Gays, Bullying, Christianity: In The Media

It seems that we might be going really harsh on the Jews with all this homosexuality business. Perhaps we are forgetting all the other religions out there. I am not saying that two wrongs make a right, I'm just saying, there's more out there. Anyways, I was just watching TV when this issue came to my attention. What a coincidence that the Leviticus passukim I saw on the screen were very familiar...

"Matt's Safe School Law" is supposed to be an anti-bullying law in Michigan. It is named after a student, Matt, who had committed suicide some years ago because he got bullied because he was gay. How odd, then, that the legislation against bullying named after him seems to have all too many loopholes.

I have researched the Issue and have pulled up some articles. I'll put in little blurbs but you're welcome to click the links and read the full articles.

Huffington Post:

"Michigan's recent anti-bullying bill debate has moved one step forward and two steps back for actual protection against bullying in the state's schools. The anti-bullying bill, is named "Matt's Safe School Law" for Matt Epling of East Lansing, Michigan who committed suicide after being bullied. Like all anti-bullying efforts, the goal of the bill is to protect those who are vulnerable to attack and create a safer and more humane environment for all children in schools.

Unfortunately, the state's Senate Republicans added language to the bill to establish that schools could not prohibit "a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian."

What kind of 'sincerely held belief' would lead someone to bully? The clause added by the Republican Senators is none-too-subtly coded language specifically aimed at protecting anti-LGBT intimidation and hostility; cloaked in the rhetoric of freedom of religion.

...

Laws to protect religious freedom should be aimed at leaving religious people alone to practice our beliefs in what ever way we choose. Yet they must simultaneously protect the LGBT school child to practice his or her beliefs in whatever way he or she chooses -- including ways that others may disagree with. Nobody has the right to harass and bully.

Any anti-bullying legislation must be the same for all people. Get rid of the loophole for religious beliefs. It is insulting and wrong."

Time Magazine:  

"Michigan is already one of only three states in the country that have not enacted any form of anti-bullying legislation. For more than a decade, Democrats in the state legislature have fought their Republican colleagues and social conservatives such as Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, who referred to anti-bullying measures as “a Trojan horse for the homosexual agenda.” In that time, at least ten Michigan students who were victims of bullying have killed themselves.

This year, Republicans only agreed to consider an anti-bullying measure that did not require school districts to report bullying incidents, did not include any provisions for enforcement or teacher training, and did not hold administrators accountable if they fail to act. And they fought back Democratic attempts to enumerate particular types of students who are prone to being bullied, such as religious and racial minorities, and gay students. But it was the addition of special protections for religiously-motivated bullying that led all 11 Democratic senators to vote against the legislation they had long championed

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To understand what happened in Michigan, it’s important to know that social conservatives consider themselves the real victims. At the federal level, they unsuccessfully fought for the inclusion of a provision protecting religious freedom when Congress expanded the definition of a hate crime to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. They also strongly oppose legislation that would prevent discrimination against gay individuals in the workplace, charging that such a law would endanger religious freedom. A report on the Christian Broadcasting Network outlined one such concern: “The special protections for gay and transgendered teachers will make it extremely difficult for [public school] districts that might want to remove them from the classroom.”

In other words, social conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination. That’s stating it harshly, but it is the underlying belief.

This belief, however, relies on a warped understanding of religious liberty. Freedom of religious expression doesn’t give someone the right to kick the crap out of a gay kid or to verbally torment her. It doesn’t give someone the right to fire a gay employee instead of dealing with the potential discomfort of working with him.

It’s also a highly selective conception of religious liberty. The same religious conservatives who applaud the religious exemption in Michigan’s anti-bullying bill would be appalled if it protected a Muslim student in Dearborn who defended bullying a Christian classmate by saying he considered her an infidel."

 Here's another Huffington

If anyone got this far, God bless. Additionally, I have some questions

- America: I thought you were supposed to be a place of equality and acceptance? Remember when you guys wanted a separation of church and state? Lies!

-See. Well, here is some proof for you guys that it is difficult to be gay. I know there was much debate in class about, you know, "Does it really ruin your life?" Well, it does. And it starts early on. Kids are stuck with the choice: come out and be tortured or stay in and feel empty? Either way it's bad, whether on a social level or on a religious level. Oy vey.