Tom, in our gym class, the boys were divided between the girls, so we never really played any games together. In Smear the Queer, the "queer" was somebody who was selected to have the ball. The object was to run after this person, tackle them, whatever, to get the ball. There were no parental protests that I knew of.
There was however, a huge parental protest when the school had a gay man with AIDS give a speech about AIDS awareness. I'll never forget that day. He was very sick, pale and emaciated. He sat down in a chair in the middle of the gym, and all during his speech, the students threw spitballs, pens, anything they could throw at him and taunted him. Our homophobic principal did nothing. NOTHING. A couple of the more progressive students were so upset they got up and walked out. I sat there frozen, wondering what would happen to me when I came out. Anyway, several parents threw a huge fit, wondering how the school system could possibly endanger their children by exposing them to a gay man with AIDS. It was such a huge uproar that the principal had to call a second assembly just to address the issue. At least he was smart enough to know that their fears were irrelevant.
Sorry to veer away from the subject of the thread.
