September 13, 2007
Towleroad Looks at Two Young Americans
Towleroad on William Sleaster…
…the Concord High School student who challenged John McCain on gay rights last week. Sleaster made headlines when he followed up his questioning by telling McCain, “I came here looking to see a leader. I don’t.”
Sleaster told the Concord Monitor: “It may have been disrespectful, but he (McCain) discriminates against me and my people. If he walked in there to Tide Pride (the school’s LGBT support group) Monday morning and started dropping sexual slurs, we wouldn’t shake his hand and say, ‘Thanks for coming.’ That’s why I didn’t shake his hand and say, ‘Thanks for coming.’ I regret nothing…Going into it, I was looking to be impressed. I was looking for him to be the leader type,” Sleaster said. “But he didn’t show that at all. He seemed very weak. He didn’t have any good ideas at all.”
He even understands why he was scolded for his strong words to McCain: “I believe (what the teacher did) was proper. They wanted us to shake the candidate’s hand. They wanted to make sure I didn’t make Concord High look bad. I understand why they might have been worried.”
Contrast Sleaster’s perspective with that of Louisiana State University student wingnut Michael Denton, whose school paper yesterday published … a hate piece he wrote called “America needs to stand against homosexuality” which basically spews the talking points of the worst of the right-wing Evangelical bigots:
Writes Denton: “America needs to grow in self-confidence on this debate. The homosexual argument is illogical; sexuality is obviously meant for reproduction. Any sexual activity that is opposed to life is intrinsically disordered. Yet we continue to refuse to stand up for ourselves, allowing courts, school boards and speech codes to dictate political correctness to us. There are few greater debates in America today. The gay marriage issue threatens marriage and the family, which are the very foundations of society. Unless America decides to stand for something in this case, we’ll continue to fall.” …
More, with embedded links and video
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Filed under: Education/Schools, Hate Speech, John McCain, Youth
