When members of the National Parent Teachers Association, immortalized tunefully by Jeannie C. Riley, gather in Memphis later this month, they will attend workshops, hear speakers, and spend time strolling through a vendor area featuring exhibits from organizations around the country.
One booth they will not be visiting will be one operated by PFOX — or Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays. Not because PFOX didn’t apply to be among the vendors at the PTA meeting, but because its application was rejected because it did not square with the National PTA’s diversity and inclusion policy.
Well, not really. Perhaps the PTA has seen the latest news on “ex-gay ministries” and it’s beginning to understand what kind of snake oil salesmen they really are. Perhaps the sight of George Rekers — a champion of the “ex-gay” industry — taking a European tour with his luggage boy, who gave him erotic massages, gave PTA-ers pause about the validity of such programs. Perhaps it’s the junk science touted by the “ex-gay” industry that gave them pause. Whatever it was, PFOX shouldn’t feel bad, because I’m sure the PTA would have turned down an application from the Flat Earth Society as well.
It’s not that PFOX is being discriminated against, it’s because the jig is up, and with Rekers being the latest in a line of “ex-gay” proponents defecting from the program or being outed as being what they profess to cure, the National PTA can spot a charlatan.
Griggs isn’t done yet, though. This rejection can only mean one thing: “The PTA has become a left-wing advocacy group instead of serving the needs of all children,” said Griggs. Hardly. Only a quick gander at the speaker’s lineup for the national gathering reveals that the PTA, despite the inclusion of “sexual orientation” in its diversity policy has a prominent anti-gay speaker as a keynoter this year: former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.
Back in 2007, when Dungy was coaching the Colts, he caused a bit of an uproar when he accepted the “Friend of Family” award from the conservative Indiana Family Institute. He told the audience he supported, on religious grounds, an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage: “We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way,” Dungy said.
