(Glocester, Rhode Island) A group of parents is calling a high school field trip a "promotion of homosexuality". The parents are threatening to pull their teenage children from a Ponaganset High School trip to see the movie "Rent" at a local theater.
"Rent", the film version of the long running Pulitzer and Tony-winning drama, is about a group of young New Yorkers coming to grips with poverty and AIDS features two gay couples.
"The lifestyles depicted in this movie are not the majority, not the lifestyles of 99.9 percent of the kids that live in these two towns," School Committee cochair Donna Mansolillo told a meeting of the committee this week.
So because the "lifestyles" are different from people in the towns that means high school students should not see the movie? Because it has something different in it? Is there enough air in that there bubble?
Where did they get their information? Did they see the theatrical production? Did they preview the movie itself? Of course not:
Mansolillo then handed out a review of the film by the conservative group Focus on the Family that calls the movie "an in-your-face glorification of homosexuality and lesbianism."
They got their information from James Dobson! Now there is a legitimate, objective source to go to. Sure.
Thankfully, there are some people who are capable of rational thought:
"I just don't get what the problem is," Kelly Hunter said. "If you don't want your kid to go, don't sign the [permission] slip."
Now that's a concept! Wonder why the others couldn't understand that? Maybe it's because their first place to turn to for information is James Dobson.
And good on the principle, who refused to cave to the bubble-set:
Principal Joseph P. Maruszczak has refused to cancel the trip, saying that it will encourage classroom discussions about diversity and tolerance.
(hat tip to Pam)
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