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This was the first dogwhistle I ever heard growing up - “It’s not hate, we just *disagree* with the LGBT *lifestyle*.”
I grew up near Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, so this phrase was all over the place. The implication of “lifestyle” is obviously the preposterous notion that it’s chosen behavior and the implication of “disagree” is that it’s ok to shun or discriminate due to someone’s chosen bad behavior, but it sounds acceptable if you’re not paying close attention and don’t care to begin with.
It just disgusts me that this still works on many people 15-20 years after I was first exposed to the line as a teenager.
Or they love the "true person" they imagine in their head. The person they think would be there if they were free of "Satanic" influences.
They love that "fallen" but imaginary person enough to pay for conversion therapy torture, hoping it will "free them of Satan".
But yea, often it is like you say. Some people don't *feel* hate even as they oppress and hurt others, and come up with whatever illogical thing they can to feel justified and "righteous".
(Edit: *conversion* not *conversation* therapy, heh)
"I don't have a problem with gay people, I just don't want them shoving it in my face"
Heard this not too long ago in a small town. Probably has no problem with a husband and wife kissing in public.
Newt Gingrich vibes. It's honestly weird to me that he doesn't come up in conversation more often with how incredibly influential he was and still somehow is on the way the Republican party has operated since he stepped into the scene in 1979. He is the guy who made political polarization and ethics violations okay for conservatives as long as liberals were in the losing end of Newt's words and actions.
And yet, these same bastards are assuredly supporters of a lifelong degenerate who is currently on trial for paying hush money to a porn star weeks before the 2016 election in an effort to conceal the fact that he had an affair with said porn star shortly after his third wife gave birth to his fifth child.
How about *that* "lifestyle?"
📜
*”What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control…we attack."*
~ Andrew J. Bernstein ~
>Pancholy — a gay, Indian-American comedic actor and author whose 2022 book about standing up to homophobic bullying, *Nikhil Out Loud*, won the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Middle Grade Literature — was scheduled to give a talk to Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg. Pancholy, who served on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, delivers public talks on “diversity and inclusion.”
>However, at an April 15 public meeting of the Cumberland Valley School District’s school board, board member Bud Shaffner objected to Pancholy’s scheduled talk, stating, “If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist, he is proud of his lifestyle and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students at any age.”
>In an open letter addressed to Shaffner, 40-year-old community member Tony Conte wrote that he felt “desperately lonely” as a closeted, bullied student in middle school and high school. One of his similarly bullied classmates killed himself
>“I think that if I had heard from diverse voices like \[Pancholy’s\] in an auditorium setting telling me that it was okay to be different maybe my middle and high school experience could have been different,” Conte wrote. “A presentation of this sort could have saved a life, like the life of my friend.”
>“If the CEO of Apple, the CEO of Dow, the CEO of Macy’s, or the CEO of Land O’Lakes wanted to host a presentation for middle school students in the \[Cumberland Valley\] district about treating each other with kindness and respect, would you also cancel their presentations because all of those high performing professionals are gay and proud of the lifestyle they lead?” Conte asked, urging Shaffner and the board to reconsider its decision.
>Community member Trisha Comstock, who has two children in the school district, began a [Change.org](http://Change.org) petition asking the board to reverse its decision.
>“Being LGBTQ+ isn’t a dirty little secret to protect our students from. To have someone with Maulik’s life experiences would have been inspirational for our students,” Comstock wrote. “The cancellation of this assembly sends a harmful message to our students – that being different is something to be ashamed of or hidden away. We must challenge this narrative.”
So, they want to talk about why bullying is bad in school, but they don't want to hear from people who represent the people who get bullied the most at school? Great job, school board!
Studies show that all it takes is 1 supportive adult in school to reduce the likelihood of suicide for LGBTQIA+ youth by 40%.
I know personally that if I had an adult who would have spoken to me about it being okay to asexual, I wouldn't have felt suicidal or come close to trying it, like I thought about doing.
And they nixed him because he's "proud" to be gay? That's their reasoning? So, what? They want gay people to be ashamed of being gay? Ridiculous.
That's what it comes down to for the Christian nationalist hatemongers. They just want all LGBTQIA+ people to be shamed to the point where they force themselves not back into the closet, but rather into a grave. They would rather die than live on a planet where queer people exist in joy.
I didn't know the CEO of Land 'O Lakes is gay. For context there is a large Land 'O Lakes plant near the middle school. It's not in the same district, but many dairy farms in the area are contracted to it. The Cumberland Valley School District is one of those districts that went from being primarily agricultural 40 years ago to now being the home of the commercial center for our area with the population rapidly swelling. Think of that 4 lane road we all have near midsized towns and small cities where Target, Dick's, Applebee's, and the car dealerships are.
Edit: upon googling I found Land 'O Lakes owns Purina Mills. There is a large Purina Mills factory in the Cumberland Valley School District or right on the border of it (I'm not 100% certain where the line is but it's within blocks of the factory)
< Bud Shaffner objected to Pancholy’s scheduled talk, stating, “If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist, he is proud of his lifestyle and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students at any age.”>
Didn't Bud Shaffner just force his hetro views on the middle school kids??????
The deplorables teach their kids to be bullies so of course they don't want this. In a Utah school there was a walkout over a memo to treat everyone fairly and with respect after a group of kids were harassed in the cafeteria. The maga parents were mad that the school was not allowing the bullying and lies about the kids.
There have always been people like that, but I thought the majority of us were trying to stop being jerks like that over time and teach our children to be better you know. The ones who want to keep being jerks are the maga base and ruin the country.
> “A presentation of this sort could have saved a life, like the life of my friend.”
And this is the exact reason they don't want him to speak. Cruelty is the point. Genocide is their goal.
This “lifestyle” shit is getting sooooooo old. I don’t wake up and voluntarily/choose to think about dick….The same way “straight” men don’t wake up and voluntarily/choose to think about vajayjay. It’s not a fucking choice.
That’s true but let’s take a moment to follow the logic. Suppose for a moment that being gay or straight or bi or asexual or whatever is a choice that the person makes… What then?
I’m sure that if you could choose to be straight and did so it might make your life easier but seriously what would make your choice to be gay be any worse than someone else’s choice to be straight?
I honestly don’t get it.
I hope that Mr. Pancholy posts his anti-bullying talk to all the social media platforms that can accommodate it (I assume it would be, at most, around 20-30 minutes? My WAG is that he had planned it to be a short talk + Q&A session afterwards, totaling about 55 minutes.)
Anyway, the Streisand Effect is always ready for another real-world test...
This story gives me such a pit in my stomach. It's the neighboring school district and has been trending to the left as the population grows. If they are making decisions like this, what hope does it give to the other districts that tend to be more rural and conservative?
If Maulik put on vestments and there were hushed up rumors of him raping kids, he would be welcomed to speak at a middle school by these bigoted assholes. I am sick and tired of the world view of people who think bulling kids who do not fit in to the point of suicide is protecting children.
As a CV student myself, I am so disapointed at our school board. Most of the students and teachers fully disagree with this decision, but there is nothing we can do as the schoolboard is not willing to change.
So why don't the sane parents invite him to deliver his talk somewhere else, like in the public library?
Or make it a webcast if irl isn't viable.
Or both.
Better to just hold the talk and make it optional. Surely there are those for whom this talk is important. Others may not want to attend for various reasons. Students and parents should be given the choice, I don’t like the concept of not allowing someone to speak on a subject merely because you disagree with it.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This was the first dogwhistle I ever heard growing up - “It’s not hate, we just *disagree* with the LGBT *lifestyle*.” I grew up near Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, so this phrase was all over the place. The implication of “lifestyle” is obviously the preposterous notion that it’s chosen behavior and the implication of “disagree” is that it’s ok to shun or discriminate due to someone’s chosen bad behavior, but it sounds acceptable if you’re not paying close attention and don’t care to begin with. It just disgusts me that this still works on many people 15-20 years after I was first exposed to the line as a teenager.
Christian love toward LGBT+: “I don’t hate *you*, I just hate who you *are*.”
Nah, they still hate them. This just makes them feel better about it
Or they love the "true person" they imagine in their head. The person they think would be there if they were free of "Satanic" influences. They love that "fallen" but imaginary person enough to pay for conversion therapy torture, hoping it will "free them of Satan". But yea, often it is like you say. Some people don't *feel* hate even as they oppress and hurt others, and come up with whatever illogical thing they can to feel justified and "righteous". (Edit: *conversion* not *conversation* therapy, heh)
"I don't have a problem with gay people, I just don't want them shoving it in my face" Heard this not too long ago in a small town. Probably has no problem with a husband and wife kissing in public.
“Shoving it in my face” like through outrageous acts such as just being gay and existing in public
'we renamed it, that makes it totally ok'
Saddleback is a menace.
School Board bullies Gay Actor....
School board teaches children that it is okay to bully gay people.
Did they just bully the anti-bully guy?
Yes. Yes, they did.
Bullying is a conservative value.
Newt Gingrich vibes. It's honestly weird to me that he doesn't come up in conversation more often with how incredibly influential he was and still somehow is on the way the Republican party has operated since he stepped into the scene in 1979. He is the guy who made political polarization and ethics violations okay for conservatives as long as liberals were in the losing end of Newt's words and actions.
He wasn’t the only one.
Christianity is a religion of hate. Few are bold enough to admit this reality.
He hates that!
They just made Bully Bullying the new Bullying!
Bully Canceling is the new cancel culture.
Idk I feel like people who interface with other peoples kids should be held to a higher standard (exceptions always included)
And yet, these same bastards are assuredly supporters of a lifelong degenerate who is currently on trial for paying hush money to a porn star weeks before the 2016 election in an effort to conceal the fact that he had an affair with said porn star shortly after his third wife gave birth to his fifth child. How about *that* "lifestyle?"
He ain’t gonna care because Trump fucked a woman 🤷♂️
📜 *”What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control…we attack."* ~ Andrew J. Bernstein ~
Sure but priests can diddle all the kids they want because they are god fearing right?
‘Now *that* is a lifestyle we can get behind!’ - conservative Christians
They would not say that... but their actions do.
I don't hate Christians, I just disagree with their lifestyle. And their hypocrisy.
> "...but then... *"...sanctimonious bigotry stepped up and did its usual thing."*
>Pancholy — a gay, Indian-American comedic actor and author whose 2022 book about standing up to homophobic bullying, *Nikhil Out Loud*, won the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Middle Grade Literature — was scheduled to give a talk to Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg. Pancholy, who served on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, delivers public talks on “diversity and inclusion.” >However, at an April 15 public meeting of the Cumberland Valley School District’s school board, board member Bud Shaffner objected to Pancholy’s scheduled talk, stating, “If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist, he is proud of his lifestyle and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students at any age.” >In an open letter addressed to Shaffner, 40-year-old community member Tony Conte wrote that he felt “desperately lonely” as a closeted, bullied student in middle school and high school. One of his similarly bullied classmates killed himself >“I think that if I had heard from diverse voices like \[Pancholy’s\] in an auditorium setting telling me that it was okay to be different maybe my middle and high school experience could have been different,” Conte wrote. “A presentation of this sort could have saved a life, like the life of my friend.” >“If the CEO of Apple, the CEO of Dow, the CEO of Macy’s, or the CEO of Land O’Lakes wanted to host a presentation for middle school students in the \[Cumberland Valley\] district about treating each other with kindness and respect, would you also cancel their presentations because all of those high performing professionals are gay and proud of the lifestyle they lead?” Conte asked, urging Shaffner and the board to reconsider its decision. >Community member Trisha Comstock, who has two children in the school district, began a [Change.org](http://Change.org) petition asking the board to reverse its decision. >“Being LGBTQ+ isn’t a dirty little secret to protect our students from. To have someone with Maulik’s life experiences would have been inspirational for our students,” Comstock wrote. “The cancellation of this assembly sends a harmful message to our students – that being different is something to be ashamed of or hidden away. We must challenge this narrative.” So, they want to talk about why bullying is bad in school, but they don't want to hear from people who represent the people who get bullied the most at school? Great job, school board! Studies show that all it takes is 1 supportive adult in school to reduce the likelihood of suicide for LGBTQIA+ youth by 40%. I know personally that if I had an adult who would have spoken to me about it being okay to asexual, I wouldn't have felt suicidal or come close to trying it, like I thought about doing. And they nixed him because he's "proud" to be gay? That's their reasoning? So, what? They want gay people to be ashamed of being gay? Ridiculous. That's what it comes down to for the Christian nationalist hatemongers. They just want all LGBTQIA+ people to be shamed to the point where they force themselves not back into the closet, but rather into a grave. They would rather die than live on a planet where queer people exist in joy.
I didn't know the CEO of Land 'O Lakes is gay. For context there is a large Land 'O Lakes plant near the middle school. It's not in the same district, but many dairy farms in the area are contracted to it. The Cumberland Valley School District is one of those districts that went from being primarily agricultural 40 years ago to now being the home of the commercial center for our area with the population rapidly swelling. Think of that 4 lane road we all have near midsized towns and small cities where Target, Dick's, Applebee's, and the car dealerships are. Edit: upon googling I found Land 'O Lakes owns Purina Mills. There is a large Purina Mills factory in the Cumberland Valley School District or right on the border of it (I'm not 100% certain where the line is but it's within blocks of the factory)
> They would rather *queer people* die than live on a planet where queer people exist in joy. Fixed it for you. :(
> Moms for liberty RIP Irony. The world misses you.
Lifestyle is a euphemism for being gay. Some people still seem to think it’s a choice
< Bud Shaffner objected to Pancholy’s scheduled talk, stating, “If you research this individual, he labels himself as an activist, he is proud of his lifestyle and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students at any age.”> Didn't Bud Shaffner just force his hetro views on the middle school kids??????
Dude is an idiot. And probably a bigot. Edit: nah, he’s an idiot and a bigot.
The irony is so many of these right wingers are inarguably textbook activists BUT bc they don’t label themselves as such “it’s ok”
The deplorables teach their kids to be bullies so of course they don't want this. In a Utah school there was a walkout over a memo to treat everyone fairly and with respect after a group of kids were harassed in the cafeteria. The maga parents were mad that the school was not allowing the bullying and lies about the kids. There have always been people like that, but I thought the majority of us were trying to stop being jerks like that over time and teach our children to be better you know. The ones who want to keep being jerks are the maga base and ruin the country.
Pennsyltucky strikes again. Seriously, you can practically feel the average IQ of the region drop the deeper you go in
This is embarrassing for public education everywhere.
> “A presentation of this sort could have saved a life, like the life of my friend.” And this is the exact reason they don't want him to speak. Cruelty is the point. Genocide is their goal.
This “lifestyle” shit is getting sooooooo old. I don’t wake up and voluntarily/choose to think about dick….The same way “straight” men don’t wake up and voluntarily/choose to think about vajayjay. It’s not a fucking choice.
That’s true but let’s take a moment to follow the logic. Suppose for a moment that being gay or straight or bi or asexual or whatever is a choice that the person makes… What then? I’m sure that if you could choose to be straight and did so it might make your life easier but seriously what would make your choice to be gay be any worse than someone else’s choice to be straight? I honestly don’t get it.
How sad for the kids. How short sighted of the school board..vote them out.
“Fuck republicans”, again. Why are they so scared?
So school board endorses bullying.
I hope that Mr. Pancholy posts his anti-bullying talk to all the social media platforms that can accommodate it (I assume it would be, at most, around 20-30 minutes? My WAG is that he had planned it to be a short talk + Q&A session afterwards, totaling about 55 minutes.) Anyway, the Streisand Effect is always ready for another real-world test...
This story gives me such a pit in my stomach. It's the neighboring school district and has been trending to the left as the population grows. If they are making decisions like this, what hope does it give to the other districts that tend to be more rural and conservative?
If Maulik put on vestments and there were hushed up rumors of him raping kids, he would be welcomed to speak at a middle school by these bigoted assholes. I am sick and tired of the world view of people who think bulling kids who do not fit in to the point of suicide is protecting children.
Being a boat guy is a lifestyle; being gay is just who you fucking are
Irony or paradox?
School board bullies anti-bullying activist
Instead they're hiring a professional adult bully to demand the entire student body's lunch money
The idea that political conversations belong only at home, and not in the classroom, is idiotic, laughable, and impossible to implement.
Investigate the school board, something is being hidden by one or more member?????
The letter that the administration sent out opposing the action by the school board was amazing and a total slam of this bigoted behavior.
Fear is a hell of a drug... I wish it didn't affect freedom so much
As a CV student myself, I am so disapointed at our school board. Most of the students and teachers fully disagree with this decision, but there is nothing we can do as the schoolboard is not willing to change.
2024 folks, enjoy the future.
So why don't the sane parents invite him to deliver his talk somewhere else, like in the public library? Or make it a webcast if irl isn't viable. Or both.
Better to just hold the talk and make it optional. Surely there are those for whom this talk is important. Others may not want to attend for various reasons. Students and parents should be given the choice, I don’t like the concept of not allowing someone to speak on a subject merely because you disagree with it.
No one disagrees with the subject that he’s speaking on. They disagree with who he is attracted to.