The AP has a fascinating story today, 5 years on, gay marriage debate fades in Mass.
Its point is that gay marriage is receiving wide acceptance in Massachussetts. What intrigues me, though, is the following part of the article:
[Kris] Mineau [of the Massachussetts Family Institute] also said religious liberty is at risk in Massachusetts, and cited the example of Catholic Charities of Boston, which stopped providing adoption services in 2006 because state law required it to consider same-sex parents when looking for adoptive homes.
At Boston College, one of the nation's leading Catholic universities, law professor Scott FitzGibbon said legalization of same-sex marriage also has created friction in the public school system and exposed students to "indoctrination".
Statewide, there is no mandate that schools teach about same-sex marriage, but FitzGibbon said he was troubled by some local districts' policies. Citing a 2004 anti-bias directive in Boston, he said a teacher there could risk his or her career "by encouraging an examination of the cons as well as the pros of same-sex marriage."
FitzGibbon also said many parents had been troubled by the Goodridge case.
"Same-sex programs lead on almost inevitably to a situation of discord and tension between teachers and school officials, on the one hand, and those numerous parents who adhere to ethical beliefs and belong to religious communities which disfavor those practices."
One such couple, David and Tonia Parker of Lexington, have withdrawn their two sons from public school and are now homeschooling them after a lengthy confrontation with school officials.
Parker objected in 2005 when his youngest son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. He was later arrested for refusing to leave the school after officials wouldn't agree to notify him when homosexuality was discussed in his son's class.
The Parkers filed an unsuccessful lawsuit contending that school administrators violated a state law requiring that parents get a chance to exempt their children from sex-education curriculum. School officials said the books didn't focus on sex education, and merely depicted various families.
"Parental rights lost out in a big way — the right of parents to oversee the moral upbringing of their own children," said Parker. "The judges are trying to force the government to affirm, embrace and celebrate gay marriage."
Catholic Charities must support homosexuality in order to provide adoption services? Teachers can lose their jobs in Massachussetts for giving the pro's and con's of gay marriage? Children are indoctrinated to see the homosexual lifestyle as legitimate, even if such a view contradicts their or their parents' religious beliefs? That is horrible! Homosexuals often have told me that it wouldn't come to this, that the state recognizing gay marriage wouldn't force Christian conservatives to embrace homosexuality. Well, in Massachussetts, acceptance of the gay lifestyle is apparently being shoved down people's throats!