And more tidbits, these from the area of gay-rights discussions:
Another video resource I didn't recommend in my first two postings today, but which I do plan to watch, is the recent play "8," which was produced by the American Foundation for Equal Rights and Broadway Impact. "8" recreates the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial that resulted in the ruling that California's prop 8 initiative, which stripped the right of civil marriage from gay citizens of the state, was unconstitutional, since it deliberately targets a minority group with the avowed intent of removing a civil right from that group. Solely because it is a minority group without strong legal protection or standing.
The play "8" was produced to provide those who wanted to see the trial itself with a simulation of the trial, since courts have prevented any release of videotapes of the trial due to protests from the pro-prop 8 side, who claim that permitting people to see and hear what their side said during the trial will expose supporters of prop 8 to discrimination and harassment.
Many of those following this discussion think that the likely reason the pro-prop 8 side want the videos of the trial sealed, however, is that they demonstrate that those promoting prop 8 never did have any sound logical or legal arguments on their side. All they ever had going for them, and all they could offer as testimony during the prop 8 trial, was sheer prejudice: gay marriage is wrong because we believe it's wrong, and society must adhere to what we feel and what we believe. Because we say so. And we're religious folks.
I didn't recommend "8" earlier today because I haven't yet watched it. But I do plan to do so.
Another tidbit of news (and this is a story about which I've blogged in the past): as John Aravosis reports at Americablog Gay today, the Department of Justice is filing suit against the Anoka-Hennepin school district in Minnesota due to the school district's alleged failure to protect gay or gay-identified students subjected to bullying in the district's schools.
The Anoka-Hennepin school district has been persistently in the news in recent years, as nine young people committed suicide in two years, four of them known to have been either gay or perceived as gay. It is a school district in the legislative district represented by Michelle Bachmann. Strong allegations have been made that the leaders of the school district have done far too little to respond to bullying of gay or gay-identified students within the school district, and that this has contributed to the problems that erupted in an epidemic of suicides.
As I reported back in October 2010, when stories of the suicide epidemic first began to circulate in September of that year and Change.org asked those concerned to email the Anoka-Hennepin administrators, I sent an email expressing my concern. The email bounced back from the official email box of one of the administrators, Kathy Tingelstad, a former Republican state representative.
I then found a way to get the email to her by searching for alternative addresses online, and eventually heard back from a member of the school district who responded defensively to my concerns, saying the district had done everything possible to address the needs of gay students. This spokesperson totally ignored my report that one of the administrators in the district had chosen to block email input from the public about the situation in the school district that was resulting in a suicide epidemic.
The story continued after that, and has continued to unfold. For an update in December 2010, see this posting.
And since I have followed this story for several years now, because I have long been concerned to try to address the problems in American schools that are resulting in the suicides of gay or gender-questioning young people, I agree with John Aravosis: it's good that the Department of Justice is looking into the Anoka-Hennepin situation. Nine young lives in two years is a horrific loss. And an indicator that something is badly amiss in this school district in which the voice of the anti-gay religious right has had very strong influence for a number of years now. With disastrous results.
Finally, one other quick (and equally dismal) update: remember that music teacher in St. Louis who just lost his job in a Catholic school when diocesan officials heard that he was going to be civilly married to his partner of 20 years? Well, he has now lost another job in a Catholic institution.
He was also working as a music director at a Catholic parish in Florissant, Missouri. He's just been told that he is no longer welcome to work in the parish, since anyone working for this parish must have a life "consistent with the teachings of the Catholic church."
It appears, oddly enough, that it's not inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church to remove the bread from a layperson's mouth, to take away his or her livelihood and health insurance with no basis other than discrimination for doing so, to uproot him and his family, to smear his reputation--while inviting everyone to the table of the Lord to partake of the holy bread Jesus offers all of us freely at that table.
I grieve that these situations continue to happen in the Catholic church, and to good and holy laypeople who have no power to fight back when they occur. At the same time, I'm pleased that at long last they're being reported in the Catholic and secular media.
It's about time this happened, since these situations have been going on in Catholic institutions for a long time now, and getting the media to pay attention to them up to now has been well-nigh impossible. And as they've happened repeatedly in many places in the U.S., far too many liberal Catholics who claim they stand for human rights have stood by in silence and have used the media cover-up of these cases to claim that there's no problem anywhere--not a problem in the world--with gross homophobic discrimination in Catholic workplaces in the U.S.
It's time for the liberals colluding in the homophobic discrimination to open their eyes. And grow up.
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