Heterosexism. Yet another label to pin on those not comfortable with the fast-changing sexual landscape of America. The word carries all the more weight when it’s being bandied about by someone with a Ph. D in clinical psychology. And for only a $59 registration fee you can find out how to cure your heterosexism and accept a child’s own definition that they are gay, lesbian, or transgendered. Information about this seminar was sent to me by a friend who became aware of her state’s taxpayer-funded effort to validate the wide array of sexual identities assumed by youngsters in the child welfare system. The workshop was developed to comply with a government mandate to endorse all sexual identity choices (bet you didn’t know there was such an edict), the Foster Care Non-Discrimination Act.
There can be no question that children in the foster care system are a confused lot. I minister to many of them, both current and former members of this population. While there are many genuinely sacrificial foster care parents, some see this system as a cash cow and others, even more unscrupulous, join the system to perpetrate sexual abuse on these wards of the state. As a result of such abuse, and the abuse these unfortunate children may have previously experienced at home, there is understandably a lot of confusion, sexual and otherwise. But the stated purpose of this workshop is to “explore how heterosexism has added pain to young people who are already disadvantaged by virtue of their histories of abuse and neglect.” Once you get past the double-speak the intent is clear. Anyone who might suggest that gender identity confusion is not static and may involve moral components you are a heterosexist. Just another fancy word for a bigot.
Something dangerous is happening in our country run a muck with political correctness. Once the appointed thought-police define a particular belief as unprogressive and hateful, they then come up with a name for it and quickly label the offender. You then become liable for whatever retaliation they wish to enforce. It starts with words, labels, designations and then comes the cultural and legal “pogrom” of persecution. Beware those who like labels and are quick to judge, on either side of the political divide, right or left, gay or straight. Ask the question: Who gave you the prerogative to devise your own definition of what’s right, give the deviancy a name, and then suggest that the labeled individual is defective and their ideas unworthy of consideration?
