Labels in School, who needs them?
I have to agree with the Priest - encouraging labels for teens is taking the easy way out! Fr. Paul Scalia is a priest and the chaplin for Courage in the Archdiocese of Arlington. Son of Justice Antonin Scalia, he shares his father's gift for writing as evidenced by an excellent article in First Things entitled A Label That Sticks. I think he has touched on the crucial issue at stake concerning high school kids and sexual orientation.

Early labeling of one's sexual orientation by teenagers certainly doesn't agree with Catholic teaching on human sexuality, and for non-Catholics as well, doesn't make sense. A person is so much more than their sexual attractions, and all labels should be resisted. "Adolescents need to hear precisely this: People’s sexual inclinations do not determine their identity. Nor does every so-called “homosexual” feel attractions of the same character or to the same degree. Some have strong and lasting homosexual desires; for others, such desires are slight and passing. Lumping everyone together as having the same orientation or identity is a grotesque reduction of a complicated reality, and it massively damages the very people it claims to help."
He makes a great case against what is happening in the schools, and his whole brief (opps, article) should be read and digested.

- posted by Andy @ 4:43 PM