“The phone number “(571) 522-1899″ is a Braddock, VA based phone number and the registered carrier is Verizon Virginia, Inc.”

That’s the most you can get for free, as far as I know.

i know. i’m no help…

Page 28 mentions that definitions of sexual orientation will be made in pre-K through fifth grades.

So that’s what they’re talking about in their push poll.

I’m not a Christian fundamentalist, and I’m not concerned that someone’s children might be taught tolerance. I am concerned about what values my children are taught; fortunately, I have lots of recourse in that department. There are a lot of people who don’t have my options, though, and I can understand why they would be upset.

Amp, if you had kids, and the only school you could afford to send your kids to taught values that were morally wrong to you, wouldn’t you be upset? I think that folks on all sides of the fence have to understand the special status of public schools. They’re the school of last resort for all, and the school of only resort for many. Regardless of the merits of a particular piece of social advocacy, using the schools for such advocacy is inevitably going to trample on someone.

The trick is to identify the people who won’t vote for you FIRST, and THEN follow up with misleading information about when and where the polls are open. Oh well–not everyone can be a Karl Rove!

Gay marriage isn’t what makes gayness a fact. Gay is gay is gay. People who don’t their kids to know facts need to take them out of school.

So Robert, does the fact that that is a policy established in 1999 not have any effect on your believing it is being forced through due to gay marriage being legalized? Now the homosexual menace can time travel? Who knew!

Anyway, doesn’t everyone now claim to believe in tolerance (even our fundie president does) of gays? How does this education policy differ meaningfully from teaching tolerance?

Naturally, it is a bummer to have the public schools teaching tolerance of things you hate, but homophobes are now moving into the same category as clansmen and communists (at least in some states): their preferences no longer set public policy.

And gay people send their kids to public schools, too. And what’s more, we all pay the taxes that make public schools possible, regardless of our moral positions on anything. And inevitably, some of those schoolchildren are going to grow up to be gay. Isn’t it best to present it to kids as just another characteristic? If their parents want to screw them up in the privacy of their own homes, great. But the public school is a public forum. It’s for everyone, like it or not.

Most everyone believes in “tolerance”. Many people think there is a difference between tolerance and normalization, and what you think of as tolerance I may think of as normalization. Like the man on South Park said, I have to tolerate you; that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re a freak.

In your last paragraph, are you making an empiricist argument that once a viewpoint has a majority, it’s OK for the public schools to reinforce it?

While my tone was excessively snide, the point remains: the push poll was (as expected) flat-out lying. The policy they refer to 1) doesn’t teach the “gay lifestyle,” but teaches terminology in neutral terms (so that children will understand what their parents are talking about when they rail against the ho-mo-sek-su-als?); and 2) was introduced five years before the thing which they claimed caused the policy.

Thanks very much for looking it up, by the way. It is useful to have confirmation that they are indeed flat-out lying.

And yes, when a vast super-majority agrees on something, then the public schools will reinforce it, whether either of us likes it or not (as a socialist, I don’t care much for the fact that public schools glorify capitalism, but I don’t really expect it to change).

As to tolerance vs. normalization, there really isn’t anything in that policy that even hints at normalization. Furthermore, the president has clearly stated (in the last debate) a preference for normalization. This suggests that preference for normalization is moving towards the super-majority position. Too bad for those who don’t like it, but so it goes. The institutions of the culture teach the culture.

Somehow I doubt they’ll follow the definition with, “…and you should all go out and become one.”

Come on, Dan, don’t you know it’s a choice! You’re all deviants!

People will always complain when they see the public schools presenting something without judgment that they view with a lot of judgment or can’t accept. I mean, look at evolution.

I thought these same Christians were for private schooling and home-schooling. No, they want to own the country. Their ancestors came here seeking religious freedom and the separation of Church and State, since Protestants were persecuted in England and elsewhere. Now they want to be the State.

It isn’t about “tolerance”; we (gay and pro-gay) should be framing the argument in terms of fundamental civil rights and liberties.

Then I called their parent company up at (703) 234-2200 and told them that I was voting NO on 36 (explaining the issue) and telling them that I’m not going to enshrine bigotry in the Oregon Constitution. I would advise others to do so, especially during the day, to flood their switchboard.

Yes, I realize their classmates may have blue eyes. I also realize I have blue eyes. That doesn’t mean that these immoral blue-eyed people have to be accepted. Doesn’t matter. Jesus hates blue eyes and you are intolerant of my religion if you tell my children that blue eyes exist.

If you are going to get self-righteous over people making assumptions about you, kindly note how the above comment comes across.

I am going to reply further to Robert, but I think I’ll do so in a separate post.