by Sara Lewis

“Gay is not the way, just kill yourself.” These words were written on the back of a survey that I handed out to one of many classes at Hudson High School. These words stung me. They brought tears to my eyes and ended every bit of happiness I had that day.

As an out-of-the-closet bisexual, I have braced myself for many words of hate.

Kill yourself.

The words were painful.

I expected maybe some negative feedback, but never did I expect the school to be so homophobic. After analyzing the results of my survey, my feelings were beyond mixed. Out of the 109 students surveyed in grades 8 through 12, 27 students said they wouldn’t feel comfortable around gay, bi, transgender individuals. That leaves 77 people who did feel comfortable, and 4 who said maybe.

They may not seem like a lot, but often times those 27 people can strongly voice their opinion.

I question if some people lied just to make me feel better, because when students in the hall see my girlfriend and me holding hands they seem shocked. However many relationships of male and female get no stares at all for doing much worse at school.

Why do we stand out so much? Is it because we are two girls? Or is it because we are open and happy with our relationship?

Ribbon day and having students sign a pledge to respect all of those who are gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender have attempted to stop homophobia.  But as much as we would wish to think such acts help us, I feel that those acts actually cause more people to hate us.

They don’t want to hear us complain about not being accepted; that makes them hate us more.

The Ribbon day and pledge are supposed to “get people knowing that we do exist,” Health teacher Dee Grassey says.

Are people so ignorant to think that we don’t exist? Because we are here; we exist. We aren’t leaving anytime soon.

I am hopeful that people will start to become more accepting of us in this high school.

It’s clear GSA (Gay, Straight Alliance) at our school is trying hard to do so. But they have little support. Sadly the GSA, which meets on Wednesdays, has only around 5 or 6 regular members.

It seems the true message all of us are trying to get across is, we are here. We are not going to be crushed under harsh words or ignorant people who tell us to kill ourselves.