OC HIGH / STUDENT NEWS & VIEWS : Support by Student Alliance Is Overdue

I am saddened and at the same time outraged by the views expressed by Robert Dodge, Steve Grimes and Mat Gratias, students at Fountain Valley High School, and members of the Future Good Boys of America (“Moral Outrage Fuels Anti-Gay School Protest,” Jan. 6).

The article that was penned by the above named individuals illustrates the right-wing, conservative narrow-mindedness that is all too often displayed by teens living in Orange County. To suggest that the Fountain Valley High School Student Alliance is a club that advocates sodomy, oral copulation or sexual promiscuity is absolutely ludicrous.

If Vietnamese, African American, Mexican American or any other minority group of students seeks to form an alliance (by definition, “an agreement to work together”), they are encouraged to do so and supported by everyone from school officials to the media. However, when an alliance is formed that consists of a group of students seeking to support one another in dealing with the pain and struggle of living in a society that bad-mouths, alienates and ostracizes those who do not conform to what is considered “normal,” it is labeled as a “transgression against the moral principles of our country.”

No one chooses to live with the threat of HIV and AIDS. No one chooses to live with the fear of being beaten and left for dead. No one chooses to live knowing that what they feel will deem them an unacceptable member of society.

The members of the Fountain Valley High School Student Alliance need one another to stand against the kind of shallow, reactionary tactics displayed by not only the students that make up the Future Good Boys of America, but by students, parents and community members afraid of something that is contrary to what exists in their “perfect,” gift-wrapped world.

The formation of the Fountain Valley High School Student Alliance is long overdue, and its members should be commended for their courage and fortitude. Unfortunately, their struggles have just begun.

NANCY A. DANGER

Huntington Beach