Traditional Values Coalition

Opinion Editorial

For Immediate Release

January 18, 2001

Rethinking Child Molestation:

The PTA Faces A Moral Dilemma

By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon

Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition


Washington, DC – The national leadership of the Parent Teacher
Association (PTA) should be doing some serious thinking about its
unqualified support of the homosexual agenda in the public schools. In
late December, PTA leaders attended a White House viewing of a
pro-homosexual video called "That’s a Family," that is being promoted by
GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in our nation’s
public schools. This video teaches kids that homosexuality is normal and
that same-sex partners are legitimate "families."

The PTA has apparently decided that it will include "That’s a Family" as
part of its new program on "accepting differences" in the classroom.

The PTA’s commitment to homosexual recruitment programs in the public
schools may need to be reconsidered in light of what has just occurred in
Nevada. On January 11, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that a Las
Vegas narcotics detective named Vinten Hartung had been suspended for
soliciting a 16-year-old boy for sex over the Internet. He had sex with
the boy over a five month period. Hartung, who is a homosexual, won’t be
charged for sexually molesting the boy. Why? Prosecutors say it would be
"discriminatory" toward homosexuals. According to state law, soliciting a
minor (under 18) for homosexual sex is a felony offense, but the state’s
age of consent law is 16.

According to Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon, to prosecute Hartung
for molesting this child would be "singling out homosexuals, which is
bad. We don’t want to do that."

Howard Zlotnick, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office says federal
agents will not file Internet solicitation charges against Hartung
because the minor has to be under 16 for the law to apply. This, too, is
a felony offense that should land Hartung in prison for a long time.

Local and federal officials are giving Vinten Hartung a free pass for
molesting a boy—because he is a homosexual. But fear not, Hartung will be
charged for "stalking" and providing alcohol to his child abuse victim.
He is currently on paid leave from the police force.

Have we gone insane? Are we now setting up two different standards for
what constitutes child molestation? Will homosexuals be granted the right
to molest boys, while men who molest girls will be imprisoned? We
certainly seem headed in that direction. The ACLU, for example, is
defending the "right" of NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love
Association), a pedophile group to promote the molestation of children on
its web site.

This brings us back to the PTA’s moral dilemma. The PTA leadership must
make a decision soon about its support of homosexual recruitment efforts
in the public schools. If homosexuals like Hartung are going to be
allowed to freely molest teens without fear of prosecution, then the PTA
is now on the side of male child molesters of boys against parents and
their children.

The PTA should seriously consider the legal dangers it may bring upon
itself by promoting homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle in our public
schools. The parents of a child who has been sexually assaulted by a
homosexual teacher may find the PTA a target of legal action for
promoting behaviors that can lead to child abuse. In this sense, the PTA
is not much different than NAMBLA.

The PTA leadership—both nationally and at the state level—should
carefully read an eye-opening article that appeared in the January 1-8
issue of "The Weekly Standard," magazine. In "’Pedophilia Chic,’
Reconsidered: the taboo against sex with children continues to erode,"
author Mary Eberstadt describes the homosexual movement’s attempts to
normalize man/boy sex, which is euphemistically called "intergenerational
intimacy." But child molestation by any other name is still sexual
abuse—and it should be prosecuted.

Will the PTA leadership reconsider its support of homosexuality—in light
of Hartung’s case—and the trends described in "Pedophilia Chic"? It may
take an army of angry parents to force the PTA to reject any program that
promotes homosexuality in our nation’s public schools. But this needs to
be done—now! And if parents in a local PTA are disturbed by the national
PTA office promoting homosexuality, they should work to convert their
local PTA chapter into a Parent Teacher Organization instead. A PTO is
less likely to become a captive of homosexual activists.

-30-

________________________________________________________________________

Traditional Values Coalition is an inter-denominational public policy
organization comprising over 43,000 member churches. For more information
call Christy Moore at (202) 547-8570. TVC, 139 C Street, SE, Washington,
DC 20003. Web address: www.traditionalvalues.org.


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