Sometimes it’s amazing to observe what is and is not controversial these days. Except in a few rare instances where parents organize to protest it, teaching children in public schools that homosexual (i.e. “gay”) sexual activity is as normal and acceptable as heterosexual (or “straight”) behavior is not controversial. But when a public figure, especially a candidate for election, dare’s to say otherwise, the expressions of outrage might lead you to believe he is in favor of turning the school science curriculum over to the Flat Earth Society.
Consider the reaction to some comments made on October 10 by Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor of New York, to a congregation of Orthodox Jews. One headline after another proclaimed Paladino “attacks gays” or that his remarks were “anti-gay.” A statement released from the campaign office of his opponent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, accused Paladino of a “stunning homophobia,” rendering him “unfit to represent New York.” So what did Paladino say?
“I didn’t march in the gay parade this year — the gay pride parade this year,” he said to applause at Congregation Shaarei Chaim in Brooklyn. “My opponent did, and that’s not the example we should be showing our children.” Paladino said children should not be “brainwashed” into believing that homosexual behavior is acceptable. He later defended his comments, while criticizing the conduct of some of the marchers in the “Gay Pride” parade, which included men in bikinis “grinding at each other and doing these gyrations. I don’t think that’s proper; I think it’s disgusting,” Paladino said.
This is what makes a man “unfit to represent New York”? The Cuomo campaign obviously meant that as a condemnation of Paladino. It could also be taken as a slander on the state of New York.
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In his October 10 speech in Brooklyn, the gubernatorial candidate also told the congregation: “I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t.”
Isn’t this what most people have believed and what every major religion has taught for at least a few thousand years? And it still requires a lot of social engineering and verbal intimidation to persuade people otherwise. Paladino was not exaggerating when he used the word “brainwashed” to describe what young children have been subjected to in the way of “education” about “gay lifestyles.” One need only recall the publications Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate, Frank used as textbooks in the early grades of public schools in New York and other cities. And not just in the large megalopolis areas where public officials are inclined to believe they must pander to every eccentric constituency to satisfy the demands of a large and diverse population.
Last July, the Associated Press reported the following: “A proposed sex education program that teaches fifth-graders the different ways people have intercourse and first-graders about gay love has infuriated parents and forced the school board to take a closer look at the issue.”
Well, now. Those infuriated parents must be mindless bigots and certifiable “homophobes,” if you ask the Cuomo campaign. But the school board in question is in Helena, Montana. Helena, Montana isn’t San Francisco, but you might not have guessed that by looking at the program for sex education concocted by the Helena school board. According to the AP report:
Parents appeared most worried about pieces of the plan that teaches first-graders about same-gender relationships, fifth-graders that sexual intercourse includes “vaginal, oral, or anal penetration,” and high school students about erotic art. The curriculum would also teach kindergartners anatomical terms such as penis, vagina, breast, nipples, testicles, scrotum and uterus.
Foolish parents to worry about such things! They’re apt to worry, too, if teachers complain there is not enough time in the school day to teach children how to read and write, do basic arithmetic, and write a coherent sentence. Time marches on and parents and children better get in step.
Paladino said that, unlike Cuomo, he will veto a same-sex marriage bill if it comes to him as governor. That, too, qualifies as bigotry in some quarters. The New York Times reported that Brian Ellner, head of the marriage initiative for the “gay advocacy” group Human Rights Campaign, called Paladino’s remarks insensitive, given recent reports of “anti-gay” violence and the suicide of a “gay” university student. Police reported on October 8 that nine men tortured three men they believed were “gay” in the Bronx, and last month a student at Rutgers University jumped off the George Washington Bridge after two classmates put on the Internet a secretly taped sexual encounter he had with another man, the Times pointed out.
Those incidents are horrible, as every decent person would agree. But are we supposed to believe they are caused, or in some way encouraged. by people speaking out against the likes of men in bikinis “grinding at each other and doing these gyrations” in broad daylight on the streets of New York? Must even the minimum requirements of public decency make abject surrender to the demands of political correctness?
“Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie,” Paladino said. Of course he was neither advocating nor condoning violence against or harassment of homosexuals. That should go without saying. But today it has to be said, because the gods of the progressive marketplace require three kneelings and nine prostrations from anyone defending the old moral order.
Newsday.com reported that Paladino’s prepared text included the line, “There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.” But Paladino omitted the sentence in his speech. Why? Anyone who believes that heterosexual union is by God and nature’s design must logically view homosexuality as “dysfunctional.” Why should he be afraid to say so?
“That’s not how God created us,” is another line that Paladino had in his prepared remarks but omitted in his speech. Apparently, it is not a good idea for someone who wants to be governor to state an obvious truth.
