Anti-Gay hatred rampant in Florida High School

By Sweet Pea and Rachel

This one is a little weird, but not unexpected, but you might want to brace yourself anyhow. The Ponce de Leon High School in the Florida panhandle has decided that it would be a really cool idea to ban symbols and speech which might prove supportive of GLBT rights. No, I am not kidding. After lesbian student was harassed the demented school board not only refused to help the abused student; the board went so far as to side with the attackers by banning Gay symbols and speech which might be deemed as supportive of the GLBT community. The end result is an atmosphere of fear and censorship in which homophobic students will be encouraged to act out against gay students or against those who are supportive of equal rights for the GLBT community. Moreover the board has created an atmosphere within an institution of learning in which the free exchange of ideas has been successfully stifled. Not exactly something one thinks about when he or she hears the term education.

And what was the board’s excuse? Initially it stated that it felt that the use of symbols such as rainbow flags or even shoes or T shirts emblazoned with expressions of support for the gay community might prove “disrupptive.” But then the board and its attorney went so far as to suggest that such symbols might promote “illegal organizations.” A ridicules suggestion if ever there were one. Why it’s enough to make one ask the obvious question: since when did harassment on the behalf of homophobic students become legal while supporting that student can be construed as promoting “an illegal organization.” It seems to me that the real crimes here are being comitted by the board and its attorney who are in effect aiding the free low of hate speech while putting a damper on free speech and freedom of expression.

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Alan Grayson live at FireDogLake today..

Its a pleasure to announce that a true progressive is over at FDL today..soon actually, at 11pm Left Coast time. Stop by and check him out..its a wonderful breath of fresh air to see a true progressive running for office. Down with Tyranny also has a great post up about Alan here that explains what to expect from Mr. Grayson during the live chat at FDL. A short blurb:

We’ll be talking with him about his experiences prosecuting war profiteers and about his campaign for Congress in the Orlando area. But there’s a lot more to Alan Grayson, of course. You can see something about him, his wife and five children at his website bio. But I wanted to find a way to give people a better feel for who Alan Grayson really is.

Check it out if your from the Orlando area..or just want to feel good about a real progressive running for office. Buddha knows there are not enough of those.

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Florida’s Congressional merry-go-round..

Seems the Rethug Dave Weldon isn’t going to seek reelection. That’s a good thing of course and it seems there are plenty of Republican’s that are seeing the writing on the wall this election cycle. Can I get an amen on that?

Another good thing for Florida is Alan Grayson. He is running for Congress, and he is a progressive Democrat. Alan is a pro-peace, pro-impeachment pro-justice candidate at a time when American needs just that. He has been written up in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone , The Wall Street Journal (subscription, but you can read a transcript here ), CBS, and others. Alan Grayson knows more about what is REALLY going down if Iraq than almost anyone in this country.

Jet, a writer here at Sirens, has been pounding the digital pavement trying to help Alan tap into the broader Netroots community and it is about to pay off. This Saturday Howie Klein, with the support of Jane from FDL and John from Crooks and Liars will help promote Alan to a wider audience. They have come to believe Alan is exactly the kind of person the Netroots community should support. If you want to help Alan get elected, you can vote for him here at Democracy for America (DFA). To read a bloggers perspective on Alan, check out Down with Tyranny here.

Let’s help Alan Grayson get elected..lord knows there aren’t enough progressive Congressman in office.

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