This story is disgusting.  Two girls in Pompano Beach, Florida, are being threatened with suspension because they were holding hands at their high school.  Oh, and the principal, a “Karlton O. Johnson,” thought it was good judgment to call the girls’ parents, which resulted in one of the girls being outed to them before she was ready.  It’s pathetic when you can’t rely on the adults to be the adults:

Blanche Ely High School principal Karlton O. Johnson, accused of “outing” a gay student and threatening to suspend her and her gay friend for holding hands on campus, is coming under fire for his actions.

[...]

Attorney Barry Butin, who co-chairs the Broward County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) legal panel, described the situation as “disturbing.”

“Freedom of expression is just one of the things that it may violate. If the students are suspended or disciplined in any way, we would take action if asked,” Butin said. “They are minors and their parents would have to decide.”

Community activist Michael Rajner, who serves on the school district’s diversity committee, is calling for Johnson to be suspended and for a thorough investigation.”

“His actions were reckless and potentially dangerous, without any understanding of the potential harm he may have caused by outing these students. Many gay youth become suicidal after being outed and the school district must intervene and link these families to counseling services,” Rajner said.

The principal is claiming that the school has a policy against hand-holding or kissing of any kind, but he doesn’t seem to enforce it with straight kids. Funny, that.

Another social worker familiar with the situation explains even further:

Kris Drumm, director of Youth and Family for Sunshine Social Service Inc., takes a dim view of Johnson’s rebuke of the students.

[...]

“It’s irresponsible because these kids are literally being put in danger,” she said. “I see it all the time. The parents are not prepared to hear this information and the youths end up abused or homeless after being thrown out of the house. This is serious.”

If anyone understands that, it should be a high school principal. But unfortunately, as I said earlier today, though things are getting better in a lot of places for a lot of kids, it’s still uneven, and it’s basically luck of the draw. These girls in Florida just happen to have to go to a school with a principal who puts his bigotry above his concerns for the kids’ well-being and safety.

(Weekly Column)

Picture: Me lifting my own luggage at Miami International Airport

It was once a speculative clich?© to say that rabidly anti-gay individuals were actually closeted, self-loathing homosexuals. But thanks to an avalanche of hypocrites, the notion is quickly becoming a truism.

Last month, the nation alternately cackled and cringed when virulently homophobic “researcher” George Rekers was photographed at Miami International Airport with an attractive hustler he met on RentBoy.com. The good doctor, who had testified in court against LGBT people adopting children, said he only hired the young escort to “lift his luggage”.

Before the laughter over the Rekers ruckus subsided, another anti-gay phony was unmasked for his baloney. Activist Mike Rogers outed Congressman Mark Kirk, (R-Il) after the closet case voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. According to Rogers:

“Kirk voted against repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, despite his being a closeted gay man in the military. As a Commander in the Navy Reserves, Kirk has voted to keep a policy that if he were investigated under he would be tossed.”

Prior to his unconscionable vote, Kirk (pictured)had a relatively respectable record on LGBT issues. However, in his bid for the U.S. Senate, Kirk veered to the right, which included posing as a homophobe. Now that he has been exposed as a fraud, one wonders if the Tea baggers will still consider him their cup of tea.

Another maxim that appears to be accurate is the one that says, “those who have genuine family values never utter the words “family values.”

Seriously, how bored with your spouse, dissatisfied with your life, and spiritually empty do you have to be to unctuously parade your family as a prop on the public stage?

The most recent lowlife squirming under the family values banner is Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) who announced that he would resign from Congress because he had an affair with a woman on his staff. He follows in the footsteps of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). When will voters finally wise up to these religious racketeers who sell a morality mirage?

Just as gay-obsessed anti-gay activists are often gay, and holier-than-thou politicians are likely to be having sex with everyone but their spouses, one should also be leery of nations prone to attacking their LGBT citizens. While these countries pose as beacons of the biblical banner, their professions of piousness often mask moral mayhem. It seems that almost every anti-gay nation is an authoritarian, cesspool of corruption.

Jamaica, for example has been called one of the most homophobic lands on earth. The island’ Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, said he would not have an openly gay person in his cabinet. Yet, it appears he, and nearly every other politician in Jamaica, is in cahoots with local mafia dons who deal in death and drugs.

A story in Tuesday’ New York Times discusses this unseemly “arrangement”:

In fact, money has flowed into those communities for decades, thanks to an arrangement in Jamaica in which politicians and dons share power. Through extortion and the drug trade, the dons provide security, and by steering contracts and other pork to the neighborhoods, the politicians count on the continued loyalty of voters.

Where are all the outspoken fundamentalists who ferociously condemn gays and make a big show about Jamaica’ values? We keep hearing how this island is a pristine “Christian Nation”, but where are the Christians when you need them to stand up to endemic corruption?

It seems these self-righteous cowards attack defenseless sexual minorities, while turning a blind eye to the most sordid transgressions of scripture. While the epidemics of murder and theft genuinely affect their families — gay people do not. Yet, the misled masses in Jamaica choose to focus on a non-issue like homosexuality, while disregarding factors that have kept their children mired in poverty and pain.

Jamaica is not alone in using LGBT people as scapegoats to distract the public from naked political power grabs. Zimbabwe’ brutal dictator, Robert Mugabe, (pictured) practically wrote the playbook on using gays as political pawns when he once said they were worse than pigs and dogs. Uganda’ president Yoweri Musevini has clung to power for twenty-four years and uses gay people to sidetrack citizens who might otherwise be upset that he has squelched democratic reform. In Northern Ireland, anti-gay conservative parliament member, and the 58-year-old wife of the Prime Minister, Iris Robinson, had an affair with a 19-year-old male lover.

While being gay is normal and natural, homophobia is not. It is often a sickness or a deliberate distraction designed to deceive the na?Øve. And, nations with leaders that are homophobic often scream “perversion” as a smoke and mirrors diversion. It is time people woke up and realized that when someone is rabidly anti-gay they usually want you to look the other way.

This weekend I attended the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association meeting in DC. On Friday evening I went to an exciting party. There were no closeted right wing hypocrites in line for dry martinis – as Mike Rogers and Michelangelo Signorile were in the house!