I should have been a high school dropout.
Ninth grade was one of the worst years of my life. I was relentlessly bullied with anti-gay epithets. I learned not to use the school bathroom, not to eat in the school dining hall, not to be in the hallways between classes. I hid in the library instead.
In short, I learned to live in fear.
So, on the first day of 10th grade, when my Mom came to wake me up for school, I told her flatly that I was not going back to school under any circumstances. She was incredulous — I was an A student after all, so why didn’t I want to go to school?
Reluctantly, I told her about the bullying and, infuriated, she said, “OK. We are going down to the central office.”
Mom marched me into the school administration office and let them know in no uncertain terms that they would be moving me to a new, safer school. At first, they, too, were incredulous — who did this woman think she was? But they didn’t realize how determined my Mom was for me to get an education.
Having had to drop out of school after sixth grade during the Depression to go to work, my Mom spent her life in minimum wage jobs due to her own lack of education, and she was intent on making sure that was not going to happen to me.
When the administrators realized how adamant she was, they gave in and moved me to a new school. I finished high school and became the first member of my family to earn a college degree because of my mother’s insistence that I be in a safe school.
As we prepare to go back to school across America, I know that there are millions of LGBTQ+ students who are getting what I used to call my “Sunday funny feeling,” the nausea that would strike me on Sunday night when I realized I had to go back to school the next morning.
You see, schools remain unsafe places for far too many LGBTQ+ students, and the enactment of “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” laws in places like Florida and Iowa are not making it any better. No wonder the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that,even in 2023, LGBTQ+ students are four times more likely to attempt suicide than non-LGBTQ+ students.
I have a message for those students, and the parents and teachers who want to support them in their right to get an education: Lambda Legal has your back.
For three decades Lambda Legal has relentlessly fought for the rights of LGBTQ+ students and we have won historic protections you can rely on if your schools let you down. These include:
- The right to be protected from bullying and harassment, which we won in Nabonzy v. Podlesny back in 1996.
- The right to have a GSA or similar kind of school club, which we won in Colin v. Orange County Unified in 2000.
- The right to use the bathroom appropriate to your gender identity, which we are fighting for across the country right now. We actually just had a major victory in Idaho on this issue this month in Roe, et al v. Critchfield, et al.
We currently have dozens of lawsuits going in nearly 30 states, many of them seeking to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ young people. As we have been for 50 years, we are standing by your side.
Someday, I hope LGBTQ+ students will study bigotry in their history classes instead of experiencing it in their hallways. Until that day arrives, Lambda Legal will be here, fighting for them.
Kevin Jennings (he/him/his)
CEO, Lambda Legal
Check out more of our blogs here, including other Back-to-School pieces and write-ups about National Coming Out Day and Banned Books Week.