Thursday, July 09, 2009

NEA Fails To Make The Grade


The National Education Association [NEA] has adopted two resolutions calling for LGBT rights at its annual conference last week. The resolutions state that the organization opposes the “discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples and its belief that such couples should have the same legal rights and benefits as similarly-situated heterosexual couples.”

They also call for the “passage of a federal statute prohibiting federal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.”

However, the NEA falls short of asking for gay marriage and instead says: “NEA does not believe that a single term must be used to designate this legally recognized “equal treatment” relationship, and recommends that each state decide for itself whether “marriage,” “civil union,” “domestic partnership,” or some other term is most appropriate based upon the cultural, social, and religious values of its citizenry.”

One would think that of any group, the NEA should understand how words can be inclusive or exclusive, and to call the union of a gay couple anything less than marriage is exclusive.

It was a nice try, NEA, but you can do better.

I'll give you a B-minus.

3 comments:

  1. LOL at the grade. I'm not sure what grade I'd give them - I don't believe in grades...

    I knew, as soon as I heard about it, that nobody was going to be happy with them.

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  2. Which Republican was it who called the NEA a terrorist organization?

    If you knew a lot of teachers I've met and worked with, that's progress. Yes, NEA can do better about that and many other things.

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  3. And NEA could be stronger about the 14 states who withhold Soc sec benefits to teachers but not other public employees.
    I agree that the language is discriminatory by being exclusive. either for or against.Qualifying the same as against here.
    but we can't forget there are a lot of teachers among us who are against gay marriage themselves. so at least it's a move in the right direction.

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