Ugh! This is so lame.
A bunch of homophobic Connecticut high school football players walked out of a Hartford Public High School performance of the musical Zanna Don’t after two male actors shared a “brief kiss” on stage.
The kiss must have been their breaking point considering the musical offers a bit of a heterosexual and homosexual role reversal.
Zanna Don’t depicts life at a fictitious high school where academically minded LGBT students run the hallways, while heterosexuals and jocks are instead picked on for being different.
Adam Johnson, principal of the school’s Government and Law Academy, described the incident by saying:
“There was a public walkout by a bunch of students (when the kiss happened) … mostly male. It was visually evident (due to the jerseys the team was wearing) that a lot of football players got up and walked out. It was almost a symbolic kind of thing.”
What’s great about this story is that — for once — the school officials gave FULL SUPPORT to the musical’s production in an effort to promote acceptance. Mr. Johnson knew about the kiss, but when asked if he wanted to remove it he said, “Absolutely not.”
Despite a mixed reaction from the community, a walkout, and a few visits from concerned parents along the way, Mr. Johnson thinks the production was a success.
“I think that we’re at a time in history where there is tremendous focus on bullying and the way students are treating each other, and how they are treated, in school. We have to teach students how to respect and honor each other. (The students) need to learn about the diversity of the world and respecting the rights of all people. (I’m) really glad that we did this program.”
So are we!
Although it will always be disappointing to us when people let prejudice cloud acceptance of their peers (not to mention the message they were too afraid to hear), it was well within those kid’s rights to walk out of the performance.
Let’s just hope the parts of Zanna Don’t that those upset students saw were enough to spark the wheels of change in their naive little minds!