"Ex-gays" critical of Maryland sex ed curriculum

In response to a Montgomery County, Md., school board's approval of a new sex education curriculum for public schools that advocates a biological basis for sexual orientation, "reparative therapy" group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays issued a statement criticizing the decision.

“According to the American Psychiatric Association, there are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological cause for homosexuality," PFOX declared on its Web site. "But now the Montgomery County Board of Education has done what science and medicine could not do by declaring in its newly approved curriculum that homosexuality is 'innate' or inborn."

PFOX argues that the school board has promoted intolerance of "ex-gays," citing various incidents where the schools' gay-straight alliances were allowed to place trash cans on campus for people to throw away PFOX fliers.

The organization also complained that a gay teacher at Wootten High School compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan.

PFOX argues that the school board violated an order issued by Maryland state school superintendent Nancy Grasmick stating that all such curricula must be approved by the board of education before implementation.

"The local board’s action in adopting a final curriculum without waiting for the state board’s decision as to the legality of that curriculum tramples on the rights of parents and violates the intent of the superintendent’s order," PFOX stated.

In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders.

More recent statements, including a report issued in 2000, criticize groups like PFOX for advocating reparative therapy. The APA states that the process lacks a basis in scientific research and may harm rather than help the patient. (The Advocate)

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