10-Year-Old Ark. Boy Leads Pride Parade--and Sparks National Debate
0The choice of 10-year-old Will Phillips to lead this year's Pride parade in Fayetteville, Arkansas, may seem natural enough, given young Will's headline-making principled stand for equal rights for all Americans. The young man has been honored on previous occasions for his commitment to civil rights, having also been the recipient of a Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) media award for an appearance he made with his father on CNN.
But one anti-gay group has politicized Will and his civil rights leadership by declaring him to be a "brainwashed" child and urging the town's mayor to cancel the event.
Moreover, the anti-gay American Family Association has declared that for Will to be honored as a grand marshal of the parade is a form of "child abuse."
"It's shameful that adults would abuse a brain-washed child in this way," said the president of the anti-gay group, Tim Wildmon, in a press release on the Pride parade. "He's obviously just parroting the nonsense he's been told by manipulative adults. For gay activists to trot out this child and make him the poster child for promoting unnatural sexual expression is a form of child abuse."
Wildmon's remarks were quoted in a June 24 article posted at anti-gay religious site WorldNetDaily. The article said that Wildmon wrote to Fayetteville's mayor, Lioneld Jordan, to call for the cancellation of the event, which the AFA characterized as a celebration of "homosexual behavior."
"The fact that he is 10 years old and he's so outspoken is a big positive not only for our community but the state as well as the country to show that our children in this country are actually smarter than we give them credit for," the director of operations for Northwest Arkansas Pride, Joney Harper, told a local television station. The WND article described Harper as "a person with a masculine voice and feminine-looking breasts."
"We believe that it goes beyond the pale for adults to exploit a 10-year-old child for dark political purposes," the AFA's director of issue analysis, Bryan Fisher, said, according to a June 24 FoxNews.com article. Fisher did not clarify what "dark political purposes" Will was purportedly the pawn of, but he did make a claim as to Will's mental capacity. "He is too young to understand," said Fisher, going on to add, "There is nothing about homosexual conduct to be proud of and much to be ashamed of."
Will himself did not appear to think that he was too young to comprehend the event or his role in it. "I'm a person," said the self-described "ambassador for equal rights." Added Will, "I may be 10, but I'm a person."
A person who knows his own mind, evidently: last year, Will sparked headlines, controversy, and some harassment from homophobic schoolmates when he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance along with the rest of his class. Will's reason? "I was analyzing the meanings of [the Pledge of Allegiance] because I want to be a lawyer," Will related, during an appearance on CNN. "I looked at the end, and it said 'liberty and justice for all,' and there really isn't liberty and justice for all. Gays and lesbians can't marry. There's still a lot of racism and sexism in the world."
Since the ideals set forth by the pledge are not reflected in American law or society, Will decided to boycott the daily recitation until gay and lesbian families enjoy the same rights and protections as do other Americans.
That decision got Will in hot water at school, but he refused to back down. Legal precedent is on his side: a 1943 Supreme Court decision found that schools may not punish students for refusing to recite the pledge. Objections to compulsory recitation of the pledge arose from the Jehovah's Witnesses on the basis that their religion does not permit expressions of allegiance to anything other than their own religion and to God. The Jehovah's Witnesses lost their first case before the Court in 1940, and reportedly suffered from bias-motivated violence in the aftermath of that case. The Court's 1943 decision reversed the earlier finding, and students have had the right to decline saying the pledge since then, although socially such refusal is often met with disapproval.
Such has been the case with Will Phillips' stand, but the young man has stood his ground. His mother, Laura Phillips, told local newspaper the Arkansas Times that her 10-year-old is "probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He's not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what's right, what's wrong, and what's fair." But not everyone, said Phillips, has been supportive, and those who oppose Will's stand "are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are." Her son has been taunted and called names in school, media accounts said.
"In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay," Will said. "It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad."
That hasn't been easy for Will, who skipped fourth grade but seems older than his age, especially in contrast to some of his peers. Said Laura Phillips, "It's really frustrating to him that people are being so immature."
The interviewer from The Arkansas Times asked Will what it means to be an American. The answer: "Freedom of speech. The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents."
The efforts of the anti-gay group to get a letter-writing campaign going in order to pressure Mayor Jordan seem to have had not effect thus far, according to a June 24 article posted at northwestern Arkansas online publication NWA Online.
The article said although the mayor's office had been subjected to a barrage of emails in the wake of the Mississippi-based anti-gay group's letter-writing campaign ("It's not clear how many--if any--of those complaints are from Fayetteville residents," the article noted), the mayor has declared that he will be as unwavering as Will himself has been. "Even if I get 1,000 letters, my decision is made," said Jordan.
The AFA's Fisher claimed that the mayor and city council had received more than 12,500 email messages protesting the parade as of June 24. WorldNetDaily provided links to contact Mayor Jordan ([email protected]) and the Fayetteville city council.