Homosexual recruitment

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Homosexual recruitment is a term used for the idea that homosexuals (usually gay men) actively target impressionable individuals (usually youth) for homosexual indoctrination to persuade them towards homosexual self-identification, or alternatively, that there is a widespread conspiracy to subvert "appropriate" values by promoting homosexuality as a valid normal sexual orientation in schools and other areas of life. It is mostly used by activists in the United States who strongly disapprove of homosexuality, but has also been used in some other countries.

Little if any evidence has been presented to support the idea of active recruitment, as suggested by the name; debate centres primarily around the representation of education programs designed to inform students about issues related to homosexuality.

1 Background
2 Uses of the term
3 Other common views
- 3.1 Notable activists and speakers
4 Parallels and related issues
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Background

Speakers who speak against "homosexual recruitment" or "promotion of homosexuality" are often speaking in objection to state and government policies which present homosexuality as an acceptable orientation to be discussed and talked about in schools and during sex education. Thus the conservative Christian organisation "The Traditional Values Coalition" wrote under the title "Let's End Taxpayer Supported Homosexual Recruitment Programs In Public Schools":

"The state-endorsed pro-homosexual teacher/teen 'Teach Out' held at Tufts University in Boston in March has outraged concerned citizens. There's growing concern among parents over the use of tax dollars to fund homosexual recruitment programs in the public schools. During the Teach Out, state HIV instructors taught teenagers how to engage in deviant sex acts and they also taught teachers how to indoctrinate children into accepting homosexuality as normal." [1].

The two sides of the argument might be broadly categorized as a conflict of view between:

People who from religious or other personal objection, feel homosexuality should not be presented as equal in value or acceptable in society, and that homosexuals are covertly and strategically trying to promote this view amongst youth in a cult-like manner,
People who believe that sexuality is a private matter and while individuals may have private views, society as a whole should accept homosexuality as normal for some individuals and youth should be taught this in a like manner to any other sexual education.

This mirrors the "choice and sexual orientation" debate.

[edit] Uses of the term

The usage of the terms "recruitment" and "conspiracy" are described further in the same article:

"Writing in the New York University Press book, Lavender Culture, Hannon reveals the truth about recruiting. He discusses lowering the age of sexual consent so homosexuals can have sex with children. He then notes that homosexuals need teenagers in the movement. Where should they get them? "The answer is to proselytize," says Hannon. "To attract young people to the gay movement in large numbers should be the challenge to the next phase of the movement. It is a challenge we have set ourselves" Hannon goes on to describe the importance of establishing homosexual clubs with adult advisors and mentors to initiate children into the strange world of homosexual sex. These children are to be lured into the movement and indoctrinated until they view their own parents as a "constant source of exasperation and amusement." According to Hannon, one of the main goals of proselytizing is to separate children from their parents and the values they have been taught at home. Homosexual zealots are operating an amazingly efficient brainwashing and recruitment machine-and parents are getting to foot the bill. This must stop immediately!" [2]

[edit] Other common views

There is considerable dispute over certain aspects of these implications. For example, inability or lack of desire to reproduce is not usually considered a reason to object to partnerships or parenting (disabled or impotent couples), and it is likely that in both homosexual and heterosexual partnerships the vast majority of sexual activity is not performed with the sole intent of procreation. Other aspects of this belief tend to be disputed on grounds based upon beliefs about homosexuality and society.

[edit] Notable activists and speakers

Anita Bryant was a singer who campaigned to repeal an ordinance in Miami, Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her campaign, via a political body she called "Save our Children", was based upon strong publicity of her views upon homosexual recruitment of children. Among Bryant's assertions during the campaign were "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children."

Pat Robertson has said that feminism was a front for turning women into lesbians. He had described it as a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."^[1]

[edit] Parallels and related issues

"Section 28" of the UK's 1988 Local Government Act was a significant public controversy in the UK related to public presentation of homosexuality. Its enactment caused the majority of schools in the UK to close, limit or self-censor discussion and acknowledgement of homosexual and bisexual relationships (and by relation transgender and sexual diversity issues) within classes, sex education and student activities, for fear of breaching the law. Section 28 stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." No successful prosecution was ever brought under this legislation, and following intense debate the section was finally repealed in 2003.