BACKLASH AND BATHROOMS
publication of the pieces, the school district is ‘undermining parental authority.’” Upper Arlington News also covered the meeting; “Susan Miller, a parent of a 15-year-old student, … said schools are not in the position to encourage students to ‘come out’. She said ‘14 to 17 year-olds have enough to deal with.’ ‘Respect my right as a parent to deal with the topic consistent with my beliefs and morals,’ Miller said.” In the following weeks after the Board of Education meeting, UA News published seven total letters to the editor, both in favor of the article and in rebuke of it. A parent “issued a press release that called the article in the Arlingtonian ‘radical and in favor of homosexuality’”, according to a UA News article titled ‘Parent says coverage promoted homosexual lifestyle’. In that press release, parent Linda Harvey said “homosexual activists must be very pleased with this propaganda piece for their movement… but a lot of damage has been done in distributing misleading information to children that may endanger lives.” One of the UA News letters to the editor was written by Harvey, arguing that calling someone a homophobe was hurtful and that “no one is a homophobe who mourns the entry of a young person into a life [of being gay] that will probably shorten his life.” “[O]nly an ill-informed person swayed by the latest trend in political correctness could still believe [being gay] is a civil right or an inevitable ‘identity’. If we buy into this, we will soon be affirming 10-year-olds in this pretend identity,” Harvey wrote. “There is no such thing as a gay child or teen, only those who practice homosexual behavoir.” In the face of the backlash against the article, community members, UAHS Principal Kip Greenhill and the Board of Education defended Arlingtonian’s public forum and freedom from school censorship. Many also expressed their support for Waring and the publication through various letters to the editor. This wasn’t the last FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @UAARLINGTONIAN
time queer students were covered in Arlingtonian; recent coverage ranges from students’ coming out experiences to views on same-sex marriage. Coverage in recent years included two nonbinary students’ experiences at the high school, the youth Christian group Young Life and an anonymous transgender student’s experiences being closeted.
▲ BEYOND THE RAINBOW Rainbow UA concieved of, planned and hosted UA’s first Pride event. PHOTO COURTESY KATHY ADAMS
BE YOURSELF, FACE THE CONSEQUENCES While there have been many advances in LGBTQ+ rights in the last 20 years, those in the queer community still face discrimination, violence and legal barriers every day. Despite the progress made since the 2001 article’s publication, queer students in UA still face similar issues of homophobia, transphobia and rejection. “I had a teacher who would purposely misgender me, and on PowerSchool [he would] pull up my dead name … and he would show it and didn’t think of privacy or anything. I’ve had a few past classmates make inappropriate comments [and] W W W . A R L ING T O NIA N. COM | 23