The selection of Chaz Bono as a contestant has certainly generated a lot of buzz about the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, Chaz underwent female-to-male gender transition a few years ago. For the totally clueless, his parents are Sonny Bono and Cher.

Conservative religious groups like One Million Moms (an affiliate of the American Family Association, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group) are asking like-minded thinkers(a term I use loosely here) to boycott the show. Apparently, they’re afraid that seeing a transgendered person on television will cause their child to become dissatisfied with his or her current gender. Never mind the message of intolerance the moms are sending to their little darlings.

As an aside, it’s important to note that the very tactics employed by groups like One Million Moms, when employed by their opponents, are labeled as oppressive and intolerant. Gay boycotts of Chick Fil A and Target for providing funding to ultra-conservative Christian groups and individuals is shameful, but they can boycott whoever they want. They seem to think freedom of speech only applies to them.

Religious freedom is another area they really don’t support. They hate Muslims, and in many states, have pushed for laws that prohibit sharia–a theocracy dictated by Islam and Muslim religious texts. Is this any different from calls for biblically-based laws banning gay marriage in this country? Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

But I digress…

One Million Moms is also calling for a boycott of Glee. According to their website, the show:

is full of graphic sexual themes involving high school students, casual drug use and teens who lie and manipulate to get what they want. And to be politically correct, they also had a homosexual student “come out” last season.

Never mind that the statement is a horrible way to characterize a popular show that promotes equality and tolerance. Sounds to me like another case of the pot calling the kettle black. Telling lies and manipulating to get what they want is the way these so-called Christian hate groups operate.

Years ago, many Christians united under the banner of the moral majority. Those days are over. Nearly all my Christian friends (no, I don’t require my friends to think or act the way I do) love Glee, support equal rights for gays, and if they’re Dancing with the Stars fans, will continue to watch the show. Many also value and appreciate religious freedom and the need for the separation of church and state.

What we hear now are the last cries of an out-of-touch lunatic fringe. Their beliefs are dictated by ignorance, fear, and a profound lack of empathy or compassion. In addition to the lies, distortions, and manipulations for which they are well known, they have until now gotten their way by bullying and outshouting other voices.

Young people, by and large, pay these extremists little or no attention. When the current crop of right-wing extremists finally die off, and most will over the next tent to twenty years, the world will be a better place.  Maybe then our politicians will deal with real issues instead of social issues about what goes on behind closed doors here in…

My Glass House