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Homewood, Alabama — There has been some turmoil in the surrounding area since the opening of a new charter school on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama last fall.
Some cars passed slowly, and unreadable screams were heard through the rolled windows. A woman photographed the campus using her cell phone. A stranger left a threatening voice email message.
The episode was vaguely menacing — they were subject to gossip in the school corridor, and one became a police report — but deeply rattled students at the school, Homewood’s Magic City Acceptance Academy. It takes a lot of time to get it done. Many have said they have already experienced a lot.
Tyler, a 17-year-old senior and member of the transgender community, said he has lived for years in fear of violence and has played an inappropriate social role. “I have to learn those things,” he said. “When you come here, it’s very different.”
The public charter school enrolls approximately 240 students from 6th to 12th grade and aims to welcome gay, heterosexual, non-binary, cisgender and transgender students. It will be a lonely facility in the state that recently passed a law that makes it a felony for doctors to provide what they call sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy to people under the age of 19.
The law also allows educators to “encourage or enforce” students to withhold “the fact that a minor’s gender or gender perception is inconsistent with the minor’s gender” from their parents. Is not … It has been challenged by the US Department of Justice, but it was set to take effect on Sunday.
Academy principal Michael Wilson was worried that the law could be used to target schools. Gender identity conversations are “intended to take place between children and parents at the right time,” he added.
The school has sought to be a refuge from the ongoing cultural debate. The academy corridor is adorned with rainbows and affirmations. “You are beautiful,” says the poster. “You are loved.” However, due to laws being promoted by conservative politicians in Alabama and elsewhere, LGBTQ youth feel isolated, and the academy itself is the institution. Is selected by a Republican candidate for governor who calls him a “transgender public school.”
In fact, the school is open to students of all backgrounds. In an interview, some students said they enrolled in an old school to escape racism and bullying. Others have openly wanted a place to be gay, transgender, or non-binary. Some people appreciated the school’s Maskman Date, but it’s still in place.
About becoming transgender in the United States
And many just wanted to learn peacefully.
“We don’t have to be here and we don’t have to put up a sign everywhere to let us know that we are loved,” said Juniper, a 14-year-old eighth grader. “We don’t have to do that. We’re just a normal school.”
The 13-year-old 7th grade abstinence agreed. “I’m really happy to have a place to express myself,” she added. “I know there are many things that make this a more political school. That’s-“
“It’s really, really ridiculous,” intervened by Juniper, one of several students identified by name solely to protect privacy.
The Magic City Acceptance Academy fought hard to exist. The charter was rejected by the city of Birmingham more than two years ago, urging the move to Homewood, just outside the border of Birmingham. The application was also rejected by the state this time, but the school was finally approved in November 2020 and opened in August. (Birmingham’s old nickname, Magic City, refers to the rapid growth of the city as a steel town at the turn of the 20th century.)
The school operates under the umbrella of an organization called Birmingham AIDS Outreach, which also operates a medical center that serves many LGBTQ patients, including treatments that include hormone therapy.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivy said in a statement after signing a law limiting the health care of transgender teenagers, children were “radical when in such a vulnerable stage of life. You should be protected from life-changing drugs and surgery. “
Karenmas Grove, Chief Officer of Birmingham AIDS Outreach, said that by providing the support needed for children and teenagers, depression, anxiety, and other impacts such as health care, mental health services, and community support, He said he could reduce the high rate of suicidal ideation. LGBTQ community.
She remembered that on the first day of the academy last year, the students were eerily quiet. “They were so scared and so beaten,” she said. “Now they have friends.”
The students soon realized that there were no lockers, physical textbooks, or bells. They learn on laptops offered by the school. They know that the lesson is over when they hear the xylophone light chime broadcast on the speakers. And you don’t have to worry about toilet restrictions. Each bathroom can be used by one person, regardless of gender, and is fully equipped for the physically challenged.
Rory, a 17-year-old transgender third-year high school student, entered here after years of harassment and deep despair at other schools.
“If I weren’t too optimistic about my future, I wouldn’t know if I was still alive,” he said.
The Transgender Medical Care Act was created for painful civic education. Rory’s history teacher, Daniel Evans, has installed a projector to allow students to track the legislative process in real time. Rory saw state legislators discussing his future and realized that his goal of pursuing hormone therapy was even further away.
“It seems that all of this progress I have made has just been put on hold,” he said.
In the classroom that day, some students shouted. Others cried. “It was a real emotion, so we became a reality and had to set aside a lesson plan for a while,” Evans said. “And be afraid.”
He added that the students leaned against each other to absorb the news. “I think the only silver lining is at least they were here,” he said.
Educators said many students came to the academy with a long history of bullying, harassment, or alienation of their families.
“They are coming to us with so much trauma that we have to start stripping their onion layers, day one,” said Deputy Principal Nikki Matthews. Told. “Education will come as we build on the foundation of their social and emotional strength, and who they are.”
Many students say they feel safe among teachers and classmates, but some are experiencing new types of vulnerabilities. Sometimes, when many LGBTQ people get together in one place, Rory said, “Every day I feel like the target on my back is just 500 times bigger.”
For the past few weeks, the school has always been a forum for Tim James, a Republican governor candidate running to the right of incumbent Ivy. (She shifts herself to the right, and polls suggest she’s more likely to win.) His political ad using the photos displayed on the school’s public Facebook page shows that the school A national history bee that emphasized a drug show held to raise funds.
Shortly after the ad aired, Dr. Wilson said sporadic swearing at the academy urged schools to increase security staff. “That is, I think we’ve learned the lesson that we don’t post too many photos anymore,” he added.
In an email reply to the question, James said the drug show was an example of “exploitation and emotional child abuse at best,” and the school itself “showed that a cultural war between common sense and madness had occurred. I have. ” Alabama. “
School students talked about James’ campaign in a combination of rebellious attitude (many people turned their eyes) and fear. “I’m afraid to come to school,” said the 7th grade temperance.
In a fierce political storm, the Magic City Acceptance Academy faces more of a challenge than preparing students academically as the first year of school ends this month. Next year, we plan to add Mandarin courses to complement this year’s Spanish and French, with the possibility of offering Advanced Placement classes later. According to Dr. Wilson, the student organization is expected to grow to about 350 next fall.
This includes Rory, who is improving his grades and thinking about college. He wants to study agriculture and become a beekeeper. Even if moving forward means leaving his first school environment where he felt safe to be himself.
“It’s a really strong community,” he said. “It can be scary, but I’m optimistic that it’s okay.”
Audio generated by Adrian Hurst..