Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of an important US Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, that firmly established a student's right to free speech as long as it does not disrupt learning. This video shows but one example how many schools since then routinely ignore the law, especially when it comes to queer students. More information and history HERE.
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The ACLU is very queer friendly. Local ACLU chapters can often simply send a letter to a school district informing them of a violation of a student's right to free speech and citing the Tinker case. A district's lawyers will almost always back down very quickly because they know the schools will not win these cases.
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When I was in elementary school, a long time ago, my family moved from Chicago to a small town in the South... Shortly after we moved, it became national news that the American Nazi Party had gone to court and won the right to march in Skokie IL, a town largely populated by Holocaust survivors. I still remember watching TV coverage of the march, in tears, because I knew that my kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade teachers, along with the school librarian all were survivors who lived in Skokie. None of their family members survived but them...
I still live in the South, home of the Bible Belt and extreme homophobia. When I was in my mid-20's, I accidentally became the 'big brother' or 'favorite uncle' to ALL the teens and pre-teens (male and female) in my neighborhood, without regard to the fact that I was 'out' or 'outed' from the jump. You see, I made the awful mistake of allowing the most popular girl in the crowd to wash my car for a few dollars, and to come inside and talk when she finished. My house became the place to hang out and be safe - safe to be real. I even had 14yo boys pissed off at me because I wasn't hitting on them!!! All seemed to agree that I should have been a school teacher, but that wasn't in the cards for me for more than one reason. I'd swear, to this day, that these kids learned more at my house in the afternoons and evenings than they ever learned at school (except for Algebra). They're now in their early to mid 20's and still visit or call regularly.
I taught, informally of course, History, Literature, Mythology, Religion, Physical Science, Biology, Public Speaking, Citizenship, and Sex Education. Sex Education was what I taught the most often, usually at the dining room table surrounded by a group of 10-14 yo boys, who had sworn me to secrecy with respect to their parents. I can't count the times I rolled a condom onto a banana...
Here's the interesting part: Embraced by the safety of my compassionate home, 80% of the boys acknowledged being bi-sexual, 40% identified as gay; 100% of the girls admitted to being bisexual and 30% are gay!!!!
After spending so long tooting my own horn, here's my question:
In light of all these free speech advances that initially seem to benefit gay folk, to what degree are they being utilized by young Christians to propagate a more sinister agenda?
The reason I ask is that quite a few of my younger friends were in the process of being indoctrinated into right-wing Christian youth militias, to the point that 11yo's had already memorized both Bible verses and scripted rebuttals to any open-minded discussion of creation or human sexuality. They further acknowledged that their church youth groups were being taught specific ways to minister to their peers and how to infiltrate/participate in school-related extra-curricular activities for the express purpose of evangelizing. Most of 'my' kids attended these church meetings under duress, but subtly opposed their instructions from their leaders based on knowledge gained from me.
Steevo - What are you actually seeing in the schools from the organized might of the religious right, and what, if any, impact do you think this sort of organized peer pressure is achieving?
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