If you’ve been following The Gay News for a while, you probably remember the story of Jennifer Keeton. She was a counseling student at Augusta State University who wanted special treatment from the school based on her fundamentalist beliefs. Specifically, she wanted to be able to go against accepted mental health guidelines when it comes to treating gays and lesbians. When the school politely explained to her that if she was to graduate, she would have to make sure that her beliefs did not interfere with the accepted standards of that profession, she cried “victim!” and sued. That has not been going well for her:
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling against a graduate student who had sought a court order preventing Augusta State University from expelling her from its school-counseling program.
The student, Jennifer Keeton, sued the Georgia university in July 2010, saying that it had violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of her Christian faith when it told her that, in order to stay in the program, she would have to change her beliefs about homosexuality—that it is immoral, unnatural, and a “lifestyle choice” that can be reversed through “conversion therapy.”
[...]
The court noted that the requirements of the counseling program—needed for its continued accreditation and compliance with the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics—are similar to the rules for judges, who must apply laws even if they consider them erroneous.
“In seeking to evade the curricular requirement that she not impose her moral values on clients,” the court said, “Keeton is looking for preferential, not equal, treatment.”
Oh, ouch, that must have burned when she read it.
This is a parallel issue to the one we highlighted with our ad in the Ithaca Journal recently. In that ad, we took to task town clerks in the state of New York who are unwilling to perform their jobs acceptably, using their religious beliefs as an excuse, and are demanding a special pass to discriminate against gays and lesbians by refusing to issue marriage licenses. Obviously, the clerks are a government issue, whereas the standards of the counseling profession are not, but it’s a similar theme these days. Religious Fundamentalists want reality to impose to their weird notions of how things are, and when reality intervenes and treats them the same as everybody else, they have a temper tantrum. We’ll be seeing a lot more of these in the coming years.
I know that, in Fundamentalist Christian Land, they want to keep their heads in the sand and pretend that there are no gay people among them, nobody different from them, etc. Therefore it’s common for fundamentalist schools to force their employees to sign “lifestyle statements,” wherein they proclaim their fealty to whatever that particular institution’s version of fundamentalism entails. My high school had one, even for the parents. It was taken seriously by a handful of people, as I remember.
Shorter University in Georgia has a new policy in place, wherein new hires and employees renewing their contracts have to sign a document that, among other things, declares that they will not engage in any sexual conduct outside [that particular school's interpretation of] Biblical teachings. It’s causing a bit of a controversy:
Christopher Robbins at Gothamist points out that the president of the university thinks it’s “fair” to ask a gay teacher to fundamentally change who they are. This is of course ridiculous, but it is also legal. It doesn’t speak well of Shorter as an institution of higher learning for students actually seeking an education, but it’s legal.
One gay employee at the university is speaking out, anonymously of course:
“We now will live in fear that someone who doesn’t like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we’ve been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay,” said the employee, who declined to reveal his name due to the policy.
He also elaborated on the policy at hand:
The policy has a few major parts:
a. Be an active member of a local church
On the surface, this isn’t so sinister. Shorter is a Christian school. However, there are no guidelines here. What is “active?” Does it mean simply attending or does it mean participating in the various groups and clubs within the Church? How are we to be measured as meeting this requirement? Further, I would say that this requirement automatically rules out any church that is obviously gay-friendly. Were I to report that I attend a Metropolitan Community Church or other church that had a strong GBLTQ outreach, it would raise immediate questions to the fundamental Baptist administration of the school. So, I do not feel free to worship where I choose as a gay Christian man.
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d. I will reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.
This is interesting to me because the statement could have been less offensive if the examples were not included. Why key in on any of them if all sexual activity that isn’t in agreement with the Bible is prohibited? To me, this hints at an anti-gay stance. When taken in context with the very vague comments made by current Board Chairman Dr. Nelson Price in the Rome News Tribune, I would say that doing these things will get you fired.
It also seems to place homosexuality in a different category. By that, I mean that adultery and pre-marital sex are, in fact, choices. Homosexuality is not. I know this point is up for debate in the fundamental Christian world, but to the rest of the world, we know that it isn’t a choice. Without getting in to that whole debate, it does seem anti-gay to hone in on something that is not a choice and that has so few references in the Bible when compared to the myriad heterosexual “thou shall nots.”
He had a lot more to say, so click that link above to read the whole interview.
As I pointed out above, this is all legal. The greater point here, I think, is to recognize just how cloistered from reality Fundamentalists strive to be. They would describe this as being “in the world, but not of it,” but that’s just something they tell themselves while trying to rationalize the fact that they listen to crappy knock-off versions of “music” and aren’t allowed to read Harry Potter. And they render themselves so ignorant that they actually believe that it’s possible to have an institution of higher learning without gay employees, and that it’s reasonable to ask any employees who are gay to just go ahead and stop being gay.
There is a student petition out, demanding that the board and administration of Shorter stop asking employees to sign this bogus “lifestyle” pledge, so go sign it.
A lesbian couple has faced two hate crimes within a week, with anti-gay slurs tagged on their home and vehicles, and a fire destroying their business.
Couple Lindsay Curnow and Juliet Leigh have lived peacefully in the small coastal village of Mangawhai Heads, Northland, for seven years. They said their sexuality has never been an issue before in the community.
But now they live in fear, not wanting to leave their home and return to something worse.
Two weeks ago the couple had their home and vehicles tagged with offensive anti-gay slurs.
Then a week later their shed, which is at the heart of their mail-order bulb business, was completely destroyed by fire.
“They’ve really invaded our privacy. It was a bit like being burgled, you know that sort of violation that you have,” Leigh said.
A Carroll County man told Channel 2 Action News that he believes he was the target of a hate crime.
Chris Staples said someone threw a rock through his window with a piece of paper attached that was covered in anti-gay slurs.
“I was watching TV and just finished smoking a cigarette and I heard this big thud. Boom!” Staples told Channel 2’s George Howell.
The rock had a threatening note attached.
“It said, ‘we know you’re gay. And God hates gays. You won’t be raping anybody in the county and God’s going to make sure that you burn in hell.’ And something about my daddy… my daddy will make sure you burn in hell,”
Then hours later, he woke up to flames filling his bedroom.
The principal of Jarvis Collegiate Institute said allegations that students are hurling slushies, shoes and homophobic slurs at residents of the Gay Village are being “treated very seriously.”
However, Enza Anderson, who has been harassed in the past, called the students “teens of terror” and has organized a public meeting to discuss what she describes as homophobia in the community after a recent attack.
Paul Winsor, a local florist, was singled out by a group of about 12 students who soaked him with two frozen beverages last Monday.
The 49-year-old narrowly dodged an airborne chunk of ice as he chased the teens before they ducked into the school at Jarvis and Wellesley Sts.
“A slushie drink is one thing — it stains your clothes and hurts your pride — but when it escalates to chunks of ice, that’s dangerous,” he said.
Just as there are gay people everywhere, in every nation and culture, there are also pig ignorant bigots. Sad, but true.
Peter has shared some words about Jim Swilley, the Georgia megachurch pastor who has shown himself to be a man of integrity and honesty, by coming out to his congregation and the world as a gay man. Peter obviously doesn’t really “do Bible interpretation” beyond whatever pop-up version he keeps in his basement dungeon, having sharpie’d “NO GAYZ” all over the thousands of verses about caring for the poor, etc. Anyway, Peter says:
“This so-called ‘Bishop’ Swilley is a very confused man,” laments Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). “He thinks he’s being honest about — quote — ‘who he is,’ but actually, he’s compromising the Word of God and he’s Christianizing sin, which is impossible.”
“Bishop” Swilley…if that is his REAL NAME…
LaBarbera contends Swilley should step down from his ministerial position, stop preaching the Word of God, and repent of his sin and the advocacy of it. Swilly [sic] has shared that his congregation has been supportive of his coming out for the most part, but the AFTAH president is not surprised that some members of his church have left.
So Peter concedes that Swilley is preaching the word of God. Interesting.
“There’s no doubt in the Bible about whether homosexual practice is a sin,” the conservative advocate points out. “He says he knew he was — quote — ‘gay’ since he was a boy. Most boys don’t think about sex, much less homosexuality, so we’re wondering what happened in his early life. Obviously, he’s a confused man.”
Most boys don’t think about sex?! Uh. Actually? What world did Peter grow up in where boys don’t start thinking about sex the second their bodies start changing? My goodness.
The pastor of a megachurch in Conyers, Ga., told his congregation last week that he’s gay, saying that while he knows his announcement might ruin his career, the recent rash of suicides pushed him to speak out.
Jim Swilley, 52, founded Rockdale County’s Church in the Now 25 years ago. His wife, Debye, was the associate pastor, and together they had four children.
Swilley says he’s known that he’s gay since he was a boy, and his wife knew when they got married. Jim and Debye are now divorced, but they kept his secret for more than 21 years. Earlier this year, Swilley says, Debye told him she thought it was time he stop living a lie.
Swilley said that he was inspired to risk his career and come out by the spate of gay teen suicides in the news recently. It’s a principled move, on his part, and though his church may be losing its mind right now, there are doubtless kids in that congregation who feel a little less alone today.
Derrick Martin worried that he could be responsible for getting this year’ prom at Bleckley County High School canceled.
That’ because the 18-year-old senior is gay, and he plans to take his boyfriend to the year’ most anticipated dance.
Martin, an honor student who tutors at-risk elementary and middle school students after school, knew the move would be controversial for the town of about 5,200 residents.
At his high school, prom dates from outside counties must be approved in advance, so Martin went to his principal and asked.
“At first she said no, Cochran wasn’t ready for it,” he said.
Then last week, school officials said they have no policy in place against it.
“You don’t have the right to say no,” principal Michelle Masters said. “As a principal, I don’t judge him. I’m taught not to judge. I have to push my own beliefs to the background.”
(…)
The high school prom will have security.
Even if there is a backlash, both educators said they won’t cancel or change their plans for the prom. It would not be fair to the students, Pipkin said.
Martin said he could have settled for what he did last year and simply attend the prom with a female friend, but he didn’t want to do that this year. “It’ standing up for the rights thing, especially after the Mississippi canceled prom,” he said. “It’ senior prom. It’ pretty big.”
Very good. And what’s funny is that Cochran, Georgia will live through it all.
I will point out, anecdotally, that I’m aware of a gay-straight alliance in a private high school in Augusta, Georgia, which is not a liberal place, though it’s a hair more cosmopolitan (just a hair) than rural Cochran. It was started by a straight male student, which is pretty frickin’ awesome.
In a puff piece published today, Focus on the Family praises outgoing Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears for her commitment to two-parent families.
When asked by Focus to identify the single biggest threat to “the family” today (as if there were only one family), Sears replies, “Fatherlessness,” and then discusses the allegation at length.
For all the concern over fathers, Focus’ interview strangely omits mention of gay fathers — and antigay mothers who seek to alienate children from their dads.
Instead of honestly portraying Sears’ neutrality on gay marriage, Focus spotlights Sears’ recent “pro-marriage” billboard campaign and symposium — the latter of which was co-sponsored by the conservative antifamily Institute for American Values. During the symposium, IAV president David Blankenhorn argued vehemently against gay marriage and — implicitly — gay parents. According to the Fulton County Daily Report, Blankenhorn said gay marriage would be catastrophic for children “who need a mother and a father at the same time.”
Apparently no one at the symposium asked Blankenhorn what should happen when a father realizes he is gay and cannot, in a spirit of sexual honesty, perform sexually with his wife or lie to his children.
Both Focus and Blankenhorn seem determined to quietly destroy families in which at least one parent is gay — and then, far from supporting the survivors, to publicly imply that the parents and their children simply don’t exist.
In mid-November, the Colorado Springs-based media empire and political organization laid off 202 of its employees — about 20 percent of its workforce. The group’s explanation for the mass layoffs is the nation’s economic crisis. However, Focus’ money woes may stem, in part, from the more than half a million dollars it spent this fall to help defeat Proposition 8, the recently passed legislation that took civil-marriage rights away from GLBT Californians.
Today, we get new information: While Focus employees were getting the workplace equivalent to lumps of coal, Focus was busy spending more money: The Colorado Independent reports that the organization spent $35,310 to produce radio ads promoting Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ successful runoff re-election campaign this week. The commercials — which had to have been purchased after the Nov. 4 election that made the runoff vote necessary — reportedly were in production around the same time Focus workers were getting the bad news.
What does this move say about Focus on the Family’s priorities? In this season of love and goodwill, when much of the world’s focus will be on the Holy Family, the organization has opted to throw its money into a political move to destroy families. At the same time, Focus tells more than 200 of its workers and their families that for them, there is no more room at the inn.
