So it seems that MassResistance held a "Teens2Truth" conference in Dallas last weekend. MassResistance is an anti-gay organization that originated over in Massachusetts, but it's apparently spread beyond that state and now has a Texas chapter. And it's run by an anti-gay writer/activist named Robert Oscar Lopez, who's made his name in anti-gay circles because his mother was a lesbian who briefly raised him with her girlfriend shortly before her death and because he identifies as a bisexual man. Anyway, Teens2Truth was a conference aimed at teens and their parents and teaching them the "truth" about the gay lifestyle.
So many people are exposed to some idealized version of the gay community. I can picture tons of people thinking, "Oh wow, this is like, everyone has such a great body and they have such great clothes and they all seem to be fun and everybody loves them, so let me become part of it, but I don’t actually want to do anything." It's kind of weird because we are also in a situation where being gay... There's an incentive to it. I mean, you get things for being gay and I don't think it was like that when I was growing up or when you grew up because you're still old enough to remember that you don't get extra point for being gay.I'm old enough to admit that I'm out of it, but (outside of the old "lesbian toaster oven" joke) I have no idea what Lopez is talking about he says that you "get things for being gay." Maybe things have changed. I know that there are some LGBT-specific scholarships out there. Then again, there are scholarships for all sorts of things -- and many more out there for belonging to various churches or espousing various religious beliefs. So please share examples of the stuff that kids get for being LGBTQ. (Jon's Note: This is a very sincere request. I'd like to check into these incentives, if they actually exist.)
If you continue watching this video, you will see Lopez talking about some effort that his group was protesting that would provide LGBT-inclusive curriculum to the school district in Austin, TX. They scoffed at the notion that LGBT-inclusive curriculum is all about sex. In fact, they thought that it was worse if it didn't include graphic sexual content to young people because it then purposely misled young people about what the LGBT people is really about.
In my mind, I think that it's actually really important that we teach all young people -- whether they're LGBTQ or if they're heterosexual -- about dating and about boundaries and about being able to put off sexual activity until they're are older. I hear this complaint in the adult gay community that it's close to impossible to find men who want to wait for sex instead of finding men who are looking for hook-ups.
I'm all about teaching younger people that they can make the decision to wait until adulthood (or even until marriage) to have sex -- even if they are members of the LGBTQ communities. And if that seems wrong to people like Robert Oscar Lopez and Derek Paul, then that's one more reason to disagree with MassReisistance's agenda.
Incidentally, you can watch their interview on this video (provided by Right Wing Watch). And then watch this video of Derek Paul doing some interesting "rainbow flag interpretive dance" routine for the Teens2Truth audience, provided by Media Matters.