A group of nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers is threatening to pull state funding from an Iowa community college unless they defund an anti-bullying program that the lawmakers say bullies Christians and conservatives. Posted on 03/29/2013 12:22:45 PM PDT by Kaslin
A group of nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers is threatening to pull state funding from an Iowa community college unless they defund an anti-bullying program that the lawmakers say bullies Christians and conservatives.
The Des Moines Area Community College is one of several sponsors of the Iowa Governors Conference on LGBTQ Youth – scheduled to be held next week. The program was founded by Iowa Safe Schools.
The college’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter filed a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered that tax and tuition dollars were being used to cover the costs.
“It’s outrageous,” said Jake Dagel, chairman of the YAF chapter at the college. “My school has decided to use the money that I funded them – to go out and fund an event that’s bullying people with my beliefs.”
Dagel took issue with several of the workshops being offered at the conference – and said they were anti-Christian and anti-conservative.
“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Right Wing?” is the title of one workshop.
“Learn messages and methods to fight back against propaganda from the extreme right-wing, from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to Bob Vander Plaats and Jan Mickelson,” read the workshop’s description.
Vander Plaats is president of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based socially conservative organization. Mickelson is a talk radio host at WHO in Des Moines.
A workshop about LGBTQ and the Bible ponders questions like, “Is the Bible an excuse to hate?” and “Can the love between two people ever be an abomination?”
“I have a problem because they are using taxpayer funds to bully people at an anti-bullying conference,” Dagel told Fox News.
Republican lawmakers released a statement denouncing the use of taxpayer funds to support the conference.
“We cannot in good conscience vote to give taxpayer dollars to people or groups who pervert the Bible, teach our youth to engage in dangerous behavior, and target individuals like Jan Mickelson for hatred and bullying,” their statement read.
The lawmakers vowed to vote against funding the community college unless they pull tax dollars from the LGBTQ conference.
Rob Denson, president of the college, told Fox News he will not withdraw funding from the event.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “All I know is the intent of Iowa Safe Schools is to support diversity and protect children.”
Denson confirmed they are sponsoring 50 students so they can attend the conference – costing $1,000.
“We want to make this conference available to a certain number of our students that might not otherwise be able to go,” he said. “As a community college we have many students who represent many of the different categories and we are supportive of all of them.”
Denson said the college’s diversity commission signed off on the contribution.
“We respect everyone’s right to live the life they want to live,” he said.
But Dagel questioned whether Christians or conservatives would be welcomed at the event.
“Being a Christian or a conservative – you would feel like an outcast,” he said. “This is not diversity. Any organization or event that targets individuals is absolutely not diverse.”
President Denson refuted that suggestion – and said the conference “promotes diversity and opposes bullying or any behavior toward diverse populations that is unfair, inappropriate or illegal.”
So what about the conferences targeting conservatives and Christians?
“We don’t have enough information to know that those titles are anything more than attention getters,” he said.”You try to put a title on a conference that develops interest.”
An Iowa Safe Schools spokesperson did not return calls seeking comment.
DEFUND IT! We have got to start doing this in every single case. In fact, defund the entire school unless the people behind this are fired. GROW A F*CKING BACKBONE, CONSERVATIVES!
Extra points for anyone who knows what “Q” stands for in “LGBTQ”!
Any questions?
Defund it and start giving the libs a dose of their own meds for a change! Shine a huge honking media spotlight on what is happening; start the publicity campaign and stop these thinly-veiled gay-sponsored hate fests from being funded by taxpayer money. If they want to host such events, they have to fund it themselves. Fair is fair.
The Left feels secure in being blatant about their agenda now. Expect more 'in your face'-type stuff.
That won't happen until they are being marched to the guillotines, and maybe not even then...
Queer
“We don’t have enough information to know that those titles are anything more than attention getters,” he said.”You try to put a title on a conference that develops interest.”
More dissembling from a typical liberal hack administrator.
So tired of this bullying nonsense.
When I went to school we had a few bullies. Couple of guys would get together give the bully an education and that ended the problem.
I've been told that it means "Questioning", as in still undecided whether to be gay or straight. (In other words, a prime recruitment target.)
Questioning
If the Iowa Republican legislators don’t follow through on their threat to withdraw funding from this community college run by a defiant president, Rob Denson, who is obviously confident he can call the lawmakers bluff with impunity, then they should just admit that taxpayer funded colleges can indoctrinate our children with communist propaganda and have no fear of reprisals from jelly-spine GOP legislators who talk a good game but fold up when opposed by a snotty leftist academic.
Better still, bill the organizers, the guys who signed off on spending public money to support this Moonbat propaganda orgy -- and if they don't pay up, fire them instantly "for cause".
It stands for "questioning".
This is how you fight leftists. Get in their faces and take away their cash.
That is anti bullying in a nutshell.
"Diversity" can not be reformed guys.
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One of the legislators is my rep. I can assure you that he will follow through.
The GOP leadership? Hah.
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