Judge Rules Anti-Gay Harassment Sessions Do Not Violate Religious Freedoms
Posted on | February 18, 2006
One of the things I love about these so-called religious people how they use it as a smokescreen for their bigotry and they actually expect other people to buy it. Unfortunately some do buy it. But fortunately for gay students in Kentucky a federal judge on Friday did not buy it. In ruling for Boyd County Schools in Kentucky, federal district judge David Bunning said that there was no constitutional reason for students to not attend mandatory anti-gay harassment sessions for both students and staff members. The sessions were part of a settlement with the ACLU, who joined in defending Boyd County Schools on this matter, over a three-year fight over the recognition of a gay extra curricular group. Students who refused to attend the sessions were punished with an unexcused absence.
With the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, a right-wing legal organization that takes a lot of supposed religious rights cases, a student by the name of Timothy Allen Morrison II, his parents Timothy and Mary, and two other parents, Brian Nolen and Debora Jones, sued Boyd County Schools over the sessions because they said it violated students’ religious beliefs if they happened to think homosexuality was wrong. Boyd County Schools and the ACLU argued that the sessions required no change in religious beliefs and was part of the goal to eliminated anti-gay harassment in the schools. The judge agreed and in his ruling wrote:
"To address the issue of harassment at school, including harassment based upon actual or perceived sexual orientation, is rationally related to a legitimate educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment."
The sessions in question were on anti-gay harassment/bullying in Boyd County Schools and had nothing to do with religion as they merely set down acceptable behavior expected of students. This student and parents say that such things violate their religious beliefs. Therefore the only conclusion one can logically draw is that anti-gay harassment is perfectly acceptable to these individuals. And the religious right wonders why it is often compared to Islamic terrorists.
Personally I think these people, and others like them, just need to either get the courage to admit "Yeah, I dislike gay people" or they just need to just shut the fuck up. Using religion as a smokescreen does not make them look good and just cheapens the religion they supposedly are fighting for.
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February 20th, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
Why not just a policy of no-harassment bullying of any kind for any reason. (wimpy, feminine, fat,ugly, unpopular)
And you wont politicize things- or get parents in a compromising position.
Why is this not tenable?
February 20th, 2006 @ 2:29 pm
Generally there are policies like this on the books. But you assume that there is gaurenteed enforcement across the board when the reality of the problem is selective enforcement.
Everytime the ACLU has to step on a school district because of a kid being harassed, it is because of administration indifference.
Once the school sees the light, and generally the void once filled by money they paid in a settlement or verdict, then they need to take corrective measures. These sessions are part of those measures.