You Might Like
Gay basketball player in Kentucky only team member left out of high school yearbook spread
Dalton Maldonado was the starting guard on the boys basketball team at Betsy Layne High School in rural Kentucky.
But inexplicably, he was the only team member to not be included in a two-page yearbook spread that featured all of the seniors on the team.
He also happens to be the only team member who was openly gay.
‘I recently saw my senior yearbook, I flipped right to the sports basketball page only to find my senior basketball picture missing…which devastated me,’ Maldonado wrote on his Facebook page.
Maldonado had come out to his teammates this spring on the day that a kid on an opposing team tried to humiliate him by calling him a faggot in front of the entire team and their fans at a basketball tournament.
‘They all stood by my side in spite of the other team trying to scare and intimidate me because of my sexuality,’ he wrote.
The incident received national attention when it was featured on the site Outsports.com which broke the story Wednesday (12 August) about the yearbook snub.
Maldonado wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that he has received good wishes and support from across the country and also got a call from the superintendent of schools.
‘He told me that I was in the annual fifteen times, and that they may have overlooked my senior basketball picture,’ he wrote. ‘He went on to say that they were going to make a new annual and he hoped I knew they were so proud of me.’
Still, Maldonado believes the school has attempted to sweep under the rug his being harassed and coming out to his teammates.
‘I refuse to let this happen again!’ he wrote. ‘I was a senior point guard who had played for three years, and I was even in the center of the team picture. I don’t care if I was in other parts 100 times, my individual picture wasn’t in there! I find it unbelievable that their “investigation” took less than one whole school day and once again they’re just letting it go! I will not stop fighting this.
‘No one deserves this, and I’ll make sure no other LGBT teen in Floyd (County) has to face this type of discrimination!’
The post Gay basketball player in Kentucky only team member left out of high school yearbook spread appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
You Might Like
