Boy in a Bikini, Other Gay Films Get Wide Audience in California Schools

San Francisco, CA – A San Francisco group billing itself as “the best in LGBT media” is claiming hundreds of public schools in California have signed up to show its films and use accompanying discussion materials. One film features a boy “coming out” by wearing his mother’s bikini. Another film incorporates Native American spiritualism to cast LGBT (lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender) persons as “two-spirit” people.

The films and school materials are being distributed by Youth in Motion, a partnership between Frameline and Gay-Straight Alliance Network. YIM can be accessed at https://frameline.org/youthinmotion/index.html (warning: may contain offensive content). The films are accompanied by a “curriculum guide” and “action guide.” Among other things, the guides encourage students to question whether religious and cultural celebrations, such as Jewish bar mitzvahs, wrongly discourage homosexual and transgender lifestyles.

The list of schools claimed to use these materials include scores of high schools throughout the state, as well as a few middle and junior high schools, and at least one elementary school in San Leandro, California. While many of the affected schools are located in the Bay Area and Southern California, other regions—including the Sacramento area and small communities in the Central Valley and the Sierras—are also affected.

Parents are strongly encouraged to check the list of affected schools or call Pacific Justice Institute to determine whether the Youth in Motion curriculum is being used in their child’s school. Parents are also advised to contact their school board members to ask whether the showing of these films has been approved the school district. While it is not clear whether the films are being shown predominantly during class time, or in meetings of LGBT student clubs, they are clearly being marketed for showing in class and in school assemblies.

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, commented, “PJI will continue to investigate whether any opt-out laws are being violated by the showing of these films. Any parents whose opt-out requests are denied by their child’s school should contact PJI immediately.”