By Justin Torres

(CNS) Emily: "My mothers mean so, so, so, so, so much to me. I have two

mothers. Two moms is pretty nice. Well, it's more than pretty nice, it's

really nice. You can't imagine. Although having two mothers is a problem

to others, I respect that that's the way they think, and I can't do

anything about it. I still think that those people think stupidly. This

once happened with a boy in my class who couldn't come to my house

because my parents were lesbians. One night I called their house and their mother told me their version of the Bible. I stood up for my mothers and knew

that many kids in my class were supporting me and calling me to see how I

was. I am proud of my moms and enjoy marching in the gay pride march

every single year with my moms."

Teacher: "Wasn't that a nice essay? Shouldn't we give Emily a round of

applause?"

A scene from It's Elementary, featuring Emily, a first grader at

Public

School 87 in New York City, reading her award-winning Mother's Day essay.

Scenes like the one above may be coming soon to a school near you, if

It's Elementary has the effect its producers hope it will.

It's Elementary, a video aimed at advancing homosexuality through

public education curricula, is making its debut on public television

stations across the nation. It's receiving widespread applause from

educators and sharp criticism from conservative and family groups, which

see it as a taxpayer-subsidized assault on those who oppose homosexuality

based on millellennia-old religious dogma.

The video,partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the

homosexual foundation Nu Lambda Trust and James Hormel, President Bill

Clinton's ambassador to Luxembourg, features scenes from six schools in

which students are taught about homosexuality and bisexuality.

National campaigns to block airing of the program on PBS have sprouted

up across the country, with many local PBS affiliates refusing to air the

video because of protests by parents.

It's Elementary is aimed at exploring "what happens when experienced

teachers talk about lesbians and gay men with their students," said

Deborah Chasnoff, director of the film, in its opening minutes.

"We found a cross-section of educators in six elementary and middle

schools, who found that despite today's political climate, there are lots

of reasons why students should find ways to discuss gay communities,"

Chasnoff continued.

But as the video attempts to dispel negative stereotypes about

homosexuality, its images promote stereotypes of people opposed to the

agenda of homosexuality, uniformly portraying people with religious

beliefs on the matter as angry and unyielding.

The video includes extensive scenes of students discussing

homosexuality and engaging in homosexual-themed activities, including:

1. A group of students at Luther Burbank Middle School in San

Francisco, in a question-and-answer session with a gay man and a lesbian.

One student asks, "How do you, like, do it?" The man, Noe Gutierrez,

answers, "We're not allowed to talk about our personal sex lives. But I

will say this sex is not about a single act. There's a lot more

involved in it. There's feelings . . . how two people feel about each other, and

there's two minds involved." Later, George Sloan, principal of the

school, says about the visits, "I think it should be mandatory, and I think that

it's a healthy way of teaching students to understand each other. . . .

Academics are definitely important, but we also want them to develop, to

reach an understanding that they can resolve crisises [sic] without

exploding. They need to understand that so they can move on to learning."

2. A grade school photo and text exhibit, "Love Makes a Family,"

features pictures of homosexuals with adopted children in family poses.

The exhibit is on display at the Peabody Public School in Peabody, MA,

And the camera follows a group of fifth grade students through the exhibit.

Later, one of the fifth graders, says she "thinks that the exhibit should

be shown to younger kids too so that they grow up knowing that lesbians

and gays aren't bad."

3. An exercise at Manhattan Country School, an independent school in

New York City, in which eighth grade students discuss at what grade

students should be introduced to homosexuality. When one student says she

feels some students are too young to be taught about homosexuality

because they might "freak out," another student responds, "The reason they freak

out is because they have not seen those books, because they have not seen

homosexual relationships on TV and walking around, because maybe their

parents are biasing them [sic]. . . . You can't say, 'Oh, they're going

to get freaked out, and you can't just throw it at them.' The reason that

they're going to get freaked out is because it hasn't been thrown at

them."

The video suggests repeatedly that homosexual curricula are about

exposing students to homosexuality, and not about forcing them to draw

conclusions about the "gay lifestyle."

However, some critics have suggested that the line between

Presentation and advocacy is blurred in the film and that Christians who object to homosexuality are shown in an unflattering light in an effort to equate Christianity and its strictures against homosexuality as causes of

violence and discrimination.

In the first ten minutes of the film, the only religious objection to

homosexuality is made through a film clip of the Ricki Lake Show, a

daytime talk show. At no point is a religious objection raised by a

credible re ligious figure of an established church and in some

instances, religious opposition to homosexuality is equated with the Holocaust and racism.

A video collage shows angry protestors at a public hearing on

homosexual education, accompanied by ominous music. Many of the

protestors are singing "God Bless America" and holding Bibles. At no point was a

conservative critic of homosexuality interviewed for the film.

At one point in the video, Principal Jane Hall of PS 87 in New York

City said, everybody will stand behind the banner of no discrimination

And promoting tolerance, except that when you come to an issue of gay and

lesbianism, I think then people, because of their religious beliefs

sometimes fall from behind that banner."

"But I have to say to them," continued Hall, "if I'm going to protect

your religious beliefs, if I'm going to respect them, then I'm asking you

to respect the stance we take in teaching about tolerance for others."

While the video's pretense is to promote diversity, it shows scenes in

which teachers are refusing to allow for perspectives that disagree with

homosexuality.

One scene depicts a meeting of the faculty at Cambridge Friends

School, a Quaker school in Cambridge, MA. When one teacher remarks that she hopes that any student who might feel that homosexuality "was wrong" would have

that belief respected, a teacher answers that "we are asking kids to

believe it's right.

"Not as a matter of moral principle, but as a matter of we're

educating them and this is part of what we consider to be a healthy

education."

A teacher picks up the conversation, saying, "What we're trying to

Have people do is to understand that people are. And we have to respect the

right of all of us to just be, and be who we are, and we do that in the

classroom when we teach so that everyone can learn.

"There isn't a right way, there isn't a wrong way, there isn't a good

way, there isn't a bad way."

The principal of Cambridge Friends School said he felt that it was

"not appropriate that values only be taught at home. There are social values

as well, there are community values" For parents conerned about public

schools teaching their children values that collide with their

constitutionally protected right to freely practice religion, the video

closes with a song that appears to preempt parental authority.

Your children are not your children

They come through you, but they are not from you,

And though they are with you, they belong not to you

You can house their bodies but not their soul

For their souls dwell in a place of tomorrow

Which you cannot visit, you cannot visit, you cannot visit

Not even in your dreams.