COVER STORY: The ‘Bully’ pulpit

[Shana A]

COVER STORY: The 'Bully' pulpit
Posted on 12 Apr 2012 at 6:30pm

As Lee Hirsch's documentary featuring Kelby Johnson's story premieres in N. Texas, the transgender Oklahoma City teen wants to use the film as a platform to help end the type of harassment that nearly drove him to suicide
DANIEL VILLARREAL  |  Contributing Writer

http://www.dallasvoice.com/bully-pulpit-10106502.html

As a child, Kelby Johnson excelled at softball and basketball, had many friends and generally liked school.

But around sixth grade, Kelby's schoolmates started noticing she always wore short hair, baggy jeans and loose T-shirts. On the basketball court and softball diamond, teammates stopped catching Kelby's throws and wouldn't protect her from opponents anymore. Some didn't want play with her at all.

Although Johnson now identifies as a transgender male, in eighth grade, she came out as lesbian. And in Tuttle, Okla. — a town of 6,000 people just southwest of Oklahoma City — that made her an outcast.