high school students protest Day of Silence with anti-gay shirts & related articles

[Heddi]

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/04/oregon-city-high-school-students-protest-day-of-silence-with-anti-gay-t-shirts/

OREGON CITY, Ore. — On this national Day of Silence, designed to call attention to anti-LGBT harassment and discrimination in schools, some students at an Oregon high school staged their own protest to tell others that “gay is not OK.”

They wore T-shirts to school that said, “Gay Is Not Ok” and “Gay Day Is Not OK.
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from the imbedded video, they interview one of the people who wore a shirt that said "Gay Day is not OK". He said:

Orange Shirt Boy: "The shirts we wore to school today because we don't think it's right that the school should have a full day supporting gays, and if it is okay then we should be able to say we do not approve of gays because we're religious."

Reporter: "But you can understand how some folks who are gay might find them offensive. You're basically saying it's not okay for them to be that way, right?"

Orange Shirt Boy: "Yes. And we find it offensive because we don't feel it's right to be gay so they're offending us as much as we're offending them."

(interesting note: the boy in the Gay is not OK shirt with the cross on it had his face blurred. They note at the end of the video interview that his face wasn't blurred in an earlier broadcast but it was in later broadcasts b/c the boy's mom called and "didn't agree with the way he was expressing himself" and asked that they blur his face. Interesting.
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Other related article:

https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk-afa-cries-foul-over-day-of-silence-in

We Have Ways Of Making You Talk: AFA Cries Foul Over ‘Day Of Silence’ In Schools


Today is the 18th annual Day of Silence, an activist effort designed to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying in schools and colleges. Founded by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the project encourages students to take a vow of silence for the day to demonstrate the “silencing effect” that bullying and harassment has on LGBT youth.'

But that’s not good enough for the American Family Association (AFA). In a hysterical email to supporters, its president, Tim Wildmon, wrote, “Parents need to let their school officials know that children are not pawns for social and political action in the classroom.”

He added, “If their child’s school participates in the ‘Day of Silence,’ parents should advise school officials that their child will be absent on April 11. It’s high time to oppose this hijacking of taxpayer-funded classrooms for political purposes.”

The email directs supporters to a website, “Day of Silence Walkout,” that purportedly provides parents with “resources” to fight this dastardly civil rights effort. Among the organizations it lists as supporters: Abiding Truth Ministries, founded by anti-gay preacher Scott Lively. Lively is currently being sued by Sexual Minorities Uganda for promoting human rights abuses against Uganda’s LGBT community.

[longship]

1. "high time to oppose this hijacking [sic] of taxpayer-funded classrooms for political purposes."

But apparently high jacking it for overtly religious purposes is okee-dokee!

[msongs]

2. their religon also objects to the heterosexual teen sex going on at schools but that doesnt

seem to make them angry

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Would this T-shirt sell? -- "Just wanted you to know I'm a bigoted asshole"

'Cause it looks to me like there's a lot of potential buyers.

And just think how many would buy them as gifts ...