POSITION: ASSISTANT DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR THE OFFICE OF SAFE AND DRUG FREE SCHOOLS
NOMINEE: Kevin Jennings
Born: Winston-Salem, N.C.
Occupation: Executive Director, and founder, of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Education: graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College
View of Christians
Addressing a church audience on March 20, 2000 in New York City just days before "Fistgate" GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings offered a stinging (and quite intolerant) assessment of how to deal with religious conservatives:
Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we'll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle] ... over to our side. That's really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit ... I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to say, '[F---] 'em!' which is what I want to
say, because I don't care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead! It should be noted that GLSEN and Jennings make heavy use of the words "respect" and "tolerance" in their public rhetoric and in descriptions of their programs. [Source]
GLSEN and Fistgate
GLSEN, which promotes homosexual clubs and the homosexual lifestyle in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual "Day of Silence" celebration of homosexuality
The most notorious education scandal involving homosexual activists is a GLSEN sponsored conference that occurred on March 25, 2000, dubbed Fistgate by conservatives. Three homosexual activists employed by the Massachusetts Departments of Health and Education led a youth workshop titled What They Didn't Tell You about Queer Sex & Sexuality in Health Class part of the annual Boston-GLSEN Teach Out conference held at Tufts University. The Queer Sex session, advertised to youth only ages 14 to 21, was attended by Massachusetts family advocate Scott Whitemen, who taped it while standing in the back of the room.
In the workshop, instructor Michael Gaucher, prompted by a teen's question, verbally guided the students on the mechanics of fisting a homosexual slang term for a sadistic sex act in which a man inserts his hand and arm into another person's anal cavity.
Another instructor, Margot Abels, said fisting often gets a really bad rap, and described it innocuously as an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with. Abels and Gaucher also guided the students on techniques
of oral sodomy and lesbian sex. [Source]
On Statutory Rape
In his own writings and books listed on the GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network] Website, I've reported, Kevin Jennings has given tacit nods of approval to sex between young teens and adults, (Linda) Harvey told WND. In addition to that, the writings and books, many of which I've read and are incredibly graphic, seem to
normalize early teen same-sex sexual behaviors. [Source]
Excerpts: Winning the Culture War speech, presented by Kevin Jennings at the Human Rights Campaign Fund Leadership Conference March 5, 1995
"If the Radical Right can succeed in portraying us as preying on children, we will lose.
In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.
We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card-- safety--and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name- calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making
Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. [Source]
GLSEN: Kindergartners as Targets
During a celebration of National Ally Week, Tara Miller, a teacher at the Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science in Hayward, Calif., passed out cards produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to her class of kindergartners. The cards asked signers to be an ally and to pledge to not use anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) language or slurs; intervene, when I feel I can, in situationswhere others are using anti-LGBT language or harassing other students and actively support safer schools efforts. [Source]