Responses of Christopher D. McKeon to GLAA 2004 Questionnaire
for D.C. Board of Education Candidates
| Yes/No (+/- 2) |
Substance (+/- 4) |
Record (+/- 3) |
Championship (+/- 1) |
Total (+/- 10) |
| -1 | -4 | -2 | 0 | -7 |
Following are answers to the questions on your questionnaire. I did not reproduce the questions. [GLAA did. -Ed.]
1. Do you recognize the right of our public school students to organize clubs to promote lesbian and gay civil rights, to combat homophobic violence and prejudice, and to provide socializing opportunities for lesbian and gay youth?
Students in high schools above 10th grade should have the right to form whatever sort of clubs they want to form for the purpose of socializing, so long as the club doesn’t disrupt the good order and peace of the school environment. In this respect, if students persecute G/L students and violate laws or school policies, the rights and protections of G/L students must be upheld. Below 10th grade, I do not support permitting children to engage in any activity or to participate in any organizations on school grounds that involves sexuality. It’s not appropriate in such a setting.
2. Do you recognize the right of students to bring dates of the same sex to school proms and other official public school social functions?
If students wish to bring dates of the same gender to public school social functions, I think it’s their right to socialize with whomever they please. However, the other side of the coin is that other students have a right to express their opinion in this respect in any way they choose, so long as they don’t violate laws or school policies. If you want to do something others find intolerable but which is protected by society, then you must be prepared to endure others’ disagreement and displeasure.
3. Will you oppose efforts to restrict or censor books or other materials in our public school libraries that discuss homosexuality in a positive and supportive manner?
I do not support any materials in the public schools that discuss human sexuality in any way other than procreation for the purpose of knowledge and understanding of basic human functions, and that only age appropriately. Public schools are not a testing ground for sexuality or counseling centers sexual orientation.
4. Do you support the efforts of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to provide gay positive books to DCPS school libraries?
See my answer for #3 above.
5. Do you favor training programs for professional development of teachers, counselors, and other school system staff, such as those offered by the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), to help these professionals to nurture positive identity formation for lesbian and gay students?
Teachers and other professionals in the public schools have no business fostering anybody’s positive sexual orientation identity. That’s the right and duty of parents and guardians. I do support general training for school officials that helps them provide guidance and coping mechanisms for G/L students. For instance, G/L students who are persecuted may require counseling that goes beyond the simple “don’t strike back” type of guidance to include coping with attendant emotional crises that may interfere with academics or the good order of the school, and officials should be aware of how G/L students interpret and react to certain situations so as to provide relevant guidance.
6. From time to time, D.C. public school teachers have invited openly gay men and women to speak in their classes and to answer students' questions about homosexuality. Do you support the right of our teachers to continue inviting such speakers?
The public schools are generally not the place to officially explore one’s sexuality, or to be schooled in sexual alternatives to heterosexuality, and I do not support children being exposed to anything non-academic that violates parents’ rights as to what they want their children exposed to in the schools. Inviting G/L speakers is a non-academic activity designed to foster tolerance and open up people’s minds to the belief that homosexuality is a human norm. While this is a worthwhile endeavor to encourage people to respect the rights and privacy of G/L students, it is not a worthwhile endeavor in the public school setting when it acts to promote the lifestyle or to entice into reality someone’s potential and/or latent homosexuality. While this is perfectly appropriate in a private setting, it is totally inappropriate in a public school setting. Having said this, I feel it is not inconsistent to support allowing G/L speakers to discuss homosexuality in the 12th grade setting where student maturity is at its zenith.
7. Do you support the condom availability program established in 1992, and operated by the Department of Health, in our public schools?
I do not support the government giving condoms to underage youth to engage in sexual activity. I support abstinence-only programs that teach the value and character of chastity. And chastity is a valuable character-building and emotional stability tool beneficial to both heterosexual and homosexual persons. Statistics indicate abstinence-only programs are far more effective at reducing unwanted pregnancy and STDs than any other program used, including condom distribution.
8. Will you work to implement a comprehensive sex education program in the D.C. Public Schools that teaches that homosexuality is part of the normal range of human sexuality, consistent with existing DCPS policy?
I don’t know what your question means when you add “consistent with DCPS policy.” If DCPS policy forbids such a program, it’s then moot. The only sex education program I support is one that teaches basic human sexuality and procreation so that children understand their bodies and what all their parts do. I also believe a properly constituted sex education program must include a full discussion on the mental, emotional and spiritual repercussions of sexual activity on the individual human psyche, that sex is not just a physical activity like smoking or playing golf, that it instead affects a person in every conceivable way and can do extreme harm, both physically and emotionally. I do not believe homosexuality is part of ! the normal range of human sexuality, however much it regularly appears in human society. If homosexuality was a viable human norm, then in theory all humans could usefully subscribe to it, in which case the human race would end in a generation, absent current technology. I defend homosexuals’ right to live life as they please without discrimination or abuse, but I do not support institutionalizing it in society as a norm.
9. Will you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that tells gay and lesbian students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
While I support abstinence before marriage as a general principle, and especially among youth, I recognize that the reality of love and passion means that people who feel they are in a committed, long-term or lifelong relationship will engage in sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual. I do not support casual sex, one-night stands or any thing of the sort (heterosexual or homosexual), but I do not frown on people in committed relationships engaging in sex outside of marriage in a physically and emotionally healthy, non-destructive way, as that has been the human norm for millennia and will likely always continue to be. In this respect, your view of abstinence-only programs is exceedingly narrow and does an injustice to t! he concept. I will not oppose public money being used to promote abstinence-only programs, whether it’s abstinence-only-until-marriage or abstinence-only-until-committed. The important thing here is to reduce casual sex that leads to proliferation of unwanted babies and STDs that damage both individuals, communities and society at large. Sex outside of marriage but within committed relationships may violate religion, but in my view it hasn’t done any harm to society as long as such relationships remain at least as committed as the norm for legal marriage.
10. The D.C. Human Rights Act prohibits the District from conferring any "benefit" or "advantage" to any group not fully in compliance with the D.C. Human Rights Act. Currently DCPS provides recruiting opportunities, school programs, and direct sponsorship of scout troops despite the finding of the D.C. Human Rights Commission that the Boy Scouts' discriminatory policy against gay people is illegal. Will you work to end the special benefits that the Boy Scouts receive and require that they be treated as any other outside group?
The Scout programs have been found by federal courts to be protected private groups who may lawfully accept as members whomever they choose. That’s a right Americans should never be quick to give up, as homosexual groups may find themselves flooded with heterosexuals whose only purpose is to disrupt and destroy such a group. I support Scouting as a valuable experience for children in the public school setting, and Scouting should not get mixed up in the sexual preferences of students. Scouting is Scouting. If Scouts are in violation of the DC Human Rights Act, then that’s a legal issue for the courts to decide. I will not attempt to exclude the Scouts from the public schools.
11. Recent federal court rulings and D.C. law recognize that harassment against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students is illegal with the school system liable if harassment continues. Do you support the DCPS policy designed to stop harassment and sexual harassment?
Laws exist to protect everyone, especially a social or political minority. That’s our American heritage. If student harassment of G/L students violates the law or DCPS policy, then DCPS should call the police and/or uphold their policy. I am not familiar with the details of DCPS’ anti-harassment policy, but it should not violate the rights of students who want to express their negative opinion about homosexuality any more than it should violate the rights of G/L students to express their negative opinion about heterosexuality or any other subject.
12. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that place students in religious schools and outside the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
This question is moot. Students are not “placed” in any school outside of DCPS. They are issued vouchers that may be used at any private school, religious or otherwise. Moreover, it’s the parent’s choice to place their child in whatever school they prefer. However, I do not support vouchers in general. They are a very inefficient method of correcting public school failures and of providing students of failing schools a better education, especially since they apply to only the tiniest minority of students, something like less than 2% of all students in DC public schools. I will oppose vouchers on general principle. In fact, charter schools probably provide far more effective and fair school cho! ice than do vouchers.
Record
Your record is part of your rating. Please list any actions that you have taken that may help illustrate your record on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.