In the information age, getting invited to speak pretty much anywhere increasingly carries the burdens of running for office: just about anything you’ve ever said or done publicly will get dredged up and put on the internet, and possibly result in your ass getting uninvited. Be careful out there, gang.
A Virginia high school asked gay mystery writer Greg Herren to speak, then cancelled his appearance after “revelations” that he’d written gay erotica and edited collections like “Full Body Contact: Sexy, Sweaty Men of Sport,” (which the football team found particularly disturbing, no doubt). Here, the Virginian-Pilot congratulates themselves for figuring this irrelevancy out after the fact, while the Virgina Times-Dispatch notes that the ACLU is interested, not just because adults who write about sex clearly do have the capacity to speak to teenagers about something non-sexual, but because the school’s GSA (the Gay-Straight Alliance) is apparently not allowed to use its full name in its posters or explain the club’s function (that it’s open to kids who are gay, straight or questioning).
(No word yet on how the kids who’ve been under the impression that they’ve been attending the Golf-Swimming Alliance all this while are reacting.)
(Links via Bookslut)