INDIANA STUDENT BEHIND CONTROVERSIAL ‘STRAIGHT PRIDE’ FLIERS SPEAKS OUT
INDIANA STUDENT BEHIND CONTROVERSIAL ‘STRAIGHT PRIDE’ FLIERS SPEAKS OUT
An Indiana high school student is speaking out after the “Straight Pride” fliers the 16-year-old posted on campus were poorly received.
The student at Jasper High School sent a letter Tuesday to the Dubois County Herald, which declined to identify the student, after the “Straight Pride” fliers were reportedly misinterpreted as anti-LGBT.
“Celebrate being straight at JHS by not annoying the heck out of everyone about your sexual orientation!” the fliers read, EAGNews.org reported. “Brought to you by all the students that are sick of hearing about your LGBT pride. Nobody cares about what you think you are. If you want equality, stop shoving your ideas down our throats! We have nothing against your sexual orientation. We just don’t care!”
The fliers, which were posted on campus without permission after classes March 2, were taken down before students arrived at school the next day. Dozens of students responded Sunday evening by decorating the sidewalks outside the school’s main entrance with uplifting chalk messages, the Herald reported.
The student said he or she stands by the intent behind the fliers, but apologized for hurting anyone’s feelings.
“The purpose of my flier was to not only recognize the straight community, but to also give a message to the LGBT community that equality is not effectively found in granting special privileges to minorities by differentiating them from our great society, but should rather be found in gaining support through cooperation and equal incorporation into society,” the student wrote.
“If our society adopts the idea that everyone should be given equal opportunities because everyone is a human being over the promotion of the idea that certain individuals are underprivileged or more prone to being offended, our communities can learn to be more accepting of one another,” the student continued. “If the LGBT population in the United States truly hopes to win the respect or tolerance of their heterosexual counterparts and along with that basic human rights such as marriage, then pride activists must alter their methods to show that they deserve to be taken seriously — that they deserve not to be subjugated or persecuted based on their common genetic disposition.
“People simply don’t want to have to accept you because they were forced to accept you,” the student wrote. “People want to accept you because they chose to accept you. These means of acceptance are simply different from your method of acceptance, but the ultimate result is the fact that you are accepted and when you are accepted, you are loved. Instead of having pride in the things people cannot determine, lets all have pride in the fact that we will all go on to do great things in life.”
Greater Jasper Superintendent Tracy Lorey said last week that the fliers do not represent the majority at Jasper High School, the Herald reported.
“It is our intent to provide students opportunities to express themselves in a way that helps them to be understanding of the unique qualities of all individuals,” she said. “The world is full of unique individuals (regardless of) race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. That’s the world, and it’s our job to prepare students to function within that world and to have respect for others.”
Administrators said the student broke the school’s protocol of having to get permission through a club sponsor, coach or administrator before hanging the fliers on campus.
Principal Brian Wilson declined to comment on any consequences the student might face, the Herald reported.(Contributor: By Jessica Chasmar for The Washington Times)
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Comments
Sure wish I had a copy of that guy’s sign. It could stand to be hung up around here.(Portland Oregon are. Yes, I agree with the 2 above responses. Seems as though if you express your disapproval, you become the hateful person an/or racist. What a world!!
It’s past time that the church of God took our stand and proclaimed the truth of His Word in grace. Making choices and living in opposition to the Word of God is a sin. We are all sinner and fall short of the Glory of God, but flagrant and conscience disobedience calls down the wrath of God on a people and/or nation.
I doubt this would be a story if the posters were LGBT and perhaps would not be taken down. It would be politically incorrect and the administration would be frightened by their shadow. However, in this case, it is a student that does represent a minority, the minority of the majority that would dare speak truth to the situation. So they will be singled out and punished. This grieves our God, a God who desires, righteousness, humility and equity. A God of Love and a God of Justice and a God who will ultimately judge.
We do no favors when we call sin a choice. Martin Luther King summed it up, “Moreover we must learn that to passively accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” I pray that the Lord will give us as a nation and a people who confess Christ, the courage to speak truth with grace.