Christians, Parents Concerned Over Group's Search for Gay Youth
An art and entertainment production group in Portland, Maine, has been distributing fliers in search of gay and lesbian youth as young as twelve years old.
Add Verb Productions – whose goal is to "awaken community-based action and understanding of social issues through theatre, creative expression and dialogue" – is searching for individuals aging from 12-24 to be in their Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Allied (GLBTQ & A) Youth Writing Project.
The fliers are worrying Christians in the area who do not want agencies encouraging youth to be a part of the homosexual lifestyle.
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"Want to have your writing or music be performed?" ask fliers. "Make a difference in the world? Can you help people to understand how they might help? Change things for the better for GLBTQ youth?"
The performance group was created to deal with complex issues that many youth are presented with as they grow up, and do so through issue-based touring plays. One of the key subjects, according to their website, is to address is "sexuality."
The group appears to support the GLBTQ community as the mission of the group is to help those that are "persecuted." According to the Add Verb Productions website, the managing director, Brandi Mathis, has even worked for the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Parents have become worried, however, since the agency has begun targeting fairly young youth, who are still going the process of creating their own identities.
Christian groups are also upset that the group is also partially subsidized by taxpayers since one of the staff members, Tess Van Horn, is also a volunteer for the federally-funded Americorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) program.
The goal of Americorps VISTA is to "provide full-time members to nonprofit, faith-based and other community organizations, and public agencies to create and expand programs that ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty." Promoting gay and alternative lifestyles does not fulfill this goal, some argue.
Van Horn has also been reported by The Civil Christian League Record to have been a part of the Dyke March Portland which invites "all women, biological or otherwise" to walk in support of gay rights.
People are accusing Add Verb Productions of improperly using the government's money to aid the homosexual agenda.
