The gay agenda is coming for your children!

I'm on an email list that sends out regular notices discussing what rational, non-crazy humans are doing in Texas. Being a news/political junkie I enjoy these for their current-events value, but most of the time I just skim to the bottom where, every so often, they include copies of emails sent out by fundies. The lolz factor of these emails can range from an I'm-too-scared-to-laugh zero to a ten like the one I got today.

For a quick background, the Day of Silence is held by students every year to protest harassment and bullying of teh gheys in public schools. Simply put, kids that are participating will go to school, do their work, participate wherever possible, but they won't speak to anyone throughout that day. This is tolerated by many schools since, aside from the legal (and ethical) problems in attempting to punish a person for not speaking, harassment and bullying are things that are not generally helpful to learning in the first place.

Apparently, fundies hate this practice. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you a letter from the American Family Association:

Dear Friend,

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 17. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to restore to public education a proper understanding of the role of government-subsidized schools. You can help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence.

If students will be permitted to remain silent, parents can express their opposition most effectively by calling their children out of school on the Day of Silence and sending letters of explanation to their administrators, their children’s teachers, and all school board members. One reason this is effective is that most school districts lose money for each student absence.

School administrators err when they allow the classroom to be disrupted and politicized by granting students permission to remain silent throughout an entire day.

I'm pretty sure this letter goes to the definition of homophobia. Hope you enjoyed the lulz.


p.s.-for a few added lulz, check out the first line of the Wiki page on the AFA, I'll let it speak for itself (emphasis mine):

"The American Family Association...promotes conservative Christian values as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry"

Proposition 8 FAIL, redux

My original post on the topic only looked at gay marriage in terms of public opinion and state laws passed in support of it. Recently there is more good news on the former in a recent poll commissioned by GLAAD. Among the findings is that three-quarters of Americans believe that some sort of legal union between gays should be available.

But as with every good civil rights struggle, it starts with laws in the most progressive states, but it usually ends in the courts. Inter-racial marriage was made legal by the Supreme Court in 1967, but at the time 16 states still had laws against it. Public opinion did not come around quickly. The last state to change their law officially, Alabama did not officially make inter-racial marriage legal until 2000! Just eight years ago people were still debating whether or not this should be illegal!

Not to fear on the gay marriage side of things, looks like progress is being made here similar to the period leading up to 1967 for inter-racial marriage. Recent state supreme court rulings in Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, and New Jersey have had positive implications on marriage between gay couples in their respective states. New Jersey, though not ruling to allow gay marriage, did rule that gay marriages from other states must be recognized.

Also in New Jersey, a civil rights suit was recently settled with eHarmony.com promising to set up a parallel site that would cater to gay couples. Not exactly equal treatment, but at least semi-equivalent. Watch for more of this sort of civil action against insurance companies and others involved in commerce that discriminates against gay couples.

Probably the most important of all points on this topic is that a gay-friendly president will be in the oval office 34 days from now. For the next four years we can expect picks to the federal judiciary that empathize with civil rights demands rather than hold disdain for them.

Proposition 8 FAIL

Proposition 8 may have passed in California earlier this month, but right now it looks like it may very well be struck down in short order. The debate revolves on whether the proposition amended the California constitution or revised it. If the California Supreme Court finds that it did the latter then it will go the way of 2000's Proposition 22 and gay marriage will once again be legal in the state.

Legal briefs are due by early January and the court is expected to rule sometime next year. Regardless of what they find, gay marriage appears to be becoming more likely for Californians. The results from the election on November 4th when compared to those on Proposition 22 back in 2000 show that Californians are getting quite a bit more comfortable with gay marriage in just a short time.


Much of this trend can be explained by the exit polls reflecting age from earlier this month. Voters under 30 were much more likely to have voted against the proposition (that they only comprised 20% of the electorate explains the passage of the law).


The nation as a whole seems to be more tolerant as well. This year domestic partnerships became legal in Oregon and the Connecticut supreme court ruled that discriminating against gays in marriage is unconstitutional. Looking at all of the states that offer some sort of civil union the trend over the last decade is clear.


There is no reason to expect that this trend should change, and if age continues to be the dominant factor there could even be an acceleration.