There's been a bit of controversy brewing in Portland over the last two weeks. Portland, Oregon, I mean. Not Portland, Maine. I don't know what those gobshites are doing out there.
In the Fall, a coed academy, specifically the Academy of Character and Ethics, will be opening on the Jefferson High School campus.
Controversy #1 is that the head of the ACE program is a reverend from one of the local churches. So right away, separation of church and state appears to be violated.
Controversy #2 is said pastor's church's donations to the Defense of Marriage Coalition, a group that opposed the gay-marriage efforts of 2004 (Measure 36 sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to recognize marriage only between a man and a woman -- it passed).
(Apparently, many people [not me -- I'm all for it, especially when it involves Portia de Rossi] become enraged at the thought of individuals of the same sex marrying. They innaccurately cite that old, old book as the touchstone for their fallacies and begin to foam at the mouth. This is the same coven of ignorami who can't conjure up the initiative to go to the library or read to their children. I know I'm being insensitive to the spiritually sensitive, so easily shattered by the words that might hurt the baby Jesus, but, you know, fuck 'em. They'd just as soon piss on you than to practice the very same tolerance Jesus preached all those years ago. Before he died.)
Controversy #3 is, perhaps, a personal one. The aforementioned church is a predominantly African-American church, and also possibly the first Baptist church in the Portland area. So therefore, I feel guilty criticizing a black church. The guilt is irrational, I know. (I feel like Alvy Singer's father in "Annie Hall" when discovering the family maid has been accused of stealing something: "She's a colored woman, from Harlem! She has no money! She's got a right to steal from us!") But this is a temporary sting of guilt, easily overcome by what I consider both the ignorance and hypocrisy of followers of Christ, who never said anything about gay marriage. In fact, here's a fella who never married, wore a dress, and hung around with a dozen other fellas all the time drinking wine.
The real corker is that this alternative school is called the Academy of Character & Ethics. I don't know how Character and Ethics neatly entwine with discrimination and intolerance, but maybe the good reverend does. Of course, ACE claims that GLBT students would be accepted without question.
GLBT stands for "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender." When I first moved out here, I thought it was a sandwich. It's not.
Character & Ethics. Is there anything more subjective? How do you teach that?
Anyway, this is all a very hot topic on the local blogs. Of which I suppose, I am a contributor.
Next up: My favorite Ernest movie!
2 comments:
If something like this can be deemed appropriate in Portland, Oregon, then what hope is there to keep these bigots (hiding behind a so-called religion) out of our schools and government anywhere else? When I heard about this, I thought it was an oversight that would soon be fixed. It hasn't gone away yet...
Personally, I don't think pickle smokers should be allowed to marry.
Gays, yes, but not people who actually light and smoke pickles. That's just weird.
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