God forbid that children should be taught that hatred is wrong.

Over 500 Helena, MT residents gathered at the Helena School District’s school board meeting Tuesday night to weigh in on a new K-12 health education plan released last week. The 62-page proposal, developed by community members and health officials over two years, promotes a broad health and nutrition education program for each grade. However, there is a small section dealing with sex education that has ignited a firestorm of backlash among conservatives, both locally and nationally. The curriculum would teach first graders “that human beings can love people of the same gender;” second graders “not to make fun of people by calling them ‘gay’ or ‘queer;’” and fifth and sixth graders that “there are several types of intercourse.” These ideas spurred right-wing pundits Sean Hannity (and guest Fox News contributor Todd Starnes), Bill O’Reilly, and Laura Ingraham into a tail-spin on their shows this week over the curriculum as a weapon to promote the homosexual agenda: – HANNITY: What right does a school district that can’t even teach kids to read and write — and this is, generally speaking, around the country — have to impose their values on the kids? [7/13/10] [Faux Noise delinked] – STARNES: Sean, this is the report right here. Sixty-two pages. I have read every single word. And I’ve got to tell you something, Jack and Jill go up the hill, and they do some really inappropriate things once they get up there. […] Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub. [7/13/10][Faux Noise delinked] – O’REILLY: This stuff comes from the school boards and the superintendent. They want to indoctrinate the children. The reason is they don’t want bullying. They want tolerance across the board. So you take a 5-year-old who just wants to play and, all of a sudden, it’s Heather has two mommies or Gary has 18 daddies. I don’t know what it is. [7/14/10][Faux Noise delinked] – INGRAHAM: Children will learn that sexual relationships could happen between two men or two women. Why stop there? Why are they stopping at two? I mean that’s very exclusionary, don’t you think? No plant life invoked. [7/15/10][Faux Noise delinked] Watch it: Hannity, O’Reilly, Ingraham, and many right-wing conservatives actually have no problem imposing values onto students — as long as they’re the values they champion, as found in programs like abstinence-only education. Medical experts have concluded that not only do abstinence-only programs not curb teen pregnancy, but “there is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.” Despite clear evidence and increasing recognition of their inefficacy, such programs continue to receive millions in federal funding. When it comes to curriculum content, the right-wing watchdogs are clear on what values are acceptable. Hannity slammed an Arizona school district for “refusing to end its Mexican-American studies program,” citing a Chicano civil rights textbook as evidence that the class radicalizes students to overthrow the government… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

People can love people of the same gender. They object to that. Those religious right hate-mongers had better start preaching in their pulpits that Jesus loves only the women in the congregation.

Don’t make fun of people by calling them gay or queer. When I was a second grader, we insulted people by calling then fags and queers. We had no idea what it meant, but we saw the big kids doing it, so we thought it was cool. I regret that now, because I was inviting children to experience self-loathing as they grew up and discovered they were attracted to the same gender. The Republicans object to teaching that this hatred is wrong.

There are several types of intercourse. By the time I was in fifth grade, I already knew that oral sex existed and also knew of at least half a dozen positions. I knew that homosexuality existed and had already been preconditioned by social intolerance to be disgusted by the idea. We’re talking 1959 here, and half a century later, kids know a lot more than we did. My point is that we won’t be teaching these kids anything they don’t already know. The Republican objection to the teaching of this is the absence of hate in the presentation.

These Republicans are hypocrites. They have no objection to teaching values, as long as they are their values.