In America, and properly, "your sect's beliefs end where my nose begins." It is a contract of courtesy, to have a secular law that respects all and elevates no religion above any others.
The lack of this courtesy expressed by some sectarians is truly offensive. I have even seen a senior Army chaplain relieved of duty because he was unable, or unwilling, to differentiate what was believed in his own sect from US Army policy. He was not hired to preach his (uneducated) interpretation of the Bible to others. He was hired to attend to the spiritual needs of soldiers desperately in need of spiritual solace. A senior officer does not tell a junior officer and enlisted men they are going to Hell because they are Jews, and all Jews are damned to Hell.
To the subject at hand. Students in a public school are in an "alma mater" circumstance. This means that the school, and by extrapolation the government, are responsible for their health and well-being while they are on school grounds.
A secular attitude is that this affords *neither* that they are indoctrinated or educated outside of the sensibilities of their parents, as long as to do so will not render those children incapable of functioning in society; *nor* does it mean that sectarian religious sensibilities may intrude--in effect a religion punishing people who are not members of their religion, and in a public school, yet.
In what I previously wrote, I carefully stated that these are children who "self identify" as being homosexual. From that point on, it is no one's business but theirs and their parents if they continue to remain homosexual. There is absolutely no right or liberty available in this country that permits or should encourage them to be bothered by anyone else on the subject.
But that being said, their self identification with being a homosexual in no way abrogates or lessens the school's "alma mater" responsibility. Which highlights my second point, that frequently such homosexual students are in need of greater attention for their psychological and health needs.
For a school to not provide for students that are "at-risk" for suicide, or suffering from other problems that interfere with their education, is to fail in their mission as educators. And this does not mean trying to convince them that they are not homosexuals. That is not a function of public schools, nor should it be.
The last argument that can be made against gay-straight clubs is that it might encourage non-gay students to become gay. That is utter hogwash, even on its surface.
Students who go to such clubs spend most of their time complaining how miserable and poorly treated by others they are, not hugging and kissing or worse. Who in their right mind would want to become a homosexual after hearing such tales of woe?
Plus, you have to wonder that if a student just "happens" to stay after school, and "happens" to drop in on a gay-straight meeting, and through some miracle they "convince" him to become a homosexual, isn't there just a tiny chance that he already "knew" he was a homosexual?
In the final analysis, I see the argument as being the same as if a local mosque decided that girls should not be taught in the same class as boys, and that their religion is being descriminated against because everybody isn't forced to do things their way.
Your assertion that GSAs do not indoctrinate, promote or encourage homosexual experimentation among students is based on ignorance (which I doubt) or the fact that you consider the homosexual agenda laudable.
One or the other.
Every single monotheist religion in the world (and some that aren't, such as Buddhism) share the same basic moral standards. To promote sexual deviance subverts the rights of parents, for starters.
Your statement that kids who self-identify as homosexual are more "at risk" (a purely liberalesque phrase if ever there was one) for suicide is also propaganda.
I suppose the next comment you make will be that "one in ten" is homosexual.
I would add (if I were the author of the article, which I am not) that the basic moral principles of Judeo-Christianity are amazingly congruent with other religions as well. Personally, few would call me a Christian although I study the Bible (as well as the Vedas). Human sexuality has, throughout civilized history, been condemned outside of marriage, and certain sexual behaviors (homosexuality and bestiality, for two examples) been soundly condemned.
The promotion of such aberrant behaviors augurs nothing but destruction.
There should be no sexually oriented clubs in any school where students are not of legal consenting age...
Pop to LJ: In America, and properly, "your sect's beliefs end where my nose begins." It is a contract of courtesy, to have a secular law that respects all and elevates no
religion above any other.
You've bought into the Big Lie, and hence the delusion it has caused, that there is such a thing as a state of neutral unbelief. No such thing exists. Witness your moral proseltyzing (thou shalls and shalt nots) to LJ. By adopting this stance, you've bought a 'bill of goods' from the propagandists of the Church of Criminal Orthodoxy.