Gay-bias ban in schools OK’d
TEXTBOOK BILL FACES POSSIBLE GOVERNOR’S VETO
SACRAMENTO – The state Assembly approved legislation Monday designed to bar discrimination in public schools against gay, bisexual and transgender people, retreating from an earlier proposal that would have required schools to teach students about the contributions of prominent gay people.
Current law prohibits instruction, school activities and textbooks that reflect poorly on people on the basis of their race, sex, national origin and other characteristics. The bill, which passed on a partisan 46-31 vote, would add sexual orientation to that list.
But even the scaled-back bill faces a possible veto by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is working to appease conservatives as he campaigns for re-election. The governor’s press secretary said he opposes any legislation that would “micromanage” the selection of public school textbooks.
“Our understanding,” said Margita Thompson, “is that there are still parts of the legislation that would impact what goes into textbooks.”
Some Republican lawmakers called the legislation an effort to promote homosexuality in schools.
Public schools “are turning into institutions of social experimentation and it is dangerous for our young people,” said Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia. “We’ll no longer have prom kings and queens. Jack and Jill can no longer walk up the hill.”
the link is here.
So why is censorship only bad when conservatives do it???? Does no one see this as a threat to free speech with long term consequences down the road????
Sorry, but I feel the radical gay rights movements and other liberal groups are not only a threat to free speech, but I also feel the gay rights movement and other liberal groups are hostile to Christian values. ……for if the law was interpreted strictly, one could theoretically ban the Bible……
And these forces are winning here in MD.
Georgetown kicks out outside ministries
I know the Georgetown story has nothing to do with gay rights, but I feel it is another example of a growing hostility to religion I believe spread by groups like the above.
And imagine if they banned a gay group, it would be all over the MSM, not just the conservative papers……
This is not the only example, don’t forget the JOHNS HOPKINS story….
a further reminder of liberal dedication to free speech
so it appears someone has noticed the Johs Hopkins censorship……..
Student Newspaper Suffers Viewpoint Discrimination at Johns Hopkins University
BALTIMORE, June 12, 2006–Johns Hopkins University (JHU) ended this school year by engaging in shameful viewpoint discrimination and denying its students freedom of the press. First, JHU turned a blind eye to the theft of a conservative student newspaper, The Carrollton Record (TCR), then stifled its right to distribute in dorms while allowing other papers to continue distributing there. TCR staff members contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) soon after these administrative abuses began.
“Freedom of the press and the freedom to distribute literature are vital liberties that should not be denied to JHU students,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “Theft and confiscation of a newspaper threaten the very marketplace of ideas upon which a university depends and should be condemned, not accepted.”
TCR’s May issue contained an article objecting to a recent campus appearance by pornographic film director Chi Chi LaRue. The cover photo pictured LaRue along with members of JHU’s Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance (DSAGA) student group, which hosted the event. The pictured DSAGA members were apparently displeased to see their pictures on the newspaper’s front page, and some have filed harassment charges against TCR staffers.
On May 14, approximately 600 copies of TCR that had been distributed to the library the previous day went missing. TCR editor Jered Ede attempted to report the theft, but told FIRE that a security officer and the Dean of Student Life both said that the missing papers did not constitute theft. Ede then learned that TCR would no longer be allowed to distribute in dorms and that administrators had confiscated 300 copies. Previously, TCR and numerous other publications–including the liberal Hopkins Donkey–had regularly been distributed in JHU dorms, some of which even have distribution racks expressly for this purpose.
TCR staffers contacted FIRE, which wrote in protest to JHU president William Brody on May 19. JHU counsel Frederick Savage defended JHU’s actions by saying that student publications are subject to the posting policy, which demands that posters and fliers be approved by the Office of Residential Life before being posted in dorms. Savage wrote to FIRE, “Although it is not explicitly stated in the policy, by long standing practice the Office of Residential Life has applied the [posting] policy to student publications.”
“This is a shocking and disturbing admission, if true,” commented Lukianoff. “Not only would such a policy subject student newspapers to prior official review, but it appears to have been selectively enforced to silence unpopular opinions. By granting its officials the unfettered power to ‘approve’ newspapers, JHU is giving them the power to arbitrarily censor.”
Savage’s letter to FIRE also stated that since TCR “is free of charge and there is no limitation on the number of copies one can take, any charge of theft would be difficult to sustain.” Newspaper theft, however, is a prevalent form of mob censorship, which should be anathema at any institution that values free speech. Furthermore, after a 1994 rash of newspaper thefts at colleges across Maryland –including JHU–the state passed a law making newspaper theft illegal.
Newspaper theft is not the only threat to college and university student press freedom, which has increasingly come under attack by administrators. FIRE reported last year that Stetson University in Florida banned the distribution of the conservative student publication Common Sense because it contained a joke from the Tonight Show that administrators claimed “targeted” minority students. Stetson administrators even tried to jeopardize the paper’s financial stability by scaring off its advertisers. FIRE’s involvement, however, pressured Stetson to abandon its ban on Common Sense, securing the paper’s right to publish without administrative interference.
“FIRE will continue to fight until student press freedom is safe from administrators who encourage or permit censorship to take place. JHU’s indifference to freedom of the press is disgraceful. JHU students deserve better,” concluded Lukianoff
from Fire
This is not the only paper to be banned. And just to remind you of the attacks on Coulter’s book and the anti-Bible hate speech legislation in Canada. And who gave us political correctness, the modern version of newspeak?
So who is the threat to free speech now?
I just want to say again, I don’t hate gays and actually think they should have the same rights as us save changing the definition of Marriage. But I also believe too many of them are hostile to my values and wish to fundamentally change the structure of our society, even at the cost of some of our rights.
Liberals are tolerant of only liberal opinions guys, don’t let them turn traditional values into a hate crime….
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