Mississippi school omits gay student

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by noonereal

LOL, now that's the kind of cynical post I enjoy!

I couldn't sleep past about 3 AM today so I got up and turned on the tube. "Mississippi Burning" was on. I'm not feeling too charitable toward Ol' Miss just now.

John

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by Boreas

I couldn't sleep past about 3 AM today so I got up and turned on the tube. "Mississippi Burning" was on. I'm not feeling to charitable toward Ol' miss just now.

John

good stay like that

[piece-itpete]

There is a difference between a girl wearing boys clothes, and a girl dressing up as a boy.

It might be too subtle.

Pete

[BlueStreak]

It's not just a simple matter of enforcing rules, if the girl was omitted entirely from the yearbook, (IMO). Failing to even make mention of her name tells me it runs deeper than that. I see the picture, I see nothing offensive, outrageous or obscene. Honestly, at first glance the person in the picture just looks like a boy in a tux, to me. If you hadn't told me it was a girl, it might have taken a minute for me to figure it out.

So, what's the big deal?

To answer part of the OPs question, "Why is it so hard for these people to accept change?" As I see it, the answer is this; This sort of "change" is not simply a change in some legal proceedure, or obscure ordinance. It is a change in a long standing core social attitude, some would even see it as a public repudiation of their religious beliefs.
It wasn't all that long ago, that if a homosexual was badly beaten the police would simply look the other way. Maybe even laugh it off. Now, we are expecting a society that was comfortable with that, (Until very recently.) to suddenly accept gays displaying their androgeny in highschool yearbooks? This in a society where we have folks who believe we should allow "deviants" to be abused because they think it somehow deters the behaviour?

Sometimes change is necessary, albeit unpopular and often extremely difficult.

Dave

[whell]

Originally Posted by noonereal

Whell, why do you personally feel excluding a 12 year student from her yearbook because she is dressed exactly like half the school
is OK?

Please read this post. I think I explained this clearly.

[merrylander]

Personally when I consider all the hate, discrimination, even physical harm they are exposed to, that anyone would believe they do this as a choice, is incapable of rational thought.

[piece-itpete]

For some reason this is reminding me of the satirical 'Where's the dress?' song that came out after 'Boy' George hit it big.

Pete

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

There is a difference between a girl wearing boys clothes, and a girl dressing up as a boy.

It might be too subtle.

Pete

I suppose what you're saying is that there's a difference between "wearing boys clothes" and dressing in a manner consistent with one's sexual identity.

I agree.

John

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by whell

Please read this post. I think I explained this clearly.

I read that already so let me be blunt.

I read it to say that you will not personally make a case for what was done but feel comfortable supporting such blatant discrimination as a cover for your personal prejudice.


My question is why do you feel discrimination against gays is OK?

or

do I read you wrong and if you started your own private school today with no "tradition" of discrimination would the boys be allowed to wear dresses to class everyday?

[Combwork]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Personally when I consider all the hate, discrimination, even physical harm they are exposed to, that anyone would believe they do this as a choice, is incapable of rational thought.

I was going to join in after post 10 (below) but I don't think your post can be improved on in any way. My daughter is gay. She's not into gender change, she's not overt, she's just a woman who finds other women more sexually attractive than men. As you say, it is not a lifestyle choice, it is the way she is.

Quote:

No, but rules are rules. If the parents don't like to rules, there's a process to petition the school board to change the rules. But there's nothing that suggests, or would be gained, by allowing one student doing whatever he/she wants to do, if school policy / rules dictate otherwise.

"there's a process to petition the school board to change the rules".

Even if it worked, how long would that take? I don't know how fast petitioning the school board would take; but could it possibly be fast enough to include her in the photo?