I don’t look for these things, I promise. I just seem to stumble upon them … with great frequency. So here’s another one to add to the growing list of legislative absurdities.

This one comes from Tennessee and the mind of state Rep. Stacey Campfield, who apparently is a font of sound ideas. Last week, he filed a bill that, if passed, would prohibit public elementary and middle schools from providing “any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”

Campfield said he threw the proposal into the hopper after learning the National Education Association had approved a resolution recommending sex-ed classes in schools include the diversity of gender identification and sexual orientation issues.

It was apparently too revolutionary for Campfield.

“I think the schools should stick to the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic. And maybe some civics,” Campfield told the Memphis Flyer.

Gee, thanks for including civics into mix. Perhaps, the good lawmaker should brush up more on this subject, since his proposal would infringe on the powers of local school boards, a conflict that did not go unnoticed.

“Why does [Campfield] feel the need to take control of what’s taught in a school system away from local boards of education and away from local communities?” asked Earl Wiman, president of the Tennessee Education Association in the Memphis Flyer.

Of even bigger concern Wiman said, was the alienation the bill could fuel among gay students and their parents. “We have such a high adolescent suicide rate, and a large number of those killing themselves are struggling with sexual orientation.”

I’ll say this for Campfield: if anything he is consistent. A few years back, he proposed issuing death certificates for aborted fetuses and then in 2005 caused a ruckus by equating the state’s Black Caucus to the Ku Klux Klan because they wouldn’t allow him to join because he is white.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor