Editorial: Resist Paranoia in High Schools

The unfounded fear of homosexuality reaches its most paranoid heights when children are around. People who otherwise claim tolerance of gays become apoplectic when the subject is discussed around their kids.

But there's no need to fear contagion. "Gayness" is not a disease. It won't be spread by a message on a high school bulletin board ­ a message that could literally be a lifesaver to a teen struggling quietly, or desperately, with issues of sexual orientation.

For parents in places such as the Plymouth-Canton schools to fear exposing children to such a message is to fear exposing them to the real world, a place where straights and gays are likely to be working or living side by side, each with an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.

While debate foolishly rages over whether homosexuality is nurtured or natural (which makes much more sense) this is the contemporary reality. Today's kids will be part of a much better tomorrow if their education includes accepting other people for what they are ­ and for some, accepting themselves as they are. Suppression, ostracism and even violence surrounding homosexuals aren't helping the gays or the straights.

Nobody wants to be a social outcast. Some people are driven to it.

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