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My school would have expelled me for who I am. Why should it get federal money?
My school would have expelled me for who I am. Why should it get federal money?
By Jaclyn Grimm July 6 at 10:23 AM
Jaclyn Grimm is a rising freshman at Wesleyan University.
I attended a Baptist private school from kindergarten to ninth grade in the suburbs of Central Florida. Every other day, we’d file into gender-segregated Bible classes and write prayer requests on the whiteboard until the bell rang.
Eighth grade was the first year our teachers deemed us mature enough to discuss homosexuality. We pored over Sodom and Gomorrah and memorized verses from Leviticus. In the hallways, boys grew fond of the words “homo” and “fag.” We learned about homosexuality the way we would a vocabulary word — definition: abomination.
This is the type of school that would thrive if President Trump’s budget were to be implemented. The administration’s proposed budget includes $250 million for studying and expanding school voucher programs, centered around private schools such as the one that I attended and eventually left. As a result, Trump’s budget is tacitly supporting discrimination.
The general disdain for the LGBT community at my school didn’t surprise me, even as a 13-year-old — I had grown up understanding that marriage was between a man and a woman. But I was still surprised to discover that I could be expelled for being bisexual. In my mind, expulsion meant being dangerous or bad. But my student handbook was clear: Practice, self-identifying statements or public promotion of being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender would result in being kicked out. In the list of sinful offenses, bisexuality came immediately before bestiality and incest.
By Jaclyn Grimm July 6 at 10:23 AM
Jaclyn Grimm is a rising freshman at Wesleyan University.
I attended a Baptist private school from kindergarten to ninth grade in the suburbs of Central Florida. Every other day, we’d file into gender-segregated Bible classes and write prayer requests on the whiteboard until the bell rang.
Eighth grade was the first year our teachers deemed us mature enough to discuss homosexuality. We pored over Sodom and Gomorrah and memorized verses from Leviticus. In the hallways, boys grew fond of the words “homo” and “fag.” We learned about homosexuality the way we would a vocabulary word — definition: abomination.
This is the type of school that would thrive if President Trump’s budget were to be implemented. The administration’s proposed budget includes $250 million for studying and expanding school voucher programs, centered around private schools such as the one that I attended and eventually left. As a result, Trump’s budget is tacitly supporting discrimination.
The general disdain for the LGBT community at my school didn’t surprise me, even as a 13-year-old — I had grown up understanding that marriage was between a man and a woman. But I was still surprised to discover that I could be expelled for being bisexual. In my mind, expulsion meant being dangerous or bad. But my student handbook was clear: Practice, self-identifying statements or public promotion of being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender would result in being kicked out. In the list of sinful offenses, bisexuality came immediately before bestiality and incest.
