If at first you don't succeed, lie lie again

I will say one thing for the anti-gay industry: when they can't get over with lies, they continue to push and push until they tire people out.

Take the case of David Parker:

David Parker's Boston law firm, Denner Pellegrino LLP has filed a "cert petition" with the United States Supreme Court, formally asking the Court to review the ruling this past January by the Federal Appeals Court in Boston.

David Parker, his wife Tonia, and Rob and Robin Wirthlin have been attempting to bring a federal Civil Rights lawsuit against school officials and others in Lexington, Massachusetts. However, with the help of well-funded national homosexual groups, the school has persuaded judges in the Boston Federal District Court and Federal Appeals Court to deny the lawsuit the right to go to trial. Thus, the plaintiffs are appealing to the US Supreme court for the right to allow the lawsuit to be heard.

I've talked about David Parker so many times and I will keep bringing him up as long as the anti-gay industry continues to try and make him into a martyr:

In 2005, after a long series of meetings with Estabrook Elementary School officials regarding about teaching homosexual issues to his son in kindergarten without parental consent, David Parker finally told the principal and the city's director of education that he would not leave until the school agreed to negotiate some agreement on the matter. Rather than negotiate, the officials had Parker arrested and brought to jail, where he spent the night. The next morning he was led into Concord District Court in handcuffs.

That explanation by the anti-gay industry group Mass Resistance skirts over the facts in the case:

In January 2005, Jacob Parker brought home a diversity book bag from his kindergarten. Included in the bag was books about other cultures and traditions, food recipes, and a book called Who’s in a Family. The illustrations included various family constructions: single parents, mom-dad-kids, grandparents, mixed-race families, and same-sex parents.

David Parker, his father, decided that young Jacob was entitled to ignorance of the existence of same-sex headed families. He set out to change school policy so that his child not be exposed to that fact. He extended his demands to include any discussion of same-sex parenting, regardless of the context or setting - including any conversations of children of gay or lesbian parents.

Because the school district has a large number of same-sex families, many with children attending the school, the administration deemed Parker’s request to be nearly impossible.

This resulted in a string of emails and eventually Parker showed up in the administrative offices and refused to leave until his demands were met. At the end of the day, police were called and, when Parker refused the police requests to leave, he was arrested for trespassing.

Dr. Paul Ash, superintendent of Lexington Public Schools, said the school tried to be accommodating.

“The school department said, ‘Look, we’ll work with you, but we cannot assure you what a child is going to say and that we can immediately stop a discussion that you find objectionable,’” said Ash. “One of the central units in kindergarten is the discussion of families and we show families of all different types.” Ash says the discussions “ended up in an irreconcilable difference.”

In June 2006, the Parkers sued the school in federal court for civil right violations.

They were joined by the Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, parents of a second grader in the same district. On a day in which the school discussed marriage, a teacher read King and King, a book in which a prince doesn’t fall for a princess but for another prince instead. Although marriage laws in Massachusetts include same-sex couples, the Wirthlins believe that such marriages should be excluded from discussion about marriages in the classroom.

A few days after filing their suit, David Parker’s credibility came under question. He spread a story that his child, Jacob, was beaten by students for David Parker’s anti-gay stance and suggested that school teachers or the administration were behind the beating.

After much press in the anti-gay conservative Christian media, the facts were released. It turned out to be nothing greater than a schoolyard scuffle over who sat next to whom in the cafeteria.

In February 2007, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf dismissed the lawsuit.

In his 38-page decision, Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf of US District Court said that under the US Constitution, public schools are “entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy.”

“Diversity is a hallmark of our nation,” he said.

The Parkers and Wirthlins appealed the decision. A three judge appeals panel unanimously upheld Judge Wolf’s decision.

Hopefully the Supreme Court will recognize bullshit when they see it and not pursue the Parker case.

Then finally, this monster will die.


Watch the semantics

What exactly are sincere religious beliefs?

I have read on too many occasions that laws protect lgbts from discrimination would interfere with someone's "sincere religious beliefs" that homosexuality is a sin.

That phrase has no basis in truth, only semantics.

Whenever I hear an anti-gay industry head say this, I want to ask:

"So if a restaurant manager has sincere religious beliefs that homosexuality is a sin, does he have the right to fire an employee?"

"Or what about an apartment renter? Does his sincere religious beliefs give him the right to discriminate against lgbt renters?"

When you break down this so-called cultural battle, you will see that it's all about lies and semantics. Expose the lies and make the opposition clarify the semantics.

It makes it easier not to fall for their bullshit.