“At the time, one of my friends had come out as gay, and he was dating a junior. I remember the day perfectly; I saw him do it. I remember thinking in my head, ‘oh, he’s gonna get in so much trouble: he walked down the hallway with his boyfriend, holding his hand, and then gave him a kiss before he went to his class.
“That day, the administration pulled both of them out of the classroom, outed them to both their parents and said they were going to expel them… we had like three months left in our senior year, so they let him stay and they let his boyfriend stay, but they weren’t allowed to have any communication or contact during school.
“Right after this happened, I started dating my first girlfriend. And I guess some of the kids in my class saw her pick me up for lunch one day, and they told one of the administrators… it got back to me that everyone knew I was going out with her, and the administration wasn’t happy.”
— Maggie, age 18.