Editorial Board

the priest and everything, and when he was bad they would lock him in the cellar and beat him until
he walked funny. I don’t understand how he’s any happier than Susie ‘cause that’s how God meant
for them to raise him. Mama, do people ever get married for other reasons?”
“Well, I suppose sometimes-”
“And if they can, could homosexshuals get married for some other reason, if they promise not to
sneak any children into it?”
“No, I’ve told you, it’s the sinful idea of it. So now do you understand? It’s unnatural, and it’s the
idea, and it sets a bad example for children, whether they have them or not.”
“Like when Mr. Stadwick the art teacher got taken away from the school ‘cause of his husband?”
“Oh darling, no one took him away. He was... married, you know, out of state. But the PTA only
talked to him, and he resigned himself. People like him could put the wrong ideas into your heads.”
“What kind of ideas?”
“I think the word is ‘indoctrinate’. Yes, that sounds right. It means -- well, it’s when a teacher tries
to put part of their own self into impressionable children. That’s called the homosexual agenda.”
“But I don’t know if Mr. Stadwick had an agenda, mama, ‘cause mostly all we did was make snowmen
and stuff out of instruction paper. Once he teached us how to spell MISSISSIPPI, but nothing
about sexshuality. Actually mama, we were all surprised when he went and resigned himself,
‘cause we didn’t think any of the teachers were married at all. They usually don’t say nothing about
it. Only old Father McMarris ever said anything, and that was only private in the rectory--”
“I think we’d do well to leave Father McMarris out of this discussion entirely,” Bessie’s mother cut
in wearily.
“It wasn’t just Father McMarris anyway, mama, but also Mr. Johnston who teached the fourth graders.
After class he was telling them all about people practicing their love, and it was very beautiful
the way he made it sound, and it was the good Christian kind between a man and woman. Some
of the girls were getting so big they were almost women, he said, and when they got a little older he
could give them a personal lesson in the way that God meant for it. But then the police came and
took him away from the school too, and now he stands in front of the bus station, and I think it’s a
shame when all he wanted to do was indoctrinate us with the right- mama?”
There is no more to the dialogue after this point, as Bessie’s mother had fainted onto the sofa.