that’s one small step (backward)
for texas…
…and one big fucking step (backward) for everybody else.
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic. (ME?) But it doesn’t really feel that way. Because while I would sincerely like to hope that this does not, in fact, represent a general nationwide trend, I just can’t. ALL ELEVEN PASSED, people.
Here’s a particularly repellent quote that some of these people wanted to add: “Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression, illegal drug use and suicide.”
Um…even if this statement contained an iota of truth or were based on any sort of scientific evidence—which I very highly doubt (Science? We’re in the damn Jesusland HQ here! Fuck science!)—I would put money on the theory that it’s because of EXACTLY this kind of hatred and discrimination.
There is some justice, at least, in the fact that the above text did not make the cut. And I suppose if I were a glass-half-full kind of girl, I’d say good for Holt, Rinehart and Winston and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill for drawing the line somewhere. Or at least for having some semblance of a line, however faint.
But I’m not that kind of girl. So instead I’ll say good for the four people on the board who dissented. If 40% of Bush-country residents have the intelligence and humanity to oppose bigotry, maybe there is a shred of hope…