Straight Pride

In the wake of the bullying that led to the spate of teen suicides, many schools have sponsored weeks dedicated to tolerance.  One of them, in suburban Chicago, evinced this response:

Three students Monday wore shirts to school with the words “Straight Pride” on the front and the back quoted one translation of a Biblical verse that calls homosexuality an “abomination” and says those who perform homosexual acts shall be “put to death.” The students wore the shirts during the first day of Ally Week.

I’m waiting to see how long it will take before they are invited to speak to evangelical churches about their brave stance in bringing biblical morality back to our schools.  One of the students, clearly all hopped up on biblical values, had this to say about negative reaction to his shirt:

“I was shocked,” [senior Jack] Pezzuto said. “There is clearly a double standard here, and we’re really upset about this. They said the reason we can’t wear ‘Straight Pride’ shirts is because they are disruptive. And I can understand how maybe some people were intimidated by the shirts with the Bible verse. But I don’t understand how some students are able to wear ‘Gay Pride’ shirts while we can’t wear shirts that just say ‘Straight Pride.’ We wanted to wear them because we wanted to raise the fact that we were getting ripped on for supporting our straight sexuality, and also as a way to prove that our school has double standards.”

See, kid, it’s this way.  No one has shamed, bullied or threatened you with Yahweh’s divine judgment for being straight.  Gay pride is a reaction to that kind of treatment.  What you’re doing is no different than wearing “White Pride” shirts.

I view this as just another example of “Christian Persecution Complex,” the phenomenon whereby fundamentalists imagine that they are actually some kind of persecuted minority.  This is because they are being increasingly prevented from forcing the rest of us to put up with being bossed around by them.  And now they can’t pick on gay kids as much or, you know, threaten them with biblically sanctioned death.