Phentemine….

Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Bill Donohoe. As I understand it, they have exclusive rights to invent anti-gay paranoid fantasies in the north American market. I don’t know who has the foreign market rights. Ahmadinejad, possibly.

But it’s a bogus question to begin with. 7 yrs old is kinda young to be covering gender identification issues. I mean, I taught pre-school for 12 yrs, and 5-yr-olds are just figuring out whether they’re boys or girls. Expecting them to understand differences in sexual orientation doesn’t work very well when they don’t know what sex is.

Fifth and sixth grade – fourth at a pinch – would make a lot more sense developmentally for the reason Laura mentions: that’s the time when kids are moving into their black-and-white, right-and-wrong phase when they’re Lord of the Flies material. There’s all sorts of tolerance-related shenanigans raising their ugly heads as the kids begin to phase into puberty, and that’s a much more appropriate time to deal with civility and “people different from you aren’t monsters” stuff.

But, of course, it wouldn’t be as startling or sensational a question, which is maybe why that’s not what the candidates were asked. They were asked about it being in “the school curriculum”. 2nd grade wasn’t mentioned. That was Mitt and it’s an old Republican trick: take a relatively innocuous question and find a way to characterize it in a sensational manner. I’m surprised he didn’t accuse them of wanting homosexuality taught in kindergartens or pre-schools. Why not the cradle? That’s what Pat would have done.

I don’t know how you have even a marginally intelligent, nuanced conversation with somebody who doesn’t accept nuance, who sees (or, as in Mitt’s case, sells) every issue as a stark contrast between opposing but equally simple-minded slogans and deliberately uses imaginary fears to get the emotions broiling so brains will shut down. It’s a puzzle.

But in this case, it ain’t gonna work with anybody but the 26%ers and the extreme religious right. After Ellen and Will & Grace, it just ain’t that big an issue any more. Normal people are getting used to the idea and realizing that, in fact, the world doesn’t end when gays get married or adopt kids, and it’s dawning on them that this is a tempest in a teapot. We’ve got a few years to go before they get settled enough to act on the knowledge they already have but aren’t quite ready to accept, but as sure as death and taxes, it’s coming.

How fortunate all of you are to have each other. Your family sounds like it’s so grounded. I have a gay cousin, different era, very different players when he was growing up. I’m sure he has suffered immensely without family support. But growing up in Mayberry just didn’t allow for that kind of thing and he was forced to cut the ties. I think my aunt still sneaks letters to him. That’s tragic and that mindset is what we’re all hopefully working on.

By the way, I don’t know why, but around a certain age a lot of kids go through some kind of homophobe thing. I just know my kids went through it because they’re so vocal. I think it’s around 5th-7th grade and it’s a peer thing. Anyway their empathy has expanded as they’ve matured, so they’re pretty clear that ‘the dangers of homosexuals’ are non-existent.

Bill Clintons marital transgressions resulted in the Teletubbies!

Need I say more?