On Thursday I went to an event sponsored by the USC Women’s Student Assembly, a screening of a documentary called The Education of Shelby Knox, about a teenage girl (the eponymous Shelby Knox) in Lubbock, Texas who was raised in a conservative religious household but is driven by her conscience to become an advocate for sex education and later gay rights. The Lubbock schools, which teach abstinence-only, of course have more teen pregnancy and STDs than almost anywhere in the country. The film opens with a funny epigram (didn’t catch who said it) along the lines of, “Growing up in Lubbock taught me two things: 1) God is love, and you’re going to burn in hell, and 2) Sex is the most evil, sinister thing in the world, and you should save it for someone you love.” The film shows interviews with various citizens of Lubbock, and some of the things they say are just appalling beyond belief. It makes Children of the Corn look like a documentary. The most moving scene is when the gay students stand strong against vicious religious bigots carrying shockingly disgusting signs like “AIDS Cures Fags” and “Matthew Shephard: Five Years in Hell.” The gay students, by contrast, carry signs like “Hate is Tacky.” Shelby carries a sign that says, “God loves everyone, even these crazies.” I have lived long enough to know that any true story involving moralism crusaders will inevitably involve the crusaders being exposed as a rank hypocrites, abject slaves to the impulses they claim to combat. In this case, it turned out that the head of the school board, who refused to even consider a sex ed program because it would “encourage” sexual activity, was caught using school computers to send messages to his secretary offering her $500 if she’d strip naked in his office during school hours. After the film, the actual Shelby Knox appeared to answer questions, along with representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Feminist Majority Foundation. The person from Feminist Majority looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t imagine where I might have met her. After half an hour it suddenly came to me — I’d met her at my cousin’s apartment my first week in L.A. Small world.
Geeks Guide to the Galaxy
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast hosted by author David Barr Kirtley and produced by Lightspeed Magazine editor John Joseph Adams. The show features conversations about fantasy & science … Read more
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