{"id":1493580,"date":"2022-05-26T16:14:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1493580"},"modified":"2022-05-26T16:15:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:15:03","slug":"florida-student-couldnt-discuss-sexuality-in-graduation-speech-so-he-used-curly-hair-as-a-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-student-couldnt-discuss-sexuality-in-graduation-speech-so-he-used-curly-hair-as-a-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Student Couldn\u2019t Discuss Sexuality In Graduation Speech, So He Used Curly Hair As A Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflorida-student-couldnt-discuss-sexuality-in-graduation-speech-so-he-used-curly-hair-as-a-metaphor%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1493580&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Florida class president spoke in code about being gay while giving his graduation speech, CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.cnn.com\/cnn\/2022\/05\/25\/us\/florida-curly-hair-graduation-speech\/index.html\">reported<\/a>, because he says he \u201cwasn\u2019t allowed\u201d to discuss his sexuality or the fact that he\u2019s one of the plaintiffs challenging the \u201cParental Rights in Education\u201d bill, which recently passed in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old told the network he was forbidden to discuss his sexuality in his address, so he substituted what he wanted to say by discussing how he was different because of his curly hair. Zander Moricz, who attends Pine View School in Osprey, talked about how disappointed he was not being able to speak on the topics. According to CNN, Moricz is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Florida law.<\/p>\n<p>CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/03\/28\/politics\/dont-say-gay-bill-desantis-signs\/index.html\">reported<\/a> in March how the new law states that \u201cclassroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These rules would not have prohibited Moricz from discussing his sexuality during his graduation speech. The teen told CNN that his principal, Stephen Covert, told him he couldn\u2019t talk about his sexuality or the lawsuit during the address but didn\u2019t specifically say it had anything to do with HB 1557.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019d always been very supportive of me and my identity and I was really hurt,\u201d the student said of his principal.<\/p>\n<p>The CNN article noted that Moricz came out as gay during his freshman year and was the first openly-gay class president at the school. This made him want to discuss these details during the speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you take that only guaranteed space and you make it one that victimizes an entire population of students, what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re forcing kids to make the choice of either not come out safely or not come out at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the class president used his curly hair as a metaphor for being gay rather than explicitly discussing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to hate my curls. I spend mornings and nights embarrassed of them trying desperately to straighten this part of who I am. But the daily damage of trying to fix myself became too much to do,\u201d he said in his speech. \u201cSo while having curly hair in Florida is difficult, due to the humidity, I decided to be proud of who I was and started coming to school as my authentic self.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moricz said he approached his teachers for advice upon discovering his sexual preference because he didn\u2019t have \u201cother curly-haired people\u201d to talk to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m happy. Now I\u2019m happy, and that is what is at stake. There are going to be so many kids with curly hair, who need a community like Pine View and they won\u2019t have one,\u201d Moricz said in the speech. \u201cInstead, they\u2019ll try to fix themselves so that they can exist in Florida\u2019s humid climate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the speech, the principal applauded and hugged Moricz on stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe honor and celebrate the incredible diversity in thought, belief, and background in our school, and champion the uniqueness of every single student on their personal and educational journey,\u201d Covert said in a statement, per CNN.<\/p>\n<p>Sarasota County Schools told CNN in a statement that school administrators review all graduation speeches. They went on to confirm that Covert reminded Moricz of \u201cceremony expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs in years past, student speakers were reminded that graduation is a community celebration and were encouraged to tailor their remarks to be reflective of experiences &#038; memories that all students could appreciate to best reflect all facets of the graduating class\u2019s achievements,\u201d a statement from the school said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Florida class president spoke in code about being gay while giving his graduation speech, CNN reported, because he says he \u201cwasn\u2019t allowed\u201d to discuss his sexuality or the fact that he\u2019s one of the plaintiffs challenging the \u201cParental Rights in Education\u201d bill, which recently passed in the state.\u00a0 The 18-year-old told the network he &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":1493640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}