On the fringes of the crowd, a teenager danced across a rainbow flag that had been tossed in the dirt, beneath a banner that said “Pride belongs here.” Hundreds of their classmates in this Orlando suburb ended up walking out of school for nearly an hour that day, waving plastic rainbow flags and chanting “We say gay.” Videos of the walkout generated millions of views on TikTok and Twitter.īut not all the students present that day showed up in support. Though the protest didn’t stop Florida’s governor from signing the bill into law, to the students who led the event, it was still a success. Credit: Arielle Bader for The Hechinger Report. Will Larkins, a 17-year-old junior at Winter Park High School in Florida, is the head of the high school’s Queer Student Union. “For the most part, it was actually really positive,” said Echo Izzo, a 19-year-old senior who was near the front of the group that day.
