I was going to blog about the controversy in Sullivan, Indiana (somewhere south of Terre Haute, as best I can locate that metropolis), where a few teachers, students and parents at Sullivan High School are upset that gay students are actually allowed to attend the prom. They are so upset that they are planning to hold a separate, “traditional” prom. But this article from The Stranger, an alternative paper in Seattle, says it all so much better than I could.
The good news is that the school’s administration and most of the teachers reject this hurtful bigotry, leaving the “good Christian” parents with no way to make the official Prom off-limits to children who had the nerve to be born differently, so they are scrambling to raise money for their own event. We can only hope they fail, and that their own children are the ones deprived of a treasured high-school ritual they are unwilling to share with gay classmates.
I know I ask this question a lot, but what is wrong with these people?
Ignorance, fear and unfounded hatred is what is wrong with these people. It is nourished and encouraged by their chosen political leaders who keep this bigotry in the news daily. I would be interested to know how much of this demand for a separate prom is coming from parents and how much from the students themselves.
Giving Indiana a bad name–Again!
Thanks for the heads up. I wonder what the Krazy Kristians would do if Gay people were not around for them to rail against. For the kids in SW IN and SE IL there is a great prom put on by the wonderful folks of the Tri-State Alliance youth group in Evansville. Last year they had 750 Happy Young Gay folks at their event. (Professional Security provided in case the loving church folk show up) For info visit their web sit at TSAGL.org. A very strong youth group. Good people. They help a lot of young people. I look forward to the time when such events are not needed.
Wow. Just…wow. So these folks are giving Christians a bad name, but suggesting KKK ties and and saying folks are ignorant, scared, and hateful for having the audacity to disagree with us is… some kind of enlightened discourse? Really?
More from the toothless, inbred hill-jack portion of Indiana. Same as it ever was…
Nice strawman you got there, Marco! No one is being criticized for “disagree[ing] with us”; they’re being criticized for seeking to deliberately inflict emotional pain on teenagers for having the audacity to be something (which is not a choice) that a set of Bronze Age nomads condemned.
They came to the place where the road divides and, sad to say, those so-called Christians made the wrong choice. This pseudo-saint stuff caught fire in the GWB administration (think ‘anything, just anything at all, to get elected’) and continued to fester during the most recent election. The holier-than-thou segment of society is now struggling to gain traction somehow before 2016. Good luck with that.
Which validates deliberately inflicting emotional pain on the other half? So by condemning, not the actions, but people themselves you’ve never met in a land you heretofore never knew existed, that’s somehow encouraging growth and understanding?
It’s good that people are standing up for what they believe in, but I think this is a manifestation among the elderly. I’ve noticed as they age my parents’ and grandparents’ respective shells getting thicker and harder. If something fits in there it’s good to go no matter what, but it’s damn near impossible to crack that thing open and shove something new inside. People get set in their ways. It’s not always a bad thing, but when they don’t even realize it all it does is foster polarization (politically speaking.) Bigotry by an enlightened standard is still bigotry.
Realistically, two people could sit down with 4G connections and go back and forth all day on what this Democrat in Delaware or that Republican in Texas said or did. It’s a push and doesn’t really accomplish anything, other than putting another coat of epoxy on that shell.
Marco; please do NOT lump all us old fogies into one unthinking, closed-minded group. I am 75, a grandmother and greatgrandmother and continue to read, researach and evaluate new concepts and ideas daily. There is so much more I do not know but I am aware of this fact. The few remaining friends of my generation are mostly like-minded – which means open-minded. I have received some nasty, totally untrue polical accusations – primarily about President Obama and so-called free government benefits in general – so I simply research several sites on line for answers. It is because I support President Obama that I need and want to know the truth. My lack of understanding racism, bigotry or anti-Semitism as a child; my lack of understanding hatred of strangers who are a bit different from others remains intact. Today it is the gays at the top of the hate list; please note that the parents, teachers and students who are seeking what THEY consider to be a traditional high school prom are not old people with thick, hard shells that are impossible to penetrate. These are people of my grandchildren’s generation, not mine. Racism is still rampant but often covert as it isn’t PC to spout racially based comments as we now have a biracial president who, incidently has taken a stand supporting the rights of all Americans – including gays. My shell, I am proud to say, has many cracks which allows new ideas and common sense to come through.
Fair enough, and I apologize if I came across as making a stereotypical comment myself. We are nothing more than the sum of our life experiences, and to date mine have led me down quite a different path than yours.
In many ways I agree with you. Racism is being redefined in ensuing generations, but not in a better way. Unquestionably it’s on it’s way out the door, but we still allow a lot of it and give out passes depending on who it is and what they look like. Again, not to pick on my elders, but I’ve noticed people who were around in the 50’s and 60’s look at race issues quite a bit differently than my generation. Perhaps they believe in granting “make-up” time, maybe not. The occasional minorities I’ve run into who lived in the South during that era have been excruciatingly polite, but their kids and grandkids have so much animosity! Older folks seem much more inclined to use racial slurs, but not intend them to be slurs, if that makes sense. This has manifest in my generation by people being very comfortable saying things in front of black, white, Jewish, etc. friends that are certainly NOT for public consumption.
I believe this has more to do with the speech police crowd and the “Politics of the Offended” than anything else. There really isn’t a dialogue. I blame the people who killed the dialogue. Generally speaking, on a personal level the X/Y generations are much more open to talking about it, which makes our parents want to go and hide the good China.
Actually Marco, I was raised by a staunch Republicn, racist, bigoted family in a staunch Republican, racist, bigoted neighborhood on the west side of Indy. The “colored children” who lived 3 blocks from the public school at 21st & Harding area were not allowed to attend but had to make their way to the public school in the 29th and Northwestern area…if they could. Catholics kept themselves apart by sending their children to Catholic schools and not allowing their children to play with the rest of us so we ignored them. If there were any Jews in the neighborhood we knew nothing about it. While working in the neighborhood drug store at age 16, a “colored man” came in one hot day and asked politely for a glass of water which I gave him. The store owner waited till he left then yelled at me for serving him and told me to throw the glass away. Families in the poor section were looked down on and ignored but I made friends with some and learned they were no different other than the quality of their clothes, food and homes. People with mental problems were ridiculed openly. Maybe I was switched at birth because I didn’t understand these standards from the time I discovered those “colored children” living a few blocks from my home and school at age 6 or 7. Early on I learned to watch and learn and keep my mouth shut. I was sent by my parents to church, they didn’t attend, I learned what Christianity was supposed to mean but saw little of it in my home or neighborhood…and learned that gays were those queer, nasty people to stay away from. I have no idea how or why my view of the world and so-called Christianity has always been open and observant and different than my upbringing; I am just glad I am who I am.
We are all glad that you are who you are, JoAnn–we need a LOT more people like you.