We asked teens (and alums) from three Southern high schools what it's like to grow up gay, out, and active in the South — and how homophobic the place really is.
Two years ago, a Mississippi high school made headlines when it banned Constance McMillen from taking her girlfriend to prom -- parents even organized a fake prom to keep her away from the real one. And this January, Tennessee teen Philip Parker committed suicide after suffering persistent anti-gay bullying. For gay teens, it can seem like growing up in a Southern state is a sure path to harassment. But some teens are fighting back against this narrative — I talked to the members of Gay-Straight Alliances at three southern high schools to find out what it's like to be out and active in a place that's not known for its tolerance. What I learned: it's hard, but it might be getting easier. And growing up in the South can actually increase teens' appetite for change.
Dohyun Ahn, now a student at Emory University, decided to start a Gay-Straight Alliance at Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia in 2009. After he came out, he says he discovered "there was no community to help those who were coming out or to let those who had come out feel safe and comfortable." He explains,
At first, I didn't know what I could do with all this conviction, but I met a friend who suggested the idea of creating a GSA at the school. At that moment, a light bulb went on in my head, and I knew that's what I had to do.
Metro Atlanta Queer and Allied Teens. Photo courtesy of MAQAT.
It wasn't easy. His classmate Anne Stillwagon, who helped Ahn found the GSA, says Assistant Principal Marla Hutton tried to quash the group: "when the club was proposed, she denied it without any consultation and was extremely hostile and rude to us." But Walton's principal found out the school was legally bound to recognize the club (the ACLU has successfully campaigned, and sometimes sued, on behalf of GSAs in the past). Once it was formed, Walton's GSA still had a lot to contend with. Says Ahn,
What is interesting about my school and community is that there were no (reported) physical violence against LGBTQ people. The violence was done through microaggressions, through the climate, through sheer ignorance, through the looks and stares of judgment. [...] My school was mostly self-avowed Republicans and deeply religious Southern Baptists. And not much friendliness or support was shown for LGBTQ students. There would be a few isolated from each other here and there, but it seems that the general climate of homophobia prevented them from coming together and forming a community. The ignorance forced the few LGBTQ students to basically justify their existence over and over again, and that is very tiring and sometimes frightening.
