Principal Quits Over GBLT/Straight Alliance in School

I have lived in Arkansas, Texas, Virginia, and California, and visited many many other places. My experience has been that the midwest is much worse than the south... especially if you are away from the urban areas. No, Little Rock is not Manhattan, but it's not nearly as bad as Evansville or Cincinnati.

I think people are deriding him because he made his personal beliefs an issue. If he had personal reasons for quitting, he could have just stated that. But he made the club the issue and in particular being gay the issue. He used the club to grandstand his bigotry. People are not deriding him for quitting or his personal beliefs, they are deriding his bigotry and his attempt to make himself appear better because he does not tolerate anyone who is gay. Let's face it, he not only quit, but wanted to use that gesture against gays as a divisive issue. He did not want the headline to read principal quits over personal reasons. He wanted the headline to read principal quits over being forced to allow a gay club. He got what he wanted and the school gets the opportunity to appoint a better man as their principal.

Exactly, auncut10in. "Poor little me, they were forcing me to imagine what gay people do when they have sex, and that violates my right to discriminate against them!"Now that we have faceking's vote, where's Shelby with his "playing-the-victim" quote? That will make a quorum.

I'll give the victim spiel a rest. You all know me already anyway.

I'll spin it different. Suppose some racists, on both sides of the fence, got together and formed a club called the Black/White Alliance for Racial Purity. How would that rub you?

Or even more provocative how would you feel about a group forming whose sole purpose was to 'help' turn homosexuals straight?

Well, I don’t know you but anyway …. the former is a hate group who should never meet but if they do they belong in the closet and the latter can form a group if they want .... but they will first need to figure out how to reengineer somebody’s gene pool before they attempt too take on changing somebody’s sexual desires.

Why are they a hate group? They are forming an alliance. Perhaps they just want to preserve diversity.

Didn't Christians already start that?

Neither of those is a good analogy, Shelby. By using "racists" and "racial purity" as your premise, that's a no-go. Perhaps a Black/White Alliance for Racial Unity? Yep. You bet. I'd be all for it.

And with the Exodus-style group in your second analogy, it's still a destructive, rather than constructive, purpose. But you don't see that, do you? I would not be supportive of that group - or one whose purpose was to "help" straight students turn gay.

Now, if there were a straight-student group whose purpose was to help the straight students deal with all the threats and harassment they get from the gay students, sure. I would support that, too.

I never said I would approve or disapprove of either of these examples. I threw them out merely to see if anyone would apply their personal values against them much as the principal did his. If you were in his shoes and groups such as these formed would you resign or embrace them in the spirit of toleration.

Faceking and shelby's point of view
never stray to far from F-A-R W-R-O-N-G!!!
cigarbabe

The principal made a big deal and obvious case for homophobia. I agree he could have just said "I am resigning for personal reasons." He couldn't do that and push his agenda though.

Religious beliefs are fine unless those beliefs are used to take away basic human rights and dignity.

Whatever.

The point is I think everybody's wrong at some level.

Surprise! Me included.

You are using the old "Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?" tactic. Not gonna work here. Try again.

Really?

I thought I was trying to say no one's perfect.

Perhaps in your response to cigarbabe, but not in your response to me. I still say your comparison of a racist group to a support group was misleading, and I'm guessing your intention was to be able to say "Aha! You are a hypocrite."

I suspect, or at least I hope, that a lot of what you post is not actually how you feel about any given subject, but rather playing devil's advocate to get people to think.

Keep in mind, though, there's a big difference between the composition of the group, and what the group is striving to accomplish. The principal resigned because there would be openly homosexual members, and he doesn't like homosexuals. The fact that the purpose of the group was to promote depolarizing the students, and encourage a less hostile environment, made no difference to him.

I know you understand that, even if you don't admit it.