I just got a note from a friend (straight) who works at a school district in the ‘burbs (I won’t say which — for now) who wanted to look up something on DallasVoice.com.
No such luck.
“Adult lifestyles” popped up the message when the friend tried to type in the URL.
As we all know, being gay is already an alternative “lifestyle” — also being “adult,” apparently, is a no-go for teens.Can’t have them or their teachers learning anything racy … like my story about the Dallas Theater Center’s production of Shakespeare (kissing! fairies? forfend!) or my review of the Dallas Opera’s Otello (interracial dating?! I don’t THINK so!). OK, so maybe an interview with adult film actor Colton Ford is a little adult-specific, but still: Why a blanket ban on the entire Web site? Don’t kids deserve to learn about gay people, too?
3 Comments
In my suburban school district your website is verboten. I have tried to access it myself. I think it has more to do with some of the more sexual content, more than the news. This is interesting in linkage to the teacher being suspended for linking to an article about a review of a book about gay sexuality in the animal world.
I myself have been fighting to get the right to be more open and out at school and have been told that the conservative community standards keep me from “advocating” for being gay. Like it or not religious bigotry still runs much of our education system.
Later,
Marlin Bynum
I’m not sure your friend’s internet restriction has anything to do with the school’s location or desire to teach kids about gay people. Generally it’s common for an employee’s personal use of a company or government owned computer to have restrictions regarding sexual content targeted for adults. This has been the norm for a long time in urban and suburban, conservative and liberal, religious and secular communities. Hoping an IT department has enough time to sort through this site every week deciding which items are appropriate for minors is unrealistic.
Like it or not religious bigotry still runs much of our education system.