakers to visit the high school and promote the homosexual lifestyle. Representatives of the Stonewall Speakers claim their organization was not there to encourage students to pursue homosexuality or lesbianism as a lifestyle, but to discourage bigotry and violence by dispelling myths about homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered people.

Still, some local clergy and members of the public felt the pro-homosexual presentation needed to be balanced, and the school district agreed to allow a group to come into the school and present a religious perspective on the issue. However, when the CCLU threatened legal action, district officials decided to cancel the planned clergy presentation.

Kevin Flannery, pastor of Windsor Locks Congregational Church, says the school district ignored its own guidelines prohibiting viewpoint discrimination. "We asked that the school not be allowed to be a platform to put forth an agenda for any group, let alone this group; yet we were told that they were going to go ahead with it," he recalls.

However, the pastor says the school superintendent assured him that if there was anything at all that was objectionable, he and the other clergy "would be given equal access and equal time to present our view."

Flannery feels the school district should have made good on their promise to ensure a balanced discussion on the controversial issue. But since the district failed at that when they caved in to the CCLU, the minister is concentrating on what he and other concerned parents and citizens want from school officials in the future. "In a situation like this," he says, "where they violate their own policies, I think the best course of action would be for the school district to admit that they made a mistake."

Moreover, Pastor Flannery feels the school district should take steps to make sure that what happened at Windsor Locks High School never happens again. "What we would really like would be to have a commitment from the school board, from the superintendent, and from the principal of the high school, that no longer will they allow just one side of an issue to be presented," he says.

The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union argued that the biblical talk the local clergy were scheduled to present would have violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution as well as a state law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.

School Superintendent Susan O'Brien told the Windsor Locks Journal that if the Stonewall Speakers visit again next year, the district may conduct a panel discussion on homosexuality that would likely include a lawyer with civil rights expertise as well as members of the clergy. However, she said no one would be permitted to offer religious views on the topic.