Some gay high school drama over in New Jersey. Administrators at East Side High School are under fire after censoring a gay senior’s yearbook page.
Andre Jackson didn’t include any pictures of gangs, nudity or violence on his $150 page, all of which the school explicitly prohibits. Instead, Jackson included a picture of him lovingly kissing his boyfriend.
Unfortunately, Superintendent Marion Bolden and her colleagues weren’t so loving: they went through all 230 copies of the yearbook and blacked out the picture.
Garden State Equality’s Steve Goldstein and his colleagues are leading a battle against the school,
This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out. Her (Bolden) trying to erase a student and his boyfriend is a metaphor for her trying to erase the gay and lesbian community out of Newark and its school system. It’s wrong and it’s ridiculous.
Bolden insists, however, the school edited the picture because of its “suggestive” nature. We wonder why, then, they didn’t edit pictures of straight couples kissing. Bolden, who describes herself as “tolerant,” claims there’s no anti-gay bias. The picture, however, crossed a line, “I thought that the photo was suggestive… It looked like two men kissing. To me, it looked fairly illicit. It was pointed out as problematic, so maybe I read more into it.” Ug, that’s so gross. How can she tell the press there’s no bias, but then describe the picture as “illicit”.
For his part, 18-year old Jackson insists he wasn’t looking for trouble,
How about we take this to the next level?
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I didn’t intend to say, ‘Oh hey, look at me, I’m gay. It was just a picture showing my emotion, saying that I’m happy, you know, whatever. It was to look back on as a memory.
Garden State Equality and other pro-gay activists are calling for the school to reprint and redistribute the uncensored yearbook. If the school resists, they’d like to remind Bolden and her cronies that New Jersey prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. And this seems to be a clear cut case of anti-queer discrimination.
To give Bolden a piece of your mind, give her a ring at 1-973-733-7333. Tell her Queerty sent you.
We’d like to say that we love how the school tried to censor Jackson, but now their actions are propelling the picture around the world. Where’s Alanis when you need her?
Paul Raposo
Stupid cow.
You don’t demonstrate your tolerance by telling people you are; you do it through the actions you take. And clearly Ms. Bolden is a bit of a phobe.
rock
To ad to what Paul said, it is not only intolerance and no acceptance whatsover…it is down right homophobic and illegal since as the Superintentant she is acting on behalf of the School Administration. Ms. Bolden is showing her true colours..and they ain’t Rainbow ones…..I hope that they get her to personally pay for all the new year books and to issue a formal apology to Jackson and send her to a seminar on sexual orientation (Just don’t send her to the one Isaiah Washington went to…his didn’t seem to work.)
Alexa
There’s a simple solution – Ms Bolden personally pays to have the yearbooks reprinted and mailed to all 230 students, and she includes a HANDWRITTEN note in each package explaining what she did and why it was wrong and how sorry she is that she did it.
Bryan
Despicable but not entirely surprising. What a dumb woman she is.
apollonia666
I agree that this is messed up and I hope the school decides to apologize and make this right in some way, but rock, I really doubt it’s illegal. Schools have a huge amount of leeway under federal law to censor speech that is considered school-sponsored, and yearbooks and school newspapers almost always fall under that definition. There *might* be some exception under New Jersey state law (I know there is in California, don’t know about Jersey).
HL
That picture is really sweet.
What always got me in high school is the near porn star makeout sessions against the wall with the straight couples. And the gay couples could barely hold hands without peeps freaking out.
Mr. B
Yeah, seriously, HL. The quarterback and the head cheerleader are dry-humping against a locker, and the two queers get detention for hugging in the hallway.
Those poor boys. Too bad being a lover and not a fighter is such a damn sin when you’re a homo.
apollonia666
Update: The principal has apologized, and students will be able to get an un-redacted version of the yearbook if they want one. Yay!