Kids like critters. Even the ones that say they don’t like them or who are scared of them are generally fascinated by them, if they can view them from an appropriate distance. So, of course, they make for great lessons — lessons the students won’t soon forget. After a day with non-human guests in the classroom, kids will rush home to breathlessly tell their parents that a lizard’s tail can grow back or that snakes lay eggs like a chicken. So why would anyone get upset about a lesson featuring geckos and clownfish?
Posts Tagged ‘glbt’
Fishes and Lizards and Snakes, Oh My!
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011Don’t Say Gay in Tennessee
Saturday, May 21st, 2011
I gather it’s not easy being gay in Tennessee. If you listen to country music, most of it seems to be about the value and nobility of small town life — hard labor, cheap beer, and church on Sunday. There’s not much room in there for difference, let alone anything not considered manly. It seems the rest of the state isn’t much different from Nashville’s music. The state senate has recently approved a bill that would prevent teachers from discussing anything related to homosexuality before the ninth grade.
Getting Kids to Stand Up
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Even one would be too many. Sadly, there were a dozen in one month last September and thousands more attempted. If those numbers were kids injured by a faulty toy, there would have been a nationwide recall by now. If those were kids who got pregnant before they were teens, there would by television specials and public outcry. What those numbers represent, however, is something far worse: teenagers committing or attempting suicide because of anti-LGBT bullying. These are kids who either are gay or are perceived to be and who are so tormented and alone that death seems their only option. Luckily, however, there are those working to put an end to this tragedy and some of those folks are kids themselves.
Florida Boys Get New Parents
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
It shouldn’t be news, actually. Foster kids get adopted all the time. Not as often as we’d all like, certainly, but it does happen. So why would anyone care that Martin Gill adopted his two foster children? Gill was the boys’ foster parent for 6 years before the adoption became final on Wednesday. But it’s not so much the adoption itself that’s noteworthy but the route Gill took to get there. You see, Martin Gill is gay and, until recently, Florida was the only state in the nation with a law on the books that barred homosexuals from adopting. That is no longer the case, thanks to Gill and the ACLU.
Your Marriage Is All About The Kids
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
According to Andrew Haines, writing in Ethika Politika, the blog of the Center for Morality in Public Life, without children, the whole point of marriage vanishes. That is, you and your spouse don’t actually love each other; you’re just in it for the good genes. While this is not a new theory (in fact, it is so old as to have been thoroughly debunked over and over again), Haines’ take on it is a novel one; he seems to be saying that if two people who cannot have children together are allowed to get married, everyone else’s marriage will fall apart.
Teenager Takes On Arizona Schools — All Of Them
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
It’s almost as if you can’t turn around, these days, without bumping into someone suing someone else over something that seems silly to everyone but the person suing and, possibly, the person being sued. Lawsuits involving kids and schools are no exception — parents seem to sue at the drop of a hat if they feel their precious snowflake has been slighted. Even so, if there really is a problem, sometimes a lawsuit — or the threat of one, anyway — is exactly what’s needed to make things happen. And so, Caleb Laieski has contacted school administrators in Arizona with the threat of a lawsuit if they don’t change their ways. That is, he contacted all of them.
The Video A Mother Should Never Have To Make
Friday, December 17th, 2010
Imagine losing a child — a teenager who is an intelligent, beautiful person with a great future ahead of them. Imagine losing that child not because of some accident of nature or incurable disease but because of something easily preventable. Imagine losing your child because of the thoughtlessness of their peers and the indifference of their teachers. Wendy Walsh doesn’t have to imagine it; she lives it every day.
Philadelphia Pays The Price For Discrimination
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Four years ago, the city of Philadelphia realized that they were giving a huge subsidy to a community organization to help them serve the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love even though that group systematically discriminated against a large part of the population. So the city told the Boy Scouts of America’s Cradle of Liberty council that they would either have to change their anti-LGBT policies or begin paying fair-market rent for the city-owned, half-acre property that the group had been using as their headquarters for nearly 80 years. Not surprisingly, the Boy Scouts didn’t like that.
Zero Percent Abuse
Friday, November 12th, 2010For years, hateful bigots have tried to associate gays and lesbians with pedophilia, claiming that gay and lesbian couples cannot possibly be allowed to be parents because it wouldn’t be safe for the children. It looks like these folks are going to have to find a new boogeyman, based on the results of a new report.
Moms and the Gay Kid
Friday, November 5th, 2010
There aren’t too many Halloween costumes I would forbid my kids from choosing. The more horrific costumes and characters are out, as are overtly sexual ones. Other than that, however, pretty much anything goes. I also have no problem with the kids crossing gender lines, if they so desire. My youngest loves putting on his older sister’s outgrown princess costumes and ballet skirts. I don’t have any problem with that, nor do a lot of other parents — including one who went so far as to write a book on the subject.
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