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Support GayOKC.com! Donate here!		NW Classen High School censors GLBT Heroes of Sept 11

The following is an e-mail from Joe Quigley
(Posted 10-23-01)

I am sure there are many more than slightly annoyed with the coverage of the
victims and heroes of Sept. 11, 2001 which has had no problem celebrating
fully the lives of some victims and heroes with the inclusion of family,
friends and loved ones, while editing the lives of those who are Gay and
Lesbian to make them appear simply "single".
    I am sure there are some like me who watched the DATELINE program and
some others, and who read the papers and were saddened at the husband and
wife who perished together on the same plane, but wondered why the little boy
who perished in one plane along with his two fathers was not mentioned.
    And, I am, sure there are those like me who heard of the friends and
significant others of some of the heroes of the Pentagon and Pittsburgh
planes, and wondered why one person was reduced to an impersonal rugby
player, and a co-pilot apparently was a loner who just flew a plane, but was
a good uncle.
   So when The Advocate came out with its article about those victims and
heroes who were Gay or Lesbian, filling in the true facts of their lives
showing them as humans, not demons, I saw it as an educational opportunity in
these times when Americans need to draw together and all simply be Americans.
   With all the expressions of praise, admiration and unity, I saw this as an
opportunity to put faces and names on those faceless "demons" so often
villified to fill the coffers of politicians and "love gift" addicts.
    I cut out the article, bound it in a manila folder, decorated the face of
the folder with an American flag, and hung it on the door of the classroom.
    There had been a month of the ostentatious expressions of genuine and
one-up-manship expressions of patriotism from flag motif sweaters, posted
front pages on walls, the usual I-am-a-better-american-than-you-are moments
of silence, official hall displays, and the synchronized national Pledge of
Allegiance complete with the
"liberty and justice for all" ending.
    So what harm educating students and fellow faculty members to the fact
that, when you come right down to it, even Gay and Lesbian people are just
plain old Americans capable of the same feelings, emotions, and love of
country as the rest?
    Well, apparently, this we-are-all-Americans does not spread that widely
at NW Classen High School.
    When I left school at approximately 3:00 on October 16, after our faculty
meeting, not only were there no students in the building as they had been
warned to leave by 2:30, but my Advocate article was still on my door, as was
the notice, "October is Gay and Lesbian History Month" written in the upper
right hand corner of my chalk board.
   The next morning, October 17, when I arrived at school with no kids yet on
the second floor, I found that in spite of nothing from the previous day's
last class being erased from the board, the Gay History Month notice had been
erased.
     Later that day the union rep came to my room to see the "objectionable
gay display" that a V.P. had complained of to the principal. The only V.P.
who bothers to walk the building during the day and is quite often on the
second floor would not have complained, another V.P. is never on the second
floor, but the third V.P. who is assigned to maintenance has been known to
check out the building when everyone is gone except the custodial staff. And,
having worked with custodians in school settings for 28 years, I do not know
of any who would just clean off one corner of a board without cleaning the
whole thing.
     After seeing that the "display" was the article from the Advocate, the
union rep was satisfied that there was not only a case of misrepresentation,
but that there was nothing objectionable posted. I did agree to tape the back
of the article securely to the manila folder as the next article dealt with
how these times are difficult for Gay Muslims, and not being related to the
one I wanted people to read, I saw no problem with doing that. Perhaps the
V.P. was scandalized by seeing the word "GAY".
      Again, that day I left around 3:00 making sure that both the article
and my chalk notation were still there.
      On October 22 when returning to school after the fall break, I
immediately noticed the absence of the article, and, again, the erased
"month" notification while the rest of the board had last Wednesday's last
class Grammar work still on it.
     This mysterious work had been carried out after the students and I left
on October 17, and before I arrived at my class, again before any students
were on the second floor, October 22.
     Unless the custodial staff is selectively cleansing, or students risked
arrest to break into school over the fall break to erase a piece of my board
and steal the article, a scenario that is most unlikely and would not speak
well of the intelligence level of NW Classen students, it had to have been
done by someone with free access to the school after everyone was gone, or
before they returned.
    This goes beyond censorship and crosses to the obscene. Here we are in
America's must hurting moment, and someone exercises their bigotry to erase
facts.
Why is NW Classen afraid to educate its students?
It is beyond me.
It is an insult to the memory of the victims and a slight, an insulting one,
to the heroes, victims and the loved ones they held dear.
Joe Quigley

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