I am finding it very interesting to see just how much support there is on DU for attacking religion.

[Rob H.]

24. "It is not all denominations that are lobbying for these regressive policies.

We hear from the very vocal extremist voices. They are probably not even the majority."

It doesn't matter whether they are the majority if they have the ear of the majority.

There were three bills voted on recently in Tennessee, where I live: the "Don't Say Gay" bill, the "Monkey Bill," and the "Gateway Sexual Activity"* bill. Thanks in part to the efforts of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, a right-wing religious organization, only the "Don't Say Gay" bill didn't pass Tennessee's Republican-dominated legislature. (It's just been shelved for the time being, not withdrawn, so this lunacy will likely return next session.) Republican Gov. Haslam signed the Gateway Sexual Activity bill into law, but he allowed the "Monkey Bill" to become law without signing it.

It's worth adding that, inspired by Tennessee's initial success in getting the "Don't Say Gay" bill passed by the House, Missouri proposed its own version of the bill. It appears to be dead for the time being, too.


*Kissing and holding hands? Better not tell kids it's okay to do that in Tennessee! That's gateway sexual activity! The law will allow teachers who mention contraception as a means of preventing pregnancy to be punished, so it appears that now Tennessee sex education might effectively become abstinence-only, which doesn't work.

Here's what Stephen D. Foster Jr. at addictinginfo.org had to say, in part:

The law also levies a fine of up to $500 to guest speakers who promote safe sex or “gateway sexual activity.” So if a speaker from Planned Parenthood or another organization visits the sex education class to speak, talking about anything that isn’t abstinence-only would be punished. What this amounts to is the punishing of free speech and it’s the Republicans who passed it.

Sex education teachers are being boxed in by a party that has been hijacked by religious extremists who think anything they consider sexual is evil. This bill has made Tennessee a joke. To outlaw crucial information from being discussed in sex education is unfair to students who will one day have to go out into the real world unprepared. Sex is a part of human nature and when abstinence-only is all that is taught, the likelihood that students will have unsafe sex that lead to unwanted pregnancies increase. If Republicans really believe that teaching only abstinence will stop kids from having sex, they’re living in a dream world. If there is one thing teenagers are curious about when they hit puberty, it’s sex. No matter what parents do to keep their kids from engaging in sexual activity, they can’t protect their kids all of the time. That’s why teaching about safe sex methods is critical. Because if kids are going to have sex, they should at least have the knowledge to make it safe. But since when do Republicans actually want our children to learn anything at all? It’s almost as if the GOP wants our kids to be stupid and unsafe.

Tennessee is in the top 10 states with highest rates of teen pregnancy already! (TN legislators should have just looked at Texas and the skyrocketing teen pregnancy rate after abstinence-only became the norm there.)