WingNut Nugget of the Day

I just love it when those lovable little nutcases start bloviating...it gives me so much material to work with. Just looking at the title makes me shake my head.

"Teachers insist: Being 'gay' good"

I don't think that any advocacy group is asking anyone to pronounce homosexuality as good or bad. Acceptance, respect and support have always been the goals of our so-called agenda, despite what the pundits might say.

This article, true to historical WingNut form, tries to make a point without providing much in the way of proof or other substantive content. The opening statement is an excellent example...

"A nationally distributed training video produced by a "gay" advocacy group –
which claims it's been shown on more than 100 public television stations –
advises teachers to promote homosexuality as normal
and healthy to children as young as kindergarten age, regardless of what values
the child has been taught at home. "

First of all, what is with putting the word gay in quotes? It seems that most of the fundie groups have started doing that, and I just don't get it. So, if there are any fundies reading this...please send me an email explaining that to me.

Now that I've addressed that bit of stupidity, let's take another look at that opening paragraph. Notice that neither the "training video," nor the advocacy group are named, but the author (who is also unnamed) opens the article with this proclamation about the group's claims. My favorite part of this paragraph, though, is the phrase, "promote homosexuality as normal and healthy." To the WingNut audience, that phrase is the equivalent of telling a group of Democrats that Dear Leader is the best president this country's ever had. I'm sure that they were all just frothing at the mouth, lol. It's clear from the outset that the author's intention is to inflame the readers, rather than offer any insight or meaningful debate.

Continuing to read, I expected to find out more about the video and the people who produced it. Instead, the author pulled out a couple of quotes from teachers in the training video who seemed to have a problem with what they were being asked to teach. My favorite is this one...

"I don't know what to do about this but, as a school are we saying that
kids have to support this? I guess that's what it sounds like to me that we're
saying. If a child comes from a background that says homosexuality is not
correct, are we telling that child that they're supposed to, this is what you
are supposed to do?"

I realize that this teacher was a bit flustered and knew she was on camera (I did finally manage to find the video online...I'll get to that in a second.), but do you know of any mainstream homosexual rights or advocacy groups that are telling anyone...particularly children...that they're supposed to be gay? I don't understand how this leap is made. Yes, we want to teach children to be respectful and supportive of another person's identity, but we certainly are not trying to convince every child that they, themselves, are gay.

Further along in the article is a quote from Brian Camenker, the founder of the Mass Resistance organization.

"Camenker said the videos originally were posted on Youtube, but were taken
down suddenly to be replaced with some pro-homosexual promotions. 'It's some
really nasty stuff. The gays have put up things calling anybody who doesn't
[endorse homosexuality] bigots,' he said."

Well, Mr. Camenker...what should we call you, then. No one is asking for your personal approval or the approval of anyone else for that matter. Rather, we'd like to be treated the same way you would want your son or daughter to be treated. For the same reason that you wouldn't use a racial or ethnic epithet to describe someone whose skin color or nationality doesn't match yours, we simply ask you extend the same courtesy and respect to a person who has a sexual orientation that is different from yours. Choosing not to extend that level of respect does, in fact, make you a bigot...it's just that simple.

The author does finally, yet surreptitiously, reveal the name of the video and identifies its producer. The film is called, "It's Elementary," and it's produced by Women's Educational Media. Not only can the film be viewed, but an abundance of resource materials are also available to aid teachers. WND lamely attempts to cast a dark shadow over this organization by mentioning that they made films, "promoting homosexuals as parents and the 2004 San Francisco debacle where thousands of same-sex couples were given marriage licenses that later were declared invalid by the state Supreme Court." Funny that no mention was given to the films, books and other forms of mass media the WingNuts themselves have used to promote their bigoted views.

The closing paragraph paints what most would consider to be common sense as some radical activist agenda...

"The homosexual activist strategy is stated plainly in the film's
promotion. "Waiting to teach children to accept differences of all kinds until
middle school or high school is too late; statistics show that by sixth, seventh
and eight grades, harmful stereotypes already have begun to take hold …"

Precisely, which is why such films and other teaching tools are so necessary. Nice try, WND, but I can see what your agenda is here and it's not pretty.