Bad gay, good gay (RL)

[thistlechaser]

This annoyed the heck out of me yesterday, but I didn't feel like writing an all-negative post, so I let it go. Mississippi high school cancels a prom instead of letting same-sex couple attend. I heard it first on the radio: A girl was told she couldn't bring her girlfriend. She complained to her teacher, got no where. School officials, got no where. School district, no where. Finally she went to the ACLU who rightly smacked the school down for being stupid. So what did the school do?

Cancel the prom so that they wouldn't have to let her come with her girlfriend.

MUMBLE. I swear, one day these people are going to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to evolve. To stop being so damned backwards and hateful. Love is love! Stop being against love! Grrr!

And for the good thing, this is the darned sweetest video ever:

Warning: Country music! Heehee. It made me all sniffly and awww.

Edit: My flist is full of win this morning! This is the Best Commercial Ever!

Better than Old Spice "I'm on a horse"! I boggled, I laughed, I drooled! It's like The Village People updated for 2010 selling... something...

Comments

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

While I am staunchly heterosexual (male form is rather repellent to me - don't even like mine even if it is in good shape and, I'm told, attractive), I've got nothing against GLBs (Ts I'm still unsure about - most seem like drama queens). And while this is unjust, unfair, and horribly bigoted...I remember high school. High school is nothing but bigotry. Cliques abound, and each group has another group to prey on. Popular kids make fun of the nerdy kids, nerds make fun of the stoners, stoners make fun of the jocks, jocks make fun of band geeks, etc. And for all the crap we hear about how bigoted the world is, it is nothing compared to high school. You have to deal with all that crap there, as opposed to the real world where you can sue or just leave town. Not to mention that saying your school is infringing on your rights is something EVERY generation goes through. And the end result of that fight (every time) is that yes, they are. And they can. You surrender all rights the moment you enter school grounds. It sucks, but it is highschool. It ends quickly and then you can get on with living.

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

Just because that's the way it is doesn't mean it should continue to happen, and any incident of it should be publicized as widely as possible so maybe something will be put in motion to get it to stop. Accepting it as 'just the way it is' only furthers oppression and continues to create an unhealthy atmosphere for teens, who don't always 'get on living' after high school. Your teenage years are some of the most important. They can shape you forever.

This is also going to single out this couple for additional harassment from the other students, since they'll be blamed for 'ruining' the prom (and you know how crazy people can be about the damn prom). It could potentially endanger them. The school is pretty much punishing them for this in the most hurtful way they could.

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

Horrible news stories aside, hot damn, that second video! ...I really can't say anything else about it. If they're trying to sell a product there, I think they failed, because...well. Uh. What product? *stares*

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Ya but you can't stop it. Ya it shouldn't be like that but it's the way teenagers are. Unless someone can find a way to alter the very minds of teenagers at the base level then they will always find groups and shit on other groups. Ya, it sucks. Ya, it shouldn't happen. But honestly, I got tons of shit in school as a 6 foot+ lanky ginger nerd with 0 athletic ability. If people can't take it, grow a backbone and realize it doesn't matter what people who are being retarded think, it's what I did. Judging by them being so open about the fact that they are gay at that age means they are probably fine with it and have that attitude already.

Although I completely agree about how this will make things way worse for them. People are insane about prom (my prom was spent with about 7 of my nerd buddies in a basement with pizza, pop and an Xbox) so I, unfortunately, wouldn't be surprised if there was a follow up to that story about how a gay couple (or at least one half of it) got beat to an inch of their life.

Stupid high school.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

The Village People updated for 2010 selling... something...

This should have warned me, but I watched anyways. Damn you curiosity! You've screwed me again ; ;

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

Except teenagers act that way because of the apathy of the school system, poor parenting, and through social pressure from other students (who had the same indoctrination from the same three). Saying that you can't stop it is unproductive and frankly foolish, since people just don't get these ideas into their heads out of nowhere. Education helps. The school can help.

Instead, this school did the exact opposite and endorsed the idea that being gay is so wrong that they'd rather shut down the prom rather than redact their bigoted policies.

This isn't even really about the students and how highschoolers treat one another. This is about adults, teachers, organizers, people higher up on the ladder who can do something.

This is also the deep south, where they still frequently segregate proms. This is something that really can be helped, and it should be, and it has been previously--just not in this particular region of the country, apparently.

Something can be done about it, but people need to not be apathetic about ending this kind of discrimination. It's a terrible thing to be teaching kids, and just starts the whole cycle anew.

[dementordelta.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Those vids were both fabulous, but yeah, what on earth are they selling in the second one. Not that I wouldn't buy a dozen of course!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I laughed out loud when the pilot spoke.

Also, the pianist is still more my physical type than any of the buff guys!

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

I've lived in the deep south most of my life. Born&Raised in South Carolina, currently residing in Tennessee. Those of us with brains between our ears are trying to change things. And they are changing, albeit slowly. My little sister (white) married a very nice black guy. Best brother-in-law I could've hoped for. And after much glaring and arguing, my extended family is comfortable with the idea. Married 2 years ago, they just had baby. And the entire family is overjoyed, with not a single whisper of how the baby is mixed ("swirlbaby" as my sister & her husband like to say).

Adults are most certainly to blame - teenagers will find any reason to bind into cliques and oppress other teens. Homosexuality is just one option. If noone cared about that anymore, they'd start fighting over hair color, or some other nonsense. Such is the nature of teens. The problem we're running into is, especially in religious-conservative areas, people view homosexuality as morally wrong. Categorized with thievery, covetousness, dishonesty, and a host of other sins. Back in highschool (class of y2k), I knew intelligent people who honestly believed that. Honors classes, went on to ivy league schools. Calling it 'discrimination' falls drastically short of the source of the problem. Racial discrimination was bad, certainly, but in the end, blacks were seen as people, with the same capacity for good and evil as whites. Homosexuals are viewed by much of the conservative community as evil, on the same scale as career criminals. People are indoctrinated from youth to think the Church is the ultimate moral guide, and the ministers/preachers/priests are vocal in decrying how evil they think homosexuality is. The people who break away from this indoctrination to find their own moral compass (like myself) are shunned from the conservative community. I was ridiculed for most of my youth for (gasp!) asking questions in Church, and then finally for refusing to attend at all. I have family members who won't even talk to me because of that. So what can we do? Telling them their religion is wrong doesn't work. You can't legislate religion away. My chosen course of action is to teach the youth. Scientific Method. Logic. I'm seen as a corrupter of children, responsible for eroding moral values. But I don't know of a better way to advocate change, and I can't think of any other way to fight the 2000-year-old force of religion.



Now for some good news - a couple from the American Humanist Association have donated $20,000 to privately fund the prom for this school.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I lost the link explaining it, but apparently it's for a discount store in Germany! The banner flying below the blimp was about soap. We need more commercials like that!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Sorry~

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I misplaced the link explaining it, but there's a discount store in Germany that tries to draw in customers from some neighboring country with high taxes. The whole commercial was for the shop, the banner below the blimp was about soap. Apparently there was a female version of this ad out, too.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pianist and the life guard. When I was a kid I liked big, muscular men, but I've long since grown out of that. :)