“We’re forced to struggle in the dark.” Thirteen Year Old LGBT Student Addresses School Board

A friend of mine shared this today and gave me permission to share this with the world. Her thirteen year old daughter addressed her district’s school board last night as an out lesbian arguing for the rights of LGBT students. I just want to stand up and cheer for her.



This is the face of the LGBTQ community’s future, and I couldn’t be prouder to know this family.

Transcript:

Hello, my name is Christine Larisch, 8th grader at Centerville Junior High School, president of Centerville’s GSA and an out Lesbian. I am speaking today about the FAIR Education Act, and why I think it is important and this material should be implemented as soon as possible.



For me, in my entire school carrier in FUSD, I have never been taught about anyone in the LGBT community. If my parents and other outside sources hadn’t informed me, I would have no idea who Harvey Milk was, that Sally Ride was a Lesbian, or anything about LGBT sex ed, or what Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender mean.



At school, many of my classmates think gay means stupid or wrong, homophobic slurs are the worst insults you hear. It’s not exactly a healthy climate if you ask me. I have gone my whole school career without having any one of my teachers mention someone who was like me. There was no one who I could say, “Yeah, that person looks like me! I bet that person was laughed at in the girl’s bathroom and locker room and was called names, but still look, they made something of themselves and you know that really gives me hope because if they can do it despite all that, so can I!”



There was nothing like that for me, and there is still nothing like that for me and my fellow LGBT students. We’re forced to struggle in the dark and try and find someone to identify with to give us hope while we are still struggling with our own identities and trying not to get bullied.

It is a lot to cope with.

I couldn’t tell you how much better I would feel if I had heard at some point in school that Leonardo Da Vinci might have been gay, or that Bayar Ruskin was a prominent civil rights activist or heard LGBT inclusive sex ed. I would have hope, someone to identify with and look up to. Mentioning this would also help educate students so words like gay and fag and dyke and homo weren’t used as insults.

If we had inclusive curriculum, we could stop some of the bullying that’s going on at school and if not that, then at least give students like me hope that there are people like us and we can succeed.

It’s the district’s responsibility to make a safe climate at school for every student. The district has done a big push this year for anti bullying and safer school environment, so why not use this FAIR education curriculum as soon as possible? Why wait, if it will improve school climates? So I humbly ask that you implement FAIR as soon as possible. Thank you.