NEW ORLEANS (news agencies) — Ava Kreutziger was in high school English class last year when she heard about the passage of legislation that could affect LGBTQ+ students like her. She excused herself from class to go cry in the bathroom, and found two of her classmates already there in tears.
Those bills were vetoed, but similar proposals — now with a better shot of passing under a new Republican governor — would regulate students’ pronouns, the bathrooms they can use and discussions of gender and sexuality in the classroom, which opponents call “Don’t Say Gay” bills.
In the past, students at Kreutziger’s high school in New Orleans have held walkouts to protest anti-inclusion proposals. This year, a group of students tried something different: a play, based on their own experiences, performed on the steps of the state Capitol. Compared with a raucous demonstration, the students hoped a play could spark more empathy.
They have seen up close the mental health struggles of queer students, who were four times more likely to attempt suicide during the pandemic compared with straight students. For those involved in the play, the proposals before the legislature are a matter of life and death.
“I just hope they can see something in us that’s worth saving,” said Kreutziger, a 17-year-old senior at Benjamin Franklin High School.
For students who can feel like pawns in political and cultural fights playing out around the country, the play also offered an opportunity to regain a sense of power.
“It’s the deepest expression of who they are. And that part of it, knowing that you can create something beautiful, that can make change,” said Ariella Assouline, a program manager at the It Gets Better Project, an organization that supports LBGTQ+ youth.
Benjamin Franklin High, a selective charter school, used part of a grant from It Gets Better to fund the production and hired Broadway director Jimmy Maize to help students develop a script. Maize is a member of the Tectonic Theater Project, best known for “The Laramie Project,” a play about the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.