Legislating Gays and History Away

NEW LAWS are being passed in Republican controlled states requiring that teachers hide the existence of gay people from young children, presumably in the hope that by so doing, the problem will be solved; there will be no gay culture infecting good, healthy, decent American society..or whatever. This is because conservatives do not like homosexuality, hence, homosexuals. They see it as a perversion, a sin, an affront to normalcy. Conservatives are doing further damage to American education, hence, children, by passsing even more idiotic laws requiring teachers to hide the truth about African enslavement and native American genocide in American history, and the persistence of systemic racism today, all for the purpose of sparing the feeling of white children. Hiding history, of course, hurts people, teaching history truthfully helps inform and enlighten people; our job is to help our conservative comrads understand this. Telling the truth, which conservatives like to disguise as something bad, so they call it "critical race theory" risks making white children feel guilty or ashamed of their ancestors. Noble Republicans, so terribly concerned about the psyches of sons and daughters of injustice. Lying to children harms them. Telling them the truth sets them free. The progressive viewpoint is that all of this negative American hsitory, enslavement of African-Americans, native American genocide, exploitation of labor and corporate societal control, the struggles for African-American rights, women's rights, and gay rights and equality should not only be taught, they should be emphasized, so that today's students, by learning about the mistakes of history, will be less likely to repeat them. That certainly makes far more sense than ignoring or downplaying these abominations to spare the feelings of students. As Goeteh said: "Only by errors that really irk us do we advance." And of course Lord Action: "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them." When teaching the history of the United States, there is no way to do it honestly and flatteringly, or "hagiographically" as it is called. Too much of it is simply ugly and unpleasant. So, teach the truth, and learn from it, right? All all across the frutied plain of the land of freedom, thousands of K thru third grade teachers do their jobs, everyday. On a day to day basis, they know exactly whether to mention anything about "Gay" people, and we can trust them to know what to do. No fascist laws censuring teachers are necessary. The best thing Rebublicans and Christian conservatives can do with America's public education system is to get out of the way, and leave it alone.