Does anyone remember that old South Park episode where one of the kids is embarrassed that his dog is gay? So in addition to telling him to "Sit!" and "Play Dead!", he then points at his dog as says, "Good boy, now....Don't Be Gay!" Amazingly, the dog continued to be gay.
So what does this have to do with pending legislation in the commonwealth that would require kids to get there parent's permission in order to participate in school clubs? Well apparently everything was fine until Gay-Straight Alliances started to pop up in schools around Virginia.
Recently in a Virginia House Education Committee meeting, such a bill came to a vote of 10-10, officially killing it right there. But unbelieveably, Republican Del. Mark Cole of Fredericksburg introduced a nearly identical bill last week that will also come to a vote in the coming weeks.
Dyana Mason, executive director of Equality Virginia, said there isn't much difference between the two bills, other than a few technical aspects. Mason said it is not unusual for two nearly identical bills to be introduced at the same time, but the strategy for these bills is puzzling."Usually they end up rolling them together in committee," she said. "I don't know why they didn't do that with this bill Wednesday or in subcommittee on Monday."
Here's H.S. Senior Claire Bohannon describing her first gay-straight alliance meeting at St. Catherine's School:
"It was the first time I didn't feel out of place and alone in a very long time."
Memo to Parents out there:
You can't control if your child is gay or not. By denying them access to groups such as these, you're giving yourself two options:
1) Have a happy, well-adjusted son or daughter.
2) Have a lonely, depressed, confused son or daughter.
They'll be the same person they were before, whether they attend these meetings or not. Being comfortable and/or happy with who you are during your teenage years is more important than you know:
For Mason, a major concern is that gay and lesbian students might lose a crucial network."For some of these kids, trying to find support or someone to talk to can be a matter of life or death."
And before you ask, yes, Mark Cole does have a legitimate Democratic challenger this November. Carlos Del Toro could be the real deal. But it's an uphill battle to be sure.
Good luck Rev. Haggard, you'll need it.
I have access to lots of scientific info in my job, and I was looking for evidence for this rumor. Looks like it has support...
Psychiatric news: New research lends considerable credence to the psychoanalytic theory that repressed homosexual urges may be at the root of homophobic behavior by heterosexual men.
American Psychiatric Assn: Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia -- the fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empirical evidence that is consistent with that theory.
That last one is titled, "New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal." Somebody tell James Young.