[Media] It was the tongue-clucking heard round the world. Or at least throughout the state.The story about a feisty little PTA president in American Fork has legs, apparently. All Belinda Jensen wanted to do was provide a platform for a group spreading the hoary old myth that gays "recruit" schoolchildren.
School administrators were understandably hesitant to give the appearance that the school endorses such views--which made Jensen realize that the PTA had been infiltrated by the Homosexual Agenda. (The idea that the American Fork PTA is a hotbed of homos seems plausible only to those with a screw loose.)
How could she, a plucky little bigot, thwart the evil forces silencing her? Why, by holding her little cross-burning at the library—at least the gays haven't infiltrated that public institution. (Or have they? The Pride Center will hold its own Q&A there next Wednesday.)
As usual with such events, more heat than light was generated. The dailies' comments boards filled up with venomous anti-gay ravings and offended reactions from people who actually know someone gay well enough to see through the smokescreen.
Four things:
Jensen's cohorts, who describe themselves as an LDS-oriented corporation, say gays have to actively "recruit" new members into "the homosexual lifestyle," and contribute to the spread of disease.
1. I have never heard of gay people going door-to-door looking for new converts. If anybody's recruiting, it's people like Jensen, who twist the tenets of Christianity to generate hatred against whomever they're trying to persecute at the time.
2. The last epidemic I heard of that could be attributed to some group was last summer's cryptosporidium outbreak--was it caused the gays? No. It was caused by the kinds of irresponsible parents who believe that the entire world has been created for the benefit of their children. (They're even talking about "swim diapers" now. How sick is that? I'd feel a hell of a lot safer in a gay swimming pool than one frequented by the American Fork PTA.)
3. If Jensen's actions and those of her propaganda-spewing pals result in just one attack against some poor gay kid in American Fork, she should be held responsible for spreading the lies that make anti-gay brutality a fact of life for many young people growing up.
4. If her goal was to make gays angry and to steel our resolve to achieve equal protection under the law in our lifetimes, she's succeeded. (Brandon Burt)
Good job, Brandon. Keep standing up to people like this PTSA woman. She and her ilk live in the shadow of irrational fear and want to drag everyone else into that cramped space with them. They have their own "agenda" that does more damage than any one gay person could ever do: they spread fear, lies and hate without an ounce of proof to back up their views. Now that's an agenda, all right.
ReplyDeleteYou know, everytime I think we've moved years past the point of assuming "gays have an agenda," there's always some nut down in Utah County who pops their head through the dirt to remind everyone that our sense of progress only exists on TV and in fantasy.
ReplyDeleteThank you American Fork bigots, for bringing us queers down from the clouds and dragging us through the mud with you common folk.
How about we just build fences around places like American Crock and keep the bigots out of our country. Obviously they don’t like it where they are and want to “come over” and be “illegal” here… you know where we have a constitution that applies to all citizens equally. D’oh wait they have already infiltrated us and are ignoring the Constitution and the laws that protect everyone equally. Hmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteExcellent article. It is ridiculous that people are such homophobes. Didn't Jesus teach everyone to love each other and see past differences? I just don't get what the big deal is. They don't recruit and obviously this PTA nut job didn't get the memo. I guess she is too blind with hatred to know the true teachings of the Lord, "Love one another."
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean I don't have to do my stint at the recruiting station this Thursday? Dang! I almost have enough points for that toaster-oven. Lord Geffen will be so angry that our secret, eeeeevil agenda has been discovered! And man, if we miss our goals for April, I for one don't want to have to listen to another one of his hissies at our next Super Secret Gay™ Plenary Congress™. As we say in Homoslavia, "Get gay. Stay gay . . . or go away".
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Silicon Valley for four years, I met ONE man I knew to be gay. Since moving to Salt Lake City, met, worked with and/or live next to EIGHT, plus a trans-gendered woman and their various visitors. (The Gay Family Home Evening get-togethers are a riot to watch as they fill up the parking lot and street with their cars. You don't have to be gay to know SL county has a large, active GLBT population.
ReplyDeleteShe should wake up and smell the Postum.
It's people like this that make me realize how much judgement still exists in the world today. How ignorant and negative this woman's intention and message is. I believe a big part of our purpose in life is to grow and develop ourselves into the best people we can be, whether we are gay, straight, fat, stupid, "ugly"...whatever...we are all connected, we are all ONE and we are all EQUAL. It's hard not to feel outraged by this woman but again a lesson for all of us to simply LOVE.
ReplyDeleteMan, it was things like this that made it so difficult for me to come out. I had put myself under the delusion that things were getting better, but I guess my little defense mechanism is thus shattered askew yet again.
ReplyDelete