An Attic Full of Wingnuts
What attic does Jeb go to to find these wingnut freaks he populates Florida government with? I mean, when you pull back the layer of insulation and hear the scurrying scratches and see the droppings, you just know there¹s a Jeb appointee in there somewhere.
Latest case: one Cecilia Burke, whom the world’s most cynical and swarmy governor placed on the Pinellas County (St. Petersburg) Juvenile Welfare Board. Her remarks, equating homosexuals to pedophiles, offended everyone who isn’t a like-minded nut case. According to AP in the Miami Herald,
Cecilia Burke, who was appointed to the children’s advocacy board of directors by Gov. Jeb Bush, made her statements in a memo Feb. 7 asking the board to sever ties with the support groups Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education NetworkŠ Burke’s memo also said the groups support “unhealthy sexual practices among youth.” She cited maintaining relationships with these groups as a reason to deny the juvenile welfare board’s director, Jim Mills, a raise. That move failed.
St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler represents the rest of us:
But as for this constant attempt to equate all gay people with child molesters: At the very best, it is based in lack of knowledge; at the worst, something much darker.”
“And yet, some (not all, but some) gay-rights opponents try to work “homosexual” and “pedophile” into the same sentence.
Hence a 2002 speech by the then-president of the Southern Baptists condemning “the pornographer, the adulterer, the homosexual, the pedophile, the abortionist.”
Among the groups calling for an apology from Burke are Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). I’m not holding my breath.
