Anti-gay groups fighting against gay straight student groups

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The Following is a post from Good As You regarding Gay-Straight Alliances and the attempts of some abnti-gay groups to stop them from existing and keeping teens from joining them:

Regarding a proposed bill that would require Georgia parents to be notified before their children could join a school club, the Concerned Women for America have mustered the audacity to actually try and convince folks that the measure has absolutely nothing to do with preventing Gay-Straight Alliances in the states' schools. In a piece compiled by Concerned Intern Beth Andersen, CWA quotes the Washington Blade's assertions that the bill is intended to thwart GSAs, then immediately work to refute the Blade's claims, with Gerogia-based Concerned Woman Tanya Ditty saying "the issue is not homosexuality; it is about realizing that parent involvement is the key to a child succeeding educationally." They then jump to a benign quote culled from an unreferenced speech delivered by bill sponsor Sen. Nancy Schaefer [(pic.) who they admit is working with CWA], in which Schaefer also paints the bill as if gays haven't the SLIGHTEST thing to do with it.

Only problem? THEY'VE ALL ADMITTED IT'S DUE TO THE GAYS!

• NY Times, June 9, 2005 -- Sen. Schaefer, regarding her impetus for proposing the bill: "I just don't feel like homosexual clubs have anything to do with readin', writin' and 'rithmetic,"

• Athens Banner-Herald, September 19, 2005 -- Sen. Ralph Hudgens, who last year introduced his own proposal and this year is backing Scahefer's bill, is quoted as saying: "From my perspective, homosexuality is a perversion," he said. "I would want to know if my child is joining the club and why is he joining the club," with the paper adding, "Hudgens said he hopes the bill will discourage membership in gay-straight clubs by alerting parents to their childrens' participation."

• Agape Press, March 26. 2005, Senator Hudgens again:

Senator Hudgens believes the rule, if adopted, would provide a strong deterrent to student involvement in pro-homosexual clubs. "If this was the Spanish club, or the French club, or the Engineering club, or the Future Farmers of America club, then I probably wouldn't have a lot of concern about it," he says. "But homosexuality, as far as I'm concerned, is a learned behavior. It's not genetic -- they've never been able to prove that there's a gene that causes this. It's something that is learned."

• Eagle Forum of Georgia's Georgia Insight, March 11, 2005 -- The conservative group doesn't even try to hide that gay-straight alliances are the core issue, subtitling a piece they did on the bills "Parents are the only group legislators aren’t listening to in this debate about whether parents should give permission before children join clubs mainstreaming homosexuality in schools." They then encourage their followers to write various officials, and just for background, they give a handy "Time-Line of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Club Growth in Georgia Schools."

And there are certainly many more, which we will add as we find them.

Look folks, we all know you guys don't dig on queers -- at least have the cajones to admit it! If these students have the guts to form GSAs in one of America's most conservative states, you, as grown adults, can at least show a little backbone and admit the true intent behind wanting to scuttle their endeavors. We know that washing your hands clean of the discriminatory nature of your actions is the modus operandi of you "pro-family" folks (i.e, calling it "marriage protection" instead of "marriage discrimination," saying "it's a choice" in order to justify why it's okay for you to show bias towards a sect of the population), but folks are quickly catching on to this strategy. Now, if you want to fight in this so-called "culture war" -- a moniker coined by your team, by the way -- then, by all means, you should get on the front lines and stand up for your beliefs; just stop shooting duplicitous bullets.

Be sure to keep an eye out for later CWA pieces, in which we hear they'll try to present their support of marriage-banning legislation as if it's really just a way to help gays save money.

CWA of Georgia Works to Give Public-School Parents a Voice [CWA]

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