Comments on School Outing

Ah, the South. They don't much like Yankees there. WELL, WE DON'T FUCKING LIKE YOU MUCH EITHER.

this makes me fucking sick. disgusting, disgusting people. shameful. fucking idiots. i am filled with rage.

gee. think it touched a nerve with me?

Can we just kick the southern states out of the Union this time around? Kinda like a reverse Civil War: The north fights to get rid of the southern states.

This is the worst thing I've ever heard--much worse than when my Amarillo, Texas, high school principal outed me to my mother before I got the chance to do it myself.

Any lawyer could totally clean up in this case.

I wish we had the numbers/emails of the school district--this principal should be fired, and we, as a group, should register our outcry and demand action.

Does anyone else find it interesting that Andrew's mother's name is Andrea and Nicholas's mother's name is Nichole? It seems like a really bizarre coincidence.

"this makes me fucking sick. disgusting, disgusting people. shameful. fucking idiots. i am filled with rage."

Motherfuckin ditto.

I try so damn hard never to wish ill on these people, but hateful, shaming, destroying actions like these almost demand at least a desire, a hope that we can enjoy some serious schadenfreude at this woman's expense.

Kinda hard to find, but worth it.

Prinicpal's e-mail:

beasleyd@mcsk12.net

Daphne Beasley.

Give 'em hell, kids.

The principal's info is
Daphne Beasley
BeasleyD@mcsk12.net
(901) 435-1765
Physical Address:
807 Walker Avenue
Memphis, TN 38126

The Superintendent's info is
Dan Ward
2597 Avery, Room 214
Memphis, TN 38112
Phone: (901) 416-5300
Fax: (901) 416-5578
e-mail: superintendentward@mcsk12.net

addresses of all School Board Members can be found here -
http://www.memphis-schools.k12.t...tions/ board.htm

This is from the school's website:
http://www.mcsk12.net/schools/hollisfprice.hs/site/index.shtml

"The Hollis F. Price Beliefs:
We believe that every member of our learning community has value and worth and has the right to be respected."

Funny, no? Incidentally, the principal's name and email are also on that website, fyi.

Whee! And while we're at it...

The Board of Commisioners:

hartt@mcsk12.net
jonesmartaviusd@mcsk12.net
williamsf@mcsk12.net
whalumkennetht@mcsk12.net
gatewoods@mcsk12.net
MallottBettyJ@mcsk12.net
robinsonp@mcsk12.net
warrenj@mcsk12.net
webbsharona@mcsk12.net

Last, and apparently least...
The Superintendant:

superintendentward@mcsk12.net

Good way to kill 15 minutes...

Wow. Impressive response.

Slog overkill.

bleeck. make that

http://www.memphis-schools.k12.tn.us/admin/communications/board.htm

"...a publicly posted list of known students couples..."

Was this a list maintained prior to this event or something the school just does? If the latter, that seems really freakin' weird.

I think Dan supports this.

After all, they were living a hypocritcal life, by not being open, and Dan loves to out guys who are hypocrites.

This is just par for the course for Dan. He is just as disgusting when it comes to this type of behavior.

Wait, wait, wait, don't break away and leave me with these people! Perhaps we can trade POWs? Switch me for Ken Hutcherson; I don't eat much and I promise not to blow dart pigeons. I don't want to be trapped in a country of these small-minded freaks either!

welcome to fired.

dan doesn't support outing high school students. he has no patience for people who are living on their own who have nothing substantial to lose by coming out. do try to keep up, ecce.

15 You are an unpleasent person. I don't believe you understand much about Dan or gay people. You just want to spit vitriole.
Outing political and religious hypocrits is one thing. Outing students who just want to love each other is just plain rotten and mean. Keep your chins up guys. Ignore morons and count your money when you nail this bitch. It's a good kick start in life and you'll find most people, unlike your principal, are decent.

Are there homes for kids like this? I mean...if the parents had a problem with the gay thing, and the school turned the whole community against the kids, are their halfway houses specifically for gay teens?

Right there with you, Adrian @2.

I suppose, in the scheme of things wrong in the world, this shouldn't rank all that high... But it fucking infuriates me!

Right there with you, Adrian @2.

I suppose, in the scheme of things wrong in the world, this shouldn't rank all that high... But it fucking infuriates me!

PS - I swear I only clicked 'post' once...

At least they will have an interesting college essay

Dan, if you haven't already done so, this would look real nice in tomorrow's Savage Love. With the email addresses, of course. Fuck 'em.

Letter sent ... ACLU kill! kill!

@3:
"Kinda like a reverse Civil War: The north fights to get rid of the southern states."

Where do I sign up?

3 & 27 -- That would SOOO be worth a draft. And beyond this horrid story, the likes of which there are no doubt many many others, the southern states use up a shit-ton of our federal dollars and contribute much less than their share. A forced secession would be faaabulous. And Hillary could be their Democratic nominee if she wanted.

Oh, ecce. I love you.

I do think people should be out—by no later than age 18, as I've said time and again. Unless mom and dad are 1. paying for your education and 2. total assholes. Then you can get an extension. But once you're no longer financial dependent on your parents, there's no excuse to be closeted. None. Period. You're just a coward.

Still, I'm not going to support outing some random, closeted, private person. Only politicians or powerful people that take one position on homosexuality in public (anti) and a very different one in private (prone) qualify for outing. And even then your anti-gay-assholery has to rise to the level of outing, which is a brutal tactic that, as I've written on Slog, should be reserved for brutes.

@28: There is a reason that the North didn't let the South secede and that is because we had a responsibility to our Southern brothers and sisters (particularly those whose civil rights were being trashed) to force the Southern states to live up to the Constitution that governs us all. We have no less responsibility now. Our mistake was not in fighting the Civil War but in breaking off the nation-building of Reconstruction far too soon. It took decades of reconstruction to bring Germany and Japan into the civilized fold. Although we should not again militarily occupy the South, we can legally and economically force them into modernity. There has been significant progress over the past 40 years but there is still a lot of work to be done. And for those who think this is a Northern elitist attitude, you're damn right it is. We shed a lot of blood to beat the South fair and square and we get to make the rules (in this case, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution).

kk, careful what you say about the reconstruction. Lincoln's assasination was supposedly the worst thing that could have happened to it.

As Lincoln envissioned it, the reconstruction was SUPPOSED to be simply rebuilding the South's economy and healing wounds have deep routed enmity. What really happened was blatant economic exploitation by carpet baggers and punative attitudes which demanded compensation for the cost of the war. The reconstruction was done WRONG had done little but rekindle a more quiet divide, created the KKK. All good stuff that resulted from bitter reonstruction as opposed to a benevolent one.

Europe learned this lesson the hard way after World War I. (Even though Woodraw Wilson at least half assedly tried to make it go smoothly)

30 and 31,

Damn, no one gets history right. kk, yes, it's true, Reconstruction was a good thing stopped too soon. But no, racism is not a Southern thing and the "North" has no right to get off on its supposed superiority on racial matters. Instead of Jim Crow, we had sundown towns and racist neighborhood covenants, including right here in Seattle. The reality is that this entire nation hasn't done enough to confront its racist pass, and just blaming the South is bullshit.

@31, the KKK was not created by Reconstruction. It was created by Confederate veterans in the immediate aftermath of the war, before Reconstruction had even gotten underway. The official founding was December 1865. The radical Republicans didn't gain power until the following year, so you can't blame the formation of the KKK on the supposed excesses of the people who came to power after it was founded. When the Klan was refounded (essentially as a different organization) in the 1920s, its largest chapters were outside of the traditional South and devoted to expelling non-whites from mostly northern towns, including Oregon where it briefly controlled the state government.

But hey, your name is OR Matt. Maybe your bullshit ideas about the KKK come from living in a KKK-infested state.

@32 ... I'm multitasking here and I skipped a step. The KKK gained a LOT of sympathisers in the South when black people were starting to make as much if not MORE than whites in the South.

And no I never blamed the South for ALL of the racism in this country. I just said, be careful when you say the "reconstruction should have lasted longer" The Southerners I know have a very different and embittered version of the reconstruction.

I didn't grow up in Oregon, I grew up in CT (the more diverse part of it) (and spent my undergrad in VT). And yes, I know damn well that the Northern states had the hardest time adjusting to and ratifying the 13th through 15th ammendaments, well particularly the right to vote. Most Northerners never even saw black people until they started leaving the Jim Crowe South trying improve their lot.

Another fun fact of northern bigotry is the whole supposed Boston curse, particularly the Red Sox and celtics. Who were loosing games because of their hesitance to hire black players in an Irish immigrant community.

@33 So what you're saying is that if the Red Sox hired blacks, they would tighten games?

Oh wait. You just can't spell.

@34 ... fuck the tree pollen ... I'll just finally admit to myself that I can't think today.

@16: Aww, you can come stay with me after the war! I like (sane) southerners.

Everyone who is using this as an opportunity to trash the South is really breaking my heart. I'm a native Memphian and stuff like this is why I fled in the first place. Southerners need your support, not to be written off entirely as a group of hateful, slaw-jawed yokels who can't get it together. Not every Southerner is like that; the ignorant people are just what everyone sees because those of us who are disenfranchised don't have a voice. Spend your energy emailing or writing letters to or calling the Memphis School Superintendent and the school board members, not spewing a bunch of ignorant bile. You're not doing anything productive otherwise.

Elitist attitudes like this are why intelligent, progressive Southerners STILL don't like Yankees.

I can't believe this...Dan is definitely right...this principal and Hutcherson would surely get along. Speaking of Hutcherson and bigotry, I was just forwarded this petition looking to make sure Mount Si High School (Hutcherson's latest target) get's their shit together and continues to do the right thing. Show you care:

http://eqfed.org/campaign/day_of_silence

I don't know why people are trashing the south on this. This really isn't that much of a "Southern phenomenon" Right here above the Manson/Nixon line, in "Bloody Free State Kansas", we welcome, nurture and feed our pet Rev fred Phelps and his www.godhatesfags.com Westboro Bigot Cult.

And I am sure that Fred and Fam are QUITE pleased with this principals principles, and Schindlers List.

But....WTF is wrong with memphis anyway? I thought that Love In Action was a fluke?

Holy shit writing those letters to the principal and superintendent felt good.

Go ahead...you try too! Let's smote those asses!

@37 I thought I was backing you up a bit in saying the reconstruction was done wrong.

Besides Southern Girls are WONDERFUL.

Consider their asses e-smoted (Or e-smited?)

so much for not embarrassing the school or engage in inappropriate behavior; the principal had that covered!