Ugh, this debate has been dragged so far from the original point. The purpose of this law is not to protect any students from bullying, nor is it in place to ensure that Tennessee remains a bastion of high quality education (read as much sarcasm into that phrase as you feel is appropriate). The purpose of the law is to preserve outdated conservative ideals on modern social issues, and to deprive students of vital information regarding sexuality so as to "protect" them from growing up. Some people may have been led to agree with this law on that basis, but that's not actually why it exists. If the law were actually about keeping irrelevant social debate out of the classroom, why not just ban discussion of any controversial social issue including abortion, foreign policy decisions, the bailout, the president, 9/11 or religion?
The fact of the matter is, Tennessee lawmakers don't want kids being taught that homosexuality is OK. They can't stop the parents from teaching their kids that, but by god, teachers are fair game.

Ban him! Ban him! Ban him! Everyone join the chant!

exactly what mafia said

It wasn't so much dragged as evolved to grow beyond the original scope. I think we all agree (well, maple excluded) that Tennessee is even more backwoods than Kentucky and that the purpose of this bill is nefarious and obviously would not stand up to Constitutional muster. I must also point out it isn't a law yet, just a bill which should, and probably will fail to be voted into law.

"No public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material
that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality."

They should have stopped after the word "orientation" and it would be much less controversial.

Here is the link tot he PDF of the whole bill as it passed the Tennessee senate.

http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/107/Amend/SA0312.pdf

Wait, it passed the Senate? Doesn't it just need to be signed into law then?

let them do it, on Tuesday the ACLU will fund a teacher to walk into a 3rd grade classroom and talk about Timmy and his two daddies, and it will be Scopes part 2

I hope you're right. Sounds dramatic.

No, it needs to pass the house and then be signed into law. And it only passed the senate 5-4.

wasn't called the trial of the century for nothing

And the house isn't scheduled to consider it until 2012.

And then the governor needs to sign it.

I'll buy as button. I think George has a great sense of humor.

??? I must have missed something. Who's George?

George Takei...

George Takei. The guy who played Sulu on the original star trek. Who recorded a PSA about the "Don't say gay bill", that actually was the OP of this thread.

but what will we do when they pass the "dont say takei" bill?

Then there'll be an uproar. The pro Star Trek lobby is actually very powerful.

Oops, forgot about that part of the original post.

Fag-Naur posted, ..."I'll back the banning of maple."
##############################################################
Really? That's a surprise, cocksucker.

you sicken me

Cool, Siccy. If you barf, then you get a FREE LUNCH!!!

Win-win.

I get that you're being inflammatory just to get a rise out of people, but you have been this sites resident jackass bigot since I first joined this site, some years ago. Don't you ever get tired of it? It's not like you're the vanguard of homophobic abuse, trust me, we'll still get called fags etc. even if its not you.

Don't feed the troll.

@ Siccy Baby - You're making me feel bad about myself.<sniffle> That's politically incorrect. Shame on you.

@Sic - Don't waste your breath ...er... energy. Ignore maple and your life will be much better off.

Well, Fag-Naur, you're certainly a testament to that.

ROTFLMFAO copter..........

pushing 50 *shakes head*

What's with the ageism, jew-boy? That's also politically incorrect.

I call upon the moderators to ban Clauso-kike, obiwan-repeat, Fag-Naur, and Hiawatha for hurting my feelings.

<sniffle...>