Two teens are calling on Alabama
lawmakers to repeal a law which requires schools to incorrectly teach
that gay sex is a criminal offense and “not a lifestyle acceptable
to the general public.”
High school students Sarah Noone and
Adam Pratt's Change.org
petition has received more than 87,000 signatures as of Tuesday
morning.
The petition is in support of a
proposed bill which would repeal the law. The bill's author,
Democratic Representative Patricia Todd, is also the state's first
openly gay legislator.
“I don't know if anybody is actually
teaching this, to be honest with you,” Todd told the Anniston
Star. “But the fact that this is even in the law is an
insult.”
The Supreme Court struck down sodomy
laws in 2003.
Noone, 16, said the law sends a
“dangerous message.”
“Think of the dangerous message this
law sends to lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in schools,” said
Noone. “Can you imagine the self-hatred you would feel inside
after hearing a teacher say that being gay is a criminal act and that
society will never accept you? All students deserve to feel safe and
welcome in school, but this law prevents that.”
“Supporting Rep. Patricia Todd's bill
isn't about accepting gay people, it's about making our schools a
place where all students can feel safe. I know that if enough people
sign our petition, the legislature will hear what Alabama youth have
to say.”
In an appearance on cabler Current's
The War Room, Pratt said that response to the petition had
been mostly positive.
“It's actually mostly been positive,
in regards to the petition,” Pratt said. “There's been a little
bit of feedback on the national level, in comments on the petition
and other postings about the petition of people basically hating on
Alabama and saying that we're such a not accepting place. When in
reality, any state in the union is going to have the same issues that
we have. We just have kind of become more public about them.”
(The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)