Humans of San Marin: January 30, 2019

“At my old school I was president of Teens Against Discrimination Club. We were at a Catholic school and because of the religious affiliation, they couldn’t have a Gay-Straight Alliance. That was something we saw a need for on campus, because people were still saying stuff like ‘that’s so gay’ or ‘fag.’ So we thought to have this leeway that was Teens Against Discrimination Club, which we actually really liked in the end, because it kept things open-ended. We could talk about racial discrimination, discrimination based on income, things like that. Through that club, we did stuff like March For Our Lives, which was also a struggle . . . There was a lot of pushback as far as freedom of speech because it doesn’t apply like it does here. Everything has to go through the dioceses. We had to register the event under the Planned Parenthood site and we couldn’t do that because they were like ‘Planned Parenthood talks about abortion’ but that really wasn’t the point. And there would be parents reaching out like ‘I don’t want my children to be politically associated with this.’ There was a lot of pushback all the time. That’s part of the reason why I transferred. I really loved the school but it just didn’t end up aligning with my beliefs anymore, and I grew out of it. It was holding me back more than helping me, even though the school was so great. That being my passion just didn’t align with me going there anymore.” (12th)