Read The Fight for Free Online Page B

shoulders.
    â€œI spy with my little gay eye an ally!” yelled Tyler. He dropped his arm. “Where’s Zoe? I hope we’re going to Subway.”
    We found the others at Zoe’s car.
    â€œShotgun!” Tyler yelled.
    â€œI already called it,” said one of the girls.
    â€œMy parents would kill me,” said Zoe. “But you guys can cram into the backseat, right? It’s only seven blocks.” I tried to say I’d walk, but Tyler pushed me into the car.
    â€œYou can be in the middle and have my butt,” he said, shoving Emilio in next to me. The other girl got in the other side. Tyler crawled in and lay across our laps, humming.
    â€œEveryone, buckle me in with you!” he insisted. We ignored him. We were so wedged in that I couldn’t have reached my seat belt anyway.
    At the coffee shop, Zoe filled everyone in on what I’d found. They all looked kind of baffled.
    â€œBut
unbiased
means ‘not taking sides,’” one of the girls said. “Isn’t that … good?”
    Zoe smiled triumphantly. “I found out more. I got Salazar to crack when I showed him the policy. He admitted it has all the teachers scared. See, if you stand up for a kid who’s being called a faggot, you’re taking a side. You’re saying it’s OK to be gay and that people shouldn’t be so stupid and prejudiced.”
    â€œIs this why my health teacher has yet to discuss safe sex for anyone other than vanilla heteros?” Tyler asked. Emilio blushed.
    â€œAnd not talking about authors who were gay?” I added.
    Zoe nodded. “It’s so vague, and the administrators are so weird about it that none of the teachers know what’s OK. So they feel safer saying nothing. Doesn’t bother most of them,” she said bitterly.
    â€œBut Salazar…” said one of the girls.
    â€œHe’s afraid of losing his job,” said Zoe. “He was pretty out to students and everyone before, but he’s afraid he’ll be targeted. And his partner is in grad school, and they’re trying to adopt right now. …”
    Tyler slurped his iced mocha. “So what do we do?”
    â€œWell,” Zoe said slowly. “We could say we think it’s a bad policy. That it’s hurting GLBT kids.”
    â€œWho’s going to listen?” said Emilio.
    â€œThe school board,” I said. “There’s a meeting in two weeks. I think anyone can go.” I stopped. What was I saying? I didn’t want to go to a school board meeting. “Or maybe some parents could…” I trailed off.
    Zoe’s eyes lit up. “Great idea! I could totally get my mom to go and speak. But we need to have kids who are affected too, for the biggest impact.”
    Tyler elbowed me. “Thanks for volunteering all us queers.”
    â€œNo one should talk who doesn’t feel comfortable,” said Zoe. “But maybe we can find a few people….” she looked at us pleadingly. “There are other kids out there you know about—can we just try to talk to people?”
    We all nodded.
    â€œThen let’s meet on Wednesday and see if you can bring anyone new along. We’ll figure out then who’s going to talk, OK? Bella, can you get us on the school board agenda?”
    I nodded. I couldn’t believe we were going to do this.

M
    onday morning my mom was reading the paper at breakfast. I was just trying to wake up.
    â€œHow terrible,” she murmured. I didn’t pay much attention. But when she flipped the paper over to read the other page, I saw “teen suicide.”
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked, suddenly alert.
    â€œA girl killed herself over the weekend. Not from your school but from one of the middle schools.” Mom sighed.
    â€œWas she gay?” I asked.
    Mom looked at me over her glasses. “I’m not sure at that age…. It just says here that her family says she was