It seems the bishop thinks La Cage isn't suitable for teenagers. He's saying this about a play that ran for more than four years on Broadway in the 1980s and won six Tony Awards, including the Tony for best musical in 1984. He's saying this about a musical about the strength of long-term, committed romantic relationships and about the love between a father and a son. He's saying this about a musical that's all about joy and laughter. He's saying this about a musical with one of the most old-fashioned, most heartwarming stories I know. 

I guess the bishop couldn't stand by and let Republican legislators get all the glory for making fools of themselves in public in recent weeks. He had to step in and take some of that foolishness for the Episcopal Church.

I mentioned that I was raised an Episcopalian because, while I'm not religious anymore, I believe in what the Episcopal Church taught me and what my conservative Republican parents taught me -- that the church stood for tolerance, and for the understanding of differences, and for treating everyone as you would want to be treated yourself. To me, that's what the church was all about.

But when I moved to Central Florida, I began to understand that those teachings were not what this local branch of the church was about. I hated the rumblings of intolerance that I began to hear. And I stopped going to church.

Now the bishop has told teenage students and their parents that they can't take part in a musical designed to make people love one another -- a musical with not so much as a single gay kiss.

Apparently Janine Papin, who directed the show, was asked to put a PG-13 label on it. Of course, nobody puts the movie industry's labels on plays to begin with. But to call La Cage PG-13 ("A PG-13 motion picture may go beyond the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language, adult activities or other elements") is just silly. There are more upsetting plot developments, more "adult activities," in Oklahoma! and Carousel.

For heaven's sake, The Sound of Music is about Nazis. That sounds pretty adult to me.

The funny thing is that, as we've learned, teenagers and young people are way ahead of older folks when it comes to accepting sexual differences and to treating everyone the same. Teenagers know that gays don't choose to be gay any more than I chose to be near-sighted or to have brown eyes.

And these teenagers have spent weeks of their summer preparing and rehearsing for their roles in a musical comedy. Sounds like exactly what we would want them to do.

My heart goes out to every student, every parent and every teacher who has been hurt by the bishop's decision. There was an attempt yesterday to find a theater where the Trinity cast could perform La Cage tonight, but apparently that hasn't happened in time. I suspect that, by next weekend, that theater will emerge and that many of us will be able to see Trinity's production of La Cage.

Let's make it the biggest success Trinity has ever had.