One town's war on gay teens

The article is disgusting, disturbing, and simply awful. It's impossible for me to reconcile the hateful anti-gay religious activism — and the resulting cravenly actions of the school board that have made made it complicit in the bullying and resultant suicides in their district — with anything resembling what I could call authentic followers of Christ.

"The silence of adults was deafening. At Blaine High School, says alum Justin Anderson, "I would hear people calling people 'fags' all the time without it being addressed. Teachers just didn't respond." In Andover High School, when 10th-grader Sam Pinilla was pushed to the ground by three kids calling him a "faggot," he saw a teacher nearby who did nothing to stop the assault. At Anoka High School, a 10th-grade girl became so upset at being mocked as a "lesbo" and a "sinner" – in earshot of teachers – that she complained to an associate principal, who counseled her to "lay low"; the girl would later attempt suicide. At Anoka Middle School for the Arts, after Kyle Rooker was urinated upon from above in a boys' bathroom stall, an associate principal told him, "It was probably water." Jackson Middle School seventh-grader Dylon Frei was passed notes saying, "Get out of this town, fag"; when a teacher intercepted one such note, she simply threw it away.

"You feel horrible about yourself," remembers Dylon. "Like, why do these kids hate me so much? And why won't anybody help me?" The following year, after Dylon was hit in the head with a binder and called "fag," the associate principal told Dylon that since there was no proof of the incident she could take no action. By contrast, Dylon and others saw how the same teachers who ignored anti-gay insults were quick to reprimand kids who uttered racial slurs. It further reinforced the message resonating throughout the district: Gay kids simply didn't deserve protection."

I am perhaps particularly sensitive to this, since I was routinely called "faggot" by the yahoos in my school all through junior high and my first few years of high school. But IMO if there were ever a sufficient cause for corporal punishment, it would be this, along the lines of giving these bullies a slap in the face and a mouthful of soap suds and a strong message that such language, and such behavior, is not acceptable in our schools, or our society. #ddtb

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One Town's War on Gay Teens | Politics News | Rolling Stone
In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back.

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