And a 2008 incident on a school seems be right up their alley.
This is from One News Now:
An Indiana school bus driver and her school district are targeted by a lawsuit alleging harassment directed at a Christian student.
In November 2008, a Christian at Carmel High School was engaged in a conversation with school bus driver Betty Campbell on homosexuality and homosexual marriage when the driver berated the girl, Rachael Zimmer, for her Christian-based stance. When the girl's father complained, he was told that the driver's behavior fell within the scope of her employment. The Zimmer family has now sued Carmel Clay Schools.
A more objective news source says this:
. . . the parents of a young Carmel Clay student say that Campbell took the message too far when she berated their daughter for her anti-abortion beliefs and opposition to gay marriage. They allege that harassment of their daughter began long before an incident recorded by a bus camera in November 2008.
"I don't want to hear one more word about anyone going to hell if they are gay or if they're Buddhist or whatever, 'cause it's none of your damn business," Campbell is heard saying on the tape.
Dr. Ed Zimmer, the girl's father, says that exchange never took place. The driver accused Zimmer's daughter Rachel of telling a fellow student that his brother would go to hell because he's gay.
Another news source says this:
According to the surveillance video, the bus driver told the girl: "I don't want to hear one more word about anyone going to hell if they're gay or if they're Buddhist or whatever cause it's none of your damn business."
"I'm not trying to be mean but you can't talk like that to people. I have heard you darling. It's not like I have never heard you," Campbell said in the video.
However, Zimmer said during a deposition, and while she was under oath, Campbell admitted she had never heard the girl talk about gays going to hell.
Naturally since the school isn't at liberty to talk about the lawsuit and the family of the young girl isn't bound by the same rules, expect them go on talk shows repeating that the One News Now version of the story while wringing their hands in abject phony misery.
How long will it be before the Family Research Council distorts the incident for another attack against ENDA?
I have a few questions and thoughts:
1. If this happened two years ago, then why is a lawsuit being filed now.
2. I don't think anyone should excuse the bus driver's comments and certainly she should be reprimanded if she said something nasty to the child. But at the same time, I have a serious problem with how people are whitewashing or being silent about this child's alleged comment. Something happened on that bus and - I'm saying this as politely as I can - I don't believe the child is an innocent party to it.
What did she say exactly? The vague way she has been described by supporters as merely having a Christian stance is always a warning flag to me. Usually when any form of this phrase is used, it means folks are trying to hide something. While free speech is important, I have a problem with condoning any form of ugly language as a mere expression of "Christian beliefs."
3. Lastly, the naked exploitation of this incident to attack the lgbt community as a whole shouldn't be ignored.
The One News Now article also contains this comment from a member of the American Family Association:
Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana tells One News Now that the driver is known to be a lesbian.
Why is that important to the story except to semantically implicate the entire lgbt community for this driver's actions and to somehow imply that children are in danger if gays and lesbians are allowed to be near them.
This story is far from over but it's unfortunate that some people already have their knives out and their palms open.
3 comments:
Could another reason to mention that the driver is (known to be) a lesbian be to further the belief that gay rights are supported primarily, if not exclusively, by gay people? Homophobes seem to take slight comfort in the myth that gay rights victories will always be the result of "activist" courts or whatever, not the collective will of the people.
I don't know, that's a pretty half-formed thought. Anyway, this is an excellent site. Thanks, and keep it up.
See! If we don't take action now those radical gay and lesbian activists will silence our innocent children for merely speaking up about their deeply held Christian beliefs! It's happening already!
I wouldn't be surprised if that little girl were taunting the bus driver and looking for a confrontation. But of course the ONN and Worldnutdaily crowd always pretends using anti-gay slurs and calling women who seek reproductive health care "babykillers" is part of their "religious freedom". So of course if you criticize them in any way you're persecuting them.
Hmm, nowhere in those quotes do I see the bus driver calling her an idiot, a monster or a brat. She's nicer then the drivers on my school busses were. If one of us had been harassing people, even if we waved around a bible to justify it, our drivers would have yelled at us to sit our annoying little asses right up front next to her and not say a word. Frankly this girl got off easy.
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