new column:

"Sticks and Stones"

Fag.

Faggot.

Scene I:
Ninth Grade.
High School Cafeteria.
Lunchtime.
Group of schoolmates eating together at long rectangular table.
Me: trying to eat and enjoy my lunch period with friends.
Bullies: making kissy-faces towards me and pretending to come on to me in order to make fun of me in front of the others.
Girls: yelling at them to leave me alone.
Me: quiet, crying inside, wishing this wasn't happening, hating every minute of it.
Everyday occurrence.

Queer.

Sissy.

Scene II:
Eighth Grade.
Science Class.
Me: Front row trying to do my schoolwork.
Bullies: Rows behind shooting spitwads at me.
One small spitwad gets stuck in my eye.
Everybody laughs.

Fairy.

Tinkerbell.

Scene III:
School Bus.
Idling in parking lot waiting for afterschool crowd.
Me: alone and quiet.
Bullies: calling me names and making fun of me to the crowd while everyone laughs.
Everyday occurrence.

These are not extraordinary events. These are a few of the many everyday occurrences I remember growing up as a teenager. Many of our young people currently have similar everyday occurrences. For the simple sake of being different in a crowd of youth, many of us are taunted and bullied and afraid and alone. Some of not just hit with words. Lawrence King was murdered in February for being different. Other teenagers around the world suffer daily at the hands of those who will not see.

There is new hope and legal rights and recourse and support. We are living in a time of change and possibilities I certainly never dreamed of when I was a teenager. I give thanks everyday for this new hope.

Reese Is-(a-tinker)-bell
Reese Aaron Isbell