Members of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Cape May stood outside the county’s public high schools on the first day of class to let kids know that they are supported during a time of hostile rhetoric against queer youth from lawmakers and their supporters.
Participants in the rallies waved pride flags and signs at students, and all of the demonstrations occurred without major incident save for the occasional heckle or rude finger gesture.
The rallies took place at high schools in Ocean City, Wildwood, Upper Township and Lower Township, and at Cape May Technical School.
Sandy Bove, secretary for Equality Cape May and the parent of two local high schoolers, said, “Right now, kids are emboldened to be mean. There’s an active effort to erase our existence from public life in general, in school, in the military, everywhere.”
On Thursday, Sept. 4, Carolyn Rush, a candidate for the General Assembly, held up a sign in front of Ocean City High School that read: “Gay, straight, or trans, you are perfect just the way you are.”
Rush said that many students came up to the group to thank them. Other students smiled and waved as they passed by.
The Ocean City gathering was small, with just six people in attendance. Bove told the Herald that she was not expecting a large turnout because the events took place so early in the morning, and because “back to school” happens at multiple places at the same time. Still, between six and 12 people showed up at each high school as the districts welcomed students back.
Mark Davidson, a lifelong Lower Township resident who helped plan the early-morning events, said that the first day of school was always scary for him as a gay student.
“Even though I was in high school 50 years ago now, I still remember the knots in my stomach over school starting,” Davidson said. “I was always worried about who do I have to be afraid of, who do I have to defend myself against.”
He told the Herald that he was called slurs as a kid, and that rallies like the ones held by Equality Cape May would have encouraged him.
“I thought there was only one gay person out of 30 million. I didn’t know any gay people, I never asked; it was something you just didn’t talk about,” Davidson said.
Emilie Bunnell said that she attended the Ocean City rally because “if just one kid can see it and smile, it’s totally worth it. I don’t want kids to be bogged down by bullying.” She just moved from Brooklyn, she said, where “queerness is more of an everyday thing.”
Dena Tartaro, a local mental health therapist, said that she hears in counseling the struggles that LGBTQ+ youth experience. She attended, she said, so that kids “know that the community has their backs.”
Contact the reporter, Collin Hall, at chall@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 156.
