Meanwhile, in the closely contested race to determine which state has the most regressive, bigoted and narrow-minded lawmakers in the U.S., today’s contender…
Tennessee’s elementary and middle school teachers could face more pressure not to talk about homosexuality with their students next year after the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill cleared a House education committee Tuesday.
Some Republican leaders have questioned the need for House Bill 229, which prevents the teaching of alternative lifestyles, noting that it is already illegal under state law to teach sex education in grades K-8.
Here’s how Republican Rep. Joey Hensley justified his hate bill.
I have two children — in the third- and fourth-grade — and don’t want them to be exposed to things I don’t agree with…even though the state board disallows this now, I’m afraid it does happen, and sex education is talked about in a way that it is acceptable
A reader of The Tennessean writes…
When I was in tenth grade the girl sitting next to me in History class was pregnant with her second child! Both fathered by her step brother. Apparently she wasn’t getting sex education at home and needed it from somewhere.
Another adds…
As usual our state leaders take the “ostrich with it’s head in the sand” approach, avoid reality, and propose laws that would make even the Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” question their sanity. They also exist in a time warp. It’s one thing to insist that all law be based on the point of view of the religious white middle class. It’s another to insist it be based on the point of view of the 1970s religious white middle class.
The idea that you can’t say gay in the classroom is absurd. The idea that you can’t teach sex education in grades K-8 is even more ludicrous. Why have sex education at all if you insist it not be taught until, so to speak, the cow is already out of the barn?
Another…
Oh Tennessee…you are sliding back to the dark ages. Anti-gay legislation, creationism (Christian I’m sure, not Hindu , etc.) in science classes, guns in bars and churches, pro-bullying. What is next? Let me guess…women’s reproduction rights or our immigrants.
Politicians 0. Non-politicians 3.
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The political atmosphere in Tennessee is stifling for anyone who has a brain. Some of the politicians who preach this brand of bigotry I don’t think actually believe it themselves. I don’t see how they could be stupid enough to fall prey to such idiocy and think they must do it to garner the approval of the unwashed, and obviously uneducated, masses. Being elected to office is, after all, much more important that exhibiting a working moral compass.
I think that when the immigrants, who were mentioned in the famous Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the base of Lady Liberty, entered the country they were all sent to Tennessee. You know the ones I’m talking about;
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
We’ll find a place for them in Tennessee,
It maters not if they are dumbed down yokels,
And left their muddled brains across the sea.
They’ll fit in great with all the locals,
Who dwell right here in witless Tennessee!
My apologies to Emma Lazarus and my condolences to those few in Tennessee who have working brains.
Our Governor Bill Haslam has pushed his agenda of discrimination throughout his brief tenure in office from shooting down Nashville’s anti-discrimination laws to creating the bill banning the use of the word “gay” in public schools. He’s railroading civil liberties to the extent of making it illegal to upload a “potentially offensive image” to the internet this year. I addressed our Governor’s antics with a visual commentary of him and his wife on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/07/potentially-offensive-portrait-governor.html Drop by and let me know how you feel about our rights being infringed upon.