Florida Lawmaker: Common Core Will Turn ‘Every One Of Your Children’ Gay

Florida Republican Rep. Charles Van Zant, left, believes that increasing educational standards cause homosexuality. CREDIT: AP Photo/Phil Coale

See all posts re Common Core.

Florida Lawmaker: Common Core Will Turn ‘Every One Of Your Children’ Gay (VIDEO)
By Scott Keyes
Daily Kos
May 19, 2014

Common Core may not be a well-intentioned set of improved educational standards, as supporters would have you believe, but instead a trojan horse designed to turn every schoolchild in Florida, if not America, gay.

This ominous warning came at an anti-Common Core event in March courtesy of Florida State Rep. Charles Van Zant (R). Speaking at the “Operation Education Conference” in Orlando, Van Zant warned that officials implementing Common Core in Florida are “promoting as hard as they can any youth that is interested in the LGBT agenda.”

Their aim, Van Zant warned, was to “attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can.” He then apologized to the crowd for having to be the bearer of bad news. “I really hate to bring you that news,” the Florida Republican said, “but you need to know.”

VAN ZANT: These people, that will now receive $220 million from the state of Florida unless this is stopped, will promote double-mindedness in state education and attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can. I’m sorry to report that to you.

Watch it: [HERE]

Even for a Republican Party prone to hysteria, Common Core has sent grassroots conservatives into an accelerated tailspin. Right Wing Watch has a roundup of some of the most exaggerated reactions, including an Alabama Tea Party leader saying a vote for Common Core will damn lawmakers to hell, the American Family Association warning that children won’t “survive” Common Core, Eagle Forum saying it will promote homosexuality, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) calling it “socialism,” and WorldNetDaily saying it will turn America into Nazi Germany.

The leader of this backlash is Glenn Beck, who believes the educational standards, which have been adopted in 44 states, are “evil” and designed to “train us to be a serf state” under the rule of China and Islam.

Should schools fire school employees who are found groping each other after hours?

These parents are worried about something important:
teachers sexually abusing students. Sadly, schools
often worry more about relationships between adult employees.

The story below of two female teachers in New York reminded me of a similar event at Chula Vista Elementary School District a few years ago. The two stories developed in dramatically different manners. While the two lesbian teachers in New York were fired, the principal in Chula Vista was given a good-paying job at the district office.

The important factor in my view is that both events took place after hours and no students were present. I'd urge schools to spend more time observing teachers and principals during school hours, and less time worrying about what they do after hours. I'd also urge schools to be more vigilant about employees who are sexually abusing students.

High school teachers fired for half-naked lesbian classroom tryst get their jobs back
The Daily Caller
March 22, 2014

Rest easy, America, because a state appeals court has ruled that New York City’s Department of Education had no right to fire two female foreign language instructors at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School for getting busy in a classroom one steamy night way back in 2009.

In a decision handed down on Thursday, the appellate judges concluded that the teachers’ behavior “demonstrated a lapse in judgment” but was just “a one-time mistake,” reports CBS New York.

The instructors involved in the raunchy rendezvous are Spanish teacher Alina Brito, 34, and French teacher Cindy Mauro, 38.

Investigators say they had returned to school to see a student musical performance after going out for dinner and a few shots together, explains the New York Daily News.

At some point, they stole away to a dimly lit Room 337 at James Madison High for a quick romp. Specifically, the investigation alleges, one of the teachers was stripped from the waist up. The other one was down on her knees.

An unidentified janitor who had no appreciation for live teacher-on-teacher classroom action caught the couple in the act and made a report to school officials.

After spending time in New York City’s infamous teacher rubber rooms, Brito and Mauro were fired in January 2011.

The teachers defended their actions by saying that Brito, a diabetic, needed candy for her blood sugar. However, nobody – not even the appellate judges – appeared to buy this version of events.

At the same time, the five-judge panel observed that both teachers had otherwise exemplary records and, consequently, a half-naked, consensual lesbian groping session in a classroom did not merit termination.

Calling termination “shockingly disproportionate,” the appeals court remanded the case to city education officials for a more lenient punishment.

Obviously, Brito and Mauro are pleased with the outcome.

“My clients will be happy to be back in the classroom doing a job they love,” attorney Michael Valentine told the Daily News.

“They were both good at what they did,” Valentine added.

It’s not clear if Brito and Mauro will now actually seek to have their jobs reinstated. However, Valentine said, they will definitely seek back pay.

City education officials are mulling an appeal.

“We are disappointed with the decision and are considering our options,” Education Department spokesman David Pena told the Daily News.

From San Diego County Office of Education to County Clerk, Ernie Dronenburg ignores the law

If it weren't for Bob Filner's meltdown, Ernie Dronenburg would be a national story.

San Diego’s Other Embarrassing Leader
By: Sara Libby
Voice of San Diego
July 23, 2013

Bob Filner’s loss is Ernie Dronenburg’s gain.

The incredibly disturbing allegations against the mayor – which reached new heights Monday with a sensational Gloria Allred press conference – have effectively sucked all the oxygen out of the room, sparing another San Diego elected official national embarrassment.

Dronenburg filed a petition Friday that would allow him to continue denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in spite of a recent Supreme Court ruling that spurred the state to allow them again. He defended his actions in a Tuesday press conference, even after the attorney general’s office urged the court to reject his bid.

Here are a few reasons we should make some room for Dronenburg in the shame spotlight.

He is going back on his word.
Ernie Dronenburg

Dronenburg is a conservative Republican. But he earned an endorsement from CityBeat in 2010 in large part because “he’s promised us that if Prop. 8 is ultimately negated, his office will treat same-sex couples with respect and dignity.”

Now, Dronenburg is seizing on what he sees as a legal loophole in order to avoid doing precisely what he promised. Dronenburg is arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision last month only cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in the jurisdiction where the original suit was filed. That means he believes gay marriage should only move forward in Los Angeles and Alameda counties, the two counties named in the injunction and the suit against Prop. 8.

Here’s how the group representing Dronenberg described the argument to San Diego Rostra:

Because the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry vacated the Ninth Circuit’s decision only, there is no appellate decision holding that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. As a result, Proposition 8 is still good law, and the District Court injunction against should apply only to the parties in that case.

Dronenburg and the group representing him, the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, have said the petition merely seeks clarity on the issue. But that doesn’t add up: If he was simply seeking guidance, why did he enlist an “expert on countering the gay agenda,” Charles Limandri, to file the petition on his behalf?

Dronenburg also promised throughout his campaign to eliminate red tape for those who came through his office by making more documents available online, and bringing more uniformity to the assessment process. Now, instead of streamlining, he’s throwing the ultimate roadblock in front of gay couples by possibly refusing to perform a key function of his office.

It’s rare that assessors’ campaign promises receive much press, and rarer still that such promises are ever revisited.

The state attorney general’s office quickly swatted down Dronenburg’s issue – “The filing offers no new arguments that could deny same-sex couples their constitutionally protected civil rights. The federal injunction is still in effect, and it requires all 58 counties to perform same-sex marriages. No exceptions,” Kamala Harris said in a statement. (Disclosure: My husband works for the attorney general’s office.)

Dronenburg’s actions cloud San Diego’s history of bipartisan support for same-sex couples.

For all the ridicule that San Diego’s pension scandal, and now the Filner crisis, has wrought upon the city, San Diego has a proud tradition of leaders from both parties who have spoken up on behalf of equality.

Republicans Jerry Sanders, Carl DeMaio, Bonnie Dumanis, Kevin Faulconer and others have all expressed support for same-sex marriage over the years. Sanders’ leadership, especially, drew the eyes of the nation to San Diego for all the right reasons.

When the Filner scandal first emerged, many pointed to the San Diego Pride Festival as a reason to maintain, well, pride in the city.

Dronenburg’s actions don’t erase all that, but they do complicate the picture.

He’s a fiscal conservative who’s throwing away money.

In this May 2010 Q-and-A, Dronenburg offers up some pretty basic conservative orthodoxy: “I think that taxes are a drag on the economy. That means the more taxes you give the government, the less that money is going into the economy.”

But when it comes to same-sex marriage, that assessment flies in the face of what researchers say will be a boon for the state economy. KPCC reported last month:

The state of California could gain $46 million in tax and fee revenue from same-sex weddings and there will be a boost of $492 million to the state’s economy over the next three years, according to the Williams Institute, a research center at UCLA School of Law.

The county isn’t really in a position to be turning down more revenue at the moment. Indeed, Supervisor Greg Cox tried to distance the supervisors from Dronenburg’s decision in a statement Friday: “No one else from the county was consulted or had any part of this court action, including the Board of Supervisors. The county’s position is and always has been that we, the county, will follow applicable law with regards to same-sex marriage.”

The county clerk’s mission statement includes this line: “to provide prompt and courteous service to the public.” Nothing says prompt and courteous like holding up people’s marriages because you disapprove of their lifestyle.v In the end, both Filner and Dronenburg’s actions come down to stripping people of dignity.

But what separates them is that if the allegations against Filner are true, they’d violate his own stated commitment to equality. Dronenburg, on the other hand, believes his actions are part of his duty as an elected official. He said so at his Tuesday press conference, though he also admitted that the petition was “all done on my own dollars,” which contradicts his insistence that it was part of his official duties.

Filner’s damage is being contained and investigated. But Dronenburg seems free and determined to pursue more.

Now do you believe me that Ernie Dronenburg has no respect for the law?

As County Clerk, just as he did previously at the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE), Ernie Dronenburg disrespects the law. As the second article below shows, he is also a fan of channeling non-profit money to his high-pay pals at related for-profit entities.

Now a San Diego group says he's using the his public office to promote his own personal agenda.

See 10 NEWS VIDEO with Ernie Dronenburg speaking.
Group blasts San Diego County clerk Ernie Dronenburg for questioning same-sex marriage
10newsvideos
Jul 23, 2013
Three weeks after the nation's highest court made a ruling on Proposition 8, which overturned the ban on same sex marriages, tying the knot in San Diego may be tangled up in tension again.


Et tu, Ernie Dronenburg?
San Diego County Clerk seeks to halt gay marriages
By Kelly Davis
CityBeat
Jul 19, 2013

CityBeat's occasionally endorsed Republicans for elected office, usually after getting assurance from the candidate that he won't, well, act like a Republican. In 2010, we gave Ernie Dronenburg our thumb's up over Democrat David Butler for San Diego County assessor / recorder / clerk, largely because Dronenburg promised us that he wouldn't meddle if Prop. 8 were overturned:

Dronenburg’s a Republican and conservative activist, and that makes us worry, sure, but he’s promised us that if Prop. 8 is ultimately negated, his office will treat same-sex couples with respect and dignity.

But today came news that Dronenburg filed a petition with the California Supreme Court, asking that his office be allowed, at least temporarily, to stop performing same-sex marriages. Dronenburg explained to the conservative website San Diego Rostra that he was merely seeking clarification on whether Prop. 8 needs to go back to the Ninth Circuit Court for a ruling.

It's tough to buy the argument that Dronenburg's simply doing his due diligence. Why? Because it wasn't the county's lawyers who who filed the petition on Dronenburg's behalf, but attorney Charles LiMandri. If that name's not familiar, here's a LiMandri primer: Charles LiMandri, a Catholic lawyer best known for his pro-life, anti-gay legal crusades. LiMandri considers himself an expert on "countering the gay agenda," having served as an attorney for the National Organization of Marriage in the Prop. 8 battles and for the San Diego firefighters who sued the city after being required to march in a Pride parade. More recently, LiMandri launched an attack on University of San Diego for hosting a drag show; he's currently demanding that the Catholic university forbid its students from doing internships at organizations that support same-sex marriage.

In 2012, in backing gay Republican Carl DeMaio for mayor, LiMandri said he would "pray for him" (not to get elected, but to change his sinful ways) and that his endorsement wasn't to be considered an endorsement of DeMaio's "lifestyle."

California Attorney General Kamala Harris quickly issued a statement on Dronenburg's petition: "The filing offers no new arguments that could deny same-sex couples their constitutionally protected civil rights. The federal injunction is still in effect, and it requires all 58 counties to perform same-sex marriages. No exceptions."

Tim McClain, spokeperson for county Supervisor Ron Roberts, said Roberts knew nothing about this in advance. McClain offered this statement from Roberts:

"This petition was filed without my consent, consultation or support. I am disappointed and had thought we had moved past such divisiveness after the U.S. Supreme Court's declarative ruling."



County tax assessor Ernie Dronenburg forced the nonprofit NTC Foundation to pay taxes owed by its “for-profit” subsidiary.
NTC Foundation's High-Paying Jobs
By Matt Potter
San Diego Reader
April 6, 2011

Officers have been raking in fat salaries at the nonprofit NTC Foundation, which San Diego city taxpayers bailed out last week to the tune of $1.1 million after county tax assessor Ernie Dronenburg forced the group to pay property taxes owed by its “for-profit” subsidiary. According to the foundation’s latest report to the Internal Revenue Service, filed November 16 of last year and covering 2009, chief financial officer Larry Eyler was paid $148,269; executive director Alan Ziter got $123,558; and operations director Lew Witherspoon received $103,788. Construction manager Neal Singer, listed as an independent contractor, was paid $147,100. Pam Hamilton-Lester, onetime executive director of the City’s Centre City Development Corporation and now the NTC Foundation’s president and chief executive, got $75,886 for a 30-hour week, according to the document.

“Don’t Say Gay” bill could require schools to out their students

"An unsafe home or school environment is the most common reason for leaving home given by homeless LGBT youth, who comprise 40% of all homeless young people in the United States."

The new bill also requires schools to out kids to their parents--"as soon as practicable" after conversion therapy has begun.

Tennessee “Don’t Say Gay” bill could require schools to out their students
Language in the bill also appears to endorse counseling for students who are "at risk" of being LGBT
BY KATIE MCDONOUGH
Salon.com
JAN 30, 2013

If you thought that you’d heard the last of Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill after state lawmakers abandoned the legislation last year, think again.

It’s back. And it’s awful.

The measure still prohibits elementary and middle school teachers from discussing sexual activity that is not related to “natural human reproduction” or even acknowledging that homosexuality exists, but new language in the bill would require school officials to tell parents when students are — or might be — gay:

The general assembly recognizes that certain subjects are particularly sensitive and are, therefore, best explained and discussed within the home. Because of its complex societal, scientific, psychological, and historical implications, human sexuality is one such subject. Human sexuality is best understood by children with sufficient maturity to grasp its complexity and implications…

A school counselor, nurse, principal or assistant principal from counseling a student who is engaging in, or who may be at risk of engaging in, behavior injurious to the physical or mental health and well-being of the student or another person; provided, that wherever possible such counseling shall be done in consultation with the student’s parents or legal guardians. Parents or legal guardians of students who receive such counseling shall be notified as soon as practicable that such counseling has occurred.

In addition to requiring school officials to out students to their parents, the legislation also appears to endorse so-called conversion therapy (“counseling” in the bill’s nomenclature), in which psychologists and psychiatrists (not to mention would-be Republican presidential nominees) try to change the recipients sexual orientation.

An unsafe home or school environment is the most common reason for leaving home given by homeless LGBT youth, who comprise 40% of all homeless young people in the United States.

Rutgers Trial: Tyler Clementi's nemesis Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail

Trying to gain popularity by abusing outsiders seems to be a typical tactic of human beings. It's the preferred strategy of both student and teacher cliques in schools. It's known as "girl culture" but obviously it's practiced by men, too.

And, of course, witness tampering is very common in schools. I saw it firsthand in Chula Vista Elementary School District. Administrators do it as a matter of course. It's appropriate that there should be some punishment for a crime that undermines our justice system.

Rutgers Trial: Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail
By MICHAEL KOENIGS, CANDACE SMITH and CHRISTINA NG
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.
ABC News May 21, 2012

Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later.

"I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Judge Glenn Berman told the court. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."

Ravi must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his probationary sentence.

"I heard this jury say, 'guilty' 288 times--24 questions, 12 jurors. That's the multiplication," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once."...




Rutgers webcam case: Victim's family wants prison for Dharun Ravi
By Tina Susman
May 21, 2012

...A jury last March found Ravi, who is now 20, guilty of invasion of privacy and a host of other crimes, including hate crimes, which could bring at least 10 years in prison. Ravi denied wrongdoing and denied allegations he was motivated by anti-gay attitudes toward Clementi.

“I believe Mr. Ravi exploited my budding … relationship with Tyler Clementi in his vain attempt to gain attention and popularity with others,” M.B.’s statement, read by attorney Richard Pompelio, said in part. M.B. wrote that he was “devastated” to learn he had been “placed under a microscope for the sole amusement of Mr. Ravi and his friends,” and that his emotions had not lessened. In fact, he said, they had only intensified.

“I just wanted him to acknowledge that he had done wrong and take responsibility for his conduct,” M.B. said in asking for Ravi to be sentenced to some prison time. He did not specify how much time Ravi should receive. Neither did Clementi's family members.

The statement was one of several made to Judge Glenn Berman in the run-up to the sentencing. After M.B.’s statement, Clementi’s father, Joseph, spoke, as did Clementi’s brother, James, and his mother, Jane, who said Ravi had given her son the cold shoulder from the moment the two young men had met at the start of classes in the fall of 2010.

Joseph Clementi accused Ravi of acting “without a thought” of how his actions might affect his son or his son’s date when he set up the secret video cam. “And he did it in a cold and calculating manner and then he tried to cover it up,” said Clementi, who at one point seemed about to break down but who kept on speaking after briefly halting.

“Mr. Ravi still does not get it, he has no remorse, and he has said he was genuinely surprised that a jury could find him guilty,” Clementi said before his surviving son, James, delivered another impassioned statement tinged with bitterness toward Ravi.

“My family has never heard an apology…the behavior I saw in the courtroom…suggests a complete lack of concern for my brother or the pain inflicted on him,” said James Clementi. “I watched as Dharun slept through court as if it were not something worth staying awake for,” he said of the trial, which ended with the guilty verdicts in March.

“Through it all, I bit my tongue.” But James Clementi added that his brother’s “fate was sealed” from the moment a computer randomly assigned him to share a room with Ravi. “He could never have known the viper’s nest he was walking into,” he said...



Guilty verdict in Rutgers webcam spying case
By David Ariosto
CNN
March 17, 2012

...His roommate, Tyler Clementi, killed himself in 2010 after learning of webcam spying
Ravi was not charged directly with Clementi's death

A former Rutgers University student accused of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate by use of a hidden webcam was found guilty Friday of all counts -- including invasion of privacy and the more severe charges of bias intimidation -- in a case that thrust cyberbullying into the national spotlight.

Dharun Ravi, 20, was also found guilty of witness tampering, hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence, and could now face up to 10 years in jail and deportation to his native India.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Come Back?

Local ex-Navy sailor Joseph Rocha, one of the major players in the movement to allow gays to serve in the military, told us last year that he wants to return to service despite horrific experiences that were confirmed by an investigation. Will he and others be able to do so now that don't-ask-don't-tell is virtually dead? Slate says the answer is: "probably." But it will be complicated.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Come Back?
Congress voted to repeal DADT. Can gay soldiers who were discharged under the old rules re-enlist?
By Brian Palmer
Slate
Dec. 20, 2010

Lieutenant Dan Choi who was dismissed from the US Army for 'being openly gay'.Dan ChoiThe Senate voted to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on Saturday after weeks of wrangling. More than 13,000 service members have been fired since that rule came into effect in 1993. Can those people re-enlist?

Probably. For the past 17 years, service members discharged for homosexual conduct have been permanently barred from the military, even if they swore that their sexual preference had changed. During that time, Congress has considered several bills to repeal DADT, many of which would have explicitly permitted discharged service members to rejoin. (The process is technically called reaccession.) In the end, the bare-bones legislation that Congress is about to send to the president punts the re-enlistment issue to the Pentagon. We don't yet know for sure how the secretary of defense will handle the discharged soldiers, but the military's November report (PDF) supporting repeal recommended that they be permitted to come back. Secretary Gates commissioned the report and has so far endorsed its findings.

Any plan to take back dismissed soldiers may run into snags with the paperwork. Most gay people released under DADT received what's called an involuntary honorable discharge, which also applies to personnel with mental health problems or parental duties that preclude military service. Those who receive an involuntary honorable discharge are usually assigned the RE-4 re-enlistment code, which means they're not allowed to come back.
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It's not clear how the Pentagon is going to work around this bureaucratic problem...

Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Youths Punished More Severely For Same Offense

Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Youths Punished More Severely For Same Offense
by Christian Nordqvist
Medical News Today
Dec. 6, 2010

A gay, lesbian or bisexual adolescent is punished more severely at school and by the criminal-justice system compared to heterosexual people of the same age for the same offenses, researchers from Yale University report in the medical journal Pediatrics. The authors say the disproportionate punishments cannot be explained by worse illegal activities or behaviors. They add that in order to achieve equality among heterosexual and non-heterosexual youth, it is important first to understand what causes these disparities in school expulsions, arrests, imprisonments, and then to address them.

Non-heterosexual young people are already at a higher risk of being bullied, abused within their families and succumbing to addiction, the researchers explain. Kathryn E. W. Himmelstein, BA, and Hannah Brückner, PhD set out to find out whether they were also victims of unfair criminal-justice and school sanctions...

John McCain says "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" must continue because...the economy is down?!?

I'm not an expert in the subject of homosexuality, but I did notice some interesting behavior on the part of my healthy, wholesome dog Hoopoe in the 1970s. (The name sounds strange now, but I had just read James Michener's The Source, in which a heroic figure bears the name.)

I have struggled to figure out how my dog could have been exposed to the homosexual agenda, and I think I've got it figured out. Forty-pound Hoopoe didn't like being restricted to our backyard, so he used to jump the fence and roam about town, even after we had extended the barrier to a height of seven feet. (He'd get his front paws over the top, then he'd hang there until his back feet managed to scramble up and over.) It must have been on one of these excursions that Hoopoe was indoctrinated. Unless, of course, he simply had inborn inclinations.

But one thing is certain: he was brave and bold, and would have been a valuable asset to any canine military operation.

Dec 4, 2010
This week in crazy: John McCain
The old maverick invents the weirdest reason yet to oppose the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"
By Alex Pareene
Salon.com

John McCain has finally, inexorably stumbled upon the weirdest and most transparently troll-ish reason yet to oppose the repeal of the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members: The economy sucks.

That's it. The Senate can't address a fundamental inequity, because the markets are down.

"I will not agree to have this bill go forward, and neither will, I believe, 41 of my colleagues, either, because our economy is in the tank," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and the leading opponent of an immediate repeal.

For those playing along at home, John McCain conditionally supported the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" until Barack Obama got elected and began pushing the Senate to do something about it. Once military leadership told McCain the policy should be repealed, he said, he would vote to repeal it, and now that the Republican defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs have told McCain that it should be repealed, he is vowing to fight it with everything he's got.

But, like, he had excuses before. Not great ones, but they sounded coherent on Sunday shows. Once the commanders came around, he wanted to wait for the results of the Pentagon's review of how repeal would be implemented. That review is done. Then McCain just needed more time to read it. Then he had a problem with some of the survey questions. Then he was upset that more Marines oppose repeal than other branches. Then he was upset with the survey's response rate. Transparent straw-grasping, but at least those objections had something to do with the issue at hand...

McCain's vaunted "independence" was always something closer to incoherence. He'll hold wildly different positions on issues depending on the weather, or, more specifically, depending on whom he's friendly with and whom he resents today. The boxing enthusiast who once campaigned to ban Ultimate Fighting for no reason other than he didn't like the looks of it has always been intellectually inconsistent, to say the least. But he's lost his mind on the simple question of whether or not gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve their country openly and with honor.

If he thinks the answer to that question is no, he won't just come out and say it. In his attempts to avoid endorsing bigotry while simultaneously doing everything he can to keep discrimination enshrined in the law, he's clearly completely cracking up. Even his partner in irritating independence Joe Lieberman is being reasonable this time around...

Was Michigan Teacher Wrong to Eject Students for Anti-Gay Remarks?

The First Amendment doesn't permit yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Nor does it permit establishment of religion. So does it entitle high school students to make statements that might cause others to harm themselves, particularly when those statements are based on religion? Hmmm. Still, if I had been this teacher, I might have asked the students not to create an atmosphere in which their religion might negatively impact the health of other students, but I don't think I'd have ejected them.

Was Michigan Teacher Wrong to Eject Students for Anti-Gay Remarks?
by Tom Henderson
Parentdish.com
Nov 16th 2010

Someone was bullied in a Michigan classroom on Oct. 20. Exactly who was the victim and who was the bully, however, depends on your point of view.

Popular opinion -- at least as it was expressed at a community forum held Nov. 8 -- says Howell High School teacher Jay McDowell was in the right.

McDowell was suspended for a day, his supporters say, because he defended gay and lesbian students against hate speech. However, district officials say he violated the First Amendment rights of students.

Both sides, though, generally agree on the sequence of events that day.

Many Howell High School students came to class wearing purple T-shirts for Spirit Day, a national effort to oppose the bullying of gay and lesbian young people.

However, a female student came to McDowell's class wearing a Confederate flag belt buckle, instead. McDowell told her to remove it. She did so without defiance.

Then a male student asked why she was not allowed to wear a Confederate flag when other students were allowed to wear purple as a political statement. After McDowell explained his position, he asked the student if he had changed his mind.

The student said no. He still believed homosexuality violated his religious beliefs. At that point, McDowell ejected him from the classroom. Another student then spoke in support of the first student. He, too, was ejected.

Kim Root, a spokesperson for the Howell School District, tells ParentDish, officials learned all this after a thorough investigation. The students were not acting angry or belligerent, she says.

Even McDowell himself confirms this in interviews with the Associated Press and other news organizations.

Root says the district investigation was prompted by complaints from parents about how McDowell handled the students. She says officials suspended him after determining he violated district policies that protect students' freedom of speech.

The incident comes on the heels of highly publicized suicides by gay young people, suicides apparently prompted by bullying.

Emotions were running high at the Nov. 15 community forum before the Howell School Board.

Graeme Taylor, a 14-year-old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., came to speak in support of McDowell.

"When you hear of things like Dr. King's speech that one day he wanted his grandchildren, his posterity, to not be judged on the color of their skin but on the content of their character, I hope that one day we, too, can be judged by the content of our character and not by who we love," he says in a video recording of the meeting.

"There is a silent Holocaust out there where an estimated 6 million gay people every year kill themselves," he adds...

Joel Burns tells gay teens "it gets better"

Watch video: a message to teens who are being bullied.

Arkansas school board member who said that he wanted homosexual students to kill themselves has resigned

Arkansas school board member quits after anti-gay rant
Associated Press
PLEASANT PLAINS, Ark. (AP)

An Arkansas school board member who said on Facebook that he wanted homosexual students to kill themselves has resigned from the panel.

The Midland School Board said Monday that Clint McCance has submitted a resignation letter.

McCance announced Thursday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that he would quit because of the condemnations that followed his comments.

McCance posted his remarks in reaction to a campaign asking people to wear purple Oct. 20 to show solidarity after several gay and lesbian youths killed themselves after they were bullied. McCance said the dead children "killed thereselves because of their sin."

Student kills himself after gay sex footage put online

30 September 2010
Student kills himself after gay sex footage put online
BBC

A New Jersey college student has leapt to his death a day after authorities said two students secretly filmed him having sex with a man and broadcast it over the internet.

Tyler Clementi's wallet was found on the George Washington Bridge on 22 September after two witnesses saw someone jump from the structure, authorities told the AP news agency.

Mr Clementi's body has not been found.

Two students have been charged with illegally filming the 18-year-old.

"Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words," Paul Mainardi, a lawyer for Mr Clementi's family, said in a statement confirming the suicide.
Room-mate charged
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Iain Mackenzie BBC News, Washington

The tragic death of Tyler Clementi brings together two contentious issues - gay rights and cyber bullying.

Technology certainly seems to have been played a role in driving the teenager to kill himself. However, equality campaigners say the real problem is a culture where young homosexuals feel persecuted and marginalised.

A recent study of gay students suggests one in four is regularly harassed because of their sexual orientation.

For some, Tyler Clementi's suicide has put a human face to that statistic.

The footage was allegedly taken using a web camera in Mr Clementi's dorm room at Rutgers University and broadcast live over the internet.

The two charged with filming and broadcasting the images are Mr Clementi's room-mate, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei.

If convicted, the two students face up to five years in prison...

Proposition 8 overturned; same-sex marriage ban ruled unconstitutional

California's Proposition 8 has been overturned. It was ruled unconstitutional.

San Jose Mercury News
By Howard Mintz
08/04/2010

A San Francisco federal judge today struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage, concluding that it tramples on the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples and that they are entitled to be married throughout the state.

Within minutes of his historic decision, however, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker agreed to put his ruling on hold for at least a few days to consider arguments on whether California should be barred immediately from enforcing Proposition 8, a move that would allow county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples...

Opponents of gay marriage ban must release memos

Marriage equality opponents vow rematch over public disclosure case
Keen News Service
By Lisa Keen
June 24, 2010

In a ruling hailed by gay activists, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 upheld a law that requires public disclosure of the names of people who signed a petition to put an anti-gay referendum on the ballot in Washington State. But litigation over the domestic partnership battle may not yet be finished and may be back before the court in a year or so.

The 8 to 1 decision, with only Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent, said a state law requiring the names and addresses of petition signers be available to the public does not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution...



Opponents of gay marriage ban must release memos
By Lisa Leff
Associated Press Writer
March 22, 2010

Civil rights groups that campaigned against California's same-sex marriage ban must surrender some of their internal campaign memos and e-mails to lawyers for the other side, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said sponsors of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative targeting gay marriage, were entitled to the information as evidence in their defense against a lawsuit challenging the ban...

The ACLU and Equality California, the state's largest gay rights group, had argued that the campaign documents being sought were irrelevant to the Proposition 8 lawsuit. They also claimed it was unfair to make them bear the expense of sifting through tens of thousands of old e-mails.

"We do believe this decision is incorrect," said Geoffrey Kors, Equality California's executive director. "A core issue in the case is whether the motivation of those who put Prop. 8 on the ballot is animus (dislike for gays)...

What Our Military Allies Can Tell Us About the End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

It's in our national interest to let gays serve openly in the military. Anyone who believes that homosexuality is wrong should follow his or her own conscience, but should not harm our national security by demanding that the military interfere with the private lives of personnel.

What Our Military Allies Can Tell Us About the End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Charles McLean
Peter W. Singer
Newsweek
June 07, 2010

Every gay-pride parade seems to have its share of sailor suits, aviator sunglasses, and camouflage trousers. In the United States, such costumes are often drawn from the Halloween bin, since gays cannot serve openly in the military, let alone march for pride in their official uniforms. But that’s not the case in Britain, where gay members of the Royal Navy, Air Force, Army, and Marines not only march but also move their partners into the military’s family housing. The armed forces has also embraced the shift—which came following a European Court of Human Rights ruling 1999—placing recruitment ads in gay publications, and, last summer, featuring an openly gay soldier on the cover of the military’s official magazine.
U.S. Marine Corps and Navy personnel stand at the rails of the USS Iwo Jima as the amphibious assault ship enters New York Harbor for Fleet Week.

Britain isn’t the only U.S. ally to allow open gays in the military. More than 25 of our allies, including every original NATO signatory other than the U.S. and Turkey, have transitioned to an open military...

What is it with conservative "family values" leaders and their gay escorts?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Itawamba High School adults provide lesbian-free prom to seniors despite court order

I've noticed that high schools tend to mimic primitive society, and the adults are often part of that equation, so I wasn't surprised that school officials at Itawamba High School got into a shunning/ostracizing posture. I was just surprised that they did it so obviously.


See previous post on this story.
See posts re gay rights.


Apr 6, 2010 09:07 EDT
Fake prom staged to trick lesbian kids
Mississippi school that canceled dance to keep female couple away...throws the real party across town
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
Salon.com

...The elaborate lengths to which people will apparently go to avoid a girl in a tux are dispiriting at best, and McMillen's victory may seem to have the word "Pyrrhic" stamped all over it. But in the end, she may well have had a better prom than many of us ever did. (Non-discrimination is a right, but having crappy experiences in high school is pretty much an inevitability.) McMillen told the Advocate that the special ed kids "had the time of their lives ... That's the one good thing that came out of this, [these kids] didn't have to worry about people making fun of them."

It may have been far from perfect, but unlike the blowout across town, that little shindig at Fulton Country Club was everything that I hope for for my own daughters, on their prom nights and their wedding days and all their lives. Because none of those other people matter. On Friday night, Connie McMillen got to walk through that door on the arm of the person she wanted to dance with...



Date and Switch? School Accused of Holding Fake Prom For Lesbian
Jonathan Turly
April 8, 2010

Mississippi’s Itawamba Agricultural High School has been roundly condemned for canceling a school prom in order to avoid having lesbian student Constance McMillen appear in a tux with her girlfriend. Now, the school is accused of an astonishing act of duplicity to add to its earlier act of discrimination. McMillen says that she was invited to a prom arranged with officials off school grounds only to find it was just her and seven other revelers, including two learning disabled students. She later says that she learned that the rest of the student body was attending the real prom across town with the knowledge of school officials...






Girls today are three times more likely than boys to be non-heterosexual.
by Leonard Sax, MD, PhD
Leonard Sax is a family physician, PhD psychologist, and author of Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge.
Psychology Today
April 3, 2010

You've probably heard about Constance McMillen by now. She's the openly-gay high school senior who wanted to take her girlfriend to the high school prom at Itawamba High School in northern Mississippi. The principal told the girls that all prom couples have to be boy-girl. Ms. McMillen called the ACLU, which threatened the school with legal action. In response, the school board canceled the prom. The ACLU then asked U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson to intervene and reinstate the prom. The judge ruled that although the school had violated Ms. McMillen's civil rights, he wouldn't force them to hold a prom. On Friday, April 2, Ms. McMillen attended an alternative prom at the Fulton County Country Club. According to the Associated Press, her girlfriend's parents wouldn't allow the 16-year-old girlfriend to go, so McMillen escorted another young woman instead. To make the story even worse, it turns out that the alternative prom at the Fulton County Country Club was a fake, with only seven kids attending, according to McMillen. The real prom, i.e. the prom which most of the seniors attended, was held at a still-undisclosed location, and McMillen wasn't invited.


The story continues to attract national attention because it's just so darn quaint. Imagine: there are still people who get upset when they see girls kissing other girls! Who knew?

Psychologist John Buss estimates that for most of human history, perhaps 2% of women have been lesbian or bisexual (see note 1, below). Not any more. Recent surveys of teenage girls and young women find that roughly 15% of young females today self-identify as lesbian or bisexual, compared with about 5% of young males who identify as gay or bisexual...

Judge: Lesbian student's rights violated

See UPDATE.


Judge: Lesbian student's rights violated
By Chris Joyner, USA TODAY
March 23, 2010
ABERDEEN, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Itawamba County, Miss., school board violated the rights of a lesbian student by canceling the prom when the student challenged a ban on same-sex dates, but the judge stopped short of ordering the district to reinstate the April 2 prom.

U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson said he denied the injunction request because a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom and because "requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue."

NIXED PROM: Lesbian gets day in court

Constance McMillen, 18, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Itawamba County school district when she was denied her request to bring her girlfriend, a sophomore, to the dance and to wear a tuxedo.

McMillen said she was saddened that the judge did not reinstate the school-sponsored prom, but she understood his reasoning since the private prom is scheduled for the same day in Tupelo.

"It would be hard for him to move it," she said. "A lot of people would be inconvenienced."

Davidson ruled the school board violated McMillen's rights. "The Court finds this expression and communication of her viewpoint is the type of speech that falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment," Davidson wrote in his opinion...

Bakersfield School District apologizes for assault on teacher's character

From the archives:

Bakersfield School Won't Discriminate
Lambda Legal.org
LOS ANGELES
March 18, 1999

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund announced Thursday that client James Merrick had settled his sexual orientation discrimination case with a California school district.

As part of the agreement, the district will apologize for removing 15 students from the award-winning teacher's science classes and will strengthen district non- discrimination policy...

Lambda and the California Teachers Association (CTA) reached the settlement on behalf of Merrick, after the state Labor Commissioner ruled earlier this month that his Bakersfield school district discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation.

Officials at the Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School District removed 15 of more than 100 students from Merrick's eighth-grade science classes simply because some parents did not want their children in a gay teacher's class. Merrick is a recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award from the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce...

"Faced with a devastating assault on his character, he had the courage to seek justice. The result was a historic case that creates good law for all of us," said Lambda Staff Attorney Myron Dean Quon...

In addition, as part of the settlement, the district will not appeal the Labor Commissioner's decision," said CTA Staff Counsel Scott McVarish...

[Blogger's note: See also Scott McVarish and Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB)]

In the settlement, approved unanimously by the school district's five-member Board of Trustees, the school district agreed it would not remove students from any class for reasons relating to "the ethnicity, race, national origin, age, sex, actual or perceived sexual orientation, disability, or political or religious beliefs of the classroom teachers."

... "The Board will, in writing, express support for Dr. Merrick as a teacher and regret comments and actions by some members of the public and staff that may have called into question his fitness to teach," the settlement said...