Homosexuality & Intolerance in Viroqua

From the Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger , the fact that school authorities in Viroqua, Wisconsin, cancelled a “diversity day” rather than allow Christian views and contrasting views about homosexuality to be heard. From the Vernon County Broadcaster:

Faced again with controversy over plans for a gay speaker, Viroqua High School officials have cancelled Diversity Day.

The event, held every two years since 2000 for juniors and seniors, had been set for Thursday.

Scheduled speakers included Hmong, Jewish, Muslim, American Indian, African, American, Latino, Buddhist, gay, physically disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged people.

But it was called off late last week after a legal group raised a potential challenge to include a formerly gay or Christian viewpoint.

As a conservative legal action group, the Liberty Counsel, explains:

After a school official stated that the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals would be excluded, a resident contacted Liberty Counsel on behalf of many other concerned Viroqua residents.

On March 9, Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the District Administrator, explaining that the censorship of the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals violated the Establishment Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection guarantee. Liberty Counsel sent another letter on March 14 to the District Administrator and Board of Education. Two days later, the District Administrator confirmed in a telephone call that Diversity Day had been cancelled.

In other words, the attitude of the liberals running the program was “if we have to include views we don’t like, we would rather just not have it.”

Gregg Attleson, a Spanish teacher who was on the planning committee explained the viewpoint of those pushing the event:

“Our students are not going to be living their lives out in Viroqua,” said Attleson. “They’ll be out and about in the world — in jobs, in the military, in the university — and they’re going to come into contact with people of different backgrounds. And we feel it would be real helpful for them in a nice safe place, like a high school, to have contact and be able to dispel some of the stereotypes.”

Note the arrogant and patronizing attitude that Attleson expresses.

Basically, it’s “our students are a bunch of hayseed hicks, and if we don’t enlighten them in properly politically correct attitudes, they won’t be able to function in the outside world.”

But of course, people like Attleson have stereotypes aplenty, and are only very selectively tolerant.

The politically correct “diversity” types aren’t at all tolerant of conservative Christians, nor big business, nor the Boy Scouts, nor smokers, nor military recruiters, nor Southerners, nor people who belong to the National Rifle Association.

They are tolerant of Muslims, but only because Muslim terrorists are at war with America. If that should stop, they will go back to their pre-9/11 pattern of being intolerant of Islam because of the way Islam treats women.

When committee members heard some wanted the ex-gay viewpoint presented, they contacted the homosexual couple who would be speaking. Bob and Kevin Gross, who are parents of five children in the Viroqua School District. were also presenters at the 2002 Diversity Day and were set to participate again.

Kevin Gross said the pair told the committee they would participate at the event, but not if confronted by the ex-gay speaker in the same room.

“We thought it was a little ridiculous that the idea was to put us in a room where someone else would talk about being able to be ‘healed’ of being gay,” Kevin Gross said.

The committee eventually decided the best course of action was to cancel the whole event.

“Non-positive groups were not what we were going for,” said Ellen Byers, an English teacher on the committee.

She said it was important to have homosexuals represented because a lot of misunderstanding exists about the issue and because Viroqua has gay students.

She said the day was not supposed to be about “proselytizing,” or alienating anyone.

“It’s ironic, because we’re trying to be tolerant and at the same time we might be accused of being intolerant,” Byers said.

In other words, all the presentations had to be “positive.” But “positive” was defined in liberal politically correct terms. It wasn’t seen as “positive” that a homosexual person might feel his lifestyle was wrong, and be able to change and conform his sexual behavior to his moral views.

Christianity wasn’t seen as “positive” although every other religion was.

So these “tolerant” liberal teachers might be accused of being intolerant because they try to exclude and silence certain viewpoints? And they are baffled by that?

Highly relevant here are the comments of Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is addressing gay marriage, but whose observations apply to the whole politically correct agenda.

As much as one may wish to live and let live, the experience in other countries reveals that once these arrangements become law, there will be no live-and-let-live policy for those who differ. Gay-marriage proponents use the language of openness, tolerance and diversity, yet one foreseeable effect of their success will be to usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination the likes of which we have rarely seen before. Every person and every religion that disagrees will be labeled as bigoted and openly discriminated against. The ax will fall most heavily on religious persons and groups that don’t go along.

In places like Viroqua, people are willing to fight the fascists.