Fisking Time!

My good buddy Tina brought this wonderful little gem (published in her local) paper to my attention. I don’t normally fisk, but this opportunity just seemed too good to pass up:

Several weeks ago, Athens and some other schools in this area celebrated a DOS day.

The correct meaning of this term is “Day of Sodomy.”

You know, if someone is going to resort to juvenile name calling, I wish for just once they’d come up with something new. Does this person really think we haven’t heard that “Day of Sodomy” slur about a thousand times before?

I called the administration to protest before April 25, but they were closed.

Really? The school opened for the very first time ever on April 25? Or do they mean they tried calling once only to discover they were closed and were too lazy to try again during normal hours?

The day was to be a day of silence to support those who practice gross sexual deviance.

Actually the Day of Silence is meant to raise awareness of how gay students (or even straight students who are perceived to be gay) are harassed, ridiculed, and even bullied. It’s a way to remind how these students are silenced (and often suffer in their silence). It’s a way to say, “no more mistreatment!” The problem is, people like our opinion-writer here cannot be honest about this fact. If they admitted what they were really protesting here (the radical notion that kids shouldn’t be bullied for being gay), more people would realize just what monsters they are.

Ignoring what God calls an abomination, all prior civilizations have considered these acts despicable.

This person needs to do far more research into this subject. There’s plenty of evidence to challenge the veracity of the “all prior civilizations” claim.

What sodomites (gays) have to be proud of is questionable.

I survived hateful comments directed at me from people like this author. I managed to reject a mountain of cultural conditioning that tried to convince me that I’m somehow “less than” and horrible simply because I’m attracted to and fall in love with men rather than women. I managed to become the stable, strong, and wonderful person I am despite all of these challenges. If the author finds these reasons for my pride “questionable,” then I’m inclined to find his ability to reason — or empathize with his fellow human beings — equally questionable.

They cannot reproduce naturally but must recruit.

Actually, it’s my experience that the ultraconservative Christians are the ones who recruit. I mean, there the ones with parochial schools, Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday Schools, and all kinds of other programs specifically developed to target children and youth. In fact, they encourage their own children and youth to participate in this recruitment process, often using guilt trips and other forms of manipulation. At best, this claim is a matter of the pot calling the kettle black. At worst (and this is far more likely), this claim is simply a matter of psychological projection.

It requires an active decision on the part of a person to become one.

I have yet to meet anyone who woke up one day and decided to be attracted to members of their own sex. I have yet to meet anyone who woke up one day and decided to be attracted to members of the other sex, for that matter. There’s simply no evidence for this claim. And even the ex-gay industry shies away from such a ridiculous notion.

Empirically, sodomites have a shorter life span,

Ah yes, good old Paul Cameron and his “longevity study.” The problem is, that study (and Paul Cameron) has been thoroughly discredited since it came out.

gave us AIDS,

Erm, a gay person can’t give you AIDS unless you have sex with them. 😉

provided most of our non-governmental mass murders, our last known U.S. cannibal and probably most pedophiles.

This is a tiresome old dirty trick called “guilt by association.” The fact that the author would even use it demonstrates just how little substance the original argument has. In fact, I’m surprised the author didn’t take this tactic to its logical conclusion, which would’ve enabled me to invoke Godwin’s law.

Name one thing a sodomite has done that is good that was done solely because the person was a sodomite.

Actually, I’d argue that the struggles I’ve faced as a gay man have made me a stronger and more compassionate man. That compassion has led me to help and touch the lives of many people.

But let’s face it, this whole “solely because the person was a sodomite” caveat is an admission that the author can only hope to make his point if he narrowly defines his challenge. He knows that gay people have made positive contributions, so he has to try to force people to limit their lists to contributions directly linked to their gayness.

The problem is, he’s raising a double standard here. After all, when he listed the social ills (you know, all that crap about pedophiles and mass murderers), he didn’t limit himself to the social ills directly related to gay people’s gayness. He just listed whatever he could think of that any gay person has done. Who cares that Jeffrey Dahmer was a messed up sick fuck? All that matters is that he was gay, so bigots like this author can use the horrible things Dahmer did to defame all gay people. But no, those of us on the pro side are suddenly expected to stick to things that are directly related to sexual orientation.

The whole thing reminds me of those situations where two children are playing a made up game, and the one child keeps rewriting the rules as the game progresses just to make sure he wins.

While is it legal for the sodomites to have a school sponsored “un-gay” club,

I will give credit to the author for being one of the few anti-gay bigots who seems to recognize the constitutionality of allowing GSA’s in school.

the school district does not have the right to enforce a schoolwide celebration of this disgusting practice.

No school district “enforced” a schoolwide celebration during the Day of Silence. the DoS is not run by teachers or administrators. It’s an event that involves voluntary participation of individual students. Indeed, it’s usually the students that request to participate.

All school faculties do is make allowances for students’ participation. They make sure that no participating students are harassed or bullied because of their participation. They might even make adjustments to the day’s activities to allow for some students’ participation, such as revising lesson plans so as not to call on a student who is remaining students. (As an aside, both GLSEN and the ACLU have made it clear that a participating student must break their silence and respond if a teacher asks a question or calls on them during class time.)

Why do the Athens schools and presumably the staff and teachers push sodomy as an acceptable lifestyle?

They don’t. They push the radical notion that no students deserve to be harassed, bullied, or otherwise mistreated, even if they’re gay. Why does the author have a problem with such an idea?

Why should we continue to support this system that “teaches our future” to be our destruction?

Because we tried letting the author’s beloved religious institutions try running the show for several centuries. The results were even worse.

Tolerance can reach the point of being intolerable. Perhaps Athens voters need to turn out the current school board and superintendent for their lack of morals and backbone.

Perhaps the town could instead ostracize and shun this author for thinking that protecting gay kids from mistreatment is somehow “immoral.”