Dear Editor,
I want to be the first to applaud Mark Zappa for his change of
heart. According to Wednesday’s front-page story, Mark is now in
favor of truth, open discussion and healthy discourse, thus
reversing the conclusion I had from reading Mr. Zappa’s previous
pronouncements.
 
Dear Editor,

I want to be the first to applaud Mark Zappa for his change of heart. According to Wednesday’s front-page story, Mark is now in favor of truth, open discussion and healthy discourse, thus reversing the conclusion I had from reading Mr. Zappa’s previous pronouncements. 

I remain puzzled, however, just how the Alliance Defense Fund uncovered a single, unified, “… homosexual agenda.”  I picture this agenda consisting of something like, “Item 1: Pick-up Lines, 9-10pm; Item 2: Foreign Kissing, 10-11pm; Item 3: Fondling, 11pm-midnight; Item 4: …”

I am also concerned as to the implications of the ADF’s plan to, “… convey a Christian point-of-view on the issue.” because any mention of turning the other cheek might be misconscrued [sic] as referring to sodomy, and the ADF could become the butt of many jokes.

Mr. Zappa’s cohorts feel a Poway High School student was wronged when suspended for failing to remove a T-shirt that said, “Homosexuality is Shameful.” Allowing for the debate about whether or not people are born with their sexual orientation, at least part of the population would feel the same if a student was suspended for a “Heterosexuality is Shameful” shirt. For my part, I prefer T-shirts with slogans that condemn objectionable behavior, like “Spewing Bigotry is Shameful.”

As a high school teacher, there were a few occasions when I reprimanded students for behavior or T-shirt slogans I thought were offensive. Looking back at it, I suppose I wasn’t treating students equally – somehow I picked only on students who were promoting a heterosexual agenda:

– the large boy who was poised to strike a young woman as he screamed out to her, “You XXXXing dike.”

n the young man who grabbed the posterior of a young woman as she passed his desk. He assured me it was alright with her, she didn’t agree.

– the young man whose T-shirt read , “If you don’t like my shirt, then (in 6-inch letters) XXXX You!   

– the young woman whose T-shirt seemed, at first glance, like a gaggle of rollicking Smurfs. When she approached me I realized the Smurfs were demonstrating the Kama Sutra.  

Now, in light of Mr. Zappa’s revelations, I wonder how I could have overlooked what must have been numerous occasions when gay and lesbian students verbally and physically assaulted heteros, when they grabbed others’ “private parts” or wore shirts with homosexual phrases and images of homosexual acts. Obviously I was duped into turning a blind eye to gay and lesbian misdeeds as I can’t recall a single instance in my 35 years of teaching where heterosexuals were imposed upon or discriminated against.

Phill Laursen, Gilroy 

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