2007, Meet 1973

The WashPo reports:

Montgomery County sex education teachers would be allowed to tell students who ask that homosexuality is not a mental illness under a last-minute change to new lessons that go to the school board today for a politically charged vote.

Let's see: in 1973 the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 2007 the Montgomery County (MD) vote on whether they can tell students that fact. And it's controversial.

Perhaps the only mental disorder here is the way misguided adults approach sex in this country.

UPDATE: The changes passed. Good for Monty County.

Connecting the Dots in Monty County

WashBlade editor Kevin Naff connects the dots between a tragedy and an outrage happening in Montgomery County, a neighboring county to DC in Maryland.

The tragedy is the apparent double suicides ofRachel Crites and Rachel Smith, two Mont. Co. teens who went missing and then were found dead in a car in the woods, from carbon monoxide poisoning. Crites' father released a diary entry by his daughter that said:

“Wherever I end up laying, whether buried or cremated, I want to stay with my true love, buried next to her. This is my choice. I’m sorry.”

And now the outrage: conservative groups in Mont. County are pressing the state board of education to overturn Mont. County's recently adopted gay-inclusive sex ed curriculum. The conservative groups include PFOX, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, who recently were distributing flyers at Mont. Co. schools about "quashing" same sex attractions.

Concludes Naff:

We don’t know if “the Rachels” were romantically involved or if they were ever exposed to PFOX’s message. But there’s no doubt that other teens in Montgomery County who are in the process of sorting out their sexual identity are subjected to the “ex-gay” myth in their schools.

These anti-gay crusaders have no shame. County officials should denounce their efforts and fight the curriculum appeal to its defeat. Let us hope something positive can come from this horrific tragedy and that other young people feeling alone and confused will find understanding and compassion from adults in their community instead of hateful and reckless propaganda.

PFOX: This isn't about opposing the "gay agenda." It's not about scripture. It's about teen age lives. Get it?

The Miserable, Sick Gays in Montgomery County

From the Wash Blade:

Montgomery County Public Schools officials unanimously approved a controversial new gay-inclusive sex education curriculum this week, but omitted five positive messages about homosexuality, including a note that gays can live happy lives.

I'm glad the "inclusive" curriculum passed and I understand the politics behind the omission. Bu it still makes me sad. Here's two of the five items students won't be allowed to hear:

All mainstream medical and mental health professionals have concluded that homosexuality is not a disease or a mental illness.

Homosexuals can live happy, successful lives; they can be successful parents.

If only some adult had told me that when I was a teenager, it could have saved me years of misery praying to an unfeeling god to make "those feelings" go away, it could have saved me depression, countless hours in therapy, etc. Contrast those two statements with the ONE statement I did hear as a teen from my dad: "Those people should be shot," he said, commenting on a news report of the 1979 gay march on Washington when I was a freshman in high school.

He and I have come a long way, but it was a rocky road...and others faced a rockier road as it is well known gay teens are at a greater risk for suicidal tendencies than other kids.

So, good job Montgomery County. Too bad you didn't go far enough.