GAY LIFE

Thomas McLaughlin, 14, said an assistant principal at Jacksonville Junior High School in Jacksonville, Ark., pulled him out of class last year after rumors surfaced that the boy was gay. According to McLaughlin, the assistant principal asked if his parents knew. “When I said no, she said I had until 3:40 to tell them or the school would,” McLaughlin said. He says the assistant principal also forced him to read Bible passages condemning homosexuality. “I was too upset to sit through eighth period,... so I went to the guidance counselor, and she made the call. Later, the science teacher wrote me a four-page handwritten letter about the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality, telling me I would be condemned to hell. I threw it out.”