Brody's Scribbles... Joe.My.God: Christian Groups Announce Annual Day Of Support For Anti-Gay Bullying

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 17 | In that unique signature style of 'in-yer-face here's the facts'  blunt commentary of his, Joe Jervis, the proprietor of the hugely popular website, Joe.My.God wrote in today's edition:

As they did last year, a massive coalition of Christian groups has announced their intention to have their children walk out of any public school participating in next month's Day Of Silence, a GLSEN-sponsored event meant to educate kids that it's wrong to beat up gay students. From the Day Of Silence Walkout site: 

The explicit purpose of DOS is to encourage sympathy and support for students involved in homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors whose voices have been allegedly silenced by the disapproval of society. The implicit purpose is to undermine the belief that homosexuality and cross-dressing is immoral. Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence. Parents should call their children’s middle schools and high schools to ask whether the administration and/or teachers will be permitting students to remain silent during class on the Day of 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. 

Christian groups supporting the beating, taunting, and terrorizing of gay kids includes the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Americans For Truth (Peter LaBarbera), Liberty Counsel, MassResistance, Mission America, Faith2Action, the Culture Campaign, PFOX, the Illinois Family Institute, and many more.

There are those who may be offended at Joe's choice of wording, but the truth is that he is on target with this one and I can say this, predicated on the fact that as a journalist, I spend an incredible amount of time researching and checking facts for the stories I write. I completely vouch for Joe's view in his Op-Ed because I went and looked at the "Family Values" propaganda being pushed for myself. Here's a sampling of what I found: [ From the website Day of Silence Walkout ]

Reasons for Day of Silence Walkout

The explicit purpose of DOS is to encourage sympathy and support for students involved in homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors whose voices have been allegedly silenced by the disapproval of society. The implicit purpose is to undermine the belief that homosexuality and cross-dressing is immoral. Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence.

One oft-repeated mantra is that the goal of DOS is to keep LGBTQ students safe. The problematic rhetoric of “safety,” however, substitutes speciously for the more accurate term of “comfort.” To suggest that in order for those who self-identify as homosexual or “transgender” to be “safe,” no one may disapprove of homosexual conduct is both absurd and dangerous. If this definition of “safety” were to be applied consistently, virtually all statements of disapproval would be prohibited.

Some claim that those who oppose DOS must not care about the suffering of LGBTQ teens. It is utterly specious to suggest that parents, teachers, and administrators who oppose political action in the classroom support harassment. 

Put another way, this claim implies that the only way parents, administrators, and teachers can prove they oppose harassment of homosexual or transgendered teens is to allow the politicization of the classroom. It also represents a classic ends justifies the means argument: If the ends, in this case, combating harassment of homosexual teens, are good, then any and all means are justified. 

There are countless worthwhile goals that should not be promoted during class. Some might consider ending the tragedy of teen drunk-driving deaths, or the war in Iraq, or abortion to be worthwhile goals, and yet it would be equally inappropriate to use the classroom to promote them.

Lovely eh?  Now that was mild, in the "parental instructions" for protesting the DOS comes this point by point list of why 'homosexuality' is wrong to explain to the kiddies why they should NOT participate in the Anti-Gay bullying observance;

5. Explain to your children why you’re taking a stand:
a. Homosexual behavior is not an innate identity.
b. No matter what factors may influence homosexual feelings, freely chosen homosexual behavior is immoral and should be resisted.
c. Homosexuality is not equivalent to race.
d. Disapproval of homosexuality is not equivalent to racism; nor is it hatred; nor is it bullying; nor does it constitute an incitement to violence. It is permissible and ethical to express disapproval of homosexuality. Just because someone may feel bad when hearing that someone disapproves of homosexuality does not mean that disapproval is cruel or wrong.
e. No school should support a view of homosexuality that is unproven and controversial, and that is physically, emotionally, and spiritually destructive to individuals and society.

f. No school should allow instructional time to be politicized.

The full text is available above at the links Joe provided in his piece. You can also go to view the so-called Christian organisations backing this onerous rhetoric as well. 

In countering this nonsense, here's a PSA from GLSEN on the Day of Silence 2010: