Editor's note - Today begins Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters' "March to One Million." In less than a month, this blog will have it's 1,000,000 hit. Not bad for a part-time blog, huh? Seriously though, on the right side of the blog are what I deem are some of the best postings of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters during its five and a half year run. Feel free to read as many as you like.
Last Saturday, the National Organization for Marriage linked to a UK Telegraph article pulling the hysteria act about marriage equality:
It's fascinating the language used in this article. How does one "promote" gay marriage? Is talking about the fact that gays can marry the same as "promoting" it?
We are dealing with some serious semantic mind games here. The mindset seems to be that if marriage equality is legalized, then schools in the UK will be forced to talk about gay marriage. And of course through NOM's osmosis, this should send a scary message when it comes to allowing marriage equality in this country.
It's so easy to manipulate people through fear and the thought of their children being harmed has to be one of the biggest fears of many.
But in this case, there is really nothing to fear.
I don't think that I am making a wild guess when I say that children from same-sex households already attend UK public schools just like they attend American schools.
So if there is a worry that talking about marriage equality would mean talking same-families and homosexuality, then I got news for NOM and the Catholic Church in the UK:
Discussions about marriage equality AND homosexuality AND same-sex parenting are already happening in schools in the UK and America. Children from no matter whatever household they come from tend to talk about their families.
And these discussions should continue. Are children from same-sex households supposed to be quiet about their families as if they don't exist? Are they supposed to be ashamed of their families? Of course not.
It always amazes me when folks like NOM and others pull the "our children will be corrupted" riot act, they always omit the simple but crucial facts that same-sex families exist, their children attend public schools, and these children will not and should not be ashamed of their families.
The omission is deliberate and it says more about NOM and others allegedly attempting to "save children" than it does about the idea of marriage equality.
Last Saturday, the National Organization for Marriage linked to a UK Telegraph article pulling the hysteria act about marriage equality:
UK Telegraph: Teachers Could be Forced to Promote Gay Marriage in Classrooms
Parents will be powerless to prevent their children being taught about gay marriage at school if ministers press ahead with plans to legalise the move, it has been claimed.
Aidan O’Neill QC has provided the Catholic Church with a legal opinion stating that equality laws mean teachers will be forced to emphasise the validity of same-sex marriages.
Mothers and fathers with “traditional and often religiously-based views” will be “hard pressed” to insist that their offspring are educated in line with their convictions, he said.
The Catholic Church in Scotland, which commissioned the opinion, said it raised the prospect of classrooms being “flooded” with teaching materials promoting gay marriage.
Although the opinion considers the position in Scotland, where Alex Salmond’s administration is expected to legalise same-sex marriage, it is thought it could apply south of the Border where David Cameron is planning to do the same.
It's fascinating the language used in this article. How does one "promote" gay marriage? Is talking about the fact that gays can marry the same as "promoting" it?
We are dealing with some serious semantic mind games here. The mindset seems to be that if marriage equality is legalized, then schools in the UK will be forced to talk about gay marriage. And of course through NOM's osmosis, this should send a scary message when it comes to allowing marriage equality in this country.
It's so easy to manipulate people through fear and the thought of their children being harmed has to be one of the biggest fears of many.
But in this case, there is really nothing to fear.
I don't think that I am making a wild guess when I say that children from same-sex households already attend UK public schools just like they attend American schools.
So if there is a worry that talking about marriage equality would mean talking same-families and homosexuality, then I got news for NOM and the Catholic Church in the UK:
Discussions about marriage equality AND homosexuality AND same-sex parenting are already happening in schools in the UK and America. Children from no matter whatever household they come from tend to talk about their families.
And these discussions should continue. Are children from same-sex households supposed to be quiet about their families as if they don't exist? Are they supposed to be ashamed of their families? Of course not.
It always amazes me when folks like NOM and others pull the "our children will be corrupted" riot act, they always omit the simple but crucial facts that same-sex families exist, their children attend public schools, and these children will not and should not be ashamed of their families.
The omission is deliberate and it says more about NOM and others allegedly attempting to "save children" than it does about the idea of marriage equality.
4 comments:
I see two problems with the UK article...just in the title "could be forced..." I stress the word "could"....doesn't mean it will happen right now and maybe in the future. Second problem send your kids to a god damn religious school...its that simple...NOM and the UK NOM are trying to spin again....man I wonder if they get dizzy from spinning so much...lmfao
I agree. People anti-gay always bring the children into it as if the children will be harmed. The kids of straight families will go on as they always have (since gay people have always been around), and kids from gay families won't have parents that can't get married. They'll be part of a properly recognised family unit as they deserve to be. The anti-gay people are the ones hurting kids: kids with gay parents and kids that will grow to learn or already know that they are gay. Hypocritical, uneducated, hate-filled and fear-fuelled and I can't wait for the day they are a merely a memory of what humanity had to overcome, like equal rights for blacks and women.
I hadn't even heard about the Scottish outcry to the "promotion" of gay marriage in schools!
I'm about to begin my PGCE (Post-grad certificate of Education) and want to be a primary school teacher.
It just baffles me that a) this is even still up for discussion and b) the poll claims that teachers shouldn't have to discuss gay marriage if it goes against their beliefs.
There's nothing to discuss! We don't want to know whether they're uncomfortable with gay marriage!
It's a simple,
"Miss? What's gay mean?"
"Well, sometimes a boy can love a boy, and a girl can love a girl."
"Do they get married?"
"Sometimes, yes. And that's ok, because they love each other."
And move on. (Obviously many scenarios and questions in which gay marriage can come up, but it doesn't have to be detailed.) I do not see how any of that is promoting it. It's not as though I'll be shouting from the rooftop with a megaphone whilst the school's on the playground, "GO AND GET YOUR FREE GAY WEDDING TODAY! PICK UP YOUR MARRIAGE LICENCE WITH LUNCH IN THE CAFETERIA."
Now *that* is promotion/advertising.
What also made me laugh on the NOM page is the comments - apparently homosexuals are "recruiting" children now? I just had to ask what for!?
In other news...
Religious parents in an UPROAR that their children are being forced to hear about the scientific consensus that the earth revolves around the sun, in direct contradiction of their Biblical view that the sun goes around the earth!
"We try to teach our children our largely unfounded religious view that everything in the universe revolves around us! And here we have the schools telling them something different! It's an outrage." said one concerned parent.
They are further concerned that the schools could next be trying to tell their children that genetic evidence indicates humans share a common heritage with chimpanzees.
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