Yeah, that blows...totally ridiculous...

Oh, for the love of...ugh!

So not cool.

Man, does that piss me off. Big-time.

I hate that the school is run by narrow-minded bigots.

Even more, I hate that my love of the First Amendment forces me to say that if narrow-minded bigots want to found a privately-run religious school, they have the right to set the rules of that school using their narrow minds and their bigotry to promote an agenda I believe is based in hate.

However, I hope someone is checking to make sure that school receives not one thin dime of federal or state education money. Because the minute they have so much as a shiny nickel's worth of tax money, to my eyes they no longer have that right to private bigotry and need to abide by the same anti-discrimination laws a public school would.

There is hope, you know. You know that some of the people at that school probably asked themselves some questions about lesbianism they might otherwise not have, that some students probably challenged their own assumptions about morality and homosexuality because they knew the two girls and knew they weren't bad people. It stirs debate, and I think that the reason anti-gay organizations and groups are getting so shrill and so reactionary is that they're losing ground in the mainstream.

Twenty years ago, this wouldn't have made news locally, let alone nationally. The very fact that it was a big enough deal to make the news says something to me about the glacial change we're seeing on sex and morality. The Bush years are good evidence that as social opinions shift on the large scale, the minority resorts to more and more vicious tactics to try and swing the pendulum back.

But did you ever do that experiment in physics class, where you hung a ball on a string and let it swing freely? The laws of momentum say that even though it might come back towards where it was, it would never get all the way back to where it started from, ultimately ending up in the middle as the amount of energy the ball carried gradually diminished? I think we're like that ball right now, that even though we might swing back to the right on certain issues, we're not ever going to get back to that starting place and eventually we're going to end up in the middle somewhere.

Much love,
Rowan

I hate that my love of the First Amendment forces me to say that if narrow-minded bigots want to found a privately-run religious school, they have the right to set the rules of that school using their narrow minds and their bigotry to promote an agenda I believe is based in hate.

Yes. This. It makes me furious that people are like this, but it also...well, it's their school. And yes, not one fucking cent of my tax money, buddy.

Why don't liberal, well-educated, and well-off parents develop schools that support their beliefs? Or demand better funding for public schools? It drives me crazy to hear about people sending their kids to religious schools because they are "better schools" and they don't want their kids to get a "lesser education" by going through the public school system. Yeah, that's a great idea! Let's give thousands and thousands of dollars to the religious whack-jobs who believe in enforced celibacy and the infallibility of any human being, just to make sure precious Johnny has a better shot at getting into an Ivy League school.

Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Left-of-Center, that $50 donation to Planned Parenthood ain't doing shit to combat the five thou a year you give that school for tuition.

If I lived in KCMO I'd send my kids to private schools.

I agree regarding the Constitution - I suppose my upset isn't so much at the fact that this is legal, but that it happened at all. Period. I just cannot understand the worldview that allows such a belief to exist. But you're right about it getting better. Those are all good points. I do believe that this sort of thing is becoming less and less acceptable.

But none of that makes me any less hurt and angry on behalf of those girls, and on behalf of the girl I was.

So do private schools have to comply with any anti-discrimination legislation? Not that most were particularly diverse to begin with, but this sounds like they're protected across the board...
For that matter, does this mean they can expel sexually active students? Last I heard, that was outside your general "Christian code of conduct." Fornicators are for public school.

(Not a business, my ass. Private schools are like black holes for other people's money, and they're definitely providing a service).

And, because I always respond with an anecdote, and am a Catholic school brat:
At my high school, there was an unwritten rule that homosexuality was not tolerated. Some of my friends waited until after graduation to come out, some came out but we just knew better than to mention that in front of teachers, although it never really seemed like a secret. And since it was a Catholic school (yay repression!), couples just generally did not make out in the hallways, gay or straight, so I'd say everyone was just indiscriminately prevented from letting off a little teenage lust.
However, we learned a little bit about the administrators' unofficial stance when two girls who had been "seen kissing and hugging in the hallway" were reported to someone or other and were called in to speak to one of the counselors.
Yeah, those girls were sisters. End of conversation.
I still kind of wonder what the course of action would have been otherwise...I mean, even our pregnant girls were "temporarily home-schooled."

I agree, it sounds like they're protected across the board. And I guess if they're religious, it comes as a matter of the separation of Church and State. Fine. I believe we need that very strongly.

I guess I just identified with this story way too strongly. Which isn't a bad thing, when it reminds me that I *am* human. ;)

And, for the record, I had mostly great experiences at all my Catholic schools. The problems they had mostly weren't the kind that would have been fixed if it was public (like the theater department not getting any money, etc).

I would say that 2 out of 3 of my Catholic schools (including said high school) were pretty great places. Even for its "unspoken policies," I left high school with the ability to disagree with many things I'd been taught. And somehow, my experience at the school itself fostered that ability. Can't be 100% awful, right?

It was a Christian school, what do you expect? Now if it had been a public school, that would be another matter altogether.

I expect everyone to treat their fellow human beings with a little bit of freaking compassion, you know, like Jesus said? But yesterday, apparently, I was having a day of naivete.

Christians following the teachings of Christ? Wow, what a novel idea.

*twitches*

That...is so messed up. Can't really say more than that without getting into incomprehensible mutterings.

That's pretty much how I feel about it, too.

Expeled from school for saying I love you. Sad. These are the things I want to change. I'm not gay or bisexual, but I have the confidence to be attracted to a man. I felt the same way when I was a teenager, but I had no 'safe' way to express myself. I know that I could have sex with a man. I just haven't found the right one. Knowing and expressing this sets me free.

Private schools and religion. Christains? If they only knew the truth. I'm going to post a story on my lj and a link to this story. Talk to you soon.

I have the confidence to be attracted to a man.

I like that way of thinking.