Religious Activists Attack Popular School Anti-Bias Program
For a decade, millions of students across the country participated in an annual anti-bias program called 鈥淢ix It Up at Lunch Day鈥� without the slightest hint of controversy.聽
For a decade, millions of students across the country participated in an annual anti-bias program called 鈥淢ix It Up at Lunch Day鈥� without the slightest hint of controversy. But that changed last October, when a religious-right organization known for the extreme anti-gay and sometimes racist statements of its key spokesman urged its followers to keep children at home that day because the event promotes a 鈥渉omosexual lifestyle in public schools.鈥�
In an E-mail to its supporters (which the group puts at 2 million), the American Family Association (AFA) claimed the event also was intended to 鈥渋ntimidate and silence students who have a biblical view of homosexuality.鈥�
That鈥檚 the kind of over-the-top, false rhetoric believed to inflame anti-gay sentiment and contribute to violence against the LGBT community. (An Intelligence Report analysis in the Winter 2010 issue found that gay men and lesbians are, by far, the minority group most victimized by violent hate crime.)
In this case, the AFA鈥檚 attack may have backfired.
After an article about the campaign appeared in The New York Times, the AFA鈥檚 director of issue analysis, Bryan Fischer, was widely ridiculed in the media.
Appearing on CNN to explain the group鈥檚 position, Fischer compared 鈥淢ix It Up鈥� to poisoned Halloween candy. 鈥淪omebody takes a candy bar, injects it with cyanide, the label looks fine. It looks innocuous, it looks fine. It鈥檚 not until you internalize it that you realize how toxic it is.鈥�
CNN anchor Carol Costello, clearly exasperated, defended the program as 鈥渟imply a lesson in intolerance.鈥澛�
At one point, Costello noted that Fischer has said gay men were responsible for the Holocaust. In 2010, he wrote, 鈥淗omosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.鈥�
Costello said that, 鈥渂y many people鈥檚 standards, would be hate speech.鈥� A few moments later, she ended the interview as Fischer launched into a rant about health problems affecting LGBT people. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to end this interview now, sir. I鈥檓 sorry because that鈥檚 just not true.鈥�
On Comedy Central, comedian Stephen Colbert got into the act, lampooning the AFA as he pretended to agree with its position on 鈥淢ix it Up at Lunch Day.鈥� 鈥淒on鈥檛 fall for it, kids,鈥� Colbert deadpanned, looking directly into the camera. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a devious plot: Get kids to learn that despite our outward differences, in our hearts we鈥檙e all pretty much the same.鈥�
Actually, on 鈥淢ix It Up,鈥� which is sponsored by the 澳彩开奖鈥檚 Teaching Tolerance program, students are simply asked to sit with someone new in the school cafeteria as a way to break down social barriers that can lead to bullying. The 澳彩开奖 serves as a clearinghouse and provides ideas and free resources, but each school tailors the event to its own needs.
Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello (no relation to Carol) said 3,000 schools took part in 鈥淢ix It Up鈥� on Oct. 30, despite the AFA鈥檚 warning. About 200 schools did cancel the event, but many more than that signed up in the final days, long after the AFA urged action.
As for Fischer鈥檚 theory about 鈥淢ix It Up,鈥� Costello said, 鈥淚t is just a bizarre preoccupation 鈥� you know Bryan Fischer sees the homosexual agenda in a dish of ice cream.鈥�
