Texas high school’s first LGBT-friendly yearbook soured by parents’ hate
A wonderful display of LGBT pride from a high school student has been soured – by the students’ parents.
Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas has never had a pride section in its annual yearbook, but this year’s editor-in-chief Kyle Armour changed all that.
The section, titled Prideful Eagles, featured coming out stories from kids at the school which ran the full gamut from heartbreaking to heartwarming.
This moving gesture was ruined by none other than students’ parents, who took to social media and a local forum to express their “disgust”.
Natalie Mendoza, a senior, was one of those included in the LGBT section. She identifies as gay and Catholic, and gave the kick-ass senior quote: “I can turn your girl.”
Senior year is lit pic.twitter.com/ABi1RsyGZy
— Natalie Mendoza (@mendoza21__) May 17, 2017
One parent wrote under the name SteelerNation: “That’s jamming their crap down our throats!”
Another user, named lynnsgirl, protested: “We can’t pray in school but now we have a section strictly dedicated to the gay community explaining how, when and why the came ‘out’.
“I’m honestly disgusted and embarrassed.”
Mendoza said seeing comments like these had made her feel ashamed of her identity.
“My friends know my sexual orientation and love and respect me regardless,” she told the Houston Chronicle.
“There were many immature and ridiculous jokes, but mine, in specific, stood out due to my sexual orientation,” she said.
Another student chose “VIVA MEXICO” as her senior quote, to which SteelerNation, apparently not caring that they were abusing a teenager, responded: “Hope they self-deport. That crap does not belong in a USA yearbook.
“They need to throw those books in a pile and burn them, like THEY do the America flag.”
Kimberly Hicks Armour, the editor-in-chief’s mother, said her son had wanted to show the diversity of the school in order to make each student feel welcome and accepted.
“His goal was to be as inclusive as possible for the entire student and to make everyone feel important in the book,” she said.
Some people were posting online were attacking her son directly, she said.
“People were saying he was dumb, not smart, that I should not be proud of who he is.
“I’m very proud of who he is,” she said.
“He did take a stand and make something diverse for the community and to our school.”
Writing on Twitter yesterday, Kyle responded by saying: “My mother supports me so much and I can’t be grateful enough.”
The school briefly halted distribution of the yearbooks and moved to censor the so-called offensive parts, but u-turned and decided to hand out the books as planned.
We are releasing the yearbooks in their original form.
— The Atascocita HS (@HumbleISD_AHS) May 23, 2017
