'Lesbians are cool' T-shirt puts Massachusetts school in national spotlight

Started by jimmy olsen, March 12, 2012, 07:19:41 PM

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jimmy olsen

What a bunch of whiners, the shirt's harmless.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10657866-lesbians-are-cool-t-shirt-puts-massachusetts-school-in-national-spotlight
Quote

'Lesbians are cool' T-shirt puts Massachusetts school in national spotlight

By msnbc.com staff
A Massachusetts high school has set off a national free speech debate after a student was reprimanded for wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed, "All the Cool Girls Are Lesbians."

The student, who hasn't been publicly identified, complained in a letter to Judith Flanagan Kennedy, chairwoman of the Lynn, Mass., School Committee — and mayor of the town — that in January, she was asked by a vice principal to cover up the T-shirt and never wear it again, the Lynn Daily Item reported.

In the letter, as quoted by the Daily Item, the student said a teacher referred her to a vice principal because of the T-shirt. The vice principal agreed with the teacher that the shirt was inappropriate "because it's political and offensive to some people," the student said she was told.

"Well, frankly I'm the one who feels offended," she wrote in the letter to Kennedy, adding: "The word lesbian is not inappropriate. Saying it is, is calling homosexuality inappropriate."

Kennedy agreed with her.

Kennedy told members of the School Committee at its meeting last week that she had done some legal research, "and I believe she is right."

The school's dress code prohibits clothing that depicts weapons, drugs or alcohol, or anything considered disruptive, but it doesn't specify gender issues, Kennedy said. The school has a Gay/Straight Alliance, demonstrating its tolerance for such expressions, she said.

The debate over such expressions quickly spread beyond Lynn, a city of 90,000 about 20 miles northeast of Boston, much of it on pro-gay-rights sites like SheWired and The Advocate.

"Truth hurts...," one commenter wrote on SheWired's Facebook page, while another said she "would love to get my hands on a tshirt lol."

But Dallas Chambers, a program director at radio station KISS-FM in Amarillo, Texas, took the side of the assistant principal, writing on the station's Web site that "we have a ton of idiots in our world, students need to be paying attention in class! Not being distracted by naive little girls that think it's cool to be a lesbian."

Jeanne Sager, a blogger for CafeMom, also objected, but on different grounds:

"I'm raising a kid in a pro-gay rights household. That means she's learned that gay kids are just like her. They're equal," she wrote under the headline "Student's 'All Cool Girls Are Lesbians' Shirt Was Way Out of Line."

"What doesn't it mean?" she asked. "That gay kids are 'cooler' than her any more than it means she's cooler than the gay kids."
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

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--------------------------------------------
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Darth Wagtaros

Since it would generally be socially unacceptable to wear a t-shirt saying 'All the cool girls are heterosexual' I agree that this shirt sends a wrong message.
PDH!

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

garbon

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on March 12, 2012, 08:01:52 PM
Since it would generally be socially unacceptable to wear a t-shirt saying 'All the cool girls are heterosexual' I agree that this shirt sends a wrong message.

I don't really see how that's true.  Next up will you be telling us that it is problematic that you can't say white pride without being racist?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

DontSayBanana

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on March 12, 2012, 08:01:52 PM
Since it would generally be socially unacceptable to wear a t-shirt saying 'All the cool girls are heterosexual' I agree that this shirt sends a wrong message.

That's the exact point the last person mentioned in the article made.
Experience bij!

CountDeMoney


garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Darth Wagtaros

PDH!

katmai

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 12, 2012, 11:19:38 PM
It's supposed to say, "Lipstick Lesbians are Cool".  Morons.

They are a figment of your imagination, like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

CountDeMoney

Quote from: katmai on March 13, 2012, 07:30:09 AM
They are a figment of your imagination, like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

If it's in porn, it's real.

katmai

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Eddie Teach

Quote from: katmai on March 13, 2012, 07:30:09 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 12, 2012, 11:19:38 PM
It's supposed to say, "Lipstick Lesbians are Cool".  Morons.

They are a figment of your imagination, like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

Portia de Rossi is quite attractive. :contract:
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Scipio

It would be better if it was one of those "lesbians are gay" shirts.
What I speak out of my mouth is the truth.  It burns like fire.
-Jose Canseco

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-Every cop, The Wire

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Valmy

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Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Camerus

A somewhat tough position for the principal or vice-principal, since either telling the student to change the shirt or allowing her to wear it (thus also possibly opening the door to similar or even "edgier" shirts worn by her or other students) both open the door to complaints from the "outrage police" on either side of the spectrum.  However, in my view, the vice-principal made the wrong decision for a variety of reasons.