Homophobic resistance to Anti-bullying in schools a legitimate Reason to take them seriously?

Let’s start with the terrorizng premise of homophobia:

NY Times: Alarmed by evidence that gay and lesbian students are common victims of schoolyard bullies, many school districts are bolstering their anti-harassment rules with early lessons in tolerance … Many educators and rights advocates say that official prohibitions of slurs and taunts are most effective when combined with frank discussions, from kindergarten on, about diverse families and sexuality.

Sounds logical, fair and an equal rights issue. But in today’s debate, all points of view, no matter how discriminatory and unequal, are respected and given equivalence. For example:

Angry parents and religious critics, while agreeing that schoolyard harassment should be stopped, charge that liberals and gay rights groups are using the antibullying banner to pursue a hidden “homosexual agenda,” implicitly endorsing, for example, same-sex marriage.

That would seem to be their own paranoid homophobic problem, and not a credible reason to oppose anti-bully rules in schools.

In truth, they appear to have their own “hidden agenda” based on biblical misinterpretations and their own sexual hangups. But that’s the socially excepted counterpoint to gay equality now.

Related articles

• In Schools' Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda (nytimes.com)