Children Speak Out Against Michigan’s ‘Religious License to Bully’ Law

This would be inconceivable in the UK, we have such strong discrimination laws that they are often abused for gain by the unscrupulous* but better a few cheats getting monetary compensation than numerous suicides because the legislation wasn’t in place to protect the vulnerable.

* http://www.serial-litigants.com/casestudy.html

Apparently the Michigan House voted on the bill after removing the religious and moral conviction clause. I give a hearty yay!, with reservations. From Huff Po:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/michigan-house-passes-ant_n_1088306.html

“Michigan’s state House passed its own version of an anti-bullying Thursday, smoothing over the language in a bill passed by the Senate last week that sparked a widespread wave of criticism.

The Senate’s controversial bill included language that some say protect bullies, by prohibiting anti-bullying policies that ban “a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” The bill, dubbed “Matt’s Safe School Law,” is named after a Michigan teen who committed suicide in 2002 after falling victim to anti-gay bullying.

The House’s version of the bill doesn’t include the controversial religious language and requires all public, charter and intermediate school districts to implement the policy. The bill passed 88-18 and is also a bipartisan result of the House’s promise to seek a compromise that Republican Speaker of the House Jase Bolger said will “bring everyone to the middle of the road and provide protection to all students.”” (I don’t know if the embedded links are live or not)

Now the bill goes back to the Senate for approval, and we’ll see if the idiots who crafted the first draft will actually listen to their own constituents on this. I wrote both Levin and Stabenow long emails detailing my outrage. I know that neither of them supported the bill with the offensive language included, but I also know from experience that trying to talk to my district rep, Huizenga, is useless. He’s a tool. My effort would have been circular filed without comment.

But yes, any other Michiganders out there who care about this issue, please contact your reps and explain that there is never ANY justification to allow bullying of the sort that would continue long enough and be hateful enough to drive a teen to suicide. This is happening way too frequently in this country right now.

The points I wanted to make were a bit of criticism though. Of the video and the bill. They likely would not be welcome here. I do appreciate people fighting this nonsense religious exemption stuff though. It’s certainly needed so pressure can be placed on the idiots who think it’s a good idea to guide, nurture and teach bullies how to avoid punishment.

The language may have been formed to justify religious bullying (which shocks me, as even when I was neck deep in conservative thinking, I don’t recall anyone actually thinking bullying was a good thing), but more to the point, this would effectively justify ALL bullying.  Think about how your average kid acts when confronted.  Some Nelson out there is going to beat up on a kid, get caught, and immediately say “you can’t touch me, I have a firmly held moral conviction that nerds need to be taught a lesson”.  In effect, this anti-bullying legislation, if enacted with that clause, would actually serve to ENABLE bullying of ALL kinds.

I’m really angry at those who felt the need to protect a bully’s right to gay bash though.  What politician felt that, and would they mind if I assaulted them?  (This is entirely hypothetical to prove a point, not a threat or something I would actually want to do).

I don’t buy it. It’s like the bullshit “I’m not judging you, it’s God”. No, YOU are judging me, and you don’t get to pretend you’re a nice person in the meantime.

People who tell gay kids they’re going to Hell are not doing it reluctantly in the hope that they can save them from that fate. If you are deeply concerned about someone, you approach them with compassion and emotionally explain that you’re really worried for them and that you don’t want them to end up in Hell. That’s not the way that goes down, particularly in school. “You’re going to burn in Hell, faggot!” is not an expression of concern, it’s flinging hate and verbal violence at someone while using your religion as a shield. They do it to hurt, not to help.

Amazing. The Religious Right’s depravity is seemingly bottomless. A pity that the same can’t be said for their intelligence…

True, but I didn’t say their motivation is concern in this case. Yeah, there is that sick motivation for evangelicalism, that people are genuinely concerned for people’s souls and so they go out and harass them. But that’s a different matter.

With the gay thing it’s more like the Bible says it’s wrong. They’ve grown up with that and believe gay people are bad. Yes, they want to hurt them, but in their twisted way, they don’t really consider the consequences of what they’re doing or don’t even realize how much they are really harming people

It is shocking to me that there is nothing in place to prevent bullying already.  Are teachers and school counsellors at least trained to recognise and deal with bullying and to support the victims?  Without the support of the law even this is a half measure.  A law that actually exempts some people from bullying is ridiculous and incredibly sad.

How many times do the religious right have to expose themselves as the despicable liars & cheats they are before they are banished into the dustbin of history?
They aren’t just stupid they are evil to the core.