For years, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, GLSEN, has been publishing a School Climate Survey claiming that young people are being bullied and harassed relentlessly over homosexuality. And many times, this research has been quoted to "prove" that young people involved in homosexuality need special protections because of this victimization, including-you guessed it- more pro-homosexual school programs. Well, does the School Climate Survey show any such thing?
This has been on my mind for two reasons. GLSEN recently published the latest version of this survey, and for yet another year, I review it and know that it's phony as a three-dollar bill. Still, many reporters and government officials have accepted it as a reliable source. ABCNews.com once referred to this survey to misquote and then bash me.
For years, many of us tracking the work of GLSEN have known there's a problem, Houston, both with the overall work of this group, and this survey. GLSEN thinks America needs homosexual clubs and gender-bending behavior even in grade schools, so let's start with those values and begin to look with healthy skepticism at the findings of the survey and its purpose. Since its founding, GLSEN has exploited the issue of bullying to support a radical homosexual agenda directed toward our kids, and it's time for parents and communities to cry "foul."
In the 2011 survey, GLSEN says it is reporting the opinions of over 8,500 "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender" youth ages 13 to 20. They say that nearly 85% of these students heard "gay" used in a derogatory way, and over 60% heard remarks about someone not being masculine or feminine enough. Nearly 57% heard homophobic remarks from teachers or school staff, and over 63% felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation.
But even if these are the bona fide opinions of adolescents, kids this age are known for high subjectivity and suggestibility. What, to a teen, seems "homophobic"? What do they mean by "not masculine enough"? What exactly does "feeling unsafe" mean to a 15- year- old who has probably already been trained to view the "straight" world as the enemy?
But there's another problem. Are these really the opinions of teens? The survey sample and the data are highly suspect, and here's why:
- It's designed, conducted and evaluated by internal GLSEN staff, not an independent firm.
- It's mostly an online survey. Anyone can take it, even those pretending to be "gay youth." Could adults sympathetic to GLSEN's goals or GLSEN's own staff, take the survey to obtain the desired results? Absolutely.
- Many participants were recruited from homosexual student groups and networks, another red flag that these are biased, manipulated results.
In fact, experts agree that online surveys are particularly susceptible to bogus responses. A paper published by the American Statistical Association makes this point about Internet surveys: "In the online environment, identity theft, variable IP addresses, and firewalls make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine who is responding. Similarly, it is possible for individuals to affect the quality of the results by deceptively or falsely answering questionnaire items."
The GLSEN survey is an advocacy showpiece and nothing else. I'm not saying there is no bullying of kids who are thought to be homosexual, or who are confused about gender. Nor am I saying that it's not sad, and hard on kids when that happens.
But GLSEN is manipulating youth and schools into believing that there's no solution to the bullying problem without embracing homosexuality. And they have persuaded quite a few folks who produce anti-bullying curricula to slip in at least some material that implies this is the case.
"You should accept people who are different from you, regardless of race, nationality or sexual orientation," is how it's often phrased in middle school anti-bullying lessons. Such statements diabolically mix truth and falsehood. Race and ethnicity are benign, unchangeable characteristics. Homosexuality and gender confusion are high risk, unnatural behaviors.
Teachers or youth identifying as such are not "different"--they are involved in sinful and deviant conduct, and these behaviors should not be "accepted for what they are." Far from nodding indulgently, we should warn those headed down these tragic roads that it's all very unnecessary.
And even the responses within this survey that may be from actual "LGBT" youth are tainted by the propaganda pervasive in homosexual youth networks. Have you read what these homosexual club kids discuss and do? The adults advising them fill their heads with a mixture of early sexuality and poison against parents, churches and traditional values. They are taught to think of themselves as powerless victims of an establishment that "hates" them. The responses on any survey will, of course, reflect the hyper-defensiveness of such indoctrination.
This survey needs to be discredited. We don't need pretend information from unreliable sources promoting a high-risk, unsafe, immoral lifestyle to kids, and sadly, using them as tools to smack-down traditional sexual morality. If you read any media article or government document that refers to the GLSEN School Climate Survey, notify the source that this survey is not reliable nor responsible, and its invalid conclusions are not in the best interests of our children.
