An overwhelming majority on the D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, sending the District deeper into the national debate and galvanizing supporters on both sides of the issue.Is this a great day or what? Maine -- Washington State -- DC. Wow!The measure, approved by a vote of 12 to 1, now goes to Mayor Arian M. Fenty (D), a supporter of gay marriage.
If Fenty signs it, the District will put the same-sex marriage issue directly before the Congress. Under Home Rule, the District's laws are subject to a 30-day congressional review period.
I've gotta dash, so I hope others will feel free to augment this diary.
Over the weekend, the website knowthyneighbor.org revealed that Mike Duke signed a petition to put an anti-gay adoption ban on the ballot in Arkansas. (Mike Duke's signature below was pulled off the actual PDF provided by the Secretary of State.)
We still don't know a huge amount about Mike Duke. We know that he has donated to conservative, uber-religious Republicans like Mike Huckabee and John Boozman - as well as John McCain for President in 2008. We know that he has never shown that his political agenda is out of line with the Waltons - who selected him to succeed Lee Scott as the 4th CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Why does this matter ? Because the extreme right-wing agenda of the Walton Family and company executives permeates the entire company.
If you're a longtime Bilerico reader, you might remember that before we launched nationally one of our categories was "Wal-Mart Sucks" and I posted often about the retail giant's many transgrensgressions. In a Wal-Mart flashback after the jump there's a parody video from 2005 when Garth Brooks signed a deal with the megastore. It's called, "I Got Friends With Low Wages."
Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute, says the [San Francisco Unified School District] is excluding parents on this issue."What about parents? Can parents opt [their child] out?" she asks. "And the explanation that they give is that, no, they can't opt out. [They say they] are under no obligation to even let them know because this is not sex education -- and that's all the law requires [them] to do."
England says children as young as kindergarten in the Golden State are exposed to the LGBTQ agenda through the website. "And that [includes] transgender policy that allows boys, as young as kindergarten, to go into girls' restrooms [or to] play on girls' s ports teams if they perceive themselves to be girls," she explains.
"And [it includes] curriculum -- that is as young as kindergarten -- that explains homophobia, explains the word 'gay,'" England adds. The vocabulary link at the website also defines terms such as "bisexual," "gender identity" ("Everyone has a gender identity," it says), and "transgender."
Ah yes. We don't exclude training on heterosexual parentage from the curriculum because it's traditional marriage embraced by conservative "Christians."
And, even though the American Medical Association states that trans people shouldn't be discriminated against, the American Psychological Asal Association states that trans people shouldn't be discriminated against, and the National Education Association believes that a great public school is a fundamental right of every child -- free from intimidation and harassment, and safe for all students -- including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) -- and yet Karen England of the Capitol Resource Institute believes the parents of non-LGBT children should be able to dictate, on behalf of the State of California, when the non-sexual aspects of LGBT parents and children lives should be able to be discussed in the classroom, to include bathroom use.
Should we apply the same rules for discussing the non-sexual aspects of conservative "Christian," heterosexual parents and children too, to include bathroom use? Should I, as an LGBT taxpayer in California, be able to demand the same standards that Karen England wishes to impose on one minority population who uses the public school system on all populations who use the public school system?
Talk about wanting "special rights" ... That sure sounds to me what Karen England wants for conservative "Christians" -- she wants conservative "Christians" to have the special right of deciding what is acceptable and not acceptable in the school system for all students.
When conservative "Christian" Jesus is your co-pilot, I guess you can feel that as a parent you should have "special rights" over other parents and other students who aren't in your group -- right Karen?
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