PFOX Spokesman: Despite Its Denials, PTA Does Promote Homosexual Agenda
by Jim Brown
January 4, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A prominent mental health counselor is criticizing the new president of the National Parent Teacher Association over her recent justification of the PTA's decision to allow a homosexual activist group to present a workshop at its national convention last summer, yet deny exhibit space to an "ex-gay" group.
In a recent interview with the AFA Journal, new PTA president Anna Marie Weselak said the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) was rejected because its agenda was not "appropriate to bring to parents and, in turn, to provide for children." According to Weselak, the group Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) was invited to the convention to inform parents on the topic of bullying.
"We just did not feel that what [PFOX] was bringing to us was best for our parents to take back to provide meaningful opportunities for children," the PTA leader stated during the interview. "[PFLAG's] presence there was to help educate and inform parents on the topic of bullying in order to help make their children safer in schools."
Grove City College professor Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a spokesman for PFOX, believes Weselak is engaging in doublespeak. "She said that the PFLAG presence there was to help educate and inform parents on the topic of bullying," Throckmorton says, "and yet that's all PFOX wanted to do as well, but they wanted to do it from their particular perspective."
According to Throckmorton, PFLAG did not just talk about bulling in their presentation at the PTA convention. "In fact, they had an article that was distributed to all the attendees criticizing my work in sexual identity therapy," he notes. "Now what does that have to do with bullying?"
In fact, PFLAG reportedly used its workshop to stress the need to raise more "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender" issues in the shaping of public school policies and curricula. Throckmorton says either Weselak did not attend the PFLAG workshop or she is knowingly making statements that are incomplete. In her interview with the AFA Journal the PTA spokeswoman indicated that her group would never promote same-sex marriage or call for an observance of "Gay Pride Month" in schools, but the Grove City College professor suspects her of being disingenuous.
Of the parents and teachers group and its leader Throckmorton remarks, "I'm glad they're not going for an overt advocacy of a position that would offend many of their conservative members." However, he says he feels it is "kind of insulting to the intelligence of those conservative members for [the PTA] to say it's not going to support any political perspective -- but then to turn around and basically give a group an opportunity to do just that."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
