Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
February 2000 – First there was the highly controversial video It’s Elementary, intended as a primer for teachers to help them persuade children that homosexuality is normal and natural.
Now the sequel will be larger and more to the point: That’s A Family! kicks off a three-video series that will be shown directly to children in classrooms across the country, shamelessly attempting to persuade kids that homosexuality should be accepted and affirmed.
“If principals and teachers thought It’s Elementary was a volatile issue, wait until they see and hear what this next video series stirs up,” said AFA vice president Tim Wildmon. “It’s bad enough to instruct teachers on how they can force-feed little children a pro-homosexual message. Now these activists want direct access to the hearts and minds of kids who are essentially a captive audience in their classrooms.”
In a letter to supporters, It’s Elementary producers Debra Chasnoff and Helen Cohen bragged about the “stunning” success they had in marketing their first video to schools across the country, and in convincing 115 PBS stations to air it as well.
That’s A Family!, the letter said, is intended to be shown directly to children and is “the first anti-bias media curriculum available for elementary and middle school classrooms that integrates gay people into the full spectrum of diversity.”
The video will present to school children a variety of families, such as adoptive, multi-racial, multi-generational, and step-families. “There also are children with gay dads or lesbian moms, and their stories are intertwined with those of other families,” Chasnoff and Cohen said in their fund-raising letter.
“The video will be distributed with a comprehensive teaching guide that gives teachers suggestions about classroom activities and books to read that compliment the stories in the video,” they said.
The second and third videos “will center on dispelling gay and lesbian stereotypes and offering strategies to deal with anti-gay name-calling.”
Chasnoff and Cohen make no secret of the fact that they intend to change children’s minds on the subject of homosexuality through these three videos. “The long-term impact of this project will be tremendous. Giving elementary school students the opportunity to…experience gay and lesbian families in the context of such an incredibly diverse group of other families, could have a positive effect on their attitudes for the rest of their lives,” they said. 
