speakingmyvoice

[speakingmyvoice]

Hello, this is my first post for talking about something.

You may or may not be aware but there was ad about a 12 year old kid who believed there was two gender and wore a shirt to voice their beliefs but was “silenced”. There’s a reason why I put it in quotes, I’ll get to that.

For those unaware: this is the ad

In short, 12 year old Liam was in trouble at school for wearing a shirt saying “there’s only two gender” and was reported since people viewed it as harmful. The school got a lawsuit for not letting him have freedom of speech and because of the school denying to accept that he was getting in trouble wrongfully and would continue to do as they did before.

Onto how I view it. I personally believe that the lawsuit was wrongful. Also upon seeing the video again, I believe the kid was uninformed about how it may have been harmful so I can’t blame the kid either. I’m mostly gonna view it through what I know from the video but some stuff might not be true so certain things will be considered as alleged. I am gonna mention here that I’m speaking from my view as being trans genderfluid youth and my experiences so I’m not gonna agree with most of these things. Again, I do not believe the kid knew, I believe he wasn’t informed enough. I’ll get into it now.

Starting with how the video starts, related to this situation, I’d like to point out that it seems understandable about why the school is not happy about the shirt by just the scenery the school is shown in.

“Depends only on what they feel themselves to be and not at all on biology”, I point this quote out because that’s more than clearly false. It’s not just feel but how you are born. As known, humans are born to discover themselves so what they discover about themselves are how they were born. It is not political, it is science.

The kid talking about how you can barely avoid conversations on the community, but the thing is it’s something to be talked about. It’s necessary to understand others and show respect and spread awareness because of real situations.

I believe it’s okay to have beliefs but when the kid starts talking about how there’s only two genders in his beliefs, to me, he sounds very uninformed about tons of things related to gender identity.

“This view is backed up by science.” Just like how his beliefs may be backed up by science, so is gender identity within lgbtqia+ community. Like I said before,humans are born to discover which includes themselves, they are born feeling the way they feel. Also the classmates part makes it seem like most of the kids are uninformed too.

People who reported what he was wearing did have the right to feel uncomfortable with it. I know it’s hard to think about but people like me are harassed and everything by others who think like that. Again, the kid is being shown to be uninformed and not quite understanding potential harm they are causing. Affects of such words even being on a shirt could invalidate students who are non-binary, agender, etc.

They make it seem like it wasn’t a big of a deal because of a shirt making people feel unsafe but believe it or not, it does. To put it in another way, imagine you’re a pre-teen or teenager or just apart of the youth who are discovering that you’re non-binary or something that isn’t male or female. It would be hurting to even see words on a shirt saying your gender isn’t a gender. So once again, the kid is uninformed.

The kid says that his speech is being silence and to me, that’s false. The principal was concerned for students who might feel invalidated or hurt by it. I know I would be. The principal and school wasn’t silencing him, they were trying to tell him that his words will affect others. Even though the topic is already flooding the school wouldn’t mean it couldn’t be spoken about.

The principal was doing their job by trying to protect the other students by asking him to change his shirt aware of the harm that his words will cause but it’s being shown in the light that the principal was wrong.

With his father, I feel that his father should’ve spoken to him that words can be weapons and it should be used wisely but instead had asked about why he wasn’t allowed to express his opinion and got the attorney involved. To me, I feel like this is a time where a parent isn’t being a parent. It’s important for parents to be a role model for their kid and assist the kids in learning right and wrong and things such as being careful with their words and actions and saying their opinions while being considerate.

Indeed, Kids who are 12 years old, younger and older can have opinions and should be allowed to voice them, there are certain opinions that should be talked about because of possible harm.

From how they said how the school responded seems more like it’s being twisted into a bad light and removing the actual intentions to protect students from feeling hurt. (Warning for those triggered by suicide!) everyday, lgbtq+ kids are dying to suicide because of how people treat them, words, etc. A lot of the world is trying to prevent that, the school is trying to contribute to preventing suicide in lgbtq youth.

By now, the kid should’ve known what would happen because of their words. It is harmful to people and actions and words have consequences.

The school did not disrespect his right to free speech, they knew what could happen from just words on a shirt. They did not censor him, they protected others.

The lawsuit in my eyes was wrongful. The school was trying to protect lgbtqia+ youth and as I said (second warning for suicide) kids are committing suicide everyday because of these things, the school is trying to prevent that. I do not blame the kid, I blame the father for going through with it and not teaching Liam why it was harmful.

To me, it doesn’t seem like Liam actually learned something valuable. In this situation, he should’ve learned that it was harmful and can cause horrible things to happen and he’ll end up contributing to such things. I hope Liam one day learns and understands.

“Adults don’t always do the right thing.” It’s true in this video, but it’s not the school, it’s his father and those who let this go through. He needed to learn the consequences of his words and what harm he can do with it and be more informed. If he still believes the same, he should still respect and be considerate.

His school district didn’t need to learn a lesson. He did. For me, everyone who reported his shirt and the principal and other staff who was apart of it was in the right. They wanted to avoid the harm.

That’s it for the video. Now onto me, and my view after watching it for like the 3rd or more time. This is a warning that there’s gonna be topics that you might be sensitive to such as suicide, harassment, etc.

To start, let’s talk about be school and most of the staff. From the video, it shows mostly them doing what they are supposed to do for protecting the kids but got painted in a bad light. For me, the entire time, it seems like they were right to be concerned. It seems like the school did not really teach much on the lgbtq+ community or about situations in reality where everyday, lgbtq+ people are getting killed, raped, committing suicide, getting harassed, and a bunch of other things. Though it’s not required so the school cannot be at fault since most schools don’t really do or have specific clubs and other things to teach the students about that.

Let’s now talk about the shirt and its words and what can happen, this will come along with other things with actions too. I will be speaking from experience too.

The shirt saying there’s only two genders can seem harmless to someone who believes so or doesn’t know what could go wrong. The words are more harmful than what it seems. If I was a young kid that was non-binary and saw that shirt or heard those words, I would definitely feel hurt or invalidated. It’s like you’re being told that you aren’t who you are. For some people, they could end up feeling that they don’t belong in this world and should not exist and just be dead. For others, they can get insecure about who they are and sometimes may even force themselves to live a lie and may end up living miserably which is going to happen if you force yourself to live a lie.

Let’s say this thing continues in a person and now verbalizing it in public without considering how others may feel. This can cause actual danger. People is gonna get furious, upset, etc. People can go as far as being physical and harming the person or can make people hurt themselves. Those things are inevitable to happen at some point. Stuff like that is a reason why it’s important to learn to be considerate and actually be informed on stuff such as the lgbtq community and gender identity.

There is gonna be people to take it to a whole new level when it comes to lgbtq+ people. This part, I will talk about my experience. Ever since I came out around 2020 or 2021 as being apart of the lgbtq+ community as bisexual, my parents treated me worse than they already were. Around 2022, I came out as transgender, pansexual, and ace, again I kept getting treated worse. By the time I felt like I fully discovered myself as Demi-aroace, trans, genderfluid, and poly, my parents didn’t show respect to me that much and only would show some if they were caught. My mother had gone as far as saying that she’d wish I would say I wasn’t a boy. All of this treatment actually almost cost me my life multiple times and hurt me so badly that who I was before is no longer there because of it. My parents were abusive towards me and took away any love they actually had for me because of me being who I am and I was lucky enough to not be kicked out even after being threatened to multiple times. That entire story from my life is proof that if people aren’t considerate or educated, it could lead to a death of a person.

There’s also been cases where people like me got killed, abused, raped and SA’d just for being who they are.

In conclusion, I believe Liam should’ve been informed and taught about how harmful his words really were and how he should’ve been more considerate. I’m praying in the near future, he doesn’t end up like people I just described and learn to at least consider his words.

The words I would like to end this on is since it’s fitting for what happened in the video: this isn’t politics, it’s science.

Goodbye and see you next time (remember to not harass anyone!)

[speakingmyvoice]

Intro to this account:

Hello, you may call me by anon A or A or something like an shorter versions such as AA or SMV. You can use any pronouns for me whenever talking about me.

I’m under 18 so make sure you remember that I might not understand certain adult topics and can’t speak from any experience and just from how I’m viewing it.

I try to stay respectful, if I ever sound disrespectful, do not be afraid to reach out!

Remember that I’m no professional and only speaking from my view or possibly experience

You are allowed to request a topic to me to talk about but like how I just said, I’m not a professional.

I will not agree with everything and you can disagree with my points and thoughts, it would be hypocritical for me to complain about such.

With every topic I talk about wether it’s something from a fandom, real life situations, etc, do not harass anyone! It includes people who may viewed by bad from me or others, you’ll be no better.

Edit: it’s recommended to add media links just in case I may not know! Also you are allowed to speak your opinion too!

That’s it for my introduction and see you.