Bobservations

I don’t have a Carlos story this week because, to be honest, I haven’t been home an awful lot until Monday of this week, so I’ll share my first experience with an Airport Karen.

Flying home, I went from Portland to Atlanta—long flight—and arrived to find I had to take a train and a hike to my gate to catch the flight from Atlanta to Columbia. As I tend to book flights that have at least an hour layover I had the time and soon I was at the gate for my next flight. I sat down, took out a bottle of water and began to wait when a woman rushed up to the gate attendant shrieking that she’d missed her flight:

“They just closed the fucking gate! I was there and they closed the fucking gate! The plane is sitting right there and they won’t fucking let me on.”

When I say she was shrieking, think of what you believe to be shrieking and multiply it by a hundred. But the man at the gate simply said:

“Ma’am, go to the Delta counter and they will get you rebooked as quickly as possible. I cannot do anything right here.”

“NO! You are gonna give me a free flight. You’re gonna give me a free fucking shuttle to my house and get my luggage off that plane and onto the new flight—"

“Ma’am that plane is leaving. There’s no way I can get them—”

“Fuck that! Get me someone to talk to right now!”

“Ma’am. Go down to the Delta counter and they can get you on a flight and take care of your bags and any questions you may have. I cannot do that for you here.”

The woman looks around and sees me and shrieks:

“Do you hear this? He won’t even fucking help. Do you hear this?”

And I said:

“No, ma’am, all anyone can here is you screaming and cursing at him—”

“Fuck you, too.”

“Well, now, if I was interested in that, which I am not, I at least arrived at my gate in plenty of time to make my flight.”

“Fuck youuuuuuuuuuuu!!!”

And then she ran off through the airport.

This is a repost from August 2009:

“Trying to help with the laundry. He's such a good boy.”

I don’t know what it is about the laundry basket that made him crawl into; even if the clothes were still warm from the dryer or cool from sitting for hours, this was his spot.

Shout out to South Carolina Senators Katrina Shealy. Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn, Margie Bright Matthews, and Mia McLeod—three Republicans, one Democrat and one Independent—for standing up for women and their RIGHT to make their own healthcare choices.

Not all of these women are pro-choice but all know that men should not be telling women what they can do with their bodies.

Speaking of South Carolina, GOP Senator Tim Scott says he will make a “major announcement” on May 22 about his presidential bid.

And on May 23 we will all become acutely aware that he has no chance of ever being President.

The other day a co-worker said to me:

“Everyone thinks you’re a grumpy old bitch.”

I smiled and replied:

“Odd, because I Googled ‘Who gives a fuck’ and my name wasn’t in the search results.”

Don’t come for me peasants.

Dwyane Wade spent years living in Florida and playing basketball for the Miami Heat before retiring back in 2019. But now, as a supportive dad and advocate for his trans daughter, Zaya, Wade and his family have decided that a Florida under the thumb of the likes of Ron DeSantis is no place to live, so the Wade’s have packed up and moved away.

Too bad more people don’t follow suit.

What’s good for the floral goose is good for the floral gander … Nashville’s FLWR Shop is refusing to serve a Republican National Committee [RNC] fundraiser featuring Thing 45 in protest over lack of action on gun control laws.

FLWR Shop said it hopes to encourage other Nashville businesses to refuse money from the RNC “until they begin to make the changes to gun laws that most Americans are calling for.”

To be completely fair the Met Gala isn’t about fashion, it’s about costume and showmanship, and this year the winner, for me, is Janelle Monae.

The theme this year was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty and some interpreted that nicely, and some took it to the Jetsons and beyond. Amirite, Janelle? Bitch looked like a dolled-up Rosie the Robot in a look that transformed itself on the carpet. At first glance, it looked like a very ornate overcoat designed to keep the wind chill away but then a pair of handlers stopped in and began removing the coat to reveal that she was wearing essentially a sheer wireframe gown with glittery bikini beneath.

I do hope there was a third look, otherwise Ms. Monae would have been standing the entire night.

Last week classical music lovers headed to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic concert perform, among other things, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and apparently one member of the audience was so overcome with, er, joy, by the performance that she experienced a full body orgasm.

Journalist Jocelyn Silver was the first to break the news on Twitter and even claimed that the orchestra stopped playing as the woman screamed and moaned, but others say that while the orgasm was loud, the band played on.

That must be some horny musical movement, eh?

This is French singer, songwriter, social media influencer and model Manu Noraced. And while he clearly has many talents this is a simpler question: Would You Hit it?

Heather Green's Amazing Gender Reveal Idea

Heather Green really wanted to do the gender reveal photo that has become so popular lately, and so she posted a picture of her pregnant tummy in anticipation of the news.

And following that came a picture of her child, swaddled in a blanket that read:

“It’s a boy!”

But the boy in question wasn’t n infant, it was  Heather’s twenty-year-old son, Adrian Brown, who had just come out as trans. And Heather used his coming out to create the gender reveal photos for social media:

"When your child comes out as trans, the best thing to do is create a photo shoot to celebrate the fact that he silently and bravely stepped out of the race that he never wanted to be in, found his own lane and proceeded to win."

Adrian came out to his mother and his younger brother Lucas, last September and that’s when Heather Green came up with the idea of the gender reveal photo shoot, with blue balloons, glitter, the "It's a boy" sign, and a fake pregnancy belly to show support for her newest son.

And Heather Green loves the hoopla surrounding the reveal—her message has had more than 28,000 reactions and 15,000 shares:

"How could we not!!?? The transgender community is under attack by our president for goodness sake. These people who are transitioning are not receiving the honor and praise that they are due. The courage it takes to step out and live their truth while so many people are waiting to knock them down is amazing to me. I hope that by sharing our story, the transgender community will allow themselves to expect celebrations and that they will no longer feel that they are infringing on anyone else by sharing their journey."

Initially, Adrian Brown thought his mother’s photo shoot idea was kind of “corny” but also said she has a way of making things fun, so he went along:

“At first when my mom said she wanted to swaddle me in a blanket, I thought she was nuts. But then when we got going we had so much fun and laughed our way through all of my mom's strange ideas."

Green knew that outing her son might be  dangerous thing to do—about half of female-to-male adolescents have attempted suicide—but believes embracing the idea, and making a celebration of it, are the best ideas:

"I've had some great conversations and I hope that they will continue, no one should have to feel alone on this journey. Everyone has to transition, the individual and their friends and families."

Even more surprising, was the reaction of Heather’s younger son, Lucas:

"Without saying anything, [Adrian] pulled me into a tight, bone-crushing hug and held me. He proceeded to tell me that a trans boy at his school had come out to his parents after seeing our post. He had been considering suicide before coming out to them and because of our message he had the courage to tell them and found out that his parents were going to support them. He would not have had the courage had we not taken these photos."

This is the kind of family everyone needs, gay, straight, trans, bisexual; just love and understanding and all the help you could possibly need. Heather Green, Adrian and Lucas, are that family, and their example should be one for all of us.

Love and laughter.

USA Today

Anthony Dickerson Has To Be On His Best Behavior Before Donating A Kidney To His Son

What is wrong with people? Why, when a simple decision, a right decision, is in front of them, do some people take a step back to think about it? The right thing is always right.

A.J.  is two; he was born without kidneys. But a surgery that could save his life is being held up because of red tape and bureaucracy.

See, there is a donor of kidney for A.J. and he’s a perfect match because he happens to be A.J.’s father, Anthony Dickerson. And Anthony, who had always wanted a son, was ready to donate a kidney to his son until he was arrested for violating his probation last month on an original charge of possession of a firearm.

And that’s when the hospital decided to take a step back and rethink Anthony Dickerson’s offer. Oh, originally, Emory Hospital was fine with the situation, even asking the Gwinnett County Jail if Dickerson could be escorted to Emory for blood work and a pre-operative” but then, Dickerson claims, the hospital’s attitude changed once he was released from custody.

Now, the Living Donor Transplant Team at Emory wants evidence Anthony Dickerson is in compliance from his parole officer for the next three months; they say if Anthony Dickerson exhibits “good behavior” for the next three months, will re-evaluate his offer to donate a kidney to his own son.

So, basically, the man who is a perfect match to donate a kidney to his son, a man who wants to donate, who is ready to donate, who is in perfect health to donate, is being denied that option because he violated his parole. And Emory Healthcare will not answer questions about the case because of patient confidentiality; they have even refused to answer a question about how someone being arrested impacts the possibility of donating a kidney.

Naturally, Anthony Dickerson hopes his arrest doesn’t hurt his son's chances at living a normal life:

"What do he got to do with the mistakes I made? Nothing."

A.J. suffered a stroke two months ago, and now needs constant care and doctor's visits, but now he's being told to wait even though the perfect match has been found. The family now says their only option now is to get on the kidney transplant wait list, and that can take months, or even years.

Emory Hospital is risking the life of a child because, basically, they want to play the moral card: daddy committed a crime so he cannot donate a kidney? A child is suffering because they are asking for evidence of “good behavior”? What kind of fuckery is that? And, while I hate bringing race into it, I wonder, if A.J. was a little white boy in need of a kidney and his father, a perfect match, was a white man who violated his parole, would the story be the same?

I wonder ... and while Emory Hospital wants to wait and see, random strangers are reaching out to the family, calling the local news, contacting the hospital, to see if they’re a match for A.J. ...

This may sound crazy but if I could get in touch with this family, and if I were a match for this boy would it be possible to donate my kidney to him? As a gift so to speak? I would want nothing in return ...  I am a perfectly healthy 25-year-old female and it seems so silly and awful that this child could die because of the situation. I have a 3-year-old daughter and I can't imagine if it were my baby. I know I might not be a match but IF I were, I would want to do this...

I’m only 18 but after reading the toddlers story I feel like no child should have to suffer from mistakes one of their parents have made. I would love to help and see if I’m a match.

I would like to know how I can help the child by donating one of my kidneys.We recently came across your news article about 2-year-old, A.J., being denied a kidney transplant his father, Mr. Anthony Dickerson, is willing to donate to him and thought we may be of assistance to A.J. and his family. We have fought the good fight of justice for over 20 years and offer help and support to those who may not get heard otherwise. We are about community, what's right, and above all, justice for our clients. Our motto is "Not I But We!"

I am a 19-year-old college student in Missouri. I read your story on Carmella Burgess and her 2-year-old son and it weighed on my heart. I would like to get in contact with her to see if she would allow me to get tested to see if I am a match for a kidney transplant for her little boy.

I saw the report on the 2-year-old. We would be delighted to consider doing their surgery at the Texas Medical Center.

I live in Dayton, Ohio. I will be willing to donate a kidney to the 2-year-old boy if I am a match. I do not do any drugs, smoke any tobacco products, nor am I a felon/have a criminal record. The father and myself may be around the same age. If you and the family are willing or want to try to get the process going, you are more than welcome to contact me.”

Strangers are offering kidneys because a hospital wants Anthony Dickerson minds his manners for three months before they will allow him to donate a kidney to his son.

And who knows what might happen to A.J. during those ninety days ...

11 Alive

Monday Fun Day: Why I Love Adele, Reason # 6,278

I fell in love with Adele the first time I heard her sing.

I fell in love with Adele even more when I heard her speak.

I fell in love with Adele even harder when I heard her swear.

It grew when Adele had a baby boy and said:

“He makes me so proud of myself, and he makes me like myself so much. And I’ve always liked myself. I’ve never not liked myself. I don’t have hangups like that. But I’m so proud of myself that I made him in my belly. Cooked him in my belly and then he came out of me! This human who’s suddenly walking around and doing his own thing. I can’t wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be ..."

And now, I’ve fallen deeper in love with Adele because, recently, she and her partner, Simon Konecki, were in California and took their son, Angelo, to Disneyland … and allowed the boy to dress as Anna from Frozen.

I love Adele.

PS Angelo's face was obscured in most photos from that day, not out of shame, but because a little boy deserves some anonymity when is mum is one of the biggest music stars of the day.

LGBTQ Nation

A Worthy Celebration

Most newspapers have a “Celebrations” section to highlight weddings and anniversaries and births and such, but in a recent Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle the celebration was entirely different, but oh so lovely. This latest ad consisted of an announcement from unidentified parents saying their teenage son, “Drake,” had come out as gay: 

The parents of Drake are pleased to announce that their son has come out.

Drake is currently a senior in High School where he is the captain of the tennis team, ASB Vice President and NHS member.

He is a church deacon and enjoys film making and baking.

And, yes, he adores Barbra Streisand.

Of course, the Texas Observer picked up the story and did a little online investigating and found that "Drake" was Drake Wilson, a senior at Snohomish High School in Washington. And it was his mother, Joan Wilson, who placed the notice in the Celebrations section in response to the defeat of Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance [HERO] last fall:

“I couldn’t think of a better place than Houston, out of the entire country, where they needed to hear my message of pride. My announcement was my way of humanizing the issue. We are blessed to live in a state [Washington] which has passed anti-discrimination laws. As a mother, I have much trepidation in thinking my son might one day live in a state such as Texas.” — Joan Wilson

Joan says her son was created by God, and was born gay, and as soon as he came out to her, back in February 2014, she launched The Society of Lucky Mothers, a group that celebrates LGBT children.

As they should be until the time when LGBT children are no longer targeted and bullied and picked on and put down, but are celebrated like all children.

Even in Houston.

Texas Observer

A Letter from the Mother of a Gay Son

You know, with all that’s going on in the news, like the GOP still holding on to an outdated notion — if they ever read a poll they’d know this — that if they campaign on Hate The gays they’ll get elected, and with people and politicians who Hate The Gays lining up to support a Good Christian Boy who likes to diddle little girls and his sisters,, it’s can be hard out here for a queer.

But then I saw this letter, written fifteen years ago by one Sharon Underwood from White River Junction, in which she expresses her anger at those so-called Christians and hypocrites who inflicted pain on her gay son, and so many other gay sons and daughters, bisexual sons and daughters, trans sons and daughters.

I kinda needed to hear this today:

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I’ve taken enough from you good people.

I’m tired of your foolish rhetoric about the “homosexual agenda” and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called “fag” incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn’t bear to continue living any longer, that he didn’t want to be gay and that he couldn’t face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don’t know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn’t put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it’s about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won’t get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don’t know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you’d best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I’m puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that’s not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I’ll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for “true Vermonters.”

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn’t give their lives so that the “homosexual agenda” could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn’t the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can’t bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.

You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about “those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing” asks: “What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?”

Indeed, sir, whatever happened to that?

Yeah, that about sums it up. Have a great weekend, y’all.

Deep South Daily

Photo by Jamiecat (Flickr/cc)

A Different Kind Of Birth Announcement

Quite possibly the best birth announcement ever, and definitely the most beautiful.

Kai was born in 1995 as Elizabeth, but at age 19 his parents printed a retraction of that nearly two decades old announcement and replaced it with a new one.

"A retraction - Bogert

In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget, Elizabeth Anne, as a daughter.

He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops!

Our bad. We would now like to present our wonderful son Kai Bogert.

Loving you is the easiest thing in the world.

Tidy your room.”

:::sniff sniff::

via HuffPo

It's Just Six Minutes ....

I was strolling around the interwebz this morning as I do, and stumbled across this video at Reluctant Rebel, with the post title ‘Watch This – It Is Worth Six Minutes of Your Time.’ But Carlos was making breakfast and I didn’t have the six minutes — Seriously? I didn’t have six minutes? — so I closed the page. 

But after breakfast, I saw the link again and while I debated in my head whether to spend six minutes on one thing, I mean, sheesh that’s like a lifetime these days, I clicked on it and was very glad that I did.

This is Debi Jackson, the mother of a transgender child, telling her story, her child’s story, and everyone needs to hear it … even if it does take six minutes.

Ms. Jackson, not at all what one might consider the typical transgender ally, has become the most fierce of advocates, even going so far as the create a website for parents of transgender and gender nonconforming children: Trans-Parenting.

But, before visiting the site, if you have another few minutes to spare, take the six minutes to listen to Debi speak; listen to her tell her story, her daughter’s story, and tell you what you need to know about transgender, what it is, how it is, that it simply ‘is’.

Amazing. Now watch. It’s just six minutes but it could change your view and your mind.

I Like Her! I Really Like Her!!

Sally Field has a gay son, and she’s a proud mother of a gay son. So, in an effort to help the Human Rights Campaign raise $150,000 to combat those ridiculous “religious liberty” — AKA ‘Don’t Serve The Gays — bills around the country, Sally wrote and open letter about her son:

The three things I’m most proud of in my life are my sons, Peter, Eli and Sam. They are kind, loving and productive people. Each with their own list of talents and accomplishments.

Sam is my youngest son, by 18 years, and he’s gay. To that, I say: So what? Growing up, Sam wanted desperately to just be like his older brothers – athletic, rambunctious and even a little bit macho. He wanted to beat Eli at tennis, trounce Peter at computer football and learn everything about every basketball player on the court. But Sam was different. And his journey to allow himself to be what nature intended him to be was not an easy one. When I saw him struggling, I wanted to jump in. But his older brothers held me back. They told me I couldn’t travel that road for Sam. It was his to travel, not mine. I had to wait for him to own himself in his own time. I could make it easier only by standing visibly to the side, clearly loving him, always being there and always letting him know.

Finally, at 20, long after he beat his brothers at tennis and computer games and knew as much as anyone about basketball, Sam was able to stand up proudly and say, “I am a gay man.”

One of the great privileges of my life to have been allowed to be a part of Sam’s journey.

There are people out there – organizations and politicians, strangers who have never even met Sam – who would rather devote themselves to denying his happiness.

Why would anyone want to prevent my son — or anyone’s son or daughter — from having basic legal safeguards like family medical leave, Social Security survivors benefits, or health insurance? It doesn’t make any sense — but it won’t change until people speak out. I’m proud to stand with HRC to add my voice. Will you join me?

Whether you are LGBT yourself, a parent or grandparent of an LGBT child, or just a great person with strong convictions about what’s fair and right, I hope I’ve convinced you to stand with HRC for equality. You’ll be glad you did!’

 I’d only add that if you are a mother, or father, brother, sister, son, daughter, even friend, to a person who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or even questioning their orientation, take a page from Sally field’s book: be there, be supportive, love them.

It’s a hard enough road to travel alone, but when you have support along the way it makes the struggle a bit more worthwhile.

source

My Heart Is Broken: Joe Bell Died Last Night

I first wrote about Jadin Bell back in January, 2013. He was 'Another One;' one of our LGBT youth that was bullied and terrorized so horribly that he took his own life rather than endure one more day of torture. See that post HERE.

In April 2013, I posted about Jadin's father, Joe Bell, who was undertaking a walk across America to both honor his son and to raise money for anti-bullying campaigns and awareness of the bullying epidemic in this country. See that post HERE. It was like a ray of light; maybe I wouldn't have to do 'Another One.'

Jadin Bell

In July 2013, I posted again [see that post HERE] about Joe Bell's walk, and the people he'd met and the stories he'd heard; and the struggles he was having on the walk due to having had two knee surgeries, and having two artificial knees. But he would walk in memory of Jadin.

Joe founded an organization, Faces For Change, for money and education and awareness. He was doing all he could to use his own tragedy for something good, to try and make sure no other parent had to hear the news that their child had committed suicide because of bullying.

And now ... this:

Joe Bell was killed last night along U.S. Highway 40 in Cheyenne County, Colorado, when a semi-truck driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and hit him. The driver, Kenneth Raven, who was not injured, was cited with careless driving resulting in death.

The walk is over. A post on the Faces For Change Facebook page announced Bell's death Thursday morning:

"Thank you so much for all of your continued support. He loved everyone he came into contact with, and was so appreciative of all your support. … He will continue his journey now with Jadin. Please keep his family in your prayers and thoughts." 

He's Another One, now.

My heart breaks for his family.

RIP Joe Bell, for you were an amazing father while you were with us.

via The Advocate

A Boy In Norwood Colorado Is Raped And The Town Blames Him

Boys will be boys.

Last year, at the Colorado state high-school wrestling tournament, three upperclassmen from Norwood cornered a 13-year-old boy on an empty school bus, bound him with duct tape and sodomized him with a pencil. Two of the attackers were sons of Robert Harris, the wrestling coach, who was president of the school board. The victim's father was the K-12 principal.

For the boy and his family, that was only the beginning because that boy who was attacked, the victim, suddenly became the target. After his father, the school principal, reported the incident to police, the good people of Norwood forced him to resign. And fort that boy, school became hell. Students put "Go to Hell" stickers on his locker and proudly wore T-shirts that supported the perpetrators.

"Nobody would help us. We contacted everybody and nobody would help us." —The Principal, who asked not to be named to protect his son

Norwood sits high in the Rockies, a six-hour drive from Denver, and it is so small that its 300 students, from preschool through 12th grade, attend classes in a single building. The high school football team has just eight players instead of the usual 11, but the glass cases in the school's hallways show off sports trophies celebrating decades of triumphs from basketball to cheerleading.

"Pain is temporary" reads a poster on the wall. "Pride is forever." Apparently.

In 2011, Norwood won the state wrestling championship, and the following year they were back to defend their title. The team and the coaches boarded a bus to Denver for the tournament, while the principal and other school officials drove separately to cheer on the team.

The principal's wife grew up in Norwood; she met her future husband when he moved to town as a high school senior and they dated while in college. In 2000, they returned to Norwood and the boy’s father worked for the school for 10 years, first teaching computer science and auto repair, and then serving as principal for two years.

"We always thought it was a great area to raise kids. They were really happy kids, liked going to school, straight-A students."—The Principal

And their 13-year-old son was one of those kids, and he was especially good at sports. He started Pee Wee wrestling at age 3 and became a wizard  sports trivia, but in the months before the state championship, where everything changed, his mother become concerned that he was being teased at school.

In February 2012, the boy rode the bus to Denver as the team manager, in charge of videotaping the older high school students at the meet. When the coaches and wrestlers left the bus to weigh in, those three upperclassmen, those three rapists, pinned him down, bound him with the tape, pulled down his pants and assaulted him.

Right before the start of the meet, the boy’s older brother heard the rapists laughing about the assault on his brother and he told his father.

"I was shocked beyond belief, and I was mad. I do believe I was madder than I have ever been. You're trying to protect your kids, and then something like this happens."—The Principal

The father found his son, who confirmed the attack, and then he confronted Coach Harris—remember, two of Harris’ sons were involved in the assault—and Harris said nothing happened. In follow-up conversations, however, Coach Harris said, "This happens 1,000 times a day around the U.S."

The principal notified Norwood's superintendent and the school board's vice president, both of whom were in Denver. Given his personal involvement in the case, the principal agreed to step aside from any discussion of discipline and did not go to the police that night because he believed school officials would handle the incident properly.

Back in Norwood, Superintendent David Crews imposed a one-day, in-school suspension on the three rapists, and neither Crews nor the school board reported the incident to police; under Colorado law, any school official or employee who has reason to suspect a child has been abused should immediately report the matter to police or social services.

The principal complained to the school board about the punishment and, a month after the attack on his son, realizing that there would be no real punishment of the three rapists, he informed the police.

"I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. When you take on, first, a powerful family in the town—and he is also the school board president, and his kid had done something wrong—there is going to be something coming back at you."—The Principal

And while this lack of punishment was going on, that young boy would walk the halls at school while students taunted him with, 'What's been stuck up your butt today?" And, of course, these shining examples of the future took to Facebook, telling this young boy to, 'Rot in hell, liar!’

And then the students’ parents got involved.

Jennifer Long, an idiot, obviously, and a waitress at a diner in Norwood: "When I was in school there might have been bullying, but there was none of this crap about telling the school. How you going to be tough if you don't get bullied sometimes?"

Her husband, James Eilmann, who shares with his wife a lack of active brain cells, agrees: "I got bullied as a kid because I had long hair and earrings. I played football, baseball and soccer and the older kids bullied me. But we always shook hands and it would be over with. But today, you can get prosecuted. It has all gone too far."

I guess James Eilmann would have just been raped by three older boys and kept his mouth shut.

Frustrated by the 'protect-the-rapists' attitude of the town, and the lack of interest by school officials, the principal finally reported the incident to the Denver police. The police sent investigators to Norwood and on April 23 they arrested the three boys, charging them as juveniles with kidnapping, sexual assault and false imprisonment.

On news of the arrests, the town went crazy; oh not because three rapists had been arrested, but because three wrestlers, who’d brought home a trophy for those glass cases, had been arrested. The parents demanded the school board dismiss the principal.

"It should have been left alone. It should have been handled through the system here. If you publicize it, it gets blown out of proportion."—Sheldon Cline, a 54-year-old electrician.

Makes one wonder how Cline would have handled his son, or, god forbid, his daughter, being raped on a school bus.

But one person, Marie Fouche, a substitute teacher, defended the principal at the school board meetings: "It seemed the whole town was against the victim and his father. It was all about punishment and not helping."

Helping. Like the way Jessica Bicknase helped. See, after the arrests, she was identified as the mother of one of the accused, so she paid to print T-shirts that bore a slogan using the initials of the suspects. A dozen students wore the Bicknase T-shirts to school and someone posted a sign with the same wording on the locker of the victim's brother. These students told police they wanted to support their friends, the rapists.

Jessica Bicknase declined to comment. She should have declined to be a mother all those years ago if this kind of behavior from her own child is somehow acceptable to her.

Police officers, after speaking to those students, went to their parents to warn them against intimidating the 13-year- old; the parents demanded to know what the police would be doing about the victim’s father, you know, since he started all this.

After the T-shirt incident, the principal decided to stop sending his son to school, and instead brought his assignments home: "My son was the outcast. He was made to feel like he was the one who caused the whole thing."

Late last year, one of the accused pleaded guilty to sexual contact without consent; the other two pleaded guilty to third-degree assault. They each received varied sentences that included probation, community service and restitution of about $2,500 apiece. For raping a young boy.

The principal's contract was up for renewal and after extensive negotiations involving lawyers from both sides, the board renewed his contract, but put him on paid leave while it reached a settlement. He has decided to take another job, at another school for half the pay, some two hundred miles away.

Coach Harris was reappointed Norwood's wrestling coach, though he was given a letter of reprimand for leaving students unsupervised on the bus.

The principal's son, now 14, is doing better at his new school. He joined the wrestling team and just finished an undefeated season. He's now starting to play football and do weightlifting.

"Maybe it was a wake-up call to get our kids out of that kind of community where people behave that way."—The boy’s mother.

Boys will be boys.

Taunting and teasing and bullying; we’ve become inundated with stories of students being teased and bullied, sometimes to death, by their fellow students, and we say we won’t stand for it.

In Norwood, Colorado, though, the parents not only believe that bullying is some sort of character building movement, they believe that a boy who has been raped by three older boys is not a victim, but a criminal.

How lovely.

A few stats on hazing:

• More than 40 high school boys were sodomized with foreign objects by their teammates in over a dozen alleged incidents reported in the past year, compared with about three incidents a decade ago.
• Boys were raped with a broken flagpole outside Los Angeles
• Boys were raped with a metal concrete-reinforcing bar in Fontana, California
• Boys were raped with a jump-rope handle in Greenfield, Iowa
• Boys were raped with a water bottle in Hardin, Missouri
• 4,000 sexual assaults occur each year inside U.S. public schools, as well as 800 rapes or attempted rapes
• At New York's elite Bronx High School of Science, three teenage track-team members were arrested after a freshman teammate alleged they repeatedly hazed him, holding him down and sodomizing him with their fingers.
• In at least four cases of sodomy hazing last year, the coach or supervising teacher was alleged to have known about it, ordered it, witnessed it or laughed about it, according to police reports and court filings.
• At Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, varsity soccer players allegedly "rewarded" new teammates by holding them down and sodomizing them with sticks and their fingers, while coaches did nothing to intervene, according to court documents and police reports. After witnessing an attack on a 16-year-old in July, varsity coach Michael DiVincenzo allegedly congratulated the victim and asked him "if it was all good." During a freshman drill, he was alleged to have told players they would be sodomized by the varsity team if they failed to communicate effectively, according to a police report. DiVincenzo was arrested last month on misdemeanor charges of hazing, battery and failure to report child abuse. The Maine West school board voted to fire DiVincenzo.

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