Warning: lesbian nurses

BY NOREEN FAGAN –
Just when you think the religious rightwing nuts can’t get any nuttier . . . they do.

The latest nut case is Linda Harvey,
founder of Mission America, a Christian pro-family organization that tracks
“current cultural issues” — issues like homosexuality, neopaganism and
witchcraft.

The Huffington Post reports that in her weekly radio show Harvey preached about the
Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Advocates Representing Gay Employees. Her
concern was that the group participated in scandalous events such as Pride and a
health expo on adolescent health, wore rainbow pins and were worried about same-sex

partner benefits (or the lack of them).

She then asked her listeners a scary question: “Do you think these folks provide good role modelling at a
time when your child is very vulnerable? [Let’s] say your 11-year-old has
broken her leg rather badly and needs to be in the hospital a few days. Which
would you prefer: a nurse who’s proud of her lesbianism, who has rainbow
identifiers on her work clothing, or a nurse who does not?”

What?

Harvey continued in the
same vein, saying, “Folks involved in these behaviours can be certainly competent
workers, but they are tacking on to their workplace identity one that is highly
offensive to many people and can be erroneously influential to children, who
won’t, or shouldn’t, see the whole picture of how this behaviour really
manifests itself.”

Wow, who knew that a
nurse in a brightly coloured uniform could be such a bad influence? I didn’t. Most parents I know with children would not rush out of a hospital if a nurse pitched up wearing a rainbow
flag. Then again, I am a lesbian and most of the parents I know are same-sex
couples. So there goes that theory.

So what about the
homophobic parents? Well, lucky for them, Harvey did not just throw some scare
tactics their way; she followed them up with some insane advice — select your
pediatrician carefully.

“There are a few homosexual doctors treating
kids. There are far more nurses, LPNs, technicians and other healthcare
workers in these lifestyles, so you may want to consider writing a letter that
you file with your pediatrician that should your child ever be hospitalized,

you do not want your child to be treated or cared for by one of these members
of the Children’s Hospital gay employees group, except in the case of an
emergency situation. But for routine in-hospital care where contact with your
child would be required, your values should be respected.”

Hmm, I am pretty sure there are some people
out there who will believe she is speaking a modicum of truth, but would they
believe her latest anti-Halloween rant?

Here’s an excerpt: “In my agnostic life before I knew
the Lord, I loved Halloween. And even after I first became a believer, I had no
intention of giving it up — I didn’t want to be a weird fundamentalist. But
when I researched the origins and current celebration of Halloween, I was
convicted in my heart, and it boiled down to this: is it loyal to Jesus to
participate in this event? If you’re married, it’s not appropriate to date
someone other than your spouse, and it isn’t appropriate for the bride of Christ
to observe a holiday founded on the priorities of our spiritual enemy.”

Happy Halloween.