Posted on 01/29/2005 6:19:53 AM PST by Ellesu
STONY POINT — About a half-dozen James A. Farley Middle School students sported SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas or pants yesterday in support of the cartoon character's right to be himself.
SpongeBob Support Day was the idea of seventh-grade class president Jordan Uffer, who wanted to protest opinions expressed about the character's link to homosexuality.
"He's a cartoon," the 12-year-old Uffer, attired in SpongeBob pajamas, said. "I felt there was no reason for them to say that he was homosexual, and there isn't a real difference between gay people and not-gay people. We're all human beings."
The SpongeBob issue made the news after the Rev. James Dobson spoke to about 350 people in Washington, D.C., during Inauguration Week, saying a video to be sent to 61,000 elementary schools in March had a subtext that promoted homosexuality. Dobson is founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, an organization that says it promotes Christian, Bible-based family values.
The video features cartoon characters ranging from SpongeBob SquarePants and Winnie the Pooh to Clifford the Big Red Dog and Jimmy Neutron singing "We Are Family" and supporting tolerance of diversity.
While the video itself is innocuous, the group that created and distributes it, the We Are Family Foundation, gets support from groups that promote tolerance for homosexuality, Dobson said. The foundation's Web site also asks people to show understanding and tolerance for differences, including sexual orientation.
"SpongeBob has no idea what's going on in life, and he has fun with everything," Uffer said, explaining SpongeBob's appeal. "Me and my parents were watching the news, and we saw that a few religious groups were saying it's homosexual. I got mad. I asked my Student Council supervisors if we could do a SpongeBob Support Day and they said yes."
One of the reasons Uffer got his go-ahead was that the school participated this week in No Name Calling Week, said Farley Principal Alice Gottlieb.
No Name Calling Week was created last year, inspired by characters in a book by James Howe called "The Misfits." The children in the book, who were targets of name-calling based on their weight, intelligence, height or sexual orientation, run for school office on a platform to erase name-calling through a No Name-Calling Day. Farley seventh-graders read "The Misfits" and discussed its message of tolerance in class this week.
"This whole SpongeBob thing came to the kids because of that," Gottlieb said. "They're just great kids. It just bothered them."
Uffer asked his seventh-grade classmates to wear either SpongeBob gear, yellow or a tie (SpongeBob wears a tie) yesterday to show their support for tolerance and the character. Fewer than a dozen students appeared to participate. Trevor Wargo was one of them. Wargo not only wore SpongeBob pants and a top, he painted "Save Sponge Bob" on his forehead and both cheeks.
"He's just funny," Wargo said. "You're not going to grow up to be gay because you watched a television show. That's absurd."
Progressive liberalism socialism at its worst.
"He's a cartoon," the 12-year-old Uffer, attired in SpongeBob pajamas, said. "I felt there was no reason for them to say that he was homosexual, and there isn't a real difference between gay people and not-gay people. We're all human beings."
No 12-year-old talks like that. And who names their kid "Uffer"?
Might have needed a 'barf alert' for this one.
Talk about "not getting it".
It's the VIDEO, not the CARTOON that Dobson opposed.
Not that I like the cartoon, either, but that's not the point of this story...
Oops, my mistake--his last name is Uffer. But still ...
Now that is gay.
LOL
What kind of 7th grader watches Spongebob anyway? What happened to the cool cartoons from back in the day?
I'm more of a stealth sponge bob fan.
I use to be very tolerant of gay's, but I am reaching the point of being a homophobe and will if they keep pushing it just a little longer.
They've been dumbed down and sanitized like almost everything else.
I can watch Bugs Bunny and Tex Avery cartoons now as an adult and still laugh my ass off. The likes of "Spongebob Parachute Pants" doesn't compare.
I have a sponge bob tooth brush.
Maybe not, kid, but you're going to make Spongebob an emblem of stupidity, further denigrading your cause
Hmmm....historically...lots of names which were based on notable family characteristices, occupation, etc...get changed when they are first written down....maybe this family started as 'Effers' short for....well, you know......
Also, amazing how the little twerps continue to mis-understand and mis-represent what was said - definitely shows that the effectiveness of brainwashing in favor intolerance for contrasting view points.
Mind-numberd and brain-dead is no way to go through life.
Yes but did they really have to sully Winnie the Pooh like that? I love Winnie the Pooh. "Oh bother"
Well, the tolerance activists did a good job of fudging the whole story so no-one knows the facts.
These kids think SpongBob was accused of being gay- wrong.
Focus on the Family is described as a group that "says" it promotes Christian values.
Kids describe heterosexuals as "not-gay".
Dobson is said to object to a supposed "subtext" of the video- wrong.
And then we learn this:
"the school participated this week in No Name Calling Week".
Lovely.
there is a big difference, gays are sexual degenerates....tell the 12 year old snot this...
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