Today, Stephen Beaven of the Dead Fish Wrapper manages to kill two birds with one stone: promoting the homosexual agenda and hammering Christians (labeled as "fudamentalists" in the article) in one article, all (of course) under the guise of journalism. This week the Fish Wrapper is doing a series of articles on people "who experienced a big life change this year." The other three articles are on:

• A man who charted dramatic weight loss
• An immigrant who returns to college
• A supermarket manager who became a teacher

Today's article - entitled Lesbian teen sees activism as "my job" - is about a senior at Cleveland High School named Sasha Villareal. Her big change? She's come completely out of the closet this year about being a lesbian. One important point that is continually hammered home is that the evil Christian fundamentalism is something that must be overcome for Sasha to be happy. It only takes seven paragraphs for Beaven start the Christian bashing.

Sasha's been out for a while. But in 2006, she pushed aside the last vestiges of her fundamentalist upbringing and stepped to the forefront of queer youth activism in Oregon.

And the article ends with more of the same.

Which is all right with Sasha. She understands how difficult it is to overcome church teachings. And she realizes the teasing and the questions might continue. She's willing to take it. Up to a point. "I'm OK," Sasha says, "as long as they don't call me a fag."

In between, we get a good description of how that evil fundamentalism works.

Struggling with confusion The Sunday school teachers told her homosexuality was disgusting, a sin punishable by eternal damnation. And Sasha was a kid, so she believed them. Sasha and her three siblings lived with their grandparents in Salem for several years while their parents were in and out of trouble with the law. Twice a week, grandma and grandpa took them to church, where the teachers hammered home the lessons of conservative faith. "I remember them telling us that people who were homosexual would go to hell if they didn't cleanse themselves," Sasha says, "that they were disgusting and basically godless, very low people." When she was 11, Sasha moved to Portland to live with her mother, who is divorced from her father. That's when she started questioning the teachings of her old church.

And here we see how that was "overcome"

Hansen, who is now remarried, has a liberal philosophy about sexuality and a wide circle of gay and lesbian friends. One lesbian couple, in particular, was especially close to the family, coming over for barbecues and movies. Sasha loved them but felt bewildered at the same time. "It made me really confused as to why these people were so 'disgusting,' " she says. "They seemed like really good people to me." About the same time, Sasha began questioning her own sexuality. What followed were several years of silent struggle after she realized she had a crush on her best friend. Ultimately, Sasha decided her Sunday school teachers were wrong.

For those of you who are of the opinion that homosexuality is genetic (I have two words for you; twin studies), this is a classic example of how environment affects homosexuality. Do you really think she would have gone down the same road if her mom didn't live in the homosexual world? Also, I can't help but notice how the word liberal is used as a positive description, while the word "fundamentalist" is used instead of "conservative"? No bias here... But I digress. The second bird, as it were, is the hypocrisy shown by Villareal and Beaven when it comes to the word "queer". If I were to call a gay person queer, I would be accused of homophobia (which, by the way, Villareal's group is out to cure), and many other untrue things. But for some reason, it's okay for gay people to use that word. It's like black people complaining about the "N" word, but then using it themselves. It's nothing but pure hypocrisy. But that's okay when you're a liberal, I guess.