January 05, 2008 | 03:49 PM

To me, locals are the kids that made fun of me because I was smarter than they were and made judgments about my sexual preference due to my short hair length. I still don’t understand why I was called a “dumb dyke” when a) I was getting A’s in classes some of them were barely passing, and b) I was dating an incredibly, physically masculine male. I know that not all locals are like this, but this is the strongest impression left on me, made by the local culture and by the kids that I considered “locals.” Too many people have used their locality to justify concepts that in all other situations would have been deemed “discrimination.” Too often, I have felt that this idea of “Aloha Spirit” that everyone is so proud of, was concocted by the tourism agencies, to draw people to the islands. Too often, I have felt that this “Aloha Spirit” is dead, killed off by the things it stood against: close-minded, bigoted cliques.

ASG