From: SECBH@CUNYVM
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Homosexuality & Public Policy - Gas 'em!
Message-ID: <90088.135755SECBH@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: 29 Mar 90 18:57:55 GMT

There have been several related threads going here over the past
couple of weeks: AIDS/Christian Response; Homosexuality; Homosexuality
and Public Policy; The Religious Right.

I don't think that there could be any mistake as to what my opinions
are on each of these issues.  I have stated quite strongly that I
am opposed to any legislation which is primarily justified by
appealing to (anyone's) scriptures.

I have also stated that I feel that the "religious right" is in
my opinion the worst internal threat to freedom and our
constitution since the Civil War,
and any legislation which it promotes is more than
likely to be used for the purposes of rigidly controlling the lives
of the rest of the population and eliminating "sinful" elements.
I see no difference between religiously
inspired fascism and that inspired by history and folklore, their
methods are the same -- the goal is the same.

The news report quoted in part belowis indicative how a law which forbids
teaching the "acceptance of or advocacy of homosexuality as a desirable
or acceptable adjustment or lifestyle" in public schools may be used
to censor history and used to condone by silence mass murder and
human extermination.  In this case, Christian Utah.

The exhibit "The World of Anne Frank, 1928 - 1945" was scheduled to
open in Salt Lake City on March 25th.  The exhibit is the property of
The Anne Frank Center in NYC and has been shown across the country
and the world.  Grayson Covil is the Executive Director of the Center.

"Covil said she was dismayed when she heard that material dealing with
the treatment of gays in Nazi German had been deleted by the exhibit's
coporate sponsor from informatin given teachers and guides....

"Officials at Orem-based Geneva Steel said they removed the three-page
article at the insistence of the state Office of Education, which was
concerned the material violated a state law prohibiting the
"promotion of homosexuality" in schools.

"School Superintendent James Moss said the board issued only a warning
and the deletions resulted from a misunderstanding.

"'We've never had anybody even mention concerns about references to
homosexuality',she (Covil) said....She said there is a single reference
to gays, contained in a caption in the 79-panel, 600 photograph
exhibit.

"The deleted material on gays has been restored for teachers, however
whether they can teach it remains in question.

Geneva Steel officials said they had interpreted the warning as an edict
and removed a three-age article, "The Fate of Homosexuals Under Nazi
Rule."  (From the accompanying literature.)

"Geneva spokeswoman Mary Kay Lazarus said a company representative
was told the section should be removed.

"'We were specifically told never to mention the homosexuals,' said
Geneva employee, Kathy Bryson."

Moss was quoted as saying "Homosexuality is not a major feature of
the Holocaust."  He later claimed he had been quoted out of context.

The article goes on to say, "It has been estimated that somewhere
between 250,000 and 500,000 gays were systematically rounded up
and exterminated--often through bizarre medical experiments--
during the Nazi-run holocaust."

I have deleted material which commented on wrangling over restoring
the deleted material and would anyone dare use it, and the moves
by groups protesting this action.

The excerpts come from a weekly Boston newspaper, Bay Windows, the
issue is dated March 15 - 21, 1990.

I have not seen the literature, but I would find it very difficult to
believe that The Anne Frank Center has devoted three pages to
promoting homosexuality. Their concern is the Holocaust and education
to prevent a climate which makes mass extermination acceptable.

Are these state officials bankrupt of caring?

What is Utah's reasoning?  Telling about the mass murder of
people because of their sexual orientation is promotion of that
orientation...is that it?  Are these people less dead than the
murdered Jews, Poles, Russians, Germans, etc.?  Were their lives
worth less because they were homosexual?  Is it less of a crime to
torture and gas homosexuals?  Is the extermination of homosexuals
not the same as the extermination of other human beings?  Is it
not a viscious perversion?

Not in Utah!  And not for the fascists of the Religious Right.
A lot of Christians better wake up and speak up...........otherwise
you are going to find that when the righteous and the holy come
for you there isn't going to be anyone speaking up.  Evidently we
haven't learned that one yet.  So, it begins again.

This incident speaks eloquently for the religious right and its
intentions.

Behind the religious right's 'God of Love" mask the same Death's Head
is leering as was pinned on the caps of the SS.

Jack Carroll
City University of New York