This was one of my fave stories from last month! I thought it would be a good post to close out Pride month. Rochelle Hamilton, like so many LGBTQ folks (or anyone who doesn't fit prescribed notions of gender whatever their sexuality) was going thru a living hell at school. Her TEACHERS were perpetrators of hate against her. Ugh. The ACLU reports:
For Rochelle Hamilton, starting high school was the beginning of relentless harassment from teachers and school staff because she’s openly gay. One teacher told her, "You're going to hell. This is a sin." Another said, "What's wrong with you? What are you, a man or a woman?" After months of asking the school and the district to intervene—to no avail—Rochelle and her mom reached out to the ACLU for help. Together, we took on the school district—and won.
YES! Love it. Triumph of the human spirit. I'm waiting for the made for tv movie to come out. Alicia Keys could play the main role :)
Be sure to read the rest of the article, and there is also a video clip that has interviews with Rochelle Hamilton and her mom. By the way, they what they won was 1) new anti-discrimination laws in the district 2) mandatory anti-harrassment training around sexuality and gender identity for ALL students and teachers in the district... and 3) Rochelle got 25K.
Reaffirms my faith in justice and humanity!
First and foremost, Happy Pride to my LGBTQ peoples! And to everyone else i say... whoever you love, if this story makes you proud that we can work together to uplift each other and respect the humanity of our children and community members... Happy Pride.
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1 comment:
yes! i read about her last month and she made an appearance on the main stage at pride. heartening to remember after reading about the military totally tolerating white-supremacists while giving dishonorable discharges to queers today.
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