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Friends,
Action is needed! I successfully amended House Bill 1, the state general budget bill, to provide equal funding for "Traditional Family Values Centers" at public institutions of higher education that fund with our tax dollars a gender and sexuality center that promotes alternative lifestyles.
Unfortunately the Senate stripped the amendment off their version of the budget. Now the House and Senate HB 1 conference committee members will meet and decide how to combined their two different budget bills into one bill. At this stage the conference committee members can restore the "Traditional Family Values Center" amendment to the budget.
Please contact the budget conference members and ask them to restore the "Traditional Family Values Center" amendment to the budget. This process is moving very fast, please make your calls by Monday!
House Conference Committee Members
Chairman Pitts- [email protected], 512-463-0516
Rep. Crownover- [email protected], 512-463-0582
Rep. Otto- [email protected], 512-463-0570
Rep. Turner- [email protected], 512-463-0554
Rep. Zerwas- [email protected], 512-463-0657
Senate Conference Committee Members
Chairman Ogden- [email protected], 512-463-0105
Senator Nelson- [email protected], 512-463-0112
Senator Williams- [email protected], 512-463-0104
Senator Duncan- [email protected], 512-463-0128
Senator Hinojosa- [email protected], 512-463-0120
Background
Currently UT operates a "Gender and Sexuality Center." Amongst the events the center has put on in the last year, they have held a seminar on "Religion and Sexuality" as part of their "living with pride series," and a "Gender Performance Workshop" that provided "lots of wigs and makeup and more." The center also hosts a separate graduation for homosexual students called the "lavender graduation."
At Texas A&M they too have an "LGBT Resource Center." There they put on events like "Coming Out Week" and "Celebrate Bisexuality Day."
If the universities are intent on using taxpayer funds to operate these centers, they should at the very least provide balance in their message by funding centers that promote traditional and family values. Or at least find private funding for the centers so that taxpayers are not subsidizing them. My amendment that was overwhelming adopted to HB1 required exactly that.
It is my hope, however, that universities will get out of the business of using taxpayer's money to promote political and social viewpoints altogether.
Universities would continue to provide health and counseling services to homosexual students the same as they do now - through their general health and counseling services that are provided for all students. These gender centers are not about providing health services or counseling services, they are about promoting a certain life style and culture.
Homosexual student organizations would continue to be free to promote whatever political and social message they choose. They just wouldn't have full time staff and a center paid-for at taxpayer expense.
The Texas Aggie Conservatives student group have highlighted their campus's "LGBT Resource Center" and the events it sponsors with our tax pay dollars. Hosted on their website is a very graphic video taken at one of the LGBT Resource Center events promoting and encouraging an alternative lifestyle. All of this is funded by our tax payer money. For more information and to watch the video go to http://www.aggieconservatives.org.
If the information and video above is offensive to you, then do you now agree your tax dollars should not be used to teach such to our young people?
For Texas,
Wayne
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