Hello everyone, class of 2000, checking in. Unless you were there, you have no fucking idea how homophobic high school was back then. Violence in the open, often with teachers and administrators having the attitude of "what did they expect?" This is a very hard thing to have done in 1999.
I'm currently a teacher & a coworker wasn't permitted to start a GSA because ... no new clubs were permitted. But in 2018, our valedictorian & salutatorian were nonbinary & trans. (They hadn't wanted a GSA because it would make them targets.) Things are way better, but still not good.
This is so funny. 1999? I graduated in 2010 and it was STILL homophobic then. They still turned a blind eye to bullies of gay kids. At least two kids from my grade at my home school killed themselves before graduation because it got so bad. And people want to act like things were good in 1999?
Canada was just as bad too
Class of 2001 - my high school's gay straight alliance needed a U.S. District Court Judge to issue an injunction so it could meet, following months of protests lead by westboro baptist church. It was an insane time. legacy.lambdalegal.org/news/ca_2000...
(SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, Friday, February 4, 2000) — U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter issued a preliminary injunction today, ordering the Orange Unified School District to allow the Gay-...
I’ll never forget going in to school one morning, first class is gym, Im in my gym shorts and some guys just yell “hey are you gay?!” Which was implicitly an insult, and I did feel insulted, even though I was very much pro-lgbt at the time.
Yep. Class of 2004 here. It wasn't violent at my school, but "that's so gay" was a pretty common pejorative.
Yeah. Class of 2004, was one of the people who started a GSA at my high school, parents found out and flipped their shit and wanted to shut it down, and school admin didn't have our backs at all.
Also class of 2000 seconding this!
Class of 2001 here. This was still a time where people could lose their jobs if they were outed. My middle school English lit teacher was forced to resign after certain parents made such a huge fuss after he was outed, and protested in their obsessive ultra-conservative "think of the children!" way
I'm class of 2000 and the moment I heard this former middle-aged, straight, white football coach signed on to be a GSA advisor, and is now the VP nominee, I finally felt I could breathe a bit.