Blade Readers Are Paying Attention
Hey, I just posted a thing saying that the GLBT groups are certainly keeping an eye on the Montgomery County sex-ed battle. Right now the new citizens committee is chartered to evaluate curricula on the topic of "sexual variation" (the state's term for it). Some people want to put some crazy stuff in about reparative therapy and "ex-gays" and negative stereotypes of gays, and others -- that would be us -- want to see the subject treated objectively, factually, and accurately. Gay folks should have an intense interest in how this comes out.
As soon as I posted that last thing, somebody pointed out to me that the Washington Blade, the local gay paper, has a little article that gets to the point of how this is looking to them. Here's the whole thing:
A rational person would look at Peter Sprigg and ask, why in the world does any community put somebody like that on a panel to evaluate anything? The readers of The Blade should be very wary of this appointment, which signals that the school board is willing to listen to one of the most extreme gay-haters in the country.
As soon as I posted that last thing, somebody pointed out to me that the Washington Blade, the local gay paper, has a little article that gets to the point of how this is looking to them. Here's the whole thing:
The Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg has been appointed to Montgomery County’s Citizens Advisory Committee, which will advise the school system on revisions to the county’s sex education curriculum. Sprigg was nominated by the group Parents & Friends of Gays & Ex-Gays. The Board of Education accepted PFOX’s only nominee despite a request that each organization with a seat on the committee nominate three people. The board of education rejected the sole nominee from Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, Henrietta Brown, who had served on the committee before. CRC joined PFOX in opposing the previous sex ed plan because it included gay topics and a condom demonstration. In rejecting Brown, the board said that nominees are not allowed to have served on the committee before. CRC is now considering legal action to force the board to accept Brown, officials said. They claim that the board of education has violated a legal settlement reached in June. “We already have the suit prepared,” said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, which is representing CRC. “CRC is considering what to do.” The agreement signed by the board of education, CRC and PFOX allows the board to maintain control over who is selected for the committee. It states nominees from CRC and PFOX are “to be selected by the Board … provided such representatives are Montgomery County residents and are otherwise qualified.” Teach the Facts, NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays will also be represented on the committee. Anti-gay conservative wins seat on Mont. Co. curriculum committee
A rational person would look at Peter Sprigg and ask, why in the world does any community put somebody like that on a panel to evaluate anything? The readers of The Blade should be very wary of this appointment, which signals that the school board is willing to listen to one of the most extreme gay-haters in the country.
posted by JimK at 9:55 AM
24 Comments:
Some celebrities talk about their mental problems this week:
1. Mike Wallace says he takes Zoloft to relieve depression
2. Sulu from Star Trek says he's gay
3. Jim Kennedy thinks everyone's spying on his e-mail
I decided not to delete this comment, because it borders on being humorous.
JimK
And also because I think it's cool being a celebrity.
JimK
Glad you took it that way, Jim, because that's how it was meant.
....with anonymous off and running to start that groupie club just for you Jim. Next you will be asked for your autograph.
Get some sharpies and do you have photos available? Better watch out they may take scissors to your hair to get a souvenir or start going through your trash.
Yep Jim is a celebrity...and will now appear in the new remake of Brad Paisley's "Celebrity" song video.
Kay
We've been going through Jim's trash for some time. We're keeping a file.
Liberty Counsel says the suit is prepared. I don't keep as close track of CRC as I should but wasn't Michelle or crew just quoted as saying(for the 20th time)- we are just a group of LOCAL parents. Liberty Counsel again- CRCers- please don't bother to tell us you have no connections to those outside groups- besides one of the ANONS thinks being connected to these radical right groups is an honor for CRC.
I don't see what your gripe is, Andrea. Every issue is local. Liberty Counsel is there to help unempowered parents fight the power of wealthy school boards. The board's lawyers will be paid by funds conficated from me through excessive tax by a non-responsive and bloated local govt; Liberty Counsel gets their money from private donations. I'm sure they've raised more in Montgomery County over the years than they'll give back.
If our tax dollars aren't enough for you, go talk to GLSEN or People for the American Way or a similar "great" organization.
"the power of wealthy school boards"????
Now that's a good one! Thanks for the laugh, Anon.
Aunt Bea
"Now that's a good one! Thanks for the laugh, Anon.
Aunt Bea"
Mayberry Mutant
Do you have any idea how much money this county wastes? It's time to come back to reality.
Oh, my gosh, anon, your touching words about "unempowered parents" has so moved me. I weep for Retta Brown and am just going to write a big check to Liberty Counsel for her defense.
I hear they looking toget rid of Rachel Dratch on SNL- your dry wit might be what they are looking for in her palce.
Man, that SNL is a riot! I could never be that funny. Maybe now that Jim's a celeb, he can host. The Grateful Dead could reunite as the musical guest. Toby Keith could fill in for Jerry Garcia. I'll write the material. Yeah, this is all coming together.
Dana
Less than a year ago, Bush was roundly re-elected. Who knows where we'll be next year.
Scandals happen in every administration. What's unusual in this administration is that the top guy's integrity is never in question. We won't hear about him trying to steal the White House furniture on the way out, like Clinton.
This country has had many shocks in this millenium and has been resilient under this President. You might not be happy with the U.S. invasion, but non-Baathist Iraqis would never change a thing if they had it to do over again. Someday, in a democratic Mid-east, Bush will be a legendary hero.
Stop thinking short-term.
Everybody have a nice weekend. We'll take up this sarcastic bickering again on Monday.
Don't worry- the Skins will win on Sunday. I mean the Giants really suck.
Anonymous said...
Dana
Less than a year ago, Bush was roundly re-elected. Who knows where we'll be next year.
********************************
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173712,00.html
In this week’s FOX News poll, 41 percent of Americans approve and 51 percent disapprove of Bush’s job performance. Moreover, when given the opportunity for a 2004 presidential vote “do over,” Bush receives less support now than he did on Election Day.
I've gotta admit something, and this is for real. When I first saw where Anon said We won't hear about him trying to steal the White House furniture on the way out, like Clinton, I didn't realize who was writing.
And I thought it was somebody saying we wouldn't hear about Bush stealing stuff because the next admnistration won't be a bunch of flamin' liars.
Do you remember, the stuff about Clinton's staff stealing the w's off the typewriters and trashing the White House offices before they left? None of that turned out to be true.
That was how they came into office, on a bunch of big, fat lies -- and not even lies to cover up something, or to avoid a problem, not useful lies, just lies made up to slander somebody they didn't like. That moment so perfectly typified the next five years of their regime.
That's what I thought Anon was saying.
JimK
"Some celebrities talk about their mental problems this week:
1. Mike Wallace says he takes Zoloft to relieve depression
2. Sulu from Star Trek says he's gay
3. Jim Kennedy"
"Yep Jim is a celebrity"
Hey Kay, did you notice this? A psychologist friend of mine who I told about this blog read a few posts and told me that I could say anything I want on here without refutation if I just make a comment leading Jim to believe he's important. I told him, nah, these guys are too devoted to the cause. We made a bet.
Looks like I lost. Over twenty-four hours later, no one has disputed my contention that George Takei's homosexuality is a mental problem. Wonder why.
I assumed he may have had a mental problem with living all those years pretending he was something he wasn't... It is known to be despressing.
JimK
anonymous said
Over twenty-four hours later, no one has disputed my contention that George Takei's homosexuality is a mental problem. Wonder why.
****************
Because they all considered "the source" of the statement you made. It was worth ignoring.
Must have bothered you that they ignored you so they win the bet they made that you could not stand being ignored on that and would go back to highlight it.
"anon free" and now the winner of some $$$$$$$$
We were all at a secret meeting so we couldn't respond for 24 hours.
We were *not* ignoring you.
<|:)
"Do you have any idea how much money this county wastes? It's time to come back to reality."
I couldn't agree more with you Anon. Let's use reality to analyze the costs around this curriculum issue lately, shall we?
CRC and PFOX members sat on the now disbanded advisory committee that voted to approve the now rescinded curriculum. Henrietta Brown representing the Daughters of the American Revolution and Jackie Rice representing PFOX made tapes of the CAC meetings. Let's see some transcripts or links to the audio files of those tapes because while the CRC repeatedly says it ain't so, the fact is they presented their proposals for items to include in the curriculum to the committee. The committee reviewed, researched, and discussed their proposals and when it came to the vote, the majority decided not to add this quackery to the curriculum. They had access to and used the proper avenue to attempt to persuade other county representatives on the committee to support their views. This is representative democracy at its most basic level.
As we all know, they were outvoted in their attempts to muck up the curriculum with their biases. They were offered an opportunity to present a dissenting members' report but chose not to. Instead, they went to the press, decided to get political, tried to go over the heads of the committee to meet directly with BOE members, and when that failed, sued to stop the pilot testing of the unanimously approved curriculum. The costs to Montgomery County taxpayers for their actions have been enormous.
The obvious cost is the $36,000.00 they walked away with at the settlement table. The county rightly decided to settle because it was cheaper to do so than to litigate, not because they felt the suit had merit. And obviously the plaintiffs legal council felt there was no merit either because they didn't press forward with their lawsuit even though CRC leadership felt, "Lawsuits tend to get peoples attention - merit or no merit..." The less obvious cost to Montgomery County taxpayers is the cost over the years to write and review the curriculum in the first place, and now again in the second place. And the new curriculum will be no doubt nearly identical to the rescinded curriculum because that is what is required by Maryland state law under COMAR.
All that for what? For a "little obstacle" as Gabe Romero said on 6-27-05 after Public Comments. An EXPENSIVE little obstacle, all thanks to the CRC leadership's decisions.
And you can scream all you want that the committee leaned to the left but the reality is that the old committee was and the new committee is reflective of the residents who reside here in Montgomery County. Do we have to cite the Bush-Kerry election results here in the county again? It was 2-1 in favor of Kerry. On social and educational issues I can assure you Montgomery County citizens are even more progressive because residents here value education, particularly health education, very highly for their children. They want them to have more information about different ways to protect themselves, not less. And they want them to have medically accurate and sound information, not some risky business that is banned by all mainstream American doctors. Ex-gay quacks like Richard Cohen and their supporters like Regina Griggs (two non-county residents who have tried to sell our BOE on including their garbage in our curriculum), push these dangers because that's how they make their living, profiting off of gay teens with guilt-ridden parents and more money than sense.
Aunt Bea
So ,Anon, because MCPS wastes money- are you suggesting that the $36,000 payoff that CRC/Liberty OCunsel got is okay?
You are free to say that anything you want is a mental problem, but most of us rely on our doctors for medical diagnoses. Your and your psychologist friend's theory relates only to Jim. What about the rest of us?
It seems rather juvenile of you to believe that if your comment remains unchallenged for 24 hours that makes some difference somehow. No, it doesn't. Your statement still isn't true. All the mainstream medical and mental health organizations agree that homosexuality is not a disease and that gays and lesbians can lead healthy and happy lives.
The question is, why does that fact bother you so much?
Ma
"So ,Anon, because MCPS wastes money- are you suggesting that the $36,000 payoff that CRC/Liberty OCunsel got is okay?"
No, it's not OK. It was another waste of taxpayer money that was necessary because of the malfeasance of the board. I hope the voters hold them accountable in the next election.
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