Fact Check

Maryland Middle School Requires Children to Cross Dress for 'LGBTQ Appreciation Day'

Did a school in Maryland require children to cross-dress for a 'LGBTQ Appreciation Day' event?

Published Nov. 10, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   A school in Maryland required children to cross-dress for a "LGBTQ Appreciation Day" event.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, November 2013]


Is this true? Maryland school makes children cross dress for LGT day.

 

Origins:   On 7 November 2013, the National Report published an article positing that a Maryland middle school had recently held an "LGBTQ Appreciation Day" event for which children were required to cross-dress and portray a "variety of other gay archetypes":


Parents in the town of St. Leonard, MD were aghast after learning what the staff at Heritage Middle School required children to do for a passing grade. The outrage stems from an event held this past Monday, a day which the school had dubbed "LGBTQ Appreciation Day" instructing children to experience the homosexual lifestyle for a single school day or receive a failing grade.

Students were assigned the different roles throughout LGBTQ culture. Boys were given the task of being masculine homosexuals, feminine homosexuals, cross dressers and a wide variety of other gay archetypes. The young ladies were selected to be lip stick lesbians, or butch lesbians.

The students were partnered with members of the same sex and they were then made to role-played a day in the life of a gay couple. Holding hands, hugging and other innocent displays of affection were both encouraged and rewarded as extra credit by school officials.


 

By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, the article was just a bit of satire from the National Report, a web site that publishes outrageous fictional stories such as "IRS Plans to Target Leprechauns Next," "Boy Scouts Announce Boobs Merit Badge," and "New CDC Study Indicates Pets of Gay Couples Worse at Sports, Better at Fashion Than Pets of Straight Couples."

The National Report's (since removed) disclaimer page notes that:



National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.

Last updated:   10 November 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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