Kevin Jennings’ GLSEN Pushing “Transgender Bathrooms” in Maine Schools

Kevin Jennings, Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar,” has played a key role in the nightmare plan to transgenderize restrooms in Maine’s schools. According to the Bangor Daily News, a GLSEN leader in Maine is a player in the push to end biology-based restrooms:

Representatives from several gay and lesbian rights groups participated in a Dec. 15 workshop with the [Maine Human Rights] commission on the guidelines. One of them was Peter Rees of the Downeast Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network [GLSEN] based in Ellsworth. Rees said people who oppose rights for transgender students — such as allowing them to use locker rooms with people who are biologically of the opposite sex — fear something “that just isn’t borne out in reality.”

“What do they think is going to happen?” asked Rees. “That boy who is identifying as a girl is not going to be displaying herself in a girls’ locker room. She’s going to be acting as much like a girl as possible and being very modest.”

“She” – meaning a boy – will be “acting … like a girl … and being very modest.” But wait! We thought we weren’t supposed to stereotype on the basis of gender!?How confusing!

GLSEN has been very influential in Maine. Check out the 2008 report by the “LGBT Youth Commission” to the Maine Governor, where GLSEN is listed as the authoritative source on what needs to be done in the schools.

Maine’s 2005 anti-discrimination law -- covering the essentially undefined revolutionary concepts “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” --has opened the door to the horror of boys using girls’ restrooms and locker rooms (and vice versa), and playing on opposite-sex sports teams, in schools. Worse, we wrote in our recent report:

As MassResistance has consistently warned, this also opens the door for the discussion in schools of transgenderism and so-called "sex-change" operations for children, even as young as elementary school age. Assemblies and events introducing kids to these concepts have already been taking place in some high schools in Massachusetts.

And a GLSEN-Boston board member gave a talk in a third-grade classroom in Newton, Mass. about a student’s father who was transitioning to “become a woman” – without parental notification, of course.

 “Safe Schools Czar” Jennings was one of the masterminds of this insanity being foisted upon young children across the country. He founded GLSEN shortly after his participation in the 1987 gay march on Washington. He apparently also participated in the 1993 gay march on the capitol*, which was the first big event to push “gender identity” non-discrimination alongside “gay and lesbian rights” demands. (See the “Platform of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.”) One speaker at that 1993 march was a transsexual (“male-to-female”) attorney who told of the oppression married men face after sex-change operations.

Back to the Maine school bathrooms, WorldNetDaily reported (“Biology-based restrooms to be banned?”):

[GLAD attorney Mary] Bonauto has filed a brief with the [Maine Human Rights] commission that says the commission is acting properly in trying to deal with students' "identity" issues.

 "Practically speaking, making a transgender student with a female gender identity [a boy] use the boys' restroom would be stigmatizing and have a serious, negative, emotional consequence for the student as well. It would be no less stigmatizing for that student to have to use the boys' room than it would be for any non-transgender girl to be singled out and made to use the boys' room," she claims.

Bonauto suggests restroom usage should not be based on biology.

"Applying these rules, it is clear, for example, that an anatomy or biology-based rule for bathroom usage cannot be used to bar transgender students from using a facility consistent with their gender identity," Bonauto said.

… On the issue of sports, Bonauto supports rules that require the schools to open doors based on the students' sense of identity.

The Slippery Slope is real.

See also:

Press release by Christian Civic League of Maine (1-25-10).

GLAD (Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders) document targeting Maine’s school children, “Students' Rights in Maine” (lists GLSEN as resource in PDF).

________

*See Jennings’ Equality Utah speech (Part 3 at 1 min. 10 secs.) where he's showing slides of his life story, and bragging that his Concord Academy gay-straight alliance was at the march.

Counterfeit Marriage Rejected in Maine

Press Release from Matt Barber at Liberty Counsel:

Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action, issued the following statement on news that the voters of Maine have rejected counterfeit “same-sex marriage” by 53% - 47%:

“There’s good news and bad news here,” said Barber. “The good news is that even in one of the most liberal States in the Union, Maine, the people have once again rejected the ridiculous and oxymoronic notion of ‘same sex marriage.’ The momentum has again shifted – hopefully for good this time – in favor of protecting legitimate marriage. A counterfeit is a counterfeit. An orange is an orange no matter how much you want it to be a turnip. This isn’t about ‘marriage.’ It’s about hurting and broken people desperately seeking affirmation of an objectively deviant lifestyle. One that, even in their heart of hearts, they know to be a dead end. As for the militant ‘No on 1’ homosexual activists? I’m reminded of spoiled children dressing up and playing house, refusing to come in when mom calls for dinner.

“Here’s the bad news. The margin of victory could have been greater. Many behind the ‘Yes on 1’ campaign, rather than simply telling the truth, chose the Neville Chamberlain approach. They merely circled the wagons around the word ‘marriage,’ even suggesting that ‘domestic partnerships’ (‘gay marriages’ by another name) are acceptable. This makes no sense. If that’s a viable compromise, then why not simply allow 'gay' duos the word ‘marriage’? It’s an incongruity that demands an explanation. This is an historic battle for the minds and souls of our children – for our very culture. The mealy-mouthed approach must end. This is not just about ‘marriage.’ It has everything to do with forced affirmation of homosexuality – under penalty of law. Indeed everyone who fought hard to defend marriage in Maine is to be congratulated, but if it weren’t for a brave group of truth tellers – Paul Madore, Peter LaBarbera and Brian Camenker [of MassResistance] – who came to Maine in the final hour to hold a press conference and address the pink elephant in the room – homosexual deviancy and the radical ‘gay’ agenda – counterfeit marriage might have prevailed.”

Linguine Spines in Maine State House

Mike Heath, Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, tells the truth there, as we do in Massachusetts. In this spineless age, that can make you pretty unpopular in places like State Houses. Here is the depressing news from Maine -- plus Heath's CALL TO ACTION. Where are the men and women of principle? Heath writes:

Want to Join Me?
You may have noticed that no proposal has surfaced in Maine's legislature to enact sodomy-based marriage, otherwise known as same sex marriage. I don't like to use the phrase "same sex marriage" because that is their term of art.... The only reason Maine didn't beat Massachusetts and become the first state in America with sodomy-based marriage is because the Christian Civic League of Maine looked around at the army and decided that someone needed to confront the giant.

We haven't slain Goliath yet. We are still polishing our stones. Many Christian forces are more like Saul and his army camped in the field drinking and making merry while Goliath wanders out to the middle of the field each day to taunt them and their God. Just as Saul's army was entertained by Goliath, Christians allow themselves today to be entertained by the antics of the anti-God crowd. They'd prefer not to confront the giant.

And make no mistake, the anti-God crowd is in power in Maine.

The leader of Maine's REPUBLICAN party says he has no interest in social issues. His number two man defends the foolish "diversity days" that are popping up in public schools all over Maine. The most recent one at Cony High School included a "transgendered" teenager as a workshop leader.

Make no mistake. The anti-God crowd runs the Maine State House. They are happy with abortion and homosexuality. And the Christians who serve there do not have the stomach to fight them. When I angered the anti-God left a few years ago the State House stopped business to craft a letter condemning me. Every Senator signed the letter condemning me, even some I consider to be friends. I consider the letter to be a badge of honor.

And you know something. I don't blame the Christians for camping out. Goliath is big and scary while the army that camps behind him on the battlefield is bigger and scarier.

The bigness and scariness of the enemy army isn't important to God. He always works though individuals. He works through men like David. Individuals like you. Your courage, clear- headedness and morality will glorify God today. God isn't impressed by armies, nations and technology. David was called a man after God's own heart.

See the news from the Christian Civic League of Maine.

Maine School Teaching Transgenderism

It's time for this to stop -- the trans madness being pushed on innocent children all over the country. This especially twisted form of child abuse is happening in Maine, too.

An Augusta high school just held a "diversity day" which included a transgender propaganda session. A young woman graduate of the school, now "identifying" as a male, spoke to the young teens (13 and 14 years old) about her experience. Note how the Kennebec Journal plays the willing fool, referring to her as "he" throughout the story, "Cony [high school] opens up" (1-30-07):

Transgendered people alter their appearance to that of the opposite sex.
Nazarkewycz, a 2006 Cony graduate, said even after he knew he identified himself as male, he struggled with his identity. He didn't like going to school much his senior year, in part because he wasn't even sure, himself, how he wanted his classmates to refer to him.
"My senior year, as far as Jen [her original name] and she, I was totally not wanting that at all," he said. "At the same time, I was not really ready to be Jeremiah [the new name she adopted] full-time either."
Nazarkewycz's compelling story about life as a transgendered person was one of several at the day-long annual event meant to instill Cony students with acceptance and tolerance of people who may be different in one or more ways. It also was a chance for students to learn about other cultures, religions and ways of life.

An earlier story, innocuously titled "Students to learn about different cultures" (1-27-07) previewed the day as a reasonable event ... except for that little inclusion of "life as a transgendered person":

Cony students will get a chance to learn about growing up French in Augusta, life with autism, life as a transgendered person, Pakistani dance, and civil rights in the 1960s. If that seems like an awfully diverse range of subjects, well, that's the whole point: Monday is the annual Cony Diversity Day.

The Christian Civic League of Maine covered the event. Rev. Dallas Henry, the League’s President of the Board of Directors, noted:

“The history of Maine’s 'Civil Rights Teams' [who organized Cony’s Diversity Day events] up to this point has clearly been that of promoting homosexuality. This Cony event has prominently broadened the field, however, to include teaching ‘transgendering.’ I am heartsick to hear of this promotion of sexual confusion.”

CCLMaine's Executive Director, Mike Heath, said of his high school alma mater:

“We live in bizarre times. Not too long ago every Mainer knew that sex change operations and witchcraft were as wrong as adultery and murder. It is impossible to understand what is happening because it is an inversion of reality. This is what makes it possible for deviant behavior and dark ideologies to be aggressively promoted as normal without effective resistance. It is irresponsible for adults to promote these ideas by presenting them without moral comment to impressionable young people who are maturing through puberty. Our Maine public school classrooms are looking more and more like the bar scene from Star Wars every day.”

CCL Maine reports that the Diversity Day also included a panel on different religions, and though invited, a Wicca representative did not show up:

The religious forum representatives were from various belief systems. Represented at the forum were Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and a number of groups who identify themselves as Christian including Mormons, Methodists, Spiritualists, Seventh-day Adventists, and the Apostolic faith. Absent from the panel were Baptists and Catholics, the two largest Christian denominations in Maine. The Christian Civic League of Maine, which has Baptist, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Advent Christian, Assembly of God, and several other denominations represented in its membership, was not asked to participate in the forum.