Did I Hear What I Think I Heard?
Last Friday, I attended the Utah State House Education Committee Hearing on House Bill 393 known as the Public Education Club Amendments – Sponsored by Representative Tilton.
The hearing was PACKED - standing room only as they say. I was so amazed by some of the comments made during public comment period, that I felt compelled to post a shortened audio of the comments here.
My apology in advance. I took out the superfluous and dead space for your convenience. It is a very rough cut, but you get the idea. Maybe someday I will create a sort of audio collage of the classic “Stepford statements†like “high moral values,†and this gem.
The comment process alternated between pro and con, each lining up on each side of the room. I think it was interesting that there were NO STUDENTS testifying in support of the bill, while many brave students testified against the bill. It was also fairly obvious that people who spoke in favor of the bill were led by our conservative vanguard — the one and only, Gail Ruzika of The Eagle Forum.
For those of you who don’t know; this bill was originally meant as an attempt to eliminate Gay-Straight Alliance high school clubs. Due to the precedence set after the last attempt to ban these clubs, the bill actually does nothing but require schools to get parental permission slips in order for their kids to participate in any extra-curricular club at school. I guess its sponsors hope that this will require gay kids who want to attend to “come out†to their parents.
As Rep. Spackman-Moss, a thirty-three year educator pointed out, not only will kids forge parent’s signatures, but also the schools cannot possibly audit the permission slips.
You can hear the complete un-cut audio on the legislature’s website here.
February 21st, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Unbeeeeeeelievable !!
“workshops for 12-year-olds with intructions on how to perform sexual behaviors” ???
February 21st, 2006 at 6:28 pm
“We cannot seduce, so we must produce.”
Unreal
February 21st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
A subtle, highly-insulting and rarely-discussed theme runs along side of this bill and is being used to support passage of the bill into law. The theme suggests that parents are unaware of and need to be warned what occurs (or might possibly occur) in gay-straight clubs. Tilton should be tarred, feathered and kicked out of the legislature for suggesting that Utah parents are collectively that stupid or uninformed.
The Deseret Morning News recently reported, for example, that “[Tilton] wants to warn parents that participating in an ‘explicit concept’ club — identified as a gay-straight alliance — could expose children to sexual ideas ranging from bestiality to group sex.” See DMN, Wednesday, February 15. It is beyond outrageous that Tilton is suggesting that parents can’t figure out for themselves or need to be warmed of what may or may not be discussed in such clubs. Does Tilton truly believe that parents in Utah are that stupid or uninformed. Worse yet, moreover, is the baseless suggestion that bestiality or group sex, among other such hot and spicy topics, are regularly discussed in the clubs.
Passing such a law on such bases would be no different than a school board (or legislature!) passing a regulation in a state other than Utah (think south-eastern states) requiring parental notification were kids to choose to join a Mormon seminary club because the kids would likely discuss proxy baptism and marriage of the dead, each of which, of course, fly in the face of Christianity as interpreted in such states.
The purported rational basis for the regulation in both instances is contrived and nonsensical. I am baffled that parents of both right and left wing persuasions are not flat out up in arms over the appalling suggestions that are being made by Tilton, and gleefully supported by Gayle “the wicked witch of the west” Ruzika.
It is ok to be against gay-straight clubs; but it is another matter entirely to be against such clubs because one is led to believe the misinformation coming from Tilton and Ruzika. These people should be ashamed of themselves for suggesting that parents don’t have more sense and aren’t more informed of what takes place inside our schools. Talk about bogus pretext arguments! Do these types of means truly justify the desired ends at any cost in this matter? I think not!
February 21st, 2006 at 9:38 pm
As I attended that committee hearing, I got to hear the most ridiculous assumptions and opinions. Most of them are really laughable, if they would be heard in any other social context. But the reality is that those opinions are recorded in the legislature system.
As I stayed and listen how I, my partner, my best friends and numerous people that I know and respect, including a state senator and house representative, activists, and young people are disrespected, humiliated, labeled, I realize how scared the other side is. To paraphrase one of my friends, the train left the station; it might takes us longer, but today THEY are the bullies.
February 21st, 2006 at 11:15 pm
I FOUND IT! My favorite article for those that don’t believe homosexuality is natural.
http://www.salon.com/it/feature/1999/03/cov_15featurea.html
February 22nd, 2006 at 9:35 am
Franci hit the nail on the head - the right-wing, conservative element is scared out of its wits and is, therefore, willing to pursue its ends using any and all means available, whether justifiable or not. But then again, this tactic is nothing more than the fear mongering that rattles off of Bush’s brain on a daily basis to maintain support for such atrocities and bungles of infinite magnitude as the Iraq war (aka the war on terror). Ironic, isn’t it - to fight fear with fear? It is my great hope that mainstream America will, someday, wake up from its deep sleep and recognize once and for all that they have been and continue to be suckered by all segments of the conservative wing, starting with rural nutcake legislators from Utah and ending with the presidency of the US.
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:02 pm
…and the plan to polarize America, and rule the chaos rolls on.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I am a conservative Republican and don’t think really that there should be gay clubs in schools. HOWEVER, I am real leery when Gayle Rizucka and others get involved. I see this as just another element of the anti-education activists so active in the state now. I have often found out that many of them are repeating or harping special-interest lines while not really aware of the real situation. For example, like those people last year who said Utah teachers were drugging the kids like crazy, forgetting that in many locales, teachers can’d even recceommend it. There is a real move to hurt public education at all costs in the legislature. Among the measures are the spreading of propaganda against public education, the “voucher welfare liberals” (my term for them) who want vouchers no matter whom else gets hurt (though it’s plain that they have LOADS of money already), imposing of more and more regulations on public ed while loosening others (e.g. for charter schools), introducing “reform” bills which demonstrate little understanding of education in Utah (e.g. the 65% going to classrooms thing that ignores a lot of things already about public education in Utah). You have the biggest special interest groups in the state lining up to take part (the voucher liberal organizations, the Utah Taxpayers’ Association, the Eagle Forum, and so on; in order to push across their political agendas. It certainly isn’t “right” and it isn’t conservative.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Forrester:
Thanks for the comments and for reserecting this stimulating top-post from a month ago. Your post seems to beg a lot of unanswered questions, however. For example, are you suggesting that liberals are the driving force behind the voucher program? I think that a review of the supporters and detractors of the proposed voucher legislation will convince you otherwise - indeed, the UEA (a liberal employment union) is dead set against vouchers. Perhaps you will clarify us readers and identify one or more of your so-called “voucher welfare liberals.”
Your concern about “gay clubs” also begs the question as to just what you consider a “gay club.” Senator Buttars never quite got it right, and had to resort to the most ridiculous of arguments based on sheer hearsay to even save face toward the end of the legislative session. If your understanding of gay clubs and what is discussed at gay clubs parallels the understanding of Buttars, then I think you need to probe different sources for your information.
But finally, I think you might find interest in a recent post on this website concerning political leanings in Utah: “Why Most Utahns Are Democrats and Just Don’t Know It Yet,” March 22. Your post makes me wonder if you truly are a conservative, or whether you are a liberal who simply refuses to be identified as such (which is understandable if you live more than 5 miles outside of SLC).
At any rate, we do agree on at least one thing. Gayle Ruzika is a pathetic excuse for reasoned thought and solutions to real problems. She has a personal and acrimonious agenda that includes no one other than those who share her distorted and outdated “conservative” beliefs.
September 23rd, 2006 at 2:30 pm
[...] I was shocked by what I heard the first (and only) time I attended a public committee hearing on The Hill. I couldn’t believe it. I ran right home and pulled the audio and posted it here. A week or so later there was major buzz about a startling display of bigotry by Senator Buttars on the Senate floor and the subsequent speech by Senator Scott McCoy (a must hear), so once again, I ran home and pulled the audio, and posted it here. [...]