Link 'Cross-Dressing' Out, Camouflage In Nov 18, 9:47 AM (ET) HOUSTON (Reuters) - Camouflage was in and cross-dressing was out at a rural East Texas school district after a Christian legal group complained a long-standing school tradition of reversing social roles for a day would promote homosexuality. Students in Spurger, Texas were encouraged by school officials to wear camouflage hunting gear to class on Wednesday after they called off their annual "TWIRP Day" in which boys dressed as girls and vice versa. The cross-dressing tradition began some years back as a kind of Sadie Hawkins Day where girls ask boys to go out on dates. TWIRP stands for "The Woman Is Requested To Pay." But Delana Davies, who has two children in the Spurger school, complained this year that the tradition could promote homosexuality and got the Liberty Legal Institute, a right-wing Christian legal group, to take up the cause. "It might be fun today to dress up like a little girl -- kids think it's cute and things like that. And you start playing around with it and, like drugs, you do a little here and there (and) eventually it gets you," Davies told reporters. "It is outrageous that a school in a small town in east Texas would encourage their 4-year-olds to be cross-dressers," institute litigation director Hiram Sasser said. He sought and obtained permission from the district for the woman's children to stay out of school for the day. School attorney Tanner Hunt told Reuters the Liberty group misrepresented TWIRP Day and made it sound sinister when it has always been innocent fun. "I guarantee you nobody on the school board or in the administration ever had that cross their minds," Hunt said of the "cross-dressing" reference. Sasser said it was not his intent to disparage the school. "The district gets mad every time I say 'cross-dress,' but I don't know what other way to describe it," he told Reuters. Because of the controversy, school officials decided to change Wednesday from TWIRP Day to Camouflage Day, in what Hunt described as a reference to the clothing hunters wear during deer-hunting season, which is going on now and is enormously popular in rural Texas. Despite the change from TWIRP Day, Hunt said some of the students stuck to the old tradition and wore clothes of the opposite sex. "I understand from the superintendent that some of the boys dressed in pink shorts anyway," he said.
Yeah I can see how snorting coke and wearing a skirt can be a fair comparison. Please tell me this is an isolated incident and that people really aren't this stupid.
isolated incident. people aren't really this stupid. my bet is this is like 5 people making noise...and they're just very loud and very ridiculous, so it's newsworthy.
Just dress up like a girl a couple times and your sexual orientation will change!!! If this were true wouldn't all the gay men that dress like straight men turn straight, and the gay women that dress like straight women become straight?
It's time for a constitutional amendment banning cross-dressing! That way we won't need a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage!
Hmm...how can this lady equate cross dressing, with homosexuality, and drugs. it makes absolute no sense. and she would prefer her children to wear hunting camoflauge?? you would rather your child kill something then dress up as a girl? sad sad people
What's funny is that there are plenty of crossdressers who aren't even gay. Ed Wood is spinning in his grave.
it is kinda sad and scary that these people have reproduced already but ignorance and hate is the new 'in' thing I guess
If all it takes is cross dressing to make your son gay... then you might as well let him discover his sexuality, since that is obviously where his preference lies.
I think this makes perfect sense... Dressing as the opposite gender can only confuse fragile childrens minds...and turn them gay. Whereas a celebration of wearing clothing designed to allow you to remain invisible and kill someone or something from ambush with a high powered rifle is something the whole family can get behind!!!!
"Now this is all about how in Texas you can mix live ammunition and alcohol and call it a family outing!" -Pat Green
It was the cross dressing that was the problem. It was the way it was treated. The guys were showing up with fake boobs and going up and down the halls flashing people and feeling themselves up. The district in question is small and most of the grade levels were mixed (meaning all grade levels are in the same building). I don't know about you but I would prefer my 4 year old not exposed to those types of behaviors. The school district were I work has in the past had a Cross gender contest. The guys dressed like girls and had a "beauty Pagent" while being escorted by girls dressed as guys. Most people in the district, myself included, did not have a problem with the concept. However, after last years competition the HS principal said there will never be another one. One student that participated did a mock strip tease, and another did a modified pole dance. The students had to submit their character names before the show and all were approved by the coordinators. They were each introduced by their escorts and when they were 2 of them used lewd, unapproved, names. All of this took place in front of an audience made up of people of all ages. The students were warned and reprimanded, but the event for future groups has been canceled. My biggest complaint in all this is the attitude people take towards people that complain. It has been evident already in this thread. As soon as someone complains about something everyone is quick to jump on the bandwagon and say bah those people are crazy, or those people are gay bashers. A lot of people want their opinions respected but when another person gives an oposing view they are the first to jump in and say "Well, what makes your opinion correct" and, "You're just a nut." As a parent I have every right to want my child protected from things I don't agree with, or think they need to see or experience, as did the lady in Spurger. To clear up a few things not mentioned in the article above. It was only one lady. She originally asked that her kids be excused for the day, and the school could keep the theme as it was. She was denied and told that an absence would be unexcused. After being denied this she contacted a group of lawyers, who contacted the school and got the theme changed.
Travel like a king Listen to the inner voice A higher wisdom is at work for you Conqering the stumbling blocks come easier When the conqueror is in tune with the infinite Every ending is a new beginning Life is an endless unfoldment Change your mind, and you change your relation to time You can find the answer The solution lies within the problem The answer is in every question Dig it? An attitude is all you need to rise and walk away Inspire yourself Your life is yours It fits you like your skin The oak sleeps in the acorn The giant sequoia tree sleeps in its tiny seed The bird waits in the egg God waits for his unfoldment in man Fly on, children Play on You gravitate to that which you secretly love most You meet in life the exact reproduction of your own thoughts There is no chance, coincidence or accident In a world ruled by law and divine order You rise as high as your dominant aspiration You descend to the level of your lowest concept of your self Free your mind and your ass will follow The infinite intelligence within you knows the answers Its nature is to respond to your thoughts Be careful of the thought-seeds you plant in the garden of your mind For seeds grow after their kind Play on, children Every thought felt as true Or allowed to be accepted as true by your conscious mind Take roots in your subconscious Blossoms sooner or later into an act And bears its own fruit Good thoughts bring forth good fruit Bull**** thoughts rot your meat Think right, and you can fly The kingdom of heaven is within Free your mind, and your ass will follow Play on, children Sing on, lady
Conceded, I figured there was more to the article and no I wouldn't condone that kind of behavior around my child either. Again I agree with you, but from her quote and your input that hey they're elementary kids, made it sound like they were more likely to be "infleunced" because of dressing up in the opposite genders clothing. Which IMO is ludicrous. However if what you're really upset by is the side effects of this dressing up, like stripper polls and lewd behavior than yeah I can see why a parent would want to prevent their kids from participating or being around it. Spurger is sounds like was more afraid of her child becoming more prone to turning gay. You Castor I can agree with but Spurger is a nut.
So, we should allow parents to demand excused absences for everything they disagree with? How about when evolution is taught, all creationist kids should get an excused absence that day? If that was all she was concerned about, she should've just accepted the unexcused absence.
