Any Words from the Marchers?

Carol Platt Liebau | October 10, 2009 12:59 PM

With justification, gays frequently object to conflating their sexual preference with pederasty.

But that's why it would be welcome, in the midst ofthis weekend's gay pride events

, for some gays to express their opinion on whether Kevin Jennings is an appropriate choice to serve as President Obama's Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education.

Jennings, of course, is the man who failed to report an illicit sexual relationship between a 15-year-old student in the school where he worked, and an older man. He also wrote the forward to a book titled, "Queering Elementary Education" (read his essay here; it obviously encourages bringing sex and sexual orientation curricula into even the earliest years of school).

Now, it appears, Jennings was also fan of one Harry Hay, a staunch defender of the National American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). In fact, Hay once declared that

"[I]f the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world."

(HT: Mark Tapscott)

Right. A guy with Jennings' background and associations has no place anywhere near a school -- or accepting taxpayer dollars for a post in the Department of Education. From his history, it seems that he is far, far too comfortable entertaining the possibility of adults having sex with children.

Will anyone in the gay community be willing to stand up and draw the line between one's own sexual proclivities (whether straight or gay), on the one hand, and implicitly condoning the acting-out of those proclivities with children?