Among the more contentious issues on this blog is gay rights. Some say that Democrats should abandon gay rights because it is a loser with "values voters." Some, including me, say that we should stand up for what is right, which means equality for gays and lesbians -- real equality. That doesn't mean, however, that a certain degree of moderation is never appropriate -- certainly, pragmatism and compromise, where available and effective, is always a good idea. But compromise requires at least a modicum of common ground.
Religious conservatives in Virginia are so far from "common ground" with Democrats and moderates that they're on the moon. You can't compromise with bigots and censors.
Don't think it's that bad? Oh, yes, it is. Read more on the flip.
Gay-Themed High School Play Sparks Va. Protests
By Michael Laris and Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 9, 2005; Page B01
The Loudoun County students who staged a play over the weekend about a high school football star's homosexuality heard some gasps, along with expressions of support, during their play's two-day, modestly attended run at Ashburn's Stone Bridge High School.
Now, thanks to a high-decibel dust-up over freedom of expression and values, student writer-director Sabrina Audrey Jess's one-act play, "Offsides," has a dramatically expanded audience.
Del. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun) e-mailed his supporters claiming that, in the play, "two male students engaged in a homosexual kiss onstage" and that public schools were "being used to promote a homosexual lifestyle." His son-in-law, Loudoun County Supervisor Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run), followed up with a missive of his own, warning of the play's disturbing "indoctrination." On Sunday, activists blanketed Loudoun churches with fliers decrying the production.
The school district had received about 150 e-mails about the play by yesterday afternoon, Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde Byard said.
The players, author and scores of residents showed up at Loudoun's school board meeting last night.
"I try to promote tolerance in a school where there is not enough among teenagers and am in turn flooded with the intolerance of their parents," Jess said, in comments that prompted a standing ovation among supporters.
"People who are negatively commenting on my play are proving my point," she said.
Senior Aaron Henry, who played Ryan, said the play made a simple point. "People are who they are," he said. "Accept them. That's it."
Similar conflicts have riled communities nationwide. Such struggles have been especially pointed in parts of Northern Virginia, where pockets of intense social conservatism coexist, sometimes uneasily, with more liberal views.
"Within our public schools, there is a tendency to encourage homosexual activity, to portray it in a cute or favorable light," Black said in an interview yesterday. "This is a considerable health hazard right now. If we encourage just one child to experiment and contract the HIV virus, then we have done an enormous disservice to our children."
David Weintraub, who is part of a gay-rights group called Equality Loudoun, said Black and others are trying to thwart free speech.
"This is just these self-appointed thought police trying to dictate to all of us what we and our children can see and read and think," he said.
Masumi Black, a senior who designed the lighting for the production of five short plays -- three written by students plus one by Woody Allen and another by Molière -- said she and her classmates have the sophistication to handle the difficult issues that are often the subject of effective drama.
"Essentially, it's a football player trying to find himself. He finds out he's gay. He mainly just wants people to be accepting of who he is. . . . It's mainly about tolerance of who a person is," Masumi Black said. The reaction to her classmate's play has been "blown out of proportion," she said.
The play was previewed by drama teacher Glen Hochkeppel and Stone Bridge Principal Jim Person, Byard said, adding that Person edited out some questionable language but approved the play.
Jess said she warned cast and crew that her play dealt with homosexuality, which prompted one male student to abandon the project. Just before the play began, the audience was warned that it portrayed "sensitive and mature issues surrounding sexuality."
Yesterday, school officials showed a videotaped performance of the 20-minute play, which was acted on a bare, dark stage.
The main character is a high school football star named Ryan Foster, called "God among his peers" by a narrator. Ryan dates the "tragically beautiful" Julie and hangs out with tough-talking jocks. Soon Ryan meets Bryce, a polite boy, and the two hit it off. They spend hours talking and laughing together.
Later, Ryan introduces Bryce to his friends, who tease him for befriending a "queer." Bryce then confronts Ryan alone and challenges him to consider why they bonded -- and tells him to "do something."
At that moment, Ryan leans in for what appears will be a kiss, and the lights go out. On the tape, some in the audience are heard to giggle and gasp.
In successive scenes, Ryan wrestles with what has happened before coming to terms with his homosexuality and asking his friends to accept him as he is.
Ryan looks at the audience as he speaks his final lines: "Am I a little too much like you for your own comfort? Do you hate me because you see a little of me hiding in you?"
Jess emphasized at last night's school board meeting that the actors never kissed. "It was completely staged," she said.
OK, now let's talk. So it's not enough to legislate discrimination into the law and the state constitution, to forbid gays from entering into contracts or adopting children, but now, if you have the temerity to even DISCUSS homosexuality in a serious and mature way, you will be the subject of a leaflet campaign in churches to protest THE FACT of the play even being presented. I'm sorry, but the only answer to this is to tell these pieces of shit that they can go straight to hell. How the fuck do you compromise with that level of intolerance, bigotry and censorship? If in Virginia, it's out of bounds to even talk about gay teenagers and their friends wrestling with their identity and their acceptance, what in God's name is there left to discuss?
It also presents a more interesting question on a higher political level. For those of you who have been advocating some type of abandonment of gay rights in the face of religious conservatives, ask yourself: Is it worth it? Will it even work? Do you think that any of the 150 people who e-mailed the school principal to protest the play will be impressed with your moderation? Please. Or the "activists" leafleting the churches? Ha ha.
Don't let your desire to win elections overcome your common sense. We stand for the things we care about PRECISELY because we care about them. For Republicans, politics may be a game, about finding a way to win regardless of whether that involves selling your soul or not. For Democrats, at least this one and most of the ones I respect and admire, what we stand for PRECEDES the desire to win.
Yes, we want to win, of course we do. But first and foremost, we want to stand for those basic and fundamental things that we care about as Democrats, as Americans, as human beings. And one of those things is that we don't compromise with bigots. Not now, not ever. After this, I don't EVER want to hear any supposed progressive talk about "moderation" or abandoning gay rights ever again.