Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240665
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: Medium
But Fairfax educators praise the video and the accompanying lessons, which were included in instruction plans up for approval at tonight's School Board meeting, as being sensitive, tolerant and nonjudgmental.
If approved, the 29-minute video called "What If I'm Gay?" is to be shown to ninth-graders throughout Fairfax County beginning in the next school year.
In the video, Todd is captain of the high school soccer team and has been dating Debra for more than a year.
But when his friends, Kirk and Allen, find in Todd's bedroom a copy of a magazine with pictures of nude male body builders, his secret is exposed. Todd is confused about his sexuality and thinks he may be gay.
"I don't know anyone who's gay," an anguished Todd tells Allen. "What I don't understand is how do they know if they're gay? How can they be sure?"
Allen, whose uncle is gay, says he doesn't know, but that "it just seems to me nobody can really be happy with himself unless he feels free to be himself."
The Fairfax lesson plans also call for a discussion in which teachers "provide a supportive environment which neither endorses nor condemns homosexuality." The teachers also are to explain that while people choose their behavior, they do not choose their sexual orientation.
"Why are we trying to get more gays?" asked one critic, William Nowers, a member of a citizen group opposing the new sex education program. "We need to cut down the number of gays."
But teachers say they are under increasing pressure to tackle the topic because of AIDS and a recent federal report that gay teen-agers are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide.
In Virginia, a 1988 state mandate that all school districts establish family life or sex education programs triggered the change.
The "What If I'm Gay?" video was edited from an Emmy-winning CBS special that first aired in March 1987.
"How could anybody look at that and think we're promoting a homosexual lifestyle?" asked Marie Sterne, the family life coordinator for Fairfax schools. "That guy was at the depths of despair."
But critics say introducing the subject in public schools is an invasion of private family and religious beliefs.
Parents can elect to exempt their children from the sex education classes.
"The bottom line is it's behavior which is currently illegal, which rightfully should be held illegal and which society should encourage its members to avoid," said Roland Biser, vice president of the Fairfax Citizens Council, the grass-roots group opposing the program.
by CNB