Follow up to Gay Straight Alliance Question

October 7, 2005 7:40 PM

AskMe Update: Last month, I anonymously asked a question about talking to the media about a high school Gay Straight Alliance: thanks and an update inside.
posted by ahughey to MetaFilter-Related at 7:40 PM (10 comments total)

Thank you for all the responses. I had no interest in talking to the media, but my wife thought I needed to get "my side" of the story told.

Ultimately, I ended up doing very little talking and put the focus on the students who started the club. It is a student-initiated and student-run club, so they were the ones with a story to tell.

Thanks again; here are the original articles in the paper and today's follow-up:

9/13 - Parents: School no place for gay issues

9/15 - Gay-straight group forms at high school

10/10 - We are who we are
posted by ahughey at 7:40 PM on October 7, 2005

Thanks for the update. It seems as though the press coverage you've gotten thus far has been reasonable and fair, which is refreshing to see.
posted by dersins at 7:51 PM on October 7, 2005

Props to you, your wife ... and to principal Rebecca Anderson for standing her ground. Too bad about the "parental permission" compromise.

Hopefully, Newsome High's parents will listen and learn from those of Brandon High students. Kind of like here in Massachusetts -- a year of gay marriages and many are realizing that the pillars holding up our society have not crumbled.

BTW -- an apropos time for families in your community to read this week's Time magazine and its cover story "The Battle Over Gay Teens" and related articles.
posted by ericb at 7:59 PM on October 7, 2005

Tampa Bay, shouts out! (Pinellas County graduate). Glad to hear things went well- I know my school (arts magnet) started a GSA and it was a really great thing.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:10 PM on October 7, 2005 [1 favorite]

I'm so glad to hear that everything worked out in the end.

I love hearing updates from AskMefi threads. Perhaps we could get a MetaTalk tag for this.
posted by Alison at 8:29 PM on October 7, 2005

Wow, as a gay Hughey, I think this is beyond cool. HUGE kudos for making me proud of the name! :)
posted by BoringPostcards at 10:43 PM on October 7, 2005

excellent!
posted by amberglow at 8:51 AM on October 8, 2005

We still really need UpdateFilter.

*this has been a regularly scheduled message/pony request*
posted by amberglow at 8:52 AM on October 8, 2005

Congratulations! This makes me wish for a time machine, so I could be a gay teenager in 2005! (It wasn't much fun 40+ years ago). Kids today seem so much more accepting of difference.
posted by Carol Anne at 10:58 AM on October 8, 2005

it's partially if not entirely because of us older folk, Carol, tho, so we get credit too. It's our generations that pushed us into consciousness with media and laws and rights, and most importantly by coming out. We didn't have as many older out people at all doing that when we were young. (compare Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly, etc, to Will and Grace and Ellen, etc--all thought up and produced by people our age).
posted by amberglow at 1:24 PM on October 8, 2005