Teen Disciplined
for Gay-Positive T-shirt

A Spencer, N.Y., student was sent home from school last week for wearing a T-shirt with a gay-friendly message.

Heathyre Farnham, 16, said she was not trying to be inflammatory by wearing the shirt, which read, "Gay? Fine by Me."

"I had worn it two or three times before, and all of a sudden it's inappropriate," Farnham said in a statement released Wednesday. "[Principal Ann Sincock] said I was advertising my sexual preference and that was offensive, which makes no sense because I'm straight. Maybe she herself was offended by it."

Farnham said in a statement that her peers at Spencer-Van Etten High School were supportive of the shirt's message. Even students who didn't agree with her message said they were disappointed she was sent home from school.

Farnham said she purchased the T-shirt at a local secondhand store. The shirt was originally part of a campaign waged by a group of Duke University activists in 2003 who had 75,000 such shirts created for distribution to other colleges, schools, religious communities, businesses, and civic organizations.

After Farnham wore the shirt, several other students took up the message, writing the words on their skin. School administrators immediately patrolled the cafeteria, ordering students to wash the ink off their arms and hands.

Farnham said that while there are some out LGBT students at her school, there are several more debating whether to come out. Farnham said that the shirt was her way of showing her support for coming out of the closet.

"I know Spencer," she said. "If I were lesbian or gay, I wouldn't feel safe coming out here. If more people wore the shirts, I know it would be easier." (The Advocate)