The Prevention of Bullying

I just don't get it.
There have been a spate of teen suicides on the heels of Tyron Clemente taking his life after Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei streamed a webcam video of him having sex with a man. It has become public knowledge that bullying related to sexual orientation is alive and well in the nation's schools. Children who are being called gay are not even necessarily gay, but that is a whole different problem to sort out. We would not tolerate someone being bullied because of race or religion, and we cannot make an exception for sexual orientation.

We know that the effective interventions for bullying include bringing the issue into the light of day. To that end, sexual education should include information about homosexuality. It is biologically determined. It has existed since the Greeks. East coast liberals did not invent it. No one is advocating that we promote it. Just that we describe it's existence.
In a secular nation, one that has a seperation between church and state, this seems enormously uncontroversial. Study after study shows that children's moral compasses are set by their parents--not their peers, not their schools, not their neighbors, not society as a whole. Parents are the single largest determinant of what children believe is right and wrong. But public education can not allow parents to decide what exists and what doesn't exist in the natural world.
Public schools are advocating tolerance of homosexuals. They are not recruiting. They are not even saying what is right and what is wrong--they are saying this exists. That it is naturally occurring. That people themselves do not determine whether they are gay or straight. And that it is wrong to discriminate or bully, period.

Cristians say it is a sub rosa attack on their religion. The Bible does have a number of injunctions against homosexuality. The same Bible also condones polygamy--Abraham and Jacob had more than one wife. Islam and Judiasm have the same father, but two different mothers. The twelve tribes of Jacob have four different mothers--2 sisters and their two slaves. That was then and this is now. Slavery is no longer tolerated. We no longer accept polygamy--it dates from a time in the world where breeding was of paramount importance. That is no longer the case--sexual do's and don't's change accordingly. There are many aspects of Biblical culture that we no longer accept as relevent for today's society. Teach your children what you will, but it is time for public education to move on.