Reason #1,435,892 Why the Left Shouldn’t Waffle on Gay Rights

Because the Dominionists won’t stop their attack on gays at simply banning their right to marry.

Emboldened by the political right's growing influence on public policy, opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality or promoting acceptance of gay people are mounting challenges to such programs, at individual schools, at statehouses and in Congress.

Chief among the targets are sex education programs that include discussions of homosexuality, and after-school clubs that bring gay and straight students together, two initiatives that gained assent in numerous schools over the last decade.

In many cases, the opponents have been successful. In Montgomery County, Md., for example, parents went to court to block a health education course that offered a discussion of homosexuality, while in Cleveland, Ga., gay and lesbian students were barred from forming a high school club of gay and straight youths.

This is what I don’t understand: Just because one believes homosexuality is wrong, for whatever reason, what conceivable justification can be offered to remove any and all discussion of it from the public discourse? I’m sure many of the same people who are fighting this battle believe that divorce is wrong, too, and yet I haven’t seen a massive, coordinated movement against classes that mention divorce, nor educators who are divorced, nor literature penned by divorcees. If an after-school club formed as a support group for children of divorced parents, which, one can assume, would necessarily include discussions of divorce, would that be banned too? These people allegedly hate divorce for the same reasons they hate homosexuality—it’s “immoral,” “undermines the sanctity of marriage,” and “hurts families,” the latter two of which are demonstrably provable in the case of divorce, in that a marriage ends and families are split apart, though not provable in the case of legalized gay marriage (indeed, studies done on countries with legalized gay unions show they have had no effect whatsoever on heterosexual unions). The direction of their ire, as anyone who has a passing relationship with reality is already aware, is misplaced; pretending homosexuality does not exist, even criminalizing it, won’t make it go away. The best thing one can do to protect one’s children is to educate oneself about homosexuality, and then educate the kids about homosexuality, and let them know they’ll be loved no matter what. But I guess that’s just crazy talk from a deliberately childless liberal feminazi.

Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of another conservative group, Liberty Counsel, said: "We're concerned about the effort to capture youth through indoctrination into the homosexual lifestyle. Students are a captive audience, and they are being targeted by groups with that as an agenda."

Yo, Staver—I’ve been surrounded by queers my whole life; I’m as indoctrinated as it gets. And I’m still a cocksucker (the acceptable kind). So untwist your panties. It just doesn’t work that way.

(If it did, wouldn’t it be likely that an entire society designed around heterosexuality might actually have the market corned on “indoctrination”? Use some common sense, you idiot.)

"We needed to present a counter or Christian perspective," said [J. Michael Johnson, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative group that specializes in issues involving religion]...

I really feel for liberal Christians. How can you even tolerate reading that shit?

Last month in Montgomery County, Md., a parents' group, alarmed because revisions to a health education course for 8th and 10th grades included a discussion of homosexuality and a video that demonstrated how to use a condom, went into federal court and gained a restraining order to halt them. The county school board then voted 7 to 1 to eliminate the amended program, six months after unanimously approving it.

Conservative groups applauded the board's vote as a victory for religious conviction, and described the litigation strategy as a model for school districts across the country.

"This was huge," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, which seeks to apply biblical principles to public policy.

Um, New York Times? That’s called Dominionism, and it’s patently un-American. Making these people sound as though they’re practically innocuous, just the flipside of “secular liberalism,” is an insult to secular liberals. We don’t want to fundamentally change the fabric of the country, particularly the rule of law on which it was founded. Seriously, you need to stop legitimizing this kind of shit, because it’s not just “a different viewpoint.” Applying biblical principles to public policy is an entirety different form of government than our current one; it called a theocracy, and within a theocracy, those who don’t believe in biblical principles will be subjected to them, anyway, which completely eradicates the notion of freedom of religion, for a start. This is an insidious movement that seeks to undermine our existing democracy. Quit treating it so blithely. It’s irresponsible, and it’s bad journalism.

"I just don't feel like homosexual clubs have anything to do with readin', writin' and 'rithmetic," [Georgia State Senator Nancy Shaefer] said.

Clever. I’m tempted to make a comment about how, based on some of the dumbfucks I’ve met from Georgia, your schools don’t seem to have anything to do with readin', writin' and 'rithmetic, either, but then again, I’ve met some very nice and very wise people from Georgia, too. Most of them no longer live there.

"The intensity of the culture wars has heated up over the last few years," said [Johnson]. "People are becoming more aware that they have rights, and they're feeling more emboldened to defend them. Across the country, people are saying enough is enough."

If you didn’t know that quote came from a conservative lunatic who’s talking about the “rights” of straight, white Christians to breed a new generation of homobigots, you might think he was talking about the GLBT community and their supporters, wouldn’t you? I suspect such irony would be lost on Mr. Johnson.