Letters! We Get Letters: Stacey Campfield's "Don't Say Gay" Bill Edition

So, way back at the first of March, I wrote a post [HERE] about Tennessee asshat Stacey Campfield and his proposed "Don't Say Gay" legislation, in which elementary and middle school teachers would not be allowed to mention the word gay, er, well, Campfield uses the word 'homosexuality', focusing on the word 'sex', in any classroom, anywhere, any time, ever.

And I got a few responses, mostly from people thinking with a full deck. But, imagine my surprise when, just last night, I got a response of a different color from 'Anonymous,' who apparently gets around because I see his, or her name, on a lot of blogs.

Anyhow, 'Anonymous' took umbrage with some of the things I said, and decided to set me, er, straight, so let's listen in:

Anonymous:

"I would just like to say that you are really throwing around alot of mud with your name-calling. In addition, you are taking everything Mr. Campbell says out of context."

To be fair, Anonymous realized after posting this comment that it was Stacey Campfield, and not Stacey Campbell, because he or she came back to tell me that it was Campfield and not Campbell. But, about the name-calling. i called Campfield a wingnut, twice, and an asshat, once--to be fair, I misspelled asshat as ashat, but still.......I failed to call him a fucktard. I failed to call him a douchenozzle. I failed to call him a dumbass homophobic moronic knuckle-dragging pigfucking loser.

So, I deserve some credit for my restraint. But, 'Anonymous' goes on:

"He says that controversial issues like this should be dealt with 'in the home'--not nonexistent "until high school" as you put it."

Hey, 'Anon', homosexuality isn't a controversial issue. It's a sexual orientation just like heterosexuality, and when Campfield says it shouldn't be said, discussed, uttered at no time, in elementary and middle schools, that means it is a 'non-existent- topic until high school. You'll understand this when you get to high school, fingers crossed.
Still, it goes on:

"And as Campbell also said: the gays he has had "civil" conversations with about the bill agree with him. As he also described to them (not direct quotation): how would you feel if a teacher was allowed to say that homosexuality is evil or an abomination? This bill would prevent that as well."

Of course he calls the conversations with gays who agree with him civil, yet he doesn't seem to mention one single gay person who agrees with him. And, while it's nice to say teachers can't call being gay an abomination, the mere fact that they cannot discuss it all makes it seem shadowy and suspect to their students. And what about the gay kid? See, gay folks are born gay, and even in elementary school gay kids suspect they are gay. But then they're made to feel less than because they, and their families, aren't discussed. And what about the kid with two mommies or two daddies? They are made to feel invisible as well. Yeah, that's a nice way to educate people.
Look, the Holocaust was ugly and nasty, so, let's not discuss that either.
And it goes on:

"So, really, this bill IS neutral. It helps both sides by keeping such controversial and personal issues out of the school classroom."

First off, 'Anonymous,' neutrality is non-existent, which is another way of saying gays don't exist. We do. We have. We will. And just because some wingnut in Tennessee, and a wingnut with an 'Anonymous' fetish doesn't like it, doesn't make it so. Campfield called being gay controversial. It isn't. He also called it a personal choice. It isn't. Unless you think people like Stacey Campfield, and yourself, for that matter, choose to be straight. And, if you did choose your hetero-ness, please tell me when and where and how you came to that realization?
Then 'Anonymous' brings in God and Christianity:

"Plus, now you know how Christians feel when they try to discuss Creation or a Young Earth instead of evolution in the classroom. I don't see you standing up for that kind of equality; oh wait, that's probably because it doesn't contrast what YOU yourself believe right?"

Hey wingnut. Pay attention, You can go to a church, or a religious school and read all about Creationism, and Adam and Eve, and a boat large enough to hold two of every single animal on Earth--except for the poor unicorns--on it.
Public school is not a church-sanctioned education,. There is, still, in this country, a separation of church and state for a reason, so wingnuts like you do not impose your ideas on anyone else. But, that's what you want.
I say, you wanna learn about Creationism, go to a religious school, go to church, but public schools teach s-c-i-e-n-c-e.
And then 'Anonymous' goes off the deep end, blaming all the ills of the country on abortion and homosexuality:

"And to everyone who thinks this issue isn't somehow tied to our failing economy. . .Have you ever thought that maybe the Bible is right, and that because our nation blatantly goes against God's Word--about moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, etc.--that this is the reason our country is plummeting into massive chaos?"

Seriously? God caused the failing economy because of abortion and homosexuality?
Um, homosexuality has been around for thousands of years, so why did God wait until 2011 to get all anti-gay. And, if she was so pissed off about abortion, which has been legal in this country for decades, what took her so long to get mad?
And, if God gets all pissy about moral issues, um, yeah, what about punishing Germany after Hitler killed 6 millions Jews? Was God too busy back then? What about the genocides going on all over the world? Has God got better things to do than to punish those people responsible for killing millions more?
I guess, for you, the only immoral things God cares about are a woman's legal right to choose, and people being born gay.
Your God doesn't care about the rest.
My god, little g, is love.
So, in closing, 'Anonymous', if you and your ilk, and by ilk, I mean the Stacey Campfields of the world, don't like the idea of gay people, don't be gay. You don't like abortion, don't have one. But do not attempt to tell me that not allowing the word 'gay' to be uttered in schools isn't a form of discrimination.
It is.