upsetting (and ridiculous):
Anti-LGBTQ carolers in a Sacramento suburb gathered at their local
Target to show (aka sing) their opposition to recent updates to
California’s safe schools laws. The spectacle has already been
covered by the local press and
elsewhere in the blogosphere.
A couple of points on the protest, itself:
As upsetting as this “anti-caroling” is, it’s worse for
anti-LGBTQ conservatives than it is for us. When people co-op one
of the few holidays most intended to celebrate the “one human
family” to tear others apart, they come off as bitter fools. Bah
humbug, we say to them. Go hang out with the Grinch.
The same goes for the Westboro folks who
protest at military funerals. And for the pundits who raised a
stink about LGBTQ-headed families attending the
White House Easter Egg Roll.
When you attack children, you show people that your
community is the least capable of standing up for the American
family.
There’s nothing all that “new” about these laws. They are
extensions of a law passed in 2000, the Student Safety and Violence
Prevention Act. The core values of the new laws have been on
the books for seven years!
California’s new safe schools laws merely correct inconsistencies
found in the reach of the first law, and give the first law teeth.
Congratulations to California (specifically the folks at Equality California) for getting this
work done. No amount of legislation will change the lives of LGBTQ
people until those laws have enforcement provisions.
The new laws make school boards responsible for implementing
anti-discrimination policies. Naming the party responsible for this
work is key to getting it done. It’s called, as so many on the
Right like to remind us, accountability.
The new laws also ensure that all publicly funded K-12
schools and institutions of higher learning protect their students,
regardless of who they are.
If I didn’t know how damaging this “anti-caroling” is to the
psyches of young children who see hate messages held by people
dressed as Santa’s littler helpers, I’d say CAROL
ON. The more hateful, more bigoted, and more ridiculous
these people are, the less relevant to American society they’ll
become.