GayAmerican.org

Bush administration bullies over words: "Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals"

The thuggery of the Bush Administration marches on through our Great Nation, sadly defended hardly at all by good people who know better. In an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle it was reported that Bush thugs laid heavy on organizers, who they fund, of a conference on suicide prevention amongst lesbian, gay men, bisexual, and transgender individuals entitled "Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals" to change the title to remove the references to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in favor of the "more inclusive" term: sexual orientation.

Then you have to include a discussion on suicide prevention in the heterosexual population as well, don't you? To be true to the title or risk being accused of giving special treatment to the GLBT community. See how easy it is to water down an important conversation?

Conference organizers removed the word, gay. And the word, lesbian. And the word, bisexual. And the words, transgender individuals. They replaced those words with 'vulnerable populations'.

Vulnerable, indeed.

The suggestion was also made to include a session on faith-based suicide prevention.

The thug agency, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, denies any force was involved but as agency spokesman Mark Weber explained, "Well they do need to consider their funding source."

There is a word for compelling someone to do something against their will through force -- changing the name was made at the objection of conference organizer's -- that word is coercion.

When do we stand up?

When do we start hiding?

. . .

A side note. I orginally came across this story in The Oregonian today, but inexplicably the information about the agency's attempt at getting a faith based program into the conference and the spokesman's acknowledgement that organizer's had little choice in making the required change to the conference title "they do need to consider their funding source" was left from the report.

Leaving key facts from a report changes the tenor of this administration's actions considerably.

I expect more from my state's newspaper of record.