Laurie Higgins shows Illinois parents how astonishingly extreme the 'values' movement can be

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06/21/2012

by Jeremy Hooper

Laurie Higgins, professional proponent of de-gaying Illinois schools and career abuser of the word "ontological," is back again with yet another criticism of yet another benignly tolerant thing in public schooling. This time, it's an inclusive children's book, which Higgins argues must be challenged by books that tell children gay people are broken and immoral:

Leftists try to make the case that including books that treat homosexuality positively reflects ideological neutrality and balance since there are already so many books that depict heterosexuality positively. But that argument is based on prior acceptance of yet another Leftist assumption, which is that homosexuality is simply the flip side of the sexuality coin. It’s not. Homosexuality is a disordering of the sexual impulse.

Humans were quite obviously created anatomically and biologically as heterosexual beings. Using any objective criteria, all humans are heterosexual. There exists no argument about the morality of heterosexual acts per se, so the numbers of books in a library that depict heterosexuality positively is irrelevant to any discussion of the appropriateness of including a book that depicts homosexuality positively. Publicly funded schools have no right to make available to young children ideas and images that many believe are profoundly immoral.

What neutrality or true diversity of opinions would look like in public schools

A neutral position would take one of two forms: Neutrality on topics involving homosexuality can be demonstrated by simply not addressing it at all; or neutrality can be demonstrated by including picture books that affirm homosexuality and picture books that portray homosexuality as immoral and destructive. Of course neither side is going to like the second option.

Further, the opposite of a homosexuality-affirming book is not a heterosexuality-affirming book. The opposite of a homosexuality-affirming story would be a story that is critical of homosexuality. A picture book that dissents from the view that homosexual-led families are equivalent to heterosexual families is not a book that depicts heterosexual-led families positively. A picture book that offers a dissenting view from one that positively depicts homosexual-led family structures would be one that negatively depicts homosexual-led family structures.
Erie, Illinois Elementary School Board Defies Pro-’Gay’ Political Correctness, Rejects GLSEN Curriculum [AFTAH]

A "neutral" position means either a shutout or faith-motivated dogma that says all the millions of the world's LGBT people are innately defective? Wow, Laurie—hate to see what you call a hostile position!

Fortunately, Ms. Higgins represents the last (and increasingly personal) gasps of the extremely far-right Peter LaBarbera wing of the "pro-family" movement. I'm actually extremely thankful that this wing exists. For one, they remind people of just how nasty it still is out there. But also? People like Peter still play host to more "mainstream" figures like those who work for the inextricably GOP-connected Family Research Council, reminding America just how much the Republican establishment continues to lend approval, either tacit or expressed, to these outspoken voices (LaBarbera, Bryan Fischer, et al) that will ultimately de-root the entire "values" cause.

Keep talking, Laurie Higgins. You're helping us!

*By the way, there was a time when Laurie Higgins would write extremely nasty stuff like above and then immediately shoot me an email trying to couch her rhetoric and "explain" her heart with anecdotes about life, her family, "The Office," or anything else that made her seem less-than-extreme. She even had her children write me on a couple of occasions. Not sure what changed, if maybe she just gave in to the truth of her work or if she simply lost my email address, but that stuff has now stopped. Not that it would matter anyway. Not that it ever did.

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