My Standards on "Outing"

The Gay Species has taken me to task for having double standards and not endorsing the outing of two gay students at Hollis F. Price Middle College High in Memphis, Tennessee, by the school principal. His charge is based on my support of the efforts of Mike Rogers at Blog Active in exposing closeted Republicans with anti-gay voting records and closeted clergy who preach against gays and engender anti-gay hate and discrimination.. For the record, I want to make it clear why I believe there ARE two (2) different standards depending upon the circumstances/actions of the person(s) being outed and why this view is not "hypocritical:"

The first standard - which might be called the private individual standard - applies to closeted gays who mind their own business and take no public stands and take no actions that support or further an anti-gay agenda. Individuals in this category have every right to keep their personal life private. At this point in my life, I now favor as many people as possible being "out" and living their lives openly. However, since it took me 37 years in the closet and 5 years of therapy to recover from my childhood religious indoctrination to get to this point, I cannot demand that individuals who are doing no harm to the LGBT community be outed against their will. This is the standard that I believe applies to the two high school boys at Hollis F. Price Middle College High.

The second standard applies to closeted individuals consisting of (1) elected officials and their staffers who actively support and work for the passage of anti-gay legislation that harms or reduces the legal rights of other LGBT indviduals and/or (2) clergy who preach anti-gay rhetoric and engender animosity aginst LGBT individuals. In my view, these individuals - who are meddling in and interferring with the personal lives of other gays - have forfeited the right claim that their personal lives are off limits. If they want to intrude into my life and impair my legal rights, then they need to be exposed for the hypocrite phonies that they are. By their own anti-gay jihad they have given up the right to keep their own gay sexual conduct private.

A case in point is former Congressman Ed Schrock of Virginia's 2nd District who had one of the most anti-gay voting records in Congress yet who was soliciting gay sex via Mega Phone in the greater Norfolk area. I knew Ed Schrock personally and even warned him - and later the entire Virginia Beach delegation to the Virginia General Assembly - that the GOP war on gays would result in someone outing Schrock. The warning fell on deaf ears and someone whose identity I have never learned subsequently furnished the audiotapes to Mike Rogers that ended Schrock's career.

In Schrock's case, I feel sorry for his family, particularly his wife who is a gracious woman, but as to Ed personally, he brought the disaster on himself due to his hypocrisy. He knew the risks, actively sought out gay trysts, and did not care, all the while voting for legislation that harmed members of the LGBT community or which denigrated their legal rights as citizens. Former pastor Ted Haggart is another example of someone who preached an anti-gay message, yet sought out gay sex on the sly. The situation of these two men is nothing analogous to the boys outed by their school principal

Principal Outs Gay Student Couple

In yet another example of a public school administrator who needs to be fired, 365gay.com is reporting that the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High in Memphis, Tennessee outed one or more gay couples in her quest to impose her religious beliefs on all students (contact information is set out below). Previously, the principal had stated that she wanted the names of all student couples, “hetero and homo,” because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in public displays of affection. These are not deadbeat students. In fact, on it's web site, Hollis F. Price Middle College High states "We believe that every member of our learning community has value and worth and has the right to be respected" (apparently unless you are gay) and describes itself as follows:

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Hollis F. Price Middle College High is for students who may be underrepresented in a traditional setting, but have the academic potential and are willing to accept the challenges of a rigorous high school and college curriculum. Students will have full academic schedules consisting of high school and college courses. It is a “school of opportunities” for students who would like to take advantage of a dual enrollment program in a small nurturing academic environment. Financial and other barriers to college are removed.

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Here are highlights from 365gay.com's coverage:

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(Memphis, Tennessee) A public high school principal who posted the names of two boys on a list of students believed to be couples, revealing their relationship to their parents as well as other students and teachers, violated the students’ constitutional right to freedom of association, the American Civil Liberties Union charged Tuesday.

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The two students now represented by the ACLU, Andrew and Nicholas (who have asked that their last names not be revealed), were two A students who had been seeing each other for a short time and were attempting to keep their relationship quiet and private. Although the boys had never been observed by any school staff engaging in any sort of display of affection, the principal called Nicholas’s mother Nichole. According to Nichole, the principal said things like “Did you know your son is gay?” repeatedly and went on to say that she didn’t like gay people and wouldn’t tolerate homosexuality at her school. Both students say they’ve had to deal with verbal harassment from both teachers and students since word got out around the school about their principal’s actions.

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“We never bothered anyone or did a single thing at school that broke any of the rules,” said Nicholas, a junior and honor student. “Every day I feel like they’re still punishing me, and I’m worried that this is going to hurt my chances to get into a good college.”*

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“The principal’s outing of these two students to their families, classmates, and teachers is unacceptable. Its only purpose was to intimidate not only these students but all gay students at Hollis Price,” said Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director at the ACLU of Tennessee. “Educators should be focused on educating their students and not on harassing them because of their sexual orientation or the people with whom they associate.”

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For those readers inclined to let the principal what they think of her bigotry, contact information is as follows: Phone: 901.435.1765; Fax: 901.435.1779; e-mail: beasleyd@mcsk12.net

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The Interim Superintendant for the Memphis School syaytem can be reached here: Dan Ward 2597 Avery, Room 214, Memphis, TN 38112; Phone: (901) 416-5300; Fax: (901) 416-5578; e-mail: superintendentward@mcsk12.net