Rhode Island State Rep. Dan Gordon, who represents Tiverton and Portsmouth, is so disgusted by one of his own districtâs high schools having a gay-straight alliance, he wants the place defunded. Because, after all, he doesnât think âwe should be promoting anything whatsoever that has to do with sexuality. Especially in a school that receives public funding.â Not that this makes Gordon anti-gay, of course!
Gordonâs made his first comments in the comments section of the local Patch website, which were followed up with remarks on a local AM radio show yesterday. It gave Gordon the opportunity to lambast the original mission of Tiverton High Schoolâs GSA: prevent bullying. âI donât think there would be much of a problem with bullying if students werenât flaunting their sexuality in school,â he argued. Yeah, gay kids: stop acting all queeny in the hallways and you wonât get the SHIT KICKED OUT OF YOU. (Thankfully, Tivertonâs Principal Steven Fezette thinks otherwise and vocally supports the GSA.)
And if Tiverton High doesnât do away with its GSA? â[I]f I have anything to say about it, Tiverton will lose school funding to local charter schools. It doesnât matter if gay or straight, if sexual meet-up groups are being promoted in our schools rather than improving test scores, that school is failing. Is it really more important for our children to get âsexed-upâ, than learning advanced math?â
Oh I forgot thatâs what GSAs were created for: to get kids âsexed up.â Also, D.A.R.E. teaches kids to use drugs, and standardized tests teach kids to drop out of school.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But remember: In the minds of bigots, their anti-gayness is not actually anti-gayness. Itâs just, um, what? A difference of opinion?
On Thursday morning Gordon took to AM radio station 630 WPRO for two hours, where he tried to clear up any misconceptions you may have about what he said. It did not go well.
âAnything of a sexual nature should not be taking place at a taxpayer-funded facility,â Gordon said on the radio show. âThe purpose of a school is to get an education. ⌠When I was in school, if there was a group for heterosexual students that was going to be meeting after school, I would all day be thinking about who are all the new faces that would be there tonight. Thatâs just human nature.â Because as we all know GSAs are totally not stigmatized student clubs that only ostracized kids join.
Meanwhile, if what you heard coming out of Gordonâs keyboard sounded homophobic, rest assured it isnât â says Gordon, who used the phrase âsexual preferenceâ throughout the interview. âIâm not anti-gay. I have a gay cousin who I enjoy spending time with. ⌠I have gay friends. I have gay family. Iâm a United States Marines service veteran âŚ. There were gay individuals that we served with.â
And now that heâs been partially schooled on what GSAs are actually for, Gordon wants to join in. Sort of: âI have reached out to the group in Tiverton and asked to attend one of their meetings. I would be happy to attend if invited ⌠Maybe I can sit in and learn a little more about the group.â Fine, buddy, but I donât want you spending all day thinking about who are all the new faces that would be there tonight.
For the record, Gordon says he never had sex in high school: âI grew up in a strict household ⌠and I did not have sex in high school.â Which explains all his angst.
(If youâve got extra time on your hands, read these comments left by Rep. Gordon â âI quite frankly donât understand why there is so much hate coming from these folks; the very thing they propose to eliminate with their peer support group. Seems to be a double standard here. To repeat, my assertion is that sex groups, gay or straight, do not belong in schools. The lack of reading comprehension in itself is indicative that there is a problem with our educational systemâ â and the responses from his constituents.)
Christopher Salguero
Excuse me but did he just say that a Gay-Straight Alliance is a SEX GROUP for trying to unite straight and gay students, alike, to remove the misconceptions such as those he just marvelously displayed? Seriously, yeah, april fools… right? NO. This is truly appalling. He clearly goes beyond the realm of absurdity in believing that this will motivate kids to have sex. Kids don’t need motivation, it’s called hormones. By his standards, Sex Ed classes would be destroyed (granted they do a poor job at what they teach).
Tom
If only your highness would step off your high horse and pay attention to the surroundings for a change. By his standards, safe sex lessons at school are immoral.
Steve
If Rep. Gordon succeeds in closing the high school and using the money to fund his business venture (aka, charter school), he will soon realize that charter schools are also required to recognize GSA clubs.
The only difference will be that a fraction of the money will be put into Mr. Gordon’s own pocket, or his friends pockets, instead of actually paying for education for the kids. That is, of course, almost surely the real reason for this move.
For-profit education is inherently evil. It positions the school administrators with an automatic conflict of interest — every dollar that is profit is a dollar that was not spent to help a kid.
chimmy
Well, I have heterosexuals in my family, my brother is, my sister is and my mother is. All of their hatred of gay people put me out in the streets at 17. What a good sense of acceptability. True, God loving, hypocrits. Give me an effin break.
Brock Taner
I heard that Gordon has never been seen with a woman. The man is a self-loathing homosexual.
The sane Francis
I love how he excuses his revolting homophobia and the backlash against him with the “I have gay friends and family” line. That basically=I know some gay people who I’ve associated with, and they are tokens for me to use so I can proudly believe I’m not bigoted.”
You really have to question the mentality of people like Mr. Gordon who think gay=sex. Or gay sex=anal. People like that are either really obsessed with gay sex and/or just really insane and uneducated. People like Mr. Gordon are why GSA’s are needed.
Samwise
“We should[n’t] be promoting anything whatsoever that has to do with sexuality. Especially in a school that receives public funding.”
Awesome! No more proms! Oh sure, the popular kids will be upset, but most will breathe a sigh of relief.
Wait… oh, you meant nothing that has to do with QUEER sexuality. Huh. Yeah, okay, we’ll just quietly cease to exist, then.
Shannon1981
The man is a bigoted pig. And the general rule of thumb with the ‘i have gay relatives/friends’ line is that they are raging homophobes. Nobody who is truly not a bigot would say that.
Mondoray
Well, then, let’s just get some clothes on those cheerleaders! I’ve always found it odd that st8t parents have no problem with their daughters wearing the skimpiest of cheerleading outfits while other fathers stand around with their chins on the floor drooling.
Jeffree
@Samwise: & @Mondoray: You nailed it–thanks for cheering me up. Gordon probably ought to defund sex-ed and biology classes, so students aren’t required to learn how human babies are made or how bees mate. History classes should be defunded too, because everyone will find out that the ancient Greeks loved them some gayness.
Sumthin tells me he would be a big fan of boosting funding for the FCA (fellowship of Christian Athletes) in the school, because Jesus loves to hear athletes praying for the other team’s star quarterback to break both his arms while rollerskating.
TMikel
The man is a troglodyte. His smug expression and nearly closed eyes tell volumes about his lack of humanity.
Bobo Frommage
Dan Gordon is nearly fifty years old and lives a sad lonely existence. No in the two towns he represents has ever seen him out and about with a woman.
Jeffree
@Bobo Fromage: Qu’est-ce que tu racontes? Sad, isn’t it? Plenty of of 50-ish year old guys live alone, are never seen within 20 meters of a woman, but never work actively to shut down a GSA. It’s one thing to be a closet case, but another to wield the authority to slam that closet door on other people.
He is trying, I’m guessing, to make other people as miserable as he is.
I hope Rep. Gordon doesn’t have his way.
If you’re a Rhode Islander (i hope I got that word right) I hope you’re able to keep him from doing what he’s trying to do.
Shannon1981
@Jeffree: Closet cases are jealous of people who are out. Even the ones who aren’t active homophobes. Now, I don’t condone outing people, nor do I look down on all closet cases. But the ones who work against us need to be outed. I’d love to have a good look at some of these people’s computers. I’d have a field day. And I don’t care how many hidden folders they have, I’ll find them. And splash it all over the net.
SaxAndViolins
@Shannon1981: Great. Another cyber-terrorist. Way to build bridges there, Shan.
Hellarious
We had a GSA in my school: there was no “hooking up” going on there. We had 4 LGBQ members and 3 straight members and a barely-closeted faculty advisor. (small town school).
Meanwhile members of our football team were busily impregnating cheerleaders, i kid you not. They almost had to stop making the human pyramids because its dangerous for the pregnant girls to fall!!
Tiverton Citizen
See this news story from local chanel.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbGQawBwyfG4&h=94720
Dan was in a facebook “discussion” with someone and wrote something that will come back to haunt him.
Schteve
“I’m not anti-gay. I have a gay cousin who I enjoy spending time with. … I have gay friends. I have gay family. Iâm a United States Marines service veteran âŚ. There were gay individuals that we served with.”
What’s next, “I’m not racist! I own black slaves!”?
Corvidae
Maybe if he had had more education he might be a bit less clueless about what actually goes on in a gsa?
Nrj
@Schteve: Almost! I was thinking more along the line:
“I’m not anti-gay. I have a gay cousin who I enjoy spending time with.” M-hm, sure you do… đ
Pyroteknik
So, what about the common high school dance that’s been going on forever? Are they not SEXUALIZED events!?
sick of it! Ron Kingsley, Tiverton
So, gays want more special attention? If you walk that path, and want to wave your flag high and wide, and shove your sexuality in everyones face, than deal with it. If you trewly are prowd to be gay, than you must deal with the shit that comes with it (parden the pun), its not all rainbows and sun shine, sun shine…. but dont expect me to pay for it, or build you a handy cap ramp to make it easy. You all want equil rights, but want it served on a soft fuzzy pillow. EVERYONE gets picked on at some point in there acodemic life, its a “life skill”, it teaches us how to deal with the outside world and the bull shit we ALL deal with later, and if you dont have the fortitude do deal with it, well thers always a rope, we could use the parking spots.
heres a joke for ya
How many fags does it take to change a light bulb?
100!
1 to change the bulb, and ninty nine to start the “I servived the darkness” support group
toughen up!
ya, my spelling sucks, but then again so do you. Pay attention to the point
OMG!….is that considerd gay bashing? Are you all gonna call the gay police?
thats MY freedom of expression….fuck you, deal with it.
you will be stronger for it.
Respect is not given
you can find me on face book
ritu
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