Also. Also. Also.: Christian High School Banishes Lesbian and Other Stories

+ When the administrators of The Master’s School in West Simsbury, Connecticut, asked Rachel Aviles, a 12th grader, about her sexual orientation, she admitted that indeed she was a lesbian. So then they “encouraged her to withdraw.” At CTNOW, Rachel is described as being “good for Master’s”:

Rachel Aviles was one of the most popular kids at The Master’s School, a K-12 Christian school in West Simsbury. She played sports, kept her grades up, and enthusiastically signed up for any extracurricular activity that would have her, this despite the fact that she isn’t a Christian, though she insists she respects the faith.

The school’s headmaster won’t discuss. Her former coach, Heather Lodovico, told CT Now: “She’s a fantastic kid. My reaction was: ‘Wow. Your God’s really small.’ Whether it’s a sin or not, take that out of the picture, and this is still wrong. I think God’s up there shaking His head going, ‘Really? Really?'”

+ Bitch Magazine has an article about how Billy Corgan Decides Transphobia is the Only Way To Get Attention.

+ Today in Justice Not Being Served – two of the nine men accused of stoning, stabbing and killing a lesbian in 2006 were released yesterday. The court is citing a “lack of evidence.”

+ Secret Gay Pastors You Are Not Alone: “…later that very day I had an appointment with the pastor of a thriving, medium-sized church who had asked to see me because he has come to doubt the correctness of the traditional Christian view of homosexuality. He did not feel free to share those doubts with his congregation; he knew there would be an uproar if he did. So he was seeing me about this matter on (as it were) the down-low.”

+ TransGriot would like media types to review their AP style guide.

+ Look, it’s an infographic about pot from WIRED Magazine:

click to enlarge

+ Have you heard the one about the lesbian who walked into an Irish Bar with another lesbian for their engagement party and the shopkeeper next door was like GAH!!? It’s in The New York TimesIn Immigrant Areas, a Culture Clash Over Gay Marriage!

The Department of Health and Human Services is trotting out additional plans to let you visit your dying wife in the hospital. Meanwhile in Arizona, a judge has ruled that Arizona cannot cut health benefits to its gay employees. Meanwhile in Tennessee, conservatives are pissed that BlueCross BlueShield is trying to treat gay people like actual human beings in need of health care.

+ A majority of Minnesota State Fair attendees are against an amendment that would ban gay marriage. But how do they feel about cows made out of butter? I bet they like cows made out of butter.

+ Now that the gays can get married, Joy Behar can get married.

+ Also NBC is ‘developing’ a comedy series about a lesbian and her straight best friend. This really shouldn’t be news, because do you realize that like 100 shows get “developed” each year and like four of them actually end up on teevee? Like in October 2009, CBS announced it was developing a multi-camera comedy about lesbians with Carol Leifer at the helm and in November 2010, it was announced that CBS was developing a show called Rhodes to Recovery with Ilene Fucking Chaiken and so on and so on and scoobie doobie doobie.

Everybody is Cheating Less Now (Gay and Straight): Probably because we’re too poor to go out and sleep with other people.

“The Game” Isn’t Okay With People Pretending Not to Be Gay Because Then They Give Everyone AIDS: “Be gay, you can do that. Game don’t have a problem with gay people. Game has a problem with people that are pretending not to be gay and are gay because the number one issue with that is that you could be fooling somebody and you could give them AIDS and they can die and so that in the closet s– is real scary.”

+ Lesbians forever! Tammy Baldwin is Running for Senate in Wisconsin!

+ Is it safe to be out in Hollywood? I feel like this article could answer that question for you: Actor’s Equity Discusses Whether It’s Safe to Be Out in Hollywood.

+ Once upon a time our Real L Word parody was removed from YouTube. We worked it out with CBS and YouTube and now it’s back if you want to go experience it again!

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3271 articles for us.

24 Comments

  1. Hi I’d just like to say that Master’s School in West Simsbury, CT isn’t a Catholic school; it’s a Christian school. There’s a difference.

  2. ALSO, here’s some good news from the netherlands:
    91% of dutch people is now ok with the gays
    this is the highest number ever, anywhere
    only 5% of dutch people would be uncomfortable with a gay prime minister
    and only 1% reports they would be uncomfortable having a gay neighbor

    the full report can be found here:
    http://www.scp.nl/dsresource?objectid=28711&type=org
    lots of interesting stats, also on other european countries (all in dutch though)

  3. I don’t know how to feel about The Game, both in speaking in third-person, and the generalization that most gays have AIDS. At least he’s…umm…cool…with…gays?

    • also being “asked” or “encouraged to leave” is private school talk for “we want to expel you, but we also want you to be able to pull your shit together at another school, so you have the chance to bow out gracefully without an expulsion on your record, now pack your shit.” just for the record.

      • my HS did this (public magnet). Except they would also threaten to fuck with your schedule and make your life very difficult if you didn’t leave. One of my friends had to transfer because of them :(

  4. On the awesomer side of life, my Christian college which prepares primary school teachers for a career in a country where about 90% of schools are Catholic, had an anonymous questionnaire at the end of last year to find out what diversity there was within the student body and how accepted and comfortable we all feel. On finding out that there were a whole bunch of gays who understandably felt decidedly uncomfortable/unsafe/fearful of job prospects if they ever came out, the college higher-ups were horrified and today we had a guest speaker from the national LGBT equality network in to talk about LGBT issues in schools, how to prevent homophobic bullying of pupils/family/staff, and how to get along as an LGBT teacher particularly in a Catholic school. It was really awesome, and Im so happy and proud to be part of my college right now : )

    • I am a teacher at a Catholic school and would dearly love to have a speaker like you did. =) That is awesome!

  5. I stumbled upon this, and thought that I the school sounded familiar. It was not until I read the name of the headmaster, Jon Holley, that I put it together. He was my headmaster at a school in Ohio called CVCA. He left the year I graduated to work as a missionary in Haiti, but came back after a year or so because his kids were young. He took the job as headmaster at this lovely school in CT, and that was the last I heard, until today. He was a relatively nice guy, as far as my few interactions with him went. I just find myself amazed at this. And happy I didn’t realize I was gay until college/ medical school. How awful.

  6. I went to a only girls catholic school and when I was like 12 or something. The nuns wanted to banish the two girls for being lesbians…But some of the girls friends argued that they couldn’t leave them without education. Because, that was a universal right..So, the nuns doesn’t banish them, but they were suspended and the sexual classes were a lot more complete

  7. 1) The Great Minnesota Get-Together does not have “contestants” it simply has “people who go to the state fair.” It also has deep-fried apple everything, which is so so good.

    2) WE FUCKING LOVE COWS CARVED OUT OF BUTTER. But not as much as we love heads carved out of butter.

    • 1) ACH! why did i type contestants? i’m a fucking idiot, i honestly don’t even know why i said that

      2) as a huge fan of the ohio state fair for real (and the local county fairs as well), i based my comment about cows carved out of butter based on the prevalence of ohio state fair cows carved out of butter in the 80s/90s. state fairs still do that, right? if they don’t then i quit.

  8. “Your God’s really small.” WTF?

    Also, this gay girl/straight bff teevee show sounds like it was written about my life. I really hope this airs because I feel like I will seriously love it.

  9. No no, you’re getting it ALL wrong, it’s down on homosexuals, I think you’ll find :)

Comments are closed.