Shit Is Going Down In The Central Valley
There is this massive scandal that is unfolding. For those who do not know what I mean, a while back the leaders of the ASB (Student Government) club at a high school in Visalia, CA (which is 25 minutes east of where I grew up) were posing for a picture with letters on their shirts, spelling out something related to their school. Well, after the official photo was taken, they arranged themselves to take another photo, this time spelling out a homophobic slur. Mind you, they did this in a PACKED GYMNASIUM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. And of course there's photo of it, the photo leaked on Instagram, and all of the local news outlets have reported on it. I'm not going to share the photo out of fear for this getting taken down if I do, but I highly recommend you do more research on this. From my understanding, the school district made a post condemning this, and rumor has it one of the students in that photo (btw these are all seniors) lost their scholarship to Point Loma Nazarene University. I've been seeing more and more posts on social media about this get attention from all around the country, and it is so fucking bizarre to see so many people pay attention to the Central Valley, especially because of something like this.
But also, it is embarrassing. Like I said, I grew up a town 25min west of Visalia. I am gay. I live in a weird in-between of being closeted at home, and out to pretty much everyone else. It is a miracle that someone has not showed a post of mine to my parents in order to out me (not like I ended up not being outed anyways). But the Central Valley, and especially the SOUTHERN Central Valley, is definitely NOT a welcoming space for LGBT individuals. I still remember in middle school, being called the t slur when I was experimenting with my gender identity. I remember being called the f slur so many times in middle school. When I got to high school, the environment was slightly better in that slurs weren't used to much, but the anti-LGBT sentiment is still pretty widespread. I have always supported GNC individuals, but most of my peers firmly believed that my GNC friends were mentally ill, that there only exist 2 real genders. At my HS there did exist a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club, but even then, it was hardly active. I later learned that the early days of GSA at my HS were so fucking horrible. The teacher who founded it got threats, parents tried to stop it for years, tried to shut it down in various ways, etc.
Much of the Central Valley counties voted to ban gay marriage the 2 times that it was on the ballot by wide margins. Kings County, where I am from, voted 75-25 to ban marriage equality in 08'. The mayor of my hometown protested gay marriage and is firmly anti-choice. The Central Valley, again, is not a safe space for queer people. Things are starting to change, but it will be a long, long time before we see LGBT individuals be truly accepted and CELEBRATED, not just tolerated, in the community.
We have LGBT elected officials now. We have LGBT resource centers (s/o to The Source in Visalia!) . From my understanding, the school district there does seem ready and willing to take action to hold these stupid, stupid homophobic teenagers accountable. They will not be able to get away from their actions. They will learn to not do this again, to grow as people. The LGBT community in the Central Valley will grow and go on, as Gov. Gavin Newsom says, "whether you like it or not."
I did not think my first post in years would be this long. But oh my god I am so glad people are recognizing how horrible life is in the Central Valley for gay and trans people. If you read this whole rant, thank you.
