LGBT Curriculum Opt-Out Petition Gaining Traction In NJ

NEW JERSEY — Thousands of people have signed a petition in support of allowing parents to opt their kids out of a LGBT history requirement in New Jersey public schools.

More than 10,000 people signed the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey’s  LGBT Curriculum Opt-Out Petition since it went live recently. The petition states that parents should have the option of skipping the curriculum based on “moral and religious objections.”

“Parents should know that the scope of these changes affects every subject in school, and it takes away their right to opt their children out of the questionable instruction,” Len Deo, director of the Family Policy Alliance’s northeast region of chapters, including New Jersey’s. “In many ways, this instruction will directly challenge Biblical teaching on homosexuality and what parents choose to teach children at home.”

Related: Petition: Let New Jersey Parents Opt Students Out Of LGBT Curriculum

Deo and Shawn Hyland, the Family Policy Alliance’s director of advocacy, in an email thanked those who signed the petition. They asked recipients to spread the word about the petition.

“The sexual indoctrination of our children must end,” Deo and Hyland said in their email.

The new law requires schools to use instructional materials that accurately portray the political, economic, and social contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The law will be implemented beginning in the 2020-21 school year. Murphy signed the bill into law in February.

Related: NJ Public Schools Now Required To Teach LGBT History

Sexuality Should Not Be Forced Upon Kids

“A person’s significant historical contributions should not be predicated on their sex life or personal feelings about their sexual identity,” the petition states.

Besides the alliance, the curriculum has drawn the ire of municipal officials, including Barnegat Mayor Alfonso Circulli.

Circulli commented earlier this year that the law would interfere with parents’ First-Amendment rights and how they “morally raise their children.”

Circulli also said, according to a report on Barnegat Patch, that the LGBT movement is “an affront to almighty God.”

The petition blasts Murphy. It states that the law “forces sexual ideology and it’s indoctrination onto the minds and hearts of our children… without parental recourse.”

According to the alliance, the LGBT curriculum:

• “Violates the fundamental and constitutional rights of parents to direct the moral and educational upbringing of their children.
• “Forces radical sexual ideology and it’s indoctrination into the minds and hearts of our children – again, without parental recourse.
• “Encourages revisionist history and teaches children that they’re no more than the sum of their sexual desires and feelings.”

The petition will be delivered to Murphy at some point, Deo said.

By Daniel Hubbard, staff writer