By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A San Francisco media group billing itself as “the best in LGBT media” claims that hundreds of public schools in California have signed up to use its educational materials which include a film featuring a boy who “comes out” by wearing his mother’s bikini.
According to the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a non profit legal defense organization specializing in defending religious and parental rights, the films and school materials are being distributed by Youth in Motion (YIM), a partnership between Frameline and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network.
Among other things, some of the films incorporate Native American spiritualism to cast LGBT persons as “two-spirit” persons. Others encourage students to question whether religious and cultural celebrations such as the Jewish bar mitzvah wrongly discourage homosexual and transgender lifestyles. The films are accompanied by a “curriculum guide” and “action guide.”
A list of schools YIM claims to be using these materials include scores of high schools throughout the state, as well as a few middle and junior high schools, and at least one elementary school in San Leandro, California. While many of the affected schools are located in the Bay Area and Southern California, other regions—including the Sacramento area and small communities in the Central Valley and the Sierras—are also affected.
Parents are strongly encouraged to check the list of affected schools or call Pacific Justice Institute to determine whether the Youth in Motion curriculum is being used in their child’s school. Parents are also advised to contact their school board members to ask whether the showing of these films has been approved by the school district. While it is not clear whether the films are being shown predominantly during class time, or in meetings of LGBT student clubs, they are clearly being marketed for showing in class and in school assemblies.
“PJI will continue to investigate whether any opt-out laws are being violated by the showing of these films,” said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute. “Any parents whose opt-out requests are denied by their child’s school should contact PJI immediately.”
For more information, visit www.pacificjustice.org
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