in a class assignment

Alright so i am pretty much out at school but i don't exactly broadcast it and i have a pretty small group of friends and they dont say much to outsde people. So needless to say the majority of my classmates have no idea i'm gay.

In my english class today we had to give a speech. Mine i wrote to combat LGBT bullying as if i was addressing the whole school; and in it i said i was gay. i was sooo scared but glad i did. My teacher said it was one of the most powerful speeches she's heard in that class so thats cool. I was shaking so much but i think i'm out completly at school now which is nice, and so is the A+!

Here's my speech

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” This is the mentality that children today are taught to have starting as early as elementary school, but it just isn’t true. It’s particularly false to that young gay kid who hears homophobic comments hurled at him before he has even come to terms with himself. It is not only mean and inappropriate, it could be fatal.

Here in Western Massachusetts we should be particularly aware of the repercussions of anti – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender bullying. Remember not so long ago a little boy named Carl Walker-Hoover killed himself in Springfield after endless teasing, taunting, and bullying; he was only 11 years old. This is a tragedy that never should have happened, yet similar stories leak all the time.

You may say to yourself; I am not a bully. I do not harass and taunt my peers due to their sexual orientation or gender expression. How many of you out there who do not consider yourself a bully stand up for the victims? How many of you befriend LGBT students knowing that they are so? And how many of you use the term, “that’s so gay”?

The term “that’s so gay” is so embedded into high school culture that it is heard everywhere in many situations. Say your teacher announces, “Chapter test tomorrow” there is bound to be someone to respond with “wow that’s gay.” When something seems unfair, someone’s bound to say, “that’s gay,” when something goes wrong, “that’s gay,” when something is unfamiliar, “that’s gay.” No, that is not gay. That is not what gay is. Gay refers to two things and two things only; jolly, merry, or gleeful; or a person
attracted to the same gender. Gay does not mean stupid. I am not stupid.

Today we live in a day where a huge contradiction takes place. Many of the same people who misuse terms such as gay, or even those who intentionally hurt LGBT students are the same people that sing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way at the top of their lungs. Do you not hear her when she says:

No matter gay, straight, or bi,
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to survive

How can this song be an anthem for all of you when you work so hard to void its meaning? “No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life” here she means that it really does not matter who you are or who you love. “I’m on the right track baby”; she and everyone else is living the life they were meant to live.

“I was born to survive” We are all born to survive in life. Not only survive but a full and happy life. Lady Gaga pleads for an equal and kind world for all her little monsters, and the people of the world; especially those who need the support the most.

Those who need it the most today are the LGBT students. These are kids in your school, my school, that are suffering from the cruel usage of words around them. Words are especially powerful things. Buddha once said, “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or for ill.” Every word that comes out of your mouth affects another human being; intentional or not.

And think about those words I have not mentioned here. Think about how common gay slurs are in high school. There is no getting away from is. That is the sad thing.
Many of you may not even realize there is a problem. But I do. I am the target of this enough, to make me uncomfortable to come to school at times. Yes, sometimes comments are directed straight at me, even with the progress that has been made in the last decade. More common however is overhearing comments. Honestly, that doesn’t hurt any less.

As students here at ----- High I ask you to try to choose words more carefully. And to the administration, teachers, and staff here today; I thank you for listening. I hope you can keep working to make this school safe and comfortable for all of the students here. There is a problem that needs to be addressed and it needs to keep being addressed until there will be no more Carl Walker-Hoovers. No more fear for any LGBT student walking into the doors of this or any school. No more hateful comments or slurs.

Thank you for this opportunity; and I want to leave you with this. Why should I be treated any differently, and have so many more challenges in school, because I am gay?

 

thanks guys! you make me smile my teacher said it was really powerful and one of the best she's heard ever and in chemistry today a couple people said it was really good and they were inspired that i could give it. one girl even said it got her thinking all day.

if i could get over the nerves thing i would LOVE to give it in front of the whole school as it's intended. i can't believe i'm getting sooo much postive feedback; its awsome! so if anyone had a problem with it, they haven't said anything

 

YAY! thats my favorite part if the whole thing made me happy to say