Farnham Press Release

Contact: Andrew Nurkin FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fine By Me Inc. Email: finebymeinc@gmail.com Tel.: (908) 272-7111 www.finebyme.org

NEW YORK TEEN DISCIPLINED FOR WEARING ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA T-SHIRT

Last week Heathyre Farnham, 16, of Spencer, New York, was sent home from Spencer-Van Etten High School for wearing a t-shirt that read, “Gay? Fine By Me.” Though Farnham asserts that no one at the school complained about the shirt, Spencer-Van Etten principal Ann Sincock decided that Farnham was disrupting school by showing support for her LGBT friends. “I had worn it two or three times before, and all of a sudden it’s inappropriate,” Farnham said. “She said I was advertising my sexual preference and that was offensive, which makes no sense because I’m straight. Maybe she herself was offended by it.”

Farnham bought the shirt at a local thrift store, unaware that it is one of more than 75,000 similar shirts being worn across the country as part of the Gay? Fine By Me T-Shirt Project. Begun by several Duke University students in 2003, the nonprofit organization Fine By Me Inc. makes shirts bearing the slogan “gay? fine by me” and then helps local groups distribute them in colleges, schools, religious communities, businesses, and civic organizations. The purpose of the T-shirt Project is to give Americans a simple but effective way to condemn homophobia and publicly support equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Farnham liked the shirt, she said, because “the message is peaceful and tolerant. It represents what I’m all about.” She said that when she learned about the larger campaign she was glad to have unintentionally joined a movement of people speaking out against homophobia. Though Farnham decided against wearing the shirt to school again the following Monday, several other Spencer-Van Etten students made their own shirts or wrote the words “gay? fine by me” on their arms and hands. The reaction from school administrators was swift, with principal Sincock patrolling the cafeteria and ordering students to wash the ink off their skin.

Farnham insists she “was not trying to be inflammatory” by wearing the shirt and that the student response has been overwhelmingly supportive. Even students who say they disagree with the shirt’s message are outraged that Farnham was punished for expressing her belief. Spencer-Van Etten does have a dress code restricting offensive clothing, but Farnham says she does not see how the shirt’s message of acceptance is offensive, especially since the school’s constitution emphasizes respect, fairness, and responsibility.

When asked if there are many LGBT students at her school, Farnham said that there were several, though many were “not sure whether to come out yet” because of the atmosphere. Wearing the Gay? Fine By Me shirt was her way of helping to change that atmosphere. “I know Spencer. If I were lesbian or gay, I wouldn’t feel safe coming out here. If more people wore the shirts, I know it would be easier.”

Information about Fine By Me, as well as forms for placing individual and bulk shirt orders, can be found at www.finebyme.org. Inquiries should be directed to finebymeinc@gmail.com.