Girl Expelled Over Rainbow Birthday

The culture wars are THIS out of control

Did you hear the one about the teen girl who got expelled from high school when her mother posted her birthday snaps to Facebook? She was wearing a sweater with rainbow stripes, blowing out 15 candles on a rainbow-frosted cake. Somebody reported the photo to her private Christian school, and administrators expelled her over it, sending her mother an email citing the Facebook post. What does this incident have to to say about the state of our nation and culture?

Kayla Kenney celebrated her 15th birthday last month. Her mom, Kimberly Alford, took her out to a restaurant to celebrate with a handful of family and friends. Kayla wore a white knit sweater with a partial rainbow-striped band running across the top. Kimberly had purchased a multicolored cake at a bakery, and snapped a photo of Kayla smiling over it after dinner. On December 30, the proud mom posted the photo to Facebook.

A few days later, Whitefield Academy, the private Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky that Kayla had attended since the 6th grade, emailed Kimberly, notifying her they were expelling Kayla “immediately. ”

Kimberly told the Washington Post that the expulsion email included a screenshot of her Facebook post, citing it as justification for their decision. The Post examined the email, which says in part, “The WA Administration has been made aware of a recent picture, posted on social media, which demonstrates a posture of morality and cultural acceptance contrary to that of Whitefield Academy’s beliefs. We made it clear that any further promotion, celebration or any other action and attitudes counter to Whitefield’s philosophy will not be tolerated.”

Kimberly went to the press to protest injustice

She told The Washington Post that the cake/sweater combo were not meant to reflect her daughter’s sexuality. “Rainbows don’t mean you’re a certain gender or certain sex or sexuality. I’m not saying she’s this or that. She’s just Kayla to me. … I ordered the cake, she didn’t.”

She showed the school her bakery receipt asking for a cake decorated in “assorted colors,” not rainbow colors. She thought that would be a “fun treat.” She added, ironically, that the Whitefield Academy Parent Teacher Fellowship used to feature a rainbow on its own Facebook page, taking it down only after the school expelled Kayla.

A “homosexual orientation” alone on the part of either a student or an immediate family member constitutes grounds for expulsion.

She went even further with the Louisville Courier Journal, telling a reporter outright that Kayla does not identify as gay or LGBT. She says Kayla wears “tomboy-type clothing” sometimes and has always been athletic, which made some students and staff at the school “uncomfortable.”

Kayla’s school had been counseling her about her sexuality

Kimberly told NBC News on Tuesday that Kayla had been on probation since October for issues like cutting class and being caught with an e-cigarette. She also said some students were uncomfortable with her daughter’s “perceived sexuality,” and that school staff asked Kayla inappropriate personal questions about her sexuality.

She says a school counselor questioned Kayla’s sexual orientation and gave her a copy of Gay Girl, Good God, a book that promotes personal spirituality as a form of conversion therapy Christians can practice to stop being gay. Kimberly claims the counselor required Kayla to meet with her weekly to talk about the book, even though the girl denied being gay.

The school takes a hard line on LGBTQ issues

Whitefield Academy, which is affiliated with Highview Baptist Church, states in a student handbook that “a serious departure from the school’s guidelines” may result in expulsion. A student-behavior section says the school’s “biblical role is to work in conjunction with the home to mold students to be Christ-like.”

The handbook specifies that a “homosexual orientation” alone on the part of either a student or an immediate family member constitutes grounds for expulsion. “On occasion, the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home may be counter or in opposition to the biblical lifestyle the school teaches. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual immorality, homosexual orientation or the inability to support Biblical standards of right and wrong.”

Louisville LGBTQ advocates are outraged

Chris Hartman, executive director of the Louisville Fairness Campaign, said if the photo had anything to do with Kayla’s expulsion, then the school’s action “seems incredibly outrageous.”

He points out that Whitefield Academy has the legal right to expel students suspected of being LGBTQ because of religious exemptions built in to Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance, which is supposed to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in public accomodation, employment, housing, and education.

He adds that a rainbow does not solely represent LGBTQ movements but is also mentioned in Genesis as a symbol of God’s covenant with Noah. “So the idea that they would eject someone for the simple display of a rainbow is ludicrous.”

Actually, looking carefully, neither the sweater Kayla wore nor her birthday cake include the specific colors of the LGBT flag. The sweater is missing purple and green. The order of the colors are not the same as on the LGBT flag. If Kayla or her mother actually had been intending to express solidarity with LGBTQ people, they chose poor symbols.

The culture wars are out of control

A 15-year-old highschool freshman was expelled from school because she wore a rainbow sweater at a private birthday party and blew out candles on a multicolored cake.

She was expelled because the megachurch that runs her school promotes a culture that fears and reviles LGBT people so much that they were willing to “accuse” a child of being gay because of debunked stereotypes such as liking sports and dressing occasionally as a tomboy.

Kimberly reports that Kayla has started at her local public high school and is adjusting well, but that she misses her friends. I wonder how she’s really doing. How does she feel about having her private sexuality questioned and analyzed? How does she feel about being made a scapegoat, the subject of something resembling a witch hunt?

If she is questioning her sexuality, will she internalize homophobia as self loathing? If she’s straight, will she have learned to hide true parts of who she is for fear of being misidentified?

Terrible lessons for students of all stripes

How do other students at Whitefield Academy feel? Statistically, a small number of them identify as LGBT. Clearly, they’d have to be keeping their heads down now, well hidden lest they suffer the same fate as Kayla. What’s that doing to their mental health?

And what about all the straight/cis kids the school just taught a hard lesson in bullying? Those students learned that stigmatizing and shunning suspected LGBTQ poeple is expected and appropriate. Will they internalize that lesson and carry it with them as they grow and leave school?

Shunning LGBTQ people can’t be a Christian value

Whitefield Academy’s handbook specifies that students can be expelled if they or their close family members have a “homosexual orientation.” Merely being gay or having a gay parent or sibling is enough to be cast out. To be a scapegoat. Is that Christian? I don’t understand the values Whitefield is trying to promote. Purity culture run amok? Orientation alone, even once removed, demands separation?

The good Christians of Highview Baptist Church seem to feel that LGBTQ people are so contaminating that merely being attracted to people of the same gender makes them too unclean to associate with. I don’t know what teachings of Jesus they’re claiming to follow, but they aren’t any that I recognize.

Highview Christians are practicing religious liberty in the pernicious way that so many conservative Christians are demanding these days. What they call “liberty” seems really to mean the right to hurt members of gender and sexual minorities.

Kicking a teenager out of school because you think she might be gay isn’t freedom to practice religion. It’s freedom to bully. Let’s all remember that, no matter which side of this war we think we’re on.

James Finn is a long-time HIV/LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Act Up NYC, an essayist occasionally published in queer news outlets, and an “agented” novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].