Students Defend Gay Rights

Painted Message Prompts Punishment in Michigan District

HOWELL, Mich. -- When someone painted "God hates fags" on the school rock at Howell High, Shayna Kamilar did not hesitate. She called her friends, told her mother she was going out and left the house.

"We knew we had to paint over it," said Kamilar, an 18-year-old senior. "It had to happen."

Kamilar and her pals used 18 cans of spray paint to cover the rock and write the word LOVE dozens of times on school property. They got themselves accused of vandalism, suspended from class and barred from Saturday's graduation.

The community reacted strongly, praising the original spirit of the rock-painting expedition while acknowledging that the extended artwork may have gone too far. More than 200 students protested the punishment, and parents scheduled a small backyard graduation ceremony for the group's three seniors.

Now the ceremony has been moved to a football field. One teacher will speak. Another will hand out the diplomas. The valedictorian will repeat the address he is giving earlier in the day. The school photographer will record the event for free. Even the superintendent called to make sure the seniors have caps, gowns and yearbooks.

"I think we got over-punished, but I still got to stand up for what I believe in," said Vinnie Mascola, a 17-year-old senior who says he is often called a derogatory name because he works on school plays. "What we did was small, but it got big and we got people thinking."

At a time of profound political opposition to same-sex marriage, with national studies showing significant schoolyard harassment of gay teenagers, the positive response at Howell High and a suburban Detroit school this year buoyed advocates of equal rights for gay men and lesbians.

"To see allies at that young age is very heartening and encouraging," said Leslie Thompson, executive director of Affirmations, a support group in Ferndale, Mich. Noting the rise in speaking requests from Michigan schools and the more empathetic tone of hotline calls from parents, she said "things are getting better."

In Howell, a community that has long faced a reputation for intolerance, a cultural struggle already was underway. Since 2003, the school board has advanced a diversity agenda, but a student group's decision to unfurl a rainbow flag at Howell High drew anger.

Earlier this year, the NAACP and Mayor Geraldine Moen objected to a Howell dealer's auction of Ku Klux Klan robes, photographs and other memorabilia. Many items came from the estate of Klan Grand Dragon Robert Miles, who staged white supremacist rallies and cross burnings in the area.

It was a Sunday night in early May when Kamilar learned that someone had painted an anti-gay message across a promotion for "Pippin," the school theater production, which had an openly gay male lead. Kamilar and three schoolmates were determined to defend their friend.

Searching for words to paint, their first instinct was to be unkind to the gay-bashers. They considered biblical verses but settled on a single word as the most eloquent protest.