Taking a stand against anti-gay bullying

I am Marcel Neergaard, and I am 11 years old. This year I was homeschooled for sixth grade because of severe bullying. If I had gone back to public school, there is a great possibility that I would have taken my own life. That possibility would have grown if a certain bill introduced in my home state of Tennessee had passed into law. This bill was known as the "don't say gay" bill. Though that bill never became a law, Oak Ridge's own representative, John Ragan, introduced a new version of the Classroom Protection Act. It is the "don't say gay" bill, just more homophobic. While he crafted this horrifying bill, he received an award. I wrote a etitpion to take a stand against this.

During my first year in middle school, I experienced severe bullying. I was called terrible names that were quite hurtful. At that time, I had just realized that I'm gay, and the bullies used the word "gay" as an insult.

source: Article 'Taking a Stand Against Anti-Gay Bullying' by Marcel Neergaard (11-year-old gay activist and future musical actor); www.huffingtonpost.com/marcel-neergaard/taking-a-stand-against-anti-gay-bullying_b_3368922.html; Huffington Post; 1 June 2013