The more I speak with young people the more I am encouraged about the future of our country. It seems today’s generation of young adults is not hung up with many of the prejudices that were present in my generation. Not to say bigotry is gone, but it’s on the decline.
A case in point comes from Ponce de Leon High School in Northern Florida. In that school, a young lesbian was being harassed. When she brought the matter up to the principal, he told her to stop wearing gay pride T-shirts. Not much of a solution, but it s Florida. In the meantime some of her straight friends came to her cause and began to wear slogans such as “I Support My Gay Friends”. The school cracked down on them as well. Now the students have taken it to the ACLU. In the words of a straight student Heather Gillman, a 16-year-old junior at the school. "Nobody should have to worry about being kicked out of school just for having a rainbow sticker on your notebook."
The ACLU agreed and has taken up the case and sought an injunction to stop Ponce de Leon High School officials from suppressing students' First Amendment rights in the future. For some students at the school the issue of gay rights in not just a gay issue, and that is a hopeful sign.
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