Monday, July 11, 2011

Hate Merchants At Mission America Attack Scholarships for LGBT Students

Linda Harvey (pictured at left) at Mission American once again proves that she's about as unloving and nasty piece of work as one can be when it comes to denigrating not only LGBT Americans but in addition anyone or any organization which endeavors to make life less of a Hell for those who suffer as victims of anti-gay bigotry. As Right Wing Watch is reporting, Ms. Harvey has gone on a spittle spraying rant against scholarships for LGBT high schools students and the National Education Association in particular. Harvey alleges that such scholarships offer a "financial incentive" and help "persuade youths to be in a deviant lifestyle" and engage in "risky behavior" Having endowed a scholarship for LGBT students myself in honor of my late parents, in my view Ms. Harvey is an utter douche bag and from a moral perspective is no different that the Islamic haters that the Christian Taliban in this country love to malign. Here's a portion of Harvey's screed:
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Harvey: The group’s website says they raise money for teen scholarships given to those kids who consider themselves homosexual. The past few years the scholarship winners have not simply been young people persuaded to be in this deviant lifestyle, but are students who have unfortunately bought the party line and become involved in activism projects like homosexual clubs and the pro-homosexual Day of Silence in their schools. And so now kids are given financial incentives to be actively engaged in both the political goals of homosexuals as well as the risky behavior. This is appalling. In these tough economic times many kids will be struggling to get money together for college and here we have a really sleazy connection for them to make. It’s just one more outrageous thing going on with our teachers’ unions.
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What's appalling and sleazy are Harvey and those like her. It's precisely because of people like Harvey and those who embrace her hate-filled form of Christianity that many LGBT students find themselves in need of scholarships in the first place having been disowned and/or cut off financially by their Kool-Aid drinking parents and families. In describing my motivation for establishing a scholarship for LGBT high school students I said in part the following:
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I provided the initial funding to establish the scholarship for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to honor my parents who always valued education and who were unwavering in their support of me when I came out. In fact, when I was telling them that I was gay and made a remark that I hoped that they would not disown me, my father - not always the easiest of individuals to get along with - was indignant that I'd even think such a thing about them. He honestly could not conceive of any decent parent who would disown their own child merely because they were gay. Unfortunately, many parents do not follow my late parents' example. And as a result, LGBT youth make up a disproportionate percentage of homeless youths because too many parents prefer to cling to religious based bigotry or worry about what others will think rather than stand by their children.
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Other LGBT youths, if not disowned and homeless, nonetheless can find themselves cut off from family resources and may never have an opportunity to got to college. Sadly, I know a significant number of individuals who suffered this disheartening experience. It's a tragedy. I sincerely hope that this scholarship will help offset such bigotry in small part and over time will grow and provide benefit for more aspiring LGBT youth each year.

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