ZackFord Blogs | Behold the musings of Zack Ford, a politically-minded white, gay, male, nondisabled, middle-class, atheist educator with a passion for social justice.
In a surprise decision yesterday, the Board defeated by a 10-5 party line vote a proposal by Democratic member Mavis Knight that government classes teach about the Establishment Clause. Her proposal called for students to examine the reasons the Founding Fathers “protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” Republicans on the Board said that Knight’s proposal was based on an inaccurate interpretation of the Founder’s intent and was a half-truth that would play down the importance of religion to the Founders. (Dallas Morning News.)
In other words, the government said the school can’t teach the government policy about schools not teaching religion because religious people in the government believe that the government policy doesn’t say what it says and thus it shouldn’t be taught in schools at all. Why do I sense that they’d have no problem teaching that the founding fathers were full-throated evangelical Christians (even though we know they were at best, deist, if that)?
As a friend of mine just said, “We can’t even teach the Constitution without people’s fucking religion getting in the way.”
Ridiculous.
(Hat tip to vjack for introducing me to Religion Clause.)
So last week, I highlighted a number of news stories that show just how rotten the Catholic Church can be when they use their beliefs to defend their discrimination. One of those stories was about a preschooler kicked out of a Catholic-run school for having lesbian parents.
The archdiocese defends these actions with the same old syllogism: 1) No sex outside marriage, 2) Marriage = man + woman, therefore 3) We hate gays. It’s not that they blatantly hate gays, they just inherently hate gays because of these other beliefs they have. Otherwise, they’re so loving!
It’s beyond me how you can use logic to defend beliefs; it doesn’t get much more oxymoronic than that. Then again, I learned how to think logically, so it’s pretty tough for me to sink back into that circular reasoning that keeps beliefs going.
At any rate, Bill O’Reilly recently had Father Jonathan Morris from West Palm Beach on to reiterate this same old bigoted nonsense. The amazing thing? O’Reilly, a Catholic himself, defended the lesbian couple! Has O’Reilly gone round the bend? Did Glenn Beck push FOX News so far right that O’Reilly popped out back on the other side? I doubt it. I’m certainly in no rush to praise O’Reilly, but I’ll give credit due when it’s due. He actually makes a pretty good argument. I’m sure his audience benefited from hearing him offer such a fresh perspective, especially when addressing such a smarmy priest. Check it out:
Name: Terry Stone Age: 59 Hometown: Ft. Lauderdale, FL Occupation: Executive Director, CenterLink Why I Found Him at Creating Change:
Terry came to Creating Change because it is an opportunity to network with community centers and be a part of a great conference to discuss equality and learn from each other!
Why are community centers important to Terry? Because he serves as Executive Director of CenterLink, which connects the over 168 LGBT Community Centers found throughout 45 of the United States. Half of these centers half budgets under $50,000 with no full-time staff, but many are still the only LGBT presence in many of their regions. Community centers, like Cortland, NY’s run by Lisa Tibbles, connect folks to resources, organize for change, provide support for coming out, provide direct healthcare (40% of centers), and also work to serve the needs of LGBT youth, elders, and people of color.
CenterLink serves two important purposes. First, it helps the centers connect with each other, share ideas and resources, and collaborate regionally. Second, it helps advocate for all community centers nationally. This is essential to the queer equality movement because sometimes a community center is the only visible recruitment center and educational resource for potential activists.
Terry Stone has worked in the movement for over 20 years. He knows that we will see a day when there is no question that we’re all equal. A primary concern for him right now is finding ways for aging couples to access benefits like social security.
What He’d Change in America:
Terry thinks we need to change the focus away from looking at differences and looking at the bigger picture of all the similarities we have. This is true not just with LGBT issues, but in general with all matters of identity like race and gender.
We should always be asking ourselves: “How do our actions influence each other?”
The woman who offered to take our picture was apparently a professional photographer. I think she made us look great!
The ads that appear on my blog amuse me. Sometimes they fit what my readers might want to click on and other times the complete opposite. Sometimes there are religious ads. Sometimes there are anti-gay ads. I have a few thoughts about this. I doubt my readers are worried I endorse these things (I definitely do not). I do think it’s important to see how those I consider opponents market themselves. Plus, if any of my readers click on the ads, then I make money from those organizations. I’d rather that money go to me than go towards the cause advertised. So, generally, I let them go.
Recently, I did block the site “ladyboykisses.com” after one of my readers pointed out that the site used the offense terminology of “shemales” to advertise itself. I definitely do not want my readers to be uncomfortable or attacked, but as long as it’s not outwardly offensive, it can stay on the site.
Today, I noticed another interesting juxtaposition. Check it out (click to embiggen):
There are a surprising number of Scientology ads appearing here on the blog. They are incredibly vague and bizarre. For the record, SCIENTOLOGY is a dangerous cult who doesn’t care about your happiness, only about controlling your life and all of your assets! If you choose to click on an ad, do so very cautiously and do not buy in to anything they tell you!! With this in mind, their ads are kind of amusing. One says:
To love is the road to strength; to love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. Scientology.org
Huh? I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but I fail to see how that has anything to do with the absurd beliefs (redundant, I know) and manipulative tactics of the Church of Scientology.
Here’s another:
Who am I? Where am I going? What am I? What do I want to be? What do I want to have? Scientology.org
Scientology offers the following answers, respectively: “Nobody;” “Broke;” “A pawn;” “Brainwashed;” “No free will.”
And here’s another:
You are not your name, your job, or the clothes you wear, so who are you? Scientology.org
That’s right, Scientology gets to decide who you are. By the way, I’m still Zack Ford, and that’s not changing any time soon.
Another:
Love, Hate, What is the answer? Scientology.org
What is the answer? What is the question?
And this one takes the cake:
You live. You hope. You dream. So who are you? Know yourself. Know life. Scientology.org
Scientology isn’t really happy about all that living, hoping, and dreaming. They’ll help you stop all that.
Anyways, if you see a Scientology ad, have a good laugh. If you think I should block these ads, feel free to comment and say so. I’ll consider it.
In case you missed it, here was the other funny ad juxtaposition I found last week. Enjoy:
That I know of, the Consortium is the first student affairs organization to speak out in this way. I’m proud of my colleagues in the Consortium for leading a trend of higher education professionals who preach what they practice.
Here is the full statement:
The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, a national organization of more than 400 college faculty, staff, and administrators who provide support and services to LGBT students, strongly urges institutions of higher education throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia to maintain protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression in statements of non-discrimination.
The lack of inclusive policies place students who might identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) at great risk, as discrimination against students, faculty and staff who are LGBT or perceived as LGBT is widespread. A national campus climate study by Sue Rankin, entitled Campus Climate for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: A National Perspective, found that 41 percent of the self-identified transgender students who participated reported experiencing verbal and/or physical harassment on their campuses. Many of the transgender participants were not open about their gender identity for fear of being harassed. Similarly, more than one-third of all LGBT respondent experiences some sort of harassment. In the same study, 74 percent of respondents rated overall campus climate as homophobic.
As educators and administrators, we are charged with ensuring that our campuses remain a safe, affirming environment for all students of all identities. One of the most important signposts of an institution’s welcoming environment is their non-discrimination statement. These policies not only provide tangible support to those directly named, but also send a strong message that discrimination will not be tolerated. By removing sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, institutions essentially signal that discrimination against LGBT students, faculty and staff is acceptable.
We hope you will reaffirm your commitment to serving all students by maintaining named protections for LGBT people in statements of non-discrimination.
In Solidarity,
Executive Board
Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals
