kmw1123 said:
...It is simply a plan to show children that there are different ways of living and that being gay is nothing to be ashamed of.
Secondly, and most importantly, its about teaching children TOLERANCE.
As a teacher, I'm sure you realize there is a difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance". When you say that something is "simply a plan", many people don't think the plan is all that minor. Many people (let's call them the majority) think that acting on homosexuality IS something to be ashamed of. Call it a birth defect. "But, they were born that way" is a common reason to "accept" homosexuality. Well, I know someone who was born a cleptomaniac. She doesn't WANT to be a cleptomaniac, she was born that way. Should she be exempt from the laws? Should she be accepted for what she is? Nope, I don't think so. And, I don't want the schools to come up with "simply a plan to show (MY) children that there are different ways" of being.
You have to admit that it has become a huge part of today's society. Just turn on the TV or go to the movies and its there.
I see an incredible amount of premarital sex, a a cornicopia of drugs being used, selfishness, crudeness, sleaziness, rudeness..... all of these things being demonstrated by the TV shows and movies and popular music. I don't accept those things, either. I tolerate that our society is slipping into a moral abyss, because I can't change it. But, I'm not a lemming, and I don't raise lemmings. My children know right from wrong whether their teacher, the TV shows, or the movie they're watching calls it right or wrong or not.
And for those of you who watch "adult" videos, especially the ones targeted for straight men, you know you like a little girl on girl action, so don't act like you are too disgusted by homosexuality.
Realize, people's anger here isn't that they don't tolerate certain things, it's that they don't want the state of Maryland determining the moralities their children are being taught. I'm not sure what you do with your free time, but "adult" videos that you're describing are not tolerated nor accepted in most households, especially not for my children. As a teacher, I hope you don't think that society has that in it like you see homosexuality in in society, because you may see it okay to teach kids the videos, too. After all, if your argument for homosexuality is that it's in the movies, and you see the adult movies as a norm........
Do we not remember what happened at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the many other acts of violence that seem to keep repeating themselves in our schools?
Those instances of which you speak, and so many others like them out there, don't demonstrate to me a lack of homosexual teaching, or even a lack of tolerance. They demonstrate to me a lack of parental supervision, and a lack of moral standards being strictly enforced. Those children believed too much in society's standards, and not enough in standards taught from home.
Too many children are not being taught tolerance, whether it be religion, sexual preference, race, nationality, rich or poor, or any other reason that we may be considered different in society. As a teacher, I see this all the time and I do not encourage the teasing and bullying that occur because of those differences. Would you rather your children be taught to hate those who were different?
Hate, no. Accept everything about everyone, NO. Look up tolerance, then look up acceptance. Realize what you are asking, by teaching homosexuality as just a societal norm, is to teach acceptance, not tolerance.
And before anyone says anything stupid, no I am not a lesbian, tranny, or any thing of that nature. I am just someone who does not want to see any child hurt or teased because of their differences.
Then, when they reach real life, and their mom and dad and teacher are not there anymore, and they don't measure up in some way to someone, how are they going to know how to handle such a situation if they've never experienced it? If Jimmy can't throw a football, and you don't want him teased for his differences, so you make him the quarterback of your team, how does he know later how to handle it when the Steelers won't hire him? How does he know how to handle it when a coworker gets promoted first, because they're better at the job, or just because they've been there longer and are more experienced? People are different, and even children need to learn to embrace those differences where they are good, and shun those differences where they are not good. My cleptomaniac friend, not a good difference. I don't throw her away as a friend, though, because I'm tolerant. But I don't teach that her "lifestyle" and "difference" is something to be accepted.