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03/09/2010

Stop ENDA or, uhm, God will steal the sun. Or something.

by Jeremy Hooper

Southern Poverty Law Center hate group The Traditional Values Coalition has a new website designed solely for the purpose of stopping the Employment NonDiscrimination Act. So considering this is the far-right we're talking about, all of the text and imagery on said new site are of course thoroughly high brow and fair, with the group presenting a rich and nuanced examination of this potential civil law and using nothing but carefully fleshed out logic to state resistance to it.

Nah, just kidding: Storms and kids and transphobia are once again the order of the day:



ENDAHurtsKids.com

Because apparently under ENDA, Mother Nature would be replaced with a militant lesbian weathergoverness who harnesses her strength from thunder. That should be exciting.

***

*UPDATE: Here's the stock photo that TVC used/altered:



*Source: iStockphoto

Here these kids are just trying to focus on their handwriting, and a group of adults who can't see the handwriting on society's wall comes in and replaces their flowers with a stormy window. And yet they call us the militant ones? Sheesh!

Your thoughts

They seem to regard this campaign as a commercial entity, given their use of a .com address (instead of .org) for their site.

Posted by: Dan T. | Mar 9, 2010 12:31:29 PM

Puhlease. Most teachers I know don't feel they have sufficient class time to teach their kids the subject material (mathematics, biology, history, etc) they're supposed to be teaching. To suggest that they're going to spend all that time teaching kids about sexual fetishes is delusional at best and diabolically dishonest at best. But then again, I think this goes back to projection as usual. Of course the folks at TVC assume that LGBT folk are going to take valuable teaching time to indoctrinate children! After all, that's exactly what the folks at TVC want to do! And everyone's just as underhanded as them, right?



Posted by: Jarred | Mar 9, 2010 12:33:00 PM

To be honest, Dan, I think most sites are opting for a .com address these days. Years ago when I set up my personal site, I went with a .com address simply because they're more common, and I've even run into a few people who stumbled over the idea of a .org address.

Posted by: Jarred | Mar 9, 2010 12:40:41 PM

I saw the picture before I read the post. I knew the TVC was behind this one, even before I start reading. They're obsessed with men wearing dresses. Read for yourselves: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41187-2004May19.html Why don't they paste a burly guy in a womens' pink, two-piece bikini standing over the kids and frothing at the mouth?

Posted by: KZ | Mar 9, 2010 12:50:55 PM



I can assure you that the kids wouldn't care, as long as the teacher can teach. And a good teacher should be appreciated by all. Haven't these people ever seen Mrs. Doubtfire?

Posted by: dave b | Mar 9, 2010 1:02:44 PM

I had a discussion with a fellow teacher today. She noted that many of our elementary students know that their music teacher (ME!) is gay, and they just don't care. It doesn't seem to be an issue with their parents either. Now, I'm not likely to come to work in a dress, but I have been known to wear a kilt on St. Patrick's, or dress like a Pirate for Talk Like A Pirate Day. So where does TVC draw the line? Will they come after me if I wear the wrong color shirt? what if I have earrings in? And why aren't they worried about women dressing as men? Will they require females to wear skirts or dresses only, and of a certain length?

Posted by: keltic | Mar 9, 2010 1:54:21 PM

One would think that the TVC would have chosen a stock photo of kids who were in a state of abject horror for their campaign. As it is, they seem to be sending the message that kids will be fine, and perfectly well adjusted even if this "gathering storm" they predict comes to fruition. But to address a more technical point, how many elementary school teachers are federal gov't employees? Doesn't ENDA only apply to employees of the federal government?

Posted by: Dick Mills | Mar 9, 2010 3:35:24 PM

No, Dick: ENDA applies to all businesses with greater than 15 employees (with other religious and non-profit exemptions in place). But you're right about the photo. The kids seem perfectly content with the ENDA storm around them.

Posted by: G-A-Y | Mar 9, 2010 4:04:09 PM

Wow! I don't know where I got that impression... guess I should have done some research. I was a bit ho-hum about ENDA, but now I am much more supportive. And, you know that in California (in fact 12 states - which includes the entire west coast - plus DC), current non-discrimination statutes do protect gender identity. And, I have yet to hear of any cross-dressers teaching elementary school students. One other tid-bit, even under current non-discrimination laws, employers are free to impose dress codes. So, in theory, there may never be a case of a man dressed as a woman teaching grade school, because by the time the transgendered individual is allowed to wear woman's clothing, she would already physically be a she. Perhaps less so for FTMs though.

Posted by: Dick Mills | Mar 9, 2010 4:29:48 PM

We already have men dressed as women teaching children. They're called "clergy".

Posted by: Buffy | Mar 9, 2010 5:42:29 PM

Oh, Buffy, that is sooooo true! I stand corrected!

Posted by: Dick Mills | Mar 9, 2010 6:27:48 PM

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