Practically every day, these . . . classmates of mine get in my face about being liberal, and not a bigot like they are. They claim that gays want “special rights”, since the accoutrements of marriage are obviously extraordinary, and not those that they deserve. One of them has repeatedly called for the cruel and/or unusual death of every gay person. They pull this stupid-ass shit as often as possible, just to try to yank my chain, and these asswipes don’t even realize that since I have ten years of experience ignoring bullshit far worse than theirs every fucking day, they’re not going to get a rise out of me.
I would give everything I have ever owned and will ever own to remove every single bigot from power permanently.
To forestall the inevitable comments, I can’t report them to the administration because they are intelligent enough not to goad me near unbiased witnesses. It’d be their word against mine, and that wouldn’t fly.
Well, you could always remind them that many virulently homophobic men act out in exactly that manner because they are repressing their own homosexuality and trying to divert attention from it. Follow that up with a couple of PFLAG pamphlets, and I’m sure you’ll get their goats.
report it anyway and keep reporting it. Eventually you’ll have a giant ass stack of your word against them. eventually the administration will talk to them about it – even if they don’t know if it’s true or not.
How old are you? If these are middle or high school aged kids I can tell you from my experience what will happen to them:
40% will realize how stupid they sounded and join your side (I, admittedly, was in this group, and am proud that I formed my own opinion at a young age rather than having to be told to be “tolerant.”)
50% are so stupid that nothing they say or do will ever matter. These people are annoying but overwhelmingly harmless.
10% will turn out to be gay themselves.
If they are college age or older and they are admittedly “just trying to yank your chain” then they’re probably not as bigoted as you think. Relax.
While they haven’t actually said that they’re trying to yank my chain, they sure as hell aren’t looking for a serious debate.
Zabali, that’s an excellent idea, and I’ll try it the next time I have my Palm on me and they badger me. The tape won’t be of very good quality, since it’ll get everything, but it’ll be sufficient.
Oh, and for all your zeal to catch and report them and save the day, you’re probably going to get a pretty lousy return.
I would wager that the most the administration will do is tell them to knock it off, and if you have them on tape you might be in more trouble than they are.
It’s not illegal, or even against the rules at any school i know of, to be a jerk or a bigot, but it is (in some cases) to record someone without their knowledge.
It’s also probably against the rules at your school to have a palm pilot in class
He’s got a right to get an education, and not be harassed. If nothing else, the school is legally obligated to put a stop to this. There have been successful lawsuits on such matters, to prevent the continuation of such harassment.
As noted, it is actionable for the school to permit harassment when they’ve been informed of it. Present an authority figure with a written complaint, preferably under an attorney’s letterhead, along with a brief history of caselaw on the subject. And get a receipt for it, or give it to them in the presence of witnesses (certified mail is also an option). This is a situation where the administration needs to have a fire lit under them, and the jackass bigots need to be given an object lesson that free speech does not include threats or intimidation.
Yes, fuck the First Ammendment! We don’t agree with what you say so we’re going to attack with lawyers!
It’s easy to defend the rights of people who agree with you, it’s defending the rights of people who hold views that you find abhorant that demonstrates that you honestly believe in them as rights, and not just convient hooks to hang your hat on when it’s your ox being gorred.
( Where in the OP or his reply did dwalin mention “threats or intimidation”?)
I don’t know about you, Weirddave, but if “One of them has repeatedly called for the cruel and/or unusual death of every gay person” I think I would try to get the attention of someone and let them know about it rather than give them a mini American flag.
The OP mentioned one of the students calling for the violent death of all gay people. Saying that to someone they know to support gay rights most certainly is intimidation, just as sure as it would be to tell a black student that you hope lynchings make a comeback, particularly if you do it over and over again after being asked not to. It is perfectly proper for the school to punish these twits, and given the history on schools cracking down on any student who goes around airing his mass murder fantasies of late, it’s quite reasonable to expect them to do so in this case.
Besides which, when has the First Amendment ever been absolute in regards to school discipline? You think you can shout down teachers, make sexual overtures to fellow students, ridicule the fat kid in the class all under the aegis of civil liberty, free from any fears of punishment? Bullshit.
Yes Zabali, the harrassment that the OP never mentioned because you made it up should stop right now!.
So do the threats and intimidation that laigle invented.
I’m shocked that this is all still going on after the OP repeatedly asked them to stop like the OP said! Oh wait, the OP didn’t say that…someone else did.
I’m glad you guys are doing such a fine job of wrecking these straw-men you’re building.
As opposed to, say, attacking without lawyers? A high school’s not a %100 pure free speech zone. Some of it is to avoid incidents such as the one you describe or the one I facetiously referred to.
But beside that, you may have a right to free speech, even when we are both adults, but if you accosted me every day at work and talked bigoted talk while I was trying to get work done, you better believe I would go to the “administration.”
School ends June 18, yes? Hmm. I don’t think fizzy and I will be up in time for me to casually stroll around on school grounds with you in case these lovely gentlemen happen to want to start something verbal.
They are probably doing it because they have nothing better to do. The tack they’re using is not overly common, IME, with those who have religious grounds for their objections, and they do not exactly have high political stake in the matter unless one of them is the spawn of a politician (this being the NOVA area, that’s a possibility). They probably just figure that it is good for a laugh, and anything extra they get out of it is free amusement.
My suggestion to you is to seem to totally agree with them … and see what happens. See if they go on and on with increasingly and spectacular bullshit. See if they start talking about something else to try and get your collar red. Maybe they will get bored and move on to someone else, and maybe they will discover that they can say whatever they want to you and you won’t do anything, and you will have a new fan club. I know I’d love that…
Hmm. Does your school have any openly gay students, or better yet, any gay student organizations? 'Cause if they do, the idiot bigot who called for the violent death of all gay people has just made a threat on the life of one or more fellow students, which, from what I understand, is more than grounds enough for expulsion these days. Zero Tolerance: make it work for you, for a change.
Um, here, read the bolded, especially the red bolded quotes from the OP.
Definition Are you seriously telling me you don’t find that a kind of harassment? :eek: It’s not even much of a stretch to call that intimidation, given that many will use violence against individuals they deem “supporters” of something they hate if they are rabid enough.
comfort