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Now this is brave Gay Texas teen comes out in graduation speech

then he would have broke the rules :shrug:
the school has every right to censor, limit and ban some speech

And the kid has every right to defy censorship, limits and bans.
Rules? Aw, c'mon. You don't believe that crap, do you>
 
Μολὼν λαβέ;1061925953 said:
Why is being gay so popular these days?

Evidently bigotry has gone out of style. I'm so sorry for your loss.
 
Brave would have been for somebody in the audience to tell him that this was not the proper venue for him to engage in verbal exhibitionism about his sexual deviancy to the public humiliation of his parents.
 
What makes people think anyone wants to hear about their sexual preferance, especially if they weren't asked about it in the first place?

Didn't you know? Homosexuality now not only trumps health, morality, religion and biology, but good taste and self respect as well.
 
Didn't you know? Homosexuality now not only trumps health, morality, religion and biology, but good taste and self respect as well.

Bullies and hate filled bigots now trumps thinking about how ones family and employer would view your online ranting about the people you think are less than you.
 
He was given access to the mic through hi body of work, and was free to address his classmates as he chose...

And yet in many places the graduation speech has to be approved by the administration. Guess some are not as free to speak as others.
 
Bullies and hate filled bigots now trumps thinking about how ones family and employer would view your online ranting about the people you think are less than you.

Unlike Gay rights activists, I don't see people as being defined by their personal practices. So I also don't see them as being "less than me." They are merely misguided and ill served by the notions and political movements to which they've bound themselves.


As for my family and employer, like most people, they find homosexuality to be an aberration which adds no value whatsoever to society.
 
Brave would have been for somebody in the audience to tell him that this was not the proper venue for him to engage in verbal exhibitionism about his sexual deviancy to the public humiliation of his parents.

I would have liked to have seen someone in the audience stand up and state "We really don't give a ****, it's none of our business"
 
1.)And the kid has every right to defy censorship, limits and bans.
2.) Rules? Aw, c'mon. You don't believe that crap, do you>

1.)no he doesn't have a right too, he CAN, and that would be his choice but he doesn't have a right too
2.) believe in rules is meaningless to whether they exist with or with out consequence or not.

per the info i know i think the kid was brave, super brave and his parents should be proud
 
1.)no he doesn't have a right too, he CAN, and that would be his choice but he doesn't have a right too
2.) believe in rules is meaningless to whether they exist with or with out consequence or not.

per the info i know i think the kid was brave, super brave and his parents should be proud

I fail to see the "bravery" of admitting something that most people already knew :shrug:
 
In that town, it could very easily be. It sounds like you don't have any familiarity with small white trash towns.

Oddly, in post #130 you say, "Evidently bigotry has gone out of style. I'm so sorry for your loss."

It apparently has not.
 
Oddly, in post #130 you say, "Evidently bigotry has gone out of style. I'm so sorry for your loss."

It apparently has not.

don't you know anything??? it's not bigotry if the target is straight, white, conservative ;)
 
I fail to see the "bravery" of admitting something that most people already knew :shrug:

you are welcome to that opinion but in my opinion i simply disagree.
most people assumed and guess and some people knew but the fact remains over coming that fear he had of being judged by bigotry or even worse, shun, disowned, assaulted etc etc is bravery in my opinion.

But you are free to feel otherwise.
 
Dude can't be gay..... no gay man would be caught dead wearing a green and white checkered shirt with a red and black striped bowtie.
 
don't you know anything??? it's not bigotry if the target is straight, white, conservative ;)

I guess I don't. But I do recognize hypocrisy when I see it. ;)
 
There is a time and a place for everything, and valedictories--farewells--are a particular type of ceremonial rhetoric and follow certain conventions. There's even a Wiki-How entry: How to Write a Valedictorian Speech: 8 Steps - wikiHow

See #3, which discusses aiming at inclusiveness/representation of the class itself.

But #2 says that you should be brutally honest about yourself and properly represent who you are. The speech written by the Texas kid did both #2 and #3.
 
I fail to see the "bravery" of admitting something that most people already knew :shrug:

Try getting beaten up or raped. The desire to stand up to sociopathic bullies takes bravery
 
Μολὼν λαβέ;1061925953 said:
Why is being gay so popular these days?

There is a difference between supporting a kid for who they are and cannot change, and it being "popular".
 
Here was a chance - a great honor at that - to address your fellow classmates and talk about their collective dreams and accomplishments, with him as the privileged and deserving spokesperson for the class.

Instead, he made it all about him.

Typical. Why are gays so damn needy of attention?
 
Here was a chance - a great honor at that - to address your fellow classmates and talk about their collective dreams and accomplishments, with him as the privileged and deserving spokesperson for the class.

Instead, he made it all about him.

Typical. Why are gays so damn needy of attention?

Not all gays are. Most, in fact, aren't. This is more about narcissism than anything else, and what I'm seeing with 18-year olds, including in my own family, is narcissism, the need not just to record everything for "posterity," but also the notion that everything one does is unendingly important and exciting for everybody else.
 
Try getting beaten up or raped. The desire to stand up to sociopathic bullies takes bravery

hyperbole much? no evidence that this kid was ever beaten or raped.
 
hyperbole much? no evidence that this kid was ever beaten or raped.


It isnt hyperbol. Being homosexual makes one a taeget for violence by psychopaths.

It is very common. Some people in this thread wish violence and pain on gays. They laugh and chuckle when a gay is bullied until suicide or dragged behind a truck.
 
But #2 says that you should be brutally honest about yourself and properly represent who you are. The speech written by the Texas kid did both #2 and #3.

My point was that that in ceremonial discourse/epideitic rhetoric, as in all rhetoric, there is an obligation to one's audience. Here's what #3 says:

Be open to what the rest of the grade [class] is thinking. While you have been chosen to write the valedictorian speech and present it, remember that you have a responsibility to try and reflect your classmates' broader interests and wishes too.
 
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