I met a hero last night

[dsc]

Last night my school's quiz bowl team, for whom I am the advisor, competed. On one of the opponents team was Jarred Gamwell, who caused quite a stir last year by running as an openly gay student for class president. http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=15537&c=106

He seems like a nice kid but it was very nice to be able to meet someone who put himself on the line to advance all of our causes. It isn't often you get to meet the people behind stories like these, and to be honest I wasn't able to talk to him for long, but I hope to both see and hear more of him in the future. Sadly his team beat ours but those are the breaks.

[yinkaafrica]

1. He is brave but it was wrong to run on a 'gay' platform

He was just looking to stir up trouble.
Too bad the ACLU wastes time on stuff like this.
He has a right to run for office, his sexual appetite is
a different matter.
I don't want to see a sign saying 'hetro guy with an eye for
Hunt High' either. Kinda creepy, definitely out of place.

[dsc]

2. There is some context there

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was taking off as he ran. While I would have run a different campaign too if I had been him I can see what he was doing.

[Name removed]

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[dsc]

4. He was running for class President

one earns spots on quiz bowl teams. Incidently, just how issue filled do you honestly think the usual student government election is?

[Name removed]

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[Rowdyboy]

5. I'm sure that must have been a real pleasure....

Takes a lot of guts to be open like this kid is in high school. I certainly didn't have the guts until I was much older so I admire him for his self-awareness at such a young age.

As to those who criticize his campaign for using his homosexuality-I beg to differ. The young man has every right to run any race he chooses. Would I run that race? No, but I have no idea of the kid's history and so am in no position to judge his motives. More power to him.....

[dsc]

6. After living here for a relatively short time

I can say it had to have taken some major guts, though evidently his school is way better than mine is in that regard. Things are very, very slowly getting better down here.

[Name removed]

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[livinginphotographs]

10. 'Gayness' is now celebrated in schools?????!!!!!!

Okay, I nominate this for fucked-up post of the day.

Newsflash, sweetie, gayness is not celebrated anywhere, unless you consider a serious beat-down a "celebration."

I'm straight and I can see this. But I guess homophobia takes over the part of the brain that controls logical thought.

Don't worry, sweetie. They're not coming to ass-rape you. You can calm down.

[livinginphotographs]

11. Sorry to repost, but I have to add....

I'm straight, and I was beat up for being "gay." The fact that you think it's being "celebrated" either means you're too old to know what modern high schools are like, or you're in fucking denial.

[dsc]

12. Things have changed a bit

but gayness celebrated in rural North Carolina schools, not just no but Hell no. I know from some of that young man's friends that he got threatened repeatedly and attacked once after he ran that race.

[xchrom]

13. i don't think so...

or haven't you been listening to
dobson
the secretary of education
doma
don't ask don't tell
well, really the list longer than this --
but it won't be in anybody's lifetime that posts here that gayness doesn't matter to the str8 masses.

[dsc]

14. ain't that the truth

I had hopes that in my dottering old age, assuming I make it to that, I would see a time when I would be considered just like anyone else but I know that won't happen now.

[tjwmason]

15. I finished school in 1997

Which is not so very long ago.

'Gay' was generally the insult of choice, thought it was generally directed without reference to people's sexuality.

It was a boys' school, which certainly raised such issues; however, it was also a Grammar School (that is, academically selective), which made for a very different atmosphere one more directed towards work. Also it was very much middle-class, and in general (in England) the middle-class are less prejudiced.

Two boys came out whilst still at school. One did so very openly, and the other quietly to a few friends (he was bi not gay). In both cases there were no reprisals at all towards them.

Gayness certainly was not celebrated, but things were not as bad as in former times - also not as bad as in many (or most) places today.

[Duncan Grant]

16. Ridiculous.

If I posted, "Pigs seen flying over Louisiana and Illinois" - it wouldn't make it true.

However, if you would care to back up your assertions with a little supporting evidence, I would read it (anecdotal observations don't count).

Thank you for your attention to this matter.
-94114_San_Francisco

[xchrom]

17. indeed.

all i can think of were the soldiers who got their heads bashed in re? don't ask don't tell{cause we'll kill ya} or had their careers ruined.

out here. in the bay area mind you, it hasn't been two years since a transgendered highschooler was beaten to death.