“Let the record speak for itself. The Catholic Church does not approve of homosexuality; their position on pedophilia, however, is not as clear. I am sure most Catholics do not approve of pedophilia, but the executive branch of Catholicism seems to have difficulty convincing some of us that they are willing to do what is necessary to make sure that the members of their staff who are active sexual predators are brought to justice. I can’t see any sane person not wanting someone who harms innocent children taken out of circulation as soon as possible. Relocating them is tantamount to enabling them further. Maybe there should be a television show called To Catch A Priest. I’ll watch.”
The junior theofascists of the (as yet unrecognized) Hastings College of Law’s Christian Legal Society continue to insist that it’s their god-given right to discriminate against their fellow students while pocketing funding from the victims of their discrimination.
Last March, I blogged about the case of the christians-only campus club demanding recognition and, thereby, funding at UC Hastings College of Law:
These anti-gay, Christians-only campus groups are not willing to abide by established non-discrimination policies that cover race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc, although these non-discrimination policies apply equally to all other groups on campus.
These days, one is unlikely to find a whites-only fraternity or a no-Latinos chess club on any campus in the US. So why should these Christian groups be handed an exemption, not to mention receive official recognition and funding — some of which is derived from fees paid by GLBT and non-Christian students?
Backed by their Alliance Defense Fund legal goon squad, the poor oppressed christianists, who claim it’s their First Amendment rights that are being violated, milked their 15 minutes of infamy all the way to the US Supreme Court.
It’s gratifying to learn, via Americans United for Separation of Church and State, that AU has joined the American Jewish Committee and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in filing a friend-of-the-court brief on 15 March urging the justices to rule in favor of the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in the pending case.
“See, we here in sinful, hellhole Sodom-iffic San Francisco see such piffling outcry, and laugh. We’ve been shrugging off Bible Belt ignorance and fundamentalist accusations of our being the perverted nail sticking out of God’s virtuous park bench since Harvey Milk opened a camera shop, Berkeley decided to light some U.S. flags on fire and the Haight burned Vietnam draft notices — all right before we became one of the world’s foremost centers of intellectualism, culture, art, food, education, experimentation, leather, enlightenment, love and joy and fine lubricants for all. Welcome to hell, WaPo! Come on in, the water’s blasphemous.”
Religious fundamentalists are rewriting American History in the state of Texas. Among decisions not emphasized in the video above: The third President of the United States and the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson is out. A 13th Century Roman Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin, the 16th Century protestant theologian are in.
Widely regarded as one of the most important of all the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson received a demotion of sorts Friday thanks to the Texas Board of Education.
The board voted to enact new teaching standards for history and social studies that will alter which material gets included in school textbooks. It decided to drop Jefferson from a world history section devoted to great political thinkers.
According to Texas Freedom Network, a group that opposes many of the changes put in place by the Board of Education, the original curriculum asked students to “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.”
That emphasis did not sit well with board member Cynthia Dunbar, who, during Friday’s meeting, explained the rationale for changing it. “The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Dunbar said.
The new standard, passed at the meeting in a 10-5 vote, now reads, “Explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone.”
By dropping mention of revolution, and substituting figures such as Aquinas and Calvin for Jefferson, Texas Freedom Network argues, the board had chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase “separation between church and state.”
And so the dumbing-down of American education continues unabated, accelerated by blatant historical revisionism by the extremist American Taliban. Their appalling ignorance is exceeded only by their arrogance, because these tea-bagging, birth-certificate-chasing, self-deluding patriots have also seen fit to write themselves — the radical religious reich — into America’s history as the good guys.
Texas, do the rest of the country a favor and secede.
As often as we might think today’s kids face less discrimination and violence than we older LGBT folk did in our day, they’re still facing harassment, bullying and violence both from their classmates and hostile officials and faculty who think their own personal religious beliefs should be imposed on all. These narrow-minded individuals need to get hip to the fact that ours is not a one size fits all world.
Over at Change.org, the Stonewall Democrats are asking for support (and signatures) for United States Congressman Jared Polis’ Student Non-Discrimination Act:
By now many have heard about the drama surrounding Prom at the Itawamba Agricultural High School in Mississippi. After a lesbian student named Constance McMillen was told she wouldn’t be able to bring her girlfriend as her date to Prom, the ACLU intervened on her behalf and the school eventually cancelled the Prom altogether. School officials are currently encouraging a private prom be organized that can continue to deny Constance and her girlfriend entrance.
What’s happening in Mississippi unfortunately happens all too often around the country, and not just during Prom season. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students — and those students who are perceived to be LGBT or who associate with LGBT students — are subjected to discrimination, including harassment, bullying, violence; and are deprived of equal access to educational opportunities.
Congressman Jared Polis took a stand earlier this year to fight for LGBT students when he introduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act. “Like Title VI for minorities in the 60s and Title IX for women in the 70s,” Congressman Polis said at the time of the bill’s introduction, “my legislation puts LGBT students on an equal footing with their peers, so they can attend school and get a quality education, free from fear.”
Tell your Representative in Congress to co-sponsor the Student Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 4530), so Constance McMillen — and every student — can have equal access to public education.
(emphasis: from the source)
Take a minute to read the petition, sign it and pass it along to your friends, family members and co-workers.
