About Constance's prom...

There's probably not much I can say about the Itawamba Agricultural High School prom that hasn't already been said. I hope as they go through life, some of the students at Constance McMillen's high school have experiences that lead them to open their minds and learn to treat their fellow human beings with compassion. It's disheartening, though, that the adults in the town were complicit in the high school meanness bullshit, and in fact facilitated a lot of it. Strange, I thought parents and teachers were supposed to teach children about kindness, civility and, you know, manners. Shame on you, so-called grownups!

It's very simple...

You want to read a good summary of l'affaire Polanski, read Kate Harding's piece, or Little Light's. Me, I'm through reading reading about this. People's apologia for this admitted criminal is not funny stupid, it's sad stupid.

No homosex, please, we're British

Just a few days ago, I read (at Joe.My.God.) about an ad being run by Heinz in the UK that featured a kiss between two men. It's a very chaste kiss, and technically, it's a kiss between a husband and wife. Watch the ad and you'll see what I mean.

Very cute, n'est-ce pas? And well done*, too. They even got the New York accent accurately, which is apparently not easy ("Daleks in Manhattan," anyone?).

Today I found out (via Joe, again) that the ad is being pulled because of the huge number of complaints Heinz has received from people who are upset that it features ZOMG! BOYSEXXORZZ!!!1!!!ELEVENTY-ONE!!1!111, which has forced them to explain the wonders of same-sex attraction to the innocent little kiddos. Silly me, I thought the person in the white hat was meant to be a (presumably) British woman who just makes sandwiches as well as a New York deli counter man, not someone who actually is one. I'm always getting stuff wrong, aren't I?

I'm disappointed in Heinz knuckling under so easily, and in the ignorance of the letter-writers , too. The Brits are supposed to be more openminded about this sort of thing, amirite? After all, as Archie Bunker told us "England is a fag country... the whole society is based on a kind of a fagdom"?

*I do have one quibble with the ad. I'm from New York, and I like mayonnaise on my sandwiches, but I certainly would not call it a "New York deli" thing, nor put it on a lot of typical delicatessen sandwiches. You order a pastrami or corned beef with mayo in a NYC deli, and see the response you get. Go on, I dare you.

Mommy! I touched my special area!

It's not even noon, but this may be teh st00pid of the day. Parents in the Schenectady, New York area are all up in arms because the school proposes something other than abstinence only sex education. Of course, with that program in place, the county has managed to have the second-highest teen pregnancy rate in the state--and mind you, the fleshpots of New York City comprise five counties, so that's some achievement. (Joking, folks, joking--despite searching, I haven't figured out which county's rate is highest.)

This is the best part of the whole story. It seems some parents looked into the materials being used by the schools, and were pretty darn upset by them.

Arlene Whittingham said she did research as well and found educational materials directed to children between the ages of 5 and 8 which indicate that girls and boys have body parts that feel good when touched.

Whittingham said she found it “quite unconscionable” that an organization could suggest sharing such information with school students.

Yeah, that's unconscionable, all right. After all, kids would never even think of such a thing if some evil brochure didn't tell them about it.


via Feministing

This is one gutsy young woman

QueerToday has an interview with high school student Claudia Contrada who came out as a lesbian to her mother, one of the founders of Mass Resistance.



via Joe.My.God

Attack of the smooching baby dykes continues in the PNW

Two fourteen-year-old girls,
Maika Rich and Jocelyn O'Neal, were kicked off a bus in Portland, Oregon for kissing. Radical Russ has the story at Pam's House Blend.

The good news is the driver will be punished for violating the bus company policies against a) putting minors off a bus,and b) ejecting anyone from a bus without providing other means of transport. What the punishment will be is not clear yet.

The real question is: what the heck is going on in the Pacific Northwest with the extreme reaction to kissing teen lesbians? First, that incident in Gig Harbor, Washington when the school released the videotaped kiss to the parents of one of the kids, and now this. I've never been up that way, so I don't have a clue. Anyone?

Update from Fight OUT Loud via Russ at the Blend:

Fight OUT Loud has been in contact with the girls and their families. We have been guiding and assisting them in getting some sort of resolution. We have also issued an "action email alert" to our over 1000 members, which has resulted in flooding the offices of Trimet, the mayor's office, and the tourism board.

I have been in constant contact with the Portland Mayor's office as well, which has no direct control over TriMet or discipling the bus driver. While they cannot directly affect TriMet, I feel they have a duty and obligation to pressure the bus company to do the right thing and (a) fire the driver, (b) at the very least remove the driver from the route so the GLBT youth will not have to come in contact with him on the way to the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center, a safe haven for gay youth, and (c) make the punishment of the driver public to help put to rest the concerns of the girls and the community as a whole.

I would greatly appreciate if you could help spread the word about our efforts. To see how exactly what our efforts are and the services we provide, go to our webpage (www.fightoutloud.org) and check out our "action alerts". We really need to lend our voices to these girls and express our outrage at the whole situation.

-Waymon Hudson
President of Fight OUT Loud
www.fightoutloud.org

Is kissing a girl "unusual behavior?"

Gig Harbor High School in Washington has changed the way in which it uses security cameras, and now says it will only use them for things like, you know, security. It caused quite a flap when someone from the school sent a video that showed two female students kissing to the parents of one of the girls because they had asked to be informed if their daughter engaged in any "unusual behavior." She was transferred to another school outside the district as a result, and the other girl says her privacy was invaded.
Not to get all legalistic, but these days, there's no way a reasonable person can have an expectation of privacy in the hallway of a high school. That being said, what the hell were the people in this school thinking when they sent to video off school premises to that kid's parents? And does anyone really believe they'd have done the same thing if the incident had involved a boy and a girl?
The story from the AP, here. The local TV news story (with audio of the transferred student's father, complete with the word "abomination") here.