Student sent home for inappropriate (gay) shirt

[Newsjock]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Gay%20Shirt&dpfrom=th

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONGVIEW, Wash. -- An openly gay high school student was sent home to change after he wore a shirt that said "Too Gay To Function" during homecoming week.

Billy Zepeda, a senior at R.A. Long High School, decorated the lime green shirt with marker-drawn rainbows and wrote the phrase from the teen movie "Mean Girls" on the front. He wore it Thursday during the school's make-your-own-shirt day.

A teacher told him the shirt was inappropriate and offensive to homosexuals, said Zepeda, 17.

... "It's quite aggravating," he said. "I can't wear my shirt because it's discriminating against gays. ... Why would I discriminate against myself?"

more

[marmar]

1. I sincerely doubt....

that the shirt "being offensive to homosexuals" was the reason he was sent home.

[MrSlayer]

2. What is that supposed to mean?

I would send him home for being cryptic.

[ohkay]

3. It's from

the movie "Mean Girls".

[MrSlayer]

4. Yeah I gathered that from the text of the story.

But what the hell does it mean? It seems kind of stupid as a slogan.

[purduejake]

8. In the movie, it was only okay for the guys best friend to say...

but when the quote was later found in a "burn book" making fun of other students, it hurt the guys feelings. It's a stupid slogan, but I am gay and don't find it offensive. If somebody was wearing it to mock gays in a different context, then it would be offensive.

[Orangepeel]

5. I didn't see "Mean Girls". Do you know the context? n/t

[NuttyFluffers]

14. it's an empowerment tactic of suppressed subcultures.

to use the slur as a mark of pride. it confuses (as it successfully seems to have done here) and de-fangs the (potential) epithet.

since he's using it proudly he's being defiant and twisting the words into a positive (albeit confusing, for some) light. it's "using the ammunition before they get it" tactic... how else to explain...

:think: um, it's akin to the reclamation of the N word in the african american community or bitch in feminism or similar examples elsewhere.

in reading it, what could've been a harmful comment, "too gay to function" as in too effete to have any power, was twisted into someone so happy and liberated to be bothered by petty details. in the movie several sides of the double entendre was shown, here he's working the same in his high school.

[Cats Against Frist]

6. I want to see the freepers wrap their minds around this one.

Is the openly gay man in an openly gay shirt promoting homosexuality?

or

Are we too "PC?"

QUICK RUSH, TELL THEM WHAT TO THINK!!!!

[flygal]

7. Weren't they just asking for trouble with "make your own shirt day"

I mean in this day of "wardrobe malfunctions" and all...

[purduejake]

9. Yes, very stupid with high schoolers...

although they should be allowed to do it on any day. They were looking for trouble.

[Jamastiene]

11. lol

good one

[hickman1937]

10. I think he was going for irony,

and missed. It would be offensive on a hetro. I'm thinking maybe the teacher didn't know him and was offended. A minor tiff amongst the good guys, blown up so the fundys will jump in and do some news worthy things. More media crap.

[Chipper Chat]

12. Let's ask Dr. Dobson.

He can check with god and get back to us.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. Kids ALWAYS push the envelope -- and the envelope has to push back

or the schools would be a bigger zoo than they are now. Why they allowed kids to make their own shirts is the big question. I'm surprised they sent him home; we just always had them change their shirt or turn the "offensive" shirt inside out. I could never figure out the parents who let their sons buy the "Big Johnson" shirts that were popular about ten years ago. Were they clueless?

[Chovexani]

15. Some parents are just that clueless I guess

I have mixed feelings about this issue. I've been involved in the gothic subculture for about ten years now, and when I was in high school I did the funky hair color thing, wore black makeup and dresses, etc. My school didn't have a dress code, so I was never disciplined for it (though I was treated like a pariah by teachers, especially a fundie biology teacher I had freshman year). However, at the same time I'd never come to school decked out in full clubwear--I left my more extreme corsetry & boots, fishnets, fetish stuff, etc. at home, toned down the makeup and made sure if I wore a skirt it wasn't ubershort (most of the time I just wore my pvc pants). It was school, not my personal time, and going all out would just not be appropriate. Oddly enough, I ended up being sent home the week of the Columbine shooting for wearing my trenchcoat (which, incidentally, I'd worn for about 3 1/2 years with nary a word said to me by teachers/administrators). It didn't help that I was anti-social, and gravitated towards other misfits, I guess (though I'd never gotten into trouble for anything besides cutting).

I believe in freedom of expression and the notion that kids don't check that at the schoolhouse door. I don't think what this kid wore was inappropriate, and that it was just a misunderstanding among the good guys as someone else put it upthread. Boundaries aren't inherently a bad thing though, as long as they are reasonable (banning trenchcoats because kids 3000 miles away shot up their school? Not reasonable). I'd err on the side of free expression, myself. Schools are conformist enough. Hell, that's pretty much the entire purpose of public school in this country.

[freeplessinseattle]

16. that's a shame you got in trouble

for cutting. I hope they weren't completely insensitive. I can understand their concern, but to punish without offering support and help is..stupid. not sure if I think punsihment should even be considered, but I guess that is their way of keeping kids safe from themselves, an ignorant way. did they just say don't do it on campus, we don't care what you do at home, just hide your wounds from other students? sadly enough, I can see some schools reacting like this.