Senator Stacey Campfield doesn’t want Tennessee teachers to talk to kids about homosexuality. At least that’s what is in his bill that recently passed the senate. What Campfield is really searching for is a bit of airtime and status within the Republican Party. At this point, his primary job seems to be to sponsor bills that have little value other than to celebrate his far right idealism.
Campfield has churned out other great nuggets like a bill that would require the state to issue death certificates for aborted fetuses and a bill that would force women to look at their ultrasounds before ending their pregnancies. He has also supported bills to eliminate pre-kindergarten programs and for the rights of students to carry guns on college campuses. In other words, he has a vision for Tennessee students to be ignorant but armed.
The “don’t say gay” bill might work well if we all lived in Mayberry, but we don’t. Kids have so much access to information and outside influences that there’s no way parents and teachers can keep up. So kids will know regardless if we decide teachers should or shouldn’t talk about homosexuality. The real decision is where do you want the information to come from? But don’t worry about that. I’m sure an older cousin or some stranger online is more qualified to inform your kids than the person who is trained in educating.
Education is a moving train and the kids are on board regardless of who the conductors are. It would be beneficial to everyone if a lecture in tolerance accompanied a kid’s education on the subject, because believe it or not, they have peers who are gay. Campfield wants to deny this but people who are gay are born gay, and kids are learning about sexuality long before we’re comfortable having the discussion.
Campfield has stated that the purpose of the bill is to put the responsibility in the hands of the parents. This might work for some kids, but what about the kids without this resource or the kids whose parents are thick-skulled morons who preach homophobia? The best you could hope for a counterbalance to this idiocy is from a peer, because under Campfield’s bill, a kid who has questions regarding sexuality can’t even go to the guidance counselor for help. “I’m sorry Jimmy; I can’t discuss the feelings you’re having. You’ll have to go speak to your parents and hope they don’t hate other people who have the same feelings.”
Campfield keeps puking out this bill that does nothing for the state of Tennessee except create more government regulation and micromanage teachers. This guy has had almost all of his bills shot down. He’s voted against raising the minimum wage twice and voted not to ban texting while driving. He is virtually useless to any government, but thanks to conservative voters, he keeps collecting a paycheck compliments of the state of Tennessee. We must be masochists to keep electing tools like Stacey Campfield and Bill Ketron who endlessly create waste and embarrass our state every chance they get. While the world is going forward and pushing for tolerance, thanks to representatives like Campfield, Tennessee seems to be stuck in limbo and advocating idiocy.
