"Luvvy, we're pulling our funding!"
Posted on 12/23/2004 12:27:36 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Flag stirs flap at Howell High
Controversy centered over meaning of Diversity Club message
Thursday, December 23, 2004
BY STEPHENIE KOEHN
News Staff Reporter
What is the meaning of a rainbow?
For many who see one during or after a rainstorm, it's a harbinger of good luck or at least a warm and fuzzy feeling. In the form of a flag hanging at Howell High School, however, it has created a controversy between those who see it as an expression of diversity and those who see it as supporting homosexuality.
Confusion over the meaning of the flag, said Howell High School Principal Margaret Hamill, is at the root of the controversy.
The flag, made and hung by the school's 20-member Diversity Club, has some students at the school fuming because it is so closely associated with the gay pride movement.
"Some kids in the school don't accept homosexuality and the flag is an affront to their religious beliefs," said senior Laura Steinberger, the school's student liaison to the Board of Education. Steinberger brought the controversy to the board's attention at a recent meeting.
"It's not a gay pride flag, like most people think, said junior Krista Tarrant, 16, a member of the club.
"It represents diversity as a whole," said junior R.J. Cuthbertson, also 16 and a member of the club. "We put it up to show that everyone is safe here and this is an accepting community."
"It was a decision of the group to hang the flag," said Cathryn Capy, the club's faculty adviser.
The club was formed several years ago to encourage diversity in all its forms, but had no returning members for the 2004-2005 school year, so Cuthbertson said "we basically restarted the club last fall."
"Some students and some members of the community have been a little bit confused by the flag and what it means," Hamill said. As a result of the confusion, she said, club members plan to attach an applique to the flag to clarify the its intention as a statement by the club in support of diversity.
Hamill said she has received several phone calls from parents expressing concern about the flag. She said they seemed less concerned after she explained what it means in the eyes of the students in the club.
Despite efforts to defuse the situation, Steinberger said the controversy still rages at the school. "Everyone has an opinion," she said. "From what I'm hearing, it's running 5-1 against the flag. I've heard rumors about people wanting to bring in paint balls and fire them at the flag, but they're too aware of the security cameras to chance being caught."
"We have to be very careful when we have a symbol that we don't identify just one meaning for it," Hamill said. In the case of the rainbow flag, she said, there is ample historical background. "(The Rev.) Jesse Jackson adopted it for the Rainbow Coalition (that he hoped to forge). I think that squares with our vision for the school. We want our students to be tolerant of others, no matter how they dress, look, learn or worship."
"It's not a gay pride flag, like most people think, said junior Krista Tarrant, 16, a member of the club.
Idiot!
There are sections of cities here in California, where all the businesses have their little Rainbow Flag
(Gay Pride=translation: Radical Gay Agenda)
at the door or Gays will not patronize the business.
Reminds me of the stores and shops in South Central LA, where the owner tried to save the business by painting a large" Black Owned" across the front during the Rodney King Riot.
"Luvvy, we're pulling our funding!"
Even today some people force our government to tear up UPA titling that exhibits non-Nazi swastikas.
Is that Terry and Kerry Heinz on vacation?
There are gay yellow pages circulated around town as well.
"Diversity"? No.
Yet Christians are "dogmatic" if they push for a boycott of a business.
Lets see Christians try to get into the club and influence it. They will quickly say "Go To H*ll" to diversity... Only people who endorse the liberal extremist agenda are welcome.
Maybe they can get a flag put up also. In the name of accepting all types of diverse lifestyles, of course.
John and Terry are Howell wannabes.
Then they should be fine with a cross on the flag.
The abscence of all projected color (light) is black while the presence of all colors in the spectrum is white.
That said, after Columbine, I'm sending my kids to private school when I'm a dad.
"Yale? Egads! Hah-vahd, m'boy!"
I don't think that we need to be as worried about another Columbine so much as another Beslan.
Not a bad idea. It is rich in symbolism, the existance of all spectrums of light.
Must be why the 'diversity club' has 100% turnover.....
And how would the liberals expain the difference? ("One's good, 'cuz we like it, and the other is bad, 'cuz we don't like it!")
If offensive flags are being removed in the South, then they must be in Michigan as well.
If the judical activism displayed by the Supreme Court was only supposed to affect "consenting adults in private", why are homosexuals allowed to have clubs at schools? Sounds like some minors are getting into something that was supposed to be for "adults only".
If they take to the streets, push for marriage, and have iconic symbols, that is hardly "in private".
I'm referring to the zero tolerance crap.
Hey, I'm all for Rainbow Flags..., as long as Noah's Ark is beneath the rainbow....
Notice there is no white in the "diversity" flag.
When Mayor Brown (D) ran for his final bid in 2001, his campaign stickers showed "paperdoll" like figures in dark brown, tan, and white (or was it peach?) stacked in that order. It said something like "mayor for everybody". The opposition candidate was Orlando Sanchez (R) who was born in Cuba. Then again, the Democrats were putting up Sanchez is AntiHispanic signs and saying that because he was from Cuba, he wasn't "really" hispanic.
Liberal bigots are quite the racists when they want to be.
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