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Sunday, December 22, 2002 |
how you set me free, brought me out so easily...
This is not the usual high school story. Two girls in a high school in Crete, Illinois, have been in a long term relationship. Their classmates responded by electing them the "Cutest Couple" for this year's yearbook. The school administration said "no." Sixty students walked out in response. The school superintendent changed the district's position and will now allow their picture to be in the yearbook, and praised the demonstrators.
"This isn't 1952 anymore," 17-year-old Crete-Monee senior Rachel Urban told the Associated Press. "If 15- and 17-year-olds are mature enough to handle this, the rest of the country can."
And student Kaelie Muller told the local ABC affiliate, "I've known them (the unidentified couple) since eighth grade. I stand behind them more than anything. They have the right to be what they want to be."
Jennifer Vanasco's column is worth reading in its entirety:
School officials should have left it up to the students. They didn't, because they can't imagine a world where being a lesbian is OK. But that's all right, because the administrators are thinking backward-to their own youths.
The students at Crete-Monee were thinking forward. They can imagine a world where being part of a lesbian couple is just as legitimate as being part of a straight couple. They can imagine it because they live in that world. They have created it themselves.
Additional coverage: Fox News: Students Name Two Girls 'Cutest Couple'
GayWired.Com: High School Students Rally For Lesbian Teen Couple
