c. 1997 Cox News Service
WACO, Texas—A group paraded before city council recently toprotest a public library display that depicted worthwhilecontributions by gays and lesbians in history.
The all-too-common protest was that such an affirmativepresentation ``promotes homosexuality.''
I've always wondered what ``promoting homosexuality'' entailed.Was homosexuality a condition passed through the air like the flu?Could someone see the words ``gay and lesbian'' and suddenly, zap,switch from A/C to D/C?
Well, let's see what happens as I repeat the words.
All I see when I encounter the good folks of the Gay and LesbianAlliance of Central Texas are people who want to be treated withrespect and equality in society's and the law's eyes—nothingmore. Imagine, human beings demanding human rights.
On the other hand, what I see with many so-called conservatives_ and I say ``so-called'' because the last thing they want is aless intrusive government—is people who want us all to wear aone-size-fits-all government-issue garment of their making.
If you're not heterosexual, we'll make it illegal to beotherwise. Is Texas' sodomy law unenforceable law? Of course. Butto repeal it would be to ``promote homosexuality.''
There are so many ways we can fashion one-size-fits-all socialsolutions for you.
For instance, if you don't pray, child, we'll get the governmentto nudge you in paths of righteousness.
If you're a Jew or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Taoist,government will try to fashion a richly meaningfulone-size-fits-all prayer that won't offend you. And if you'reoffended, well, sorry. One size fits all.
On the area of reproductive rights, we see policy- makersconstantly trying to make one size fit all.
Abortion is murder, says the vocal minority that dictates theRepublican Party platform. Of course, abortion also is a medicalnecessity, carried out at every hospital that delivers babies.
The fact is that even Republicans who oppose most abortionscan't figure out how to make one size fit all. What about in casesof rape and incest? (Good question. And who decides if it's beenrape, pray tell?) In cases of medical necessity, who decides?Surely a physician is unfit.
The whole debate over so-called partial birth abortionsdisregards the judgment calls physicians must make to avoidexposing a mother to harm when a non-viable fetus must be aborted.Is it true that so-called ``abortions of convenience'' on healthylate-term fetuses are performed? If so, show us how aone-size-fits-all-ban of a medical procedure can allow physiciansto protect a women's health with that ban.
In the matter of having fewer abortions, one would think theone-size-fits-all chorus would demand sex education and access tocontraceptives for all—anything to prevent unwanted pregnancies.But, oh, no.
Simply uttering the word `` contraception'' would ``promotepromiscuity.'' So, don't broach the word. Simply tell teen-agers todon the cloak of abstinence, for one size fits all.
Meanwhile, just as the one-size-fits-all folks want to dictatematters of reproduction, so do they want to dictate matters ofmarriage.
A bill in Austin would repeal no-fault divorce for parents withchildren under 18, meaning that the lack of love wouldn't sufficeany more. A court would have to find one mate or the other ``atfault.'' As for parents without children, the current 60-daywaiting period would be replaced by a year's waiting period beforea bad marriage could end.
Of course, to suggest that bad marriages shouldn't remain intactwould be to ``promote the breakup of the family.''
The one-size-fits-all chorus has its lines down so well.
(John Young is opinion page editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald.)
c.1997 San Francisco Examiner<
SAN FRANCISCO—If I were an intelligent, committed,anti- abortion activist, I would cringe every time Operation Rescuelaunched yet another offensive in the name of the ``pre-born.''
This headline-driven organization, predominantly male in itsleadership, repeatedly undermines rational dialogue on the abortionissue. Its modus operandus of hate-filled public spectacle servesonly to pervert the life-affirming dignity of thoughtful andreasoned abortion opponents.
Operation Rescue's latest grandstanding action—to bring ``Godback to school''—reached a dangerous level this week. Camped infront of public high schools in 100 U.S. cities, the anti-choicezealots treated teenagers to an Operation Rescue staple: Largecolor placards depicting bloody and dismembered fetuses.
``We have tried the school boards,'' said Operation RescueDirector Flip Benham. ``We have tried the courts. We have tried thelegislators, and now we are going to the schools to take them backand bring them home.''
Note the macho, war-like terminology: Taking back ``theschools'' as if they were villages that belonged to OperationRescue but were lost to enemy invaders.
Indeed, Operation Rescue's tactics have failed to persuadeschool boards, the courts and most legislators to join the group inits patented brand of dictated morality. So, in desperation, O.R.now targets public school adolescents for its graphicwe'll-do-anything-to-save-the-babies visual assaults.
Not surprising, many of the students who were quoted in newsstories about the demonstrations were horrified. One ninth-gradeDenver girl said: ``I think it's just sick to see something likethat. Seeing what those mothers are doing to their babies, it'sjust not something I would do.''
It is extremely likely that if huge color photographs of thebirth process itself were displayed for high school students, agood many would be sickened, and most of the girls would swear itis something they would never do.
Knowing the shock value of their posters—they are not designedto help people think—Operation Rescue officials never own up tothe deceptive manipulation of their propaganda. A reproduced photoof a rare, late-term abortion (or what O.R. says is an abortedfetus) represents all abortion. That most abortions are performedwhen the ``baby'' can be seen only beneath a microscope is a factO.R. refuses to acknowledge.
To Operation Rescuers, the abortion issue is not at all complex.To them, abortion is about unfeeling or phenomenally ignorant womenwho blithely rip off their own babies' arms and legs.
For years, the group has screamed this simple-minded lie outside family planning clinics and throughout the neighborhoods ofphysicians who perform abortions. They have screamed it to schoolboards, legislators and in the courts.
Feeling frustrated at the lack of converts there, they are nowscreaming it to public school students.
Many of these kids will be sickened, shocked, made to cry, givennightmares and inspired to embrace Operation Rescue's simple-mindedlies about abortion.
Nothing could make Operation Rescue happier. Its soldiers arenot fighting for thoughtful, rational, even prayerful decisionmaking. They believe that they own the truth and that their task isto make all the rest of us accept it.
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