Crack, Crack There Goes My Faith
I never thought I would be obligated to make this claim, but, in the best tradition of my misguided liberal friends, I Am a Victim. I Am a Victim of virtuous gay and lesbian leaders. They have spent the past twenty-four years begging me to believe. So, I believed. They said that all they wished for was to be treated the same way I am. As gays and lesbians, they merely wanted to know what it felt like when regular people stand before a class of students or prance down Hollywood Boulevard wearing only a day-glo orange diaper, black high heels and a smile. I digress.
Last Thursday, all but three of the wise gentleladies and gentlemen of the Democratic Party of the state Senate backed a historic vote. The bill they backed would force California public schools to teach about the “role and contributions” of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders as they relate to the “economic, political, and social development” of our state and country. The three Democrats with the decency to demur were Dean Florenz of Shafter, Denise Ducheny of San Diego and Michael Machado of Linden. All should shoot to the top of your Christmas card list. Common sense being a Republican birthright, all Senate Republicans soberly opposed the nonsensical bill.
See if You Can Picture This
For those who may have tried to cast their eyes downward while reading the following day’s account in the Los Angeles Times, the story was enhanced by a three-column photo of the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). Naturally, Ms. Kuehl, who is gay, was hugging or being hugged by a woman. Just like the rehab crowd at the Times, the Democrats in Sacramento have a specialist — with life experience — for every cause, no matter how eccentric. A sappy, sour-faced sob sister such as Ms. Kuehl barely stands out in Sacramento, a town breathing hot with she-men and he-women.
The Cool Ms. Kuehl’s Cool Goal
Researchers say that last week’s vote by Senate Democrats was an American first. Somebody out there in Newspaperland, please help me to understand the peculiar state of mind of a depressed, angry woman such as Ms. Kuehl. Singlehandedly, she may be responsible for creating more sparks of bigotry against intimidating gay activists than any contemporary legislator. After her first round victory, Ms. Kuehl explained her mission. The purpose of her bill, she said, was to help non-gays “shape attitudes of what gays really are like.” An honorable desire, it is of course an overweight fib.
Her objective is to saturate, to thoroughly indoctrinate, our society with beliefs of her most militant colleagues so that the thinking and the lifestyles become interchangeable, indistinguishable. By golly, search as they could, the eminently fair, scholarly journalists at the Times were unable to smoke out even an insect-sized flaw in Ms. Kuehl’s brilliant formulation. Maybe they still were worked up emotionally. Last Friday morning, a group of the boys and girls at the Times attended a funeral that effectively buried the newspaper’s scantiest attempt at any further objectivity. To celebrate the funeral, the struggling Times reporter in Sacramento, one Jordan Rau, squeezed two sentences from a critic of the bill into a twenty-two paragraph story. She quoted the second most obscure person in Sacramento.
Unlike other state capitals that are central to the thinking of residents, Sacramento appears to be less than incidental to the radar of most Californians. It is seen as an out-of-the-way little community unworthy of serious concentration. Meanwhile, Ms. Kuehl, California’s first openly gay legislator, cruises down a streamlined, five-lane legislative highway, merrily unimpeded. Whether for reasons of political correctness or liberal dogma, she attracts less criticism than a saintly parent on his or her deathbed.
Ms. Kuehl and her friends can’t get their stories straight, among other things. Their I-Am-a-Victim Brigade is working overtime trying to figuring out what they believe this week. They used to tell us it was bigoted of non-gay people to point out their gayness. Now it is bigoted of non-gay people not to remind the world of their gayness. What lies ahead for next week?
Postscript
In a polemical world, Ms. Kuehl is essaying an extraordinary accomplishment. With only scattered minority Republicans in her path, the old girl is in the process of turning California curricula upside down. Emboldened by a like-thinking majority in both houses of the Legislature — preoccupied with rights for illegal immigrants — and by an uncritical media — preoccupied by mirrors — Ms. Kuehl’s lie will repose on the floor forever, untouched.