I graduated from high school in 1983 (don’t strain yourself, I am turning 43 later this week). So when I ventured to speak at a high school class in Bushwick yesterday as part of their “Social Justice Awareness Week,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. Anyone who works with me know I can never say “no” to requests like this, so when the folks at Live Out Loud, a terrific youth group in NYC called and asked, I agreed. Then I got on Mapquest to figure out where I was going…..

Bushwick is a pretty tough part of my home borough of Brooklyn. As my intern and I went through the metal detectors and had a school police officer give us directions and escort us to the elevator, I realized high school is a very different place than when I was there. And I was about to go talk about being a lesbian activist. For someone who regularly battles anti-gay activists on television I admit I was more nervous than walking into Bill O’Reilly’s studio.

It was pretty much what I expected – a raucous, somewhat confrontational and tough group of kids. But underneath the tough exterior there was a great deal of savvy and understanding about diversity issues in general, and LGBT issues in particular. The school has a Queer-Straight Student Alliance and one out lesbian student came into the class to see how it all went down.

Continue reading Cathy Renna’s post at the Bilerico Project!