Catholic HS in NYC stages Laramie Project. And........

[Smarmie Doofus]

.... nothing happens.

By which, I guess, I mean LOTS happens. Or *has* happened.

From today's NYT:

Read this first:

>>>>>What that means for students like Xavier’s can be distilled to a single, fashionable phrase of derision: “That’s so gay.” Adam Salazar, a 17-year-old senior from Brooklyn, knew it well; he used it often. “If someone was a loser, if someone was weird,” he recalled, “that was the word you used.”

Until reading the script of “Laramie” for his audition, though, Adam had never even heard of Matthew Shepard. He was in kindergarten, after all, the year of the murder. As he was cast last spring and rehearsed all this fall, he kept learning why the Shepard story still mattered.

“I was talking about what the new school play is,” he recalled of a conversation with classmates. “And I said, it’s about this homosexual kid who gets killed. And as soon as I said, ‘homosexual,’ their faces go pale.” He paused. “Just today, I heard a kid call another kid the f-word” — faggot — “because he didn’t give him a high-five.”

Marc Rugani, a religion teacher at Xavier, began discussing the play in his classes weeks before the performances. Initially, he felt the students were reticent “to breach this taboo topic.” After the show, that reluctance has given way to a “better understanding of the magnitude of hate.”>>>>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/us/18religion.html



Interesting. "Never heard of " Matthew Shepard. Wonder if that would have been different had he attended public school. Probably not.

[whathehell]

1. This is good news

but please...The fact that Adam was in indergarten when the Shepard murder ocurred is probably

a lot more relevant than whether he subsequently attended a public or catholic school.:eyes:

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Hmmmmm. Well I wouldn't go that far. Good news. Yes.

>>>>The fact that Adam was in indergarten when the Shepard murder ocurred is probably

a lot more relevant than whether he subsequently attended a public or catholic school. >>>>>


Lots of people were in kindergarten when JFK was shot and either remember the assassination or at least HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT... or both.

Granted not a perfect parallel... JFK was president, Matt Shepard was not...... but the young man quoted should have at least *heard* of Matthew Shepard and *would* have in all likelihood... were it not for the culture of

*s i l e n c e* that attends all things glbt in public AND catholic schools.

I'm not knocking catholic schools; I'm doing the opposite, actually. I'm saying public and catholic schools appear to NOT deal with this natural but taboo phenomenon to the same, or a comparable extent.

The result is "that's so gay", 'faggot', etc. , i.e. overt stuff in high school that tends to go underground in adulthood but seems to be...... somehow..... never really far away.

[whathehell]

3. I misread you...

I see now that you said "wonder if that would have been different had he attended public school..Probably not".

Yes...I agree with that..The shepard case was truly horrible.

The way they left the poor guy...haunting...almost like a crucifixion.

It should NEVER be forgotten and I'm glad it's the school is helping that aim by staging the play.

[mitchtv]

4. Xavier, a Jesuit school

I guess it does make a difference