Two years ago at Troy High-school in Troy, Michigan a teacher put up a poster that read “Gay people are everyday people.” That’s the full extent of the controversial poster text given by the AgapePress. Controversy backfired on anti-gay protesters and the school has since ordered more posters. Of course the fuss continues, hence today’s article. The only explanation of the poster text quoted in the AgapePress article is from local parent, Tony Cruz:
The Michigan father says the posters represent “a very aggressive and, in my opinion, very mean-spirited way of trying to take minor children and imbue them with the mindset that, ‘Hey, you will not only tolerate these people; you will celebrate, enjoy and promote this lifestyle. And even though you’re one of those freaks who is not into your own gender, that’s okay. We’ll tolerate you, too.'”
The school officials’ complicity with homosexual activists in hanging the “Gay people” posters at Troy High is only part of “just an absolutely terrible thing that they’re doing with young children today,”
Wow, that’s quite a bit he managed to extract from “Gay people are everyday people.” This guy could write an entire masters thesis from a haiku.
Feel free to contact Jim Brown, the author of the article by clicking here. Perhaps you could ask him why he chose to publish such outlandish hyperbole in reaction to a message of tolerance and peace. Or feel free to mention how he failed to quote an Evangelical Christian who thinks maybe gay people should be able to go about their everyday lives even if it’s an abominable sin.
I think the explanation is really quite simple. What he objects to is precisely the message: “Gay people are everyday people.” He doesn’t want people – least of all school children – to know that. He wants to believe, and he wants everyone else to believe, that we are all ridiculous, sinister or dangerous freaks, and he doesn’t want children to grow up without sharing his own rather unattractive prejudices and hang-ups.
But, of course, he can’t just say that in so many words without exposing himself as a nasty, mean-spirited dickhead. Hence his dingy, dishonest diversionary tactic of attacking something that the statement doesn’t say.
The posters are also described in some more detail here, and Tony Cruz is reported as saying:
… the posters promote a sexual lifestyle that is against Judeo-Christian beliefs.
It should not even be acknowledged to youth, much less promoted.
I doubt whether this type of ‘brush it under the carpet’ approach is in the interests of children trying to come to terms with their sexuality.
Cruz said his Christian upbringing prohibits him from hating gays, but also won’t allow him to accept their lifestyle.
“If they want to engage it, that’s their business. We believe it’s a sin,” he said.
“I am here to censor their attempts to promote that lifestyle on my children. We do not want them to try and change our children.”
Here’s a little tidbit of info for Mr. Cruz – I think his religious beliefs are a sin, and given the choice I would not want his lifestyle choices “promoted” in the schools. Except that I understand we live in a multi-dimensional democracy with many different types of people. And we all, to be trite, have to get along.
Whether Mr. Cruz approves or not of gay people, the fact of life is we exist. And schools are not teaching children simply for today, but for their future lives as well. Teaching kids that gays exist and are not stereotypes, which presumably will help them deal, say, with work colleagues in the future, has nothing to do with sex.
Memo to Agape Press: It’s 10 p.m., do you know where your agape is?I didn’t think so. I haven’t seen it, either.
Short: Agape love is an oxymoron.
I love the line…
“I am here to censor their attempts to promote that lifestyle on my children.”
Ah…a bigot who proudly touts his censorship. :p
A nit
…and the Nazis would have won the war.
No, they would not have won the war. The Russians defeated them at Stalingrad. The battle there was horrendous, but the Nazis were doomed after their defeat there. The Brits and Americans were coming up through Italy at the time (my father was involved in that). D-day was icing on the cake, and was useful in dislodging the Vichy France government. At that point, Nazi Germany wasn’t fighting a two front war, it was fighting a three front war. I don’t understand why the Allies didn’t evict the fascist Franco from Spain, but maybe they figured they could contain him.
What is often overlooked, though, is that the US almost lost the war in the Pacific. Much attention has been paid to the war in Europe, and, rightly so. But the war in the Pacific, which began in 1933, predated the “official start” of WWII, by six years. And the rape of Nanking (Dec 1937-Mar 1938) which resulted in the murders of over three hundred thousand residents in that city alone, is largely ignored. And has never been acknowledged by the Japanese government.
Regan DuCasse at June 9, 2005 09:12 AM
I’m not disputing you, raj
I know. I’m not disputing anything that you have posted, and I have read them all.
Let me ask you this, though. And it is a technical issue. What program do you compose your posts? You have interesting things to read, but the posts are difficult to read.
I use Windows Notepad to compose posts on, and copy/paste the result to the little message box here. It’s not perfect. It allows me to do some paragraph, and so forth. I know a little HTML, so I can do italicizing and bolding for emphasis.
How do you compose your posts?
You know, the side convo got me to thinking. I remember in school being taught about WWII and the rise of Nazism & Facism….
Was I being exposed to that lifestyle!?! 😮
Who do I sue? :/
Am I the only one who finds Regan easy to read? Her postings, to my mind, read like poetry. I sort of read them aloud for the cadence and rythmn. I think they are lovely.