Response to Paul Summers

A while back Stephanie Perkins, a friend of mine who is now the regional director for the gay rights group PROMO, asked me to pen a response to a letter that got posted in the Springfield News-Leader by Paul Summers. His letter was about upcoming legislation here in Missouri that would bring greater opposition to the bullying of lgbt teens in public schools.

I didn't think that my response would get posted, since they wanted it cut down much further than I possibly could and still keep all the ideas in line, but they did.

Of course, some of the more pious members of rural Springfield are out in force in the comments section talking about what an evil, terrible, person I am. Almost all of them are tossing out the same complaint that Summers did about how the bill should be inclusive of more groups than just gays; an argument I addressed in my letter. I had pondered just copy/pasting an excerpt from the text of the bill, which it seems I should have:

"Bullying that is reasonably perceived as being motivated by actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation as defined in section 557.035, RSMo, intellectual ability, physical appearance, or a mental, physical or sensory disability or disorder; or on the basis of association with others identified by these categories; is prohibited."

These people have not even read the blasted thing. They are just swinging their bible blindly in the dark hoping to thump something that isn't there.

There is no argument, no matter how air tight, that could dissuade these people, because their moral ideas are derived from beliefs that are immune to any conceivable challenge from the world of evidence. Such is the danger of allowing people to become comfortable believing crazy things.