Have you ever heard of UnCollege? I signed up for their newsletter because when you do you get a free e-book. I haven't read the book yet, but the newsletter is the most fascinating thing in my inbox each week, and possibly the only e-mail I've ever signed up for and then proceeded to consistently and enthusiastically read. It's pointed me to some cool articles about education, and I'm leaving the links here if you're interested. They're pretty dire - the whole perspective of UnCollege is that education as we do it today is at best inefficient and at worse actively harmful to one's actual learning, and I'm not sure I would take such a perspective, because our education system has actually served me pretty wells in a lot of ways. But they're definitely worth a look.
School is Not School - on how the ideal school system, in which people learn to be citizens, turned into something much more boring, with the unfortunate side effect of furthering economic injustice.
The Prison Educational Complex - on "zero-tolerance" rule enforcement, windowless cinderblock high school buildings, and why sometimes school police officers arrest students for "insubordination" and that's really really not ok.
And some bonus, non-education related reading: Undercover at a NOM conference.
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
August 30, 2012
November 15, 2010
Westboro Baptist Church at WSHS
This morning, Westboro Baptist Church came and picketed at my high school. I found out about it a week ago, though I couldn't tell you why they chose Woodbridge - from the rant on their website, I gather that it has something to do with the fact that we have a fair number of gay kids and treat them pretty well, though our administration never made a point to be supportive of queer students while I was there.
The reaction of a lot of my friends was this: If Woodbridge is attracting the attention of Westboro, we must be doing something right. If we're a place where gay kids feel comfortable being out, and where teachers are accepting of LGBT students, and this is recognized by crazy people miles away, than that's actually kind of cool.
And then, of course, there was a counter protest.
The school asked students and community members NOT to counter protest. In his letter, the principal mentioned that Woodbridge is awesome, but did not mention that we're awesome because we're accepting and welcoming to gay kids. I kind of wish he had - For every time in high school that I was thrilled at how easy it was to feel out, I got annoyed at the administration for, say, erasing mentions of gay kids from the yearbook or not letting the GSA put up posters, and this would have been an awesome chance to correct that, instead of just asking people not to counter protest because it would be disruptive. Some of my friends said the same, though: "Counter protesting just gives them more attention."
A counter-protester from my church responded this way in the local paper: “When hate comes to my back door, I have to respond." I tend to agree with her. Yes, we give them more publicity by reacting, but the articles are all about the 200+ people who turned out with a message of love and acceptance. There were 5 people with hateful signs, and hundreds with messages of love - I think that's more powerful than just ignoring them and hoping they go away, in the interests of getting on with the school day.
The reaction of a lot of my friends was this: If Woodbridge is attracting the attention of Westboro, we must be doing something right. If we're a place where gay kids feel comfortable being out, and where teachers are accepting of LGBT students, and this is recognized by crazy people miles away, than that's actually kind of cool.
And then, of course, there was a counter protest.
The school asked students and community members NOT to counter protest. In his letter, the principal mentioned that Woodbridge is awesome, but did not mention that we're awesome because we're accepting and welcoming to gay kids. I kind of wish he had - For every time in high school that I was thrilled at how easy it was to feel out, I got annoyed at the administration for, say, erasing mentions of gay kids from the yearbook or not letting the GSA put up posters, and this would have been an awesome chance to correct that, instead of just asking people not to counter protest because it would be disruptive. Some of my friends said the same, though: "Counter protesting just gives them more attention."
A counter-protester from my church responded this way in the local paper: “When hate comes to my back door, I have to respond." I tend to agree with her. Yes, we give them more publicity by reacting, but the articles are all about the 200+ people who turned out with a message of love and acceptance. There were 5 people with hateful signs, and hundreds with messages of love - I think that's more powerful than just ignoring them and hoping they go away, in the interests of getting on with the school day.
June 29, 2009
AP Musings
This has nothing to do with anything, but while we're stuck on the issue of standardized testing I figured I would throw out a question that occurred to me the other day:
As AP classes (high school classes that can be taken for college credit) become more commonplace, will the colleges stop being interested in giving credit? I know at my school, the kids who take AP classes aren't the ones who want to place out of a Gen Ed class in college to move on to more challenging work - they're the ones who don't want to be bored out of their mind, because the alternative is "normal" English or Government or whatever, which, depending on what teacher you get, tend to involve watching a lot of movies, reading easy books, etc. There isn't any middle-ground between the basic class and the AP one, so AP becomes the default class just because the alternative is no good.
Not to say the people in my AP classes weren't qualified to be in them - they absolutely were. But because people aren't taking it to be challenged, it becomes just another class. I came out of my AP Spanish test able to speak less Spanish than I'd gone in with, but I still passed the test... because instead of practicing speaking the language, we did worksheets to the test. My friends are taking 5 AP classes next year when they used to advise us to only take 2... is the upcoming senior class just more capable than we were? I've noticed less and less "AP classes are very challenging, expect lots of homework," and more "Take AP classes, it makes the school look good."
Hmm.
Anyway. Sorry. The point of this musing is that as AP classes are viewed more and more like just another part of high school, colleges might lose interest in giving credit.
But, I'm done with high school, and am going into college with so many AP credits that I'm basically a sophomore. So I can't say I care that much about the fate of AP.
As AP classes (high school classes that can be taken for college credit) become more commonplace, will the colleges stop being interested in giving credit? I know at my school, the kids who take AP classes aren't the ones who want to place out of a Gen Ed class in college to move on to more challenging work - they're the ones who don't want to be bored out of their mind, because the alternative is "normal" English or Government or whatever, which, depending on what teacher you get, tend to involve watching a lot of movies, reading easy books, etc. There isn't any middle-ground between the basic class and the AP one, so AP becomes the default class just because the alternative is no good.
Not to say the people in my AP classes weren't qualified to be in them - they absolutely were. But because people aren't taking it to be challenged, it becomes just another class. I came out of my AP Spanish test able to speak less Spanish than I'd gone in with, but I still passed the test... because instead of practicing speaking the language, we did worksheets to the test. My friends are taking 5 AP classes next year when they used to advise us to only take 2... is the upcoming senior class just more capable than we were? I've noticed less and less "AP classes are very challenging, expect lots of homework," and more "Take AP classes, it makes the school look good."
Hmm.
Anyway. Sorry. The point of this musing is that as AP classes are viewed more and more like just another part of high school, colleges might lose interest in giving credit.
But, I'm done with high school, and am going into college with so many AP credits that I'm basically a sophomore. So I can't say I care that much about the fate of AP.
June 24, 2009
Girls Suck at Smarts
I couldn't not re-post this:
It is a page from an SAT study book called "Strategies for Women." Featuring basic algebra and vocabulary that the ladies for some reason find more difficult than the mens.
You'd think the author of a book on test scores might know that women and minorities perform worse on the SATs when reminded that they're minorities.
Mm, standardized testing goodness, my favorite! Via Shakesville
Also, I would have it known that I used algebra to re-size that picture; I can do proportions in my head, and I have two x chromosomes! Weird, ain't it?
It is a page from an SAT study book called "Strategies for Women." Featuring basic algebra and vocabulary that the ladies for some reason find more difficult than the mens.
You'd think the author of a book on test scores might know that women and minorities perform worse on the SATs when reminded that they're minorities.
Mm, standardized testing goodness, my favorite! Via Shakesville
Also, I would have it known that I used algebra to re-size that picture; I can do proportions in my head, and I have two x chromosomes! Weird, ain't it?
June 22, 2009
Quote of the Day
"Lindsay Lohan supersedes news about genocide, men assess their “worth” by their paychecks, women’s bodies are treated as commodities and our educational system preoccupies itself not with stimulating children’s curiosity but rather getting them to efficiently regurgitate information on standardized tests."
Wanna know where I got that quote?
From the Politics of Harry Potter Wikipedia article. I'm re-reading the series.
It's actually a very good quote. Standardized tests suck, and my beloved alma mater seems to be rushing towards more of them... but in the form of AP classes, which complicates things. On the one hand, my AP classes offered me much more chance to think critically, learn how to write essays, discuss, etc. than normal classes. On the other hand, my AP classes were still full of scantrons and memorizing things for the test - in one class, our teacher didn't even bother going through the things on the state-required tests, just gave them all to us in one day, because the scores didn't matter, we just had to take them. And of course, when students take AP classes, they spend all year learning that the whole point is to pass the test, so that they can get out of a college class. Learning the stuff because it's interesting doesn't matter as much as passing and getting out of something, which is kind of sad, and I'm afraid that expanding AP classes just for the sake of AP classes will mean even more focus on those damn tests.
...Did I have a point?
I'm not sure.
But I'm not going to that school anymore, so I don't care~! Hopefully I get to do more creative thinking and not-regurgitating-information in college!
Also, Harry Potter is awesome.
That is all.
June 17, 2009
Blog Quote of the Day and updates
Just which benefits will gay federal employees be getting? The White House is refusing to say. But it's unlikely it's anything involving money, like Social Security, or, as we now know, health care. Which is ironic, since health care is Obama's number one issue (but not for us). Also ironic, which I wrote about earlier, is that health care reform likely won't cover us either, since they'd have to include us as "families" and "dependents" - and let's face it, they just compared us to incest and pedophilia, does anyone think this administration or this congress is going to define us as "family" in their health care package?
(Via Pam's House)
Urg. Great way to start my morning.
Sorry the posts have been slow-coming. My excuse this time is that I was busy graduating. WSHS class of 2009, whooooo!
Yeah, we're awesome.
(I also had a very successful poetry reading in DC last night. Yay!)
Now that it's summer I'll have free time to spare, so hopefully I can get the blog going again, when I'm not playing my new guitar and trying to figure out what the heck I need to get for my college dorm. Move-in day is in August, anyone have any tips?
June 3, 2009
Dress Codes and Gender
A top student at a South Carolina high school has been banned from the graduation ceremony unless she wears a dress.
Um, isn't that gender discrimination...?
We had a similar issue at my school a few years ago - one girl, who never wore dresses, fought to wear pants. Our super-strict administration finally gave in, so she wore pants, and a boy in our class wore a dress under his robe. This year, the paper they gave us said that girls could only wear dresses and boys could only wear pants, but I think it's an unstated rule that you can wear something different if you get special permission... or just don't get caught!
Is this reasonable? They want us all to look uniform, and I understand that, but can they do that without enforcing the dress code by gender?
Um, isn't that gender discrimination...?
We had a similar issue at my school a few years ago - one girl, who never wore dresses, fought to wear pants. Our super-strict administration finally gave in, so she wore pants, and a boy in our class wore a dress under his robe. This year, the paper they gave us said that girls could only wear dresses and boys could only wear pants, but I think it's an unstated rule that you can wear something different if you get special permission... or just don't get caught!
Is this reasonable? They want us all to look uniform, and I understand that, but can they do that without enforcing the dress code by gender?
May 17, 2009
Gender in High School
Long time no see! (Again.) I have a list of amazing excuses, which you will see in a very exciting upcoming post. But for now, on with the show!
New American Media has an awesome collection of quotes from high school kids in San Francisco on the subject of gender. Apparently common gender stereotypes are shifting to coincide with women having a majority on college campuses and getting close to it in the workplace.
Some quotes that stuck out to me:
I definitely see this reflected in my school - not that boys are unintelligent or unmotivated, but they seem to put forth less effort for the success they have. I'm in the sort of classes where people are trying out outdo each other in class rank, and the boys in the top ten never seen to make a big deal about it; it's the girls who stress out, compare number of AP classes, etc.
Also, interestingly, the class where I see my male friends putting forth the most sincerely enthusiastic effort is math. It is not weird, at my school, for a guy to be visibly excited for an AP Calculus test. If the same guy were as excited about English, people would think it strange. I also have guy friends who focus all their energy into art, or dance, or history, and are willing to coast more on areas that aren't their favorite, whereas girls tend to worry about everything.
A thought: The way I notice girls dealing with school works more with liberal art colleges, where you study a little bit of everything; contrasted with the way I notice boys dealing with school, which reminds me of college in Europe where you jump right into your major and learn about more narrow subjects. More girls attend college in the United States; I'd be interested to compare those statistics to the UK or Canada, where the style of education is different.
New American Media has an awesome collection of quotes from high school kids in San Francisco on the subject of gender. Apparently common gender stereotypes are shifting to coincide with women having a majority on college campuses and getting close to it in the workplace.
Some quotes that stuck out to me:
I feel like women are considered weird if they don’t care as much about their education/job/overall success. Men, on the other hand, can’t care too much, or they become a teacher’s pet/kiss-ass/workaholic. Guys are allowed to not care.
When I was in middle school, I did notice a sort of group of girls, who were – to me – known as the “uber-girls”: consistent note takers, flash card makers, excellent organizers, and multi-hour studiers. (But) as a guy, I feel that this idea that guys don’t try is absurd. The point is that guys do try, and we do our best. We may not be “uber-guys” but we are striving for as much success as girls are.
I do well in school, but I don’t brag about it like a lot of the girls in my class. As a sophomore, college is in the back of my mind. I’m not worrying about it like so many of the girls in my class. Maybe that’s why the female graduation rate is so much higher than that of the male. I have confidence in the fact that I will attend college and get a decent job, so I don’t work as hard as I could. Hopefully this won’t come back and bite me in the ass.
I definitely see this reflected in my school - not that boys are unintelligent or unmotivated, but they seem to put forth less effort for the success they have. I'm in the sort of classes where people are trying out outdo each other in class rank, and the boys in the top ten never seen to make a big deal about it; it's the girls who stress out, compare number of AP classes, etc.
Also, interestingly, the class where I see my male friends putting forth the most sincerely enthusiastic effort is math. It is not weird, at my school, for a guy to be visibly excited for an AP Calculus test. If the same guy were as excited about English, people would think it strange. I also have guy friends who focus all their energy into art, or dance, or history, and are willing to coast more on areas that aren't their favorite, whereas girls tend to worry about everything.
A thought: The way I notice girls dealing with school works more with liberal art colleges, where you study a little bit of everything; contrasted with the way I notice boys dealing with school, which reminds me of college in Europe where you jump right into your major and learn about more narrow subjects. More girls attend college in the United States; I'd be interested to compare those statistics to the UK or Canada, where the style of education is different.
April 29, 2009
100 Days, with Dancing Condoms
Campus Progress.org has an awesome report card of how Obama's administration has done on reproductive health issues in the first hundred days. And instead of As and Bs and Fs, his policies were ranked in dancing condoms, with one condom being "fail fail fail fail" and five being "awesome beyond recognition."
This made me giggle.
The biggest surprise for me was the epic fail on the subject of sex education. Failed Abstinence only programs still got $94 million dollars in the federal budget, and the FY 2010 budget does not mention comprehensive education; instead, it says vague things about "community and faith-based efforts."
Ahem. Given how faith-based efforts worked in Texas, I would like to see them very firmly yanked from my public schools, if you please.
And now, for your amusement: A handout from an abstinence-only sex ed program of "Things to Look for in a Mate." Ask yourself: Is Jesus their first love?
The thing that most annoys me about that statement is the grammatically incorrect use of the word "their."
This made me giggle.
The biggest surprise for me was the epic fail on the subject of sex education. Failed Abstinence only programs still got $94 million dollars in the federal budget, and the FY 2010 budget does not mention comprehensive education; instead, it says vague things about "community and faith-based efforts."
Ahem. Given how faith-based efforts worked in Texas, I would like to see them very firmly yanked from my public schools, if you please.
And now, for your amusement: A handout from an abstinence-only sex ed program of "Things to Look for in a Mate." Ask yourself: Is Jesus their first love?
The thing that most annoys me about that statement is the grammatically incorrect use of the word "their."
April 22, 2009
Big Gay Things
Last Friday was Day of Silence. My GSA failed to get anything together for it; I ran around looking (unsuccessfully) for rainbow ribbon to make participant bracelets the night before, and in the end we just passed out speaking cards on printer paper in the morning before school. My little group was mostly silent, passing notes and exchanging gestures, but one friend of ours decided that she would spend the day making gay jokes and talking about how Day of Silence is pointless. She supported the idea behind it, but insisted that taking a vow of silence for a day failed to make any point at all. And also thought it was fun to poke us when we couldn't tell her to stop.
So this is what was going on in Creative Writing. Our class is a pretty tight-knit group, having been together for four years, but we have some pretty clear dividing lines in that there are two separate groups that always sit together. So me and my other silent friend and our friend who was picking on us were at one table, and the rest of the class was at the other table, having their own conversation and only half-privy to the conversation.
"Oh, is it that silence day?" someone asked finally.
I nodded and handed around my speaking card. "It's so pointless!" my friend interrupted.
The table of preppy heterosexual girls proceeded to leap to our defense, making really awesome points why something like Day of Silence is important even after our friend had gotten bored and stopped bothering us.
Awesome.
Saturday was the gay prom I've been planning with my church. It was pretty fantastic - not as many people showed up as we were expecting, but those who were there stayed on the dance floor all night, dancing in typical scandalous high school fashion with everyone regardless of gender. "Are you proud of yourself for creating a den of debauchery?" one of my friends asked when we took a break for punch. I definitely was.
Our church has gotten anti-gay protestors before at events a few years ago, but this year there was not so much as a negative internet comment in sight, and we got a positive article on the front page of the local paper. Even little old Confederate towns full of civil war antique stores have to lighten up eventually, I guess!
Also, on a related note, my dress was super-cute. That is all.
So this is what was going on in Creative Writing. Our class is a pretty tight-knit group, having been together for four years, but we have some pretty clear dividing lines in that there are two separate groups that always sit together. So me and my other silent friend and our friend who was picking on us were at one table, and the rest of the class was at the other table, having their own conversation and only half-privy to the conversation.
"Oh, is it that silence day?" someone asked finally.
I nodded and handed around my speaking card. "It's so pointless!" my friend interrupted.
The table of preppy heterosexual girls proceeded to leap to our defense, making really awesome points why something like Day of Silence is important even after our friend had gotten bored and stopped bothering us.
Awesome.
Saturday was the gay prom I've been planning with my church. It was pretty fantastic - not as many people showed up as we were expecting, but those who were there stayed on the dance floor all night, dancing in typical scandalous high school fashion with everyone regardless of gender. "Are you proud of yourself for creating a den of debauchery?" one of my friends asked when we took a break for punch. I definitely was.
Our church has gotten anti-gay protestors before at events a few years ago, but this year there was not so much as a negative internet comment in sight, and we got a positive article on the front page of the local paper. Even little old Confederate towns full of civil war antique stores have to lighten up eventually, I guess!
Also, on a related note, my dress was super-cute. That is all.
April 14, 2009
Countdown
In case anyone was wondering, there are 59 days until I graduate, and 126 days until Freshmen Orientation begins at University of Mary Washington!
Also, 4 days til the gay prom I've been helping plan!
Whoooo!
Also, 4 days til the gay prom I've been helping plan!
Whoooo!
April 10, 2009
What To Say?
An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy hung himself after daily anti-gay bullying. Hs name was Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover.
My first though: Massachusetts? Really? Aren't they supposed to be all pro-gay?
My second thought: He was just a little bit younger than my sister.
My third thought: ...Shit.
What do you say to that? Eleven years old. He would have turned 12 on April 17.
Meanwhile, in Indiana, which has a significantly less liberal-y reputation, school staff joined in taunting a gay high school student, calling him "disgusting" and mocking him in front of other students. The principle responded by telling the gay student to "tone it down," "it" presumably being... what? His sexual orientation? Because obviously, all gay kids have a little volume knob that goes from "No-homo" to "Fabulous" and can adjust it as needed.
In middle school, when I was eleven years old, I don't think I even knew what being gay meant, much less that it was something you could be made fun of for. In high school, my teachers have been nothing but supportive.
The closest I have ever been to gay-bashed is when someone wrote something clever like "ur so gay" on the wall near the place where my other gay friend and I hang out in the mornings. My friend wrote "Yes I am, bitch :D" under it, and that was the end of that.
I can't imagine being my sister's age and so tormented that suicide seems like a good idea. I can't imagine being ridiculed by teachers. I know there are statistics to show these sort of things happen, but I can't begin to know how to respond to it. What do you say to that?
April 17th, the day Carl Walker-Hoover would have turned 12, happens to be Day of Silence.
I don't know what to say to all of this. So I'm going to stay silent, and hope someone notices.
My first though: Massachusetts? Really? Aren't they supposed to be all pro-gay?
My second thought: He was just a little bit younger than my sister.
My third thought: ...Shit.
What do you say to that? Eleven years old. He would have turned 12 on April 17.
Meanwhile, in Indiana, which has a significantly less liberal-y reputation, school staff joined in taunting a gay high school student, calling him "disgusting" and mocking him in front of other students. The principle responded by telling the gay student to "tone it down," "it" presumably being... what? His sexual orientation? Because obviously, all gay kids have a little volume knob that goes from "No-homo" to "Fabulous" and can adjust it as needed.
In middle school, when I was eleven years old, I don't think I even knew what being gay meant, much less that it was something you could be made fun of for. In high school, my teachers have been nothing but supportive.
The closest I have ever been to gay-bashed is when someone wrote something clever like "ur so gay" on the wall near the place where my other gay friend and I hang out in the mornings. My friend wrote "Yes I am, bitch :D" under it, and that was the end of that.
I can't imagine being my sister's age and so tormented that suicide seems like a good idea. I can't imagine being ridiculed by teachers. I know there are statistics to show these sort of things happen, but I can't begin to know how to respond to it. What do you say to that?
April 17th, the day Carl Walker-Hoover would have turned 12, happens to be Day of Silence.
I don't know what to say to all of this. So I'm going to stay silent, and hope someone notices.
March 25, 2009
Long Time No See!
Long time, no see, blogosphere!
This week, my project has been getting ready for Shatter the Silence, a gay prom my church is hosting as a sort of after-party to the upcoming Day of Silence on April 17th. It's terribly exciting, since my county, being vaguely Southern, has never had a gay prom before - hopefully attendance will be high!
In other news, I visited the National Holocaust Museum with my GEMS class the other day.
Isn't that a happy start to a story?
I went into it sort of hoping that the museum would mention the gay victims of the Holocaust. (It did - briefly, but the museum made a point to include exhibits about every persecuted group, which I thought was really cool.)
The problem, though, was that as my class unloaded from the bus and lined up to enter the museum, I realized how much I didn't want anyone to know I was looking for information about the gay victims. I felt like it would be disrespectful, somehow, for me to bring it up; I expected looks like, "Really? You're going to go off about your stupid gay things, even at the Holocaust Museum? It's not that important."
Which is stupid. Of course it's important. EVERY victim was important, and the Holocaust is certainly a big enough tragedy that we can pay attention to all the different groups involved. If I were Polish or Roma, would I feel less awkward looking for the Polish or Roma victims? (implying that ethnicity is a more valid reason for identifying with a group than sexual orientation?) What if I were disabled, would I feel strange lingering at the exhibit on eugenics?
I ended up wandering the museum by myself anyway, so no one noticed me take extra time to pause and pay my respects to the gay victims. But the fact that I felt so strange about it definitely made me stop and think; I'm still not sure I understand quite why I was so embarrassed that I kept it to myself, even in the discussions in class afterwards.
The next week in that same class, I got to draw the gender-sex-sexuality spectrums on the board and explain the differences to my classmates, whose brains promptly exploded, mostly because they couldn't differentiate between the "male" and "female" symbols. The discussion of sexual ethics turned into "Sexuality and Gender Terminology 101."
This made me feel better.
EDIT: In random googling, I came across a Holocaust Museum website dedicated to the Nazi persecution of gays. It has lots more information than the museum did, and while I don't feel like reading the depressing stuff right now, I'm posting this link for anyone interested!
This week, my project has been getting ready for Shatter the Silence, a gay prom my church is hosting as a sort of after-party to the upcoming Day of Silence on April 17th. It's terribly exciting, since my county, being vaguely Southern, has never had a gay prom before - hopefully attendance will be high!
In other news, I visited the National Holocaust Museum with my GEMS class the other day.
Isn't that a happy start to a story?
I went into it sort of hoping that the museum would mention the gay victims of the Holocaust. (It did - briefly, but the museum made a point to include exhibits about every persecuted group, which I thought was really cool.)
The problem, though, was that as my class unloaded from the bus and lined up to enter the museum, I realized how much I didn't want anyone to know I was looking for information about the gay victims. I felt like it would be disrespectful, somehow, for me to bring it up; I expected looks like, "Really? You're going to go off about your stupid gay things, even at the Holocaust Museum? It's not that important."
Which is stupid. Of course it's important. EVERY victim was important, and the Holocaust is certainly a big enough tragedy that we can pay attention to all the different groups involved. If I were Polish or Roma, would I feel less awkward looking for the Polish or Roma victims? (implying that ethnicity is a more valid reason for identifying with a group than sexual orientation?) What if I were disabled, would I feel strange lingering at the exhibit on eugenics?
I ended up wandering the museum by myself anyway, so no one noticed me take extra time to pause and pay my respects to the gay victims. But the fact that I felt so strange about it definitely made me stop and think; I'm still not sure I understand quite why I was so embarrassed that I kept it to myself, even in the discussions in class afterwards.
The next week in that same class, I got to draw the gender-sex-sexuality spectrums on the board and explain the differences to my classmates, whose brains promptly exploded, mostly because they couldn't differentiate between the "male" and "female" symbols. The discussion of sexual ethics turned into "Sexuality and Gender Terminology 101."
This made me feel better.
EDIT: In random googling, I came across a Holocaust Museum website dedicated to the Nazi persecution of gays. It has lots more information than the museum did, and while I don't feel like reading the depressing stuff right now, I'm posting this link for anyone interested!
February 25, 2009
Report Cards!
NARAL just texted me to let me know that the grades are in on how state lawmakers stand on reproductive heath issues!
My state got an F. Is anyone surprised? No. Not at all. I also learned that 86% of counties in my state don't have abortion providers. I think that my county is one of the 14% that does, because I see the protestors day in and day out on my way to fencing.
Speaking of grades, mine have been dropping, which is what happens when you miss two days of school for college visits. So the lack of blog posts that has been plaguing this sad little corner of the internet will probably continue while I frantically run around doing make-up work and getting the magazine going. Sorry! I will someday make up for my epic blogging fail with amazing, astonishingly insightful posts that will make all of your brains explode with the awesome. But first I have to survive the rest of high school.
My state got an F. Is anyone surprised? No. Not at all. I also learned that 86% of counties in my state don't have abortion providers. I think that my county is one of the 14% that does, because I see the protestors day in and day out on my way to fencing.
Speaking of grades, mine have been dropping, which is what happens when you miss two days of school for college visits. So the lack of blog posts that has been plaguing this sad little corner of the internet will probably continue while I frantically run around doing make-up work and getting the magazine going. Sorry! I will someday make up for my epic blogging fail with amazing, astonishingly insightful posts that will make all of your brains explode with the awesome. But first I have to survive the rest of high school.
February 8, 2009
Fun with Drop-Down Lists
Because I am an LGBT high schooler, I am applying for a Point Foundation scholarship. This is more or less a given, since they're the biggest queer scholarship fund out there, but I forgot about it until today. Fortunately, the Point Foundation form is not just another tedious scholarship form - I spent the entire first page being amused by the queer-ness of the questions.
10 options? That's five times as many as most of the forms I fill out have. This was a novelty to me, and deeply entertaining, as were the subsequent questions on sexual orientation (8 options, if you were wondering) and "outness." (I put "almost all" out, though the "all out" is probably something to aspire to.)
Then I went on to the next page, family information. None of it was required, and at the bottom was a box you could check if you were or had ever been homeless.
That this was probably just as necessary as the multiple options on the "gender" drop down was sort of a kill joy.
And now I have to write 3 essays by the Monday deadline.
Sigh. At least it was fun to start with.
Gender Identity:
Female
Genderqueer
Male
F to M
M to F
Transgender
Two-Spirit
Third Gender
Cross dresser
Other (please explain)
10 options? That's five times as many as most of the forms I fill out have. This was a novelty to me, and deeply entertaining, as were the subsequent questions on sexual orientation (8 options, if you were wondering) and "outness." (I put "almost all" out, though the "all out" is probably something to aspire to.)
Then I went on to the next page, family information. None of it was required, and at the bottom was a box you could check if you were or had ever been homeless.
That this was probably just as necessary as the multiple options on the "gender" drop down was sort of a kill joy.
And now I have to write 3 essays by the Monday deadline.
Sigh. At least it was fun to start with.
February 1, 2009
Things That Make AP English Awkward
Teacher: Jane Eyre is frequently described in the book as "plain," but she sort of "becomes beautiful" as the story goes on...
Girl: She outgrows her tomboy phase!
Me: ....Way to compare non-gender-normative behavior to unattractiveness and/or undesirability.
The conversation had moved on to a completely different topic before I realized that I'd been mentally monologuing about gender binary, gender roles in literature, and the connection between attractiveness and gendered behavior. Sigh.
Going to the Fem 2.0 conference instead of school tomorrow, whoo! Jill from Feministe, Amanda from Pandagon and a bunch of other exciting people are going to be there! I can't wait!
Though, if I'm going to be an awesome conference-going blogger, I really ought to write more often...
Sigh.
Girl: She outgrows her tomboy phase!
Me: ....Way to compare non-gender-normative behavior to unattractiveness and/or undesirability.
The conversation had moved on to a completely different topic before I realized that I'd been mentally monologuing about gender binary, gender roles in literature, and the connection between attractiveness and gendered behavior. Sigh.
Going to the Fem 2.0 conference instead of school tomorrow, whoo! Jill from Feministe, Amanda from Pandagon and a bunch of other exciting people are going to be there! I can't wait!
Though, if I'm going to be an awesome conference-going blogger, I really ought to write more often...
Sigh.
January 10, 2009
Learning Identity
The Bilerico Project has a pretty cool article up this week about identity in the LGBT community. The gist is as follows:
As someone who knows not very much at all about the history of gay liberation and who until very recently knew no out adults, I can attest to the fact that all this fun stuff is true, and resolve to read about gay history on Wikipedia sometime. But beyond that, the article got me thinking about the question: How did I learn to be gay?
I mean, I know how I learned to be straight. I have the same straight credential as all of my heterosexual friends, learning from the first Disney movie I ever saw that the girl falls for the boy and then they get married. And then I listened to all the same emo love songs telling me all the ways it could go wrong, and saw first-hand as my classmates stumbled into their first awkward middle school relationships while I wondered if there was something wrong with me for not having any crushes when everyone else went through three a week.
So where did I learn how to be queer?
I have been described as "kinda flaming," and I don't think it's inaccurate - My favorite bracelet is my rainbow pride bracelet, I leave my Day of Silence ribbons tied to my backpack the entire year after the event, and I'm always eager to jump in as the resident expert on anything gay. The term for this, I think, is "flaunting it," which is, as far as I understand, a blanket term for being gay in public, in the media, or anywhere where easily offended straight people might see you. I actually haven't heard this meme come up lately, but it used to be a pretty common thing. I mean, you can be gay, but why do you have to, like, tell people about it?
Sophomore year, when I first started to question my sexuality, I found out that one of the senior members of our literary magazine was gay. She was active in the Gay-Straight Alliance and was universally regarded to be a friendly, amazingly smart person. Before I found out she was a lesbian, I hadn't ever personally known any other queer women. My only experiences came from the horror stories that floated around about girls who had come out only to be kicked out of their houses, or the scare statistics that made the news once in a while about high suicide rates among gay teens. After all, this was before there were even lesbians to raise the ratings on Grey's Anatomy. When I googled things like "coming out" I got websites telling me to be careful if I wanted to tell my parents, because they might, you know, kick me out. Watching my lit mag friend, I saw first-hand that one could be gay and still have a good relationship with one's parents, make it through high school, and generally be happy and successful and not the subject of yet another depressing story.
Personally, I don't really see myself as "flaunting" my sexuality, but if I'm open about it, it's because I hope I can be that for someone. We might not all learn gay history or anything, but we should at least be able to have a youth LGBT cultural narrative that features normal kids who just happen to be queer, instead of just the horror stories and characters from TV dramas.
However this process [of acquiring a queer identity] is highly individualized and extremely informal, with very few opportunities for mentorship or leadership. What often occurs is learning through mimicry and trial and error. Queer youth learn to copy examples of queerness that they see in television, in film, the older queers they might see on misadventures into queer life. But most importantly, queer youth learn about being queer mostly from each other.
This isolationist model of developing a cultural identity contributes to a limited communal memory. This is evidenced by the continued rising rates of HIV/AIDS infection, the alarming rise in the prominence of unsafe sexual practices like barebacking, and a general lack of knowledge of the history of the Gay Liberation, LGBT Rights, and Queer Movements of young gay men.
As someone who knows not very much at all about the history of gay liberation and who until very recently knew no out adults, I can attest to the fact that all this fun stuff is true, and resolve to read about gay history on Wikipedia sometime. But beyond that, the article got me thinking about the question: How did I learn to be gay?
I mean, I know how I learned to be straight. I have the same straight credential as all of my heterosexual friends, learning from the first Disney movie I ever saw that the girl falls for the boy and then they get married. And then I listened to all the same emo love songs telling me all the ways it could go wrong, and saw first-hand as my classmates stumbled into their first awkward middle school relationships while I wondered if there was something wrong with me for not having any crushes when everyone else went through three a week.
So where did I learn how to be queer?
I have been described as "kinda flaming," and I don't think it's inaccurate - My favorite bracelet is my rainbow pride bracelet, I leave my Day of Silence ribbons tied to my backpack the entire year after the event, and I'm always eager to jump in as the resident expert on anything gay. The term for this, I think, is "flaunting it," which is, as far as I understand, a blanket term for being gay in public, in the media, or anywhere where easily offended straight people might see you. I actually haven't heard this meme come up lately, but it used to be a pretty common thing. I mean, you can be gay, but why do you have to, like, tell people about it?
Sophomore year, when I first started to question my sexuality, I found out that one of the senior members of our literary magazine was gay. She was active in the Gay-Straight Alliance and was universally regarded to be a friendly, amazingly smart person. Before I found out she was a lesbian, I hadn't ever personally known any other queer women. My only experiences came from the horror stories that floated around about girls who had come out only to be kicked out of their houses, or the scare statistics that made the news once in a while about high suicide rates among gay teens. After all, this was before there were even lesbians to raise the ratings on Grey's Anatomy. When I googled things like "coming out" I got websites telling me to be careful if I wanted to tell my parents, because they might, you know, kick me out. Watching my lit mag friend, I saw first-hand that one could be gay and still have a good relationship with one's parents, make it through high school, and generally be happy and successful and not the subject of yet another depressing story.
Personally, I don't really see myself as "flaunting" my sexuality, but if I'm open about it, it's because I hope I can be that for someone. We might not all learn gay history or anything, but we should at least be able to have a youth LGBT cultural narrative that features normal kids who just happen to be queer, instead of just the horror stories and characters from TV dramas.
December 31, 2008
That's So Gay, Pt. II
Written as a letter regarding the whole Rick Warren thing, then sort of morphed into just some thoughts which will probably never be sent anywhere.
I'm a senior in high school, and while my school is full of wonderful, tolerant people, I still have to deal with the fact that teenagers are sometimes idiots. The other day, a girl in my class, angry about our exam schedule, yelled "That's so gay!" in the middle of class.
The teacher and I blinked at her. "How is it gay?" he asked.
"You know what I mean," she said, scowling.
"Well, yeah, but you shouldn't say it like..."
"It's not offensive," she cut me off.
"...You just compared everyone gay to something you think is stupid..." I began. She interrupted again.
"I don't care if it bothers someone, I'll say what I want. People shouldn't be so sensitive."
The teacher ordered we drop it, and she shot me nasty, triumphant grins for a while before getting bored and going back to passing notes with her boyfriend.
Why is it okay to kick us like that?
Why is it okay to reduce "gay rights" to a political buzzword, and reasonable people should just agree to disagree on whether or not we deserve our rights and dignity. After all, who could be offended by presenting an anti-gay pastor and a pro-gay pastor as moral equals? And who cares if it bothers someone?
But the thing is, it is offensive, because giving an anti-gay celebrity a place of honor makes it acceptable for our rights to be just another political buzzword, morally equal to anything else.
The right of gay people to be treated as real human beings is not just a political buzzword.
I am not an abstract in a political debate. I have a life. I hope to one day have a family. I volunteer with my church, and voted in my first election this year. To put someone who compares my relationships and hopes for the future to incest and pedophilia and thinks that gays should be turned straight on a national stage, in a place of honor, and then tell me that's okay because there's someone who will be nice to me up there too is beyond offensive.
The girl in my class couldn't see how reducing my life to some trivial thing she found stupid was offensive. It makes me unbelievably sad that the future president of my country, who I helped elect, can't understand how reducing my life to a trivial political issue is offensive, too.
I'm a senior in high school, and while my school is full of wonderful, tolerant people, I still have to deal with the fact that teenagers are sometimes idiots. The other day, a girl in my class, angry about our exam schedule, yelled "That's so gay!" in the middle of class.
The teacher and I blinked at her. "How is it gay?" he asked.
"You know what I mean," she said, scowling.
"Well, yeah, but you shouldn't say it like..."
"It's not offensive," she cut me off.
"...You just compared everyone gay to something you think is stupid..." I began. She interrupted again.
"I don't care if it bothers someone, I'll say what I want. People shouldn't be so sensitive."
The teacher ordered we drop it, and she shot me nasty, triumphant grins for a while before getting bored and going back to passing notes with her boyfriend.
Why is it okay to kick us like that?
Why is it okay to reduce "gay rights" to a political buzzword, and reasonable people should just agree to disagree on whether or not we deserve our rights and dignity. After all, who could be offended by presenting an anti-gay pastor and a pro-gay pastor as moral equals? And who cares if it bothers someone?
But the thing is, it is offensive, because giving an anti-gay celebrity a place of honor makes it acceptable for our rights to be just another political buzzword, morally equal to anything else.
The right of gay people to be treated as real human beings is not just a political buzzword.
I am not an abstract in a political debate. I have a life. I hope to one day have a family. I volunteer with my church, and voted in my first election this year. To put someone who compares my relationships and hopes for the future to incest and pedophilia and thinks that gays should be turned straight on a national stage, in a place of honor, and then tell me that's okay because there's someone who will be nice to me up there too is beyond offensive.
The girl in my class couldn't see how reducing my life to some trivial thing she found stupid was offensive. It makes me unbelievably sad that the future president of my country, who I helped elect, can't understand how reducing my life to a trivial political issue is offensive, too.
October 28, 2008
Fun with Poetry
Shakesquill posted up a sonnet I wrote for English class! We had to write a love sonnet, so this is what I came up with...
Gay in Florida
My love in on the ballot, up for vote,
though laws against us long-existing stand,
"Defending marriage" as if I promote
destroying it with simple wedding bands.
No “substantial equivalents thereof”
means benefits for all will disappear
for anyone unmarried and in love;
They’ll find their rights are not protected here.
Hospital visitation could be gone,
and health care for partners both gay and straight.
And all they'll say when asked why they said yes
is that God's word can justify their hate.
Election day, the best thing you can do
Is vote for “no” on Proposition Two.
Gay in Florida
My love in on the ballot, up for vote,
though laws against us long-existing stand,
"Defending marriage" as if I promote
destroying it with simple wedding bands.
No “substantial equivalents thereof”
means benefits for all will disappear
for anyone unmarried and in love;
They’ll find their rights are not protected here.
Hospital visitation could be gone,
and health care for partners both gay and straight.
And all they'll say when asked why they said yes
is that God's word can justify their hate.
Election day, the best thing you can do
Is vote for “no” on Proposition Two.
October 26, 2008
Victim Blaming Fun
In Sociology, we somehow came around to talking about curfews, because we get in really random discussions like that. One girl complained that, as a girl, she has an earlier curfew than a guy might.
"Well, I can understand that," my teacher said. "Girls are more vulnerable."
"Yeah, girls can get raped!" several girls immediately chimed in.
"Right. And the later girls are out, the more likely they are to be, you know, drinking or something... I mean, think of all the things that could happen to a girl who's out late and has compromised herself."
The discussion went on like this for a good fifteen minutes or so, weaving around into such enlightened topics as how guys can't technically be raped and then back into how girls need earlier curfews so they don't go out and get themselves raped.
The fact that guys are more likely to be violent when drunk or that the rapist might have some responsibility for his actions was never mentioned.
I wish I had spoken up instead of just writing it all down.
"Well, I can understand that," my teacher said. "Girls are more vulnerable."
"Yeah, girls can get raped!" several girls immediately chimed in.
"Right. And the later girls are out, the more likely they are to be, you know, drinking or something... I mean, think of all the things that could happen to a girl who's out late and has compromised herself."
The discussion went on like this for a good fifteen minutes or so, weaving around into such enlightened topics as how guys can't technically be raped and then back into how girls need earlier curfews so they don't go out and get themselves raped.
The fact that guys are more likely to be violent when drunk or that the rapist might have some responsibility for his actions was never mentioned.
I wish I had spoken up instead of just writing it all down.
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