Wednesday, February 11, 2009

On Recruiting

Waynesboro, PA senior high school now has a gay-straight-alliance club (Yay for them!), but only after a lawsuit and a period of intense public comment:


After weeks of controversy and three hours of debate the Waynesboro Area School District school board has voted to approve the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Waynesboro Area Senior High School.
(Video at link)

Now, the idiot money quote of the day (emphasis mine):

"I understand the, per se, bullying that they may experience, which I do not agree with," said Waynesboro resident Amos Miller. "But whenever they come into the school system and have a club now they are permitted to hand out materials and recruit people and it's an awful young age."


Ridiculous as this may seem to those of us who are GLBT, the idea that we "recruit" and "entice" young people into a "lifestyle" is a pervasive stereotype that we must deal with.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I was in school there were no college aged gay-men offering free blowjobs to the first fifty people to sign up. Trust me, that's something I'd have remembered, and frustrated, shallow little queen that I was, I'd have jumped on it. Pun intended. There were no discount coupons for sex-toys, no seminars on fashion advice (which I could have used, believe you me!), no hairstyling tips, nothing to entice me to join this club of --gasp!-- queers. And yet somehow, some way, public perception continues to be that we have some sort of magical brainwashing device that makes buff jocks want cocks. (Who hasn't dreamed of such a device at one time or another in their adolescence? *snicker*)

Really, people, time to wake up the public. And start recruiting for real.