Kyle’s über-glittery, disco-fabulous shoes, NCLR Anniversary Dinner, San Francisco, CA.
My fondest, or close to my fondest hope this week is that I’ll be able to wrestle some time to tell you a bit about the young man filling these. Though they may look to be no bigger than a size 6 or 7, rest assured, they are in actuality enormous.
Why? Kyle goes to high school in the Anoka-Henepin School District in the Northern (read: Michelle Bachman) suburbs of Minneapolis, the one with the cluster of eight homophobic harrassment-induced suicides in two years (a concise background here at BlogHer; a lengthy, rich piece at Rolling Stone). Either because of or in spite of enduring withering harassment, you decide, Kyle stood with a handful of his peers to fight the “don’t say gay” policy there which helped enable the district to become a crucible for anti-gay hate. In early March this year they won an agreement from the school district in a case argued by attorneys from National Center for Lesbian Rights. NCLR honored him and his fellow defendants at their 35th Anniversary dinner and party last Saturday night, and make no mistake, these young people were received like the towering heroes they are.
‘Til I can wrestle the time to tell any of this in further detail, here’s the recent New York Times piece on the agreement that was reached. Below, Kyle speaks for himself in an interview posted at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s YouTube channel: