From the January 2 issue of the Louisville Courier-Journal.
By Andrew Walker
There are few worse titles to be accused of than a “bully” in today’s culture. On the surface, eradicating bullying seems a noble, if not obvious, task. But the carelessness of anti-bullying crusaders has reduced the word to little more than a political weapon meant to exact its own form of intimidation. “Bullying” is the latest word to fall victim to the suffocating aura of political correctness.
With the Kentucky General Assembly set to begin in January, a few select legislators and activists will be pushing for expanding the definition of bullying to include the categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The law will do little more than codify the politically correct lexicon of a special interest group.
At the behest of a few of these groups and Frankfort’s most liberal legislators, the law will have the practical result of the religious or moral objections to homosexuality being turned, by legislative fiat, into a crime. By a wave of the legislative hand, deeply held beliefs could be transformed into conduct punishable by law.
If your child has the temerity to commit such thought crimes and to express them, he or she could be in danger of being labeled a bully — a potential misdemeanor.
If it was the prevention of bullying that was the real goal for these groups, they would not be proposing a new law. Bullying has already been prohibited.
In 2008, the General Assembly passed “The Golden Rule Act,” a bill that calls upon students to treat each of their peers — regardless of any particular distinguishing characteristic — with kindness and respect, the pillars of civility. This bill also defined what constitutes bullying and set forth reporting standards and repercussions. Third-party rating organizations, such as BullyPolice.org, give Kentucky’s current anti-bullying law an “A++” rating.
The only thing the new law would do is to ensconce the politics of divisiveness into our statute. But we do not need to make our laws into a manifesto to identity politics in order to prevent bullying. All it requires is the application of something that has been a trustworthy guide to relationships for centuries.
And that has already been done. We passed a bullying bill. Now we need only decide whether we want to play politics with the issue.
Laws need not cater to specific groups in order to affirm their innate worth. No one can possibly justify bullying of any sort against any person. But neither should the force of law accommodate legislation that is sloppily conceived or that invites the subtle eroding of free speech and religious liberty. Anti-bullying legislation which masquerades as gay rights legislation only serves to strong-arm and stigmatize students who may not agree with gay rights groups. All the new bill would do is institute the tyranny of tolerance — tolerance, that is, as it is defined by special interest political groups.
Turning our laws into a platform for someone’s political agenda and encouraging disrespect for those whose opinions on sensitive issues don’t agree with the politically correct dogmas of a few activist groups does nothing but detract from the effort to stamp out bullying.
The bullying law now on the books is a good one — one that promotes respect, not disrespect. We ought to enforce it.








