Teen Barred From School Bus for Saying She’s a Lesbian
Think LGBTQ equality is won? You need to read this.
I need to tell you a story about a 13-year-old girl who got punished for saying she’s a lesbian. I need to tell you about her school bus driver who lied about her and got caught lying. I need to tell you about her school principal who discovered the lie and punished her anyway. But first, we need to talk about Kansas.
Sometimes Kansas is all too literal
Kansas is powerfully symbolic to LGBTQ people, especially older gay people like me. When Judy Garland said, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, her character Dorothy had just fled a dreary grey mundanity on the wings of a cyclone.
Gay people have experienced the film as powerful allegory. When we speak of leaving Kansas, we mean fleeing rejection, striking out to the big city in search of community, created family, and acceptance.
As a young man, I had to do that. My American heartland didn’t tolerate members of gender and sexual minorities. People were too traditional, too Christian, and too judgmental. My story of landing in New York City and making a queer life is almost a stereotype.
