What Does It Take?
Shake your head a little and ask yourself, what does it take for people to understand that anyone persecuted, bullied, or vilified, is deserving of protection and that if schools fail to teach tolerance, to teach differences, how can society survive? Seriously, you can hate me because I am gay, you can believe I will burn in eternal damnation even, but that does not give you the right to attack, to bully, to denegrade me or others like me.
I am different, so?
Another battle looms in the court system of whether a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) club can be formed in a high school. The School says no, because well they are mandated to teach abstinence and that marriage is about a male and female. Like that might be the sex education requirement from some neanderthal government, but it isn’t nature.
But school district attorney David Gibbs says that the Equal Access Act can’t be used in the case of a GSA and furthermore Florida law requires schools to teach abstinence, “while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.” (see Story)
Schools are supposed to be about learning, not about repeating what some zealot believes or thinks. It is about educating kids and to show them that what might be their view, their belief, it doesn’t always make it right or what others might belief. It is through that quest for knowledge, for what makes the differences, that bridges gaps, that allows for hatred to diminish and for understanding to flourish.
This isn’t Iraq or Tehran, it is North America. Surely in todays world, hatred because of religious beliefs should not be allowed to impeach the ability of schools to teach. Those times supposedly ended in the Middle Ages, but it appears that they are making a comeback. Personally I have no problem with these people demanding abstinence, but I do have a problem with those who deny me the right to offer an alternative. It doesn’t bother me that someone believes I will rot in Hell, because in my own heart I know they are wrong. I could be, but that belief of mine, it doesn’t hurt them or me.
Denying the meeting of groups like the GSA while allowing Christian Groups to meet only foster racist attitudes and views. It shows clearly that one is superior to the other, and that isn’t Democracy or even Freedom. That is tyranny and hatred and when did schools become teachers of those traits?
The school allows a number of extracurricular clubs – including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Key Club, and the Rodeo team – to meet regularly on school grounds. (see Story)
Have you ever wondered why there is so much hatred in the world? Ever think that it is because when we should be building bridges, we are instead burning them? This is one of those, burning the bridges issues, and last time it happened, it led to a lot of Cross Burnings.
Wonder what they will use this time around?
