As I've said in a previous post, there's a corollary to Newton's Third Law in the struggle for LGBT equality.
That law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When it comes to LGBT equality--or any other social or political issue--we usually call that reaction "backlash".
That is why, after same-sex marriage has become legal in 36 of the 50 US States (and the District of Columbia), some of the holdouts are passing laws that make it legal to discriminate against us and calling it "religious freedom".
Now we've seen another kind of backlash in a McGuffey (Pennsylvania) High School: an "anti-gay day", which some students held on Thursday.
It would be one thing if the haters wore flannel shirts--as LGBT people and allies do on "gay days"--and left it at that. But no...They're hanging signs on gay students' lockers, which the teachers have been taking down. Worse, the bigoted bullies are harassing gay students, sometimes physically, and have drawn up and circulated a "lynch list", which includes the names of gay students.
This awful spectacle also illustrates something else I've said: Kids, especially teenagers, may not listen to the adults (actual or alleged) in their lives. But they never, ever fail to imitate them.
And who are the role models for the young thugs in McGuffey? Why, none other than such bastions of rectitude as Focus on the Family and the Illinois Family Institute, which organized antigay events like Day of Dialogue and walkouts to protest the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's "homosexuality-affirming dogma".
Such organizations also prove something else I've said: If an organization has "Family" in its name, there's a good chance it's promoting prejudice and worse against LGBT people. It seems that you can get away with anything as long as you use that word--or mention your religious beliefs. Wanna bet those kids in Pennsylvania figured that out?
That law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When it comes to LGBT equality--or any other social or political issue--we usually call that reaction "backlash".
That is why, after same-sex marriage has become legal in 36 of the 50 US States (and the District of Columbia), some of the holdouts are passing laws that make it legal to discriminate against us and calling it "religious freedom".
Now we've seen another kind of backlash in a McGuffey (Pennsylvania) High School: an "anti-gay day", which some students held on Thursday.
It would be one thing if the haters wore flannel shirts--as LGBT people and allies do on "gay days"--and left it at that. But no...They're hanging signs on gay students' lockers, which the teachers have been taking down. Worse, the bigoted bullies are harassing gay students, sometimes physically, and have drawn up and circulated a "lynch list", which includes the names of gay students.
This awful spectacle also illustrates something else I've said: Kids, especially teenagers, may not listen to the adults (actual or alleged) in their lives. But they never, ever fail to imitate them.
And who are the role models for the young thugs in McGuffey? Why, none other than such bastions of rectitude as Focus on the Family and the Illinois Family Institute, which organized antigay events like Day of Dialogue and walkouts to protest the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's "homosexuality-affirming dogma".
Such organizations also prove something else I've said: If an organization has "Family" in its name, there's a good chance it's promoting prejudice and worse against LGBT people. It seems that you can get away with anything as long as you use that word--or mention your religious beliefs. Wanna bet those kids in Pennsylvania figured that out?
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