By Barbara Morrison
News Editor

Westford has a tolerance issue. As much as it is concealed, dismissed despite lip service given to “tolerance” in the Westford Academy mission statement, and denied because- we’re Westford, and therefore we’re perfect – it is there.

As a queer student and Gay-Straight Alliance co-president, I have seen things, small things, build and build, one incident after another, until we have reached a breaking point. The student body has shown that even if they fail to be overwhelmingly accepting, they are tolerant. The administration has pledged to support us, and I thank them. Our community now needs to follow suit and stop living in the past.

Some say they do not see intolerance in Westford. Perhaps it simply doesn’t affect them enough to look for it. It is there in the way anti-gay slurs are thrown around the hallways and classrooms without regard.

It becomes further apparent to queer students and their allies while they sit in health classes discussing sexuality, relationships, and families, without anyone acknowledging the existence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Despite the administration’s best efforts to support us, they have to battle constantly with parent complaints and the greater community’s resistance. When the queer community and the GSA try to speak up, or even not speak at all with a non-disruptive Day of Silence, we are told we are speaking too loudly, speaking too often, or “forcing our views on others.” Westford’s tolerance issue is the driving force behind complaints that discussions about discrimination and homophobia have no place in our schools.

This is not a debatable issue. This is not about politics or personal opinions- it is about basic human decency.

The American Psychiatric Association has declared all attempts to “rehabilitate” queer people unethical, therefore recognizing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people as legitimate. In addition, we live in a state that has decreed that it is also illegal to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. Westford Academy, as well, has declared in its mission statement that “Westford Academy in collaboration with home and community… foster[s] tolerance.”

I cannot demand acceptance from you.

Accepting someone is a highly personal issue, but tolerance is not.

Tolerance, in this state, is law. Westford cannot continue brushing us under the rug, pretending we do not exist, and trying to drown us out. The Westford community must wake up to the present and confront its tolerance issue.