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I’m from Tennessee, but I don’t talk about it much.
I would, mind you. But every time I mention it, people bring stuff up. Like how it’s legal to bring weapons into bars. Or our capitalist fire departments. Or Pigeon Forge, home to the Nastiest Hotel in America.
And – more recently – why we’re so afraid of gay people.
State Sen. Stacey Campfield (a Republican) has been pushing a bill for the last six years that would make it illegal for teachers to mention homosexuality in any way whatsoever at all to students in kindergarten up through the eighth grade. Last week, the bill was cleared to go to the Senate floor for a vote.
Campbell’s official justification is “age-appropriate” education, and that such things should be left to the parents, not schools, to explain to kids. As opposed to heterosexuality, which schools can teach kids as soon as they enroll in kindergarten.
The whole thing is patently silly, of course. For a start, it’s already a misdemeanor to discuss any issues at school outside Tennessee's "family life" sex ed program, which doesn’t mention gayness at all.
Also, one provision of the bill requires the Board of Education to examine whether homosexuality is being taught in classrooms. So it’s a bill to ban something that’s not only already illegal, but also something they’re not even sure is going on in the first place. (But then it’s only a matter of time, I guess, what with a Democrat in the White House and all.)
Which is why I've concluded that the whole thing reeks of fear. Stacey Campbell is afeared that The Gayz will ram their long hard Homosexual Agenda down the throats of every kid in Tennessee, and doesn’t want the kids getting any on them. It’s a solution in search of a problem – unless the problem is Campbell’s nightmares about gay people turning children gay by talking about being gay.
Of course, the inevitable question has to be asked: “But Frog, do you really think it’s appropriate for teachers to mention homosexuality to little kids?”
Yes I do. Its very existence is a reality that kids have to make sense of one way or the other, and the institution of education has a responsibility to help them achieve that, which they can only do by having the flexibility and freedom to discuss it. Simply pretending it doesn’t exist won’t help, especially when it's a basis for bullying.
I speak from experience. I, for one, could have used a little pre-briefing on it in 8th grade when some student asked if I was queer and I said yes, blissfully unaware of its sexual connotations. I got to spend the next few years being harassed and bullied for being something I wasn’t. So I’m a little more sympathetic to gay-bashing victims than some, yes.
NOTE: The Don’t Say Gay bill is on hiatus, for the record. It may get a vote next year. Plenty of time for the nation to mock Tennessee some more.
Say it loud,
This is dF
I would, mind you. But every time I mention it, people bring stuff up. Like how it’s legal to bring weapons into bars. Or our capitalist fire departments. Or Pigeon Forge, home to the Nastiest Hotel in America.
And – more recently – why we’re so afraid of gay people.
State Sen. Stacey Campfield (a Republican) has been pushing a bill for the last six years that would make it illegal for teachers to mention homosexuality in any way whatsoever at all to students in kindergarten up through the eighth grade. Last week, the bill was cleared to go to the Senate floor for a vote.
Campbell’s official justification is “age-appropriate” education, and that such things should be left to the parents, not schools, to explain to kids. As opposed to heterosexuality, which schools can teach kids as soon as they enroll in kindergarten.
The whole thing is patently silly, of course. For a start, it’s already a misdemeanor to discuss any issues at school outside Tennessee's "family life" sex ed program, which doesn’t mention gayness at all.
Also, one provision of the bill requires the Board of Education to examine whether homosexuality is being taught in classrooms. So it’s a bill to ban something that’s not only already illegal, but also something they’re not even sure is going on in the first place. (But then it’s only a matter of time, I guess, what with a Democrat in the White House and all.)
Which is why I've concluded that the whole thing reeks of fear. Stacey Campbell is afeared that The Gayz will ram their long hard Homosexual Agenda down the throats of every kid in Tennessee, and doesn’t want the kids getting any on them. It’s a solution in search of a problem – unless the problem is Campbell’s nightmares about gay people turning children gay by talking about being gay.
Of course, the inevitable question has to be asked: “But Frog, do you really think it’s appropriate for teachers to mention homosexuality to little kids?”
Yes I do. Its very existence is a reality that kids have to make sense of one way or the other, and the institution of education has a responsibility to help them achieve that, which they can only do by having the flexibility and freedom to discuss it. Simply pretending it doesn’t exist won’t help, especially when it's a basis for bullying.
I speak from experience. I, for one, could have used a little pre-briefing on it in 8th grade when some student asked if I was queer and I said yes, blissfully unaware of its sexual connotations. I got to spend the next few years being harassed and bullied for being something I wasn’t. So I’m a little more sympathetic to gay-bashing victims than some, yes.
NOTE: The Don’t Say Gay bill is on hiatus, for the record. It may get a vote next year. Plenty of time for the nation to mock Tennessee some more.
Say it loud,
This is dF
