The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an advocacy group for the LGBT community, recently published some troubling statistics involving treatment of LGBT youth in schools. Among them; 4 in 10 LGBT youth (42 percent) say the community in which they live is not accepting of LGBT people, and 92 percent of LGBT youth say they hear negative messages about being LGBT. These statistics might seem high, low or irrelevant to people at LHS, depending on who they are, but should students and faculty at LHS be concerned about how LGBT students are treated? Yes.

The LGBT community at LHS does have experiences and opinions of how supportive LHS has been, and thankfully those opinions are much more favorable than the national HRC survey. As a whole, LHS has been a great school for a LGBT student to attend. That is positive, because coming out is hard enough, without additional external judgement, and LHS freshman Oliver Merrill is no stranger to the struggles.

“It’s freeing being able to be open to people,” said Merrill. “The hardest part of it for me was working up the nerve and the courage to be able to come out. It’s not an easy thing to do at all.”

Most LHS LGBT students report a good reception from family, friends and teachers. Similarly, LHS freshman Bayliss Hall received a positive response after coming out.

“Everyone has been very supportive,” said Hall. “Although most of them don’t really understand it.”

Merrill, Hall and senior Emma Bankers have been able to reveal their identities to others, but some have not been so lucky. Some are still concerned about how others might react, but Bankers reassures people who are still struggling to come out.

“Whether admitting it to yourself, or admitting it to others, don’t rush,” said Bankers. “Know that your sexuality or gender can be fluid and could change at some point in time. You don’t need to label anything if you don’t want to, and you don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Love yourself as you are and may become.”

Although the LGBT community mostly feels welcome, LHS does not eliminate all bullying, bigotry or bias.

“I feel like the school itself is supportive but that certain individuals are not so supportive,” said Bankers. “For instance, certain teachers won’t call my transgender friend by his chosen name or preferred pronouns, and when the GSA first started there was a petition by students to disband it.”

As new classes shuffle in and the others shuffle out, so will the ideas and attitudes of those students. The LGBT community hopes to eventually find acceptance in all schools, not just LHS. LHS is in a conservative, South Dakota town, and change is still needed for all lifestyles to feel welcome.

“I just basically hope that being LGBT becomes normalized,” said Merrill. “I don’t want it to be some weird thing for teenage boys to fling gay around. It is an insult.”