Walking Hand in Hand into the Future

After my sweetie went off to work and I got the girls their breakfast and put them in their room so that they could play, I sat down to see what was new in the world of news. What I came across was a story out of Colorado Springs. The story is about how multiple members of the Palmer High School’s yearbook staff ended up quitting over being forced to remove a picture from their “relationships” page. The picture in question was of a lesbian couple holding hands while walking down the hall. You can read the story here. The link has an additional link to the local news coverage and video that shows the picture in question.

The controversy comes in because the yearbook advisor allegedly told the students “you either get rid of the gay couple or I cut the page.” A school official Devra Ashby then came out and said that the reason the picture was removed was because a picture with “too much PDA (public displays of affection)” is against school policy. Now I have no problem with that policy. After all, I don’t think anyone wants to watch another couple getting too lovey dovey in a public place. The problem I do have though is that in the news report, they show pictures from last year’s yearbook and it shows straight couples hugging and kissing, yet hand holding is “too much PDA”. Could it be because the couple in question is two young ladies? I am thinking yes.

Now I haven’t attended high school in nearly 10 years but I remember almost every couple walking the halls and holding hands. Even straight girls would walk holding hands or locked arm in arm. It’s been nearly 10 years but I am guessing that most schools would not consider hand holding as “too much PDA.”, especially since previous yearbooks have had depictions of couples kissing and hugging I think we can assume that the school is trying to back paddle and give the excuse of too much PDA in the one picture when the truth is probably that they don’t want any depictions of same-sex romance in the yearbook. After all, Colorado Springs is the “Evangelical Vatican.”

I don’t think I would have cared at all about this story if it wasn’t so hypocritical. If holding hands is too much PDA then they shouldn’t show any at all. If that is the case, then why would the adviser be OK with a “relationships” page to begin with? I mean think about it, how are you supposed to show young couples in relationships without showing at least a little PDA?

What’s more disturbing though is what they decided to since they are removing the relationships page. They are apparently going to do a “diversity” page. That doesn’t sound too bad if they went with a collage style page but instead the adviser wants them to label the pictures. Not with names though, with what the person is., an example being a Muslim being labeled “Muslim” instead of whatever their name happens to be.

Hopefully, when the current high school and college age kids are old enough to start running this country, we will finally be able to move past all of this stuff and learn to accept people for who they are and that while we may be different, we are all still humans?