Middle school kids fight to form gay-straight alliance - INDY Week

Contents:

• STUNTS WALK OUT PROTT AFTER HIGH SCHOOL SPENDS ALLEGEDLY BULLIED GAY TEEN
• PARENTS WHO SAY GAY SON WAS BULLIED AT EVERETT SCHOOL FILE $20M CLAIM
• LGBTQ YOUTH FIGHT BACK AGAST FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL
• MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS FIGHT TO FORM GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE
• VIRAL VIO OF TEEN PUNCHG CLASSMATE DRAWS ATTENTN TO ANTI-GAY BULLYG

STUNTS WALK OUT PROTT AFTER HIGH SCHOOL SPENDS ALLEGEDLY BULLIED GAY TEEN

Hundred of stunts Missouri walked out of their high school prott on Monday after a gay teen who allegedly faced weeks of harassment was spend followg a physil fight wh the spected Lillis, an openly gay senr at Lee's Summ High School, told The Kansas Cy Star that he and his iends have been the subjects of bullyg om another group of stunts sce the begng of the school a walkout at school, Gay kid was bullied for months and asslted last week.

Hundreds of high school stunts Missouri walked out of class support of a gay stunt who was allegedly harrassed and spend followg a fight wh bulli. EVERETT — The parents of a gay, 13-year-old stunt who was allegedly bullied for more than a year, g him to e home cryg and eventually to leave school, have filed a $20 ln claim agast Everett Public Evergreen Middle School seventh grar was ntually subject to homophobic slurs and twice beaten up fights viotaped and upload onto an Instagram page voted to brawls at the school, acrdg to his parents, Nile and Doug.

Summg up that experience, he said: “I’m known the school, and I’m gay, and that mak me an immediate target. More young people than ever before intify as LGBTQ+: A Centers for Disease Control and Preventn report released April found roughly a quarter of high school stunts surveyed around the untry intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or “other/qutng, ” wh bisexual reprentg the largt share.

PARENTS WHO SAY GAY SON WAS BULLIED AT EVERETT SCHOOL FILE $20M CLAIM

Still, lol schools are not immune om homophobia. Greg Stair, an Everett High School visual arts teacher and adviser to the school’s gay-straight alliance, said he rarely hears about physil bullyg.

LGBTQ YOUTH FIGHT BACK AGAST FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL

But stunts will tell him they often hear the word “gay” beg ed a negative way.

The teen had ially been iends wh the girls, but somethg ed a seventh grar said there were many other gay kids at school — cludg those belongg to a large “rabow club” that existed until the faculty adviser left last year — who did not appear to be bullied. Although some said they believed others had lled the seventh grar homophobic nam, they said the fights had nothg to do wh his sexualy — attributg the scuffl stead to a variety of differenc, cludg his own name-llg and animosy. Democratic policians across California nmned a volatile anti-gay prott outsi a suburban Los Angel school board meetg on Tuday, as the school board heard public ment on whether to officially signate June as LGBTQ+ Pri month.

MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS FIGHT TO FORM GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE

The cy uncil Huntgton Beach had prevly voted not to display the Pri flag on cy the state’s Inland Empire regn, a school board Temecula rejected a history curriculum bee of s mentn of the murred civil rights activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official California history, who was posthumoly award the printial medal of eedom. ”Lol news acunts and footage of the volatile anti-gay protters Glendale and North Hollywood showed some protters g rhetoric now mon far-right protts across the Uned Stat, suggtg that LGBTQ+ people are pedophil or predators, and argug that any mentn of the existence of gay people or gay fai is appropriate for young children. Many wore intil T-shirts readg “Leave our kids alone, ” and some voked Christian fah as the reason for their opposn to Pri events are faiar l of attack that have often been mobilised by anti-gay activists the past, cludg by Ana Bryant her “Save our Children” mpaign the 1970s, which also foced on “parents’ rights” as a way to ph back agast advanc civil rights for gay as equaly for LGBTQ+ people has bee creasgly popular and accepted the US, wh 71% of rponnts a recent Gallup poll exprsg support for same-sex marriage, many Amerins scribed the renewed attacks as ighteng and disturbg.

Trans people have been sgled out as the foc of much of the legislatn, and ntue to be the target of many particularly vilent polil attacks, but, as Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, which regulat what tors are allowed to discs public school classrooms, any mentn of genr inty or homosexualy is now g unr attack. "Stori and histori about people like CJ -- a gay, 17-year-old boy -- would not be allowed to be tght classrooms om krgarten to third gra if the legislatn, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, is implemented, limg classroom curriculum on sexual orientatn and genr inty.

"They won't know who they are, they won't be able to exprs themselv, " CJ said about stunts classrooms where the lsons are Waln, 17, is jog other high school stunts a letter-wrg mpaign agast the "Don't Say Gay" bill. "I really thk this sends a msage to stunts, to staff, to our muny, that there is somethg wrong wh beg gay or that is somethg that is too taboo to be discsed and that we are somethg that should be the shadows, " Fenng said. Joe Hardg, who troduced the bill, told ABC News podst "Start Here" that teachers and stunts n still discs sexual orientatn and genr inty their classrooms, there jt n't be a curriculum or lsons on Fenng and other Florida stunts went to the state pal to nont legislators about the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

VIRAL VIO OF TEEN PUNCHG CLASSMATE DRAWS ATTENTN TO ANTI-GAY BULLYG

Courty CJ WalnActivists have likened the bill to a gag orr or to the “No Promo Homo” laws of the 1990s that barred tors om discsg queer topics the bill would ban lsons ncerng genr or sexual orientatn classrooms om krgarten to third gra, would also not allow them when is age-appropriate or not le wh state standards. "Regardls of whether this bill pass or not, gay kids and trans kids are still gog to be schools, are still gog to be experiencg beg gay and beg trans, " Fenng said. Every person should be treated wh digny and rpect, and no one should be discrimated agast simply bee they intify as gay or transgenr.

The fight for gay rights the Uned Stat has e a long way sce the Stonewall Uprisg of 1969, when gay and trans patrons of the Stonewall Inn New York Cy fought back agast police tryg to arrt night marked the begng of the gay rights movement the US, a s-long fight that jt a few years ago rulted the momento 2015 Supreme Court cisn legalizg gay marriage the lg on June 26, 2015, didn’t end the stggle for equaly and protectn. Across the untry, LGBTQ Amerins still face legalized discrimatn unr the law when to hog, jobs, parentg, and even June, ’s important to celebrate how far the US has e regnizg gay rights — and to be proud of that fact — but only if we also remember how far we still have to go to ensure that the equal rights and digny of LGBTQ Amerins are regnized unr the are some of the battl for equaly that are still beg fought across the untry. ParentgOnly a handful of stat have enshred law the right of gay upl to parent together.