My Niece the Radical

When my niece Nikki started 12th grade, she wore a t-shirt to school that said “I love lesbians” sometime during the first week of school. The principal and several other administrators ganged up on her and told her to turn the t-shirt inside out or go home and get another t-shirt. She refused. Within a short time it was all over the school district what she had done. I was proud of her for sticking up for herself.

I got a call from my brother after school about her refusal to comply with the school administration. I was ready to call in the big name tv stations and have them desend on this little Iowa farm town with a big story for the ACLU. It never got that far, they let her express herself and that was that.

To this day, townspeople remember her sticking up for herself, some with quite a sneer. This town is one of those very rigid small towns where you are an outcast if you do not tow the line. Of course, she has never towed the line and I am proud of her for that.

Now she is in college in a town that has a strong gay community and she fits right in.