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Arkansas 5th grader refuses to "pledge allegiance" until gays gain equality
LGBTQ Nation ^ | 11/12/2009

Posted on 11/13/2009 9:16:12 AM PST by Category Four

A 10-year-old Arkansas boy named Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its LGBT citizens.

The West Fork School District fifth grade student clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology — a request that the principal declined to honor.

Laura Phillips told the Arkansas Times that her 10-year-old is “probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair.”

Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt.

Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something.

On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, who tried to make him stand up, but Will respectfully refused.

After several days of Will refusing to stand for the pledge, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.

“She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,” Will said. “I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ‘With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’ ”

Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don’t have been unkind, and often attack him personally with anti-gay epithets.

“In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” Will said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”

Even so, Will said that he can’t foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge.

Full interview at the Arkansas Times


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: arkansas; homosexualagenda
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To: Category Four

Rear a child up the way you would have them go, and they’ll never depart from it, all the more reason to fight the gay agenda and the tolerance of sexual perversion, even if it is just a matter of enlightening your children with the love of Jesus Christ, as opposed to the love of the world.


21 posted on 11/13/2009 9:28:04 AM PST by pallis
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To: GnuHere

All I know is, no matter the reason, if I’d told one of my fifth-grade teachers (Warner, Oklahoma, 1985-86), I would either not be posting this to you today, or have done hard time in a body cast — and then my parents would’ve gone to work on me.


22 posted on 11/13/2009 9:29:23 AM PST by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: Category Four

Fixed, thanks


23 posted on 11/13/2009 9:29:33 AM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: Category Four

Dad’s a test tube. Mom is a fruit.


24 posted on 11/13/2009 9:30:23 AM PST by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: Admin Moderator
Thank you.
25 posted on 11/13/2009 9:30:33 AM PST by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: Category Four

Is this one of Brad Pitt’s and Bones Jolie little rug rats saying this nonsense?


26 posted on 11/13/2009 9:31:24 AM PST by chris37
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To: Category Four

Equality for gays will never happen - not in reality and definitely not in their minds so this gesture/15 mins of fame ploy couldn’t be more empty.

A reminder of why we don’t let children vote.


27 posted on 11/13/2009 9:32:21 AM PST by Let's Roll (Stop paying ACORN to destroy America! Cut off their government funding!)
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To: Category Four

If these people hate this nation so much, why don’t they pack up and move to one of the many places they must think is better?

God knows I don’t agree with everything going on here, but I do remain loyal to the founding concepts, and desire them to be returned to.

These people just want to destroy every tenet of decency that remains.

If the squirely little kid won’t say the pledge, send him home. Let mommy home school him. After all, it’s the government this woman hates, that is giving her son an education.


28 posted on 11/13/2009 9:34:46 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Unseal the lock box containing every document pertaining to Obama's life, TODAY!)
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To: Gay State Conservative

And he would have got that way because of the indoctrination he is receiving now. . .


29 posted on 11/13/2009 9:35:55 AM PST by Hulka
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To: All

The funny part:
At some point in this kid’s young life, he will sit and ponder why he has no friends and is in danger of getting his ass kicked on a daily basis...and he SERIOUSLY won’t be able to figure it out....


30 posted on 11/13/2009 9:36:57 AM PST by Maverick68 (w)
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To: Category Four; 185JHP; AFA-Michigan; Abathar; Agitate; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; Antoninus; ...
Homosexual Agenda Ping

Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the homosexual agenda ping list.

Be sure to click the FreeRepublic homosexual agenda keyword search link for a list of all related articles. We don't ping you to all related articles so be sure to click the previous link to see the latest articles.

Add keywords homosexual agenda to flag FR articles to this ping list.

31 posted on 11/13/2009 9:37:09 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: DoughtyOne
If these people hate this nation so much, why don’t they pack up and move to one of the many places they must think is better?

And I'll help 'em, if they just lemme know when and where.

If the squirely little kid won’t say the pledge, send him home. Let mommy home school him. After all, it’s the government this woman hates, that is giving her son an education.

I mean, if he were a Jehovah's Witness, I could see his reasoning for not saying it. Twisted, yes, but I could see it and try to talk sense to him and his mother. Case like this, what can ya do?
32 posted on 11/13/2009 9:37:09 AM PST by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: Category Four
Why am I supposed to care what reason this kid has for not pledging, or pledging for that matter? BFD.

I find it very interesting, however, that the media can focus time and attention on this Arkansas youth, yet had to be dragged kicking and screaming to tell us about the horror that was perpetrated on that other little Arkansas boy several years ago, the one who was tortured mercilessly by two gay hairdressers.

33 posted on 11/13/2009 9:37:38 AM PST by MozarkDawg
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To: Category Four

A ten year old child has no rights except those given by the parents. This boy has a right to a swift kick in the ass and that’s it. If school policy is to say the pledge, the boy should say it. The principle needs to grow some balls, and enforce the rules. The mom should be ashamed of herself.


34 posted on 11/13/2009 9:37:45 AM PST by Hambone02
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To: DoughtyOne
If these people hate this nation so much, why don't they pack up and move to one of the many places they must think is better?

And I'll help 'em, if they just lemme know when and where.

If the squirrely little kid won't say the pledge, send him home. Let mommy home school him. After all, it's the government this woman hates, that is giving her son an education.

I mean, if he were a Jehovah's Witness, I could see his reasoning for not saying it. Twisted, yes, but I could see it and try to talk sense to him and his mother. Case like this, what can ya do?
35 posted on 11/13/2009 9:37:50 AM PST by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: Category Four

Will needs his ass kicked. Not so much because of the pro-gay thing, but because he wants to be a lawyer. This world needs another lawyer, and particularly another left-wing activist lawyer like little Will appears destined to become, like I need a hole in my head.


36 posted on 11/13/2009 9:38:38 AM PST by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: DoughtyOne; All

Sorry for the double post.


37 posted on 11/13/2009 9:39:29 AM PST by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: Category Four

LOL - I dunno if it’s possible to have TWO body casts!


38 posted on 11/13/2009 9:39:54 AM PST by GnuHere
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To: wardaddy

Yes, kids that age are a mirror, not a picture.

When you see a kid spewing like that, it’s either as a result of the parents or a teacher pumping them full of venom.

Many times they’ll spew verbatim. It’s like listening to a recording of the parent or teacher.

If it’s the teacher, it really amounts to child abuse, pumping the kid full of the teacher’s ideology.


39 posted on 11/13/2009 9:40:53 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Unseal the lock box containing every document pertaining to Obama's life, TODAY!)
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To: Category Four

Bring back corporal punishment in the schools.


40 posted on 11/13/2009 9:41:29 AM PST by caver (Obama's first goals: allow more killing of innocents and allow the killers of innocents to go free.)
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