We love you dearly, now here’s a bag to put over your head
The American Humanist Association tried to give the ACLU $20,000 to help pay for the alternate prom in Mississippi, and the ACLU said no thanks, on account of humanism is as we all know a dirty word.
The ACLU then thought better of it, and apologized…but it also asked the AHA to donate (if it donated) anonymously. Quoth the spokesperson:
“If you would still like to contribute we would be thrilled, but I understand if you do not feel comfortable contributing a donation that you will not be recognized for.”
That’s an interesting way of putting it. It’s not really a matter of “feeling comfortable,” surely. It’s a matter of being insulted at being treated like a source of pollution, and disgusted that what is being held at arm’s length with a pained expression in this way is simply not believing in the imaginary deity that lots of people choose to believe in.
‘There’s no reason that our humanism should be treated as something to be hidden,’ said AHA’s executive director Roy Speckhardt. Well quite – and yet it is treated that way, and by the American Civil Liberties Union at that. But we are mocked and reviled when we point out that atheists are a despised scapegoated outsider-group and that all this determined and mendacious crapping on atheists is not a million miles from McCarthyism. Believe me now? Huh? Huh?
I guess Wendy Kaminer wasn’t far from the truth in her comments about the direction being taken by the ACLU. Imagine, the American Civil Liberties Union taking this line!!!! They shouldn’t care about what the baptists in Mississippi think! After all, its about letting a marginalised kid take her girlfriend to a dance! And they are worried about the the atheist image?! And they’re all about civil liberties?! Un-fucking-believable!
I wonder if Ms. McMillen even still wants to attend the alternate prom. At this point, I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. Someone posted a link on my blog to a story alleging that the town’s parents set up another private prom, just for their own students, and simultaneously staged a decoy prom to divert Constance and her girlfriend so they wouldn’t be able to attend the real one.
If I were that young lady, at this point I think I’d just want to put some miles between myself and that cesspool of bigotry as soon as possible. I think that might be the most rational reaction.
ACLU are weenies.
Worse, according to blogs this morning, the “alternate” prom was a ruse. Constance and her date, and 7 other kids. . . no one else showed up because. . .
the parents in the town held a secret prom in a secret location that they kept secret from Constance. . . so they are all big fat cruel perjuring doody-heads, teaching their children/students to be liars and sniveling bigots and the ACLU and the court believed their BS.
cottonmouthblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/nmisscommentator-what-happened-at.html
All of them are just doing what Baby Jesu wants them to do. . . so comforting.
I realize that this is regional or even local news and far away from anyone who lives outside the US, and far far away from most of the US. But here is a later bit of news about the “fake” prom for Constance and the “special needs” students. . .
advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/04/05/ACLU_Investigating_Fake_Prom/
Like other fundamentalist religiosos, these believers are in for a surprise when they pass along to the next world. . . makes me want to believe in afterlives and the Permanent Record
Alternate prom? Bullshit. ONE PROM to rule them all…
And that was after they had already backpedaled and apologized? They claimed that the refusal was an unfortunate error of judgment by a single employee that didn’t reflect the official position of the ACLU. And now they’re reconsidering again, asking the AHA to please only donate anonymously? That’s just crazy. This won’t end here, I’m sure.
@Claire Ramsey: A fake prom? That’s also sad news. But I can’t help but marvel at the difference in empathy shown by the parents and the school on the one hand and McMillen on the other:
I don’t think there is a better way to show how petty the rest of the community is than this.
That’s remarkable fail on the part of ACLU.
Is there more to this? Some desire or constitutional requirement to appear non-partisan? Please?
Hey it’s regional and local and US-centric but I cover lots of local news from places far far away from Mississippi and even the Boston-Washington corridor, so we get to focus on Itawamba county when we want to. It’s all the same damn thing. Leo Igwe’s part of Nigeria, Swat Valley, northern Afghanistan, Yearning for Zion ranch, Itawamba country – it’s all the same damn thing. So thanks for the links, Claire.
It is worth reading the post on the ACLU website as referenced by Deen (http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/aclu-apologizes-american-humanist-association). Taking the ACLU at their word, a local staffer messed up for which the ACLU has apologized. It seems that the ACLU as an organization is handling the incident correctly, much better than Amnesty International has been handling their recent crisis.
So in response to Erin, no the ACLU is not taking this line.
It is astonishing, isn’t it, that the Mooneys of the world still exist, and still tell us (the target of this bigotry) to just tone it down?
Yes, the ACLU did apologize for what its employee said. Good on the ACLU. But it’s damned disturbing that an ACLU employee of any level, let alone one high up enough to be trusted to do official communication with a $20,000 donor, would even think of making the remark that this one did. That does indicate the systemic, deeply rooted nature of anti-atheist bias. This shows two things:
1. Even “enlightened” people are so afraid of the A word that they’ll blithely insult a major donor.
2. They feel socially free to do so candidly, apparently without blushing. To this ACLU employee, it’s apparently so normal and uncontroversial that atheists are to be feared, that she/he didn’t even feel a twinge of social uncomfortability in explaining to the AHA why they wouldn’t take their money. She/he felt free to insult (even if it was unintentional) the AHA, while expecting the AHA to be gracious about accepting the insult. You know, to understand.
I think number 2 disturbs me more.
Apparently “separate but equal” is alive and well in Mississippi.
I think I would either sue or move. Or sue and move. But definitely move as soon as possible.
Appalling.
She would have no grounds to sue, possibly unless it could be demonstrated that government (school) officials were involved in organizing the “real” prom.
By the way, apparently Ellen Degeneres has offered a $30k college scholarship to Ms. McMillen. So that should give a foothold with which to get the hell out of there.
Ha! Yay! A scholarship is the best revenge.