High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts

[Ian David]

High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts
Platte Valley Junior Upset Over Treatment By Fellow Students

POSTED: 10:50 am MDT October 18, 2005
UPDATED: 1:32 pm MDT October 20, 2005

KERSEY, Colo. -- A male cheerleader at Platte Valley High School in Weld County has quit because he said he's been taunted by other classmates who called him gay.

Cole Graves said the team's picture was posted last week on the Platte Valley High School Web site with the words "I'M GAY" underneath the two male members of the cheerleading squad.

Graves says the abuse has been going on for three or four months.

The picture was removed from the school's Web site once the school was notified.

<snip>

"I know I'm not gay," he told the Tribune. "It's probably harder for a person who is gay and has to be called names. I feel so sorry for them."

More:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/5117032/detail.html?subid=22100484&qs=1;bp=t


Times sure were different when George Dubya was a cheerleader!

[MsUnderstood]

1. Yea it is not easy being gay

Try to get schools to react to using gay as an insult they say it is no big deal. . .try to correct kids and adults from using it and they scoff "I'm not insulting gay people, I'm just saying something is stupid"

If you try to get GLBT clubs started in high school to encourage acceptance of homosexuality (not recruiting but understanding) the program gets shut down for its deviant life style. . .

And when a guy is tied to a barbed wire fence and left to die because he is gay an idiot like Fred Phelps stands in front of the trial against the murderers and holds up signs "God Hates Fags"

[Ian David]

7. I propose a new punishment for anti-gay bullies...

They should be sent to a new school for a week where nobody knows them, and be required to identify themselves as "openly gay."

They should have to wear the pink triangle and carry the Ricky Martin lunchbox.

And it's no fair if they try to hide with the Goth kids.

[afdip]

2. it's irrefutable. . . dubya was a cheerleader and

wasn't gannon at the white house?

[Ready4Change]

3. About those Bush/Cheerleading photos...

Why is the megaphone always up to his mouth in those? Was that his way to drink in public or something? Are there any of him cheerleading WITHOUT the megaphone at his lips?

[Hobarticus]

4. Megaphone...or funnel?

Drop a bottle of Beam down in there, and you've got a party on the sidelines!

[yellowcanine]

5. Wasn't Trent Lott a cheer leader also?

[mduffy31]

6. That is what he was doing instead of being in the rice paddys in 'Nam

[Ian David]

8. Good catch! Yes, Trent Lott was a male cheerleader!

Famous Cheerleaders
Browse this list of famous people who were once Cheerleaders. From Senators to Presidents, you'll find them all here.

<snip>

George W. Bush
President George W. Bush was a Cheerleader at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
http://cheerleading.about.com/od/cheerleadingfunstuff/l/aa102500a.htm

Thad Cochran
Thad Cochran, US Sentor from Mississippi, was a Head Cheerleader while attending the University of Mississippi.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fcochran.senate.gov%2Fbio.htm


<snip>

Michael Douglas
Like father, like son. Michael not only resembles his dad, Kirk, but followed in his footsteps as an actor and Cheerleader.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaeldouglas.com%2F


Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower, our thirty-fourth President, excelled in sports including cheerleading.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Fhistory%2Fpresidents%2Fde34.html


<snip>

Samuel L. Jackson
This talented actor who starred in "Pulp Fiction", "Shaft", "A Time to Kill", and "Die Hard 3" was a cheerleader.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.aol.com%2Fgifhack%2Fbib.html


Trent Lott
Senate Majority Leader from Mississippi, Trent Lott was a cheerleader.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Flott.senate.gov%2Findex.cfm%3FFuseAction%3DAbout.Biography



<snip>

Steve Martin
This famous comedian can add Cheerleading to his many talents.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stevemartin.com%2F



<snip>

Franklin D Roosevelt
Among his many other activities, our thirty-second President, was a football Cheerleader at Harvard
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harvard-magazine.com%2Fissues%2Fnd96%2Ffrank2.html


<snip>

Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling grew up on Dallas, Texas and was once a Cheerleader, as well as an actor. He went on to produce top rated TV series such as "Charlie's Angels", "Melrose Place", "Fantasy Island", and "Beverly Hills 90210" to name a few.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.charliesangels.com%2Faarron.html

<snip>

Jimmy Stewart
Jimmy Stewart made over eighty motion pictures in his career, but before acting he was a Cheerleader.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=cheerleading&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jimmy.org%2Fbio%2F


More:
http://cheerleading.about.com/od/famouscheerleaders/


In tribute to Jimmy Stewart (or Frank Capra), "Every time a male cheerleader is called homo, an angel gets its wings."

At least, that's what the giant bunny named Harvey told me while we were trying to re-build a plane in the desert.

[kweerwolf]

9. ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Love your "adendum" about how angels get their wings!
:rofl: :spray: :applause:

[Ian David]

10. Here's some more....

Ever the showman, George W. Bush could feign a nap, below, or lead a group of friends dressed in wigs in a skit intended to mock rival schools, top.



Tuesday March 1, 2005 Previous | Next
Dear Yahoo!:
How many U.S. presidents were cheerleaders?
Dave
Madison, Wisconsin
Dear Dave:
Well, if you're speaking figuratively -- all of them. It's part of a president's job to drum up support and enthusiasm for their latest war, policy, agenda, or what-have-you.

Literally, however, four of our country's leaders were former cheerleaders. George W. Bush wielded his megaphone as head cheerleader at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
http://texasturkey.us/backup/061000wh-bush.html

Ronald Reagan rallied the crowds at Eureka College in Illinois.
http://www.californiaflyers.org/history.html

Dwight D. Eisenhower got them fired up at West Point Academy. And Franklin D. Roosevelt shouted from the sidelines at Harvard.

While not presidents, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, and Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran are former cheerleaders as well. Why so many political heavyweights on the list? Jim Nelson of GQ magazine notes the similarities between pep rallies and political rallies, and points out that cheerleaders know "how to work a crowd, how to exploit a captive audience, how to come off wholesome and energetic and winning."

If you still find the idea of world leaders shaking their pompoms a wee bit odd, you're not alone.
http://www.sunweaver.com/SmileLINK/humor/presidency/misc/cheerleaders.htm


More:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20050301.html



Also:

ANDOVER, Mass. -- Perhaps there have been other presidential candidates who have dressed in drag, flaunting their legs from beneath a (fairly short) white skirt. But George W. Bush is probably the only one who has done it in front of a camera.

A photograph showing George and friends wearing wigs and employing falsies to fill out their sweaters appears in a yellowed copy of the school newspaper of Phillips Academy here in Andover, near Boston. It was 1963, and George, then a high school senior and head cheerleader, was leading a skit intended to mock rival schools.

Governor Bush's student days were in most respects supremely undistinguished, and anyone hoping to find reassurance about his candidacy through signs of great intellect or gravitas in those years will be disappointed. There were many other students then who seemed far more likely to emerge as political leaders.

Yet there was one important area where young George did excel: people skills. It was in high school that he first seemed to cultivate them and exhibit them, using the tactics that show through in that photo -- wisecracking showmanship -- to carve out an identity for himself, an identity that is more subdued today but otherwise intact.

More:
http://texasturkey.us/backup/061000wh-bush.html



And Bush turned-out okay, right?

[kevinbgoode]

14. You know...I passed this along to the Greeley newspaper

and the school, where I was told the link for these names will be sent to the superintendent. I suggested they use this to provide a positive message for the students by talking about famous male cheerleaders - and see if that might quell the nonsense and do something to help reassure that male student who quit that the school wants him to feel free to do this. . .

Thanks for posting that. . .maybe they'll be able to create some kind of teachable situation about of this appalling treatment.

[d59cy6]

11. press coverage was homophobic

The press coverage on these things is still predictably homophobic. They are presenting it as though the kid should not be falsly slandered as 'gay'. Yet the point should be that it doesn't matter if he is indeed gay, and that it shouldn't be seen as an insult in the first place.

Now if those kids had scrawled 'nig*er' under the photo of some performing black student, do you think those damn kids would even be allowed on campus the next day? Of course not. They would be expelled instantly.

[katiedid]

12. cheerleader slur

You're absolutely right, it is totally unacceptable that "gay" and its various euphemisms are treated as acceptable slurs in the general lexicon of society. I use the N-word example whenever I am trying to explain to someone why I've taken offense to their use of some form of "gay" as a put down. It's really sad how the media has been handling this story.

[Ian David]

13. A friend of mine was at one of the gay marriage protests in Boston...

He was there in favor of gay marriage, confronting the anti-gay protesters.

One of the protesters was yelling things like faggot and homo and the usual garbage.

My friend shouted back in the guy's face, "Nigger!"

The guy went silent. Stunned.

"How do you like it!"

I don't necessarily endorse or condone this, but I think someone got the point.

You would think the Catholic Church would have gotten the hint when Fred Phelps started protesting against THEM, but no...

Gawd-addicts don't always think clearly.

Maybe, like any other addict, they need to hit rock-bottom first.

Even the Romulan Empire has its own homophobes!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=158&topic_id=3970#4115

[bluedawg12]

15. What has happened to Colorado?

Why did this state become so regressive?

[IndianaGreen]

16. Denver is liberal and LGBT friendly

but it is surrounded by Neanderthals in communities such as Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.

[bluedawg12]

17. Thanks, IndianaGreen- n/t