Homosexual recruitment

Homosexual recruitment is a term used, primarily in the U.S., to describe alleged attempts by homosexuals to actively recruit otherwise heterosexual youths into "the gay lifestyle". Allegations of gay recruitment are sometimes leveled at efforts by gay activists to encourage homosexuals to "come out of the closet" and to accept their orientation as natural. Debate centers on^{[citation needed]} education programs intended to reduce, from their proponents' perspective, homophobic sexual discrimination by providing information about LGBT issues, but criticized by their opponents as "homosexual recruitment".

Examples of the term's use

The term tends to be used in the context of opposition to LGBT rights, policies which present LGBT behaviour as acceptable, and any discussion (referred to as 'promotion') in schools and in sex education. Some examples:

• The U.S. conservative Christian organization The Traditional Values Coalition wrote: "The state-endorsed pro-homosexual teacher/teen 'Teach Out' held at Tufts University in Boston in March has outraged concerned citizens. There's growing concern among parents over the use of tax dollars to fund homosexual recruitment programs in the public schools. During the Teach Out, state HIV instructors taught teenagers how to engage in deviant sex acts and they also taught teachers how to indoctrinate children into accepting homosexuality as normal."
• Anita Bryant campaigned to repeal an ordinance in Miami, Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her campaign was based upon allegations of "homosexual recruitment." Bryant said "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children."
• The U.S. politician Pat Robertson has said that feminism was a front for turning women into lesbians. He had described it as a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
• U.S. writer Judith Reisman cited "a clear avenue for the recruitment of children" by homosexuals in her public support of Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992). In 1994 Reisman said at a conference of U.S. Christian right leaders in Colorado Springs that homosexual "recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere." She estimated the homosexual population at the time to be 1-2% but predicted at least 20% (and possibly over 30%) "of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity" as a result of "recruitment".
• The newspaper Rolling Stone (Uganda) notoriously made allegations about gays in 2010, including that schools had "been penetrated by gay activists to recruit kids." Those allegations were linked by The New York Times to the murder of gay-rights activist David Kato.

Related examples

• "Section 28" of the UK's 1988 Local Government Act created significant public controversy in the United Kingdom relating to the public presentation of homosexuality. It stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." No successful prosecution was ever brought under this legislation, and following intense debate the section was finally repealed in 2003. Its enactment caused some schools in the UK to close, limit or self-censor discussion (or 'promotion') and acknowledgment of homosexual and bisexual relationships (and by relation transgender and sexual diversity issues) within classes, sex education and student activities, for fear of breaching the law.
• In February 1999 an unattributed National Liberty Journal article, attributed by media outlets to Jerry Falwell, claimed that Tinky Winky, a Teletubby, was intended as a gay role model. A 1998 Salon.com article previously had noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon. In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the Teletubbies in the US, said, "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive." The popular UK show was aimed at pre-school children, but the article stated "he is purple - the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol." Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the NLJ article said was a purse. Falwell added "role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children."
• In 2002, Boston University Chancellor John Silber ordered that a B.U.-affiliated high-school academy disband its gay-straight alliance, a student club that staged demonstrations to publicize what in its view were the deleterious effects of homophobia. Silber dismissed the stated purpose of the club, that of serving as a support group for gay students that also sought to promote tolerance and understanding between gay and straight students, and accused it of being a vehicle for "homosexual recruitment." Silber denounced the group for "evangelism" and "homosexual militancy" with the purpose of promoting gay sex. At the time, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts funded gay-straight student clubs in 156 schools.

Criticism

The term has been described as a "myth" and a fear-inducing bogeyman, related to the alleged myth of "homosexual-as-pedophile.

See also

• Homosexual agenda
• Societal attitudes toward homosexuality

External links

• Aim.org: "Homosexual Recruitment in Schools"
• Nationalvanguard.org: "Sumner Redstone Creates New Homosexual Recruitment Network"
• Traditionalvalues.org: "Homosexual Recruitment Programs May Face Legal Challenges"
• Richard Goldstein, "The Last Candid Man: A Homophobe Hides Behind His Right to Discriminate", Village Voice, October 16–22, 2002