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Monday, June 25, 2007

Newark School Official Apologizes for Censoring Gay Kiss—Kinda, Sorta

posted by on June 25 at 13:49 PM

This weekend I wrote a couple of blog posts—here and here—about Andre Jackson, a gay high school senior in Newark, New Jersey.

Jackson paid $150 for a “tribute page” in his school’s yearbook. Like some of the other kids that paid for tribute pages, Andre included a picture on his tribute page of him kissing his significant other. But Andre’s SO was another boy, so Newark Superintendent Marion A. Bolden ordered that all 230 copies of the East Side High’s 2007 yearbook be seized. Officials then used black magic markers to ink out the supposedly “illicit” photo, lest it “offend parents.”

At first school officials suggested that no kissing photos were allowed, and claimed not to be aware of other pictures in the yearbook that showed straight teenagers kissing—including a much more explicit photo on the tribute page directly across from Jackson’s tribute page. Somehow officials failed to notice that picture each of the 230 times they opened the East Side High yearbook to Jackson’s page and blacked out the photo of him kissing his boyfriend. Then they claimed that they acted on “erroneous information”—namely, that they had been told that Andre Jackson, one of East Side High’s graduating seniors, wasn’t actually a student.

Marion Bolden has now apologized.

The Newark city school district that ordered staffers to use markers to black out a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend from all copies of a school yearbook now says it regrets the decision.

Superintendent Marion A. Bolden issued an apology to the student, Andre Jackson, according to a statement released by the district on Monday.

“The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph,” the district said. “Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him,” according to the statement.

The district said it would reissue an “un-redacted version” of the 2007 yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.

Andre Jackson isn’t satisfied:

At a news conference organized by Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, Jackson said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not told him she was sorry face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn’t accept her apology as sincere.

“I would accept an apology—a public apology,” said Jackson, who found out about the district’s statement through the media.

They didn’t even call him? That’s not an apology, that’s a press release.

Another angle on this story: Andre Jackson and his boyfriend are openly gay and black, which can be hard enough without school officials singling you out for discriminatory treatment. Homophobia in the African American community—constantly being fanned by callous African American preachers like, oh, these assholes—helped to create the “down low.”

In order to avoid being ostracized by their families and churches, many gay African American men lead double lives. They have girlfriends and wives but meet up with other gay men on the “down low” for anonymous sex. Since using condoms with their wives would arouse suspicion, gay black men on the down low place their female partners at risk of HIV infection and many of these women wind up contracting HIV as a result. The homophobia in the African American community is quite literally killing African American women.

Gay men like Andre Jackson and his boyfriend—gay African American men who refuse to place women’s lives at risk by leading double lives, gay men who are, in Jackson’s case, out to his “teachers, classmates and his parents”—should be commended and given support, not treated so shabbily by public officials.

RSS icon Comments

1

I hope he got his $150 back, too.

Posted by bitch on heels | June 25, 2007 2:35 PM
2

If I were one his classmates, I certainly would have been supporting him, probably by developing a huge crush.

Posted by Gitai | June 25, 2007 2:37 PM
3

Big of them to reissue the yearbook to "anyone who wants one." Of course what they ought to do is round up ALL the copies and replace them with "un-redacted" copies. They won't do that, of course. They're trying to create a win-win for themselves - they censored the offending image before anyone could complain and now can offer uncensored copies to anyone who wants one. Want to bet that a lot of the students won't take up the offer?

Posted by Matt from Denver | June 25, 2007 2:47 PM
4

Of course, everybody's aware that the "down low" phenomenon doesn't happen with white men. Right? I mean, all those caucasian guys on Craigslist, quite openly stating that they're going behind their wife or girlfriend's back. They don't count, correct?

Smells like racism, Savage.

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 3:16 PM
5

Of course, everybody's aware that the "down low" phenomenon doesn't happen with white men. Right? I mean, all those caucasian guys on Craigslist, quite openly stating that they're going behind their wife or girlfriend's back. They don't count, correct?

Smells like racism, Savage.

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 3:17 PM
6

Of course, everybody's aware that the "down low" phenomenon doesn't happen with white men. Right? I mean, all those caucasian guys on Craigslist, quite openly stating that they're going behind their wife or girlfriend's back. They don't count, correct?

Smells like racism, Savage.

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 3:19 PM
7

Do the kids still get folks to sign yearbooks? They did when I was in High School, and that was always done during the last days of school... chances are a re-order would take a few weeks to print them up... so the kids would miss the chance for autographs until way into summer vacation.


I the bigger picture, why would The Powers That Be in this high school act any different from other American who are part of their own power/authority structure... screw over people you don't agree with, issue an apology after the damage is real, then still get your way... works for the GWBush administration, so why not some small-time school district... TPTB didn't give a shit about the homosexual students last week, and unless they had a brain transplant over the weekend, they still don't give a shit about them this week.

Win-Win for those empowered, shit-end of the stick for everyone else. The message being sent: "don't be different. Or you WILL suffer by me".

Posted by Phenics | June 25, 2007 3:19 PM
8

I sincerely apologize for the duplicate posts. Post didn't go up for at least 20 minutes, so I tried again, and again. I apologize.

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 3:43 PM
9

Gay white men can be closeted, of course. By the DL was a subculture created by African American gay men--but don't take my white word for it.

On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep with Men--that's J.L. King's book about the DL.

Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America--it's Keith Boykin's book, written partly in response to King's, also about the DL. You might wanna read it, BD.

Posted by Dan Savage | June 25, 2007 3:46 PM
10

@4-6,

The down low problem is significantly worse in the African-American community. Pointing out that fact is hardly racism. If anything, it's racist to ignore the problem, let asshole homobigots continue to scare black homos into the closet, and continue to see HIV infections climb in the African-American community.

Posted by keshmeshi | June 25, 2007 3:49 PM
11

Dan, "kesh",

what evidence do you have that the "down low" is "worse" in the African-American community? Can you define "worse"?

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 3:58 PM
12

Sure:

From the Washington Post:

U.S. HIV Cases Soaring Among Black Women Social Factors Make Group Vulnerable

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 7, 2005; Page A01

He was, Precious Jackson said, a very fine black man. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall with an almond-milk complexion, dreamy dark eyes and a deep voice. During their nearly two years together in Los Angeles, he was the sunshine of her life, even though he had a habit of landing in jail and refused to use a condom when they made love.

"I didn't ask him any questions," Jackson said in a recent interview. "I didn't ask him about his sexual history. I asked him if he had been tested, and he said one test came back positive but another one came back negative. I was excited to have this man in my life, because I felt I needed this man to validate who I was."

The man is now Jackson's ex-lover, but the two are forever attached by the AIDS virus she contracted from him, becoming, in the process, a part of the nation's fastest-growing group of people with HIV -- black women.

From BlackWomensHealth.com:

AIDS and African American Women

African American communities are being ravaged and attacked by an epidemic of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). At issue is our lifestyle. Although a number of AIDS cases can be attributed to Injection Drug Use (IDU), too many of us – whether gay, straight, male or female – continue to have unprotected sex with multiple partners or people we barely know.

The AIDS rate among Black women is three times as high as that among Latino women and 18 times as high as that among White women. Today Black women make up more than half of all women who have died of AIDS.

African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, yet we now account for 41 percent of all AIDS cases in the United States. The Harvard AIDS Institute estimates that by the year 2000 more than half of all our country’s AIDS cases will be within the African American community.

Posted by Dan Savage | June 25, 2007 4:13 PM
13

I don't think African-Americans invented the "down low"...otherwise known as: sneaking behind your wife/girlfriend's back and having sex with another man.

A "subculture"? Please. If so, then it's no more or less a subculture than white men who do the same thing.

Posted by BD | June 25, 2007 4:15 PM
14

Sure:

From the Washington Post:

U.S. HIV Cases Soaring Among Black Women Social Factors Make Group Vulnerable

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 7, 2005; Page A01

He was, Precious Jackson said, a very fine black man. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall with an almond-milk complexion, dreamy dark eyes and a deep voice. During their nearly two years together in Los Angeles, he was the sunshine of her life, even though he had a habit of landing in jail and refused to use a condom when they made love.

"I didn't ask him any questions," Jackson said in a recent interview. "I didn't ask him about his sexual history. I asked him if he had been tested, and he said one test came back positive but another one came back negative. I was excited to have this man in my life, because I felt I needed this man to validate who I was."

The man is now Jackson's ex-lover, but the two are forever attached by the AIDS virus she contracted from him, becoming, in the process, a part of the nation's fastest-growing group of people with HIV -- black women.

From BlackWomensHealth.com:

AIDS and African American Women

African American communities are being ravaged and attacked by an epidemic of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). At issue is our lifestyle. Although a number of AIDS cases can be attributed to Injection Drug Use (IDU), too many of us – whether gay, straight, male or female – continue to have unprotected sex with multiple partners or people we barely know.

The AIDS rate among Black women is three times as high as that among Latino women and 18 times as high as that among White women. Today Black women make up more than half of all women who have died of AIDS.

African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, yet we now account for 41 percent of all AIDS cases in the United States. The Harvard AIDS Institute estimates that by the year 2000 more than half of all our country’s AIDS cases will be within the African American community.

Posted by Dan Savage | June 25, 2007 4:15 PM
15

Wow, you read those books really fast, BD!

Posted by Chris | June 25, 2007 4:16 PM
16

A few thoughts on this comment:

Since using condoms with their wives would arouse suspicion, gay black men on the down low place their female partners at risk of HIV infection and many of these women wind up contracting HIV as a result. The homophobia in the African American community is quite literally killing African American women.


Here's a bit from Uganda, where we are very interested in altering the sexual behavior of Black people:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20070622234126AAenskt

Why did so called 'safe sex' "Have no hint of even a small effect"?

Sex And HIV: Behaviour-Change Trial Shows No Link
The East African (Nairobi)
March 17, 2003

By Paul Redfern, Special Correspondent Nairobi

A UK funded trial aimed at reducing the spread of Aids in Uganda by modifying sexual behaviour appears to have had little discernible effect.

The trial, carried out on around 15,000 people in the Masaka region, involved distributing condoms, treating around 12,000 victims of sexually transmitted diseases and counselling.

However, while the trial led to a marked change in sexual behavioural patterns, [good black people, good!] with the proportion reporting causal sexual partners falling from around 35 per cent to 15 per cent, there was no noticeable fall in the number of new cases of HIV infection.

////////////


So, we altered behavior, but not "infection rates".

The reason why this is can be found in any of the literature on hiv testing. Here's one from the NEJM, last year:

"A case–control study of 101 blood donors who had been vaccinated against influenza and 191 matched controls showed that recent inoculation with any brand of influenza vaccine was significantly associated with a false positive screening assay for HIV antibodies. Guidelines of both Johns Hopkins and the New York State Department of Health list influenza vaccination as a known cause of indeterminate results on Western blotting for HIV antibodies.

Given the escalating international awareness of various influenza strains, it is very important to remind patients and clinicians that influenza vaccination may cause cross-reactivity with HIV antibody assays."

/////////

On the other hand, here's a piece, specifically on homos (as Savage would say), that showed that even when homos had oral sex, (and as much as they wanted!!!), they still didn't come up "positive".

"Page-Shafer is a researcher at the Center for AIDS Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco. At the 2004 World AIDS Conference, she presented data from a study of 400 men whose only form of sexual behavior was receiving oral sex. Despite little condom use with multiple partners -- including partners known to be infected with HIV -- none of the men came down with HIV infection.

"We had zero infections over 1,493 person-years of exposure to oral receptive sex," Page-Shafer tells WebMD. "This doesn't mean there aren't factors that contribute to easier HIV transmission by oral sex. It does happen. But data confirm it is a pretty rare occurrence."


/////////////


The reason why there's no reason in hiv testing, can be learned by reading what hiv tests actually do, and do not do.

But you'd have to be interested be able to tolerate reading what 'hiv tests' actually test for.

Which you can do, or not do.

Posted by LS | June 25, 2007 4:24 PM
17

A few thoughts on this comment:

Since using condoms with their wives would arouse suspicion, gay black men on the down low place their female partners at risk of HIV infection and many of these women wind up contracting HIV as a result. The homophobia in the African American community is quite literally killing African American women.


Here's a bit from Uganda, where we are very interested in altering the sexual behavior of Black people:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20070622234126AAenskt

Why did so called 'safe sex' "Have no hint of even a small effect"?

Sex And HIV: Behaviour-Change Trial Shows No Link
The East African (Nairobi)
March 17, 2003

By Paul Redfern, Special Correspondent Nairobi

A UK funded trial aimed at reducing the spread of Aids in Uganda by modifying sexual behaviour appears to have had little discernible effect.

The trial, carried out on around 15,000 people in the Masaka region, involved distributing condoms, treating around 12,000 victims of sexually transmitted diseases and counselling.

However, while the trial led to a marked change in sexual behavioural patterns, [good black people, good!] with the proportion reporting causal sexual partners falling from around 35 per cent to 15 per cent, there was no noticeable fall in the number of new cases of HIV infection.

////////////


So, we altered behavior, but not "infection rates".

The reason why this is can be found in any of the literature on hiv testing. Here's one from the NEJM, last year:

"A case–control study of 101 blood donors who had been vaccinated against influenza and 191 matched controls showed that recent inoculation with any brand of influenza vaccine was significantly associated with a false positive screening assay for HIV antibodies. Guidelines of both Johns Hopkins and the New York State Department of Health list influenza vaccination as a known cause of indeterminate results on Western blotting for HIV antibodies.

Given the escalating international awareness of various influenza strains, it is very important to remind patients and clinicians that influenza vaccination may cause cross-reactivity with HIV antibody assays."

/////////

On the other hand, here's a piece, specifically on homos (as Savage would say), that showed that even when homos had oral sex, (and as much as they wanted!!!), they still didn't come up "positive".

"Page-Shafer is a researcher at the Center for AIDS Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco. At the 2004 World AIDS Conference, she presented data from a study of 400 men whose only form of sexual behavior was receiving oral sex. Despite little condom use with multiple partners -- including partners known to be infected with HIV -- none of the men came down with HIV infection.

"We had zero infections over 1,493 person-years of exposure to oral receptive sex," Page-Shafer tells WebMD. "This doesn't mean there aren't factors that contribute to easier HIV transmission by oral sex. It does happen. But data confirm it is a pretty rare occurrence."


/////////////


The reason why there's no reason in hiv testing, can be learned by reading what hiv tests actually do, and do not do.

But you'd have to be interested be able to tolerate reading what 'hiv tests' actually test for.

Which you can do, or not do.

Posted by LS | June 25, 2007 4:26 PM
18

double post - sorry, server hiccups.

Posted by LS | June 25, 2007 4:35 PM
19

This reminds me of a college friend of mine's high school yearbook, from a school in suburban Atlanta. There was a Hispanic kid whose name, which was something completely who-could-guess like Mike Thomas, was printed in the yearbook as Spic Rodriguez. The yearbooks were handed out on the last day of school, and the kids all signed them that afternoon. After the "mistake" was found, new ones were printed, but nobody wanted to trade in their signed yearbook for a new one--and there was a certain guilty pleasure in owning one of the to-be-urban-legended contraband ones. My friend still has the Spic Rodriguez version of her yearbook--and you can bet that the kids at East Side High School aren't going to turn theirs in either.

Grr.

Posted by Christin | June 25, 2007 6:49 PM
20

Somebody get that kid a lawyer, and then give that kid a medal.

Posted by Boomer in NYC | June 25, 2007 7:43 PM
21

BD--

"Smells like racism, Savage"?

I smell a) a foreigner or b) someone from, I don't know, Wyoming? How anyone who has an even passing acquaintance with black American culture could not know about the rampant homophobia and down-low phenomenon is a mystery to me.

Poke your nose into just about any majority-black internet forum and you'll see these subjects discussed sooner or later. They are a huge preoccupation for many, many black Americans. Your ignorance of a particular phenomenon, BD, doesn't negate its existence. So you can put away your Anti-Racism Avenger cape.

Posted by Utch | June 25, 2007 7:47 PM
22

I think someone didn't like that there were 2 homos kissing in the yearbook and realized they were gonna get lots of shit if they didn't fix it. I think this is stupid. Who fucking cares? It is a dumb yearbook. I have no problems with gay people being around me, but im not ashamed to admit that I still gag and almost puke when I see two of them kissing. I wish it wasn't that way, but it's fact. It is what happens. But the same thing happens when I see a homeless straight couple. Or just downright dirty poop people kissing in general. I say just leave it out of the year book. I don't like it, don't hate me for not liking it. Most straight people cringe on the inside whether they tell you or not.

Posted by Ryan | June 25, 2007 8:46 PM
23

Hey, do us a favor and don't speak out for "most straight people," all right?

Posted by Darcy | June 25, 2007 10:03 PM
24

Ryan, don't be an asswipe.

Seeing heteros kissing used to make me cringe too. But you know, after seeing heteros kissing on nearly every TV show, every magazine, half the ads on TV and in print and even on billboards, not to mention seeing actual live heteros kissing in school and classroom hallways, park benches, restaurants, busses, bars, and pretty much anywhere people hang out for the last 45 years, I've sort of gotten used to the phenomena.

But even though it makes me cringe a little inside whenever I'm forced to see it (which probably happens dozens of times every day), I tolerate the spectacle that is hetero kissing. Why? Because I'm a tolerant kind of guy. I recognize that heteros exist and kissing is a normal part of hetero behavior.

The whole point of this exercise is that homos also have a right to exist. And kissing is also a normal part of homo behavior. And even though the sight of it might make you cringe a little, I absolutely expect you to accept it and tolerate it.

If you learn to tolerate things that are different, you might even find that your life is less stressful than if you spend your whole life trying to get people who are different than you to disappear from your existence.

Posted by SDA in SEA | June 25, 2007 11:24 PM
25

I just thumbed through my high school yearbook and found absolutely NO photos of ANYONE kissing ANYONE. Did I grow up in some alternate universe?

Posted by lawrence clark | June 26, 2007 4:24 AM
26

@16 - It kind of scares me that getting a flu shot can make one test false positive for HIV. Not that I have a panicked worry that flu is one step from HIV or anything, I'm more worried about what that knowledge does on the streets. "Don't worry honey, I'm not really HIV+, I just had a flu shot."

Posted by amy! | June 26, 2007 5:06 AM
27

Know a homophobic asshole? Try sendahole.com.

Posted by Fred | June 26, 2007 6:07 AM
28

I am so glad the school had the discernment to block this photo. It would have been better if the photo had not been placed in the yearbook in the first place.

Posted by richard | June 26, 2007 8:13 AM
29

I am so glad the school had the discernment to block this photo. It would have been better if the photo had not been placed in the yearbook in the first place.

Posted by richard | June 26, 2007 8:14 AM
30

Amy,

why wouldn't it worry you more that someone who had a flu shot is told that they are, for the rest of their lives, 'hiv positive'?

It's a death sentence of drugs and social isolation.

(Versus the flu, which you can get over in a week, without a shot. Lots of ginger tea, lots of hot water.)

I don't get the inverted concern...

I mean, Christ, why not worry that these tests test for Flu and not for Aids?

Posted by LS | June 26, 2007 8:21 AM
31

Number 24. point taken! didnt think that you might hate heteros kissing. On a different note, my vote is for communism! then we can all be oppressed and have other things to worry about

Posted by Ryan | June 26, 2007 9:41 AM
32

Communism was just a red herring.

Posted by Dono | June 26, 2007 12:17 PM
33

I was appalled to read that story. But now I'm extremely curious to see the photo, as I seriously doubt it's "illicit". Anyone know if the photo made it onto the Internet?

Posted by Liz | June 26, 2007 12:18 PM
34

So you can put away your Anti-Racism Avenger cape

Cute.

Sorry if I disagree with you on this.

It's because this sort of thing happens with white men as well, except they don't have a hip term for it, unless "screwing around" counts.

The "down low" has great media appeal. It's a riveting sex and betrayal story with a hip name that can be sold again and again. Of course, it doesn't happen with white people now, does it? Are we just smarter than black people? Haven't they heard of the HIV thing? Let me know, I'm from Montana or something.

Posted by BD | June 26, 2007 1:18 PM
35

I'm still trying to figure out how a test that tests for the deadly down-low-kissing virus, of Savages heated imagination, also tests for the flu?

I'm slow or something, because I thought hiv tests tested for hiv, not for the flu.

hey, what's with some lesbian on the d-l action? I'm hip. I'll go a few, and I'm generous in the giving department, my hot and horny d-l lesbian amours.

I mean, where's the lesbians on the D-L?

What, nobody loves cuddling anymore? I'll cuddle? I'll spoon! I'll dive, come on, I mean, if gay men are always on the d-l, getting flu - I mean 'hiv' tests, then where are the ladies?

Hey BD, you're crazy if you think that white men have sex with other men, when they're also in relationships with women.

i mean, come on. Really now. So silly - but it does remind me of this Cole Porter number...

Posted by LS | June 26, 2007 9:06 PM
36

Hey BD, you're crazy if you think that white men have sex with other men, when they're also in relationships with women

Well, you can check out Craigslist and see this quite blatantly occurring. You can also peruse the various bareback websites...see if there's anybody you know there. You could also check out the bathhouses. But this phenomenon amongst white men fails to captivate us because it doesn't have a cool, hip name...like the ooh, yeah..."down low"...oh, baby! Uhhhh....huhhhh...uhhhhhhhhh.....aaaaahhhhhhh.

Maybe we could come up with a cool name for the white guys engaging in this behavior. Why should they not be stigmatized and shamed like black men?

Does make you wonder though, doesn't it? I mean, black guys going behind their women's backs to have sex with men...we must assume they're not using condoms with their male partners, right? Then, they get home, and have to do their duty with their woman, BUT now that they're probably all chock-full of AIDS, they don't want to "give that away" by putting on a condom for their woman. Seems to show an awareness of the HIV problem, but the black men don't seem at all concerned for their safety or their woman's. Strange. Maybe they just want to get it on, and that's all those black folk care about? Maybe Dan Savage can enlighten us. He's always full of answers to things.

Posted by BD | June 26, 2007 10:17 PM
37

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