The 17-year-told was decided to make the presentation about the Stonewall riots upon finding out the topic wasn’t being covered in the class curriculum, Larkin told Washington Post.
Non-binary teen in Florida gives the best lesson in saying Gay after a teacher asks “What’s Stonewall?”
This Florida teen went viral for their lesson on the Stonewall Uprising just days after Gov. DeSantis signed the controversial bill limiting LGBTQ discussion in schools into law.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, formally titled the ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill into law on 28 March, barring discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3 and, for those students students who are older, requiring “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” discussion, a yardstick which is worryingly blurry at best.
17-year-old junior at Winter Park High School Will Larkins, who is president and co-founder of the school’s Queer Student Union, testified against the bill in the Florida Senate on Feb. 28 and led a walkout of more than 500 high school students on March 7 to protest the legislation.
Just days after the bill was signed, Will, who goes by the handle @proudtwinkie on Twitter, shared a video to social media along with the caption: “LGBTQ American history is not taught in Floridas public schools, so I took it upon myself to explain the events of the Stonewall Uprising to my 4th period US history class. #SayGayAnyway”
LGBTQ American history is not taught in Floridas public schools, so I took it upon myself to explain the events of the Stonewall Uprising to my 4th period US history class. #SayGayAnyway pic.twitter.com/A73TKPlWXF
— Will Larkins (@ProudTwinkie) April 3, 2022
The 17-year-told was decided to make the presentation about the Stonewall riots upon finding out the topic wasn’t being covered in the class curriculum, Larkin told Washington Post.
Because Larkins’s class had recently been learning about pivotal historical events from the late 1960s and early 1970s in America, they said they’d asked the teacher: “Are we going to learn about Stonewall?”
The teacher’s response, Larkins said, was, “What’s Stonewall?”
In a further Tweet, Will went on to say: “We were in the late 60s early 70s unit and when I found out we were gonna learn about stonewall (1969) I made a presentation and my teacher let me show the class,” they said.
Will received an outpouring of support for the clip, filmed by one of their classmates, and unsurprisingly, a lot of bigoted troll bollocks along with it.
Many replies condemned Larkins’s decision to wear a dress for the presentation, such as ‘SaltySusan -Florida MAGA – Family, God & USA’, who said: “Very inappropriate. Can’t take this mess seriously it’s a distraction.!”
Others argued that the law does not directly apply to his age group – an argument Larkin rebukes given that the bill ambiguously does ban school personnel from instructing on sexual orientation or gender identity for their age group “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Due to the blurry language used within in the legislation, parents of students at any age can sue over perceived violations.
However, as was correctly pointed out by some other people who are not homophobic MAGA supporting internet trolls users, the abuse Will received was largely driven by supporters of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation, proving those championing the bill are, in fact, driven by anti-LGBTQ rage.
The legislation comes into state law on 1 July.
In a piece for the NY Times, Larkins opened up about knowing they were “different” from a young age:
“I wasn’t interested in the things other boys my age did, and I didn’t really feel comfortable in the clothes my parents bought me. The struggle for acceptance was not just internal, it also felt as if my classmates didn’t know what to make of me. By fourth grade I was convinced that I was broken,” Larkins wrote.
Well done for delivering a masterclass both in and outside the classroom, Will!
So many supporters of the Don’t Say Gay law in the mentions & quote tweets confirming that they are, in fact, driven by anti-LGBTQ rage. Bigots unmasked.
Nice presentation, Will! An important history lesson. 🤍 https://t.co/Ge0kxxUywc
— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) April 4, 2022
So many homophobes commenting on this video and it’s literally a student doing a history presentation. I thought the bill sponsor said HB1557 wouldn’t impact history lessons? 🤔 https://t.co/etU3OBLxCo
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) April 4, 2022
A lot of people in the comments are asking why i “had to wear a dress”
The answer is, because I wanted to. https://t.co/9VQzTTMTTQ pic.twitter.com/5sngGuB8xM
— Will Larkins (@ProudTwinkie) April 4, 2022