Some Parents Upset Over Gays’ Talks With Students

After 19 years of inviting homosexuals to discuss their life styles before his high school psychology classes in Newport Beach, teacher Mike Marino suddenly has a problem.

Some parents--just how many is unclear--are upset and complaining. A handful of them met last Friday with Marino and Corona del Mar High School Principal Tom Jacobson, and some monitored Marino’s classes Thursday, when speakers from an Orange County organization of homosexuals answered students’ questions.

But, so far, there has been no organized protest. School district administrators estimate that fewer than 50 parents may be involved.

“I’ve been assured by members of the board and the superintendent and the principal that our policy and curriculum will be upheld,” Marino said.

Some of the complaining parents, however, say they may number 100 or more. Although all concede there is no one in particular leading them, they said they expect their protest to surface before the school board next month.

At issue is a class discussion Marino said he has conducted each semester in one form or another during his 8 years at Newport Harbor High School and his 11 at Corona del Mar High School.

In the four daily sections of introductory psychology he teaches, he devotes one of the 18 weeks to human sexuality, Marino said. During that week, he invites speakers from Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to appear before students and answer students’ questions.

Marino said he forbids only questions about specific sexual practices and questions that raise religious issues.

He said his purpose is to dispel misconceptions and stereotypes about homosexuals and thereby promote “harmony and understanding.”

“My opponents believe that homosexuality is a choice,” Marino said. “My training indicates that the orientation is there and the only thing they can choose is behavior. (Opponents) would like me to teach it as an unhealthy, sick life style. I just acknowledge that it exists and do not place a value judgment.”

Shannon Gustafson of Newport Beach monitored Marino’s classes for the second time Thursday. She said she wants adolescents to be taught that they can choose not to be homosexual. During Thursday classes, that issue “was not presented in a responsible way.”

“I don’t want to be represented as anti-homosexual,” she said. “I see them as I see alcoholics. They need support and compassion, but they’re responsible and have a choice.”

Marino said that in the previous 18 years he had received maybe a total of six telephone calls of protest. He said he and school administrators had received many more than that just this month. He attributed the sudden increase to fear of homosexuals due to AIDS.

Rick Heckenlaible of Anaheim, who heads the speakers bureau for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, whose membership includes homosexuals, said he did not consider the complaints at Corona del Mar High School to be significant. No one was even inconsiderate to his speakers--two men and two women--either inside or outside the classroom, he said.

“I really had to chuckle about it,” Heckenlaible said. “(Opponents) are causing it to be out and spoken about, which is fine. In past years, we went in, spoke, left--no big deal. All of a sudden, the whole school knows about it and is talking about it and students want to sit in. I think they’re helping us out.”