Parents who disagree should move their kids into private schools or homeschool them.

I've been a huge fan of Sheila Kuehl's for years; I got her to come and speak at PCC when she was first in the state assembly in the mid-1990s; she's an extraordinary woman who ought to be far better known.

When they write the texts that they should, she'll be in them

I luv my state!! :)

This is an obvious attempt to acclimate young people into accepting homosexuality and promoting gay politics. History is over politicized as is in the public schools. There is not a single ethnic or other identity group that you could not write a similar bill for. Furthermore, many of the so called “historical figures� are merely presumed to be gay. Historians are at wide disagreement on whether some of these people are gay much less the fact that their and the time periods understanding of homosexuality was vastly different than today.

The opposite of teaching that homosexuality is morally expectable is to teach that it is morally unacceptable. The middle ground or moderate position should be to not teach anything at all. Schools should be putting their energy into reading, writing, and arithmetic. What if Alabama decided to teach that homosexuality was wrong using figures like Caligula & the Marquee’De Sade and so forth. Radicals never know were to draw the line…that’s why their radicals.

“parents who disagree should move their kids into private schools or homeschool them�

Ya, like their not their schools too. Like they don’t pay the taxes or teach there? Remember this little line the next time your upset about abstinence only or intelligent design.

"The opposite of teaching that homosexuality is morally expectable..."

Holy Jebus, Ms. Kuehl should be ashamed of herself for teaching our y'ungs that they're expected to engage in teh homosexual lifestyle! Everyone knows that teh gayness isn't a choice, silly woman!

Morality should not be taught by public schools. That is a parent's right. Schools should not be a tool, used to impose the homophobic moral beliefs of a minority on the rest of us. Asking that public education be free of propaganda that “reflects adversely on persons due to sexual orientation� is hardly a political action. It’s a humanitarian one.

Hey as long as they also teach about hetrophobia.
Like people that would actually fight against "hetronormativity" or whatever silly word they use to hate straight culture these days.

There's a difference between preaching prejudice, for example teaching that someone was bad because of their sexual preferences, and acknowledging that the great people of the past were not all straight, white, missionary-position-if-we-must -have-sex, conformist white men.

Some were even, horror of horrors, unrepentant drug users.

There's a difference between preaching prejudice, for example teaching that someone was bad because of their sexual preferences, and acknowledging that the great people of the past were not all straight, white, missionary-position-if-we-must -have-sex, conformist white men.

Some were even, horror of horrors, unrepentant drug users.

"Morality should not be taught by public schools. That is a parent's right." Many schools have already taken a stand against the teaching of morality. They argue that it would be wrong and oppressive to issue moral edicts without hearing all sides of the debate. If a student wants to rape or kill another student, who's to say whose morality is 'correct'?

There are so many things wrong with Ms Kuehl's approach I hardly know where to begin. Here are two off the top of my head:

1. Like it or not, heterosexual relationships are the norm in every society in the world. There are varying degrees of humane treatment of LGBT and other alternative relationships, but the inconvenient fact is that heterosexuality is dominant for reasons that have nothing to do with societal prejudice or religious dogma and everything to do with biological and evolutionary psychology.
2. Mandating (if you will excuse the expression) the suppression of language that recognizes this because it could hurt someone's feelings panders to the weakest and whiniest among us, and it's a sure way to empower homophobes. HP's are basically bullies, and the surest way to send a bully home with his tail between his legs is to give him a bloody nose.

In the UK we used to have a piece of legislation called Section 28 which prohibited the "promotion" by local councils of homosexuality, i.e as normal behaviour and a valid lifestyle. This was finally repealed, I think in 2002, because of concerns it discouraged teachers from supporting gay pupils and tackilng homophobic bullying. In fact the legislation was never used to prosecute any teacher and could not have been because schools are governed by the Local Education Authority and not the Local Council.

Just after Section 28 was struck from the books I was working on a council run playscheme. The children were discussing Will Young who had just won Pop Idol and one of the girls said, in a disparraging tone, that he was gay. She was swiftly squashed by the other children who didn't see what the problem was. Later an 11 year old boy came over to speak to me. He wanted to know whether it was OK to be gay. Since I was working for the local council I was glad of my new ability to be able to reasure him without having to worry that I could be prosecuted. It must be a very difficult thing to be a child just begining to become aware of your own sexuality and finding it is different to your classmates. How much harder when you see it presented in an adverse manner.

Hmmm. I notice that, once again, trans issues inspire only silence. I could be wrong, but doesn't the T stand for transgender?
I'm disturbed by the implicit invisibility forced upon trans women by the so called LGBT. I, and many other trans women too, would have benefited greatly from a neutral, hate free presentation in school.

This problem follows us to college and beyond. Here at URI, the women's stiudies courses are openly hostile to trans issues. Feminist professors are often abusive towards trans students. The LGBT group here refused to deal with trans issues because they didn't feel that they were "worthwhile."

Exposing these college students to our lives in a neutral, hatefree way would really help those of us impacted most by transphobia and homophobia.