(WARNING: Sexually explicit summary below)
The Iowa Governors Conference on LGBTQ Youth claims to be the largest homosexual youth conference in the nation, but contrary to popular opinion, its purpose is not fostering understanding in the schools or preventing bullying.
“Get that idea out of your head right now,” one attendee of the April 3 event told The FAMiLY LEADER. “There were only two sessions [among more than 20] that had anything to do with bullying. It’s a conference teaching kids how to: how to be confidently homosexual, how to pleasure their gay partners – one session even taught transsexual girls how to sew fake testicles into their underwear in order to pass themselves off as boys.”
Even the conference’s purpose statement makes no mention of bullying.
“The mission of the Annual Governors Conference on LGBTQ youth is to a) engage and educate students,” the official program states, “and b) encourage networking and activism.”
So what actually happens at this conference?
An observer The FAMiLY LEADER sent to the conference reported several speakers highlighted horror stories of how outcast they felt as kids. They told stories of “coming out” and finding homosexual relationships. They reinforced the narrative that the world “hates,” but the homosexual community accepts. They repeatedly affirmed that it’s OK to be gay.
Several speakers also included elements some will find disturbing:
- One speaker wore a dress made of condoms, so they could be easily detached and “used as needed.”
- Another told a rousing story of how he used social media to find friends and accidentally stumbled into an orgy.
- One session taught how to properly use “binders” to reduce the visibility of a girl’s breasts and discussed hormone treatments for delaying puberty, assuring kids the drugs were safe.
Our observer also reported on the day’s final speaker, a drag performer named Coco Peru, who delivered an expletive-laden presentation filled with song and a startling piece of advice for the hundreds of high school students bused in from around the state.
Peru’s performance included a song with the lyrics, “People suck. They don’t give a f— about you. People thrive on smashing our pride to the ground. People that suck, f— you.”
Toward the end of the performance, Peru told the kids if they see a car with a bumper sticker that reads, “It’s Adam and Eve for a purpose,” they should, “Reach down inside yourself and give them a blessing … then slash their tires!”
Peru’s performance was clearly a far cry from an “anti-bullying” speech.
The father of one Des Moines area high school senior told The FAMiLY LEADER his daughter was “absolutely distraught” by what she witnessed and, like several other students and teachers, left the conference early in shock.
“She thought she was attending this conference to learn how students can be supportive of their homosexual peers, how they can bring unity to her school. She went thinking it was going to be on bullying, and she wanted to learn how to be more supportive, inclusive and accepting,” he said.
“When she got there, it wasn’t really on bullying; it was basically a sexual education class for same-sex couples,” he said. “It was crude. One presenter told students who asked whether anal sex hurt that, as a lesbian, it really depended on how big the device is that their partner straps on.
“My daughter went to listen to the comedian, Sam Killermann, thinking it would at least be funny,” the father continued. “But instead, Killermann explained how pleasurable it is for gay couples to eat each other’s behinds and how to use different flavors of [oils] to make it taste better.
“It’s totally unacceptable, above and beyond anything we should have our children subjected to,” the father concluded. “It was over the line, especially for a conference supported by prominent Iowa businesses.”
Who’s funding the conference?
In fact, the brochure lists a number of businesses that sponsored the event, including:
- Principal Financial Group
- Nationwide
- Office Depot
- The TJX Companies, Inc. (T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra Trading Post)
A number of school and religious organizations were listed as sponsors as well:
- The Iowa State Education Association
- The University of Iowa
- Iowa Association of School Boards
- School Administrators of Iowa
- Episcopal Diocese of Iowa
In addition to the support of teacher unions and education groups, Iowa’s public schools also dispatched a parking lot full of school buses and vans from districts around the state to Prairie Meadows in Altoona, where the event was held.
“Iowans signed on to this conference because they believed it was about stopping bullying and helping kids,” The FAMiLY LEADER President Bob Vander Plaats said. “But 10 years into these conferences, it’s clear those values have flown out the window.”
“It’s hard to believe if parents knew their children were attending obscenity-laced presentations where they’re encouraged to slash tires and use their cell phones to find orgies, they would continue to support it,” he continued. “It’s hard to believe teachers, school boards, and administrators would want their names and organizations backing these kinds of life lessons. It’s hard to believe the governor would want his name associated with it.”
“This is a situation where Iowans may just not realize what’s really going on,” he concluded. “As more and more of this material comes to light, however, I trust Iowans will demand better ways to honestly help kids than continue down this path the Governor’s Conference has traveled.”
“Just for the record, let me restate that The FAMiLY LEADER would never approve of bullying or the mistreatment of any person, at any time, or for any reason. We support the golden rule, which says, ‘Treat people the same way you want them to treat you’” (Matthew 7:12).
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
Were you at the Governors Conference? Shocked by what you saw? Contact The FAMiLY LEADER at [email protected].
What can YOU do? Share this story with other concerned parents. Post it on Facebook. Ask your school board or administrators if your school district sent students or teachers to the conference and whether this is the kind of material they want to be endorsing.
