Focus on the Family upset about too much respect

Citizenlink
3-11-10
Gay Agenda in New York Classrooms

New York City schools are hosting a Respect for All week.
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Citizenlink was apparently unable to provide a link to these gay-agenda shenanigans, so I took the liberty of Googling the event to find out for myself.

[NYC] Council, DOE Launch First Annual “Respect for All Week”

Anti-Bullying and Harassment Week Will Kick Off on March 8 and Run through March 12, 2010

...The Department’s “Respect for All” initiative is New York City’s effort to combat bullying and harassment based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other characteristics...

Re video below: The two city advocates featured here, more than ‘made the case’ for the Respect For All program and seemed genuinely and passionately interested in its success (I especially enjoyed the reasons, facts and examples portion of the adult conversation ;).

Christine Quinn: But it was just very exciting today at the kickoff precedent, just to have such a hugely diverse group of New Yorkers standing behind us. Rabbis, Imams, Reverends, ..coalition, everybody there with a united message that everyone has to be respected in our public school system if children are going to have the ability to get a quality education.

Naturally, Focus on the Family---via Citizenlink---is having none of it. One of the characteristics listed on the scale of bullying is sexual orientation, which they invariably interpret to mean homosexuality:

Joseph Mattera, presiding bishop of the Christ Covenant Coalition, said that gives GLSEN a permanent foothold in New York City classrooms.

"The whole idea is just to soften up the students so that there will be a receptivity in the future to same-sex marriage or other gay-friendly curriculum," Mattera said.

“The whole idea ... gay-friendly curriculum”

Yes. And an ethnic-friendly curriculum, and a nationality-friendly curriculum, and a religion-friendly curriculum, and a disability-friendly curriculum, and a gender-friendly curriculum, etc --- As the sign says: Respect for All.

They end with this link:

There are ways to deal with promotion of homosexuality in schools.

Which goes to a place called truetolerance.org; “a project of focus on the family”:

Concerned about the pro-gay agenda in your child’s public school? It’s sad, but many public schools have, in the name of “tolerance,” stifled free speech and true diversity by silencing students of faith, and those with conservative perspectives.

This isn’t true tolerance. True Tolerance means a free and respectful exchange of ideas.

One of those free and respectful exchanges of ideas might include the “truly tolerant” way of smearing any program that supports LGBT persons.

Such as thse participants of the Day of Silence:

The Day of Silence is a student-led national event that brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. ...The event is designed to illustrate the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.

And this is how truetolerance.org characterizes the participants of the pro-gay Day of Silence. definition (PDF) of the Day of Silence:

GLSEN claims its “Day of Silence” event, held annually in mid April, is about tolerance and safety. But if you pay close attention to the materials being distributed for this event, it’s clear there is a one-sided political agenda beneath the rhetoric.

They define concern for LGBT bullying as “rhetoric,” and then charge that “there is a one-sided political agenda beneath” it.

IMNSHO, truetolerance.org is essentially another site designed to bash any program that brings attention to gay-bashing.