Tag Archives: Sexual orientation

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They called me f**got


I’m an openly gay student at Ole Miss who was threatened with anti-gay slurs. Join me in calling on Ole Miss to update its policies to protect LGBT students, faculty and staff.

I’m an openly gay student at the University of Mississippi, known as “Ole Miss.” Last week, while I was performing in The Laramie Project — a play about the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, who was killed for being gay — I was booed and heckled by the audience. They laughed at me. They called me f**got.

During the performance, I felt so much judgment. And worse than that, I felt afraid. Not just afraid of what these people might do to me, but afraid that my school wouldn’t back me up — because many of Ole Miss’s policies do not include protections for gay students like me.

The Ole Miss administration has said it will “investigate” what happened during that performance, but I want more than apologies and empty promises. I want real protection.

I worked with GetEQUAL to start a petition calling on Ole Miss to update all its policies for students, faculty and staff to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Will you click here to sign?

What happened during that performance was especially upsetting to me because The Laramie Project is supposed to be a show about learning from what happened to Matthew Shepard. It’s about coming together and treating all people equally.

I hope one day to be able to be my authentic self, open, and without fear of judgment. But the message I got on stage that night was very clear: being gay means being in danger.

This Saturday is the fifteenth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death, and on that day, I am going to present my petition to the Ole Miss administration. I know that if thousands of people sign, they will see how important it is that they take action to protect LGBT people on campus.

Click here to call on Ole Miss’s administration to update all of its policies to extend protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity to all students, faculty and staff.

Thank you,

Garrison Gibbons
Oxford, Mississippi

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Pass ENDA


Tell Congress: Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Now!

discrimination map

It’s way past due that that we, as a country, say no to employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Please take action right now by adding your name to our message to members of Congress telling them to PASS ENDA without delay.

WWW.PFAW.Org

sign the petition

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

She came out, they told her to leave school


She was a model student and a star athlete – an honest young woman in her final year at a private Christian high school, The Master’s School, in Connecticut.

But when school administrators asked her about her sexual orientation, she answered courageously and honestly that she is a lesbian.

And then those same administrators told her to withdraw or she would be kicked out.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students across the country are back in school, many facing bullying from peers. The last thing these students need is a school administration that refuses to protect them from unfair treatment.

Thousands of equality supporters like you have already sent letters to officials at The Master’s School calling on them to make it right and protect all of their students. Will you send a letter now, too?

Tell The Master’s School: Your LGBT students deserve protection – not expulsion. Now’s the time to enact a non-discrimination policy so that all students feel safe to be who they are.

National Coming Out Day was just last week and Spirit Day is Thursday – it’s a time each year when we celebrate openness and speak out against bullying. Together, we’re striving to create a world where no student, no soldier, no employee – no one – has to fear coming out.

In too many places around this country, LGBT students risk expulsion, bullying, and harassment that jeopardizes their academic futures and their emotional well-being.

The Master’s School in Connecticut has a chance to make it right with the student they asked to leave. They have an opportunity to lead by example – to institute modern-day policies, and to bring their model student back into their community.

Will you take one minute to send a letter to The Master’s School right now? Tell them to update their policies and treat all their students fairly.

The path to equality has taken us together on a lot of twists and turns. The Master’s School, with HRC‘s help, can become a model environment for diversity and tolerance in education, but they need to take the first step now and make things right.

Thanks for standing with us now and always.

Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
President, HRC