Credit…Todd Anderson for The New York Times
Will Larkins, a high school junior, did just that. Larkins appeared before a Florida Senate committee and wrote a guest essay in The New York Times, “Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Will Hurt Teens Like Me.” In it, Larkins writes:
Last October, I attended a high school Halloween party. A group of guys from my school surrounded me and shouted homophobic slurs. One even threatened me with physical violence. When I broke down crying in class the next day, my teacher comforted me. She told me that she had gone through something similar when she was my age.