Taylor Victor
Photo: American Civil Liberties Union
‘Lesbian’ Shirt oppresses her while helps her confront discrimination
When sixteen-year-old Taylor Victor wore a t-shirt that read “Nobody Knows I’m a Lesbian” to school last August in central California, she caused a lot of controversy, unbeknownst to the teen.
School administrators told her to take the shirt off, wear another one, or go home. Victor decided to go home that day. She was told the shirt was “disruptive, disrespectful of religious values, and promoted sex,” according to The Advocate. She later sued her school, because she wanted to be free to be herself.
Victor said she called the American Civil Liberties Union about the mistreatment because she didn’t feel she could be herself at school.
“The best way to describe it is that it was dawning on me that maybe I wasn’t going to be fully able to be myself at school,” Victor said to Mashable.
The lawsuit was settled last week. While the school did not admit to any wrongdoing, they did pay expenses for Victor’s attorneys. They also changed their dress code and started a training course for teachers on student’s free speech rights.
“I’ve had people tell me in other states that they heard about my story, so I hope that this reaches as many people as possible,” Victor told Mashable. “Other kids — and it doesn’t have to do with just sexual orientation, it could be religious beliefs, political beliefs too — I hope they know that schools can’t censor them completely like that. Their First Amendment travels with them.”
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