Students tell of tension on gay tolerance day

A student-led effort to oppose homophobia at Homewood-Flossmoor High School may have backfired Tuesday when hundreds of students donned shirts with Christian and anti-gay slogans. Student activists who wore shirts emblazoned with the words "gay? fine by me" said they were outnumbered by peers wearing hateful messages and were targeted for harassment.

The T-shirt drive was intended to create a safe place for gay students and to put a human face on gays, lesbians and their allies.

"It was crazy. There were all these students with gay shirts and God shirts," said student newspaper reporter Joe Maloney. "In my first-period class, debate class, there were way more God shirts."

Chelsea Lavin, a broadcast student, was more pragmatic."People that you normally would say 'Hi' to in the halls were wearing shirts opposite of you, so you looked in the opposite direction," she said.

Alissa Norby, one of the T-shirt day's organizers, said she didn't know whether to define the project as a success or failure.

"If I was still in the closet and came to school (Tuesday) and saw hundreds of kids wearing anti-gay shirts, I'd probably go home crying and begging my parents to let me transfer," she said.

Students estimated more than 100 students wore anti-homophobia shirts, and more than 200 students wore shirts that listed "Crimes committed against God." The crimes included the elimination of school prayer and separation of church and state, but did not include anything about homosexuality.

Other male students wrote slogans on white T-shirts such as "I hate gay people" and "Gay? Not fine by me (unless you're a lesbian)" and "Gay? More chicks for me," students said.

The anti-gay messages effectively canceled out the anti-homophobia shirts, said H-F senior and gay activist Jamison Liang.

"Whenever you made eye contact with people wearing the opposition shirts, you could feel the tension," he said.

This was the second year that students promoted gay acceptance with a T-shirt day. Last year, about 100 students wore "gay? fine by me" shirts to school with little opposition. This year, organizers expanded the effort and got permission to promote and sell the shirts at school.

The "gay? fine by me" campaign is being promoted at schools nationwide. It started at Duke University in 2003.

Jacques Jacobs, youth pastor at Family Harvest Church in Orland Park, seized the opportunity to oppose the movement this year and gave away shirts with "Crimes committed against God" slogan to students.

"Many people feel that the most discriminated group of all is the Christian student in the public high school," Jacobs said.

Homewood-Flossmoor High School spokesman David Thieman said administrators allowed the students to wear shirts promoting and opposing gays on the same day. He said no disruptions were reported to the administration.

But organizer Myka Held said she reported two boys for taunting her by saying "gays would burn in hell." She said her dean made one boy apologize and promised to speak with the second boy today.

Students also claimed teachers were reprimanded for distributing shirts with Christian messages.

The event's organizers got permission Tuesday from the student council to recognize the school's gay support group as a club. Club status will allow the group to hold the T-shirt day next year without opposition, Norby said.

"If you mean go back to hateful people and judgmental people, with an undercurrent of racism, sexism and homophobia, yes, we'll go back to normal."

MIX IT UP: T-Shirts and Activism

March 16, 2005 -- Myka Held, a senior at Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School in Illinois, writes about confronting her school's administration to sponsor a T-shirt campaign against discrimination.

by Myka Held, 17

The day we wore the shirts was one of the most exciting days of my life. Looking back on it, I haven't had a prouder moment. It's hard to believe that something so powerful started as a casual idea between two friends.

At the end of my junior year, my friend Alissa came to me with a proposal. We always had great plans, like starting an underground newspaper or protesting the no-water-bottles-in-school rule by storming a board meeting. Although we usually didn't follow through with our brilliant plans, Alissa's proposal was just too good to pass up.

I have always supported equal rights for every person and have been disgusted by discrimination and prejudice. As a young Jewish woman, I believe it is my duty to stand up and support minority groups. Alissa's idea gave us an excellent opportunity to participate in an exciting protest: We were going to wear gay? fine by me T-shirts.

The shirts are made by Duke University, and we decided to wear them on April 21, the Day of Silence. That is when people — both straight and gay — don't talk in order to bring attention to the suffering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer people.

In my mind, fighting for gay rights is a proxy for fighting for every person's rights. We decided instead of just us wearing the shirts, we would see if we could get some of our peers to don the shirts as well.

However, we realized we had tipped our hand by sending an e-mail to all the teachers we knew to ask for their support. Someone forwarded the e-mail to our principal, who deemed what we were doing a "situation" that needed to be addressed. We got wind that the administration was distraught because we didn't ask permission.

But we were getting a positive response from most students and we decided to wait it out. We didn't have to wait too long though.

After fifth period we were told to meet in the athletic director's office. I walked into the office feeling very confident. The director proceeded to lecture us about sending e-mails out to teachers without asking, and posting a sign-up sheet in the school without permission. Then he told us we couldn't start a club without first going through the administration.

"Start a club?" Alissa asked in disbelief. "We are getting students to sign up to wear T-shirts on April 21st. That's hardly starting a club."

"Oh," the athletic director replied, at a loss for words.

I left the office feeling empowered; the administration couldn't stop us! But, we soon found out, they could discourage teachers from wearing our shirts.

During the Day of Silence, I felt unstoppable as I saw several people in my classes and in the hallways wearing the T-shirts. A lot of people asked if we had extra shirts, or why we hadn't sold one to them.

There wasn't enough time to get to everyone, but more than 100 students ended up wearing the shirts, including three brave teachers. The day had been a huge victory. Many teachers congratulated me on my courage, my parents and relatives were proud, and I felt truly fulfilled.

Since shirt day, I have become more interested in politics and seeing how just one or two people can make a difference. What I did was on a small scale, it's true, but the difference Alissa and I made in opening the minds of some students is important.

This year, Alissa and I plan to make shirt day bigger than last year — and to get juniors to help us plan it so they can carry on this new school tradition next year when we are gone.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.