Beware of Homosexual Martians

The real ignition point for the Montgomery County sex ed curriculum, the thing that really brought the nuts out, was the part about sexual orientation. The schools were going to teach kids that some people are gay. That some are bisexual. Teachers were even going to get a definition for the word "transgender." The class about families was going to mention that some families have two dads or two moms.

Oh, this drove them crazy! You'd think everybody in the world was just waiting to jump off the heterosexual ship, if only somebody would give them permission. You'd think all our kids were gonna turn gay as soon as they heard about this. You'd think it was a great assault on morality and decency, that students in school would be exposed to the fact that some people fall in love with someone of their own sex.

It's mostly blown over now. There are a few holdouts, and we know the lawyers are lurking, watching for some reason to sue the school district. But that's all that's left of this, there is no real popular support for anti-gay hatred in the county.

Gene Stone puts it quite well on Huffington Post this morning -- here's his whole column:

You know the world is getting very strange when you find yourself feeling good about being accused of child molestation.

The other day one of the organizers for the far, far right-wing organization Renew America explained that homosexuals enjoy having sex with babies.

"The newest thing in Chicago, it's becoming a trend, and you're gonna find this hard to believe...sex with infants," said Guy Adams on an Internet radio show hosted by fellow far, far right-wing conservative Stacy L. Harp.

Renew America is run by Alan Keyes, whose far, far right-wing positions are considered too far, far right-wing for even the far right-wing. Like the other members of their ilk, such as Fred Phelps, who pickets the funerals of American soldiers because they fought for a country that doesn't kill homosexuals before it kills terrorists--Keyes and his organization have been fighting gays whenever, however, and wherever they can.

(Keyes own lesbian daughter came out not long ago, but that didn't stop Keyes' fury against gays--he simply disowned the poor girl.)

So says Keyes' lackey Adams said in his interview, "...Now they're having sex with animals, a small group that's getting bigger, sex with infants...it's just getting more and more perverted."

Here's the good news: There was a time when simply telling the truth about homosexuality was enough to shock and awe. Men having sex with other men, women being in love with other women: Just a few decades ago, simply saying that someone was homosexual caused irreparable damage to that person's career.

Today, however, the majority of Americans have accepted the reality that homosexuality is genetically determined; it is not a choice, it appears throughout nature, and frankly, if two adults fall in love with each other, it doesn't matter what gender they are. Although older Americans still don't approve of homosexual relations, a solid majority of younger ones do, and it will only take another generation before fairness and tolerance become the norm rather than the exception.

The homophobes are fully aware they are a dying breed. They are aware that telling the truth about gays does no one any good. Simply saying that something like, let's say, "Lance Bass is a homosexual" will not end the singer's career. That statement is true, it was a recent People magazine cover story and it's the best publicity Mr. Bass has enjoyed since his former band, 'N Sync, disbanded--and it's certainly better than when Mr. Bass said, not long ago, that he wanted to go to the moon (which some people interpreted as his first attempt at coming out).

This being the case, the rightwing is being forced to invent bizarre lies, as in gays lining up to have sex with infants. So what's the next accusation? Gays having sex with Osama Bin Laden? Gays having sex with aliens in an attempt to repopulate the earth with homosexual Martians? Gays having sex with the daughter of the vice-president of the United States?

Actually, it's hard to do worse than accuse someone of having sex with infants--which may be a strange signal that the far right's persecution of homosexuals is foundering. The fact that the rightwing has to lay it on so thick is an indication that gays are winning the battle for acceptance. The truth is no longer shocking. Lies may be--but not for long, since in the long run, that's all they are, just lies. Sex, Infants, Wingnuts, and Hope

In our sex-ed controversy, you often wondered why, if the classes were so bad, the CRC had to make stuff up. They would say it promoted promiscuity, or glamorized homosexuality, or this and that, but you never could find any of that in the actual curriculum. Our argument always came back to this: read the curriculum and see for yourself.