Can’t We All Just Be Proud?
Apparently you’re only allowed to be “proud” if you’re particular predilection is a minority point of view : A Chicago high school has decided to allow a small group of students to wear “Straight Pride” T-shirts, despite resistance from other students who say they found the clothing offensive on a week that the school was bringing attention to the bullying of gays, lesbians and transgenders. A spokesman for St. Charles North High School says the decision was intended to be an educational moment. “Considering they’re teenagers and becoming more socially aware, we need to do our job as educators,” Director of School and Community Relations Jim Blaney told FoxNews.com. “We need to help students find their way through this new world.” The controversy started on Monday when the high school began “Ally Week,” a program in which students demonstrate their alliance against the bullying of gay students. Three students came to school wearing “Straight Pride” T-shirts bearing the Bible quotation, “If a man lay with a male as those who lay with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination and shall surely be put to DEATH,” which appears in Leviticus 20:13. Several students complained, and the “administration had to determine if the students were posing physical or emotional threats, and that wasn’t the case,” Blaney said. “The discussion they had was that, while you certainly have a right to express your opinion via a T-shirt, please understand that your message can be perceived as hurtful.” The students agreed to cross out the message with a permanent marker, but when two different students came to school the next day with homemade “Straight Pride” shirts without the Bible quotation, they were asked to cover them with sweatshirts. Although the two students complied with the request, they said they weren’t satisfied with how their free speech rights were being treated. “I was shocked,” Jake Pezzuto, a senior, told the Daily Herald. “There is clearly a double standard here, and we’re really upset about this. “They said the reason we can’t wear ‘Straight Pride’ shirts is because they are disruptive. And I can understand how maybe some people were intimidated by the shirts with the Bible verse. But I don’t understand how some students are able to wear ‘Gay Pride’ shirts while we can’t wear shirts that just say ‘Straight Pride.’” I’ve never understood the concept of being “proud” of characteristics over which you have no control, such as sexual orientation (they tell us they have no control) or race.
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on November 13, 2010. Filed under