Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.
Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn’t even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.
The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.
Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.
He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.
Wayne’s lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.
So… no.
No one in my school talked about being trans.
Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.
Also, to the original Twitter commenter: Just because *YOU* had proven yourself too much of an asshole in high school for anyone to trust you with information that could, at the time, have gotten them beaten to death, doesn’t mean that no one *ELSE* never had a friend confide in them that something Wasn’t Right with the way their body Was Supposed To Be.
sorry but i think we have got to start including masculine women in discussions about feminism because most discussions about womanhood rn are genuinely so alienating and so divorced from a lot of masc women’s experiences that we’re basically defined out of womanhood lmao. and i don’t mean women who wear baggy shirts and pants i mean MASCULINE women who get called sir by service workers and who get stared at in women’s restrooms. so many of our experiences are the direct result of misogyny but because they’re not the typical experiences of feminine women they’re ignored entirely.
since we are talking about people who deserve a higher salary i think teachers should be making six figures a year btw. if state superintendents who have never set foot in a classroom can make that much so should the teachers. teachers are quite literally the backbone of our society and if teachers were actually properly compensated we wouldn’t have a shortage or bad teachers who are continually burnout because of a lack of proper compensation.
dudes who are normal will be like im joker insane but women who have not felt real since they were seven will be like im average normal
both these people can be annoying the difference is i would trust the surreal woman with my life and soul and i would love to talk to her in the corner at a party
I see Hollywood is now very into the idea of buying something once and then owning it forever and being able to make infinite copies. Which. Isn’t quite the message they imparted upon me in my childhood. In the spirit of their own long-held stance:
