Wisconsin State senator Glenn Grothman's opposition to discussing and recognizing different sexual orientations in schools seems to come [from] his belief that instructors who lead these talks would have what he called an "agenda" to persuade students to become gay.Glam rock had yet eluded the teenage Grothman:
"Did people even know what homosexuality was in high school in 1975? I don't remember any discussion about that at the time. There were a few guys who would make fun of a few effeminate boys," he said, "but that's a different thing than homosexuality."Ah yes, that was good clean fun. Lawd a-mighty, what an ignoramus. It's precisely the intent and the goal of these proposals to mitigate exactly that sort of cruelty. Why do they keep voting for this guy?
I know seventh-graders who read The Onion. They are already millions of light years beyond Glenn Grothman's mentality.
h/t capper.
My parents were not particularly enlightened, but my mom certainly enjoyed Liberace. No complaints were made about him as a person.
ReplyDeleteToo Grothman doesn't actually care if he tells the truth as long as he can get people to vote for him.
Actually, Liberace stayed in the closet publically, because he feared coming out would drive away his older female fans (I keep thinking of Steve Dallas' mother in the old Bloomsbury comic strip, who assumed that Liberace never married because he just never met the right woman). I guess that is the sort of hypocrisy and ignorance that Grothman is nostalgic for.
ReplyDeleteOrdinary Jill,
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate in 'don't ask, don't tell'. "If you won't insist on telling me that you're gay, I'll ignore everything about you and your behavior that says 'flaming queen'." Yeah, my mom would have been very much like Steve Dallas's mom.
Grothman doesn't care about any of this stuff. He's shown that he is completely amoral. He just cares about getting elected and this is one way to get votes.
It's one of life's mysteries. One minute the schools are ineffective at teaching what they say they're going to teach, the next they're invincible at teaching things they are not saying they'll teach. Unlike English, science, or history, the mere mention of sexual orientation will cause kids to change. Especially if it's done in health class, as opposed to algebra, where it is slightly less irresistable because of the distraction of the curves of the parentheses. If we just teach what was taught thirty years ago, we'll be ready for jobs of the new millenium.
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Don't we always hear how gays are more affluent? Better educated, cleaner, more aesthetically refined, etc. And their political power is apparently limitless: simply invoke the gay, and be immediately recruited to its agenda.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that it's especially effective on the few effeminate boys who've been swirlied by the bruisers on the football team.
ReplyDelete