Public TV's 'Elementary' Gay Propaganda
by L. Brent Bozell III
June 08, 1999

PTC Action Alert: Watch two video excerpts of "It's Elementary"

In 1996, Hillary Rodham Clinton's book "It Takes a Village" argued for greater non-parental influence in the lives of children. That same year, a documentary film called "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School" offered an example of the Hillary Doctrine in action. In the movie, administrators and faculty, stepping into the moral tutor's role historically filled by moms and dads, advocated to youngsters in grades one through eight the oh-so-enlightened position that Gay Is OK.

Now "It's Elementary" has come to public television. Some PBS stations have already aired it, and several dozen more will over the summer. Its director and co-producer, Debra Chasnoff, admits that it was "not intended to be a journalistic piece of work. We wanted to make an uplifting, inspiring film."

Chasnoff is absolutely right about "It's Elementary" not being journalism. It is, in fact, pure propaganda, "uplifting" and "inspiring" only if you agree with the film's militant promotion of the homosexual lifestyle. 

This film flies in the face of not only public broadcasting's supposed commitment to balance but also common sense and decency. Care to know the kinds of themes you're funding with your tax dollars?

Dishonesty. "It's Elementary" features a brief montage of talk-show and movie clips depicting supposed homophobia. In one, Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, having discovered the female-looking person he kissed is really a man, proceeds to vomit, brush his teeth vigorously, and burn his clothes, while the song "The Crying Game" plays on the soundtrack. 

Completely ignored is the well-known fact that the media in general - prime time television in particular -- have been overwhelmingly pro-gay since the 1970s. 

Moral relativism. This philosophy is implicit and explicit throughout the film. In a faculty meeting regarding a school's Gay and Lesbian Pride Day, a teacher declares, "We have to respect the right of all of us to...be who we are...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 way that it is, is what it is." 

So much for the Judeo-Christian tradition. What do they think about that anyway? Read on:

Distortion of opposing viewpoints. In the world of "It's Elementary," tolerance is extended to everyone except those who find homosexuality repugnant. Virtually every "conservative" belief included in the film is stated by someone who doesn't share it. Predictably, those beliefs emerge as hideous caricatures. 

According to "It's Elementary," those with traditional views of homosexuality are ignorant (a teacher remarks that to be "homophobic" means to think that homosexuality is contagious); racist (a parent, upset with another parent who kept his child home from school the day gays and lesbians were discussed, fulminates that such persons probably would also take exception to their offspring learning about "Mexican history, or the Dutch, or African Americans"); and violent (a fifth grader claims that "some Christians" want to "torture" gays). 

A typical slap at the religious occurs when Emily, who looks to be, oh, about eight, reads aloud her essay: "A boy in my class...could not come to my house because my parents were lesbians. One night I called [his] house and the mother told me their version of the Bible. I stood up for my mothers." When the (gay) teacher asks for students' reactions, they praise Emily's feistiness and loyalty. Final score: Emily and her two mommies 1, Scripture 0.

What is perhaps the most chilling moment in "It's Elementary" comes at the very end. The song heard over the closing credits says, in part, "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." 

It's reprehensible enough that the radical gay movement would take to the airwaves - the public, taxpayer-funded airwaves - to promote its wretched lifestyle. But by brainwashing little children to serve as its mouthpieces, this movement shows it will stop at nothing to get its way.

So who paid to produce this vomitous stuff? Some of the money came from you - through the National Endowment for the Arts. Some came from radical gay groups. The rest came from individuals, like James C. Hormel, Bill Clinton's new ambassador to Luxembourg.