VT is for bullies?

The gays are coming! The gays are coming! Eeeeeeeeek!

This week, a handful of morons in Williston Vermont blocked a school based anti-harassment program. You can read the story at the Burlington Free Press.

The program, sponsored by the group Outright Vermont would have provided a series of workshops designed to educate middle school aged children on the problems of harassment and bullying based on gender and sexual orientation. Doesn't this sound great? Unfortunately, the program was canceled at the last minute due to the complaints of a small group of parents. In planning this event, the school gave parents the option to keep their children from attending the program. Apparently, that option was not enough. Some people were so threatened by the program that they insisted no one attend it.

Why? Those parents who had issues with it could have kept their kids home that day. But clearly they are not content to have control over just their own children. They want to force their narrow, limiting, and harmful philosophy on others. Often the stated crux of the issue in this kind of situation is that the parents are simply asking that an outside philosophy not be forced onto their kids. The premise is that its the right and perhaps the privilege of parents to choose what values will be modeled for their children. This seems reasonable. There is one huge paradox created if we accept that argument though. The values the anti-workshop parents hold quite explicitly promote adherence to their lifestyle under genuine and sometimes physical threat. The values of the anti-gay movement are discrimination, intolerance, bigotry, and a need to regulate and legislate the public and private lives of other people. Contrast that with the values underlying an anti-harassment workshop, such as "don't hurt people", "live and let live", and maybe even the shocking notion that "you don't have to hate yourself or let others hate you if you're different". So tell me, who is trying to force other people to accept their perverse lifestyle? The people saying "love and be who you are" or the people saying "eeeek! gay people!"?

I'm so sick of these extremists. I'm especially sick of their insistence that by preaching and legislating attitudes of intolerance and limitations on others, they are exercising their personal liberties. I dunno, when I was a kid I remember hearing that whole "fire in a crowded theater" thing. You know, the one about how your rights end where another's begin? Doesn't this seem sort of like it should apply here? Why should freedom of religion mean someone is free to hurt me if they think I'm gay? Why should it mean I can't have access to emergency contraception if I'm raped? Man, I'm just fed up with these people telling me and everyone else what to do.

There is no reasonable debate or logical argument to win when you're up against morons like this. You can't debate fear. I looked up the school's principal and made a donation to Outright Vermont in his name. It made me feel a little better. Through the donation website, I sent him an e-card that said "Thinking of you" and I wrote this:
After reading about how the Williston Central School administrators canceled a presentation by Outright Vermont, I decided to donate to the group in your name Mr. Fleury. Because you were part of letting the bullies win, your name is associated with a donation to help prevent the bullies from winning all the time. This makes me feel just a little bit better.