I never felt safe enough in high school to give much attention to myself. Many things at that age gnawed at me from the inside out – my sexuality, my gender, my friendships developing in ways that weren’t strictly platonic – and I had to ignore large portions of that because my environment didn’t prioritize the safety of their LGBTQ+ students.

My lesbian friends got called out for PDA in the lunch room with more frequency and intensity than I had ever seen applied to a straight couple. I proposed a bill during a mock senate that would help improve K-12 education on LGBTQ+ identities, and a classmate went unchallenged when he claimed that doing so would hurt children because it would normalize the idea that they could “become something they’re not.” I witnessed a substitute teacher yell at and discipline a trans student for not responding to their deadname because no adult thought to put their new name on the roll call sheet.

These incidents were the product of an environment that, regardless of intent, cultivated and fostered the idea that LGBTQ+ people were something to be shunned. For the sake of future Alpena High graduates, I hope this changes soon.

GABBY BOURGEOIS,

Alpena