Eleven-year old Marcel Neergaard has quickly won his fight against an anti-gay lawmaker and StudentsFirst, thanks to the help of LGBT activists and over 50,000 allies who signed a MoveOn.org petition. Neergaard’s parents were essentially forced to homeschool Marcel, who self-describes as gay, after Tennessee state Rep. John Ragan introduced a “Don’t Say Gay” bill that empowered his peers to bully him to the point he strongly considered suicide.
LOOK: Bullied Gay 11 Year Old Explains How ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bills Lead Him To Consider Suicide
Today, StudentsFirst founder and conservative education reformer Michelle Rhee announced she “stands with Marcel,” and will rescind her organization’s “Reformer of the Year” award to Rep. Ragan.
“I’m very proud,” The Huffington Post reports Neergaard told them via email Wednesday:
“I want to make sure to thank all the people who signed my petition, because without them, it would not have been possible.”
“I had my petition up for less than a week, and it actually worked,” he added. “When I pressed the victory button [on MoveOn.org] I actually got my brother to put his finger over my finger, because he really wanted to push it.”
Marcel Neergard had written an op-ed which the Huffington Post published on Saturday. In it, he stated that if his parents hadn’t homeschooled him, if he had stayed in school, “there is a great possibility that I would have taken my own life.”
“That possibility would have grown if a certain bill introduced in my home state of Tennessee had passed into law,” Neergard adds. “This bill was known as the “don’t say gay†bill. Though that bill never became a law, Oak Ridge’s own representative, John Ragan, introduced a new version of the Classroom Protection Act. It is the “don’t say gay†bill, just more homophobic. While he crafted this horrifying bill, he received an award. I wrote a petition to take a stand against this.”
In her statement today, Rhee writes that StudentsFirst support “the federal Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non-Discrimination Act and will support similar measures in our active states. We encourage legislators across the country to support these measures to protect kids from bullying and discrimination as well.”
Rhee adds that Ragan’s “introduction of ill-conceived and harmful legislation including HB 1332 — which would have cultivated a culture of bullying — does not represent the type of leadership we look for in our legislative champions. We have made that clear to Rep. Ragan and rescinded the recognition.”
Tennessee Equality Project president Chris Sanders says he is “hopeful” StudentsFirst endorsement of the federal Safe Schools Improvement Act, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, and similar state and local legislation is a ‘significant turning point for us in the Legislature.” He adds:
“We’ll continue to work with the legislature impressing upon them the urgent need to pass the Dignity for all Students Act.”
Scott Wooledge, who first identified that StudentsFirst had given Ragan, well-known as a virulently anti-LGBT lawmaker, the “Reformer of the Year” award and challenged them on it, writes today at Daily Kos:
The fight is far from over. Yesterday, Senate Democrats announced that the Student Non-Discrimination Act would be included as part of the larger Education bill. This is a major victory for safe schools advocates. It will affirm the rights of students to be included in school activities (like proms) regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity (as well as a wide variety of other attributes). It will face serious opposition from conservatives, and we’ll have to stand guard to see it isn’t stripped out. We welcome StudentsFirst’s help in that battle.
The New Civil Rights Movement has asked StudentsFirst if they will also request Rep. Ragan return the $6500 StudentsFirst donated to Ragan’s campaign, and if they will pledge to not donate to any candidate who opposes LGBT civil rights. StudentsFirst did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
UPDATE: 4:45 PM EDT — StudentsFirst has responded, stating that “[t]he short answer to your questions is no,” and pointed us to Michelle Rhee’s statement, which included this:
“StudentsFirst is a single-issue organization… This oftentimes means we build relationships with and support legislators whom we fundamentally disagree with on other issues — even sometimes on issues within the education policy arena.”