April 20, 2005

• Well, they elected a pope, which is a crushing blow to Liam
  (iusedtobeneat on Xanga) in his run at the papancy. This is sad. All
  poor little Liam ever wanted to be was pope. Ever since his first
  words, papal vacancy, he has dreamed of becoming pope, and now those
  dreams are shattered because they selected some dude who will probably
  be dead by morning. Its not fair, I tells you. Is there some sort of
  rule that you have to believe in God, be straight, and be over the age
  of 18 to be pope? No, there are no rules like that, so what is the
  frickin’ problem people? What is he going to tell his school chums?
  That he wasn’t good enough to be pope? Try telling that to the people
  that believed in you, that were sure you were going to win a papal
  election in a landslide, and now he has to deal with the shame of
  losing out to a guy that has to have his dinner pre-chewed for him. Its
  all about division. They just want to create a division among
  agnostics. So, he isn’t old enough to vote? So what, that never stopped
  that one dude in that one place from becoming king. You know, whats his
  name. Now, how can poor Liam look at himself in the mirror and still
  believe in himself, when however many cardinals didn’t believe in him
  enough for him to beat a guy who slept through the whole voting
  process? Its all about the man trying to keep him down. Its because he
  was gay that he didn’t win. Well, I got news for the man. When it comes
  time to elect a new Dali Lama person, watch out for Liam, because you
  won’t be able to hold him down anymore.

  Speaking of gay teens, I read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune today, which I will include right now:

  High school teens face a gay T-shirt
  showdown

  By Jennifer Skalka
  Tribune staff reporter
  Published April 19,
  2005, 8:58 AM CDT

  UPDATE: Students on two opposing sides of the gay-rights
  awareness issue wore their T-shirts to Homewood-Flossmoor High School this
  morning. No incidents were reported.

  Jamison Liang came out to his
  family members one at a time. A Homewood-Flossmoor High School senior, varsity
  tennis player and the youngest of four children, he told them each he has known
  he was gay “forever.”

  On Tuesday Liang comes out to a much wider
  audience: the Homewood-Flossmoor community. As part of a daylong awareness
  campaign, he and as many as 225 other students could wear T-shirts to school
  that say: “gay? fine by me.”

  “I feel like I’m ready for it,” said Liang,
  who will enter Washington University in St. Louis this fall. “I mean, I’m
  confident in who I am. There’s no sense in hiding it.”

  But the T-shirt
  campaign, which made a quiet debut last year, is meeting opposition from some of
  the school’s Christian students. In what will amount to a schoolyard battle of
  messages, a couple hundred other students are expected to wear shirts citing
  “crimes against God,” namely “discrimination against … my 10 Commandments, my
  prayers, my values, my faith, my God.”

  Those shirts, printed by the
  Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, also include the 1st Amendment, which
  begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
  prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech
  …”

  Jacques Jacobs, a youth minister at Family Harvest Church, said his
  church is “not fighting anybody, we are only standing up for the rights of the
  Christian student.”

  He said the T-shirts have been circulated among
  students at dozens of other high schools in the Chicago area.

  “I do know
  that Christian students, their right to pray has been taken from them,” Jacobs
  said. “Their right to believe in their values has become an offense to many
  people. The Bible has become an offense.”

  Students and school officials
  said they had heard rumors that local churchgoers opposed to the “gay? fine by
  me” message will protest outside the school. Jacobs said his church was not
  involved.

  David Thieman, a Homewood-Flossmoor school spokesman, said both
  contingents could wear the shirts as long as they comply with the student code
  of conduct, which forbids the promotion of violence or drugs.

  Liang, 17,
  and classmates Alissa Norby and Myka Held, both 18, said they organized the
  T-shirt rally to draw attention to a lack of gay and lesbian support services at
  Homewood-Flossmoor. They also said the school environment is not friendly to
  young gays and that they wanted to promote tolerance on campus.

  Norby,
  who will start at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., in the fall, said
  she’s tired of people using pejorative language to describe her. “It’s Adam and
  Eve, not Adam and Steve,” she said people chant at her as she walks to
  classes.

  Held, who is not gay and will attend Brandeis University outside
  Boston, said she wanted to help her friends feel more comfortable at school and
  “to let people know that HF was a safe place to go.”

  The “gay? fine by
  me” slogan is being promoted at schools, mostly colleges, around the country.
  The campaign began at Duke University in 2003, according to the project’s Web
  site.

  With almost 2,950 students, Homewood-Flossmoor has a diverse
  population. Thieman said 52 percent of the school is white, 42 percent black, 3
  percent Hispanic and 2 percent Asian.

  The school does not have a club
  promoting a gay and straight alliance. But Thieman said if students feel
  bullied, they should let an adult know.

  “That kind of behavior is not
  tolerated at HF,” he said.

  According to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight
  Education Network in New York, 4 out of every 5 lesbian, gay, bisexual or
  transgender students have reported being verbally, sexually or physically
  assaulted at school because of sexual orientation. Riley Snorton, the group’s
  spokesman, said a recent survey showed 1 in 3 gay students has skipped a class
  in the last month because of fear.

  Peter LaBarbera, executive director of
  the Illinois Family Institute, said he thinks the gay advocacy T-shirts miss the
  point.

  “I don’t like the message because to me it trivializes the whole
  issue,” he said. “For gay guys, you have serious health
  issues.”

  LaBarbera said he’s glad the 10 Commandments T-shirt will be
  worn Tuesday too. “I think it’s good there’s another viewpoint coming in,” he
  said.

  Sherry Liang, Jamison’s mother, said she was concerned about how
  her son will be received.

  “I said, `Are you really ready for this?’ If
  Jamison’s going to come out to the newspapers and TV, there are going to be
  repercussions,” she said. “He feels very strongly that this is something that
  needs to be out there.”

  Liang said he has always been known as a quiet
  guy. Today, he’ll walk proud, hoping that others will follow his lead and come
  out.

  “I know there are more, but they’re just too scared,” he said.

  END OF ARTICLE

  I find opposition to this rather sad. Once again, why can’t they let us
  be. And how can the Christians even claim that their rights are being
  violated? Its because they are running out of arguments. Much like the
  civil rights battles in the 50s and 60s, when oppostion starts to get
  desperate, they start claiming their own rights are being violated,
  which is obviously, not true. How can one group of people getting
  rights (such as blacks not having to sit at the back of the bus, or
  more recently in IL, the anti gay discrimination law) violate the
  rights of other people? Its not like we are taking rights away from
  straights and giving them to gays. With gay rights such as gay
  marriage, gays are being brought on equal ground and straights are NOT
  losing anything. So, why should teens wearing shirts that promote
  tolerance and togetherness be protested? These damn Christians are so
  insecure and fearful of gays, that it is rather sad. But, the mere fact
  that they have to resort to saying that their own rights are being
  violated is a sign that things just might be starting to turn in our
  favor. Lets hope this is the case.

  Beanbags tonight, I was partnered with Matt. We sucked. On the other hand, Matt looked REALLY hot tonight. YAY!

  • 12:11 am
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