- Sub-Junior High School level homophobic "jokes" are volleyed as though they are the height of hilarity.
- A strange preoccupation with a particular sexual act involving posteriors (that straight folks also often partake in).
- Religious condemnation, often with the implication that these religious beliefs should be reflected in law.
- Strange theories about the origins of "the gay," including molestation, distant father, clinging mother. . .things long ago discounted by psychologists.
- The implication that gay people got together and decided to lie to the public at large about all sorts of things, so only hard-right Republican heterosexuals are qualified to speak on the issue.
- The notion that homosexuality is something that can be "disagreed with" or "promoted." That if you teach kids that gay people exist and you shouldn't be mean to them, you are indoctrinating them.
That last one is in the news again this week, with the spotlight on a school district with "age appropriate" sex education. This is only the latest version of an age-old conservative argument that any sex education is bad. I was in fifth grade all the way back in 1977, and remember then parents keeping their kids out of class during our (oh-so-unsexy) first round of sex ed.
I suspect that many conservatives have extraordinarily lurid imaginations. What else explains their knee-jerk reactions to any story having to do with sex? When they hear that kindergartners are being taught about gay people (meaning they are told that gay people exist), why do they jump to the conclusion that the teacher is showing Powertool on the projector?
Listen up, you dirty-minded GOPpers:
- There is nothing less sexy than sex-ed in school, in any form.
- You can't teach kids to be gay. First, it isn't teachable, and second, it comes naturally (nobody taught me!).
- There is no such thing as "promoting" homosexuality. Promotion implies that you're selling something, and that there are buyers out there. It's a bizarre notion that people can be convinced to be gay, or that there is an organized group trying to convert them. It's a fantasy (once again, in those lurid conservative imaginations).
- You can't "disagree" with homosexuality. It exists. Empirically. To disagree would be delusional.
[Excerpt]
Right Wing Apoplectic That Montana School Is Teaching Tolerance, Safe Sex, And Anti-Bullying Measures
Over 500 Helena, MT residents gathered at the Helena School District’s school board meeting Tuesday night to weigh in on a new K-12 health education plan released last week. The 62-page proposal, developed by community members and health officials over two years, promotes a broad health and nutrition education program for each grade. However, there is a small section dealing with sex education that has ignited a firestorm of backlash among conservatives, both locally and nationally. . .
Read more at: Think Progress
This is what I have oberserved in the different high schools I have worked at(4)and if I am wrong, then so be it. And no, I don't go actively looking whether a kid is gay or not, they usually parade it in front of me.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have seen, males, if they are gay, generally don't advertise it. If they gay and advertise it, they are popular with the girls. And no, I don't think they choose to be gay.
However females, I seen the "butch" girls and girls who want to be accepted. There are far more girls who show off being gay (lesbian)than males. While some girl may be born that way, I also think some of the girls do it to be accepted. They are the followers and I don't think they are born lesbian- they just want to be accepted by someone.
So, if I am wrong, so be it, but those are just my observations. And from what I have seen, I have not seen much harassment of gays at any of the schools I have taught at.
It breaks down like this, Dan:
ReplyDelete- Gay
- Straight
- Shades in-between (Bi-Sexuals)
It's the last one that gets us into a sticky wicket. Whether you use the Kinsey Scale or just a 10-point scale, a huge chunk of people probably fall SOMEWHERE in the middle. Mostly to one end, or mostly to the other, sure. And while that scale likely doesn't change much for a person, our perspective and recognition of it does.
Example: A person who marries, maybe has kids, struggles for years--even decades--and then comes out as gay. They didn't "turn" gay, they just finally put the puzzle pieces together, and figured out that's what they were all along. OR they finally discovered that their position on that scale is a lot closer to the "gay" end than the "straight" one.
I imagine it is more difficult for someone in the middle. Having feelings in both directions might double your chance for a date, but it is bound to be confusing!
I do agree with you about the middle. But that kind of sounds condensending.
ReplyDelete