Right wing religious groups fight against anti-bullying legislation for fear that it promotes an acceptance of homosexuality. Are you thinking "WTF?" Yeah, me too.

From Think Progress:

Last week, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death after two classmates secretly recorded his sexual relationship with a man and broadcasted it over the internet. Tragically, Clementi marks the fourth gay student to commit suicide in three weeks because of anti-gay harassment from fellow students. Seth Walsh, 13, Asher Brown, 13, and Billy Lucas, 15, also took their own lives last month because fellow students bullied them in school.

Many states across the country are taking laudable steps to enact measures that bolster administrators’ ability to protect students who face such harassment. However, despite the evidence supporting the need, right-wing lawmakers and activists insist that anti-bullying measures are nothing more than insidious tools of the “homosexual agenda”:

– The American Family Association of Michigan has spent years decrying a proposed anti-bullying measure as “a Trojan Horse to sneak [homosexual activists'] special rights agenda into law” and to “legitimize homosexual behavior” which is “a practice scientifically proven to result in a dramatically higher incidence of domestic violence, mental illness, illegal drug use, promiscuity, life-threatening disease, and premature death.” The bill “died in 2008 in the state Senate because senators could not agree” on whether to address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the measure.

– In Minnesota, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer said he would not sign the anti-bullying Safe Schools For All bill because “I don’t want the government” instead of parents to be on “the front line of defense of our children.” Indeed, Emmer voted against and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) vetoed the same bill in 2009 after the right-wing Minnesota Family Council pushed legislators to reject the bill in 2009 because it would “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”

– The right-wing Christian media ministry Focus on the Family is attacking an anti-bullying standard on the federal level. Insisting that bullying prevention is being “hijacked by activists” who are “politicizing or sexualizing the issue,” Focus on the Family’s Candi Cushman claims that the anti-bullying bill currently before Congress “cater[s] to a narrow political agenda” that “becomes a gateway for homosexuality promotion in school.” In their current back-to-school guide “equipping” parents with tools against the “sneaky” gay agenda, Cushman told parents to look out for bullying seminars, diversity lessons, and “cute little pictures of furry animals” as “red flags” signaling the “gay agenda.”

If this were forty, to forty five, years ago how many of us believe that the argument then would have been "The anti-bullying agenda is being hi-jacked by racial equality activists?"  Same argument, just targeting a different minority.

Obviously this is ridiculous and feeds into the Fundamentalist's idea that homosexuality is contagious and that the more accepted it is the more likely that the gays will be viewed as equal to the breeders that are now the dominant force in America.  And doesn't THAT remind you of the Teabagger's fear of brown people coming over the border in Mexico, their fear of Socialism replacing Capitalism in our government, and their barely contained rage at the African American sitting in the White House?

It seems like everything that drives these groups is fear of change.  Fear that what they have always seen as "normal" will be forever altered and that they will no longer be able to victimize groups different then their own like they did back in the "good old days,"  Did you ever notice that the "good old days" seemed to be much better for the white males in this country over every other demographic?

"Hey Frank!  Remember how we used to be able to make those lewd jokes around the break room, without fear of one of these skirts accusing us of sexual harassment?  Yep, them was the good old days alright!"

Sadly it is natural for the dominant groups to harass and bully, and even kill, those different from themselves.  We see that same savagery play out in the animal world all of the time.

However the difference is that we are self aware.  We can choose to resist our natural instincts, and learn to accept, and even care, about those who are not exactly like us. That is what makes us human. And for those of you with faith in the bible, I am sure you have read that humans were made in God's image, therefore to use the abilities that God bestowed on his children is to honor God, don't you think?

I would think that if EVERY Christian stopped for just a minute, and asked themselves "How would Jesus treat this person?" That it would fundamentally change our county, hell even our world, for the better.

Or am I simply misunderstanding the message that Jesus tried to teach mankind?