Just a link and some brief tableaux of rage.
This article is depressing and infuriating.
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THERE ARE GAY STUDENTS IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL. EVEN IF YOU LIVE IN WEST VIRGINIA, TEXAS, OR ORANGE FUCKING COUNTY. HOW DARE YOU TELL THOSE KIDS THEY CAN'T EVEN HAVE THE OPTION OF PERFORMING IN A GODDAMN MUSICAL THAT ACKNOWLEDGES THEIR EXISTENCE? DRAMA CLUB IS THE ONLY REFUGE THEY HAVE, YOU ASSHOLE.
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"Hi, my name is Divisive Issue. My very existence is inherently a problem for your ill-considered moral code. I guess that means that we shouldn't discuss me or my right to basic human dignity; that might upset you. I hope your personal relationship with God is going well!"
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It's been a long time since I've heard anyone use this phrase seriously; perhaps it's time to reacquaint ourselves with it:
We're here. We're queer. Get used to it. You fucker.
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Apparently, contrary to popular opinion and empirical data, not all people get to live in New York. It's time we few, we happy few, we band of sisters realize that it's a lot harder to be one of us (gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or just a decent person) outside that tiny little group of islands-plus-the-Bronx and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Forget marriage fucking equality (don't tell anyone I said that) and put your agile brains to work figuring out how to help an eleven-year-old girl in West Virginia feel okay about starting to look at other girls instead of boys like she's supposed to. Tell a teenaged boy in Texas that he can wear a dress. I don't know what the hell to do in Orange County, but it clearly needs work. Get out there and just be gay in public. It's a start.
2 comments:
Don't blame Orange County for one person's ignorance. Have you even been to Orange County? Would you like me to take you home for a visit? As one of many people from my high school (only some of whom were in theater with me) who came out in college, after leaving the parents' house and the OC (this was the right and necessary timing for me, though for some of my friends who came out earlier this may not have been the case), I would like to say that this article in incredibly problematic but the exciting thing is that in West Virginia and Texas and even Orange County, the drama teachers and drama clubs are fighting to put on this play despite parental and administrative ignorance. The part about the WV drama teacher partnering with a local college to do the show is the real story, and the right thing to do - if the high school production is being censored, deny the high school the income that show provides and do it elsewhere. That is a real victory.
The cultural attitude that we have to protect kids from knowledge about gay people and sex and HIV is the problem. The fact that school administrators fear that they could be sued and fired because of parents complaining that their children are exposed to these issues is the problem. Orange County or West Virginia not being New York is NOT the problem, because I will bet that there are some public or religious schools in New York and certainly its suburbs that could have these same issues. I can tell you that Orange County is not far from LA, and the local theater has presented the national touring company of Rent twice. I personally volunteered at the Irvine gay pride parade when I was in high school. If you, or these people, think they're protecting people from knowledge about homosexuality, they're deluding themselves.
I totally get everything you're saying, and I'm sorry if I was an ass. I was very, very tired when I wrote this post, and I wasn't making that much sense.
I get so pissed off at how the newspapers (NY Times specifically) decide to couch most stories, from scientific studies of any sort to the play about Gaza headlined as basically "Is this play anti-Semitic?", to stories about anything gay at all. It's just so wearisome being presented as a problem to be solved.
I like your interpretation so much more than the Times' version. The drama teacher wins, no doubt. I have very little patience for high school administrators; this doesn't encourage me to change that attitude.
Orange County, I have visited a total of once. Visited a couple of married lesbian doctors on Thanksgiving and had a great time. That's pretty much all I've got in terms of personal experience there, and it's not enough to form an educated opinion about the place. I would love to get to know more about it; right now my personal good experience is sort of being outweighed by the Prop 8 supporting commercials I saw that came out of there.
New York is another story. The NYC-centeredness of its inhabitants is legendary (and greatly exaggerated, I'm sure), and in this case it leads, I would claim, to a lot of privileged white gay men who think things just aren't that bad for us. West Hollywood is similar in that respect. So is San Francisco. That complacency contrasts pretty sharply with the courage of that drama teacher in West Virginia.
I don't have a real conclusion here, but I want to make sure I apologize for indirectly impugning you in any way; it wasn't my intent and I want to take it back. I'm sorry. My anger needs an object, and I have a hard time choosing that object when it's so tenuous and hidden.
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