The WBC Comes to Canton

[smrou]

About a month ago the Westboro Baptist Church announced that they would be picketing Canton High School, where I work, as part of their day of protests in and around Boston. They chose to picket Canton High because our theatre club is putting on The Laramie Project as the winter/spring play. As soon as the announcement was made, students began to

Comments

[spectralbovine]

This is a great story! Thanks for sharing. I'm very proud of your students. Maybe the youth of today will really build a better tomorrow.

Do you mind if I link this on another board? I think they'll appreciate it.

[smrou]

This is a great story! Thanks for sharing. I'm very proud of your students. Maybe the youth of today will really build a better tomorrow.
I get very frustrated with the state of gay rights in this country and the world, but I really do think that when you look at young people and their feelings about homosexuality compared to even one generation ago you can see that the groups opposing gay rights are really fighting a losing battle.

You're more than welcome to link to the entry.

[erinkayehashet]

I was just about to say almost the same thing. I didn't graduate from high school that long ago (2002), but I can't imagine the students at my high school being so open about gay issues when I went there. Now, though, I think high schoolers are a lot more accepting of homosexuality and more willing to talk about it. Like you said, the state of gay rights has a long, long way to go, even in Massachusetts, but I do see progress, especially with people younger than me.

[smrou]

I could imagine something similar happening at my high school when I was there (graduated in 1998). If a hate group like the WBC had come to us, I think my high school would have reacted in a pretty similar way. But something like the WBC picketing is sort of extreme--that's not a daily thing, and there are day-to-day things that show the progress, I think. I mean, there were all of two gay students who were out at my high school (also two gay teachers), as far as I know. And I was an active member of the Gay Straight Alliance all four years, so I think if there had been more than two I probably would have known. I think now students are much more likely to come out, and I think more than anything else that speaks to how young people are more accepting now than they were before.

[ikcelaks]

Yay! It was very exciting to see the Little-smrou user-pic show up at the top of my friends page.

What exactly is The Laramie Project? I looked it up, but the brief description in Wikipedia didn't say much. Is it a documentary in play form?

I'm happy that your school and students made you proud. It's a nice feeling to be associated with something you truly value.

[spectralbovine]

What exactly is The Laramie Project? I looked it up, but the brief description in Wikipedia didn't say much. Is it a documentary in play form?
That's a good way of describing it. I've never seen it, only read it, but even reading it brought me to tears. It is basically staged as a live documentary, yeah, hopping between interviews of people.

[smrou]

even reading it brought me to tears
I had trouble stopping myself from crying just during the ten-minute preview in the assembly. I was tearing up the whole time.

[spectralbovine]

It's rarely sad things that make me cry; what brought me to tears was how, despite the tragedy, how hopeful the story ends up being.

[annabelleonyx]

Oh. That's a really good story. I'm so glad that your school has so many open minded individuals.

[pandarus]

Here via P-C's link, and, damn, what a hopeful story. I'm sitting here in freaking TEARS in Bangkok. God, I love the Internet. Well done to your kids!

[elsbeth_lynn]

Thanks for sharing this, smrou. It really gives me hope, to read of the support you received and how maturely your students acted.

(I'm LiberryLady, from the Office forum, btw.)