I think we can all agree that bullying is bad. No one likes to be bullied and no one wants their kids to get taunted and harassed at school.
But if there’s one thing worse than bullying, it’s antibullying. Because everybody knows that “antibullying” is really just code for “promo-homo” and is an attempt to indoctrinate children to hate Jesus and love leather daddies and bull dykes.
So congratulations to the Saline School Board for voting against adding “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” to the school district’s nondiscrimination policy. And double congratulations for holding this historic vote just days after a 19-year-old killed himself after attending a city council meeting in Oklahoma, where several stood up to say how terrible gay people were.
Why did the Saline School Board vote 4-3 to keep LGBTs out of their nondiscrimination policy? Well, they already have an antibullying policy, which supposedly covers that.
“We already have a policy in place,” said board member Paul Hynek, who also acknowledged that “we don’t live in a tolerant society.”
Late in September, Hynek claimed, “The root of the problem is bullying; we need to get that under control.” Surely getting bullying under control couldn’t possibly start with adding “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” to the nondiscrimination policy. I mean, to teach kids not to bully LGBT students, it couldn’t possibly matter whether the school district is willing to acknowledge that LGBT students not only exist but are also worthy of protection against discrimination.
“I do feel that people have been bullied and harassed,” Hynek told AnnArbor.com. “But I’m thinking they’re not the only group in the high school that gets bullied and harassed.” It is well known that a group cannot receive protection until it is the only group being discriminated against.
Board member Chuck Lesch said that since Michigan doesn’t include LGBT folks in its nondiscrimination laws, Saline shouldn’t have to either.
High-school science teacher Tom Frederick boldly spoke out against the change, worrying that banning discrimination against gays would “lead to future cases of discrimination.”
Pow! That’s the sound of Frederick blowing your mind.
Think about it: Fight fire with fire, right? In other words, fight discrimination with discrimination. As Dan Savage wrote, “If you ban discrimination against LGBT students then you’re going to wind up discriminating against the people who want to discriminate against LGBT students.”
And those people usually claim that it’s a God-given right to think homosexuals are disgusting, awful people and to treat them as such.
As Superintendent Scot Graden told AnnArbor.com, without changing the policy, LGBT students could technically be discriminated against by school employees without recourse. He gave the hypothetical example of a student getting cut from the volleyball team for being a lesbian.
But come on, it’s one thing to put “no ass kicking” in an antibullying policy. It’s another to put into writing that LGBT folks will get a fair shake in your school district. It’s like putting out a welcome mat for the queers. Next thing you know, LGBT riff-raff will infiltrate the school.
And as more schools adopt inclusive nondiscrimination policies, people are going to expect more from principals and school-board members who don’t do a damn thing to help LGBT kids until it’s time to say, “So sorry for your loss” at a kid’s funeral.
Thank you, Saline board members, for standing up against such a world.
D’Anne Witkowski is a Detroit-based freelance writer and poet (believe it!).