Reaction just plain queer

About a decade ago, religious groups and social conservatives were upset because some schools were purchasing the book "Heather Has Two Mommies" for school libraries. They thought the book, which describes the life of a young girl raised by lesbian parents, was immoral and threatening, and they got Congress to block the use of taxpayer funds to buy the book.\nBut that was then. Today, things are different. Now we have "Queer Eye," "Queer as Folk" and "Will and Grace" and everybody is happily diverse and singing "Kumbaya" around the campfire.\n Maybe things aren't so different after all.\n According to the Associated Press, Marcus McLaurin, a second grader in Lafayette, La., recently broke his school's rules against profanity. His transgression? Answering a classmate's question.\n You see, Marcus has two mommies. \n And he said his mother is "gay."\nHis classmate asked what that meant, and, according to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, he explained, "Gay is when a girl likes another girl."\nMarcus' teacher overheard. She sent him to the principal's office. The assistant principal telephoned Marcus' mother, and said that Marcus had been using inappropriate language -- words so foul, he said, that he couldn't repeat them over the telephone.\nThe bad word, of course, was "gay."\nIn a report released by the ACLU and cited by the gay rights publication Advocate.Com, Marcus's teacher described why talking about his mother made Marcus a classroom felon. \n"Marcus decided to explain to another child in his group that his mom is gay. He told the other child that gay is when a girl likes a girl. This kind of discussion is not appropriate in my room," the teacher wrote in Marcus's "behavior report." "I feel that parents should explain things of this nature to their own children in their own way."\nThe classroom is a place of education, but the lessons learned aren't always in the curriculum. What Marcus has been taught by his teacher and his principal is that his mother is doing something shameful, something that he shouldn't discuss with his peers. And his peers have learned that "gay" is a dirty word. It's not too big of a stretch to assume that they'll conclude that being gay is dirty and shameful too.\nWhat a wonderfully tolerant, accepting society we have created in America, where gays and lesbians are free to be homosexual as long as they don't discuss it -- unless they're funny, like Jack on "Will and Grace" allegedly is, or outrageous, like the guys on "Queer Eye."\nYeah. Maybe things aren't so different after all.