On Monday, I wrote about the theory that 14 is a key age for determination of musical tastes. Of course, all of one’s teen years are musically memorable. Fourteen is just the start of it. Personally, I have a lot of love for the music of 1983, when I was 15 (Kajagoogoo!). Then, in 1985, when I was 17, one of the albums I was fixated on was Bronski Beat’s Age of Consent. (I wrote about it in a 2009 blog post on albums that changed my life.) I loved singer Jimmy Somerville’s falsetto and the album’s gay-rights message. I loved Age of Consent so much that I hand-wrote a review of it for my high school paper. Guess what? That essay turned up in a pile of papers my parents gave me while cleaning out my childhood home. The blue writing is mine, the red writing is a teacher’s. Please pardon the use of the word “preferences” (that’s what we said/thought back then in small towns) and the awfully stilted writing. Damn! I guess I wasn’t a child prodigy after all!
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In case you can’t decipher the handwriting, the teacher decided that my essay was “questionable to use” due to the paragraph about Bronski Beat’s out and proud homosexuality. The teacher’s notation on that paragraph reads “rather not!” Seeing the review again, I found this reaction remarkable enough, but what really blew my mind was the typed letter attached to my review. GeorgeB — my right-of-center, Republican father — protested to the school system’s supervisor of curriculum. His letter reads in part:
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The letter ends: “Students have the right to express themselves, as do all citizens of this country.” Wow! A round of applause for GeorgeB, please! He must have been thinking, “Where did this child come from?” but he stood up for me anyway. Another interesting fact is that the review and letter are both dated May 1985, a month before my high school graduation. Instead of indulging in senioritis, I was looking for a fight. (I do suspect that I knew exactly what reaction my Bronski Beat review would get.)
I was reminded of all of this by a great video that’s gone viral on teh Internets in the past couple of days. Last month, in Berlin, a street musician was singing Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” when Jimmy Somerville himself came along and joined in.
I die! And the way the musician asks Jimmy, “Is it you?” makes my day.
You just never cease to amazing me my beautiful friend! I love everything about this post, I applaud you AND GeorgeB! Go GrandrapstaG!! I also adored Bronski Beat… must have played Smalltown Boy a bizillion times!
I definitely thought I was a misunderstood gay boy back then. LOL.
Mahwah HS was so conservative that I felt like a liberal and almost voted democratic. That still gives me the shakes. I do remember the library censorship article. They thought it was about their library. Heck, they only had two books.
Thanks for doing the right thing, Dad! <3 xoxoxo
I always found it strange that high school newspapers always censored in such weird ways. At my high school the same reaction would have happened if you had turned in this review. Yet, people having extreme views and stirring the pot in the student newspaper in trying to defend female team members not being allowed to have a celebration of winning the city basketball tournament at assembly but celebrating the men placing third, was allowed to be published. It makes me glad that I am no longer in high school.
I would question the sanity of anyone who longed for his/her high school days! 😀
That Bronski Beat album was one of my favorites too! Love that GeorgeB went to bat for you.
Yay, GeorgeB!
This was just brilliant! TFS
Really put a smile on my face. Plus I just love that song and was a bit obsessed with Bronski Beat myself.
It is wild looking back on your paper like that. As Canadians we are much more Liberal minded and I doubt that anything of the sort would have happened here. I remember kids in my school that were openly gay at the time and it wasn’t a big deal.
bisous
Suzanne
Always good to meet another Bronski fan!
Censorship of any type is one of my pet peeves. I think it’s pretty awesome that you were able to recognize that in high school and even more that your parents supported you.
I belong to a really cool book club called Books & Beer. We meet at the local Irish pub, drink beer and discuss the month’s selection.
We did a theme this past summer, called the Summer of Banned Books. We live in a very rural part of Florida (don’t even have a bookstore in the county). We put out press releases and the local fish wrap ran them each month, and a great reporter did a well-written article after our September meeting.
I think even in 2013 we still have to keep the awareness up front and out loud.
I’ve avoided book clubs like the plague but if there were beer involved … hmmm….
I love your summer theme!
You’d love it! As all good clubs do, we have a motto:
“We may not finish the book, but we always finish our beer!”
Excellent motto!
Even from your HS days, you were destined to be associated with ProPublica. Three cheers for the Brandes/Steiger alliance!
We’re all about the 1st Amendment here.
Love it all!!
& I also love that the anti-spam word was Barbados, my favourite place x
Me too and I haven’t been there in so long!
THREE CHEERS FOR YOUR FATHER (even though he is a republican — lol)!
You know things are bad when even the right wing is angry!
you shit stirrer! And yays for Dad!
Always a troublemaker.
I didn’t know about any of this. Must’ve been busy reading old hate letters. Pretty impressive dad! He takes on idiot rabbis and stupid high school teachers!
I’m going to have to email you about the rabbi story!
Love it all.
🙂
Bravo to your father!
For some reason, this makes me want to re-watch Orlando for a hit of Jimmy Sommerville!
Been thinking of that movie for a while now!
I am in love with your father! How wonderful of him to take the time to write that note!
Hugs, Cluny
Uh-oh, mom is going to get jealous! 😉
Great post, go Dad! Censorship is a major peeve of mine, told off a 5th grade principal who was trying to censor Gwensday’s reading — at that age shouldn’t they be thrilled the kid was not only reading but reading at a high school level? Asshats. The video at the end was the icing on a great post! I too loved how he asked “Is it you?” XXX
Ridiculous trying to censor a kid’s reading!
Agreed, besides shouldn’t they have been more worried about the kids who didn’t read at their age level or worse, couldn’t read at all? We all know how those kids slip through the system & that should’ve been her concern, not a kid reading well above her grade reading level. Ugh. Censorship, I can truly say its something I HATE. (And I don’t use the word hate often!) Still blown away by the letter your father wrote, he really told them!