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Even in 2012, it's tough for gay kids growing up in America. So I can't imagine why a teenage girl thought wearing a t-shirt to school that proclaimed "All the Cool Girls Are Lesbians" was a good idea. Did she really think bashing her heterosexual classmates was the right way to fight the hate?
The shirt's been the center of a hot debate since a high schooler at Lynn English High School in Massachusetts was asked to turn it inside out because it could be deemed "offensive." I want to say the administrators were right, but with nothing in their dress code ... I sadly have to side with the kid. But that doesn't mean I'd let my kid wear it.
This is one of those tricky "I will defend your right to disagree with me, but I don't have to like it" cases. Because man do I disagree with a kid, any kid, who makes a point to let other kids know she doesn't think they're "cool." To me that's just ... well, uncool!
It's one thing to get past the "hate." I can't wait until we're there, and I'm a bit disappointed that it's 2012, and I sometimes feel like things are about as far along as they were when I was still in high school. But it's quite another thing to hate back. As our parents taught us way back in the olden days, "two wrongs don't make a right."
That's the problem with hating on straight kids. It's just as wrong as bullying a gay kid.
I'm raising a kid in a pro-gay rights household. That means she's learned that gay kids are just like her. They're equal. What doesn't it mean? That gay kids are "cooler" than her any more than it means she's cooler than the gay kids (my kid is 6, I'm assuming she's straight right now because she's kid of boy crazy ... if this changes, I'll still think she is the coolest kid on earth ... but that won't make her "better" than anyone).
Let's put this in any other context, shall we? Would you put your kid in an "All Cool Kids Are White" t-shirt? No. Hmm. How about an "All Cool Kids Are Black" shirt? Not that either, huh? If we want our kids to accept one another, it's up to us to tell them that means everyone, not just the people they like.
What kind of message does this t-shirt send to you?
Image via CafePress
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