Theater Imbeciles in America (or at Least in Deerfield, Illinois)
posted by on March 7 at 11:15 AM
Deerfield High School is again under fire by a North Shore Christian group because the school offers the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” to college-bound seniors.
Lora Sue Hauser, executive director of NSSA, complained that the book is replete with profanity, overt racism, an explicit description of a sex act involving Mother Teresa and vivid depictions of sodomy.
“After almost 15 years of school advocacy and reviewing many objectionable books and curricula, I have never seen anything this vulgar and harmful to students,” Hauser said.
You should read Shakespeare sometime, Lora Sue. Try and count the cock and cunt jokes in Henry IV alone—you’ll lose your tiny, tiny mind.
Last year, Lora Sue and the NSSA slammed the Deerfield School District for the unconscionable crime of admitting there might be such a creature as a gay high school student:
The school district and NSSA clashed last year over a freshman orientation session where students talked about bullying and other issues and included gay students relating their experience in high school.
This year, the Christian imbeciles are pressuring the school board to fire all the principal, the district superintendent George Fornero, and all teachers involved with the Angels in America program (for which Tony Kushner shows up to discuss the play with those lucky, lucky students).
If you want to send an email to the school board encouraging them not to capitulate to willfully ignorant imbeciles like Lora Sue, email board president Helene Herbstman at: HEHCUBS@aol.com.
And board vice president Ken Fishbain at: ken_fishbain@ghr.org.
And, if you want to tell the good folks at the NSSA to keep their imbecilic lit-crit to themselves, email Lora Sue at her “Illinois Family Institute” address: IFIschool@illinoisfamily.org.
But be polite.
I will happily loan them some of my machetes if they feel like cutting each others' heads off.
In our own backyard we've got Ken Hutcherson and his cronies putting pressure to teachers and other personnel in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Last night, the board for that district indicated support for the Day of Silence that is coming up soon. Don't expect Hutch or other like minded people to go away quietly. They've formed the Nixonian sounding "Coalition to Defend Education", webpage and all to attempt to marginalize and pressure people, using the usual language that indicates they want "neutrality" when in reality they want LGBT kids and others to go back into the closet and shut the fuck up.
As the LGBT community gains more and more ground the people most opposed will increase their volume. We must continue to shine the light on them when they do pop up and call them on their shit.
nice. i haven't read the play in a few years, but where is there racism in it?
I fucking suck at being polite online.
It's hilarious that these two posts (Previous-Iran)are side by side. Do people NOT see what a theocracy brings? Once again, the Christian Right bangs its own drum and can not see what is going on in the rest of the world.
I was going to ask the same question as konstantConsumer. Where's the racism in Angels in America? Granted, it's been years since I've seen the stage show, so I don't know what was changed in the HBO version, and while I can think of a scene in the movie where one character accuses another of racism, it's to prove a point about the character, not because the play or Kushner condones racism.
That being said, I wish the fucking right wingers would admit that the same First Amendment they say gives them the right to pray in schools gives students the right to read whatever they want without having their school reading list censored.
Lora Sue Hauser!?!?!?!?
WTF?!?!
If you used that name for a rightwing, bigoted, mid western character in a story and submitted it to your creative writing professor, they'd hand your paper back and ask you to be less obvious!
I grew up in the school district that encompasses DHS, though I went to it's sister high school HPHS, and have to say that they have been remarkable in their support for LGBT students.
George Fornero has been unwavering in his stand against Lora Sue and her band of censors. During her attack last year he said that letters of support for LGBT students were critical to his ability to fend of the American Family Institute and I am sure it would be the same way now. So, please, email or call the school and voice your support for LGBT students, literature, curricula and art!
Gosh... what happened to protecting our children from this smut? I can only imagine George Fornero telling God he did good. I mean really the guy claims he is Christian but biblically I cannot find anything in the Torah or the bible to support his decisions. This is pathetic...
Lora Sue Hauser is overreacting. But let's face it, Angels in America is overrated. It sucks in fact and is a very ethno-centric whine.
I doubt if you even know who Shakespeare is. If looks as if you want to choose literature for the school from the porn bookstore, material meant for lower class, low IQ individuals who like repetitive grunt sounds in their dialogue.
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