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Imagine this.
You are an organization in Montgomery County, Maryland, and you want to nominate someone for the Award for Distinguished Service to Public Education. You think you’ve found just the right person. Here’s a short description of your nominee, Peter Sprigg.
1) He is a member of the Board of Directors for your organization.
2) For 4 years, he has “served on the school board’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development” which “consults with professional educators within the public school system in developing and evaluating the student sex education curriculum.”
3) You believe him to have made “groundbreaking achievements in the public school system.”
4) He is the “ex-gay” voice in the public schools.
(Hey, wait a minute...)
5) He is “in favor of including former homosexuals in the county’s ‘Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality’ school lessons.” He believes “ex-gay” people are “the only disfavored group within the public school system.”
6) He “distributed flyers to every high school student in the Montgomery County public schools urging the elimination of bias and prejudice against former homosexuals and their supporters.”
7) He also provided students with “factual information on sexual orientation and resources on alternatives to homosexuality.”
What more could an organization ask for in a nominee? Well, if you’re PFOX, (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) not much.
I’m sure that list leaves you with a lot of questions. Believe me, it does to me as well. In reading about PFOX, which tries to portray themselves as the “Ex-Gay” version of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the more you read the stranger, more horrible, and more contradictory it gets. My next series of blogs will be about this group, what it stands for, what it advocates, and how it is a poor cover for bigotry in the name of equality.
Note: I e-mailed PFOX to see if Mr. Sprigg considers himself to be "ex-gay," but I haven't received a reply yet.
~ Samantha
They are doing the same thing with evolution. What they call “Intelligent Design” and “science,” actual scientists and scholars call Creationism and religion. Now what they are doing is making it appear that they support differences in sexuality but in actuality by adding the “Ex-” factor, they are only covering bigotry, homophobia, and religion with acceptance and tolerance for those who are “ex-gay.” If ex-gays are real, show me an atheist who has gone through the treatment and has come out completely straight. If the treatment is legitimate, have it approved by the American Psychological Association. Covering up ignorance with religion, when are they going to get tired of it?
http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0735-7028.33.3.249