Parents seeking tolerance of gays

A Montgomery County parents group yesterday hosted a forum in Bethesda to promote teaching about and acceptance of homosexuality in public-school sex education.

“It is critical for [Montgomery County public schools] to continue its tradition of promoting tolerance in a population as diverse as ours,” said Christine Grewell, co-founder of Teachthefacts.org (TTF).

The group hosted an afternoon forum at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, which was attended by about 100 people.

One speaker, David Fishback, said conservatives see the county’s sex education debate as “the next Kansas,” referring to the debate over evolution versus intelligent design.

“We cannot let that happen here,” said Mr. Fishback, who helped shape a sex-education curriculum that was scrapped by the county school system last spring.

In May, a federal judge ruled in favor a lawsuit against the curriculum that said the course discriminated against religious beliefs and promoted homosexuality.

Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast then scrapped the entire course and disbanded the citizens committee led by Mr. Fishback, saying he would guide the production of a new course.

Mr. Weast has disclosed little information this year about his progress.

A new citizens committee will be chosen Oct. 11.

Mr. Fishback said yesterday’s forum was “educational” and responded to a similar meeting held last month by a parents group that opposed the curriculum, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC).

One key issue that Mr. Weast will have to decide is whether to include instruction about “ex-gays.” TTF denounced the idea of “ex-gays” at the forum, saying efforts to treat homosexuality as a mental illness or a disease are harmful and destructive.

One of the afternoon’s seven speakers, Paul A. Wertsch of the American Medical Association (AMA), said that beginning with controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s, there has been some evidence that homosexuality is inborn.

He cited examples of homosexual behavior in animals and brain studies on homosexual men and women.

“There is probably a genetic influence. We’re not sure what it is. You probably inherit some predisposition to” homosexuality, Dr. Wertsch said.

Dr. Wertsch, who said he became interested in homosexuality when he found out that his son is homosexual, heads the AMA’s committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Matters.

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