Truth Hurts

"We want to see you change," he says they told him, "but you can't be expelled for being gay."

Stephenson says that before he was suspended, he agreed to comply with several requests school administrators made: He told them he was confused about his sexuality, not outright gay; he closed down the contentious Web site (though it is now back online); and he agreed to go to counseling. "I wanted to stay in school," he says. "Thirteen years, that's a lot of time and money." But when Stephenson and his parents met with the headmaster, the board of trustees members the headmaster had consulted all said that Stephenson needed to be expelled.

Stephenson even agreed with Trinity administrators that homosexuality is a sin, "but not any different than going out and drinking." He struggled from the eighth grade until junior year to "overcome" being gay, but "just kind of gave up. I'm not willing to go through a brainwashing process to get rid of it...Bottom line is, it's not going to send me to hell." --Claiborne Smith

Fish Out of Water

Next time you think you have Dallas figured out racially, give a listen to "The Dallas Examiner Live" on KNON Radio 89.3 FM every Tuesday at 7 a.m. Host James C. Belt III and frequent guest Russell Fish will tie you into mental knots.

And the strange thing is, you may enjoy it.

Belt exploits Fish, an arch-conservative education activist, as a goad. "I bring Russell on the air to show the audience how white folks think," he said recently.

Come on. Which white folks?

Fish recently came to the studio armed with a sheaf of liberal editorial cartoons attacking Secretary of State designate Condoleezza Rice as a racial sell-out. One by Ted Rall, published last summer, characterized Rice as George W. Bush's "House Nigga" and said she needed to turn in her hair straightener and admit that "You're not white, stupid."

Fish's question--Is this not racism just because it's liberal?--sparked mild interest among black listeners, more of whom were offended by Fish's description of Rice as "a gal who came from Birmingham, Alabama." Little bit tone deaf.

The intense response, more like absolute screaming fury, came from white listeners: "Oh, you know, Russell, you're the one who wants to make racial issues out of everything," said a female caller, her voice rising half an octave with every word.

"Now as a white woman, particularly as a white liberal woman," Fish interrupted, "I understand how you might want to support this."

Things went south from there with a shrieky debate on whether or not you can tell that a person is a white liberal from her voice.

It's provocative content, but with way more twists and turns than the stuff the right-wing shock jocks crank out--a way to have fun and get a headache at the same time. --Jim Schutze

Bloody Minded

To Anita Bennett, it was a routine question on a routine form at the beginning of a routine doctor's appointment: Will you accept blood in emergency situations? She checked no. Bennett is auto-sanguineous, meaning she will allow only her own blood to be used in transfusions. She wrote this on the form next to her answer.

As a nurse, Bennett has seen this kind of form hundreds of times. She didn't consider her answer to be that big of a deal. She gave the completed form to the receptionist and prepared for her appointment with Dr. J. Douglas Smrekar, whom she had not seen before. That's when her visit to North Texas OB/GYN Associates became less than routine.

"The receptionist said, 'You better change that or he's not gonna see you,'" Bennett says. "I said, 'Do what? Change it? You're gonna refuse me care because I don't want blood? That's against some people's culture, religion.'"

Gina Martinez, the clinic's office manager, told her yes, that's exactly what they were going to do.

"What it is, basically the patient is saying if they're under surgery and they don't want any blood transfusions or anything at all, basically you have to just sit there and watch them die," Martinez says, noting that the policy has "never really been an issue" previously. "And the doctors don't like that feeling. They want to be able to give them more blood and help them."

A representative of the Dallas Medical Society says that Dr. Smrekar and his associates are entirely within their rights and can choose to see whomever they wish for whatever reason. The representative added that the reason why policy is not simply stated and remains a question on the form is that doctors don't want to be passive. They want to make sure people see and understand the policy. Bennett, who found a new doctor the next day, still doesn't agree.

"They asked me a question, and I answered it honestly," she says. "I'm a nurse, and I can't refuse patients I see. It's much different if we were going into the surgery room, and you thought this was a dangerous surgery and I wouldn't sign it. Then I can see. " --Zac Crain