- May 2023
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Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay Emboldened by last year's Supreme Court decision allowing a high school football coach to pray with his players, Christian conservatives around the nation are looking to shred the line between church and state.
But everything is bigger in Texas, where a solid handful of religion bills passed by the Texas Senate are enough to make you reach for the holy water.
A bill to require that the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom is getting attention, but it's another offering that indicates to me we have a problem of biblical proportions.
According to The Washington Post, one bill "would allow uncertified chaplains to replace trained, professional counselors in K-12 school."
Jesus H. Christ, you know what that means. A kid divulges he's gay, and is informed he's headed to hell. Another kid wonders if they're trans, and the chaplain goes straight to their parents. A girl confesses to liking another girl, and is instructed to wear skirts and quit softball.
So many queer adults were shunned, abused and vilified as young people by Christian churches. We know what harm this bill would cause.
Gird your loins. No, I'm not suggesting we go to war and slay 1,000 with the jawbone of an ass. I'm suggesting we call out some boneheads and asses.
- April 2023
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Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Today the House passed a bill banning transgender girls and women from competing in female school athletics. Every Republican voted for the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act," while every Democrat voted against this culture-war gift to conservatives.
Yesterday the Florida Board of Education voted to expand the state's Don't Say Gay law. The ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity that had applied to kindergarden through third grade will now extend clear up to senior year in high school.
But don't despair! On Monday an openly gay congressman announced that he's running for re-election.
Okay, the congressman was George Santos.
I'll allow you 15 minutes of despair.
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- March 2023
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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay Drag Shows don’t kill kids.
Books don’t kill kids.
Green m&m’s don’t kill kids.
Big Bird doesn’t kill kids.
AP courses, don’t kill kids.
Learning history, doesn’t kill kids.
Dolly Parton’s & Miley Cyrus rainbow song, doesn’t kill kids.
Fucking guns are the #1 killer of kids.
Ana Navarro-Cárdenas
Source: Twitter
- November 2022
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- October 2022
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Image: FacebookWhen the Princeton football team hosts Brown this Friday night, the New Jersey Gay Men's Choir will sing the national anthem. Princeton players will sport Pride stickers on their helmets. Mason Darrow, class of '17, who came out as gay while playing at Princeton, will serve as an honorary captain.
I expect the players will handle this official Pride Night with grace, but I also think there will be an excess of manly grunts.
- September 2022
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- August 2022
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Image by Dari Oberholster from Pixabay In Grand Island, Neb., the school year ended with a bang. Make that a stomp.
The final issue of the year of the Northwest High School student newspaper, the Viking Saga, included a story on how Pride month came to be, and an editorial opposing Florida's Don't Say Gay law. Three days later, school administrators shut down the 54-year-old publication. Though officials aren't being transparent about the reason, one school district employee wrote in an email that it was "because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue's editorial content."
These Nebraska officials feel as warmly toward a free press as Vladimir Putin.
The local newspaper, The Grand Island Independent, is doggedly pursuing the story. It ran a photo of two of the Viking Saga's former staffers, one of whom is transgender, holding a Progress Pride flag outside their high school.
That picture and the saga of the Saga underscored for me that, no matter how heavy-handed Nebraska school administrators—and Florida legislators—get these days, they've already lost. If queer youth, supported by allies, are out in rural America, they won't go back.
The genie is out of the bottle. And he's fabulous.
The officials, on the other hand, are putzes.
- July 2022
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- June 2022
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- May 2022
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Image: FacebookRepublicans pass more legislation to keep trans kids out of restrooms than shooters out of schools.
Middle Age Riot
Source: Twitter
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Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay At the Christian Academy of Louisville in Kentucky, middle schoolers received a challenging homework assignment, reports LGBTQ Nation.
Students were told to write a letter to a hypothetical friend of the same gender. "In at least 8 sentences, try to show the friend from the Bible, reason, and your personal friendship that God's design for them is good; that homosexuality will not bring them satisfaction, that you love them even though you don't approve of their lifestyle."
Presumably the student who writes six sentences on Leviticus, one sentence on human anatomy and one sentence on a friendship dating back to diapers will earn an A.
The student who writes, "My brother is gay. Get me the hell out of this school," will earn an F and a trip to the principal's office.
- February 2022
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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay This “don’t say gay” bill in Florida is appalling. Punishing teachers for acknowledging gay people exist is archaic.
If you want to ban an actual offensive word from Florida schools, may I suggest “DeSantis.”
Steve Hofstetter
Source: Twitter
- January 2022
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