Heaping Helping of Hateful

by: Jay Lassiter

Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 07:25:15 AM EDT

( - promoted by Juan Melli)

I wanted to get some thoughts up promptly after last night's jam packed board of ed meeting in Evesham. But after witnessing the hostile scene unfold all I ended up doing is coming home and going to bed. By then it was nearly midnight anyway. The big item on last night's agenda was the film about tolerance called "It's a Family." Clearly nothing brings folks out of the woodwork like homophoba. But they sure came out in droves yesterday. The place was teeming.

Instead of a cohesive narrative, I thought I might share some of the impressions i came away with.

Group think is (still) scary. The place was positively rife, a much bigger crowd than I imagined. So crowded in fact, I had to park at a drugstore nearby. When I walked inside I was surprised to see the number of genuinely hostile people screaming and pumping their fists.

Image: MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/Courier-Post.

Bigots are self-conscience about how they look. Every person who stood up to share their (mostly hateful) thoughts prefeaced their words with "I am not a bigot, but..." or "I have gay friends, but...." Again, the folks who did so were emboldened by the crowd and would constantly look toward others like them for an appropriate response before continuing.

Bigots are big on self-congratulations No matter how inarticulate or nonsensical, if the speaker spewed hate, they were met with a hearty round of backslapping afterwards. If you want to imagine how ignorant the naysayers came off, imagine Miss Teen SC. Minus the tits and ass, of course.

A dim view of outsiders One guy said "disregard everything from non-members of the community!" Another went further: "If you don't live in Evesham or Marlton, GET OUT!"

Cllearly this didn't apply to outsiders who shared their views like members of the Family Research Council. In conclusion, gay tax dollars are welcome. Gay opinions are not.

The "Ex-Gay Movement was on hand to remind the crowd that "people are not born gay!" This to a rapturous applause. Ironically, this so called "ex gay" was the queeniest guy in the room.

Evesham parents have dubious priorities.The vote to remove a film about gay (and other non-traditional) families came half way through the meeting. Afterwards, the room emptied out nearly completely. This mean a vast majority of the people who showed up missed the most substantiative points of the meeting. Funding for arts and music budgets? Allocations to hire math and language arts staff? They had no time for these issues.

One step forward, two steps back. The pragmatist in me was heartened by the notion that many young speakers had a much more relaxed attitude about this than their parents did. In otherwords --demographically speaking -- their message will die off long before ours does.

As usual our brothers and sisters from Garden State Equality were on hand for last night's battle. Thank god for that and for their relentless persuit of equality for all New Jerseyans. After all, this issue is far from over.

Stay tuned.

Jay Lassiter :: Heaping Helping of Hateful

Tags: Evesham, That's a Family, Garden State Equality, featured, (All Tags)

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Heaping Helping of Hateful | 3 comments

As I wrote in a separate post, we're absolutely going to win this fight (4.00 / 4)

and an indication came last night, when the lawyer for the school board, as well as one of the school board members, stated there was a legal case here against the board's decision and that they feared such a lawsuit. Don't be shocked when they see one, that's all I'm sayin'. The board's decision violates the state's Law Against Discrimination because it targets a group, the LGBTI community. It helped a lot that we DID have a victory, an unexpected one, in that the very committee the school board appointed recommended strongly last night that the film stay IN the curriculum.

by: Steven Goldstein, Garden State Equality chair @ Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 12:23:48 PM UTC

Good reporting (4.00 / 2)

Jay, I enjoy the approach you took to report this story. Kudos. You make me feel I was there and informed me of the salient points.

by: Jim33 @ Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 13:00:30 PM UTC

Hell, I only have one question. (4.00 / 1)

How many people at the meeting actually saw the film?

Do they all just come out to protest the minute they hear the words "same-sex," or did a significant portion of them actually watch it and disapprove?

by: dennisl @ Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 13:10:03 PM UTC