Marc Hall
Posted on 04/10/2002 10:22:14 AM PDT by NewEnglandNative
Catholic school board rules against gay prom date
Last Updated Tue, 09 Apr 2002 12:44:29
OSHAWA, ONTARIO - A gay Toronto-area high school student will not be allowed to take his boyfriend to his prom after a Catholic school board rejected his request Monday.
Marc Hall |
Marc Hall, 17, made his appeal in front of hundreds of people packed into a meeting of the Durham Catholic District School Board. The Grade 12 student at Oshawa's Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic High School said he wanted to take his 21-year-old date to the prom on May 10.
But the board ruled that it could not permit a gay couple to attend.
Mary Ann Martin, the chair of the board, read from a prepared statement. "We accept and support Marc," she said. "But as for his request for the board to change its mind and allow him to bring his boyfriend to the prom, this we will not do."
Hall, in tears after the decision, called the school "homophobic" and told the board the ruling made him feel rejected.
 Mary Ann Martin tears up as she reads the decision |
"I plead with you to reconsider your decision because of the many supporters. But more than that, I believe in justice and that God loves me for who I am," Hall said.
He says he still plans to take his boyfriend to the prom, and that his lawyer will ask for a court injunction to reverse the board's decision.
Very true. And someone needs to hillary-slap the woman on the board who is in tears over the decision. What is wrong with people like her?
Hall, in tears after the decision ... Mary Ann Martin tears up as she reads the decisionWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Exactly.
Well well, if this this 21 year old man is engaging in homosexual activities with a 17 year old boy, wouldn't that be considered statutory RAPE? And God may love Marc Hall, but God has condemned the activities in which he is engaging. I think all those who try to demand acceptance for sinful activities by using this canard of 'God loves me' should remember that even though God loves us, WE are the ones who decide whether we'll separate ourselves from the presence of God by the activities in which we choose to engage!
Au contraire (a little French lingo for our Canadian friends).
This is a kid. Not an adult. Students shouldn't be raising issues like this at the school board or in the courts. It should require a parent or guardian.
Why is any mention of such a parental figure absent from a discussion about a child and his 21 year old date?
Actually I'm pretty sure that in Canada the Catholic schools are public schools -- i.e. paid for with taxpayer dollars. I know that is the case in Quebec.....but I agree with your point -- the parents do have a choice as to whether they send their kids to the Catholic schools or not.
Of course I think religious homophobia is stupid -- but people have rights to be and act stupid and this kid should not try to appeal to the use of state force to interfere with the stupid seeking to behave in their stupid ways.
His appeal to the board was okay, of course. Kid has courage.
Not the way you mean, kid. He loves you for who you REALLY are, not what the homosexual agenda says you are.
I'm very sorry for you. It is likely you were molested as a young boy by a homosexual paedophile--a very common route to homosexuality.
Now you're so mixed up you're completely out of tune with your Heavenly Father.
I pray for you and the thousands like you. You are responsible for your actions, but there are going to be many roasting in hell for THEIR actions that beguiled and fooled you into thinking "this is who I am."
End of discussion!!
And I took a girl as my 'date' to my senior prom...she was my coworker at the local ice cream shop and we'd both just been dumped by our boyfriends. She went to another high school, so I filled out the little guest pass form and no one blinked an eye. They knew we weren't gay. Guys did the same thing for their friends from out of town.
If this little punk had kept his mouth shut about his so-called 'orientation,' he probably could have brought his boyfriend as a guest, or gotten one of his girl friends to bring him in. Stupid kid just wants to make a political statement. I wonder how his boyfriend feels when he realizes that this kid is only 'dating' him for the shock value and attention.
It depends on the age of consent in the state and the specific law concerning statutory rape. Some state laws(I believe) make a distinction between adults preying on minors, and 2 people who are a couple of years apart in age (i.e. a high school senior dating a freshman).
You are correct. Canada's original constitution, the British North America Act of 1867, established two public education systems. Originally in Ontario the English system was funded through to the end of high school (still is) and the French system, which is run as a Catholic system with it's own school boards, was funded through grade 8. A couple of decades ago, the actual year escapes me, the Ontario government extended funding to the Catholic system right through high school bringing it in line with the English system.
The case has received a great deal of media attention up here because of a contradiction that it brought to the surface.
It seems a no brainer that a Catholic high school should not be forced to concede to a situation that is wholly contrary to church doctrine, but being that it is funded wholly by tax dollars there is debate where the boundries of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms fall. While not prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation specifically, the Supreme Court has generally written in this right in a number of instances, primarily where the "discriminating party" was an arm of government or government funded. At the provincial level, where the direct responsibility for education resided, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (you read that right) has declared:
Sexual orientation and same-sex partnership status are prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Code. Every person has the right to equal treatment without discrimination because of sexual orientation and same-sex partnership status with respect to services, goods, facilities, employment, the occupancy of accommodation, the right to enter into contracts and the right to join trade unions or other vocational associations.
This has essentially put prohibition against discrimination based on sexual orientation into the Ontario Human Rights Code, which is basically the provincial equal to the Federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms (it actually pre-dates it by quite a few years...the Code, not the prohibition).
Link URL: http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/publications/sexual-orientation-policy.shtml
This kid could have had a fair bit of support against the Catholic School Board if he would have handled things differently. Most folks I know originally felt that if the fellow students didn't have an issue with it the kid should have been able to bring his boyfriend and the school should have clammed up as a prom is really a student event. The minute he started yammering about legal action opinion started to shift, however, as many now see it as a appeal for attention designed to embarrass the school and board. Still, in cases like this it is difficult to determine where the court will line up. If the school was a fully private school he would likely be up a rink without a hockey stick, but given the situation he actually has a good shot of winning, although it will be a hollow victory in my books since he's looking more immature with every step.
For any of my fellow Freepers in the States that find this whole thing utterly bizarre remember that in Canada sexual orientation (and let's be clear...where it involves consenting adults) is really an issue most people basically shrug at. Former PM Trudeau once stated, and it has become almost a national credo, that "...the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." Whether or not one admires Trudeau (I personally think he did incredible damage to this country's economy and national defense, not to mention saddling us with a hugely bloated multicultural industry...his reign made me a conservative) you will have a hard time finding Canadians that don't agree with him on this point.
At this point, most people I speak to have had enough of this case and the kid. Personally, I feel he's a bit stupid being in a Catholic school to begin with if he's a out-of-the-closet gay in the first place. He (and let's face it, his parents obviously knew about his orientation) would have no problem doing this in the regular public system, as juvenile as it would have been there as well.
Just some detail and background if anyone was interested.
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