ARTICLES

No Accident

Gay Show at Mount Miguel High

By Allyson Smith

Mt. Miguel High School in Spring Valley, with the approval of its Catholic principal, Martin Griffin, hosted "The Shared Heart" exhibit on September 21 and 22. According to its website, "'The Shared Heart' is a touring exhibition of photographs with text and a book, created to bring affirming images of lesbian, gay, and bisexual young people into high schools, colleges, and workplaces.... 'The Shared Heart' aims to cultivate understanding between lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and their peers, teachers, parents, and communities."

Mt. Miguel High School is a member of the Grossmont Union High School District, whose board last year voted to include sexual orientation in portions of its employment and curriculum policies despite objections from hundreds of parents, students and pastors.

The exhibition sparked protests on Friday, September 22, from members of San Diego Christian Men United. Shamgar Jabez, who participated in the protest, said, "One teacher came out and whispered to us that she agreed with us, but if she complained about the 'Gay Teen Couples Affirming display,' she would be charged with hate speech and 'it would be all over' for her. In other words, her principal just took away her liberty to speak."

In a September 26 telephone conversation, Griffin, a member of St. Rose of Lima parish in Chula Vista, defended "The Shared Heart." "I thought it was a well-done display, and that it did present a picture of a real segment of our human population and our school population. Personally, though I may not agree with it, these are personal experiences of people that I cannot personally disallow or can't say that they're not real."

When asked who had authorized the display, Griffin responded, "The Gay-Straight Alliance [a school club for homosexual students and straight sympathizers] requested the exhibit to be here, and it was authorized by me because of equal access [statutes]."

"What if someone put up a display against homosexuality? Would you allow that?" Griffin answered, "In terms of equal access, first of all I would continue to look at what the district policy is on equal access. If it is a forum in which people are speaking freely and it's not something that is causing discrimination or any undesired types of activities, then we would have an obligation [to allow it].

"We do have Christian groups that have access to our facilities; we do have a Christian prayer group of students. As a matter of fact they just had their national day of prayer at the flagpole."

When asked, "What would you do if a teacher stated publicly to a class that they believe homosexuality is wrong?" Griffin said, "I don't know; I'd have to think about that. An individual has a right to their own opinion. As an individual, they have a right to speak their opinion, but we have to remember that as a school we can't make a moral judgement.

"If we were in a Catholic school where we could talk about moral issues, then we could talk about what the Catholic Church teaches."

"Were parents allowed to look at it?" "Yes," answered Griffin. When asked if parents had been notified in advance of the exhibit, he replied, "The word got out into the community, but there was not any publicizing of it outside of the school and the Gay-Straight Alliance. The GSA did share with the teachers what was going to be here."

Other people, however, were not allowed to view the exhibit. Citizen activist Jim Daugherty said, "I called Mr. Griffin on Thursday and got permission to come and photograph the exhibit. When I showed up on Friday and followed his instructions to come to the office so that he could monitor my visit, he informed me that I could not see the exhibit because it was copyrighted. It somehow obtained a copyright from Thursday to Friday. I was denied access on Friday, September 22, and then they canceled the Monday, September 25 showing. I guess it was drawing too much attention."

Pastor Alan Ernst of Casa de Oro Baptist Church in Spring Valley explained, "We have people from our church who go to Mt. Miguel. I received a copy of the announcement to students and faculty that contained an encouragement for faculty to take their classes to this exhibit, which implied that it was not voluntary, and encouraged the faculty to assign diversity projects that would coordinate with this.

"A couple of days later, because the word got out, Griffin rescinded that, and said that students would not be able to use class time to go to the library to view it. But the whole exhibit had no place in a school.

"To me, it's no accident that it happened during the same week as See You at the Pole, when students would be able to give a visible display of their Christian faith, and just a couple of days later to have this thrown in their face."

Frank Scarpaci, the San Diego Lesbian and Gay Men's Center project chair for the Shared Heart Youth Center, discussed his role in bringing the exhibit to Mt. Miguel and other schools throughout San Diego County in an October 5 telephone interview. "I was on the steering committee to raise the money to bring the exhibit to San Diego." He added that his employer, American Express Corporation, had given seed money to the project.

"A representative from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Mt. Miguel faculty member Olivia Dorman, worked with the GSA at Mt. Miguel to extend the invitation to the schools."

Scarpaci said "The Shared Heart" was shown at other schools, including SDSU, UCSD, and Rancho Bernardo High School.

"It really has made a significant difference. For example, at San Dieguito Academy, the principal told wonderful stories about how kids were moved and how kids said they would think twice before using the word 'faggot'.

"La Jolla Country Day School kids saw the exhibit at the Spruce Street Gallery and told me that it was wonderful. I worked at the gallery and got to talk to at least 200-300 people, and there was not one negative comment. When you talk to adults, they say, 'I am not gay, but I couldn't imagine being this self-assured.' The response in San Diego has been absolutely overwhelming. The only protest was at Mt. Miguel."

Scarpaci continued, "Whether you believe homosexuality is right or wrong, you can believe what you want, but the truth is the truth, and these kids [in the exhibit] speak with such experience, whether right or wrong. You can't believe how damaging it is to a young person when they're living in fear."

He concluded, "I find it hard to believe people would protest an exhibit where young people are speaking their truth, whether you agree with their lifestyle or not. How can you object to young people who are living their truth? That's not putting youth first, in my opinion. It hurts that a group would protest something so powerful and so meaningful. It shows a lack of respect for youth; it shows a lack of respect for truth."

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