The war on the queer community in this country continues. The latest casualties: beloved American icon Dolly Parton and iconic pop star Miley Cyrus.
The first-grade class at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha, Wisconsin was planning on singing Rainbowland, a 2017 duet recorded by the two superstars. However, the administration had different ideas. The song celebrating acceptance was banned from the concert because you know rainbows are evil and gay. That’s not the official reason but we know why. You can’t make this shit up.
NEW BAN from the Christian Taliban: Wisconsin officials are banning the song Rainbowland from Dolly Parton & Miley Cyrus from a 1st-grade concert.
But the song isn’t about being in drag. Or being gay.
Once you read the lyrics, you will see exactly how fascist this move is👇… pic.twitter.com/AzzGJTRp2J
— Larry Huynh (@larryhuynh) March 26, 2023
First-grade dual language teacher Melissa Tempel spoke to USA Today about the banning saying, “We just really feel bad because the kids were excited about it. It’s just really confusing. … It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s such a fun song and they just immediately took to it.” Tempel is a Nationally Board Certified teacher with over 20 years of experience.
When asked about the reasons behind the banning Tempel is just as stumped as the rest of us with common sense explaining, “I really don’t know. There’s so many different things it could be. We do have a controversial content policy within our district. And it’s a little bit vague. So it’s hard to know exactly what the district would say is controversial.” Talk then centered on Cyrus possibly being the issue and the confused educator said
“Musical artists often do things that are very controversial. So that would be a really strange way to approach the controversial topic. How would you sing pretty much any song? Everybody’s got something in their past that might be controversial.”
My first graders were so excited to sing Rainbowland for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end? @waukeshaschools @DollyParton @MileyCyrus @mileyworld @gsafewi @CivilRights #publicschools pic.twitter.com/8Na0nETmDw
— Maestra Melissa (@melissatempel) March 21, 2023
Jim Sebert, the Superintendent for the Waukesha School District, explained why Rainbowland was axed telling the Journal Sentinel, “It was determined that ‘Rainbowland’ could be perceived as controversial.” Other words thrown around in this discussion include “appropriate for age“, “maturity” and “personal impacts.” All code for we don’t want to expose our kids to anything queer. I am guessing Sebert voted Republican in the last election.
Who are they gonna ban next? The Muppets? Guess what, they already have. Also axed from the concert set list – the beloved Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie. Rainbows are public enemy number one in Wisconsin. Assault Weapons, are perfectly fine though. How did we get to this place?
Today a school in Wisconsin banned students from singing the song “Rainbowland” by @MileyCyrus & @DollyParton.
The so-called inappropriate lyrics are:
🎵”Wouldn’t it be nice to live in paradise.”
“Where we’re free to be exactly who we are.”🎵What’s next?
Banning the Muppets?… pic.twitter.com/1wv3RjIRei
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👩💻 (@LongTimeHistory) March 24, 2023
The Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet “Rainbowland” has been deemed controversial by a Wisconsin elementary school, where the track has just been banned from a spring concert. 🙄 Is it me or are Republicans taking this shit too far??? pic.twitter.com/kbJjr2Cg1R
— MP Arizona☀️🏳️🌈💙🌵🐕🐕🦺🫂💦🏜🐟🌴🎙🌎🌻♍️🌊 (@AzPetrich) March 26, 2023
Me currently listening to the controversial Rainbowland 🤭🤭 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 https://t.co/kz8Oo1e7hz pic.twitter.com/4w8mLEq8mM
— Miley Cyrus ❤❤❤ (@MCyrus922) March 25, 2023
(**this post is solely the opinion of this contributing writer and may not reflect the opinion of other writers and may not reflect the opinion of other writers, staff or owners of Instinct Magazine.)
Source: USA Today
Please remind me… why were those billions (trillions?) spent and thousands of lives lost fighting religious fanatics in Afghanistan?
“99% of the world are fools and the rest of us are in danger of contamination.” Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker
Thornton Wilder was a gay writer from Wisconsin!