From my first days as a freshman at high school in Katy, a town in suburban Houston, it was obvious that school administrators have little concern for queer students.
Despite their responsibility to create an educational environment conducive to all students, it was apparent they would do little to address everyday problems like bullying and slurs. And for students hoping to find affirmation from online resources, there was a block on that content due to an “Alternative Sexual Lifestyles (GLBT)” internet filter.
This undeniably discriminatory policy remains in place today. Students struggling with their gender identity or sexuality rely on accessible internet content. For many students, that private and free access is only available at school, and denying such access is a deliberate effort to prevent students from supporting their emotional and mental well-being.
For the Katy Independent School District, and other school districts, to block the Trevor Project is especially dangerous. When a student is experiencing a mental health crisis, the ability to speak with someone on a suicide prevention lifeline is a matter of life or death.
Katy ISD claims that the Trevor Project must be blocked to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, a federal law primarily intended to protect children from online predators. District officials say the website’s “chat capabilities” — no different than those on Facebook or Twitter — are the specific reason for the restricted access.
However, Facebook and Twitter are completely accessible. The assumption that people communicating on the Trevor Project are predatory is bigoted and homophobic, just as it’s more important to a student to offer life-saving support than to provide a portal to all the misinformation and hatred about queer people being propagated on major social media sites.
School officials have said sites with LGBTQ+ content are not part of the educational curriculum or common classroom activities. Yet they won’t explain how People magazine, ESPN, Gun Show Trader, or Breitbart meet this same standard.
These officials have also noted that suicide prevention resources exist outside of the Trevor Project, which is true, but irrelevant. If district officials are concerned a student is contemplating taking their own life, those officials would offer access to all resources — without exception — that might prevent a teen suicide.
Since June 2021, my classmates and I have been organizing to bring attention to the discriminatory actions by school districts like mine. We started an online petition that has gathered support from more than 1,000 community members. We have spoken at school board meetings and met with district officials who promised us they would unblock LGBTQ+ content. So far, they have only delivered us broken promises.
Given the ways that school administrators have chosen to implement the district’s internet policies, it’s clear to us that we are not seen in the same way as other students. To Katy ISD officials, our very existence is so inherently perverse that they would simply erase us.
Their message is that we ourselves, and our experiences, are neither “educational” nor “appropriate.” Blocking access to resources that support our mental health and intellectual development simply because we dare to accept who we are at this age is the definition of oppression. We recognize that they have specifically targeted us in an attempt to undermine our confidence.
Adolescence is a critical time for developing a healthy self-awareness. While legal equality for LGBTQ+ people has become more widespread over the past few decades, genuine tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion of our community has not.
There are harmful consequences for youth who lack just one supportive friend, who are deathly afraid to come out, and who feel completely alone and isolated by the identity that defines them. LGBTQ+ students deserve dignity and support for our own well being as much as any other student in this country. We have the basic human right to develop self-esteem and be welcomed in a diverse society. We expect the public schools we attend every day to see us as human beings and not a political inconvenience.
There is no doubt the culture war in Texas is being waged against its own children, and we who are negatively impacted by the hateful policies of fanatical political leaders cannot be abstracted or disregarded. We demand to be seen and heard. The Lone Star State is a place of increasing ethnic and cultural diversity where we will continue to stand up for ourselves and for one another. We’re fighting back because we’re Texans and that’s what we do.
Last edited:
