It’s been almost a whole month since our last edition of Darts & Laurels. We at the Alligator newsroom love to throw flowers at the do-gooders and little shafts of metal at the not-so-do-gooders. So, without further ado, we present our we-can-hardly-hold-back-any-longer edition of:
Darts & Laurels
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union went to bat for Issak Wolfe, a transgender male high schooler from Pennsylvania. Although he applied to be prom king, the ballots listed him with his birth name under candidates for prom queen.
Wolfe, partnered with the ACLU, has started a petition to present to the school board. “I want to make sure that future transgender students are not humiliated and disrespected the way I was,” he said.
Most of us don’t give too much thought to our gender identity. We’re born with boy or girl parts and the psychological equipment to match. Some of us aren’t, though, and this is a confusing notion for those who don’t understand.
The Alligator stands in solidarity with those who have faced prejudice as a consequence of their gender identity. For this reason, we give our first-laurel-of-the-semester LAUREL to Issak Wolfe.
In other news, Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch clothing stores, came under heavy fire this month for comments made in 2006. “We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong,” said Jeffries, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining a pristine, “cool kid” image for his brand.
Now, you may be thinking the Alligator is going to jump on the bandwagon and chuck a dart at Jeffries. But we’re not. Instead, we’ll dispatch one DART into Greg Karber, who uploaded a video to YouTube this week chronicling his attempt at rebranding A&F clothes by handing them out to homeless people. We know you mean well, Greg, but the homeless don’t deserve such harsh treatment. Give A&F clothes to low-IQ jerks instead. Oh, wait.
This week, the head of the Associated Press filed a formal complaint with the Department of Justice for having its prosecutors secretly collect the records of calls made from telephone lines belonging to the AP as well as collecting records of calls made by AP journalists on their home phones.
The press grilled White House spokesman Jay Carney this week, too. One reporter even asked Carney how the president feels about being compared to President Nixon. On the seizure of the phone records, Carney said, “The president is a strong defender of the First Amendment.”
We’ll see about that, Jay. We carefully hand an if-we’re-not-careful-we’re-next DART to President Obama and the Department of Justice.
The last victim in our flinging-fest is Orlando’s favorite alternative newsweekly, the Orlando Weekly. Last month, they published an edition titled “Orlando Weedly” with a big image of a marijuana leaf on the cover to match. We award a massive, ganja-shaped LAUREL to the Orlando Weekly. Because legalized pot is the new black. Also, because pot should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal issue.
Stay classy, Gators!
