Friday, May 08, 2009

A better friend to gays

Do you know, or can you guess, which nationally ranked politician- a man with presidential dreams- way back in 1978 had the guts to publicly oppose a ballot initiative to ban gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools? He wrote a newspaper editorial saying, “Whatever else it is, homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual’s sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child’s teachers do not really influence this.” Remember, this was 1978.

Think you know? Ok, I've got another one: Which US president stood by silently while one of our dependent allies permitted death squads to freely roam the streets, torturing gays to death? Got a name in mind?

Ok... now read Why Reagan Was a Better Friend to Gays Than Obama

7 comments:

Chalicechick said...

I got Reagan since he was trying to get elected in 1978 and was never particularly dependent on the religious right.

Besides, Obama was 17 in 1978. I'm sure he was precocious, but let's not raise our expectations too high.


As for (((Ok, I've got another one: Which US president stood by silently while one of our dependent allies permitted death squads to freely roam the streets, torturing gays to death?)))

My guess is "all of them" just as dozens of European leaders have stood silently by as their ally, the US, executed people, a practice of ours that is considered morally repugnant over there.

CC

Chalicechick said...

(Also because Reagan was in California and I saw "Milk" on the plane last week)

Joel Monka said...

Ah- I haven't seen Milk yet, so I didn't know Reagan was mentioned in it.

I do wish you hadn't mentioned that Obama was 17 in 1978. US Presidents are supposed to be older than I am, not younger- this upsets the natural order of things.

Your answer of "all of them" might be correct if we changed the wording to "would have" rather than did, but I don't think most of them were faced with the situation.

Chalicechick said...

I don't remember if Reagan was mentioned in Milk, but he was from California and the fuss about gay teachers was a California issue in the 1970s and that's depicted in Milk.

CC
who honestly has trouble believing that some ally somewhere hasn't had a death squad torturing gay people in every presidency but isn't up to doing the research so she will concede your point.

Joel Monka said...

To be honest, I don't know it for a fact either, but I've got the impression that organized quasi-official gay mordegruppen is not common, and would have made it into some history text somewhere.

Chalicechick said...

This is just someone who has conceded your point talkin' here, but I would think it would depend a lot on how gays were viewed (as criminals? as the insane?) and how torture was viewed (as something we don't discuss? As something that happens only to criminals?)

CC

Steven Rowe said...

homosexuality was removed from the DSM list of mental disorders in the USA in the early - mid 1970s.