Mitt Romney was a High School Bully... Does It Matter?

Imagine the scene:

A fancy private high school, where the students wear ties and carry briefcases, and live in dorms.  Every guy has their hair cut short.  Everyone looks pretty much alike.

A new student, John Lauber, has bleached blonde hair, and wears it long - covering one eye. 

Others make fun of the new guy, teasing him for the hair and what the hair might mean... that the new kid is gay.

Mitt Romney, a Senior at the time, told his friend Matthew Friedemann, “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!”

A few days later, according to five witnesses, this happened:

"...Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors."

Okay, this homophobic attack (as reported in the Washington Post) happened back in 1965 - I wasn't even born yet.  Forty-seven years before Mitt Romney is running for President of the United States of America.  Should it matter?


When Romney was asked about it, here's his response:

Asked specifically as to whether he remembered an anecdote in the story that describes Romney cutting the hair of one of his classmates who was “presumed” to be gay because the candidate did not like his long hairstyle, Romney responded, “You know, I don’t.”

“I don’t remember that incident,” Romney said, laughing, before adding that whether someone was “homosexual, that was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case.”

 I thought this editorial by Charles M. Blow in the New York Times had some great points, including:

"...honorable men don’t chuckle at cruelty."

and

"Targeting the vulnerable is an act of cowardice. The only way to vanquish cowardice is to brandish courage. Romney refused to do so."

and

"Americans want to know that the boy from that prep school grew up in knowledge and wisdom and grew deep in compassion and empathy. We want to know that his shoulders are now wide enough to bear blame and his heart is big enough to seek contrition."

Instead, what Romney did was laugh about it, say he didn't remember the incident, and failed to express regret or show he'd learned anything in the forty-seven years since he viciously attacked a classmate for being "different."

He missed what might have been a transformative, teachable moment that addressed the epidemic of bullying today. 

Mitt Romney was a High School Bully. 

I think it does matter.  

What do you think?

 

Namaste,
Lee

Only The Ring Finger Knows - Gay Teen Manga!

Only the Ring Finger Knows by Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiri

At Wataru Fujii's high school, it's all the rage to wear paired rings with the girl you love. 

Wataru wears one even though he's single, and one day he inadvertently discovers that his ring pairs up with that of tall, handsome and smart Yichi Kazuki, the senior idolized by the whole school.

Though Kazuki has a reputation for being kind to everyone, when he deals with Wataru, he's strangely harsh.

Their paired rings somehow draw them together and the two alternately clash and attract, as they must sort out their budding feelings for each other.

This is a novelization of the "Only the Ring Finger Knows" Manga volumes one and two, 

The cover for the English-language Manga, volume one

and there are more titles out in the series.   Add your review of any of these "Only The Ring Finger Knows" manga and novels in comments!

My thanks to Robin Fosdick at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library for her wonderful GLBTQ Graphic Novels for Teens list!

Lambda Literary Foundation's New LGBTQ Book Club for Teens!

I'm very excited about the My Story Book Club!

Check out this interview I did with Monica Carter, who is founding the program for Lambda Literary Foundation...



For more info on the My Story Book Club, and to see all their selections for the year ahead (some great reads!) check out this info on Lambda Literary's website.

And you can join in on Goodreads here!

Namaste,
Lee

ps- my apologies for the sound quality issues.

All Of Us - a Bisexual teen and young adult novel

"All of Us" by Mary Rawson


At age 13, Jenny tries to make sense of her desire for a boy and a girl.

We follow Jenny and her friends and lovers from Kaikoura, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia as she grows up though her teen and young adult years.

She tries to be heterosexual. She tries to be a lesbian.  But ultimately, while negotiating friendship, love and grief, Jenny must claim her true identity as a bisexual woman.


Add your review of "All of Us" in comments!

HUGE News: President Obama Supports Gay Marriage

He's evolved!

Barack Obama promised to be a "fierce advocate" for the GLBTQ community while running for office.

Once in office, that advocacy has felt, at times, tepid.  Hesitant.  More concerned with political expediency than with doing what was right.  What we believed he felt was right.  And yet progress was made.  Slow progress, but progress.

But on Wednesday May 9, 2012, President Obama finally stated, (you can watch the video here or here at the Obama campaign site)

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

Hurray!

While there is a lot of talk and conjecture about the possible damage this might do to his re-election campaign, by standing up for us GLBTQ members of the community and saying that he supports our equality, he's gained more than my tepid support.

He's gained me as an advocate.

And millions of other GLBTQ and Allied and fair-minded people.

This is a good thing.

Namaste,
Lee

PFLAG Mom Marsha Aizumi is Changing the World "One Heart At A Time"

I spoke with Marsha last fall, and have been saving this interview for now since Sunday is Mother's Day here in the USA, and talking to Marsha - a PFLAG mom - made me so happy.



Marsha's book, "Two Spirits One Heart: A Mother, Her Transgender Son, And Their Journey to Love and Acceptance" will be coming out in September, and I'll blog more about it then, but I had to share this discussion with you all now.

PFLAG is a great organization, and you can find out more about them here.

Thanks Marsha!  Aiden is certainly fortunate to have you as his mother.

Namaste,
Lee

My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer - A Middle Grade Novel with a Lesbian Mom

My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari

"The best pies are all about finding the right mix of berries. Meet June, a sweet 12-year-old, whose summer pie-making plans get muddled when her mother decides to marry her girlfriend now that Vermont has made Civil Unions legal.   My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer is about one girl learning how to be herself and stand up for her new family."

Add your review of "My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer" in comments!

Gender 101, Episode #29: Meet B J

Benji (a.k.a. Lucy) introduces us to another gender non-conforming community member, B J...





So delighted to meet B J,

Namaste,
Lee

The Boy Scouts show their homophobia again

Here's what happened, in Jennifer Tyrrell's words:

My name is Jennifer Tyrrell. I am a devoted partner, mother, friend and community leader in Bridgeport, Ohio. I’m also a former Tiger Cub den leader with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). I was recently removed from this volunteer position, and my membership was revoked after nearly a year of service – just because I happen to be gay.

Shortly after registering my son for Cub Scouts, I was asked to assume the role of den leader and was persuaded by a platform of tolerance, acceptance and support. Throughout the year, my cubs performed volunteer service at a local soup kitchen, collected canned goods for area churches to distribute in food baskets, participated in bell-ringing for the Salvation Army, and, at the time of my removal, were working on a conservation project for a state park. My Tiger Cubs earned multiple Scout badges for service and skills, while learning and exercising the 12 Core Values of Scouting: citizenship, compassion, cooperation, courage, faith, health & fitness, honesty, perseverance, positive attitude, resourcefulness, respect, and responsibility.

The revocation of my membership came shortly after I was elected treasurer of my pack and uncovered some inconsistencies in the pack's finances. Within a week of reporting these findings to the council, I received notice that my membership had been revoked, based on my sexual orientation, citing that because I'm gay, I did "not meet the high standards of membership that the BSA seeks."

There was an outcry of support for me by the parents of my Tiger Scouts, many of whom waited for hours to voice their concerns to members of the council and the pack's charter organization, but were turned away without the opportunity to do so.

Discriminating against Gay (GLBTQ) parents and children is contrary to everything the boy scouts say they stand for... I was a cub scout when I was a child.

Shouldn't it be evident that the we-hate-and-demean-gay-people-because-that's-what-our-parents-taught-us credo is contrary to the very beliefs they're saying they hold dear?

Gay people can be TRUSTWORTHY. LOYAL. HELPFUL. FRIENDLY. COURTEOUS. KIND. OBEDIENT. CHEERFUL. THRIFTY. BRAVE. CLEAN and REVERENT, too.


You can check out this interview with Jennifer, her son Cruz, and the new head of GLAAD on MSNBC here.

And please consider signing Jennifer's petition to the Boy Scouts to stand up and say

"It is time for the Boy Scouts of America to reconsider its policy of exclusivity against gay youth and leaders. Please sign this petition to call for an end of discrimination in an organization that is shaping the future."

About a quarter of a million people have signed the petition so far, including me!

How about you?

Namaste,
Lee

Dan Savage on the Hypocrisy of using the Bible as justification for anti-gay bullying

This is brilliant.

Mind, Dan doesn't pull any punches, and uses words that might be objectionable to some.  And he's getting a lot of flack for this part of his speech, for allegedly attacking Christianity.  Dan himself said that he feels he was really attacking hypocrisy.

"I have a right to defend myself, and to point out the hypocrisy of people who justify anti-gay bigotry by pointing to the Bible and insisting we must live by the code of Leviticus on this one issue and no other."

Bravo, Dan!

Namaste,
Lee


ps - thanks to my husband for sharing this with me! You Rock!