gay? fine by me

So, read article from the ChiTri.


T-shirt campaigns divide school
Students stand up for their beliefs

By Jennifer Skalka
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 20, 2005

A gay rights campaign Tuesday at Homewood-Flossmoor High School produced a few fights, some name-calling and dueling T-shirts from protesters.

"We took so much [abuse]," said Susie Seaman, 16, who wore a "gay? fine by me" T-shirt to school as part of a campaign for tolerance. Seaman, who is straight, said other students taunted her in the halls.

Students sold 225 shirts in the lunchroom boasting that slogan, part of a campaign started in 2003 at Duke University. Other students wore T-shirts printed by Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park that said "Crimes committed against God" on the front and "discrimination against ... my 10 Commandments, my prayers, my values, my faith, my God." The 1st Amendment, which promotes free speech and religious expression, also was printed on the shirts.

School spokesman Dave Thieman initially said Principal Von Mansfield seized several of the religious T-shirts, which were being handed out, because students did not get advance permission to distribute them. Later he said he wasn't sure which of the shirts the principal confiscated, but he said students could pick them up after school.

Several students wore the shirts to school, including Lauren Waters, 15, who said she believes all people are sinners, but she doesn't support "the actions that [gays] are doing.

"I am a Christian," she said. "And I base what I do off of the Bible."

Alex Suhrbier, 16, made and wore his own T-shirt. On the front, he wrote: "It's not OK to be gay." On the side, he drew a rainbow with a slash through it.

While he was being interviewed, a female student walked by and growled at him. "Guys were hitting on me at lunch just to [tick] me off," he said.


-- Best part of the article in bold...