As you may remember, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the FAIR Education Act into law in July, which mandates the inclusion of LGBT history in social science curricula and also protects LGBT students from discrimination in school activities. We can’t underestimate the importance of this legislation in making “It Gets Better” a reality for our LGBT youth. Unfortunately, the new law is under vicious assault by right-wing Christian groups in California, which are seeking to put the law on the ballot for voters to decide (after they’re inundated with anti-gay propaganda focusing on “recruitment” and “indoctrination” of children, of course). Roland Palencia, the Executive Director of Equality California, is predicting a Prop 8-style defeat of the law if it actually makes it to the ballot, considering the vast amount of misinformation being hurled by hate groups at California voters. This fight doesn’t seem to be getting much attention, but its significance can’t be emphasized enough. This bill is a big freaking deal, and its defeat will be an even bigger freaking deal when considered in the larger context of anti-gay bullying and LGBT teen suicide (to say nothing of the implications of consciously denying the gay, lesbian, and transgender movements’ significance in the broader American historical narrative).
The FAIR Education Act is a concrete step forward not only for social science instruction, but also for LGBT youth who are bullied and told that they’re not normal every single day. So, of course, the California Christian Coalition, a chapter of the organization founded by Pat Robertson, is opposed to it. Not only are they opposed to it, but they think the non-discrimination language included in the law constitutes promotion of STDs. Seriously.
But the batshit craziness got a whole lot more batshit when ThinkProgress interviewed Robert Newman, the head of the group. When ThinkProgress asked him what he thought about anti-LGBT bullying, he went a step beyond Michele Bachmann and simply denied its existence as a problem facing LGBT youth. Instead, he claimed that bullying people who “don’t fit the norm” is just a normal part of life that should be accepted.
It’s part of growing up, it’s part of maturing…I hardly think that bullying is a real issue in schools.
He went on to say that bullying is “part of the maturational process” and that “there’s no reason to have a special bill for, let’s say, three percent of the population, period.”
Hmmm…not a real issue, huh? Just part of the maturational process?
Why don’t you tell that to 13-year-old Seth Walsh, who hanged himself from a tree in his backyard due to what you refer to as “part of growing up”?
Why don’t you tell that to 13-year-old Asher Brown, who shot himself in the head with his dad’s 9 mm Beretta after his bullies tormented him mercilessly by calling him names and mimicking gay sex acts in gym class?
Why don’t you tell that to 15-year-old Billy Lucas, who hanged himself in his family’s barn after being called “fag” repeatedly by his tormenters?
Tell that to the eight – count them, eight – students, including 15-year-old Justin Aaberg, who have committed suicide in the Anoka-Hennepin school district in the last two years, where a “neutrality” policy prevents school officials from even adequately addressing the crisis.
Tell these kids that being called “faggot” and facing the threat of violence every day is just a “part of maturing” that they should have to deal with because that’s the way it’s always been.
For many people, bullying is a “part of growing up.” It shouldn’t be. How very “Christian” of Robert Newman to want to keep bullying as some kind of sacred coming-of-age process. It’s not. Kids hanging themselves and shooting themselves in the head is so not a normal “part of growing up.” Newman is right in that, in many schools, LGBT kids don’t “fit the norm.” If he and his army of fundie theocrats have their way, that’s the way it’s going to stay.
And that’s why legislation like the FAIR Education Act is so important and so worth fighting for. It’s just one step toward making sure the right-wing Christian dream of sanctioned anti-gay bullying doesn’t stay a reality.
