ABC News on Bullying and the Gay Agenda

This is just another run-of-the-mill story of rightwing nuts defending unacceptable behavior, except for the fact that it is presented on ABC News without any comment. The headline reads "Some School Anti-Bullying Programs Push Gay Agenda, Christian Group Says." It's like a headline "Hurricane Approaches East Coast, Meteorologist Says," or "Gunman Has Hostages, Police Say." The headline seems to assume that there is a "gay agenda," that Focus on the Family is a representative Christian group, that it matters what they say.

Here's how the story starts.

Gay-rights groups' push for anti-bullying legislation and school programs is an effort to "promote homosexuality to kids," according to a conservative Christian activist organization.

The accusation has underscored the conflicting attitudes among some politicians and parents who have lent their support to these policies after a string of deadly bullying episodes across the country.

Focus on the Family has accused gay-rights groups of using tolerance and anti-bullying programs to introduce curricula and books into schools that promote political aims such as same-sex marriage. The same groups, it says, lobby for gays and other minority groups to be specifically mentioned in anti-bullying legislation and try to depict Christians opposed to such treatment as bigots. Some School Anti-Bullying Programs Push Gay Agenda, Christian Group Says

Wow, this is a lot. I don't know where to start.

Promoting homosexuality to kids. There seems to be an assumption here that students who learn that homosexuality exists, that some people are gay, will become gay themselves. In reality, most people have an innate heterosexual orientation, and some small percentage have a homosexual or bisexual orientation, it doesn't matter what you tell them, that's just how they are. Education that discusses homosexuality serves two purposes. First, it gives students who are discovering they are gay some explanation for their differentness and hope that they can live normal happy lives. Second, if the straight students understand what the deal is they might be less likely to be bigoted jerks to those who are different from them -- not only gay kids but kids who express unique individual characteristics of any kind.

Tolerance and anti-bullying programs. The idea of tolerance is the scariest thing to The Nutty Ones. Imagine a world where people were free to be who they are, and other people accepted and even loved them -- what a nightmare! It is a fact that there are all kinds of people in the world, and you don't have to like every one of them but they have a right to live as they are. And ... who is in favor of bullying? What kind of twisted mind finds bullying defensible? Do they have scripture to back them up?

Political aims such as same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is not a "political aim." Two people fall in love and want to start a home and a family, there is nothing political about that, except that these crazy people want to stop them.

Groups ... lobby for gays and other minority groups. Funny, bullies tend to pick on anyone who is "different" in some way. That means different from the majority. That means minority, bullies pick on minorities, that's how it works. They don't pick on somebody for being just like everybody else, because they're bullies, that is, they are inherently cowardly. Also, I am having a hard time thinking of any group that lobbies for "gays and other minority groups." Oh, yeah, I forgot about the APGCAUPS, the Association for the Promotion of Gays, Czech-Americans, and Unmedicated Paranoid Schizophrenics. I mean, come on. Bullying is bad, Christians should oppose it.

Try to depict Christians opposed to such treatment as bigots. This is a fascinating piece of wording. What is the word "Christians" doing in that sentence, do you know? I personally would say that anyone who supports the practice of bullying children who are different, anyone who thinks that gay people need to be deprived of their Constitutional rights because of who they are, is a bigot. I don't ask what religion they are. If they're Christians, then fine, I'd say "Christians opposed to such treatment" are bigots. If they're Jewish, Mormon, even if they're atheists, I find it relatively comfortable to refer to hateful people who are prejudiced against a group of people as "bigots." Throwing the word "Christian" into this sentence makes it sound like one religion is being picked on. Oh, and since everybody knows that Christians are good people, those who refer to some of them as bigots are, if your thinking is simple enough, bad people.

I mean, sheesh, who writes this stuff?

"What parents need to be aware of is there are activist groups who want to promote homosexuality to kids because they realize if they can capture hearts and minds of our children at the earliest ages they will have for all practical purposes won the clash of values that we are currently experiencing," Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family, said on recently launched website TrueTolerance.org.

"They've started introducing homosexuality lessons, sometimes even sexually graphic information under the cover of tolerance or so-called safe school initiatives or even anti-bullying programs," she said.

Wow, capturing the hearts and minds of our children, that's bad, right?

Let me explain what this "promoting homosexuality" stuff is about, because it's easy. There are gay people in the world. They are tired of being denied the rights and privileges that straight people take for granted. They are tired of being beaten up for walking down the street. They are tired of being mistreated on schoolyards, in the workplace. It's time for stupid people to get over it and realize that gay people are just people. They don't care to "recruit" any kid into any "lifestyle," if a kid is gay he or she will know it when they approach adulthood and they deserve to be allowed to have love in their lives without idiots persecuting them and accusing them of things like "promoting homosexuality."

That's how the article starts. After this point, somebody from the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is quoted, and we learn that nine out of ten gay students report harassment at school. We learn that 43 states have adopted anti-bullying legislation. And I thought this was interesting:

After physical appearance, sexual orientation, or perceived sexual orientation, was the primary reason students said they were harassed.

There is video on this web page, a story about a girl in Massachusetts named Phoebe Prince who committed suicide after relentless bullying. It's horrible to think of, it's hard enough growing up without other people intentionally make your life miserable to the point that it is not worth living any more.

I like the way this guy talks:

Massachusetts State Sen. Robert O'Leary, who wrote the state's recently passed anti-bullying law in the wake of the suicide of Phoebe Prince, a 16-year-old Irish immigrant who hanged herself after being harassed in school and online, said Focus on the Family is missing the point and using children's pain to promote its own agenda.

"We all understand that bullying has been around forever," the Democrat said. "We have to make an effort to stop and recognize it and understand it has enormously destructive impacts on children.

"The fact that they argue in this vein indicates that it is often gays and lesbians who are most often the targets of this abuse, and that's why it's doubly important to protect them."

Oh, and I'm glad we've had five-plus years of listening to the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever, so we can follow this reasoning:

The Colorado-based organization says the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has targeted thousands of school districts nationwide with literature. "Schools are only allowed to provide one message about homosexuality; that it's normal and should be embraced," Focus on the Family said of the gay group's message.

"The school introduced anti-bullying lessons but really they're teaching elementary school kids about gay marriage," Cushman told ABC News.com. "We think parents should have the right to teach kids about it in their own way."

So there you go, they're teaching X but they're really teaching Y. They don't even have to say it, gay marriage will magically appear in the minds of students who are taught not to bully.

Also, that "normal and embraced" business. The one message is this: some people are gay, get over it. You don't have to embrace anybody, and nothing will be shoved down your throat.

In reality, this argument has just about spent itself. Fifty years ago LGBT people were routinely persecuted and mocked by the mainstream media and the man on the street. There has been a movement to remove the stigma of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, and it has worked. The more gay people you meet the more you realize they are just people, and that's the whole message. They deserve the same rights as the rest of us, and a historical worldwide trend has brought down the wall between gay and straight individuals. There are still holdouts but that's just what they are, holdouts clinging to a way of life that doesn't exist any more.