Remind us not to send our imaginary children to Memphis public schools. Administrators there have basically cleared principal Daphne Beasley of any wrongdoing in the student outing scandal.
Officials released a statement today assuring parents – and press – that Beasley did not intentionally out two gay students and, in fact, was looking out for everybody’s best interest, if you can believe that. Yet, in said statement, they also allude to “explicit sexual behavior,” which sounds like a euphemism to us…
…In fall 2007, we received numerous complaints from LeMoyne-Owen College faculty and staff that some of our student couples were involved in explicit sexual behavior in public view on the college campus.
In light of this information from LeMoyne-Owen faculty and staff, the principal of Hollis F. Price made several general announcements to the student body that this behavior would not be tolerated. Regrettably, the improper behavior continued. Therefore, the principal felt it appropriate to notify the parents of those children she knew to be involved romantically. This was done in an effort to gain the support of the parents in reinforcing the message that such behavior is in violation of Memphis City Schools’ Student Code of Conduct.
Cue the collective retching.
Meanwhile, former DNC staffer Donald Hitchcock, who now works with Advocates For Youth, passed along this link through which concerned citizens such as yourselves can voice your opposition to Beasley’s beastly actions.
How about we take this to the next level?
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queerunity
absurd
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
Hephaestion
Beasley should be fired, pure and simple.
Bob R
I think this action calls out for a law suit. Where is ACLU on this? HRC? GLADD?
Jack Scribe
Agree with Bob R. GLADD leaders are sipping chardonnay in the Hollywood Hills, while the HRC staff are too busy designing the interiors of their D.C. headquarters and determining who else should have their salaries increased to the 200k/year level.
Alec
I am sure the ACLU is on it.
Devon Fairchild
Another line of ugly homophobic women (with no gay friends to help them, they end up looking like bigfoot), Daphne Beastley’s only place is with the extremes.
alan brickman
big surprise tha black women especially hate gays….
June23
Alan, I probably don’t even have to say this, but I’m going to: you stereotyping all black women as homophobes is as bad as a black woman stereotyping you as a pervert.
Give me a break.
Alan down in Florida
I know I’m going to regret saying this but if the couple is openly expressing physical affection they are not being “outed” per se.
Unfortunately we live in a society where gay teens live in fear of parental behavior and peer violence. If this were not the case I would approve of outing all gay teens. It might hurt in the short term but it does them a service by allowing them to live an authentic life. There are times I wish someone had dragged me out of my closet way before I was 35.
Jon
June23, I hate to say this, ‘cuz it’s sort of racist, but as a black man I can tell you that most black women I know tend to have a distinct hatred of the gay community. Yes, there are exceptions as with everything, but most black women do not tolerate the gays. It’s a cultural thing and I’m not sure where it comes from, but in my experiences the homophobia by black women is real.
Puddy Katz
Fire her, period. Let her go work in a Christianist fundamentalist school, one hopes at a lower rate of pay and with less benefits and no pension.
Chubarama
When I first read about this my stomach really churned. Some sort of statement is going to be made and I hope it’s strong and civil, unlike this woman’s actions. School administrators need to understand they can’t be heartless bigots in a vacuum any more, the whole world is potentially watching.
leeerker
Someone needs to go digging through her life and find out some dirty secrets. Post them on the internet and mail them to the homes in that town. It ‘s “appropriate to notify the parents” of this town.
The teacher who said the one couldn’t go on the trip because “he’d embarrass the school by engaging in ‘inappropriate behavior’†should go or be publicly reprimanded.
THIS is why we need national anti-discrimination laws.
alexa
Didn’t they say they never indulged in PDAs, though? I thought from the original article on this story that the boys said they never showed any affection in school, so why were they even on her list?
And I am really getting tired of us stereotyping black women as homophobic. Sure there are a lot of homophobic black women out there, but there are an awful lot who are supportive. I don’t believe they are any more homophobic as a group than anyone else.
Alec
*Sigh* The black intrinsic homophobia meme just won’t die, it seems. Take a look at this quote, from one of the boy’s mothers:
“Of those that saw this list was Andrew’s mother, Andrea. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I went to meet with the principal and that list was right there by her desk where anyone could see it,’ she said. ‘African American people face enough obstacles to succeeding in this world and I want my son to have every opportunity he’s worked so hard for. Our schools should be helping our children do well, not tearing them down for something like this.'”
These boys are black, and one at least has a very supportive mother. But by all means don’t let that stop the meme machine…
Mr C
What is “The Meme machine”?
Chris Hampton
Just to clear up a couple of misconceptions…
I work with the ACLU’s national LGBT Project. We are indeed on it — we and the ACLU of Tennessee are representing the boys and their mothers legally, and this whole matter only became public after we issued a demand letter to the school district this past Tuesday.
You can find out more if you read any of the many news stories that have been published about the situation, although not all of them have gotten it completely right. If you look up the information on our website, you’ll find that the boys were never seen or reported engaging in public displays of affection at school, mainly because they never DID engage in any public displays of affection. They were attempting to keep their relationship private. The principal heard a rumor from another student that they were a couple, put their names together on the list of couples she then posted on the wall in her office, and called the mother of one of the boys to tell her that her son is gay.
Hope that sheds a little light on the situation.
Alec
Thank you, Chris. My favorite organization lets me down very rarely. I do have one question, though, and perhaps you cannot answer it, but perhaps you can: Were the parents supportive? It sounds as though they were.
Mr. C: By meme machine, I mean “any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity.”
Source: Wiki, meme.
Basically, I mean the idea that most black Americans are intrinsically homophobic. I don’t think that’s true at a very fundamental level, and I very much doubt that it is true for black women. I also think these boys’ mothers would be heartbroken to hear that the gay male community felt they were anything but supportive.
Jaroslaw
OK, I don’t want to start a race war here, but I work in an office of mostly Black women. The crap I took putting up a very very uncontroversial history only Gay Bulletin board makes me think that most Black women are homophobic. I’ve talked to many about being Gay, and usually I get “the Bible says…..” PS the Bulletin board thing was after the employer declared a policy of orientation being a protected status. I have also worked in about 5 other offices for the same employer with very similar attitudes. Which is not to say the White people love Gay people, it is more of a “I don’t approve but I’m not losing sleep over it” kind of attitude where the Black women complain the supervisors about “do we have to have this bulletin board…..” knowing full well, as I said, that orientation is a protected class.
Are all Black women homophobic? Of course not. What are the percentages? I don’t know. Maybe like with any other group, the more loud and vocal (negative) people get noticed more and it seems like a majority.