RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Copyright (c) 1998, Richmond Newspapers, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 5, 1998 TAG: 9804050159
PAGE: B-1 EDITION: City
SECTION: Area/State LENGTH: 94 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
SOURCE: By Rex Bowman
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
MEMO: (lcs)
They threw him out.
"I was appalled," Francie Webb, a 16-year-old junior at Lynchburg's E.C. Glass High School, said of Shott's speech. "I think he knew he was making a mockery of homosexuals."
Shott, an 18-year-old senior at Bluefield's Graham High School, is the first person, to the knowledge of the organizers there, to be ejected from the annual event that puts high school students in the role of state legislators.
"These things can get unruly," admitted Mark Coward, executive director of the Virginia YMCA. "But this is the first time this has happened as far as I know."
But far from marring the capital tradition, Shott's expulsion electrified the hundreds of students gathered to debate mock legislation. For almost an hour they had engaged in a no-holds-barred, Bible-thumping, lung-emptying debate over a Blacksburg High School student's bill to legalize homosexual unions. Shott's forced departure provided the perfect exclamation point for a textbook lesson on how riveting the workings of the government bowels can be.
"It's given me a really nice viewpoint on how the assembly works," said Blair Reeves, a 16-year-old Harrisonburg High School student.
The drama kicked off in the early afternoon, after the mock legislators had dealt with bills on spousal rape, victims' rights and mandatory teaching assignments for school board members. The discussion was lively but not heated.
Then came the homosexual-marriages bill.
Opponents jumped up, denounced it as anti-biblical - the YMCA still stands for Young Men's Christian Association, after all - and demanded its defeat. Proponents were equally vociferous about it being a civil rights issue, and soon the two sides were trading all the hot rhetoric associated with the volatile topic.
Shott asked for the floor.
Perhaps the other legislators should have seen something unusual coming. While most of the young men wore conservative, navy blue blazers and subdued neckwear, Shott stood out for his punkish bleached blond, close-cropped hair, loud tie and garrulous manner.
Let's have a "heart to heart" talk, he began. Then, affecting a soft voice and dangling his hands slightly, he told his friends he is gay and deserved the same right to marry as them. He urged them to support the bill. Opponents of the bill howled with laughter at what they considered a dead-on lampoon of a gay man. Proponents scowled.
Minutes later, the bill went down in defeat. What surprised many was not the bill's demise, but Shott's vote in favor of it. They had assumed his impersonation was somehow meant to deflate support.
Still, the matter wasn't over. One young woman jumped up and demanded that Shott be ejected for purposely insulting homosexuals. After consulting the General Assembly rulebook, the House speaker told Shott he must either apologize or face expulsion.
All of the legislators turned to stare at Shott.
"I can't apologize about the way I feel about that bill," he told them. "If you can't look at something two ways, I'll just go. I'm not apologizing for what I said."
The speaker called for the sergeant-at-arms to remove Shott. And with that he stormed out.
Outside, puffing a cigarette in the rain, Shott said he had been completely misunderstood. His impersonation was meant, he said, to educate his friends.
"I'm not homophobic," he said. "I was playing a role, which is what I thought this Model General Assembly was all about. I was trying to get another voice in there other than a straight male's."
Afterward, the young supporters of the bill were divided over what happened to Shott.
"I wasn't sure what he was attempting when he stood up," Webb said. "When he first stood up I thought, 'Oh, good, here we have a homosexual and this is a great opportunity to hear what he has to say.' Then I realized that he was mocking homosexuals, and I was completely appalled that people were laughing. If he was trying to help homosexuals, I don't think it came across the right way."
Reeves said Shott shouldn't have been given a chance to apologize. "I was hoping he would be automatically expelled."
But Lori Collins, a 16-year-old junior at Hopewell High School, said Shott was treated unfairly.
"I think he should have been allowed to stay in," she said. "He has a right to state his opinion."
As for Shott, he walked off in the rain, leaving the legislators in the Capitol to grapple with other issues.
"I guess I'll go party," he said.