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Hot off the presses.
Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
David Pakman: Welcome to the show. Thrilled you are with us. The entire David Pakman Show staff today coming in and saying what the hell? Let's put a show together, Louis. I figure we're all here, it's as good a day as any.
Louis Motamedi: Yeah, why not? Let's do it.
David: We haven't been talking that much about some of the anti-gay legislation that's been happening... being proposed recently. No real reason that we haven't, we just had other topics, certainly no shortage of things to discuss. And you know, there is definitely a trend, the more we discuss anti-gay legislation, the more emails we get from men interested in finding out more about Louis. So that's definitely a trend I think Louis... I don't know, what is your thought on that, Louis? Is that... I know it doesn't bother you, you just email people back, you say I appreciate the email, but I am... I'm a straight man.
Louis: I've actually never had to do that.
David: I respond for you, that's right.
Louis: So I'm neutral on it.
David: So there's this new don't say gay bill that is, to say threatening the lives of youth in Tennessee is probably accurate. It may even be an understatement, to be completely honest. And State Senator Stacey Campfield thought up this brilliant idea, and he proposed it to the Senate Education Committee. Now, we contacted Stacey Campfield, who is... Stacey is a he, and did not receive any response, wanted to interview him on today's show, say what exactly are you thinking, what exactly is the goal of this bill, do you personally dislike gay and lesbian people, just a few of the questions I would have for him. All reasonable, I think, given the proposal.
Louis: Right.
David: This is SB049. As introduced, the bill requires that no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality. So let me see if I understand this, because Louis, this is completely bogus and ridiculous. The bill...
Louis: What's the logic here? If they don't know about it, they won't become gay?
David: Maybe that's it, part of it. I mean, the bill would tie the hands of school counselors, school psychologists, teachers, principals, other school employees, when it comes not to discussing being gay, but just to protecting children. If a child is experiencing issues related to their sexual orientation or identity, they would literally have no one to discuss it with in terms of the adults that are supervising or teaching them.
And we know, we know from experience, we know from talking to real experts, not people at anti-gay think tanks, that early detection of the signs of depression can help prevent suicides among, you know, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender kids. So this proposal, if passed, which I really hope it does not, I guess I have to say, I don't believe it will, but anything can happen in Tennessee, would really put kids at risk. I mean, what is the point? You don't talk about being gay, and therefore the school will be a more moral environment, a more Christian environment? What's the logic here?
Louis: Yeah, a more Christian environment.
David: And the legislation, by the way, if you're saying what about free speech, this does bring up free speech issues. It's an attempt to, number one, control what teachers in schools teach, right? And we're not talking about teaching how to have gay sex, I know I'll get emails and YouTube comments from the peanut gallery saying do you want your kid being taught how to have gay sex in Tennessee schools? And I would say well, that's a question you can ask, but it has nothing to do with this bill. But consider what effect this would have if it becomes law. Teachers would be prohibited from even mentioning the fact that lesbians and gays exist. You can't say that! So this is a serious free speech issue as well.
It's-- would a school library be failing to comply with the law if there was a book on the shelves where a character is gay?
Louis: Yes.
David: I mean, you can't mention, you can't allude to, you cannot... you have to pretend gay and lesbian people do not exist. Think about it. What if textbooks discussing the history of the Holocaust...
Louis: And what if...
David: Hold on, hold on, hold on. If books discussing the history of the Holocaust weren't allowed to list homosexuals along those persecuted with Jews, Gypsies, political dissenters in Germany? You can't mention that gay people were also persecuted by the Nazis. Free speech issue for sure. And what were you going to say, Louis?
Louis: And what if a child brings it up? What if it's a child that brings it up?
David: Well, that's the thing. If a child in class brings up, I have a question about is it OK to...
Louis: Well, what if a kid just says well, my mom and dad told me that there are gay couples, there are men that like other men and there are women that like other women.
David: The teacher has to be completely... they have to be like they're in a coma. They have to be like in a Michele Bachmann trance where they just, they look straight at the kid and don't move, they don't say a word.
Louis: Say, "We can't talk about that. Moving on..."
David: They just stare at the kid for about 10 seconds, they go into a state of catatonia, and then they just move on to something else. They say, "Today we start fractions." Yeah. I mean, what is this, ladies and gentlemen?
And forget about the free speech issue for a second and the absurdity of it, we are putting kids at risk. How soon will we hear, if this passes, that a kid says you know, I wish I had someone to talk about this with, but I don't. I feel like ending it. I just have no one. I tried to talk to my guidance counselor, he says he's never heard of gay or lesbian. He doesn't know what that is, he can't address it. When I asked him about it, he took out a calendar of sports and started showing me sports people. He just pretended I didn't even ask the question.
Louis: This is like...
David: Where are we going, ladies and gentlemen?
Louis: This is like Ahmadinejad saying there are no homosexuals in Iran.
David: It basically is. And there's another bill also, by the way. The Illinois Senate, there's another anti-gay bill being presented. The idea of this... and we are soon going to have civil unions in Illinois, but that doesn't mean other anti-gay laws aren't going to appear. In fact, it actually seems like there may be more proposed, for whatever reason. This is Senate Bill 1123, and this would allow religious institutions the right to not service LGBT couples who are adopting or becoming foster parents if they don't feel it fits within their, quote, "deeply held beliefs".
This is yet another instance where we are letting religion get into very simple laws about discrimination. And we had... I forget what state it was, Louis, but there was another state where there was a proposal at the state level to allow bullying if it is of gay kids by Christian kids, if it's Bible-based. In other words, as long as you're going up to a gay kid and saying what you're doing is a sin and here's where in the Bible it says that, that's the kind of bullying that a proposal I forget which state suggested should be allowed.
Louis: Right.
David: Georgia is in my mind, or Kentucky, but I could be wrong on that.
Louis: Yeah, I don't remember the state, but that was a doozy.
David: So we're definitely going in the right direction still, ladies and gentlemen, in terms of anti-gay/gay rights legislation, I believe eventually we will have full just logical human rights the way it should be, it should always have been. We will get there, but that does not mean that we are going to skip this shortage, or, rather, this...
Louis: Yeah, there's going to be opposition.
David: We're going to have no shortage of these bills, for sure.
Louis: Yeah. I mean, when we talk about stories like this, it seems like there's a ton of opposition and that, you know, the Bible-thumpers are winning, but they're not. I mean, they're losing, and the vast majority of Americans believe that they should have the same rights as everyone.
David: When asked fairly, in a fair poll.
Louis: Right.
David: And real quick, on the last thing on the anti-gay issue...
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- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies_My_Teacher_Told_Me">When you can't alter the truth to fit one's bizarre worldview, you can always lie about it......
