Anti-bullying Bill Debate Heats up in Michigan

Things have become very heated in the state of Michigan after the state senate passed a bill that would basically have given Christianists a free hand to bully and abuse gays - and Muslims, other non-Christians and who knows who else - so long as their bullying was based on "religious belief." In the aftermath of the bad publicity and loud criticism from the father of the student for whom the proposed legislation was named, renewed efforts are being made to include a listing of the the categories of students/characteristics for which one cannot be subjected to discrimination and bullying. Needless to say the Christianist - and their boot licking whores in the Michigan GOP - are screaming and disingenuously resisting these efforts. The Detroit News looks at the ongoing free for all. Here are some highlights:

It's been a long and bitter battle for Kevin Epling of East Lansing, who has campaigned for an anti-bullying law since his 14-year-old son, Matt, took his own life after a bullying incident by high school upperclassmen in 2002.

"We're losing kids," a frustrated Epling said earlier this month. "Every year I've been doing this, I'm introduced to a new family who's lost a kid."

A major stumbling block, according to those on both sides of the issue, is whether the bill — 47 states have one — should single out groups of students for protection, especially those who are, or are perceived to be, gay, lesbian or transgender. They are students such as Katy Butler, 16, of Plymouth, who was repeatedly called "gay" and a "fag," when she was in middle school. In the eighth grade, a group of boys smashed her hand in a locker and broke her finger.

Bills passed by the Republican-led state House and Senate don't enumerate specific groups of students. If the GOP-led Senate agrees to changes made by the House, the bill would head to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk. The House bill requires school districts to implement an anti-bullying policy within six months.

Advocates of anti-bullying legislation support bills that enumerate, or list, characteristics — such as race or religion — that are off-limits for taunts or abuse by schoolyard bullies. They say enumerated laws can be written with sufficient breadth to protect every student and better withstand challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court.

But, some conservatives object specifically to the enumeration of gay, lesbian and transgender students. Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and a challenger to U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, has called inclusion of such students in the bill a "Trojan horse."

"We are concerned that if you establish special protected class status expressly on the basis of homosexual behavior, that will be used to promote such behavior," said Glenn, who was co-sponsor of the "marriage protection" amendment approved by state voters in 2004.

The battle over Michigan's anti-bullying legislation grabbed national attention earlier this month when the Senate passed a bill stipulating it wouldn't prohibit expression of religious or moral viewpoints — a provision critics feared could be used to justify harassment of gay, lesbian or transgendered students. Video of Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer's scathing rebuke was televised coast to coast.

In a letter Epling wrote to the Senate about the legislation to be called "Matt's Safe School Law," he said: "I am ashamed that this could be Michigan's bill on anti-bullying when in fact it is a 'bullying is OK in Michigan' law." The House version of the bill deletes the exemption for religious and moral beliefs.

Butler, the 16-year-old who was bullied in middle school, isn't willing to compromise — nor are more than 56,770 people who had signed a petition as of this weekend that Butler posted on www.change.org. The petition asks for a bill that lists the reasons why students are most often bullied.

The statements by the American Family Association of Michigan once again underscore the fact that religion - especially fundamentalist religion - is one of the main causes of hate and bigotry in the world. It's hard not to conclude that the world would be a far better place if fundamentalist religions of every stripe ceased to exist.