Wednesday, April 28, 2004

No, no ... get BACK in that closet

From an
online CNN article, we learn that gay high school student Jarred Gamwell is not allowed to use his sexual orientation as part of his campaign.

As the lede explains,

An openly gay student is fighting to campaign in his high school election with posters that read: "Gay Guys Know Everything!" and "Queer Guy for Hunt High."

So, apparently, Gamwell is having a bit of fun using his sexual orientation as a campaign issue. I imagine there might be arguments on either side of this issue, but the school administration's defense of having removed his posters leaves one absolutely (as Molly Ivins would put it) whomper-jawed:

"The language in the two campaign posters in question was determined to be disruptive to the educational process and to have no relevance to the student's qualifications for office," said Robert E. Kendall Jr., school district spokesman in Wilson County, 40 miles east of Raleigh.

Well, isn't that fascinating? The thought that Gamwell's homosexuality isn't relevant to his campaigning for what one might call "public offlce." Could it be any less relevant than, say, someone's religious beliefs, or the regularity with which they attend church? But don't expect any lessening of the frequency with which right-wing hypocrites insist on telling everyone how devout they are. After all, that's clearly a critical fact because ... well, because ... oh, hell, I got nothing.

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