Anoka-Hennepin TeachersTest Requires Affirmation of District's Anti-Gay Policy

Faced with a Federal lawsuit and an Office of Civil Rights investigation one would think that the Anoka-Hennepin School District make some small effort not to add ammunition to those who allege that the district - located in loon Michele Bachmann's congressional district - has a serious anti-gay atmosphere which is aided and abetted by the district's anything but unbiased "neutrality policy" that prohibits any positive discussion of mention pro-LGBT topics or information. Christianists (which seem to control the school district), on the other hand are free to spew anti-gay bigotry. Now it turns out that in order to pass a required teachers' test, teacher must endorse the fiction that the school districts anti-gay policy isn't - anti-gay. For those who are honest enough to admit that the emperor, if you will, has no clothes, a failing grade is the result. The supposed correct answer is that the district’s policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues in the district’s schools is intended to make “students feel safe.” Here are some highlights from the Minnesota Independent:

Some teachers at Anoka-Hennepin School District have failed a teachers test because they refused to affirm that the district’s policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues in the district’s schools is intended to make “students feel safe.”

The district’s policy is at the heart of a culture war in the district and is the subject of a lawsuit by six students and their parents who say the district has not taken appropriate steps to prevent bullying against students who are, or are perceived to be, LGBT.

City Pages reported on Wednesday that a training test required by all teachers contains the question: “One of the goals of the Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy is to ensure all of our students feel safe and respected in our classrooms and/or while participating in school activities: true or false?”

City Pages notes that several teachers in the district are refusing to answer “true,” which causes them to fail the training test.

The policy states that “Anoka-Hennepin staff, in the course of their professional duties, shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.” Yet, the policy only targets LGBT issues.

[T]he Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have filed suit against the district on behalf of six students and their families.

The federal Department of Education and the Department of Justice have also launched investigations into the district after the suicide deaths of nine students in the past two years, several of whom were known to identify as LGBT.

The policy is a farce and like so much coming out of the mouths of "cultural conservatives" is a outright lie. It's all about allowing LGBT students to be victimized while giving special privileges to toxic "Christian" beliefs. Kudos to the teachers who refuse to support the lie.

Terror Attack on Israeli Gay Teen Center

In yet another example of what is likely religious based bigotry - and an example of the fact that anti-gay rhetoric does lead to violence - a gunman attacked a gay youth club center in Tel Aviv, typically considered a non-religiously dogmatic and tolerant city. Two were killed (one of the dead, a 26 year old youth director, is at left) in the attack and 13 or more wounded. It is sad that a place that was to provide a safe haven turned into a place of carnage. But then, religious based bigotry and hate has a many centuries long history of causing death and carnage. Once again it makes me wonder whether a religion free world - or at least a world where everyone was free to believe as they want and live their lives without bigots interfering - might not be a huge improvement. Events like this also are a reminder that LGBT citizens are at risk for random attacks by the religious motivated nutcases. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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Israel's gay community was rocked on Sunday by the killing of two people in a homosexual and lesbian youth center and the possibility they fell victim to a hate crime in the Jewish state's most freewheeling city. "The biggest shock is to think that it happened in Tel Aviv, which is the most tolerant city in the country," said Avi Sofer, a gay rights activist.
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Witnesses said a masked gunman clad in black opened fire on Saturday night in a basement club belonging to the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association, which was hosting a weekly event for teenage gays. The attacker killed a 26-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl and wounded 13 people before fleeing, hospital officials said. "He simply fired all over the place," Or Gil, 16, told the YNet news website. "At first I thought it was prank, or a toy gun. After the killings, it was quiet, completely silent and then people came to help the wounded."

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Police said they were still searching for the attacker and that the shooting was not an anti-Israeli attack by a Palestinian . . . If the incident proves to be a hate crime, it will mark the most serious attack against the gay community in Israel's history.

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Although coastal, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv has a bustling gay scene, open homosexuality is less welcome in conservative areas. Annual gay pride parades in Jerusalem meet with often violent protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who view homosexuality as an abomination against God.

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Four years ago, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed three parade participants in Jerusalem. They survived. The attacker is serving a 12-year prison term. Nitzan Horowitz, an openly gay legislator, said he had no doubt there was a connection between the latest killings and what he termed incitement against the gay community in Israel.