Dent County, Missouri officials decided to lower flags below half-staff once a month for the next year to mourn the U.S. Supreme Court’s same sex marriage decision last month. Dent County Commissioner Darrell Skiles hand-wrote the proposal, which read, “We feel sadness, shame, and outright revulsion of the U.S. high court’s stamp of approval of what God speaks of as an abomination.”
Dent County quickly reversed the order on Tuesday morning, but one former resident of the county, Jacob Wilson, 29, is speaking out against the county’s public hostility toward LGBT people by establishing a scholarship for the local high school there.
Wilson has established the annual Courage Scholarship for graduating seniors at his former high school, Salem High School, who have “great potential to work for change in their community” that advances the lives of LGBT people and other groups that have historically faced discrimination. He says the scholarship may go to only one student but that depends on how much he raises. His Crowdrise account has already raised $450.
Wilson worked at the LGBT resource centers at George Washington University and American University and will move to start his Ph.D. studies in higher education at the University of Arizona. Wilson said he hopes the scholarship will allow students, whether they’re LGBT or not, to advance LGBT issues. It may even cause students to come back and affect change in their hometown.
Wilson recounted that as an 18 year old who had not yet come out as gay, he had to count absentee ballots that supported a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality in 2004.
“It wasn’t until 17 when I met another gay person,” Wilson said in an interview with ThinkProgress. “The closest resources for an LGBT center is two hours away. People who come from middle class families don’t always have the means to do that. The intent is to provide more opportunities because we have this disparity and LGBT people in rural America may not have some of the same scholarship opportunities … I just want to let them know that there are people across the country who have their back.”
He also plans to offer LGBT Safe Zone training, free of charge for the school district to raise awareness of issues affecting LGBT students and their allies. Wilson would train teachers, administrators and students if the school accepted his offer.
In an email to ThinkProgress, Wilson said:
Discrimination and hate are not acceptable. In addition to supporting LGBT youth, I want to empower straight allies in the community and schools to feel safe and confident in standing up for the dignity and rights of their LGBT friends and family … we can create a safer environment where LGBT students can both learn and be engaged members of their campus community.
LGBT youth experience many challenges when coming out to family, especially if they are not supportive. It’s not uncommon for LGBT children to experience everything from lack of support to abuse from parents after coming out. Half of LGBT teens receive a negative reaction from parents after coming out and 30 percent are physically abused, according to Psychology Today. In addition, 26 percent of LGBT teens are kicked out of the house. As much as 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT, according to a 2012 Williams Institute study. They’re also eight times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual teens.
In addition, LGBT youth experience the highest rates of bullying and harassment online, according to a 2013 Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network study. It also found that grades, mental health and self-esteem suffered substantially among those LGBT students who experienced cyberbullying.