Oliver Baez spent two months rehearsing a scene for a school play in which his character confronts another student about bullying a gay student who takes his own life.
After much preparation, the 12-year-old’s small scene turned into a big problem among school officials in Wheatland, Wyoming. At the last minute they canceled the anti-bullying play, saying it did not conform to school values and leaving the young cast without a stage.
“It was awful,” Baez said. “For the school to cancel it, it’s like saying that ‘LGBTQ should not be included in a society.’ Which is really awful and cruel.”
Twenty-five years after a watershed moment for the gay rights movement — the murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student in a university town not far from Wheatland — the canceled performances of “The Bullying Collection” show how far the LGBTQ+ community still has to go to gain acceptance in Wyoming and elsewhere.
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A local theater group, the Platte County Players, has permission to perform there and salvaged the rights to the play and sponsored the performance a month later at the high school, as originally planned.
Ah okay so my mistake was being born. Well the fact that I exist on the same planet as shitty people like you may prove that point.
Yeah, you really messed up coming out the womb. But as I said, we all make mistakes! I still love you
If only I came out of a titty instead of a womb things would be different
That’s definitely true. I’d still love you though
Oh so you identify as loving now? Funny
I may be funny to you but I mean it!