"Perhaps one day I shall be a Queen!!!!"
Posted on 10/28/2005 7:51:24 AM PDT by scripter
CHICAGO -- High school is a time when everyone wants to fit in.
On Tuesday, NBC5's Anna Davlantes introduced viewers to two suburban teenagers who say that fitting in didn't matter when it came time to choosing the school's homecoming king and queen.
The choice that students made, however, is attracting attention and causing controversy.
Davlantes said it may not shock people that a jock and a cheerleader were chosen as homecoming king and queen at Buffalo Grove High School, but what surprises some and concerns others is what's different about the two students and what it might say about their generation.
Jen Wohlner and Ryan Cooperman are popular leaders at the school. They're also openly gay, Davlantes said.
So, some people were surprised by what happened in their high school gym a little over a week ago, when the two were chosen as homecoming king and queen.
"The entire gym was completely packed. No one knew who was going to be king or queen," Cooperman said.
Then came the announcement: "I am proud to present to you the homecoming king and queen."
"And they were, like, Ryan Cooperman ... Jen Walner. Everyone exploded. It was just amazing," said a Buffalo Grove student and friend of the royal couple.
So, how is it that a gay student and a lesbian win the biggest high school popularity contest?
"I think it shows that is our school, and maybe the generation as a whole, is just a little more progressive," Wohlner said.
Their election shatters stereotypes, Davlantes said. They are not at all the typical homecoming king and queen.
Wohlner plays sports and went to prom with another girl last year. Ryan is a cheerleader.
"I guess you could say this year it was kind of a jock and a cheerleader, but flip-flopped positions," she said.
Other students said that the anomaly doesn't bother them.
Perhaps, Davlantes said, being openly gay in Chicago's suburban high schools no longer carries the stigma it once did.
Time magazine made the subject its cover story last week, saying that students are coming out earlier and earlier.
"I came out in eighth grade," one girl told NBC5.
"I never dated a boy before," another girl said.
"I knew, personally, around sixth grade," Cooperman said.
And the number of gay clubs in high schools has exploded from 100 a few years ago to more than 3000 nationwide today.
"It's really kind of uncool to be anti-gay," said school psychologist Jennifer Zacharski.
Attitudes have shifted dramatically in one generation, Zacharski, who sponsors Buffalo Grove's Gay-Straight Alliance.
"When they saw me in the crowd (at the homecoming) they were, like, 'Ms. Zacharski, we got it,'" she recalled.
But not everyone is cheering about the school's groundbreaking choice.
"For us, it's a sad thing," said Illinois Family Institute's spokesman Pete LaBarbera said. He claims that schools are too politically correct nowadays.
"Something that was once sort of universally regarded as a sin, is now becoming sort of cool in high school," he said. "It's easy for an adult to say, 'Oh wow, I'm doing the compassionate thing by telling this teenaged boy that he's gay,' but they won't be there when the boy becomes a man and comes down with HIV or hepititis B and C."
"Like, you know what? I'm gay and if you have a problem with that, I really could care less," Cooperman said.
"I'm proud of who I am," Wohlner said. "Not just that I'm proud of being gay, but I'm proud of all that I am."
They say their popularity has sent a message -- not about being gay, but being themselves.
"What's so appealling about them is that they are themselves. They are themselves despite whatever people might think," Zacharski said.
Davlantes said that this is the first time anyone can remember two openly gay students being named homecoming king and queen, but that could soon change.
According to a Harvard University study, the average gay person comes out of the closet just before high school graduation.
Davlantes said that conservatives are lobbying to get more groups on campus that represent an alternative viewpoint.
*blushes*
You humble me. I want to but wouldn't that be egotistical?
;)
"Perhaps one day I shall be a Queen!!!!"
I'm more interested in the War against the Islamofascist. But apparently the banning of Charlite makes it clear where the interest lies.
Sorry, but I guarantee you these kids were elected as a JOKE. These touchy feely administrators are in denial.
A 22-year-old man stands before a classroom of middle schoolers, describing how he came out as a homosexual and going so far as to declare, "there are gay students in this classroom."The young man is Noé Gutierrez, Jr., and the scene is one from It's Elementary, an award-winning 1996 video (widely aired in 1999) which aims to give "practical lessons on how to talk with kids about gay people."
You won't find that scene in Gutierrez's latest video, however. Although he requested permission to use it, producer/director Debra Chasnoff turned him down. Apparently, she doesn't want school children knowing what's happened since then.
You see, Gutierrez is no longer gay.
What about the article is gay bashing?
Are you a parent? Parents care first about their own children and the immediate threats to them. The Islamofacists are a threat, but so is this amoral crap in the schools.
Open your eyes. You think the Islamofascist won't go after our children. What in their MO gives you that comfort.
I never said that. I said both were threats. But you need to open your eyes to the kind of threats we are talking about on this thread. Perhaps you welcome this sort of threat. If so, then corrupt your own kid, and leave everyone else's alone.
Open your eyes. The perverts and their enablers ALREADY ARE after the children. Assisted by communist legal terrorist organization (ACLU).
"
Oh, OK. I thought this was about homosexuals. Never mind."
Glad I could clear that up for you. :)
You can be a lemming today if you want to.
No, no, no.
I read this as all the students conspired to elect the most outrageous "couple" as a joke.
The joke is on the pro-sodomy pundits that couldn't see through prank played on them. LOL
"So now it's "cool" to be gay. I've been seeing this for a few years now, actually."
Believe it or not, here in Marin County Calif., GAY is a term of derision, at least among the regular boys and girls. As far as queer being "cool", that's what the homo's have been promoting since the '70's; best recruiting tactic they have. I believe the adage was, "if it feels good, do it."
It's been apparent for a long time that homosexual indoctrination has been being taught to younger and younger children. The unfortunate thing is, that if a boy is ostracized from the mainstream social life at school (and that happens alot) he may be tempted to try queer, just because they're so ACCEPTING! Then he's really screwed up his reputation for the rest of his school days.
Very few people have the courage to tell these kids the truth, that once a boy is labeled queer, he's finished! That's why the queers are pushing so hard for "hate speech" legislation. A boy at my son's school was called into the asst. principal for calling an obviously queer boy GAY.
It doesn't matter to my nieces and nephew. Who are in their twenties. They went to a large suburban school system and are thoroughly indoctrinated.
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