A Texas high school student and vlogger says his private Christian school principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t go back in the closet.
Five months ago then 16-year old Austin Wallis, a junior in high school, posted his first YouTube video. It was a heart-warming coming out story that’s received hundreds of thumbs-ups and just five thumbs downs. In his coming out video Wallis, who comes across as intelligent and caring, says he recorded the video to “contribute back” and “help a few people too” so they can feel “safe” as other coming out videos made him feel.
Fast forward to now.
Wallis is 17 and a high school senior. He says in his latest video – there are 29 in total – that the principal at his private Christian high school demanded he remove all his videos and other social media posts, that he go back in the closet, and that if he refused he would be expelled.Â
He says that when he came out last year, “I knew I was going to have bullies and I knew people were not going to be okay with it. But I never expected it to be from the people who were supposed to protect you from the bullies. Who were supposed to try to stop that. And then they themselves are the bullies.”
Why not go back in the closet?
“I don’t want people to think that I left just because of the social media. It was because I can’t stay somewhere where I feel like I’m being forced into something that I’m not, or I feel like I’m not wanted by my own principal… I’m not a bad student. I really want to try and change this. I think it’s ridiculous that in this day and age you can be excluded from your own school for being gay.”
Being a private school, Wallis’ rights were probably not legally violated.
So, he left the school on his own terms, and found another school to attend days later.
Wallis, who is brave, and seems quite considerate and kind, makes clear he does not want the faculty, some of whom he says made him feel loved, to have to suffer so he’s not naming the school or the school principal – a brave decision, albeit one that long term may not help in his quest to “Be The Change” for the better, as he says.
“I feel like you should be able to have Christian beliefs and still feel like everybody belongs,” Wallis says. “I go there to express my faith. I am a Christian and I love my god, and I don’t feel this is what he would want. I don’t feel like excluding someone for who they are is anything Christian, I feel like it’s the opposite.”
Watch:
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Image: Screenshot via YouTube
Hat tip: Kyler Geoffroy at Towleroad
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