Go Forth, and Be Gay

I am helping out with our professional blog at the office now that I am back at work, so I have set up a few Google news searches that are emailed to me on a daily basis. Little did I know that I would be overwhelmed with material for my own ranting and raving. One of my terms is "advocacy," and one of my news headlines was this:

"Parents urged to pull children from school on homosexual-advocacy day"

First I made a little face, then I looked at the location, and I thought "I sincerely doubt that Phoenix, or anyone, for that matter, is having a 'homosexual advocacy day.'" What does the even mean? Is the advocacy itself homosexual? If so, are we supposed to drag out our gay behavioral stereotypes and advocate for something while wearing a feather boa and lisping? Or while being erudite in a coffee shop?

But of course not.

"Homosexual Advocacy Day" is actually a "Day of Silence," (April 17th), a national event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. It aims to "bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying, and harassment in schools." Furthermore, the mission of the GLSEN is "to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression."

Assholes.

Basically, Christian parents are being urged to keep their kids home from school on this day. Their reasoning is pretty simple: "According to the national coalition challenging the protest, the implicit purpose of Day of Silence is to undermine the belief that homosexuality is immoral."

OH NO!!

They believe that events such as the "Day of Silence" are public schools actually promoting homosexuality and teaching kids to be gay, rather than creating a welcoming environment for all kids. And you can't argue with them because they are beginning with a false premise: that you can teach or un-teach homosexuality.

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute is quoted as saying, “While it is appropriate to teach students that tolerance requires that society should treat all with civility, it is not appropriate to teach that tolerance requires students to accept the view that homosexual conduct is moral.”

She should get out her dictionary.

I am not really a fan of the word "tolerance," anyway. Her use of the word "civility" is encouraging, though she kind of destroys it with the second part of her sentence.

It's like saying, "You look nice today. You are going to burn in hell."

Again, it's all part of the delusional "War on Christianity" in which many people feel they are God's Soldiers. Having a day when people are encouraged not to bully and name call is actually censoring Christian students. They don't seem to understand that a "Day if Silence" is not going to turn their straight child gay (sing with me now "Don't it turn my straight child, don't it turn my straight child, don't it turn my straight child gaaaaaaay!" Man. I am old.), but it may help them to understand their peers who are in the GLBT community and get them out of their sheltered bubble.

But that's probably the real problem here.

And you know what? There are private schools for that.