Franklin High School Student Discussing Homophobic Bullying Interrupted By Parent During Committee Meeting

This headline gives us SO MUCH stupid, rudeness and bigotry to unpack, that I could write on it until the Earth became repopulated with dinosaurs at pre- ice- age numbers and you’d still be reading.

Let’s start with the interruption itself.

Children interrupt their parents when they feel insecure about their chances of being heard. Grown ups (especially narcissistic ones) interrupt when they feel insecure about their own credibility in the face of real information being disseminated by someone else. That’s called bullying.

The headline ITSELF is misleading, as it perpetuates the narrative of “homophobia” being acceptable. If you are afraid of a certain type of person for a reason that is out of that person’s control, than you have a “You Problem” and not a “Them Problem”. They can’t change their skin color or gender identity. That means that YOU have to find a way to live with it without being publicly OBNOXIOUS.

The parent that interrupted the speaking student should immediately have been escorted out of the meeting, simply for the interruption.

If you CAN’T behave in a grown-up and civilized manner during a grown-up and civilized meeting, than you don’t deserve to be there.

I could easily claim a dozen phobias of my own, in order to excuse any bad behavior that I desired. It wouldn’t make my behaviors…