By Lynn D. Wardle Charter & Home School Group Dean & Linda Forman’s Home Sacramento, CA

1. Children are not “Mere Creatures of the State” -Reflections on the Impact of Same-Sex Marriage on Education By Lynn D. Wardle Charter & Home School Group Dean & Linda Forman’s Home Sacramento, CA Saturday, October 11, 2008

2. THE DILEMMA OF MINORITY • The total incapacity of humans at birth, and variable maturation. • Our legal system in based on the notion of individual competency for accountability.

3. THE DILEMMA OF Legalized Same-Sex Marriage • Same-Sex Marriage Is Based on Assumption that opposition to SSM is same as opposition to inter-racial marriage: bigotry. • Bob Jones Universisty case

4. CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION FOR PARENTAL RIGHTS • Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) • “Without doubt" among the undefined "liberties" protected by the 14th amendment are the rights "to marry, to establish a home and bring up children. . . ." Corresponding to this right of control, "it is the natural duty of the parent to give his children education suitable to their station in life.” • Plato’s ideas of state rearing of children would violate “both letter and spirit of the Constitution."

5. Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925): [W]e think it entirely plain that the Act of 1922 unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control. . . . The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”

6. Prince v. Massachusetts (1944): “It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder. . . . And it is in recognition of this that [Meyer and Pierce] have respected the private realm of family life which the state cannot enter.” But "the family itself is not beyond regulation in the public interest. . . .” Because there were substantial risks of physical and other harm to children from selling religious tracts on busy public streets the Court upheld the conviction.

7. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): “There is no doubt as to the power of a State, having a high responsibility for education of its citizens, to impose reasonable regulations for the control and duration of basic education. . . . [Likewise,] the values of parental direction of the religious upbringing and education of their children in their early and formative years have a high place in our society. . . . Thus, a State's interest in universal education, however highly we rank it, is not totally free from a balancing process when it impinges on other fundamental rights and interest such as . . . the traditional interest of parents with respect to the religious upbringing of their children so long as they, in the words of Pierce, "prepare [them] for additional obligations."

8. Yoder (cont’d) • [“T]his case involves the fundamental interest of parents, as contrasted with that of the State, to guide the religious future and education of their children. The history and culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurture and upbringing of their children. This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.”

9. ABUSES AND INCIDENTS INVOLVING EDUCATION • In General: • -In Australia, the use of the terms “husband” and “wife” would be banned under education regulations that were proposed (and later withdrawn due to parental protests) • -In SC, Immo HS Principal resigned after being required to recognize a gay club for students;

10. Elementary & Middle School: • -Adams Middle School in Brentwood cross-dressing day (cancelled) • - Mennonite school (11 students) in Quebec • A community of a dozen Mennonite families in Quebec is ready to leave the province rather than succumb to provincial government demands that would require their children to be taught evolution and homosexuality. While the government sees its actions as nothing more than enforcing technical regulations, many view the case as intolerance of Christian faith.High School: • CA new HS student (Mormon) teasing-teasing back letter in file • University: • Yeshiva University student housing • Georgetown University Gay club recognition & funding • Trinity Western University (Evangelical Free Church) lost accreditation (Prov. SCt aff’d) • Hostile environment (Harvard posters torn down)

11. Other Headlines • 070223 Montgomery County Gender-beding Sex Ed • 020530 Haywood School Encourages Gay Teacher Proselyting • 020418 Class humiliates students with religious beliefs against homosexuality • 001014 Mass Lesbian Judge Orders School Let Boy Wear Girls Clothers at School • 991123 Gay tolerance booklet sent to 15,000 school systems

12. ANALYSIS OF HOMOSEXUAL CURRICULUM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS • Parker v. Hurley • Brown v. Hot, Sexy and Safer Productions

13. Constitutional Significance “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Ordinance of the Northwest Territory, art. III (1787)

14. “Virtue” Clauses The importance of virtue was explicitly acknowledged in several of the state constitutions of the founding era. The original Vermont Constitution of 1777 contained a “Virtue Clause,” ch. II, § 41, later combined in the revised Vermont Constitution of 1786 with the “Education Clause” to read. “Laws for the encouragement of virtue and prevention of vice and immorality, ought to be constantly kept in force, and duly executed: and a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town, for the convenient instruction of youth. . . .”Vt. Const. of 1786, ch. II,  Commenting on the evolution of this provision the Vermont Supreme Court noted: In 1786 . . . the Virtue and Education Clauses were combined to form a single section. Nothing could be more indicative of the close connection in the minds of the framers between virtue and all that that implied—civic responsibility, ethical values, industry, self-restraint—and public education than this textual union within the Constitution. No explanation for the 1786 modification survives, but the logical connection is self-evident. The amalgamation was perfectly consistent with the commonly held view of the framers that virtue was essential to self-government, and that education was the primary source of virtue. . . . .In thus characterizing education as the “cement of [the] State,” Allen was expressing “a central tenet of republicanism: no democracy can survive without a virtuous citizenry. . . ‘and to inspire it ought to be the principal business of education.’” -J. Nelson, Adequacy in Education: An Analysis of the Constitutional Standard in Vermont, 18 Vt. L. Rev. 7, 35-37 (1993). Brigham v. State, 692 A.2d 385, 392-94 (Vt. 1997).

15. CONCLUSION • As Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution at Stanford put it in a column, “High Ideals and No Principles” (October 8, 2008): • "What is called "sex education," [or I would add sexual diversity public school curriculum] whether for kindergartners or older children, is not education about biology but indoctrination in values that go against the traditional values that children learn in their families and in their communities."Obviously, the earlier this indoctrination begins, the better its chances of overriding traditional values. The question is not how urgently children in kindergarten need to be taught about sex [or gay families] but how important it is for indoctrinators to get an early start."