Zander Moritz was the first openly gay president of a student organization at Pine View’s school Osprey, Floridaand when he approached the microphone at graduation at his school on Sunday, he decided to tell the truth about his experiences – one way or another.
Earlier in May, Mr. Morich was the youngest state applicant in the country lawsuit over Florida’s so-called “Don’t Tell Gila” law – he tweeted that the principal of his school had summoned him to his office to tell Mr. Morich that his microphone would be muted at graduation if he referred to his activity in his speech.
“I am the first openly gay class teacher in the history of my school – this censorship seems to show that they want me to be the last,” Mr Morich tweeted. “This is not the first threat I have received administration about my strange rights ”.
Mr. Morich wrote that he was threatened in the same way if he helped organize a student walk to protest against the law, which prohibitions teachers do not teach young primary school students about gender and sexual orientation and prohibit any such instruction if they are “not appropriate for age or development”.
But Pine View students came out anyway, and Mr. Morich found a way to talk about his sexual orientation during his introductory speech – he never said “gay” but instead referred to it as “curly”. hair”As a euphemism.
“There will be so many children with curly hair who need a community like Pine View, and they won’t have one,” Mr Morich said in a speech. “Instead, they will try to fix themselves to exist in the humid climate of Florida.”
In an interview on ABC Good Morning America, Mr. Morich said that if the “Don’t Tell Gays” law had taken effect when he started in high school, he wouldn’t have come out.
“It actually takes away the only guaranteed safe space in most of all LGBTQ people,” Mr Morich said.
Pine View reportedly approved Mr Morich’s euphemistic speech in advance – while issuing a statement that “students are reminded that graduation should not be a platform for personal political expression … appropriate measures must be taken. “
This experience disappointed Mr. Morich.
“I knew the threat of mute was very real, so I wasn’t going to let that happen, and I just needed to be smart,” Mr. Morich said in an interview with Good Morning America. “But I didn’t have to be, because I don’t exist in euphemism, and I deserve to be celebrated as I am.”
Mr Morich, who will be studying at Harvard University in the autumn, said Florida law was designed to make schools unsafe for LGBTQ + people.
“School was an important place for me,” Mr Morich said. “It helped me find out who I am, it helped me to be confident in speaking the way I speak and being who I am, and that needs to be taken for granted.”
