After An ACLU Threat Maryland High School Reverses Decision To Cut Scene From Play Dramatizing Gay Romance, Openly Gay 17 Year-Old Adam Hoover Leads Cincinnati Marriage Equality March, 21 Year-Old Openly Gay DePaul Student Body President Anthony Alfano On Coming Out, Glee First Time Spoilers, Jonathan Groff Nude

The Bel Air High School production of Almost, Maine, almost debuted in Harford County, Maryland absent a scene many students considered critical to the drama about love in a small town. When county school officials demanded that the scene involving homosexual romance be deleted from the show, students cried censorship and discrimination and contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. The Baltimore Sun reports that following a strongly worded letter from the civil rights organization, officials reversed their decision with apologies. The show will open Thursday evening at the school with all story lines intact. "Cutting the scene was definitely censorship," said junior Julia Streett, president of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance and sound engineer for the show. "It repressed creativity." The drama, written by John Cariani, depicts characters falling in and out of love through a series of vignettes. In They Fell, the scene at issue, two young men, who are longtime friends, compare notes about disastrous dates with women and come to realize that they are attracted to each other. Both actually fall several times in almost slapstick fashion. The two make no physical contact and use no graphic language. "The show is all about different couples falling in love," said junior Krissy Vogt, a member of the show's technical crew. "Adding a gay couple created diversity. I think that the scene is definitely necessary to the show." The play was well into production when the faculty director asked school officials to review the scene for appropriateness. "They told us to cut the scene but gave us no reason," Vogt said. "We were puzzled. The scene is really light-hearted and there is no physical contact. We decided to go to the ACLU. We knew they could get something done for us." The ACLU argued that the decision violated the students' right to free speech. "It is the only portrayal of same-sex love in the play; it is also the only portion of the play the drama club was required to remove," Deborah A. Jeon, ACLU legal director wrote in the letter dated Wednesday. "The decision to censor the play to eliminate representation of same-sex love and gay identity is unlawful and we demand that the decision be reversed." Contacting the organization showed prescience and tenacity on the part of the students, she said. "It shows how courageous they are in standing up for their rights," Jeon said in an interview Friday. "They took a stand in a non-disruptive way." Teri Kranefeld, Harford schools spokeswoman, said officials have "discretion to determine whether the content of material in items such as school plays and school newspapers are appropriate and have educational value." Upon receipt of the letter from the ACLU and further review, the decision to remove the scene was reversed, she said. She apologized for the error made in pulling the scene and commended the students for their foresight. Streett and Vogt said they had been prepared to "go to court" if officials did not reverse the decision. If officials were trying to avoid controversy, they failed and probably boosted ticket sales, Streett said, adding "There was a lot more controversy about cutting the scene."

A downtown Cincinnati gathering and march in support of same sex marriage on Saturday could attract a crowd from across Ohio and possibly as far as Texas, organizers say. The Examiner reports that 17-year-old Adam Hoover is responsible for the event, Hoover a Harrison High School senior who envisioned the event after attending Cincinnati's Gay Pride Parade in July. While Hoover can't say how many people will attend, about 2,500 people have sent him an RSVP email, including a group of 25 people from Texas and another group from New York. "I am gay," Hoover said when asked why he wanted to organize the protest. "I wanted to start something." With help from a number of supporters, including Nicholas David Wymer, a junior at Walnut Hills High School, Hoover began promoting the event about four months ago. Early on, he contacted Equality Ohio, a state-wide advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. "That happens fairly often, but it's less often that it's a 17-year-old kid who is not part of any organization," said Ed Mullen, the group's executive director. "And even when it is, it doesn't get the type of attention this has gotten." Mullen said Hoover has used social networking and online videos to create buzz for the event. It is scheduled to start at 11:00 am on Fountain Square, march to the Underground Railroad Freedom Center at noon, stop for a few speakers - including gay Cincinnati City Council candidate Chris Seelbach - and then continue to march around town until 6:00 pm. Mullen, who is in his 40s, has been an activist for decades. He said Hoover was smart to invite groups like the Reformed Catholic Church. Equality Ohio supporters from Toledo and Cleveland have also pledged to come, Mullen said, adding, "I think it's a generational change we're seeing. When I was a teenager, there was no Ellen DeGeneres ... or Lady Gaga. It was a much lonelier existence,... and you had much lower expectations. You didn't think you'd get married or have kids. But now (gay kids) have grown up seeing what's possible and are coming out much younger, with higher expectations and demands from society and particularly from lawmakers."

Anthony Alfano called his father shortly before the story appeared in the DePaul student newspaper last week. One by one, reports The Chicago Tribune, over the past year and a half, Alfano had told the rest of his family he was gay. His brother had hugged him. His mother had cried. With The DePaulia about to publish a story on the school's first openly gay student body president — meaning him — he knew he had to tell his dad. "He just listened," Alfano said Thursday, recalling that conversation. "He said, 'The door's always open.'" On this rainy afternoon, Alfano, 21, was sitting in DePaul's Lincoln Park student center, dressed in a dark blue oxford shirt and gray pants, his hands clasped on a cafe table, pondering the publicity of the past few days. His story has appeared in the Windy City Times and on The Huffington Post. He made an appearance on WTTW-Channel 11. His "milestone" was noted on WBEZ radio. "Apparently," he said, with a small rueful laugh, "I'm a trend on Twitter." When Alfano ran for student government president last spring, he didn't make special note of being gay. His closest friends knew, and that seemed enough. Over the summer, though, he decided he owed it to other young gay people to be more candid, so he opened up in the student newspaper last week, despite worrying about how his candour might affect his conservative Catholic family."This story needs to be shared," he said. "It's for the gay youth, especially those thinking about taking their lives. I want to let them know I'm in a position of influence at a Catholic university, the largest Catholic university in the country, and I have all this support. I want to tell them, 'You can come out too.'" As a teenager at Huntley High School, near his home in Lake in the Hills, Alfano played hockey, dated girls, went to church and tried "to pray the gay away." He also, he said, tried three times to commit suicide. When I asked how, he remained still, except to swallow hard. He tried to suffocate himself with a bedsheet, he said, in his bedroom. He doesn't know why he didn't carry through. Maybe, he said, because he loved his family, his friends, because deep down he believed the world was changing in a way that would allow him to be who he is. The world hasn't changed entirely. If it had, Alfano's coming out wouldn't be news. But it has changed enough that most of the response to his news has been encouraging. "Anthony is a remarkable young man and student leader," said an official DePaul statement, "and we hope that his candour helps other young people facing these issues to feel comfortable discussing their orientation with family and friends." Not everyone has been so supportive. The president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois issued a statement noting the church's opposition to homosexuality. "St. Vincent DePaul would be rolling over in his grave," she wrote. "DePaul is clearly not operating as a Catholic University." "My initial reaction is to laugh it off," Alfano said of such derision. "At the same time, it really does hurt me." It hurts, he said, because he knows how much harm such attitudes can do. Before he headed off to class Thursday, asked what the worst thing has been about the publicity, Alfano answered "Realizing my family was always there. Realizing I could have told them sooner."

Everyone is talking about next week’s Glee episode, entitled First Time, that will feature two of the show’s pivotal characters choosing to have sex for the, um, first time – Finn and Rachel, and the same sex couple of Kurt and Blaine. Tim Stack at Entertainment Weekly writes that “It’s all handled very delicately and is incredibly moving. I can’t think of another network series that’s taken a teenage gay relationship so far or been so progressive.” Michael Ausiello at TVline.com also raves. Both articles, by the way, as a warning, are spoiler heavy.

Full disclosure: I have such a crush on Jonathan Groff, of the aforementioned Glee, and quite coincidently, nude stills from a film titled Twelve Thirty have leaked on the Internet. (NSFW)