Linda Harvey and Barb Anderson Decry School District’s Decision to Try to Stop Anti-Gay Bullying

This weekend Mission America president spoke to Barb Anderson of the Parents Action League and the Minnesota Family Council about Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district where Anderson’s group had successfully lobbied the school district to stop the school from dealing with anti-gay bias and discrimination as part of its bullying-prevention policy. A number of students who were bullied for being gay or perceived to be gay committed or attempted to commit suicide, and ultimately the school board reversed the policy after six students sued, saying that the district failed to tackle the continuous problem of anti-gay harassment.

Anderson bewailed the school board decision and warned about schools giving access to Gay-Straight Alliances, which she had earlier called “dangerous” and wanted them banned from schools, and seemed to suggest that they even promote pedophilia by calling it a “red flag” that LGBT students “get paired with adult mentors, adult homosexuals” through GSA clubs. Harvey said that GSA’s do not help protect LGBT students since “they’re advocating going into this lifestyle” and said gay-rights advocates “have manipulated this entire tragedy.”

Harvey: ‘Protection.’ That word ‘protection.’ They say they are protecting homosexual kids, no they’re not, if they’re advocating going into this lifestyle, that’s not protection.

Anderson: Absolutely not. In fact, when they get into the Gay-Straight Alliances many of the kids get affirmed in this sexual behavior which can lead to disease and terrible relationships in the future. Many of them are steered into gay drop-in centers where they get paired with adult mentors, adult homosexuals, I mean this should be a red flag for any parent. These Gay-Straight Alliances train these kids to be political activists. In fact at the press conference one of the comments that they made about these six plaintiffs, ‘they started off as victims but now they are going to be activists and will be out there presenting their cause,’ so they are going to use these kids in the future as well.

Harvey: And they are being manipulated. They have manipulated this entire tragedy, they saw the issue of the suicides, the tragedy of kids being self-destructive, and then they jumped on it, that’s just the long and short of it.

Anderson: Yes, that’s right.

The two also attacked the Southern Poverty Law Center, which led the lawsuit along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights against the school district, for trying to prevent bullying by “indoctrinating kids with homosexuality” and listing both of their organizations as anti-gay hate groups. Anderson said that the SPLC is “totally opposed to Judeo-Christian values, they really hate Christians and hate evangelicals,” and bemoaned that they listed “pro-family, pro-traditional values” as hate groups when in fact it is the SPLC “that should be considered a hate group.” Harvey later in the interview said that the only organization on their list she thinks is a hate group is Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church.

Harvey: Here we have the Southern Poverty Law Center which has named our group recently as an anti-gay group and yours, Parents Action League, as well, they were part of this and they have this whole section in their organization called Teaching Tolerance which is just, I mean I just roll my eyes because they have no tolerance. They’ve been big on tracking the Ku Klux Klan and actual racism but now they’re broadening this and trying to muddy the waters by a smack down on traditional values, isn’t that what’s really going on here?

Anderson: Yes they are just totally opposed to Judeo-Christian values, they really hate Christians and hate evangelicals. We can have anti-bullying programs that can eliminate bad behavior without indoctrinating kids with homosexuality, but that is what they want.

Anderson: The Southern Poverty Law Center is the group that should be considered a hate group. The common thread that they have of all the groups that they have listed are basically good, pro-family, pro-traditional values, decent organizations that they’ve put on their list.