Claims of program’s ‘homosexual agenda’ false, hamper promotion of tolerance
Picture a typical American school’s cafeteria at lunchtime. Once a student enters the room, or maybe once a student buys his or her lunch, that student is faced with a dilemma: Who, exactly, do I sit with? More often than not, students tend to sit with those they feel are most similar to themselves, be it by personality, socioeconomic status, race, gender or some other trait. While this seems innocuous, self-segregation is harmful for several reasons. It closes off people from one another and breeds close-mindedness. This can be linked to the formation of cliques and the overall spread of the bullying epidemic.
In order to combat this, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) created a program 11 years ago to help students branch out and meet new people they otherwise wouldn’t have. “Mix It Up at Lunch Day” is an annual, nationwide event on Oct. 30 that literally “mixes up” students at lunch. Instead of sitting at his or her usual table, a student whose school participates would sit and interact with a different group of fellow students. This helps to breed not only tolerance of others among students, but school unity and maybe even lifelong friendships as well.
There is absolutely no way one can be against a program created to instill tolerance or unity, right? Wrong. The American Family Association (AFA), an organization that is coincidentally considered a hate group by the SPLC, has been campaigning to fight this wonderful initiative. They say the program promotes a “homosexual agenda” and urges kids to believe there’s nothing wrong with being gay.
While “Mix It Up” Day is not a gay-centric event, it emphasizes tolerance and understanding of all people, as it rightly should. It does not promote the mythical “homosexual agenda” like the AFA claims, but it does help to break down troubling thoughts about not only gay people, but people of all different shapes, sizes and colors. When you boil down the argument of those against “Mix It Up” Day, they’re basically saying being tolerant or even accepting of people different from you is bad. Instead of confronting our own ignorance and misguided fears, we should just stay home and ignore anyone or anything that upsets us.
In fact, the group has encouraged parents to take their children out of school on Oct. 30 and voice their complaints about the program to school administration. The group has also “bullied” its way by getting some 200 schools to withdraw from the “Mix It Up” Day program. Actions such as these are exactly the kind of bullying that “Mix It Up” Day tries to prevent and stop.
It is a sad day in America when one cannot promote peace and tolerance in schools. The actions of AFA are not only deplorable, but downright un-American.
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