News Release
For Immediate Release:  June 6, 2011
Contact:  Diane Gramley  1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

US Department of Education Works to Endanger Children

(Harrisburg) —  Today is the first day of a two-day LGBT Youth Summit in Washington, DC sponsored by the US Department of Education and paid for by our tax dollars.   The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide children’s advocacy organization, expressed concern that the Department of Education is working to mislead and misinform students about the homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles.

“This summit is supposedly to address bullying and harassment of students who identify as homosexual, bisexual and transgender, but its real purpose is to validate these dangerous lifestyles by saying ‘gay is okay.’  It is somewhat ironic that they chose to begin this summit the day after the 30 year anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control report of the first cases of HIV/AIDS.   These cases were found in homosexual men and the trend of the disease continues with men who have sex with men being the group with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases,” remarked Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA.

Will the following facts be relayed to the students attending this summit?

    • Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for more than half (53%) of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year, as well as nearly half (48%) of people living with HIV.
    • While CDC estimates that MSM account for just 4% of the US male population aged 13 and older, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the United States is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women.
    • In 2006 74.8% of HIV cases were males
    • The Oxford University International Journal of Epidemiology reports that men who have sex with men shorten their lives by up to 20 years.
    • Anal cancer is another danger for men who have sex with men.  In general, gay men are at a 35 times higher risk for developing anal cancer when compared to the rest of the population, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.  The risk for HIV-positive gay men is more than doubled.
    • The CDC refers to bisexual men who have HIV, but are not aware of it, as a “bridge” to infection from gay men to heterosexual women.

“My guess is this summit is simply a ‘feel good’ deal from the Obama administration and will not address any of the real problems that these students face when they engage in the homosexual, bisexual or transgender lifestyles.  These students are more apt to suffer the medical consequences of the actions encouraged by the DOE than they are to be bullied or harassed because they identify as homosexual.  The administration should be held accountable for the potential tragic results from this summit,” Gramley noted.

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