So I visited the Gay-Straight Alliance website, looking for some kind of a mission statement (Which there is none of) to find THIS quote at the bottom frame of the page:

[quote=GSA Website]
WITHOUT GSA ACCESS, STUDENTS ARE FORCED TO SIMPLY KILL CLASSMATES WHO TAUNT & BULLY - SHOOTING, STABBING AND POISONING ARE THE COMMON FORMS OF RETRIBUTION. FAR TOO MANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS LIKE BULLYING CHILDREN TO THE POINT WHERE RETRIBUTION AGAINST CLASSMATES AND FACULTY IS ONLY OPTION TO REDRESS RELENTLESS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN MANY REGIONS.
[/quote]

... I was shocked at THAT message of hate.
"Namecalling makes (Not only) violence (But KILLING) the only option - Unless there is a GSA"

What the hell is a GSA?

I think almost every group has their set of radicals.

Holy ****, I was thinking of joining them, but man. It's not even fine print, it's big bold block letters right there on the frame.

-Yikes. Gay scare tactics. Worse than gay flanking and gay rear penetration combined (lol war is funny when it's gay).

So, when the faculty fails to discipline a mean student because these same radical groups have made the schools too scared to punish anything at all, the preffered course of action is to go on a killing spree?

Retribution is the word they use.

I could see something like an article that discusses the violent response that victims of hate crimes tend to retaliate with: But calling multiple forms of murder "retribution" for bullying...? That's sick.

"haha, homo!"

*BLAM*

"aagh!"

"the poor child was left with no recourse"

I'm not going to defend the statement at the bottom of the page, but I am perplexed becuase it doesn't seem at all consistent with the mission of GSA and other pieces of their literature. You should check out the FAQ if you're looking for a "mission statement" type thing on this website: http://www.gsanetwork.org/ . You will also note that there's no mention of "retribution" or anything radical there or anywhere except that particular frame. Of course, I could simply be overlooking something, in which case, please go ahead and provide a link.

The reason I'm making this point is that I feel that most GSA chapters (such as the one here at Creighton University) are quite peaceful, and the gay rights movement in general is an issue that I feel is very important and justified. I feel that if we're not careful, it's easy to lump a whole positive movement with one extremist and prevent the sort of change that needs to take place in society.

No, I agree. I'm TOTALLY behind GSA, and helped start the one at my highschool. I'm just shocked by this.

They just want attention.

Do you know if the message has been there for long? Maybe the site got hacked by someone who wanted to be slightly more subtle than just deleting everything.

right there tells me they're full of crap anyways

I think it's stupid that they have these in HIGHSCHOOLS.

A. None of you are old enough to legally have sex.
B. Who the **** cares what you like to find when you put your hand down the front of someones pants?
C. It doesn't belong in school. You're there to learn. Not fight the man, or parade against the machine.
D. Go to hell, you guys are idiots. No one should be FORCED into accepting you if they don't want to. Part of freedom is accepting that people think differently than you do.

I'm not a biggot, but I'll support a biggot's right to be one.

to the death?

I will comment more later, but I'm guessing that bit was just added on by some crazy websiting gay.

I always wanted to show up at a GSA meeting dressed up as a girl scout. Then when someone asks what I'm doing I can say "I thought this was the Girl Scouts of America!"

- sexuality is not based on "ages of consent"
- people are still oppressed even if they can't have sex
- best to start as soon as possible rather than allowing bigotry to snowball into college
- there are highschool students who are gay and bisexual and they DO have to live in environments that are not friendly to them. This organization helps promote unity among different sexualities
- you can't legally drink in highschool either. Care to make an argument against "Students Against Drunk Driving" or are you for people's right to drink and drive too?
- helps create awareness of an even broader issue---gay rights, which is really something we could stand to see progress on in the future. Hopefully highschool generations are growing up more tolerant and using their political power in the future. Idealistic? But given a coherent disadvantage to GSA I don't see a reason to not try. The worst thing that can happen is we fail and maybe make a minority feel a bit more welcome. Still better than doing nothing.




- I guess it's hard to undertsand, but sexuality is about more than sex. My heterosexuality affects my behaivor in many ways beyond what I like when I stick my hand down someone's pants.
- Not at all responsive to the need to end the culture of bigotry. The idea of an alliance is a formal organization that provides a refuge for individuals and supports the goal of ending the sorts of oppresion that are wrong. Some people DO care and they care in a way trhat causes them to treat others terribly.



- learn about what? Schools can also be microchosms of a real democratic society to provide students with training for a liberal world
- teaching students to fight bigotry is more important than teaching them calculus.



- Restrictions on bigotry are inevitable. At some point, schools will have to step in when things get really bad. GSA actually solve restrictions on bigotry by cooling down the situation in non-coercive way. It attempts to persuade and change mindsets, create awareness etc. It has no "enforcement" like the government or school, no way to penalize bigots. With GSA, you can still be a bigot. But since there will be so few of them if the program is allowed to succeed, it makes coercive tactics by the school unnecessary. Hope that makes sense.

-this is an argument against your position. I thought you were trying to tell us that GSA doesn't belong in highschools. Why don't you just accept that people do things differently than you would?

-freedom isn't absolute
it's self defeating - if we all have the "freedom" to be bigots we encroach on other people's freedoms, such as the freedom from harassment

-bigotry is bad
it causes violence- two ways 1) bigotry justifies physical acts of violence against those who are "different". Racist bigotry is the root cause of racial violence. 2) it can also cause violent backlash from the oppressed community, especially if they aren't given some sort of peaceful release. This is the less militant version of the argument posted on the gsa website




I trust that you're not a bigot, but, frankly, I don't trust that you'll respond to my arguments in a way that furthers the dialectic and ultimately provides truth. If you can restrain yourself from saying "you guys are idiots" in a post, that might actually impress me as much as a KKK member apologizing for racism.

Granted, I will also support your right to be a jerk... that doesn't mean I can't try to persuade you to not be one.

Yay JL!

This is an interesting philosophical talking point. I agree with you; no one ought to be forced to think a certain way. However, their actions should not encroach on the pursuit of happiness of others.

A. You would do well to visit my h.s. alma mater for a day. I give your chances of being laid about 47% if you were to spend a school day there.

B. I defer to JL

C. Mmm...wrong if this is entirely run and organized by the students and only a teacher is there to keep some semblance of order. If this is a faculty/staff organization then I agree with you, this is just sheer indoctrination.

D. This is true. Unfortunately this does not hold water on all sides. People don't want to accept that people disagree with their viewpoint esp. in this polarized nation.

It's not so much about being accepted. People are going to believe what they're going to believe, whether it comes from a religius belief or it's just something they learned growing up. What is important here is being treated like an equal, both on a personal level as well as a governmental level. That's what GSA, or any gay rights organization, is about.

Do you have any idea what it's like to be gay and out in high school? It means putting up with constant harrassment, both verbal and physical. It means being treated like crap by some people on a constant basis. And this doesn't even have to be just about gay. People are bullied or taunted for being a different race or a different religion or even for just being short. This is why tolerance needs to be emphasized in school. Nobody should ever have to be treated like less of person because they don't fit the definition of "normal."

PS: JL, your post wins the thread.

But that isn't what the thread is about: What the **** is with that crazy message on the site?

I'm not big on gays myself, but support their right to gayhood. I also support the right of people to be completely turned off by two guys putting their wangs where they don't belong.

It doesn't belong in highschool.


PS, highschool in no way represents the real world.

Concentrate on learning.

[QUOTE=Jedi Legend]- sexuality is not based on "ages of consent"
- people are still oppressed even if they can't have sex
- best to start as soon as possible rather than allowing bigotry to snowball into college
- there are highschool students who are gay and bisexual and they DO have to live in environments that are not friendly to them. This organization helps promote unity among different sexualities
- you can't legally drink in highschool either. Care to make an argument against "Students Against Drunk Driving" or are you for people's right to drink and drive too?
- helps create awareness of an even broader issue---gay rights, which is really something we could stand to see progress on in the future. Hopefully highschool generations are growing up more tolerant and using their political power in the future. Idealistic? But given a coherent disadvantage to GSA I don't see a reason to not try. The worst thing that can happen is we fail and maybe make a minority feel a bit more welcome. Still better than doing nothing.
[/quote]

It still doesn't belong in highschool. Everyone knows about gay rights, and no amount of group chanting, sitting in the hallway, or making posters is going to change how they feel on the issue.

Drunk driving is a completely different issue. There are abstitence groups too.

Really, I think all three groups are equally stupid, and don't really do anything to fix the problems.

Then again, we never had a drunk driving problem because they put up this nasty picture of a former student that was struck by a drunk driver and had about 97% of her skin burned off. (She lived)


Thats nice, but why detract from the already piss poor american education system? It's not an issue that belongs in highschools. Save it for college.



You can't LEARN tolerance. No amount of coaching will make someone who isn't tolerant of something all of the sudden like it. And it really, and I hate to say it, comes down to how someone is raised for the most part. You either do, or you don't. Furthermore, there are sexuality and humanities classes if you're so interested in the issues. Discuss them there.

Highschool isn't your personal soap box, and I always hated people that thought it was.



All I've seen them do was cause MORE of a problem. I've seen things like this cause more physical reaction (the bad kind) than I can count on both hands.


Why don't they accept people think differently and don't care to change their opinion? Or hey, better idea. They could get out of my face. Apparently if I'm not part of their solution, I'm just another part of the problem.


Thats nice, kindly take the soap box out of the classroom. This goes for people who preach the opposite.


So painting everyone who follows an unpopular cause as a target is a good idea, and doesn't cause violence?


But they're STILL causing an issue, albeit unintentionally. Like I said, I've seen alot of crap go down because some dumb meat head doesn't see it the same way. Martlin Luther King was a pacifist. He still got shot. It doesn't matter how non-violent a movement is, it can STILL cause people to become violent.




I couldn't care what you think.

I don't think the GSA belongs in the highschool environment, based on what I've seen and still see at my highschool and other highschools from around my county.

And I really couldn't care how much I or someone else can thump it. NO ONE should be required to tolerate something.