WASHINGTON (BP)–Children should receive “diversity” training in grade school in order to assure their tolerance of others, including homosexuals, Clinton administration officials said at a recent White House hate crimes conference, according to a published report.
Some conservative Christian leaders called plans to provide such training from kindergarten through high school an attempt to coerce acceptance of homosexuality as an appropriate lifestyle.
The Clinton administration said its Nov. 10 White House Conference on Hate Crimes, a first, was designed to announce new federal initiatives against such incidents and to learn about prevention measures practiced in some communities.
In a fact sheet, the White House defined a hate crime as “the embodiment of intolerance — an act of violence against a person or property based on the victim’s race, color, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.” The designation “sexual orientation” includes homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality.
Attorney General Janet Reno, one of the hosts of the conference at George Washington University, urged the participants to return to their communities and make certain the local schools have diversity training programs and a “conflict resolution plan” in which to enroll problem children, The Washington Times reported.
“Find out what your schools are doing in diversity programs to teach others how to appreciate diversity,” Reno told them, according to The Times.
The newspaper reported Secretary of Education Richard Riley said, “Teachers need more opportunity dealing with these issues.”
President Clinton said, according to a transcript of his remarks, “Children have to be taught to hate.
“The most important thing we can do is to reach these kids while they’re young enough to learn. Somebody is going to be trying to teach them to hate. We want to teach them a different way.”
Will Dodson, director of public policy for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the administration officials’ comments a “tremendous threat to the welfare” of young children, as well as society.
“They don’t want to come right out and say it, but if asked point blank what they mean by the use of all this code language, they would have to admit that what it really means is they want to teach our children at the earliest possible age that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality,” Dodson said.
“Make no mistake about it, this administration has a core set of values in the area of sexuality which is contrary to the values of Bible-believing Christians. This administration is determined to impose a set of standards which is harmful to our children and to the society that they will inherit.”
Carmen Pate, vice president of Concerned Women for America, said while Clinton spoke on “something everyone wants to prevent — hate crimes against minorities” — the president “wants to force the acceptance of homosexuality and remove legitimate social stigma from this immoral behavior.
“Clinton tried to classify rational and peaceful opposition to promoting homosexuality in our schools as a ‘hate crime,’ whereas the real crime would be to manipulate our children into a deadly behavior. … We will not allow our children to be manipulated just to be politically correct,” Pate said in a written release.
At the one-day conference, the president announced the Education and Justice departments will distribute to every school district a manual to help schools confront hate-motivated actions. It will include a guide to resources for teaching tolerance. He also announced the Justice Department will establish an Internet site designed to teach students in kindergarten through fifth grade about prejudice.
Clinton said he believed the problem of hate crimes must be addressed in an organized way in the schools through a club or other group, or “it’s not going to happen.”
One of the reasons for bigotry is ignorance, the president said.
“I don’t know this person who is different from me and I’m afraid, and I manifest this fear in bigotry or violence or something,” Clinton said. “We see that a lot with the gay and lesbian issues now, you know, where people are at least unaware that they ever had a family member, a friend … who is homosexual, and they are literally terrified.”
The hate crimes conference marked the third consecutive day the president had spoken on homosexual issues. On Nov. 8, he became the first president to address a homosexual rights event when he spoke at a Washington dinner sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the movement’s largest political organization. On Nov. 9, he responded to questions on homosexuality on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”
When asked by host Tim Russert if homosexuality should be taught in schools as “an acceptable alternative lifestyle,” Clinton said:
“No, I don’t think it should be advocated. I don’t think it should be part of the public school curriculum.
“But on the other hand, I don’t believe that anyone should teach school children that they should hate or discriminate against or be afraid of people who are homosexuals.”
At the Nov. 10 conference, the president endorsed soon-to-be-introduced legislation that would expand the primary federal hate crimes law to include those acts of violence based on “sexual orientation,” as well as gender or disability. The bill is expected to be introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D.-Mass., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R.-Pa.
One of the conference’s seven panelists addressing the president on hate crimes was Sheila Kuehl, president pro tem of the California State Assembly and the first openly homosexual member of that state’s legislature. Kuehl urged members of Congress and Clinton’s cabinet to “resist that notion that there is some hierarchy of importance” among hate-crime victims, mentioning homosexuals as a category that needed to be included.
About 350 law enforcement, civil rights, anti-violence, youth, education and religious leaders took part in the event, with thousands more, according to the White House, watching by satellite in 48 states. At least 20 of the Washington participants were from the homosexual community, according to a preconference report in The Washington Blade, a weekly paper covering news of interest to homosexuals.
