Worth Noting - Brief Article

Humanist, Sept, 2000

* Americans United for Separation of Church and State reports that Kansas Republicans went to the polls on August 1, 2000, and rejected two Board of Education members who voted last summer to remove evolution from the state science curriculum. According to AU officials, this sends "a clear and stinging rebuke to the religious right" and demonstrates that "Kansas voters ... don't want a bunch of religious extremists monkeying around with the science curriculum."

* On Monday, July 17, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly defeated an amendment that would have barred the Federal Drug Administration from testing, developing, or approving RU-486. Mifepristone, the abortion-producing pill, is now in the final stages of approval, and the American Humanist Association has joined the Feminist Majority Foundation and other organizations in urging the FDA to see that RU-486 is "expeditiously approved without unnecessarily limiting restrictions that interfere with women's health care, the practice of medicine, and life-saving scientific research."

* Anti-gay referenda will be on the ballot in four states this November. In Oregon, voters face a proposal that would allow public schools to teach material that disparages people on the basis of their sexual orientation. In Michigan, four communities will vote on a referendum that would repeal or prohibit civil rights laws based on sexual orientation, while a fifth community faces an effort to repeal domestic partner benefits for gay public employees. In Nebraska, voters will consider a measure that would prohibit any recognition of same-sex partnerships, ranging from marriage to domestic partner benefits. And in Nevada, a proposed referendum would ban all same-sex marriages. (The state already bans same-sex marriages performed within the state.)

Only one state, Maine, has a pro-gay measure on the ballot. If passed, the state's civil rights would be extended to include sexual orientation.

* June 10, 2000, was officially proclaimed Jesus Day in Texas thanks to a proclamation issued by Governor George W. Bush. In so doing, the presidential aspirant violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

* The 2000 platform of the Texas Republican Party outlines some pretty scary proposals. Dismantling church-state separation, it requests the reinstatement of a chapel in the state capitol, encourages the state legislature to increase participation of faith-based institutions, and pledges to dispel "the myth" of church-state separation. Promoting homophobia, the party opposes the decriminalization of sodomy and the granting of special legal entitlements (domestic partner benefits, retirement benefits, custody of children, and marriage) to same-sex couples. Affirming its pro-life stance, the party endorses an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would extend Fourteenth Amendment protections to fetuses, urges the reversal of Roe v. Wade, supports the appointment and election of pro-life judges, and opposes the use of public funds and facilities for abortion services. Anti-humanist party rhetoric argues that the "religion of secular Humanism" is being taught in public schools through the inclusion of evolution in science curriculum. Therefore the party calls for Bibles and other religious materials to be returned to schools and libraries and for "creation-science" to be taught. Promoting U.S. isolationism, the party supports House Resolution 1146 and argues that it's in the best interest of U.S. citizens to rescind U.S. membership in, and all financial and military support of, the United Nations. The party further demands that Congress ratify no treaty that compromises the sovereignty of U.S. policy or conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, opposes any payment of the U.S. debt to the UN, and urges the removal of the UN flag and emblem from all public and government facilities.