Out!: A Review (Kind Of)

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing the Gunn choir's annual student/staff musical, a mish-mash of singing, acting, and even a bit of dancing. This year's iteration was "Out!", the tale of two gay teens in the fictional town of Decent, Oklahoma. Now, before I rip into it (as I am going to) allow me to say that the kids and teachers involved in putting it on did not write it; that dubious distinction goes to some people listed on the program whose names I do not recall. The performers were generally wonderful, especially the immensely talented leads and, surprisingly, the JLS Middle School Choir. So more power to them and keep up the good work.

But here's the thing: on principle alone, there's nothing wrong with a school musical supporting gay rights and aimed at empowering gay students who feel, as the play suggests, cast out. Of course, the bigotry of homophobia is an issue all PAUSD students are hit over the head with from the first day of Kindergarten through the last day of high school, from Not In Our Schools Week (which inevitably focuses year after year on anti-gay sentiment rather than racism or sexism) to random assemblies that would ostensibly seem to be completely unrelated to that topic.

Still, if we really wanted to add a musical to the growing list of pro-gay rights material put out by our school district and, more specifically and pertinently, our school, then as far as I'm concerned, we could have gone right ahead. I am as liberal as anyone else in these parts. I'm not going to put up a fight.

But that's exactly where the problem arises. Whoever wrote this (and whoever decided it would be appropriate for a school-sanctioned event) clearly realized that a vast majority of Palo Altans are like me. So why not just make the musical a three-hour-long jab at anyone and everyone who is not a wealthy neo-liberal in favor of gay marriage, world peace, and vegetarianism? No one will care, right?

The problem is, people do care. The musical, which hinges on the Oklahoman students rebutting their parents' bigoted, homophobic, traditionally Christian views to embrace their gay classmates, is right in at least one regard--kids do not usually want to be like their parents. In this case, as I've been pleased to find, a large majority of the student body has seen the musical as overstepping important boundaries, ones that are in place to make sure that everyone really is treated equally in our school.

"Out!" implies that anyone who thinks, talks, or acts differently than the stereotypical San Franciscan is ignorant and probably worthy of our contempt. Overly religious? Ew. That's so 1950s. Overly patriotic? Please. Screw America. Overly supportive of states rights and abiding by the Constitution? The real Tea Party was in the 1770s, loser. Time to move on.

The point is, making an intolerant musical about intolerance solves nothing, but does make many problems a lot worse. Everyone's favorite official school newspaper, The Oracle, has run at least one piece on conservative students feeling persecuted and ridiculed in Gunn's community. Quite frankly, they're totally right. We go to school at a place where chewing out people who don't believe in gay marriage is tacitly condoned, yet ragging on someone who does support it would be a punishable offense; in the eyes of administrators, it seems, hate is only hate when it is coming from a certain side of the aisle.

We live in a fiercely divided country, one in which each side won't stop whining about the other being wholly ignorant of its positions and values. For my whole life, I've always believed that it's the educated, liberal elite who know what they're talking about, and the conservative, Bible Belt super-patriots who don't. I still think that.

But the fact that the people who run our school saw fit to participate in and not call attention to a musical that stereotypes and discriminates against less liberal members of our own student body is a pretty strong indicator that us "academic elites" haven't quite figured out the whole common sense thing. A musical that purports to be for change but does nothing more than preach to the choir is of little use to anyone.