Wyoming middle school cancels anti-bullying play with LGBTQ themes
Wyoming middle schoolers spent months rehearsing for a play that included a scene mentioning a gay character who took his own life. But school officials canceled the play, saying it didn’t conform to school values.
WHEATLAND, Wyo. — 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.
Wyoming is one of just two states without a hate crimes law; South Carolina is the other. Libraries around the country are facing community pressure to pull children’s books with LGBTQ stories, drag shows have been banned in some places and a University of Wyoming sorority was sued for admitting a transgender woman.
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