Brutal Attacks on Gays in San Diego

I certainly wish there'd been a GSA club when I was growing up. It would have helped me understand the feeling that I was denying. My parents, with their support of civil rights, would certainly have supported such and supported my involvement. But high school, for me, was in the 70's. It's not about sex. It's about with whom do you fall in love.

That is just absolutely heart breaking that even in this day and time, with all the studies..that religion can still cause this kind of behavior. I sure hope those idiots get what they deserve.

Gay studies needs more media coverage! Being gay is not a choice and the more people who understand that.. the better off!

Please show me evidence that the ADF have ever said gay/straigh alliances are horrible or came out against them. You can't because they haven't. They have only fought for equal access for Christian groups that oppose that point of view. The ACLU fight against those groups who should have equal access, but the ADF has never fought against gay straight alliances. Your smear of the ADF here is not based on facts.

Jay-

I didn't say that the ADF has fought against them. I addressed my post to "those ADF and AFA types" - i.e. many of the followers of such religious right groups who oppose them. And here's the evidence that lots of religious groups do oppose GSA clubs and have fought against them. Go here (that's an AFA state director claiming that GSAs are not covered under the Equal Access Act). And here (that's the new argument being tried out, that GSAs are "sex-based" and therefore should not be allowed). And here (one of dozens of examples of anti-gay Christians trying to ban GSAs from public schools around the country).

As for the ADF, they're smart enough to avoid claiming that GSAs aren't covered by the Equal Access Act, but they do engage in lots of rhetoric about the "gay agenda" in public schools. Like in this story in the Baptist Press about GSAs, where an attorney for the ADF says:

"Many of the leaders of the homosexual lobbying groups have admitted that they're targeting public schools," Mike Johnson, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press. "That is where they're trying to change society's perception of their activities and their behavior. That's the best place to do it -- to go to the next generation. That's how you change minds and that's how you affect the culture. Sadly, they've had some success there."

Johnson is, however, smart enough to note that they can't go after GSAs legally:

Johnson, the Alliance Defense Fund attorney, said much can be done to oppose homosexual curriculum in public schools, although little can be done to prevent Gay/Straight Alliance Clubs from forming.

"You can't really oppose it if we're going to maintain equal access," he said of the clubs. "If we target those groups, then they'll target the Bible clubs and the Christian groups."

I'm strongly in favor of the Equal Access Act and strongly opposed to any attempt to prevent the formation of student Bible clubs, as I've written many times. Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of folks on your side who don't feel the same way about GSA clubs, who actively fight against them and claim they shouldn't exist. It is to those people that I addressed my post.

It's worth pointing out that anti-gay bullying in schools doesn't just hurt gay kids; about 4 out of 5 victims are actually straight (that's not the entire extent of the "collateral damage"; for example, a climate of bullying will make straight kids afraid to befriend gay kids for fear of being bullied for it).

Goddamn faggots deserve to be killed. God hates fags - AIDS cures fags. Disgusting buggers, sinners, you revolt me.

Adam: Well, when you put it that way, I get it! Now I understand my faith in rationality and human kindness was misplaced. Just line up some nancy boys and give me a tire iron.

It won't hurt, 'cause I'll be doing it for Jesus.

Noooooooooo!!! I hate gays!!! Of course, I don't beat them with sticks, but.....don't like them!!! And the most dangerous thing is that these people don't conceal their wrong sexual orientation, but even draw the curtain!!! I think that a man should be a real strong man ,loving women, but not a sniveller and a womanlike creature!!! Fih!:( I'm sorry for my so highly emotional vulgar speech, but gays get on my nerves!!! The other thing happens in the Emirates!!! Sheikhs turned out to be so handsome men (and they are real men, loving a lot of women!)!!! It seemed to me that the Dubai hotel I stayed in ( a lot of gays-guests too!) and the streets are two different world!!! Unfortunately!!! :(

Adam and massyandra-

I'm sorry, you've picked the wrong place to spew your inane bullshit. Go away.

Perhaps Ms. Massyandra needs to visit a gay biker bar and tell the patrons that they are snivelling, womanlike creatures. I expect the results would be amusing.

Verrrry funny, MJ Memphis!!!! Hahaha :) By the way, Ed Brayton, why did you write this article? To hear peoples' opinions on the very topic, right? So, be so kind, listen to mine and it's your problem to agree with it or not!!! And filter your words, please!!!

And filter your words, please!!!

You don't filter what you're saying even though it's a lot more offensive than anything Ed has written. Today, I mean.

massyandra-

No, I wrote this to express my opinion. Whether I allow yours is entirely up to me. Literate opinions I am glad to entertain. "I don't like me no gays" is idiotic and unwelcome here. And if you don't like that, tough shit. Go away.

Ed:
Stories like these are why I tend to have questions about your positions on, for example, the wearing of homophobic t-shirts in high school -- particularly those high schools which have recent histories of anti-gay violence. I am not sure which side of the argument I would come down on, I keep on questioning both sides in my own mind, but I AM sure your analysis and automatic 'it's free speech and nothing more' position is overly simplistic.

After all, even the most favorable Supreme Court decisions have been willing to make exceptions for 'fighting words' and to take account of the situation. And the 'biblical basis' of many of these shirts causes me worries. (I picture, in a school district that has had recent examples of swastika painting and cemetary desceration, a student showing up with a t-shirt with a Die Sturmer illustration -- or a picture of Prussian Blue -- and the words "His blood be on us and our descendants." Or, in a school with recent racial incidents, a t-shirt with a vilely exaggerated anti-black caricature and one of the verses that was used to 'sanctify' segregation.)

Of course, the 'slippery slope' argument and the argument that 'the answer to speech is more speech' are both powerful. Ideally, a teacher woukld see a student with such a t-shirt, call him in front of the class, and spend a class day discussing the shirt and the attitudes represented. Sadly, though, the religious attitudes represented by the t-shirt, especially in smaller or more highly 'Christian' school districts, can be shared by members of the school board -- or if not shared, at least be sympathized with enough that it would be the teacher who got in trouble for this type of discussion.

Again, it is a tricky one, and not one which is as simple as I am afraid you make it.

I see there is no real men to talk to!!! Ha:)