William Sleaster, a sophomore at Concord High, doesn't like John McCain.

He doesn't like his stance on gay rights, his feelings toward the working class, his hawkish view on the war in Iraq.

And now everyone knows it.

Sleaster made his views clear Tuesday morning at Concord High, where McCain, who's vying for the Republican nomination for president, spoke to students in the school auditorium.

The eighth visit by a presidential candidate this year was explosive, after Sleaster injected fire that some thought disrespectful. The national media, the internet and satellite radio broadcast his thoughts, making this self-described socialist bisexual a mini celebrity.

In Sleaster's mind, McCain didn't know LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues from a BLT sandwich.

Sleaster, standing in front of Concord High after school wearing his knapsack, took nothing back yesterday. He spoke about Tide Pride, a Concord alliance to help raise awareness on gay issues.

"It may have been disrespectful, but he discriminates against me and my people," Sleaster said. "If he walked in there to Tide Pride Monday morning and started dropping sexual slurs, we wouldn't shake his hand and say, 'Thanks for coming.' That's why I didn't shake his hand and say, 'Thanks for coming.' I regret nothing."

On Tuesday, Sleaster inquired about McCain's view on gay issues. When he heard no support for civil unions, much less gay marriage, he went on the attack, asking, "So you would want to take away someone's rights because you think it's wrong?"

And when he wasn't satisfied with McCain's answer about policies to aid the working class, he threw a bomb. "I came here to see a good leader," Sleaster said. "I don't."

CNN interviewed him live that morning. A California radio station phoned him the next day for another interview. Someone from a Sirius Radio show also spoke to him. He was glad to publicize his ideas.

"We will get there, but we need a good push forward," Sleaster said. "It's not going to just ease into it. We need to push forward, and then the people will follow."

He grew up with a single mom, moving a lot, from Pennsylvania, to Maine, to New Boston, to Goffstown, to Concord. He arrived here three years ago and says he likes it. He plays video games and works at Market Basket.

Last February, he told friends and classmates that he was bisexual. It lifted a burden and crystallized his thoughts on the "don't ask, don't tell," policy, former president Bill Clinton's often-criticized compromise on gays in the military.

"It was a good thing to do, to come out like that," Sleaster said. "Then I knew the whole don't ask thing, the policy, was very flawed. Pretending your sexuality is something it's not is very difficult to do. Even liking both sexes, you can't just pretend you like one. It's very hard to do."

He added that students were fine with his news. "Almost all of them," he said. "About 99.9 percent."

His mother and stepfather didn't learn of his sexual orientation until Tuesday. That's when CNN and the internet reported what was already on his MySpace page.

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