Claim: Arizona is implementing a mandatory school program to help homosexual children become straight.

FALSE

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



Is the state of Arizona implementing a gay-to-straight curriculum in its schools this fall, attempting “teach” kids how to not be gay?



Origins: On 21 July 2013, the National Report published an article (“Gay-To-Straight Program to Be Used in All Arizona Public School Curriculums”) positing that as of 1 November 2013, all Arizona public schools would be implementing mandatory “conversion therapy” for gay children:





Beginning November 1st of this year, the state of Arizona is implementing a mandatory school program designed for all children grades K-12 to help homosexual males and women become straight. The controversial conversion therapy will be used in all of Arizona’s 2,325 public school curriculums and is already gathering a large amount of criticism as well as those who approve of the new program. Beginning November 1st of this year, the state of Arizona is implementing a mandatory school program designed for all children gradesto help homosexual males and women become straight. The controversial conversion therapy will be used in all of Arizona’sschool curriculums and is already gathering a large amount of criticism as well as those who approve of the new program. Dean Huls who is the brain child behind People Can Change spoke with Fox News about their plan to help all the gay children of Arizona. “Since 2000 ‘People Can Change’ has been helping thousands of children resolve their unwanted same-sex attractions. We bring the gay demons out of these individuals so they can become who god intended them to be. Our success and track record speaks for itself,” Huls said. “Facing the reality that you have unwanted homosexual feelings can cause tremendous turmoil — especially as a child whose feelings conflict with deeply held values, beliefs and life goals. But there is a way out. A path that leads them to resolve rather than fight their homosexual feelings. A path to authentic brotherhood and to our innate heterosexual masculinity.”





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.





(An identical article was issued as a press release through PRLog.org, but it’s the same spoof by the same people published in a different form.)