Profile in Cowardice: Senator Scott Brown

Hat tip to Know Thy Neighbor for giving me material for my second "Profile in Cowardice." According to Mass Equality's interactive map, Senator Scott Brown supported a ban on this little, lovely thing we call "marriage equality" in the state of Massachusetts. Yet, that's not really why he's joined this list. Oh, no, the reason is far worse: in his quest to become Homophobe Numero Uno, he's co-sponsored a truly heinous bill designed to out glbt students to their parents and prevent gay/straight alliances in schools. According to Chris Mason,

This bill would change the law from opt-out to opt-in. This would mean that any student who would like to attend a meeting of their school's Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) would need a permission slip signed by their parent or guardian.

Yet,

Many of the students that attend GSAs are not out to their parents. This may be because they are not ready to come out, or because their parents would kick them out of the house if they were to come out. The GSA clubs in schools provide a safe place for LGBT students and their allies to meet. These clubs have been proven to reduce the rate of LGBT teen suicide.

Chris also said that he first came out to his gay/straight alliance when he was in high school - and sought the support, personal strength and confidence he needed from them to actually come out to his parents. That's what g/s alliances are all about - providing a place for glbt youth to know that they're perfectly okay, that there's nothing wrong with them and that they should be proud of who they are. I only wish I took advantage of of the g/s alliance back when I was in high school - it probably would have saved several years of anguish and worry about the dreaded "closet."

Of course, there's all kinds of courage - like the courage to bear all on a center fold. Brown had the courage to do that - and now he wants to play the Moral Police. In this little game I like to call Hypocrisy, the first order of business for the moral police is to yell at kids - because, really, there's no better way to treat those rascals.

At the assembly in King Phillip's High School auditorium, State Senator Brown called each student out, one by one, using curse words that every mother would be horrified to hear and would've covered their children's ears if they were there. Above the protests of all the teachers who were aghast at the state Senator's anti-social behavior and foul language, Brown refused
to stop his child-like tirade calling each student out one by one in great pleasure.

Wonkette had even more fun.

Seems that Scott Brown, a Massachusetts state senator who opposes gay marriage, had some
foul language written about him and his daughter (an American Idol contestant) by high school students on the Facebook page of a pro-gay-marriage history teacher. Naturally, he responded the way any mature adult in a position of authority would: by appearing at an assembly at the school that the kids attended and reading aloud their obscenity-laden comments, with their names, while horrified teachers begged him to stop.

Here's what Brown had to say about the incident himself,

"If the kids can write it, the kids can hear it," Brown said Friday. Brown said he left the school Thursday feeling pleased that so many of the students seemed highly engaged in the discussion about divisive issues such as gay marriage. “I felt really good about it. And now I find out I’m being portrayed as a vile-speaking hate-monger. It’s pretty saddening. I feel very badly that I’m being victimized here.

Well, Senator, if you could say it and do it - shouldn't you be able to take it? That's just your logic. Poor Homophobic Senator, afraid of being called bad names... someone please call the waaaa-mbulance.

Oh, yes, this is the very same Senator who is now trying to dictate what students can and can't do at school - the same guy trying to prevent students from joining GSAs. He's the same guy trying to out kids to their parents. The same guy who apparently did porn is now the moral police, trying to hush students away from coming out of the closet.

He's certainly no Profile in Courage; he's a bully. He's a bully and a coward who's afraid of what will happen if students realize it's okay to be out amongst their peers - that they're perfectly normal - before any serious psychological harm can be done. For all these reasons - and more - he's the latest, greatest Profile in Cowardice.