Culture Briefs

Gay lessons

“In California, the state Senate has just passed a bill that would require school children to study the historical ‘role and contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.’ Watch out, Leonardo da Vinci: You’re no longer just an artist, inventor and mathematician — you’re about to become a gay poster boy. …

“[T]he California law requires the insertion of sexual preference into California and American history, even when the information is completely superfluous. Ironically, the label often serves to circumscribe too narrowly the achievements of those to whom it’s applied. Ask yourself: Was Billie Jean King an accomplished tennis player, or an accomplished gay tennis player? Was Cole Porter one of America’s greatest gay composers — or just one of America’s greatest composers? Sometimes, obviously, it isn’t all about sex.

“Time was that the proponents of gay rights insisted both that they were simply ordinary Americans, who live, love, and work just like everyone else. … But now, liberals are requiring that gays, uniquely, be identified, labeled, and studied in accordance with their sexual behavior when it comes to the history books.”

— Carol Platt Liebau, writing on “Textbook Sex,” May 16 in the American Spectator Online at www.spectator.org

Goodbye, America

” ‘It would end the U.S. as we currently know it.’

“That’s Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, speaking of what would happen if an immigration proposal by Sens. Mel Martinez [Florida Republican], and Chuck Hagel [Nebraska Republican], becomes law. …

“If Martinez-Hagel becomes law, Rector says, we can expect ‘the largest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years.’ …

“Immigrant households are about 50 percent more likely to use welfare than native-born households. …

“Then there’s the problem of out-of-wedlock childbearing, which a) correlates strongly with welfare use and b) is more prevalent among foreign-born Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites (42.3 percent vs. 23.4 percent). ‘Children born and raised outside of marriage are seven times more likely to live in poverty than children born and raised by married couples,’ Rector writes.”

— Rebecca Hagelin, writing on “Untying the immigration knot,” May 16 in WorldNetDaily at www.worldnetdaily.com

Clueless

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