Opinion/Social Issues
By Paul White, 6 -9-25
It would have been tough to be a homosexual in Detroit in the ’60’s.
“Smear the Queer”, was a popular backyard game for young kids: the name of which, sadly, never raised a single disapproving parental eyebrow.
Teen males routinely referred to each other as “Queer-bait”, to teasingly emasculate each other about their pending entry into a manhood they knew nothing about.
Boys wore yellow shirts on Thursdays (?), only if they wanted to be socially ostracized as self-identifying “homo’s.”
Two of my favorite high school teachers:
• Were excellent instructors and honorable men
• Were mocked frequently by my male classmates because of a perceived homosexual affect in their speech.
My high school’s administrators and teachers never made any effort to discipline the boys who humiliated these 2 decent men.
A Reversal of Positions, But the Same Extremism
Fast forward to 2008. My wife and I were living in Southern California. Public schools had completely reversed their position on aggressive student behavior IF it was pro-homosexual. The new norm was not only acceptance of such behavior, but encouragement.
One emotionally troubled 8th grade boy in our local middle school, with the full blessing of school staff, started attending classes wearing drag queen-style clothing, supplied by the school, along with high heels and makeup.
But that wasn’t enough to sate this homosexual student’s need for attention.
He wanted to be called by a girl’s name. He pursued an incessant campaign of humiliating a socially withdrawn and equally troubled heterosexual male classmate.
The cross-dressing student would tell classmates that he and this boy were dating. He mockingly asked the victim to be his valentine, in front of the victim’s few friends. The school allowed this painful humiliation to continue and refused to protect the victim.
The victimizer wouldn’t stop, so the victim felt his only option was to solve the problem himself. After months of torment, he brought a pistol to school one day, stood up in an English class they shared, and killed his antagonist. Both lives were destroyed.https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-mar-08-me-oxnard8-story.html
In earlier decades, there was harassment and unjust laws against homosexuals.
Today, there is harassment and unjust laws against heterosexuals.
America has not benefited from either extreme.
(Read-on)
https://thenevadaglobe.com/articles/opinion-a-straight-mans-reflections-on-a-gay-month/
Paul White is a retired educator in public, charter, private and homeschooling. He is currently an activist in Reno, NV.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
