PRIDE & SELF ESTEEM

“All I want out of this is for me and other gay students to be able to go to school without being preached to and without being expected to lie about who we are,” said Thomas McLaughlin, 14 year old student in Arkansas. "My school forced me out of the closet when I should have been allowed to come out to my family on my own terms and when I thought it was the right time. And now the school has been trying to shove me back into it ever since," McLaughlin said. "I’m through with being silenced, and I don’t want this happening to other gay kids at my school."