Gay Holiday's in November?

[Act0r721]

re: Gay Holiday's in November?#15

Posted: 10/20/05 at 1:08am

Update:

For any of you who read this and whatnot, I wanted to provide a quick update. This has turned into a HUGE ordeal. Last week, the principal told me that it was being completely censored and would not go in. Since then, so much **** has broken out. Two teachers went down to the principal's office and Mrs D. was crying and told our principal that she had lost all respect for her. Mrs. McB said, "This was a crucial point in your leadership and you have failed."
All of these teachers have been talking about the issue in their classes, but without my name and students started these big petitions that are running around the school. People want to make buttons and crap.
Yesterday, the principal actually called me at my house to schedule a meeting with me. I met with her this morning and some progress has been made, but... there's still a lot to be done.
It's all turned into this huge ordeal, which I never expected. Every day I hear about a jock or someone unexpected signing the petition or something. I even heard that the football team was arguing about it.

I'm giving the principal this 4 page letter about how angry I am tomorrow. I wrote it last night and was going to give her this morning, but I decided I wanted other people to read it first, to make sure it was good. Everyone has told me to give it to her, including those teachers. So... that's all that is. Here's the letter:

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Dear Dr. S***,
I have to admit that on Friday, when I was told that the article was censored, I was pretty upset. I got onto the train to Chicago, oddly enough to attend DePaul’s Coming Out Ball. Anyway, the point is, on the train, I had a backpack with a journal and pen. On the long ride, I just let all of my anger out onto paper and attempted to counter the argument you constructed for why my article was censored. As I never intended to give the writing to you, it was informal.
After writing it out, I let out a lot of my anger and thus, I was quite calmed down. I realized, though, that writing it, while good to rid myself of anger, was also bad. By ridding myself of the anger, I remained more cool than perhaps I should be and never expressed to you quite how I feel, as I was too nervous (and cold!) to do so in our meeting. In a way, I am almost being inspired by the essay “The Abstract Wild” by Jack Turner, which we read in Mr. A.’s AP English class. In overview of this essay, one of the points we pulled out was to be angry and to not forgive. While this article is focused on being angry about the destruction of wildlife, it can open up to a broader message, just as the article I wrote for The Pride does.
Well, I think that Turner has a valid point. I let out my anger, which was good, but I never let you know about it. I didn’t even think much of it until I attended the choral concert tonight. The fact that we hold a school function in a church, listen to the choirs sing that “God gave us true light” and watch images which depict American soldiers as heroic, even including images of male soldiers kissing their female girlfriends or wives just enraged me, when I thought of the fact that this is allowed without question, while my harmless article is taken under such scrutiny. Even now, when you are attempting to work with me to get my message out, I just can’t understand what was wrong with my original article. It was my personal opinion! I’m sorry that I chose to write all of this down, as opposed to just being prepared to say it, but I can’t deny that I get nervous when trying to conflict with such an authority figure as you, whereas I can unshakingly express my thoughts here at the keyboard. Honestly, though, with the new article you are hoping for me to write, would I be allowed to have an image on the side of my article of two men, holding each other in a loving embrace and kissing? I’m guessing you would say no, but why? We can see a man and woman kiss during the choir concert. We watch endless movies where affection is shown between heterosexual couples in school and we read about it, too. Why can’t we see homosexual love? I know that you keep thinking about your constituency to (*One Town) and (*Another town*), but this is a public school. You should be thinking about the federal government. If parents want their children to go to a school where minorities are oppressed, they can send them to private school. You are not obligated to care about their homophobic views.
Mrs. D has not read this and I hope that she would not be upset with me, as I know how hard she has worked to get my article or some remnant of it into the school newspaper. I am so glad that you say you want to see my article get in the newspaper, but I’m sorry if I am doubtful. Forgive me, but in my eyes, it seems probable that you don’t, but that you fear the backlash that you have seen to your decision.
Anyway, here, I want to paraphrase the original, angry letter I wrote.
You say neutrality. First off, I still don’t understand how one article pro-coming out and one article anti-coming out would not equal neutrality, but I suppose we can agree to disagree on that one, as that would not be a solution I would be happy with, anyway.
America requires that you protect the rights and opinions of minorities. By printing my article, you are in no way saying that is the view of (*our high school*). You are simply saying that our school permits me to have my opinion.
You also say that you are just looking out for my safety and those mentioned in my article. Dr. S*****, you can not protect me when I refuse to be protected. You may limit the amount of people I can reach, but I will let my message out however I can. I am gay and proud and will not be silenced. My friends are outstanding people and would be glad to stand up for me, too. They do not need your protection, nor do I think it is your decision of whether they need it or not. Censoring me (or us) as a preventative measure for safety. . . I just don’t agree.
As for the fact that you are thinking of the readership, are you thinking of the parents or the students? I don’t think the parents are important and as I think you have realized more now, the students want me to have my voice. My views are not offensive, homophobia and censorship is.
Back to neutrality, how are you being neutral when you say that the subject matter of my article is not appropriate? Are you saying that it is taboo and ought to be pushed under the rug? I don’t want to attack this statement too much before I give you a chance to justify why you said it is inappropriate. I would like to know what it is that makes it so. All I know now is that that statement makes me feel like you are taking a stance on the issue and that you are saying I am wrong. I hope that this is just my misunderstanding, as I want to believe that you are working for my good, but I’m not sure right now. Here, sorry, my anger is still slipping out and making me somewhat incoherent. I just am in the dark somewhere. How can we run articles on the Iraq war? Isn’t that taking a stand on political controversies? I am offended by the idea of supporting a war without a just cause, a war that members of the U.N. don’t even approve of. Letting these run is not maintaining neutrality, it is maintaining majority. I don’t have any specific article to point to, but I seem to think in my memory that such articles have been printed. I could be completely wrong, so I suppose if so, this argument could be disregarded, especially if you think that articles of that nature would need to be censored.
Perhaps this letter is not the most well-written and I apologize for that, but I needed to get my thoughts out and want you to know what they are as soon as possible, which is why you are still receiving this letter.
My desire is to still see the article that you officially chose to censor in the newspaper. I don’t want to write a new one and only will if I find that I am at the point where I have no other choice and am forced to take what I can get.
Respectfully,
Stephen