"I talked to Michael and wished him the best, and told him he would have to make his own decisions, and we’d support him whatever he decided to do," he said. “I think once a person hears what he's trying to say, you'd say, 'Yeah, that's a good idea.'"

Matt Davis, the speech coach at Lincoln East High who had considered asking his student to boycott the NET production to support Barth, said he used what happened as a “teachable moment” about the power of the spoken word.

“I told (my afternoon classes) about the situation and what had happened," Davis said. "This stuff was mobilized in the last 12 hours. It’s pretty amazing.”

Barth, who was accepted in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, said the NSAA's initial decision upset him, but in the end, there was no other option than for him to stand his ground.

“I was nervous at first but making the decision was really easy because I didn’t want to change. I didn’t want to back down from my views. I didn’t want to let them win,” he said.

And he’s heartened that there’s an air of change in the speech community about topics like gender identity. But he doesn’t feel he’s the one creating the change.