As I noted yesterday, the Itawamba Agricultural High School prom was canceled because Constance McMillen wanted to take her girlfriend and to wear a tuxedo. The school board encouraged community members to host a private prom. The American Humanist Association has met their challenge, though not in the way they likely anticipated. The AHA will host an LGBT inclusive prom.
For Immediate Release
(Washington, DC, March 12, 2010) The American Humanist Association (AHA) stepped forward today and offered to plan and fund a prom for the Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Mississippi. The Itawamba County School District made headlines earlier this week by cancelling their prom rather than letting a lesbian student, Constance McMillen, bring her girlfriend as her date.
“It’s shameful that closed-minded members of the school board are prepared to deprive an entire class of students their prom over their outdated religious mores.” said Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the AHA. “People can hold to any belief or no belief in this nation, but the school board misuses their position when they try to impose their beliefs on the student population in Itawamba.”
McMillen was barred from the prom after making it known that she intended to bring a same-sex date. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi became involved and demanded the school reverse its policy. The school board responded by cancelling the prom.
“The ACLU is doing good work in Mississippi, and we humanists can also bring resources to the table that will defend students from a repressive school board,” added Speckhardt. “Prom is a special event for teens across America; we’ll make sure it’s a special night for these students as well.”
AHA members Todd and Diana Steifel made a $20,000 grant available to the AHA for the purpose of holding a prom in Itawamba County. The AHA will be discussing logistics with the pertinent parties today.
Humanists and freethinkers have a history of speaking up for the rights of all. The AHA was among the first to support civil rights, equal pay for equal work, and the right of same-sex couples to marry. Recently the AHA launched the LGBT Humanist Council to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families.
The American Humanist Association advocates for the rights and viewpoints of humanists. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., its work is extended through more than 100 local chapters and affiliates across America.
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity.
I can’t wait to see the photos. And kudos to the American Humanist Association for their generosity!
This really doesn’t surprise me considering it took until 2008 for Charleston, MS, to have a racially integrated prom (and for all I know there are still towns in MS that are holding racially segregated proms). But now an Itawamba school has not only refused to allow a lesbian couple to attend the prom, they’ve actually canceled the prom to keep the girls from attending as a couple.
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi county school board announced Wednesday it would cancel its upcoming prom after a gay student petitioned to bring a same-sex date to the event.
“Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year,” school board members said in a statement.
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Apparently LGBT students standing up for their rights are now “distractions”.
In the announcement, the school board encouraged the community to organize a private prom. “It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone,” the statement concluded. School officials did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The announcement alarmed McMillen.
“Oh, my God. That’s really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one,” she said. “A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this.”
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Of course they want the other students to blame the victims, for then they’ll be absolved of any guilt for their own actions. But then that’s pretty much the RRRW way–do something then pin the blame on someone–anyone–else. Blame the victim, Satan, God, demons or anyone but themselves.
ACLU of Mississippi issued a letter demanding the district change its policy. The letter gave it until Wednesday to decide on a course of action.
The ban on same-sex dates is a violation of McMillen’s constitutional rights, said Sun, the ACLU’s senior attorney on gay rights. “We believe the law is pretty clear,” Sun said. “The school just can’t arbitrarily say you have to bring an opposite date to the prom.”
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In today’s legal complaint, the ACLU asks the court to reinstate the prom for all students and charges that the First Amendment guarantees students’ right to bring same-sex dates to school dances and cites cases holding that other parties’ objections don’t justify censorship. The ACLU also said that the school further violates McMillen’s free expression rights by telling her that she can’t wear a tuxedo to the prom.
“It’s shameful and cowardly of the school district to have canceled the prom and to try to blame Constance, who’s only standing up for herself. We will fight tooth and nail for the prom to be reinstated for all students,” said Christine P. Sun, Senior Counsel with the ACLU national LGBT Project, who represents McMillen along with the ACLU of Mississippi.
The ACLU will ask the court in the next few days to grant McMillen a preliminary injunction ordering the school to reinstate the April 2 prom, let McMillen and her girlfriend go to the prom together, and let McMillen wear a tuxedo to the event.
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I wish them success. Constance and her girlfriend deserve the right to attend their prom along with everyone else.
The RRRWers are constantly screaming about children being “taught gay marriage” in schools. They go into a frenzy any time a school implements a non-discrimination program that attempts to teach students that it’s bad to bully LGBT people. For at least two months before the annual Day of Silence they rend their garments and make outrageous claims about the student’s silence “disrupting” classes and indoctrinating others into the “homosexual lifestyle”. Why do they do all of this?
It’s that simple. Children who haven’t been taught to hate aren’t bigots. It’s only when they are indoctrinated with lies like “god says gays are bad” and “there’s only one acceptable type of family” that the bigotries take root. And, of course, the RRRWers don’t want all of their hard work undone by some lib’rul school system that teaches crazy things like “do unto others”. That’s not something Jesus would have espoused.
So while they rant about the schools “indoctrinating” their children into homosexuality they actually fear just the opposite. They fear their children will be un-indoctrinated, and begin to reject the dogma they’ve been fed from the time they were born. They fear their children will see through all of the lies they’ve been told about LGBT people and their families. And then the children will begin to wonder what other lies their parents have told them…
Update: Due to a barrage of hateful comments from YouTube users the owners of the video have decided to make it “private”. However a transcript of the video is available.
White House officials met with secularist and atheist groups for the first time in history. Of course since religious groups have lost their exclusive access to the WH they must have tantrums over the event.
The supporters of Proposition 8 realize how poorly their side argued their case in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger. So now, like monkeys, they are pulling yet more poo out of their backsides and flinging it in hopes that something will stick to the wall.
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The potential harms they cited included giving bisexuals a legal basis for pursuing group marriages and unmarried fathers an incentive to abandon their children.
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Bisexual means a person can be romantically and sexually attracted to either gender. It doesn’t mean they’re inclined to fall in love with both at the same time. Of course the bigots like to push the notion that it’s the latter because then they can also pimp their slippery slope fallacy. OMG, if we allow same-sex marriage it might lead to POLYGAMY!!! Yeah, and people might start squeezing the Charmin too. Please people, protect the toilet paper and vote NO on Gay.
As to the claim that same-sex marriage would give unmarried fathers an incentive to abandon their children…that’s pure horsecrap. There are already millions of “deadbeat dads” out there and it has absolutely nothing to do with same-sex marriage. It’s high time that heterosexual people stop blaming gay people and gay unions for the failings of heterosexual relationships.
A student in a Maryland middle school refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Her teacher mocked her and called her names on the first day, and had the school police escort her to the office on the second day. It’s a good thing the girl wasn’t doodling on her desk….
Yet another Christian is crying “persecution” and filing a lawsuit because he thinks they shouldn’t have to share public space with others, or be pestered with the opinions of those who think differently. Perhaps a secured commune would be a better place for him.
Finally, this “Christian” charity will stop providing aid to Haiti if they won’t turn from their evil Voodoo ways and convert to Christianity. This is exactly why I despise most “faith based” charities–they don’t truly want to help but only to push their religion on others. The aid they provide is only a vehicle to gain more bodies for their god. There is nothing moral about what they do.
Do not hold back discipline from the child,
Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. Proverbs 23:13
That verse has been heartily embraced by many ultra-conservative religious parents and groups, particularly those who follow the teachings of individuals like James Dobson, Debi and Michael Pearl, or Jack Hyles. Many children have been harmed and even killed by parents using the “godly discipline” that’s nothing more than sadistic child abuse.
Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz apparently are of the “spare the rod, spoil the child” mindset. They are in jail after one of their adopted daughters died and the other was hospitalized following an alleged extensive “discipline” session.
OROVILLE — A fundamentalist religious philosophy that espouses corporal punishment to “train” children to be more obedient to their parents and God is now being investigated in connection with the death of a young Paradise girl and serious injuries to her sister.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey confirmed Thursday that other children in the home who have been interviewed told investigators “this philosophy was espoused by their parents.”
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In court Thursday, a judge granted a two-week postponement before the children’s parents, Kevin Schatz, 46, and Elizabeth Schatz, 42, enter a plea to murder and torture charges that could carry two life terms in prison.
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The Schatzes were arrested Saturday morning after their adopted daughter, Lydia, age 7, stopped breathing. She was subsequently pronounced dead.
Her 11-year-old sister, Zariah Schatz, remains in critical condition at a Sacramento children’s hospital, though she is showing some signs of recovery. The two were adopted at the same time with an infant girl, now 3, from the same African orphanage about three years ago,
Prosecutors allege the two victims were subjected to “hours” of corporal punishment by their parents on successive days last Thursday and Friday with a quarter-inch-wide length of rubber or plastic tubing, which police reportedly recovered from the parents’ bedroom.
Police allege that the younger girl was being disciplined for mis-pronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson the day before she died.
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He said investigators are researching a possible connection to an Internet Web site set up by “fundamentalist Christian people” that recommends use of the same whip-like implement “as an appropriate tool for biblical chastisement … to train a child from infancy to make them a happier child and more obedient to God because they are obedient to the will of their parents,” said Ramsey.
The district attorney said some of the Schatzes’ six biological children, who were removed from the family home for their protection following the parents’ arrest, have made statements suggesting the ridge couple shared this philosophy.
The other children in the home said the same rubber or plastic tube was used on all of them “as a standard method of discipline, but certainly not to the extent of these two girls,” Ramsey added.
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Why we continue to allow “biblical punishment” to be promoted in any way is beyond me. Some people try to frame it as religious freedom and parental rights (generally code-speak for “I own my child and can do whatever I want to him/her no matter what you bleeding hearts say”). It is not. It is clear-cut child abuse.
Some Montgomery County high schools passed out fliers this week from an organization that contends gays can become heterosexual through therapy, and the schools say they cannot prevent the use of their distribution system by such groups.
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The schools are required to distribute literature that isn’t deemed hate speech from any registered nonprofit organization four times a year, the result of a 2006 lawsuit, said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Schools.
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“These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum, but that curriculum focuses on respect, and we respect freedom of speech,” said Patricia O’Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase), president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.
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She admits that what PFOX is pushing contradicts the health curriculum. Then she mentions “respect”, but where is the respect for the LGBT students who are being told they are broken, flawed, deviant creatures who need to “change” in order to please others? Once again the health and safety of LGBT citizens takes a back seat to the perceived rights of others to abuse them.
But hey, if it’s only about free speech and presenting alternative ideas to kids then when can we send the kids home with fliers telling them they can become Ex-Christians?
It should seem self evident that rape wouldn’t lead to positive results, but sadly some misguided and downright hateful people seem to think that it is an acceptable form of “correction” for gay and lesbian individuals. They believe this so fervently that they’ll even have it done to their own children. So much for “family values”.
A ROCKHAMPTON dad is accused of forcing his son to have sex with a prostitute because he feared the 14-year-old was gay.
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The prostitute took the boy into a motel room while the father waited on a balcony.
The dad walked in and out of the room to check on his son and told him he wanted to see a used condom as proof that they’d had sex. After the boy and the prostitute had finished the dad took his son home.
A magistrate yesterday found there was enough evidence against the father for him to stand trial for the rape of his son.
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He’s got my vote for Father of the Year. Not.
Sky News has found evidence of widespread abuse against the lesbian community - resulting in a new trend of so-called “corrective rape”.
In the the township of Khayelitsha, on the outskirts of Cape Town, Sky spoke to a group of women who said they live in fear of their lives.
All of them said they know someone who has been violently dragged off the streets and raped because they had come out as a lesbian.
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Desire Dudu told Sky she had come out as a lesbian but, in her view, in South African society you risk your life if you make your sexuality clear.
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One man roared with laughter as he said lesbians should be “whipped”. “There is no mention of lesbians in the bible,” he said.
They said they approved of lesbians being raped to “correct” them and to “teach them a lesson”.
They said “women should behave like women” and this was a way of “teaching” them that.
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Perhaps somebody could tell me how beating and raping women falls under the umbrella of “moral values”. Being a lowly atheist I need to have these things explained to me.
The Tea Party movement is supposed to be all about keeping the government out of your business. But if some California members get their way, the state will force public schoolchildren to sing Christmas carols.
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Merry Hyatt, a substitute teacher and member of the Redding Tea Party Patriots, is behind the push. The Record Searchlight reports:
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“We were having Christmas without Jesus,” Hyatt complained of her previous school district.
The initiative has the support of the local Tea Party Patriots president.
“Bottom line is Christmas is about Christmas,” said Erin Ryan, president of the Redding Tea Party Patriots. “That’s why we have it. It’s not about winter solstice or Kwanzaa. It’s like, ‘Wow you guys, it’s called Christmas for a reason.’ ”
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What can I say to such astounding ignorance and bigotry? Only a facepalm will do.
Why is it that when things like this happen (and they happen often) you never hear the RRRW types screaming for heterosexuality–or Christianity–to be banned?
….. Jenifer Stitzel, 34, faces two counts of third-degree sex abuse following a complaint from the boy’s parents last Saturday, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Tim Mueller said the boy’s parents recovered his cell phone after grounding him. That was when they discovered the sexual messages, Mueller said.
“They were the kind of thing that you might read in Penthouse Forum,” Mueller said. “They were X-rated.”
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He said Stitzel is also suspected of kissing the boy and having sexual contact with him on and off school grounds.
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Bill Donohue, certified bigot, recently appeared on The 700 Club. Among other things he made the claim that gay priests sexually abuse others at a higher rate than do heterosexual priests. Nothing new, of course. We’re used to being told gay=pedophile even though countless legitimate studies say otherwise. But facts have no place in the minds or the propaganda of bigots.
So they lie about it in the Catholic Church, they say “oh, we had a pedophilia problem.” It’s been a homosexual problem all along. It’s not my opinion, it’s the actual data from the John Jay Criminal Justice System College [sic] here in New York City which looked at the data. I’m not saying homosexuality causes predatory behavior; I’m saying that most of the priests who have been predators have been homosexuals.
Now that the preliminary report is out, how is Donohue going to react? Is he going to try to spin it as some vast, Leftist conspiracy against the Catholic Church? Is he going to claim John Jay College has been infiltrated by Homosexuals who want to destroy America? Or will he simply ignore reality in favor of his version of “The Truth”?
A preliminary report commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.
The full report by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won’t be completed until the end of next year. But the authors said their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.
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Yet, many experts on sex offenders reject any link between sexual orientation and committing abuse. Karen Terry, a John Jay researcher, said it was important to distinguish between sexual identity and behavior, and to look at who the offender had access to when seeking victims.
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