Living Out Loud with Darian

Ok I'm beginning to believe that there is something in the water in Cobb County that's turning people into homophobic bigots.Yesterday I wrote about the school board's dilemma regarding discrimination complaints from male teachers being denied the right to wear earrings to work and today more disturbing news is coming out of Cobb.

It seems Thomas Benjamin a student at Kell High has written a very controversial piece in his school newspaper titled Homosexuality:Beyond The Bible. In his piece Benjamin argues that homosexuality is a biolgical error and compares homosexuals to to alcoholics, sex addicts, drug addicts, and kleptomaniacs. Benjamin does not deny the fact that homosexuality may not be a choice but innate at birth, but he says "there are all kinds of problems, addictions, difficulties, experiences of things that are wrong, but you should try to work with the person to control that problem".

In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association’s Board of Trustees removed homosexuality from its official diagnostic manual. Experts found that homosexuality does not meet the criteria to be considered a mental illness. Obviously a decision Benjamin overlooked during his research for the article(if he did any research) .

He further dismisses loving same gender relationships on the fact that homosexual couples cannot reproduce. This argument is tired and lame at best. Benjamin and others who follow the same thought process fail to include couples who cannot bare children or couples who just choose not to have children. Are these relationships inferior to the unions that produce children or seen as an abomination in the eyes of God based on that one thing? Of course not.

Principal Trudie Donovan said Monday that she had reviewed the article before it was published last Friday, but said she had no authority to censor it. "My job is the safety and security of the school, not censorship," she said. Cobb County schools spokesman Jay Dillon said principals have no legal standing to say articles of student opinion can't be printed.

Under court rulings and school district policy, students can express their opinions and ideas publicly, privately, orally and in writing. "There may be no interference with that, even if a student's opinion is unpopular," he said. Exceptions might include obscenities or something that might cause a riot at school, Dillon said. "In such cases, she [Donovan] would be protected in censoring materials. "

Uh..huh . I'm sure the principal and the superintendent would be singing a different tune if a pro-gay article had been printed in the school newspaper. But that article probably would have never made it to print. It's sad and embarrasing that the south seems to be years behind the rest of the world when it comes to understanding and accepting people who are different. I'm sure Benjamin's parents gave him a pat on the back for his insulting, innacurate, and homophobic attempt at journalism. You know they say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.