During my college graduation, I watched our class speaker announce to his parents - in front of a thousand or so people - that he was gay.

I watched every face in the field turn to see a mortified father and mother. To some students, this was an indictment of modern homophobia.

To me, it was voyeuristic window into a private family moment, an embarrassing ambush of two innocent people who just wanted to proudly witness their son speaking at his college graduation.

A few years later, the world would discover that you could make a buck from such things, and Jerry Springer's career took off. Yippee!

But I never forgot what a zealous group of students did to the solemnity of such an occasion.

Some people at Rockford College had a similar experience when a reporter from the New York Times (who would have figured?) tried to turn their graduation ceremony into an anitwar rally.

They, however, had the courage to boo the SOB off the stage.


- posted by total @ 5/21/2003 05:30:00 AM .