#maybe theyll let me speak without allowing a homophobe to

[antiterf]

You know how adults go "oh no one came out as trans or gay when I was a kid. Must be all social!"

I graduated high school in 2019. So many people in that school only came out after they graduated because it's in such a conservative evangelical area.

Many of the teachers and stuff were commuting from Chicago because Illinois public school system sucks for anyone who's not in an upper middle class area and were supportive.

The issue was mainly being afraid of parental backlash. The GSA tried to get more comprehensive sex ed (we didn't even learn about mouth guards, all we learned about was condoms with a huge push on abstinence), and immediantly got a no because it can come off as "encouraging" that behavior. The school counselors tried to keep the GSA from inviting older queer people to speak because then they may be forced to allow anti gay speakers in.

The Day of Silence got so many students picked on and for a video about it the club got in trouble for showing two boys kissing. It was rebranded by students as "for kids who committed suicide from bullying" without the LGBTQ part. The Day of Silence.

That was the club that allowed me to come out and accept myself by the way. It wasn't all negative but it was beyond limited and filled with the reminder that we were not welcome like cishet students were.

I came out in that school because I didn't have any other choice. My mental health was life risking at the time. When I did I got a bit more popular, but that's because I never talked or hung out with anyone before. I had to constantly be on guard though and did get harassed. There were students that actively avoided me too.

Of course I met trans people in the school, but usually they came out to me because I was the out trans person. They too avoided being too out.

ROGD was published in 2018. The year that I finally got the ability to socially transition in school. And it's so, so ignorant to what many of us outside of big cities and liberal areas go through. What people say about how it's so better now and for *my* generation are right in many ways, but also dismiss what me and many of my classmates went through. It took so much bravery to come out at that school and we were all kids.

And I know that I still had it much better than students in middle and high school right now in other schools in America.

Point is, I wish those people would shut up. Not only because their scare tactics are hurting the rights of queer kids, but because their attitudes of them are so dismissive to what they go through every day.