It looks like I’m not the only one who fears that new anti-bullying policies might be abused by schools to squelch the free expression of their students, but I’m not sure I like the new company I’m keeping:
Focus on the Family has a message for gay rights activists: stay off the playground.
Candi Cushman, an education analyst for the James Dobson-founded group, told The Denver Post this weekend that gay rights advocates have inserted their agenda into anti-bullying efforts, at the expense of Christian values.
“We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled,” Cushman told the Post.
Yeah, you know, especially if your viewpoint is that faggots deserve to have the shit beaten out ’em.
Believe it or not, I was never much of a target for bullies. Oddly, I was one of the biggest kids in the class during my first couple years of elementary school, so nobody messed with me, and that reputation lingered much longer than my actual size advantage. And by Junior High I’d already developed the self-effacing yet acerbic wit that would shield me from physical violence for the rest of my school career. (There’s nothing to gain socially by punching out the guy who makes all the other kids laugh.)
Indeed, despite the fact that I played street hockey from age 7 to 27, and in a city whose notion of the sport was formed during the height of the Broad Street Bullies era, I don’t think anybody but my older sister ever landed a punch on me.
So I don’t come at this issue from the perspective of a victim.
But any former kid can tell you that the bulk of boy-on-boy verbal bullying consisted of questioning the victim’s masculinity, if not outright accusing him of being “a fag.” When I was a kid there was no more devastating playground taunt, which is surely one of the reasons why so many gay men of my and previous generations found it so difficult coming out.
That, looking back, some of the bullies were probably gay themselves, while most of the victims weren’t, only underlines the point that the playground was a brutal arena for both proving one’s manhood and rigidly reinforcing social prejudices. Playground bullying is all about asserting social dominance, and like in prison yards and dog parks, that involves making the victim your bitch.
So of course Focus on the Family wants gay activists to stay off the playground. Theirs is a movement grounded in bullying, and schoolyard bullies have always tried to kick the suspiciously faggy kids off the playground. That’s what bullies do.
And that’s a form of free expression I’m not sure school officials need to protect.
“Believe it or not, I was never much of a target for bullies.”
Was this before or after your transgender operation?
Surprised you did not mention smear the queer, we had a blast playing that game when I was a kid!
kids will be kids….and some get picked on for various reasons…always been that way and always will.
please, keep the social engineering activists, both pro and con, off the fucking playground and leave the kids alone.
Wow, perfect 3-part wingnut harmony from the first three posters here. We couldn’t have better evidence of how twisted the rightwing is. Keep it up, boys.
@3. I wished I could agree, but kids left to their own devices, will too often revert to Lord of the Flies behavior. You said it yourself “kids will be kids….and some get picked on for various reasons…always been that way and always will.” Does that mean we shouldn’t try to teach them to be respectful? Some kids drown when they go swimming. Is that just acceptable losses, or should we teach the kids to swim?
It’s parents and the society’s purpose to teach our kids to be civilized.
What you call social engineering activists, I call being taught to be functioning respectable adults.
My son was dreading the first day of school today. Last year he took a lot of abuse from a self-righteous holier than thou christian conservative jock asshole for: not playing sports, believing in our current president, and believing in evolution – most of this verbal abuse took place in science class – a big assertive personality throwing his weight around. My son has to assume that this year will be more of the same.
And Goldy, your daughter was in the same science class.
5
Our wingies believe that only parents should teach children values. If parents aren’t around or fail in their duties, that’s too bad. No one else, and certainly no one who might draw a government paycheck–like a teacher, for instance–should step in and address antisocial behavior. It’s a wonderful world that our wingies want.
I guess Jesus was a bully, especially when he struck down the moneychangers and so forth. His followers certainly think so.
@7 proud leftist said “No one else, and certainly no one who might draw a government paycheck–like a teacher, for instance–should step in and address antisocial behavior.”
To be fair, if they do, they will be sued or fired so fast, their heads will spin. The right (and the left) extremists have no problem going to court, the instant they think their rights are being infringed or something has offended their tender sensibilities. Teachers and school districts have deployed pretzel logic trying to appease the extremists on both ends. Much of the stupid edicts come from school districts trying to find a safe place that won’t get them sued some time in the future.
Back to the case in point
“We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled,” Cushman told the Post.
Oh SERIOUSLY?
What a bunch of nutf**ks. I get the Amish think all the conservative trolls on here are immoral for their bright clothing, use of electricity and (shock) dancing. I get the Jews think these folks are bad for eating bacon…the Hindus’s aren’t fan a killing cattle…the Muslims don’t like alcohol…the Baptists think the Catholics are idol worshiping satanists, the Catholics think the Baptists aren’t following the true church and won’t be saved.
Look I GET IT…whatever your religion you have your magical beliefs and you know YOU’RE right and every other religion is wrong or confused, that’s how it works. Just SHUT THE F**K up and leave me alone! Lets PRETEND we have freedom in this country and I can do what I want as long as I don’t hit/steal from you. I don’t care if YOU don’t want to eat bacon because GOD commanded it…I’m not IN you F**KNUT religion. I get to eat bacon. I get to use alcohol. I get to work on the Sabbath. I get to use electricity. And I should get to marry my partner of 15 years (longer than most straight marriages).
Just because you whiny bitches “don’t like it” isn’t good enough reason. I “don’t like” conservatives and think you’re immoral and damage America, but I don’t think you should be banned from getting married (hmmm) or existing. Just like the insane family from the Westboro Baptist Church, you just put up with the crazy.
I’m another one who played “Smear the Queer” as a kid way back when, but I was so sheltered, I didn’t even know what a “queer” was. I think I assumed it was a synonym for “weirdo”.
re 10: AND, I get to draw pictures of Mohammed.
Similar origin, no doubt, to the “Pencil Necked Geek” tune we were all laughing at a few years ago.
Howie Long doesn’t fit in a Chevy.
Poster Child @6,
Was that the same class in which the teacher apologetically explained that evolution was just a “theory” before teaching it, so as not to offend any fundies?
@4
I take it Proud Communist got his ass kicked near the swing sets on a weekly basis….
it should have toughened you up – but I guess not.
Fag!
Focus on the Family says: “We are very interested in your kid if he’s gay.”
Maxie @ 16
You’re not a terribly perceptive fellow. I never got beat up. I exchanged blows on a couple occasions, but that’s it. What’s your excuse for detesting humankind?
@ 18
He’s Dutch.
I never heard that, I just know that at parents night I was making small talk with Kasey Keller (Oh My God, it’s Kasey Keller!!!) when my ex decided it was time to discuss administrative minutae… Thanks a lot!
Perhaps she (the teacher last year) was simply being rigorous, as in:
“Some scientific explanations are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them. The explanation becomes a scientific theory. In everyday language a theory means a hunch or speculation. Not so in science. In science, the word theory refers to a comprehensive explanation of an important feature of nature supported by facts gathered over time. Theories also allow scientists to make predictions about as yet unobserved phenomena.” National Academy of Sciences (2005), Science, Evolution, and Creationism.
or maybe not…
19
South African Dutch, not Holland Dutch.
oh poor proud communist, your great collective hive mentality is ripe for raising endless generations of girly-men with no balls, no spine, and pride – its no wonder you feel a need to rely on the nanny state.
FFS, grow a sack….
and it would be Holland Dutch….lol
Dutch,
There is a great difference between being tough and being stupid. Playground bullies are typically the guys who happen to have hit their growth spurts a little sooner than the other kids, or who happen to just be naturally a little bigger. If three such people team up to pick on a kid who is smaller than any of them, what is your solution.
Furthermore, even if it is only 1 person picking on someone else, and he outweighs the other kid by more than 15 or 20 pounds, it would be lunacy to get in a fight. Do you understand that there are weight classes in professional fighting sports for a reason? Floyd Mayweather may be an awesome fighter, but he would get his clock cleaned by any number of heavyweights with vastly inferior skills simply because of the laws of physics.
To put this another way, if Brock Lesner, Ken Shamrock, and Ray Lewis started picking a fight with you at the local 7-11, what would you do? I guess you are basically fucked in this instance. If you say you will stand and fight, then you are basically committing the rest of your adult life to living in a coma. And if you don’t fight, then you don’t have ‘balls’.
For the rest of us, we are glad that we live in a civilized society where we call 911. I would have no problem doing so, and wouldn’t consider this a lack of ‘balls’ on my part.
23
There you go, trying to reason with Maxie. Maxie doesn’t like reason. Facts hurt his head. Best to just let him live in his little walled-off world where he is emperor.
Focus on the Family and other far right organizations are the ones forcing their disgusting values down everybody’s throat.
They want to take back their country and their values – why is it their country? Their values? They do not represent the majority of Americans and yet, because they yell the loudest and shout every dissenting voice down, they think they get to decide.
Homophobes, assholes, all.
John Wayne didn’t know how to throw a punch. They were these wide roundhouse punches that you could easily deflect on the inside with your forearm and then use your fingers (on the same arm) to stiffen and jab all five in his eyes.
That’s what I’d do.
@ 27
Yeah, he would have made a great Stooge.