Cartoon characters adored by kids seized the spotlight in the latest flare-up of the America's culture wars, but the debate itself poses serious questions for adults involving the depiction of gays and lesbians in materials for teaching children about diversity and tolerance.
The liberal camp argues that even young children should learn that intolerance based on sexual identity is wrong and that gays are as legitimate part of the national mosaic as anyone else. “It’s abut creating awareness and understanding of people who are different”, said Joan Garry of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “Why shouldn’t that be a good thing for America’s young people?”
The conservative camp has responded vehemently; By all means, teach children to respect other individuals but do not cross the line and teach them that homosexuality is acceptable.
“Tolerance itself can be a very dangerous word,” said the Rev. Terry Fox, a Southern Baptist pastor in Wichita, Kan. “Tolerance gives the public schools an avenue to literally brainwash our kids that every lifestyle is OK”.
Separate controversies in recent weeks have raised these issues:
- Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ criticism of an episode of the Public Broadcast Service children’s series “Postcards From Buster,” in which the animated bunny visits the children of two lesbian couples in Vermont. “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode,” Spelling wrote to PBS.
- An attack by some conservative leaders on a pro-diversity initiative of the We Are Family Foundation that features a video starring scores of cartoon characters, including SpongeBob-SquarePants. The true agenda, said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, “is to desensitize very young children to homosexual and bisexual behavior”.
- Some conservatives said last month’s “No Name-Calling Week” in many middle schools was too focused on harassment of gays. In Massachusetts, the one state allowing gay marriage, conservatives say students are being indoctrinated to admire such marriages.
Dobson, bristling at mocking commentary about his reference to SpongBob, has posted a lengthy explanation of his concerns on the Web site of his Colorado-based Christian ministry.
The problem, he says, was not the video itself, but the We Are Family Foundation’s use of a “tolerance pledge” mentioning sexual identity and its ties to other groups supporting gay rights.
Tolerance and diversity “are almost always buzzwords for homosexual advocacy”, Dobson wrote. “Kids should not be taught that homosexuality is just another ‘lifestyle’ or that I is morally equivalent to heterosexuality”.
Dobson and other conservatives were pleased when Spellings, soon after the SpongeBob flap, condemned the “Postcards from Buster” episode.
“For years, PBS has been slipping pro-homosexual messages into its programming,” said Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute. “Along comes Secretary Spellings, who takes action as a servant of the people instead of a timid, go-along bureaucrat. Good for her.”
After Spellings statement, PBS said it would not distribute the episode to its 349 stations. Boston-based WGBH the shows producer is providing it directly to more than 20 fellow stations.
“We consider it the responsibility of public television to give children and parents the resources they need to understand the world they inhabit – without excluding any segment of our society,” WGBH said. “The major goal of ‘Postcards from Buster’ is to help kids understand the richness and complexity of American culture”.
Nancy Carlsson-Page, an education professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., has emphasized diversity awareness in a career spent training early-education teachers.
She said that Spellings was wrong to suggest that a certain category of family – those headed by gays or lesbians – be excluded from images shown to children.
“All children, whatever family composition they have, should see the full, diverse range of families,” Carlsson Page said. “Otherwise, when they encounter a different kind of family, they’ll think that family is lesser, that it does not count.”
Linda Hodge, president of the National PTA, said she strongly supports classroom initiatices promoting tolerance and combating bullying. However, she suggested some programs could backfire if they focus so explicitly on harassment of gays that those students feel singles out and labeled.
Hodge’s bottom line: “Every child should fell safe and welcome in school.”
For GLAAD’d Joan Garry, a lesbian raising three children, the controversies hit home on a personal level.
“There are millions of kids living in households with two moms or who dads, and millions of other kids who know those kids,” she said. “I wonder what James Dobson would say to my own children. What would be the respectful, Christian thing to say to them?”
Para los que no sepais ingles os explico un poquito de que va la cosa:
En unos dibujos animados de estos tipo barrio sesamo habian sacado una familia de lesbianas y la habian puesto como lo mas normal del mundo. Por todo esto los conservadores americanos saltan a decir burradas-tipo-fraga y tal, he pensado que seria interesante y pues lo he copiado. Merece la pena atender a estas burradas que suelta el cura este, las traduzco:
- "Esta bien ensenyar a los ninyos a respetar otras individualidades, pero no podemos cruzar la linea y decirles que la homosexualidad es una cosa aceptable"
- "Tolerancia en si puede ser una palabra muy peligrosa. La tolerancia da a las escuelas publicas una literal via libre para lavar el cerbro a sus alumnos y decirles que todo tipo de vida esta bien"
- "Tolerancia y diversidad son palabras borrosas utilizadas para la defensa de la homosexualidad"
- "A los ninyos no se les deberia de ensenyar que la homosexualidad no es solo otro 'estilo de vida' y que es moralmente igual al estilo de vida heterosexual"
Que opinias mis amigos Eolianos??
Edito: Fuente sacada del Bangor Daily News, Thursday, February 3, 2005
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