Homosexual recruitment
Encyclopedia
Homosexual recruitment is a term used, primarily in the U.S., to describe alleged attempts by homosexuals to actively "recruit
" otherwise heterosexual youths into the 'gay lifestyle'. Allegations of gay recruitment are sometimes leveled at efforts by gay activists to encourage homosexuals to "come out of the closet"
and to accept their orientation as natural. Debate centers on education programs intended to reduce, from their proponents' perspective, homophobic
sexual discrimination by providing information about LGBT
issues, but criticized by their opponents as "homosexual recruitment".
. Some examples:
, related to the alleged myth of "homosexual-as-pedophile.
Recruitment
Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.The recruitment...
" otherwise heterosexual youths into the 'gay lifestyle'. Allegations of gay recruitment are sometimes leveled at efforts by gay activists to encourage homosexuals to "come out of the closet"
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
and to accept their orientation as natural. Debate centers on education programs intended to reduce, from their proponents' perspective, homophobic
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
sexual discrimination by providing information about LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
issues, but criticized by their opponents as "homosexual recruitment".
Examples of the term's use
The term tends to be used in the context of opposition to LGBT rights, policies which present LGBT behaviour as acceptable, and any discussion (referred to as 'promotion') in schools and in sex educationSex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
. Some examples:
- The U.S. conservative ChristianConservative ChristianityConservative Christianity is a term applied to a number of groups or movements seen as giving priority to traditional Christian beliefs and practices...
organization The Traditional Values CoalitionTraditional Values CoalitionThe Traditional Values Coalition is a conservative Christian organization that represents, by its estimate, over 43,000 Christian churches throughout the United States of America...
wrote: "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." - Anita BryantAnita BryantAnita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
campaigned to repeal an ordinance in Miami, FloridaMiami, FloridaMiami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientationSexual orientationSexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
. Her campaign was based upon allegations of "homosexual recruitment." Bryant said "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children." - The U.S. politician Pat RobertsonPat RobertsonMarion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
has said that feminismFeminismFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
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 witchcraftWitchcraftWitchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
, destroy capitalismCapitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and become lesbians." - U.S. writer Judith Reisman asserts that "homosexuals are anxious to recruit young boys". She cited "a clear avenue for the recruitment of children" by homosexuals in her public support of Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992)Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992)Ballot Measure 9 was a ballot measure in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1992, concerning gay rights and public education, that drew widespread national attention.Measure 9 would have added the following text to the Oregon Constitution:...
. In 1994 Reisman said at a conference of U.S. Christian rightChristian rightChristian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
leaders in Colorado Springs that homosexual "recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere." She estimated the homosexual population at the time to be 1-2% but predicted at least 20% (and possibly over 30%) "of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity" as a result of "recruitment". - The newspaper Rolling Stone (Uganda)Rolling Stone (Uganda)Rolling Stone was a weekly tabloid newspaper published in Kampala, Uganda. The paper published its first issue on August 23, 2010, under the direction of 22-year-old Giles Muhame and two classmates from Kampala's Makerere University...
notoriously made allegations about gays in 2010, including that schools had "been penetrated by gay activists to recruit kids." Those allegations were linked by The New York Times to the murder of gay-rights activist David KatoDavid KatoDavid Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda...
.
Related examples
- "Section 28Section 28Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of Section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986 , enacted on 24 May 1988 and repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of Great Britain by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003...
" of the UK's 1988 Local Government ActLocal Government Act 1988The United Kingdom Local Government Act of 1988 was famous for introducing the controversial Section 28 into law. In terms of the section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, Local Authorities were prohibited from promoting in specified category of schools, "the teaching of the acceptability of...
created significant public controversy in the United Kingdom relating to the public presentation of homosexuality. It 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. Its enactment caused some schools in the UK to close, limit or self-censor discussion (or 'promotion') and acknowledgment of homosexual and bisexual relationships (and by relation transgenderTransgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and sexual diversity issues) within classes, sex education and student activities, for fear of breaching the law. - In February 1999 an unattributed National Liberty Journal article, attributed by media outlets to Jerry FalwellJerry FalwellJerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
, claimed that Tinky Winky, a TeletubbyTeletubbiesTeletubbies is a BBC children's television series targeted at pre-school viewers and produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Ragdoll's creative director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport, who wrote each of the show's 365 episodes. The programme's original narrator was...
, was intended as a gayGayGay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
role model. A 1998 Salon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
article previously had noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon. In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the Teletubbies in the US, said, "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive." The popular UK show was aimed at pre-school children, but the article stated "he is purplePurplePurple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
- the gay prideGay prideLGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangleTriangleA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
- the gay-pride symbol." Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the NLJ article said was a purse. Falwell added "role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children." - In 2002, Boston UniversityBoston UniversityBoston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
Chancellor John SilberJohn SilberJohn Robert Silber is an American academician and former candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996 he was President of Boston University and from 1996 to 2003 Chancellor of the University. Since 2003 he has been its President Emeritus. In 1990, Silber took a leave of absence from the...
ordered that a B.U.-affiliated high-school academy disband its gay-straight alliance, a student club that staged demonstrations to publicize what in its view were the deleterious effects of homophobia. Silber dismissed the stated purpose of the club, that of serving as a support group for gay students that also sought to promote tolerance and understanding between gay and straight students, and accused it of being a vehicle for "homosexual recruitment." Silber denounced the group for "evangelism" and "homosexual militancy" with the purpose of promoting gay sex. At the time, the Commonwealth of MassachusettsMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
funded gay-straight student clubs in 156 schools.
Criticism
The term has been described as a "myth" and a fear-inducing bogeymanBogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
, related to the alleged myth of "homosexual-as-pedophile.
External links
- Aim.org: "Homosexual Recruitment in Schools"
- Nationalvanguard.org: "Sumner Redstone Creates New Homosexual Recruitment Network"
- Traditionalvalues.org: "Homosexual Recruitment Programs May Face Legal Challenges"
- Richard Goldstein, "The Last Candid Man: A Homophobe Hides Behind His Right to Discriminate", Village Voice, October 16–22, 2002