Can We Come Together? How Americans Are Trying To Talk Across The Divide
A growing number of organizations are leading Americans in discussions about sensitive political issues. By at least one count, there are more than 200 of these groups nationwide.
Civility is a nice sentiment — but it's harder to put into practice.
Take a contentious debate last year in the Maine House of Representatives over a proposal to ban conversion therapy — a discredited treatment designed to make gay people straight.
Republican state Rep. Roger Reed stood up to oppose the conversion therapy ban, calling it an attempt to "legitimize ... unnatural inclinations."
Immediately, that comment — a verbal attack on LGBTQ people — elicited shouts from members of the Maine House and a rebuke from House Speaker Sara Gideon, who called a 25-minute timeout so everyone could cool down.
In an interview recently, Gideon said that this was just one of several times she has had to call
