Hickville Dispach©
Hillcrest High School students Samantha Harman and Cody McCook, wearing "Queers kick Ash" tees. The Hickville Dispach© standard-bearer, the Salt Lake Tribune, reports:
Although Hillcrest's Gay-Straight Alliance is not directing the anti-tobacco campaign -- the nonprofit Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah is -- [Hillcrest Principal Linda] Sandstrom said the school club could be disbanded if some of its members insist on being "disruptive." About 25 teens demonstrated near the school Tuesday morning, donning signs that read "Homophobia is so gay," and "Queer is nothing to fear."Here's how this looks to the rest of the world:"This is school," Sandstrom said. "We're trying to help kids learn what's appropriate." ... As for McCook, the 17-year-old isn't buying his school's rationale, especially concerns about student safety. He says gay students are repeatedly harassed at Hillcrest -- earlier this year McCook's ceramics locker was vandalized and plastered with anti-gay epithets -- only to be told by administrators that the students "bring it on themselves."
Last Thursday, three Hillcrest High School students who wore the shirts were punished by Assistant Principal David Breen, who told them that the shirts were inappropriate and that he disapproved of the word "queer." Two gay male students were given three options: taking the shirts off, turning them inside out, or suspension. One turned his shirt inside out and was allowed to stay at school; the other refused and was suspended. A heterosexual girl who wore the same shirt was given an additional fourth option of being sent home for the day without suspension, which she accepted.Let's not forget the breeder males with swimsuit model tees (the Tribune calls them "women in swimsuits") or the girls with "I Love Mormon Boys" (who doesn't?) on their chests, er, shirts. The last words of the Tribune article demonstrate part of the reason I left Utah.On Friday, when more students wore the shirts to school and were similarly punished, Breen also threatened to bring the school's gay-straight alliance, which wasn't involved in distributing the t-shirts, to "a screeching halt."
Jennifer Brown said Hillcrest has a reputation for being radical, and she's had enough. "We have to put up with a lot of crap because people are always trying to make a statement," the 17-year-old said. "People shouldn't go around flaunting their sexuality no matter what it is."The day I've had enough of people being radical, I want someone to strangle me with Gore Vidal's embalmbed intestinal tract.
