A Stitch in Haste

Assorted tales of "We're not bigots!" bigotry --

ITEM: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" loses support in the military...

Critics of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are gaining new allies, including a few conservative congressmen and a West Point professor, as they press on multiple fronts to overturn the ban on out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians in the armed forces.

As part of their strategy, opponents of the policy are now highlighting the ongoing struggles of Army and Marine recruiters. The [anti-DADT advocacy group] Servicemembers Legal Defense Network say in a new report that many highly trained specialists -- including combat engineers and linguists -- are being discharged involuntarily while the Pentagon "is facing extreme challenges in recruiting and retaining troops."

MY TAKE: If it weren't the result of a war and the cause of so much heartache for those affected, this whole "DADT v. recruiting shortage" would be downright laughable. Meanwhile, I wonder if, 40 years from now, the military will apologize for DADT the way the Senate is racing to apologize for not banning lynching.

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ITEM: ...but gains support in parochial schools --

An Orange County Catholic school that angered some parents by allowing a gay couple to enroll their two boys last year has drafted a policy that would forbid the men to appear as a couple at school functions, according to a memo distributed to teachers.
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The May 6 memo ... states: "Practically speaking this means: The children adopted by a same-sex couple" may enroll "on the condition that the same-sex couple agree not to present themselves as a couple at school functions."
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Some parents accused school leaders of defying the teachings of the late Pope John Paul II, who in 2003 condemned marriage and adoption by same-sex couples and urged school officials to require parents to sign a pledge to live by Catholic doctrine, which regards homosexual acts as sinful.

MY TAKE: Remind me again how "it's all about the children"? Hat tip to Ace Pryhill, who has some excellent commentary, including Biblical context.

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ITEM: Time to bring in the "activist legislature" --

The [Georgia] Board of Education voted Tuesday to reject a requirement that students obtain permission from their parents to join high school clubs, an offshoot from a controversy over a gay support group in one local school system.
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Initially, the rule change would have required students to get written permission to join any of the 100 or more clubs that some schools offer, ranging from school yearbook staffs to Habitat for Humanity chapters.
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State Rep. Bobby Reese, R-Sugar Hill, said opposition to the proposal before the state board was "appalling." Reese is the sponsor of legislation aimed at student clubs and said he will fight to get the bill passed next year.

MY TAKE: The next step would probably be to ban all extracurricular activities outright. Because, again, "It's all about the children..." PurpleScarf has some excellent commentary on the issue.

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ITEM: I'm late to the party on the infamous "gay warning label" story. And of course it doesn't take a lot of brain power to make the "concentration camp" connection. So I'll just add a not-so-fun fact about gays and the Holocaust: When the concentration camps were liberated, the Jews were of course set free. However, on the orders of the U.S. military, gays were merely transferred to ordinary civilian prisons. The reasoning was that they were not political prisoners, but petty criminals who had violated Germany's anti-sodomy law and did not deserve to be released.

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One thread runs through these stories, even the parochial school farce: same-sex marriage has nothing to do with any of them. As I've blogged repeatedly, it's not about marriage at all -- it's about naked bigotry. And in that sense, "backlash" notwithstanding, the gay marriage debate has been an unmitigated positive, as it has dragged the bigots out of their own closet and hoisted them up for shaming, shunning and ridicule.

As I've said before: In order to have a debate, you must first have something to debate about.