Right Wing Groups Declare Open War On School Gay Days

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/04/041205gayDay.htm

Irked by the success of the nationwide Day of Silence, which seeks to combat anti-gay bias in schools, conservative activists are launching a counter-event this week called the Day of Truth aimed at mobilizing students who believe homosexuality is sinful.

Participating students are being offered T-shirts with the slogan "The Truth Cannot be Silenced" and cards to pass out to classmates Thursday -- the day following the Day of Silence -- declaring their unwillingness to condone "detrimental personal and social behavior."

The driving force behind the Day of Truth is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that has opposed same-sex marriage and challenged restrictions on religious expression in public schools. The event is endorsed by several influential conservative organizations, including the Christian ministry Focus on the Family and the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

[Ms Chicklet]

1. What part of me would love to see...

Part of me would love to see the participants totally ignored. Imagine their slack-jawed shock when their antics are met with a yawn and a "whatever." They'll learn that they may have freedom of speech, but that doesn't guarantee an audience.

[MuseRider]

2. You know,

I can't even find the words anymore.

I hope you all do not mind that I invade and comment so much in your forum. I learn so much here to use in our city and state battles.

I am beginning to really really worry about this. You can't reason with these people and it is like talking to people with their fingers in their ears singing "LaLaLaaaaa" really loudly so they don't even have to know you are talking. Reason, truth, compassion mean nothing to them because they feel that using the Bible gives them those things no matter how they use it. I am sincerely at a loss and growing more terrified daily.

[Dark]

7. Of course we don't mind, as long as you bring cookies!

:9

[MuseRider]

9. Mmmmmmmm

cookies! Thanks. :)

[Dark]

13. I'll tell you what. I'll bring pink Kool-Aid. And Skittles.

Taste the Rainbow!

[MuseRider]

14. OK

I will make M&M cookies. And bring this

[Meeker Morgan]

3. I don't get it.

Every day is gay day for me, but why silence?

We used to say silence equals death.

[Meldread]

4. I almost wish...

That the little brats that show up with these t-shirts get to experience EXACTLY what it is like being gay for as long as they wear the shirt or pass out hateful material. That would include, but not be limited to, being called hateful names, and being shoved into objects then having everyone laugh at them. Which would be followed up by unwanted sexual jesters and advances and being told that they "know they want it" and getting their asses beaten to a bloody pulp. Which would then be followed up by vandalism to their personal property (with hateful messages of course). Then to put icing on the cake have teachers and staff turn their noses up at them when they cry and complain, "You shoulda just stayed in the closet. You brought this on yourself."

If they want to spread the truth -- they have to live the truth first. It would certainly give the little hate-mongers in training a different prospective.

[Kyregan]

5. Violence against anyone...

for any <related> reason puts us at their level. I personally would like to think that we can be far more humane than all those people who beat others, and harass, and assault people based on their sexuality. I think ignoring the message, even befriending them would hit further to home than beating them would. The latter would just give them another reason to hate us; let's show them we're people too and that we're nice people.

[MuseRider]

10. While I sort of

agree with you I have never been able to befriend a single one of them and I am not gay. Once they find out that I am working for an issue, gay marriage for one, they turn and walk away. I am all for peaceful resolution but I have yet to even get close enough to any of them without them trying to pull me in and convert me and when you resist they are gone with a wonderful epithet just for you. Hell, just getting them to shake hands with you is a job all in itself.

[Meldread]

15. I understand that and agree...

Well I agree at least in part. I agree that we shouldn't stoop to their level. However, these people... they are truly sick and evil people. I have little doubt that they would have fit right in while the Nazi's controlled Germany -- they would have been all for Hitler. That's how evil these people are.

It takes every ounce of humanity in my body to restrain myself from wanting to strangle the bigots with my bare hands. More often than not it is the thought that they'd be a martyr for their cause that gives me pause, and that is something that they'd love too much.

They have no regard for us. None. They would see us dead and dance on our graves singing songs. They would see nothing wrong with it, either. I am not talking about those who are simply 'misguided'. I am talking about those who are truly sick. Those who are truly evil. I've looked at these people in the eyes before, I've seen them. They look like everyone else, but on the inside they are ugly. Sometimes you can tell that they are 'one of them' before they open their mouths but sometimes you can't.

Here are innocent people. People who have done nothing wrong. People who are being SILENT as a gesture toward the suffering gay people endure and these sick demented people -- these bigots -- they want to attack them. They want to shame them. They want to shame all of us.

I cannot help but feel that their hatred has poisoned me and it sickens me that they would even remotely have that limited amount of influence over me. I put this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in my signature to constantly remind myself that I *AM* a better person. Here is the entire quote:

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back."
- Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a Dream"

[Occulus]

17. That DOES NOT WORK.

Look, I'm getting REAL sick of people saying we should just be ignoring what they're doing. The fact is, these people aren't psychologically normal- if they see themselves being ignored, rather than just stopping, scratching their heads, and thinking "duuhhhh... daaarrrrrr...... why dey ignorin' meee?", these people simply redouble their efforts again and again and again. I ought to know; I tried to ignore their actions from the time I was in first grade to the time I graduated high school.

Every time I complained I was told to either a) change so they won't pick on me anymore, b) told by the authority I went to that "I don't know what we can do...", or c) actually intentionally ignored by the same authority figure. This included my own parents, by the way.

Now, I ask you- how many times does someone "get" to kick a dog before the dog is allowed to bite? Is it the very first time? The second?

The twenty-second? The hundredth time, maybe?

How much abuse do people expect me and people like me to put up with before it becomes "okay" in their eyes for us to actually fight back for once?

The people we're talking about ridicule and deride "nice", "compassion", "love", and all those other things you're saying we should show them we are. Those very same things we see as virtues, they see as "faggy" qualities to have.

I think it's time we said, "fine. Since you won't let us be decent people, we're now going to be you times TEN. But only to you abusers, because we're decent enough of people to see you deserve it."

I've been kicked in the teeth my whole damn life for being a decent guy, for NOT retaliating, for NOT fighting back, for NOT taking the revenge some people truly deserve. I'm getting a little tired of being decent because people tell me I have to be.

[donheld]

20. It makes them feel like martyrs

the love feeling like martyrs.

[dsc]

21. I had to try to make amends to one of these protesters once

I was fairly newly sober and walking to work when I walked by Phelps like protesters at the United Methodist Convention. I lost my temper and literally cussed a man out. When I calmed down I went back out and tried to apologize and he just let loose with every vile name you could think of. I just muttered my apology and left.

[mitchtv]

22. do water baloons count?

a little purple food coloring? It keeps popping up in my mind

[Dark]

8. Or force them to stay in the closet and deny who they really are

while they listen to their loved ones make faggot jokes, or rather fundamentalist jokes, and then have to laugh along with them.

[im10ashus]

6. Are these PUBLIC schools?

I am sick and tired of them pushing their religious beliefs onto everyone else. If this is a public school, their equating homosexuality to sin is a violation of separation of church and state.

[xchrom]

11. swift boat liars for kids.

[MinneapolisMatt]

12. Thursday is my birthday.

I'll be 29, and if you told me 10 years-ago that things would be worse today, I would have laughed.

Some day, history will look back upon these bigots with shame and disgust. Personally, I hope they burn in hell. Maybe then they will know what it's been like to go through my life. There is no reward waiting in the after-life for these evil people.

Sorry to be so dramatic. I just don't feel like celebrating much these days.

:cry: Matt

[Langley85]

16. bastards

Thousands of gay kids commit suicide every year, but that apparently isn't enough for these bastards, is it? Seriously, are they trying to drive us all to suicide? I don't believe in hell, but if there is one after all, I hope all these assholes who think they're doing "the Lord's work" get a major surprise when their time comes.

[sakabatou]

18. How the hell is homosexuality

detrimental to personal and social behaior?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

19. There isn't anything Christian about these people...

just nastiness.