Georgia Religious Conservatism

[strandinthewind]

Gay school club splits Cleveland

> By ALAN SVERDLIK
For the Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 02/24/05

CLEVELAND — In a North Georgia community that values politeness next to godliness, what would incite students at the lone high school to jeer a 16-year-old classmate as she walked down the auditorium aisle, rose in hand, during the annual Valentine's Day assembly?

In the words of senior Stephen Milhollin, Kerry Pacer did something "unheard of in White County": She founded a club for gay students and their allies.

The possibility that the Gay-Straight Alliance soon will be meeting at White County High School has swept this town of two traffic lights into a state of anxiety as it waits for the controversy to be resolved at tonight's school board meeting, if it's resolved at all.

The undercurrent in the debate is more Old South vs. New than straight vs. gay. As newcomers have flocked to the Georgia mountains, they have brought with them attitudes and assumptions at odds with Appalachia's deep-seated conservatism. An uneasy détente usually prevails, but sometimes the volatile mix of ideas combusts.

"You say the word 'gay' around here and people run and hide," said Cheryl Fister, a 42-year-old transplant from Ohio who arrived seven years ago with her husband and daughter. "We were all put on earth by a loving God. If you're with somebody you truly love, even if they're of the same sex, you must be doing the right thing."

A town divided

A native son doesn't see things that way. "If these kids feel that being gay is completely normal, then why are they putting their sexuality on parade?" asked Kenneth Monroe, 56, a feed supplier who traces his family's roots here to the early 1800s. "It's not the kind of thing that goes over well in the mountains."

The founding of the GSA seemed like a done deal earlier this month when a group of students led by Kerry, her mother and a member of a homosexual rights advocacy group approached the school administration. Paul Shaw, the school superintendent, told them the GSA might be formed as long as it met the criteria for all extracurricular clubs.

"The administration is opposed to this action, but the Equal Access Act requires that students be allowed to form a club if there are other noncurricular clubs operating at the school," Shaw said in an e-mail to the school faculty. "It has been suggested that I spend tax dollars to fight the law. I do not believe I need to spend tax dollars on a case that cannot be won."

As word spread, the atmosphere in Cleveland, birthplace of the Cabbage Patch dolls, became charged. Calls jammed phone lines at the school's office. Letters to the editor of the local weekly teemed with opposition to the club. And beyond the booing of Kerry, her younger sister Lindsay was told to change when she wore a shirt to school that the administration "considered inflammatory," according to Savannah Pacer, the girls' mother. The shirt displayed the word "hate" with a diagonal line through it.

Worried about what was coming from the pulpit, Shaw visited last week's meeting of a local ministerial association to "ask us to tone down the rhetoric," said the Rev. Phil Hoyt, a Methodist pastor.

Amid the furor, the students provided the school with a list of the club's six members, bylaws and the name of a faculty adviser, a ninth-grade English teacher. The GSA has begun to meet informally, with Kerry as president, but the high school "is trying to thwart its formation by stalling" on formal approval, said Beth Littrell, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Georgia chapter, which is advising the GSA. "These kids have done everything that every club" at the 1,000-student school has "done to get officially sanctioned."

Despite the superintendent's advice, the White County Board of Education might bow to community pressure and ban the GSA, although a legal challenge from the ACLU would likely.

Having moved to White County a decade ago, the Pacers, who have lived in several other states, are among the newcomers. Savannah Pacer, a native of New Jersey, is active in Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, an organization that counsels the five GSA clubs already existing in Georgia schools.

The incident in the auditorium illustrates how passions have filtered down from adults to kids. Clutching a rose given to her by a female classmate, Kerry, an openly gay junior, joined a procession at the Sweetheart Assembly the Friday before Valentine's Day. Boos filled the air as Kerry followed in step.

"Everyone at school is like 'It's against God. It's against God,' " Kerry said. "They tell me God is watching me, but who is watching them?"

Cultural change

Kerry said Principal Bryan Dorsey had made it clear "he wouldn't make us jump through hoops to get started, but that's basically what he's done." Dorsey has not returned recent phone calls seeking comment. He did respond once, right after news of the club spread, saying he "would not tolerate threats, intimidation or bullying."

Kerry's face is well known in Cleveland, although it's usually shaded by the bill of the purple cap she wears to work at a popular sandwich shop. She was an object in motion Sunday morning, filling orders for the after-church crowd.

A brisk walk from the shop is the Cleveland United Methodist Church, where Hoyt delivers the 11 a.m. sermon. A New Yorker by birth, Hoyt has spent the past 20 years ministering to North Georgia congregations. All the communities he's familiar with are in the grip of cultural change, he said, including White County. "A lot of folks who are moving in have different life experiences, different ideologies," he said. He regards the controversy around the GSA essentially a "theological problem."

"Part and parcel of a lot of these mountain towns is the centrality of religion," he said. "They're already sensitive to change, and here comes a challenge to their moral convictions."

At the Kountry Kupboard, up the highway from the church, the back section is considered the locus of Cleveland's small talk and gossip. Fister, a cashier, looked over her shoulder in mock fear as she talked about "coming to the Bible Belt."

"We wanted to get away from the grime and the noise and the crime," she explained. "We wanted somewhere we could live off the land and purify our souls."

But Fister conceded she cordons herself off from local people when controversy flares because her views conflict so much with theirs. "When the talk turns to gays, it eventually turns to religion," she said. "That's when I kind of bow out."

Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0205/24gsa.html

[strandinthewind]

This is why when people say "I do not have hate for gay people but they are against God" - I think it is hate and they are wrong. The people booing the poor gay girl in this article are kids, not adults. The people saying hateful things like "God is watching you" are kids, not adults. Where did they learn to behave like this? Well, they learned it from their pastors and parents. Interestingly, I highly doubt that the kids having premarital heterosexual sex or otherwise unrepentently sinning are willing to turn that high moral judgement on themselves. That would be too honest and less hypocritical

AND - this statement pretty much sums it up - "If these kids feel that being gay is completely normal, then why are they putting their sexuality on parade?" - that, in a nutshell means go back in the closet so "we" other unrepentent sinners do not have to look at you.

Thus, the state of rural Georgia and I suggest most of rural America.

[Nixxxed]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

A native son doesn't see things that way. "If these kids feel that being gay is completely normal, then why are they putting their sexuality on parade?" asked Kenneth Monroe, 56, a feed supplier who traces his family's roots here to the early 1800s. "It's not the kind of thing that goes over well in the mountains."

He's exactly right. The only kinda thing that REALLY "goes over well in the mountains" is incest. What are these deluded queers thinking?

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Thus, the state of rural Georgia and I suggest most of rural America.

Of course. You, Hillary and I could write a book.

[estranged4life]

is trying to become more Oklahoma like...Tsk, tsk, tsk

[amber]

They just had an anti gay marriage rally in my very own rural podunk CA. town that i'm from.
But anyway, this is my very favorite part of the whole article:
"her younger sister Lindsay was told to change when she wore a shirt to school that the administration "considered inflammatory," according to Savannah Pacer, the girls' mother. The shirt displayed the word "hate" with a diagonal line through it."


Yep, being against hate is pretty inflammatory, all right! How dare she wear a shirt that says no hate!

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by amber

They just had an anti gay marriage rally in my very own rural podunk CA. town that i'm from.
But anyway, this is my very favorite part of the whole article:
"her younger sister Lindsay was told to change when she wore a shirt to school that the administration "considered inflammatory," according to Savannah Pacer, the girls' mother. The shirt displayed the word "hate" with a diagonal line through it."


Yep, being against hate is pretty inflammatory, all right! How dare she wear a shirt that says no hate!

WTF???? They don't see anything wrong with that? Ugh.

[amber]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

WTF???? They don't see anything wrong with that? Ugh.

When i read that, I knew I was dealing with people so backwards that it wasn't even funny. Except, it was funny, because it's so stupid. Also very, very, sad.

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by amber

When i read that, I knew I was dealing with people so backwards that it wasn't even funny. Except, it was funny, because it's so stupid. Also very, very, sad.

that caught my eye as well...in my high school there were so many queer kids they pretty much stopped trying to do anything lol - I once got some negative remarks from a vice-principal though on a shirt I was wearing that said, "Hate is not a family value" how dare I.

The vprincipal told me I would later regret doing things like that and boxing myself into one label..lol....I'd like to see her now old prude...

Anyway - that story is sad - and it just makes me sick - I feel like this country is on a major backslide in terms of issues such as these

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

They just had an anti gay marriage rally in my very own rural podunk CA. town that i'm from.
But anyway, this is my very favorite part of the whole article:
"her younger sister Lindsay was told to change when she wore a shirt to school that the administration "considered inflammatory," according to Savannah Pacer, the girls' mother. The shirt displayed the word "hate" with a diagonal line through it."


Yep, being against hate is pretty inflammatory, all right! How dare she wear a shirt that says no hate!

Is this the same town with an overwhelmingly large penis for a light display?

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

that caught my eye as well...in my high school there were so many queer kids they pretty much stopped trying to do anything lol - I once got some negative remarks from a vice-principal though on a shirt I was wearing that said, "Hate is not a family value" how dare I.

The vprincipal told me I would later regret doing things like that and boxing myself into one label..lol....I'd like to see her now old prude...

Anyway - that story is sad - and it just makes me sick - I feel like this country is on a major backslide in terms of issues such as these

Jeez, "boxing yourself in"? I thought that type of a shirt would indicate an open mind which is quite the contrary. Haha, "old prude" is right. Tell the biyotch that it is because she was boxed into a role she didn't want to do, vice principal, that she felt the need to try to box you into her idea of what you should be. I can't believe what so called role models tell kids. As an aside, I'll never forget this, a friend of mine in high school had a guidance counselor tell her she wasn't college material so not to bother applying. She went on to get her degree.

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

Is this the same town with an overwhelmingly large penis for a light display?

Yep! mmm, large penis...okay, technically it's a belltower.
But the County Officials, or the mayor, and some other people, then made a huge announcement that that would not be tolerated, and that Placerville is absolutely a hate free city.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

Yep! mmm, large penis...okay, technically it's a belltower.
But the County Officials, or the mayor, and some other people, then made a huge announcement that that would not be tolerated, and that Placerville is absolutely a hate free city.

Belltower? Looks like a giant dick without a scrotum. Must be pretty stupid people if they couldn't see the insane resemblance to the male appendage.

So, the local government condemned the anti-gay rally? That's kind of encouraging. Too bad the mayor isn't Gavin Newsom. I <3 Gavin Newsom.

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Jeez, "boxing yourself in"? I thought that type of a shirt would indicate an open mind which is quite the contrary. Haha, "old prude" is right. Tell the biyotch that it is because she was boxed into a role she didn't want to do, vice principal, that she felt the need to try to box you into her idea of what you should be. I can't believe what so called role models tell kids. As an aside, I'll never forget this, a friend of mine in high school had a guidance counselor tell her she wasn't college material so not to bother applying. She went on to get her degree.

I love those stories of counselors telling kids they're not college material - then the kids go on to be successful in college....

I was told in 8th grade to not even bother trying out for the snare drum line in high school because "freshman were never good enough to make it" well...I am SO glad I didn't let that asshole stop me from trying out - because I made it my freshman year and it turns out the band director had been scouting me out for the last year of middle school - I"ll never forget going up to the jerk who told me not to try out at our first game with my snare drum on lol..the look on his face was priceless

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

Belltower? Looks like a giant dick without a scrotum. Must be pretty stupid people if they couldn't see the insane resemblance to the male appendage.

So, the local government condemned the anti-gay rally? That's kind of encouraging. Too bad the mayor isn't Gavin Newsom. I <3 Gavin Newsom.

Well, we probably want it to look like a penis, and feign not knowing, so that we can just keep the penis!
Me, too. I hang out across the bay now just hoping to run into him - you know, since he's single and all. Not really, but i do think he's cute. And of course his big stand for gay marriage and everything.