Subscribe to this blog's feedI happen to live in Broward County, Florida, one of only five school districts in the US that has rejected the We Are Family video because Barney, Big Bird, Kermit and Sponge Bob are sending a subliminal pro-gay message. Now you might laugh at the seeming absurdity of this School Board, Diversity Committee decision and possibly write it off as an isolated and forgettable incident. But let me recount a little more closely, the outrageous anti-gay attacks behind this decision, then ask yourself what you would do if they were talking about your family, about your children.
A local right-wing radio host Steve Kane, who also sits on the Diversity Committee, says he doesn't want children with same-sex parents talking about their families at school, calling that the "foot in the door." So what he is saying, is that gay children or children of same-sex headed families shouldn't talk about their families and they should be filled with shame. He doesn't want these children to hear Barney sing "We Are Family" and decide to share about their family with the class. Even worse, he fears the teacher might tell these children that their family is valued and respected too.
Kane is even more direct in his attack on gay groups that provide critical resources, like anti-bullying programs and suicide hotlines, saying "I have dealt with them in the past, they are devious, devious people". the whole thing smells like fish that is dead for three days. And that is where the far right's true agenda reveals itself -- to remove every resource for gay students and to ignore the reality that gay students exist and that some children grow up in households headed by gay parents.
The bottom line is they believe some families, like a gay-parented family, don't deserve kindness or respect and they would rather throw out the very notion of diversity rather than extend that respect to families they deem unacceptable. That should worry all of us.
Unfortunately this trend is not unique to Broward County and is spreading like a plague across this country. In too many school districts, scenes like the above are being repeated, except this time they are gambling with the lives of gay children. Far-right Christian organizations and anti-gay critics are being successful in removing sex education curriculums that "normalize" gay men and lesbians by implying that homosexuality is a biological trait. They complain that the programs do not stress enough sexual abstinence until marriage and have even gone so far, in some locales, as to remove proven sex education materials, such as the proper use of a condom.
These misguided groups are successfully censoring gay-friendly sex-education lessons, across the country, and in too many instances they are receiving little resistance. Some replace pro-gay materials with antigay messages, while others encourage counselors to refer young gays to "ex-gay" programs, which teach that homosexuality can and should be changed. At the same time, the Bush administration is funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into abstinence-until-marriage sex-ed programs that ignore gay youth altogether.
The federal government is sponsoring messages in which the subtle bias is always there. They're teaching abstinence until marriage, and if you're a young person, who knows you're gay, you also know you're not allowed to get married. But it gets much worse.
Eleven of the 13 most popular abstinence-only programs blur religion and science, teach gender stereotypes, and contain scientific errors, according to a report by U.S. representative Henry Waxman of California. One curriculum falsely tells students that they can catch HIV through sweat and tears. Another wrongly says 50% of gay teens have HIV.
So what's the final outcome of this trend? The only plan gay youth are being given by many school systems, to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is something that is not really available to them: marriage.
At times like this it is not just the comments of religious or anti-gay zealots but also the silence of everyone who supports diversity that matters. The silence sends a message that teachers should avoid discussing gay families, those gay families and students are unwelcome, and that homophobes can bully our school officials. The silence is allowing our federal government to condemn countless gay youth, to possible HIV or STD infections, because they are being allowed to lie and distort reality, just to please their right-wing constituency.
That silence casts doubt on a decision-making process in which the toxic bigotry that surrounds it is left unchallenged and that should definitely worry all of us.
ps. I'll be back in the forums on August 15, so don't think I'm ignoring any comments on the above, until then.