Red State Family Values

The right-wing religious fundamentalist types keep coming up with ever-new ways to heave their agenda onto the public. There was the recent kerfuffle in Texas over school text books and what would be the social studies curriculum for students in the Lonestar State. One of the members of the Texas State Board of Education, Don McLeroy, was on a neo-conservative/creationist bender.

According to the New York Times: McLeroy moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.” The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” Nevertheless, most of McLeroy’s proposed amendments passed by a show of hands. 

McLeroy soon after lost his bid for re-election.

The current bid for Creationist Fascist of the Week comes from Florida state Rep. Stephen Precourt. He's proposing that film and television projects featuring "nontraditional family values" be ineligible to receive tax incentives from the state under a $75 million package that the legislators are hoping will woo productions to the Sunshine State.

Apparently, when Precourt thinks of his home state, he thinks of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show: "That's when I grew up — the '60s. That's what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?"

Dexter family values =  nontraditional.

When I think of Florida, I think of Dexter. And I'm pretty sure Debra Morgan's potty mouth wouldn't pass muster with Precourt. He's certain to find fault in dialogue like, “Holy Mary mother of fuck, that's good.” If not that, then surely Dexter's killing binges will disqualify the show. I wonder about what's his face from CSI: Miami. He should be disqualified just for being annoying, although that's not one of the official taboos.

Here's the Precourt list of prohibitions: Smoking, sex, nudity, profane language, and "obscene" productions as defined by the state's sex crime laws. (Read: homos.)

Florida Family Policy Council President John Stemberger says it straight out that those nontraditional family values means everything from "drug abuse to excessive drunkenness to homosexual families." After all, everyone knows there's no drunkenness in traditional families, right?