As part of its campaign to redefine “tolerance” to include the tolerance and affirmation of defamation, the national antigay network Focus on the Family has allied with an organization of litigious antigay attorneys to release an “Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick” (PDF file).
The policy statement:
- appears to defend malicious gossip and incitement to violence as if they were protected forms of free speech
- ridicules the notion that orchestrated defamation and intimidation against youths are “offensive” and cause “emotional distress”
- calls upon officials and the public to ignore the motive (bigotry) that underlies much youth violence — and, consequently, to ignore the actions of institutions that sponsor that bigotry.
- states that bullies should not be educated to think differently and less hatefully about their intended victims.
- deters violence-prevention advocates by threatening to sue them if they confront the truth that much of the nation’s school violence occurs as a result of specific racial and sexual prejudices that serve to incite violence.
Under the terms of this Christian Right legal manifesto, truthful teachers and officials who courageously oppose specific forms of violence are smeared as opponents of free speech and religious faith; the manifesto implies that lawsuits shall be forthcoming against these defenders of youth.
While obstructing opponents of violence, the manifesto also defends violence committed by bullies via online channels from off-campus locations; forbids investigation of bullying without the consent of the bully’s parents; and abolishes anonymity for crime victims below legal age.
Finally, the yardstick demands that private schools be made exempt from antiviolence laws. And the policy discourages any requirement for public-school teachers to report bullying.
In short, the manifesto advances a violent political agenda, even as it claims to oppose any agenda.
Focus’ partner in this tract, the “Alliance Defending Freedom,” was until recently known as the Alliance Defense Fund — an antigay legal-attack squad that files frivolous lawsuits to intimidate and silence opponents of antigay violence and defamation, especially in public schools.
In contrast to the Focus-ADF rationalization for school censorship and unpunished violence, a study this year by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that LGBT-inclusive school curricula related to a less-hostile school experience for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth as well as increased feelings of belonging” without limiting the free-speech rights of others.
Hat tip: ThinkProgress, Huffington Post
Addendum: Rob Boston of Talk To Action observes:
What’s most offensive about the FOF-ADF document is that it purports to outline the differences between “good” anti-bullying policies and “bad” ones. In fact, these organizations don’t support any anti-bullying efforts at all. Schools that adopt their suggestions would be left with toothless policies that give budding fundamentalist bigots license to harass anyone they want. If they resort to physical violence, the school might be able to stop them — maybe.
And remember, this is being done in the name of the Christian faith. I’m very familiar with the “faith-based” initiative, but faith-based bullying is something new entirely. I don’t claim to be a theologian, but I doubt Jesus would approve.
THIS all sounds SO dangerous and scary to me.
That’s because it IS dangerous and scary, Existential Punk. The are trying to completely erase the reality of what happens to many GLBT people, both kids and adults. They think by lying that we will go away. Not happening.
As we get closer to the election looks to see more and more lying from these groups. I have only one question. When I was Christian, I was told that it was a sin to lie. When did THAT change?
Lying for Jeebuz is ok!!!
What you don’t seem to understand is that you are discriminating against our right to assert our dominance! These “anti-bullying” laws bully our Christian children into stifling their vehement and sometimes violent Christian beliefs. Why are you persecuting us?
This is precisely why I refer to them and their allies as child-murdering bigots.
@Michael: If I may add to the forum: My grandmother was a very wise women and one of the most famous things she said to me before she passed was this: “Opinions are like a**holes…Everyone has one but it’s never polite to show them off in public.” No one is saying that you cannot have an opinion…we all have them. However, it’s best to keep those opinions to yourself when possible.
To give an example: I, particularly, don’t like seeing very obscenely obese men wearing Speed-O’s…it’s hideous to see that small piece of cloth around their loins get sucked up into their butt crack when they go down water slides. You might not find that as offensive as I do…some people find fat men attractive. I,however, do not find morbidly obese men in tight swim trunks all that attractive. Now, with that being said, should I go up to said obese whale in swim trunks and say to them: “You are an abomination to all that is healthy and right you beached whale! Now go take those trunks off and wear something decent so I don’t get sick on the beach!” Or should I just keep my opinions to myself so as not to embarrass both myself and the fat man in trunks?
Seriously, it’s none of my business to confront the man. Sure, I may be repulsed by what he is wearing or the way he looks, but who am I to address that issue to him? If he is not hurting anything else about my day other than the fact he is wearing something that is way too small for his girth…then he is not hurting me.
And there we have it…how is someone being gay or being different affecting (effecting?) you, as a person. IT’S NOT! It only BECOMES an issue once you MAKE it an issue. The Christian Right has CHOSEN to MAKE being gay or different an ISSUE…THEY CHOSE TO GO THAT ROUTE! Therefore, it is not on US to change who we are or who we were born to be…rather its on them to at least TRY to understand that there are consequences to their actions.
I’m apparently crap at satire, sorry.
No, I got the satire, Michael.
Michael Airhart, I’ve downloaded and read the ADF’s Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick PDF (which isn’t long, and is very readable), and it’s every bit as bad as you say it is. I’d go so far as to say it’s vile.
Its one virtue is that it gets past the mealy-mouthed generalities of past ADF anti-bullying policy documents and comes out for protecting the bullies at every turn, and in very specific ways discourages schools and teachers from protecting students from anti-LGBT bullying, while it expresses only skepticism toward the victims. This document is so egregious that it may for the first time expose the true nature of the Religious Right’s opposition to effective action against anti-LGBT bullying.
I hope so Donny, I do…but sadly…probably not.
They really think they are being persecuted for their beliefs….even as a study came out this week saying that 2 out of 3 trans people will seriously contemplate killing themselves because of this crap.
Umm, their point loses.
Christine, I’m not sure what you’re saying should happen but probably won’t. If it’s that the anti-gays will realize they’re in the wrong, forget it, that almost never happens. We need to galvanize our side, and swing some of the fence-sitters to our side.
What I’m seeing for the first time in the Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick is the tacit admission that those who are opposed to specific policies against anti-LGBT bullying want to protect the bullies. They want to protect anti-LGBT bullying speech under the First Amendment, they want the emotional pain and suffering of the victims treated as inconsequential and not “reasonable”, They want anonymous accusations of bullying in almost all cases to be treated with suspicion and ignored. They want the schools and teachers not to be able to ask the bullies ANYthing about their bullying until they have notified the bullies’ parents AND gained the parents’ consent. This despite the fact that minors don’t have all the rights adults do, and that school officials are empowered to act “in loco parentis”, in place of the parent.
They want there to be no requirement that teachers report any anti-LGBT bullying that they see. And they think schools should never try to change the way anti-LGBT bullies think.
Maybe some of these “recommendations” (backed by nebulous legal threats) have already been made by Focus on the Family’s True Tolerance project or by the Alliance Defending Freedom, but this is the very first time I’ve seen any of them. As far as I know, they’re all new.
And even if these “recommendations” aren’t new, they’re all in one place now. And are so flagrantly pro-anti-LGBT bully that they can be used to prove what many of us have suspected for some time: that the Religious Right is in favor of anti-LGBT bullying. And now we can prove it with their own words.