 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Varietal prom
By BABITA PERSAUD © St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2001 At this prom, Josh can wear the corsage. Alice can slow dance with Mary. Mark can date Bill. "You don't have to worry about people looking at you, staring at you," 19-year-old Michael Rogers said. This is Spectrum Ball 2001, a prom for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight students. It is organized independently of schools and will be held at Eckerd College on May 26. "The prom you never had," states the flier. Last year's event drew 150 students from 17 high schools in the Tampa Bay area. This year, 300 are expected. In many ways, the prom is like any other end-of-the-year celebration. There's a creative decorating committee that brainstormed and came up this year with the Renaissance theme. The hall will be decorated with cardboard castles and dragons. A tinsel curtain will hang over the entrance and silver stars from the ceiling. There will be punch, cookies, soda and chips, a disc jockey, a photographer, teachers and parents chaperoning, and a prom king and queen. But at this prom, there will also be a prom drag king and queen. Closer to the end of the night, which is about 1 a.m., there will be an amateur drag show with teenagers impersonating Britney Spears and Macy Gray. At this prom, you can dress in a tux or dress or you can come in costume. "We had fairies and angels last year," said Rogers, who was at St. Petersburg's Northeast High School last year and now is a student at St. Petersburg Junior College. Such a prom is necessary, students say, because, being gay in school -- even with gay clubs in schools, even with mainstream gay awareness -- is still tough. Rogers said he was called names, thrown against lockers and punched in the face in middle school. A prom is a heterosexual environment, the students say. At a prom for Clearwater's Countryside High School several years ago, the photographer had a hard time posing Mark Miller, now 20, and his male date, he said. At homecoming at St. Petersburg's Gibbs High, Zach Holladay, 16, said he was afraid to approach guys to dance. "But at a gay event, I know the guy won't punch me in the face if I do ask him to dance." At a gay prom, "I feel comfortable," Rogers said. "You can be yourself," said Alicia Baker, 17, who is bisexual and a student at Northeast High. This is the second year for the Spectrum Prom (spectrum meaning rainbow, a symbol for gay unity). Major cities such as Boston and New York have held similar events for the past 20 years. But in recent years, gay proms also are held in suburban settings. And not everyone is happy about it. "It is just outrageous that this stuff goes on in our culture," said David Caton, executive director of the Christian-based Florida Family Association. "By calling this a prom, they have attacked a traditional institution of our culture and degraded a very valued institution." Caton believes gay activist organizations are at work here. "This (prom) is being sponsored by adult people in the homosexual lifestyle," he said. "They are the ones who are bridging the adults' gay and lesbian community with the innocent teens in our schools. We have a code in our culture that is supposed to be protecting children." Among last year's chaperones were members of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), Face to Face and True Expressions, which are non-school organizations for gay youth. PFLAG donated $300 toward food and decorations; Equality Florida, a gay activist group in Tampa, another $400. (Students pay $10 at the door; $8 in advance.) The use of Fox Hall was provided by Eckerd College's gay and lesbian student organization, Pride. The desserts came from Let Them Eat Cake, a gay-owned bakery in Tampa. "We are supporting our children through a difficult part of their lives," said Kathy Miller of St. Petersburg, head of PFLAG, who took her gay son out of ninth grade because of threats. A gay prom gives teens a sense of identity and community, she said. "It's the best prom I've ever gone to," said Judy Terwilliger, a teacher at Boca Ceiga High in Gulfport who chaperoned last year. "The costumes were fun. The drag show was fun. Everyone had a good sense of humor. "How brave these gay students are," she said. "Teenagers don't want to come to school if there is a pimple on their face. These students are standing up and saying 'I'm gay.' " The students at last year's prom ranged in age from 14 to 26. Gay organizations from University of South Florida, Eckerd and SPJC also attended. About a fourth of the people there were straight, Rogers said. "I went with a group of friends," he said. "I had no lack of dancing partners, although all of them were girls, which is okay." The proms came about through the Gay Straight Alliance, which are school clubs, just like chess clubs, that have faculty advisers and meetings. The first club was formed at Largo High School in 1997 when three students approached then-assistant principal Harry Brown about being harassed in school. "We saw this not as a sex issue, but as a safety issue," said Brown, who is now at Northeast. There are GSA clubs at Blake, Dunedin, Lakewood, Gibbs, Boca Ceiga and Northeast, although at Northeast the club is called SGA -- Straight Gay Alliance. "We put 'straight' first because as soon as people see gay, they tune it out," Baker said. To network the clubs, PFLAG hired Scott Boykin. (He now works for the gay organization GLSEN but still coordinates GSA clubs.) Boykin held workshops outside school for GSA student leaders, and from those discussions, the prom was born. "At first I wanted to have a dance for Gibbs (students)," said Holladay, the Gibbs GSA leader. But students from other schools started chiming in, the 16-year-old said. "They wanted to be a part of it."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
