Anti-Gay Textbook Bill Sparks Fiery Debate

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/01/012505books.htm


Proposed legislation banning any mention of gay families in Arkansas school books has been met with heavy criticism in state Legislature.

The bill, filed by Rep. Roy Ragland (R-Marshall) would force the state's school districts to purchase only textbooks which define marriage as between one man and one woman. Ragland said the legislation was aimed at bringing school books in line with the state Constitution when bans same-sex marriage.

The measure was endorsed by the House Education Committee last week, (story) but when it came to the floor of the House on Monday lawmakers balked.

[Ripley]

1. What next, ban any mention of gays at all?

So if someone asks why your Uncle Terry isn't married, you must lie. Never let the word 'gay' cross your lips. Understand me young man??!!

These people are total freaks. Their idea of reality is to stick their heads in the sand, put their fingers in their ears and sing hymns loudly.

[Ian David]

2. Hey, how about banning any mention of God?

There is, after all, that whole separation of church and state thing in the constitution, too.

We should make a deal:

No gay in school, no God in school.

[Trixxie]

3. Um mm, We've had that a long time.

I'm 42 years old, I think when I was in maybe 1st or 2nd Grade you could say prayers and maybe God in school. But in later years you couldn't though the principle would sometimes say, "let's say a silent prayer" but they would never mention a specific denomination.

[LiberalVoice]

7. "One Nation Under God"

They say that in schools.

Your post misses the entire point. Mentioning a specific denomination is unfair because it shows bias towards one religion or the other. Mentioning Gays and Lesbians in textbooks does not.

Edit: Spelling.

[MountainLaurel]

12. Bullshit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1175513

[donheld]

19. Let's ban any mention of the Earth being round

while we're at it.

[feminazi]

11. OMG, Ripley. I have an Uncle Terry!!

and he's gay!!!! he and his partner have been together about 35 years.

[arwalden]

4. Faith-Based Bigotry... There's Nothing Quite Like It.

[VegasWolf]

5. Yes, but those biggots have god. n/t

[Toots]

13. But God must be gay... He has never taken a wife

:crazy: I think that is one of the indicaters whether a person (or cartoon character) is gay...right?

[brooklynite]

6. So, no more criminology classes in College?

After all, all the criminal activity you might be discussing has been banned as well.

[mumon]

8. does this mean they can't teach about Massachusetts?

In state colleges?

And they wonder why they've got reputations on the coasts...

[atommom]

9. You know, those minorities have been causing some trouble too.

Let's not mention them either. And there are too many women in our textbooks too. If they were good women, they would have been too busy nurturing to make history, so they are an unwholesome influence upon our children. (/sarcasm)

Really, where do we draw the line? Should we allow them to erase the history of every group they consider objectionable? This could get out of hand very, very fast.

[YankeyMCC]

10. Forced ignorance

[geniph]

14. Do they think never mentioning it will prevent it?

I mean, apparently these people think kids get the IDEA of being gay because they hear about it somewhere. Um. Hello. I was born in 1959. When I was a kid, it was something most of us kids didn't know existed. It wasn't talked about. But by the time we were adolescents, there were kids who were unquestionably..."different."

Talk to old folks, people who grew up in the 20's. They'll tell you the same thing. WHAT DOES PROHIBITING ANY MENTION OF GAY MARRIAGE ACCOMPLISH? It's not going to send gayfolks back into the closet. It's not going to make them not exist. It's not going to undo their marriages. It just makes the kids who are questioning feel that much more isolated.

[moobu2]

17. It's part of a process, in a larger plan, of marginalization.

If you notice they first passed the anti gay marriage amendment, then used that amendment to argue agaist teaching something that is illegal.

Unless reasonable people prevail, it wont stop there and it wont end with gay's.

[jswordy]

15. I dunno about "anti-gay"...it would seem to me...

...that that term ought to be reserved for more horrific acts than trying to explicitly define marriage as a man and a woman, which is the current law of the land. That said, I am hopeful that in the future it will not be the law of the land, and that the issue will refocus from sex to commitment. but those changes take time.

For those who don't know, this is the same process that is normally used in vetting textbooks across the country on a zillion matters of style and definition and desired presentation. If enough states say they want it this way (and there are others looking at this instance, too), then the publisher will simply print them all this way.

This text vetting process goes on in all states, in a variety of subjects across the board. Our public schools are our country's greatest propaganda machine.

[GiovanniC]

16. Gays In Textbooks Are a Huge Problem

I remember when I was in school, the textbooks were just FULL of queer propoganda. For example, check out this story problem from my math textbook!

"Please solve for the following, where one gay sexual encounter is equal to four man-on-dog encounters and seven man-on-box-turtle encounters. If Rick Santorum has had anal intercourse with John Cornyn a total of 19 times, and has had sex with four neighborhood dogs, how many box turtle equivalents has Rick Santorum had sex with?"

THIS is what they are teaching our children! Won't someone think of the children!?

[VegasWolf]

20. LOL. Yes, it's much more serious than an illegal, bankrupting, accidental

war.

[Scooter24]

18. One of my best teachers I had growing up

hardly ever taught from a textbook. He thought of them as too linear and one-sided.

[superconnected]

21. Why don't the democratic representatives NAIL the republicans

by calling it minority hatred and making a BIG deal out of it.

Where ARE the democratic represenatives? I don't hear their voices.

These people suggesting things like censoring text books of gays need to be called what they are, malicious ignorant biggots.

Until we get politicans willing to call it for what it is, and not drop the issue, we will continue to see this. And the American public- remember 1/2 have IQ's under 100 (same number of people with 120 as people with 80 on the bell curve), will continue to be led to vote for it without intelligent direction.

[Southern Dem 2005]

22. I don't know much about Arkansas

but it can be political suicide in the South (and most areas) to be too "pro-gay." Still, this seems like not only a bigoted bill but a pretty stupid bill. My understanding is that there aren't any textbooks that meet the proposed criteria. I think this guy is trying to make a name for himself. I can't imagine anyone but the fringe right thinking this is a good idea.

[Heddi]

23. Because we all know that Gays won't exist when we stop talking about them

:eyes:

I know for a fact that kids only turn gay once they read about gayness. We all know (it's a fact!) that gayness didn't exist until the invention of the printing press...oh well scratch that...gayness didn't exist until language developed and then (and only then) did gayness exist after one gay used the word gay to describe itself.

Gay didn't exist before there was a term to define it. It's in the bible.

</sarcasm>