Students at a Pennsylvania high school held an “Anti-Gay Day” protest on Thursday, wearing coordinated flannel shirts, writing “anti-gay” on their hands, and sticking Bible verses on LGBT students’ lockers.The school is investigating these allegations, but says that they haven't found evidence of the "lynch list," nor have they found witnesses to any of the reported physical harassment. It makes you wonder why they don't check out some of these Instagram accounts for verification. But what do I know?
“We came in to school on Thursday and found a lot of people wearing flannel and we couldn’t figure out why,” Zoe Johnson, a 16-year-old bisexual student at McGuffey High School in Claysville, told BuzzFeed News. “People started getting pushed and notes were left on people’s lockers.”
The anti-gay protest occurred a day after students with the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) held a “Day of Silence,” an event aimed at drawing attention to anti-gay bullying.
“I got called a dyke, a faggot,” Johnson said. “They were calling us every horrible name you can think of...”
“The instigators, the bullies, seemed to be very proud of their efforts, and posted many smiling pictures online,” Cameron said.
Johnson said some of the students uploaded Bible verses to Instagram and tagged out gay classmates. She also said some students began circulating a “lynch list” of students who had participated in the Day of Silence and that a noose was tied to a flag in one teacher’s classroom.
“This is a troubling turn of events,” wrote Sue Kerr, editor-in-chief of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, in a blog post. “These kids didn’t just spontaneously pull a homophobic move. They have a plan. They have coordinated outfits.”
Personally, I don't like the "Day of Silence" events. I think that it distracts kids from actually doing classwork. But this type of backlash -- if only half-correct -- is totally unacceptable. It makes you wonder if any of the teachers offered any negative feedback to these anti-gay students who were making an effort of intimidating other students throughout this school day?