Gay High School Valedictorian Silenced and Outed by Principal

Photo: Evan Young, 18, the valedictorian of his Twin Peaks Charter Academy senior class, poses near the high school entrance Thursday. (David R. Jennings/The Daily Camera)

Evan Young, a graduating senior at Twin Peaks Charter Academy High School in Colorado, was recently blocked from giving his valedictorian speech and outed to his parents.

With a 4.5 GPA and a scholarship to Rutgers University, Young was selected as valedictorian of his graduating class. Although he had agreed to edit his speech according to Principal BJ Buchmann's revisions, Young refused to exclude his admittance to being gay.

"One of my themes is that I was going to tell everyone my secrets. Most of the things were stupid stuff, books I never read that I was supposed to, or homework I didn't like. But then I gradually worked up to serious secrets," Young told The Daily Camera.

After Young refused to remove the statement from his speech, Principal Buchmann called the student's father, Don Young. Don recalled the conversation to the Daily Camera:

"Mr. Buchmann called me and said, 'I've got Evan's speech here. There are two things in it that I don't think are appropriate. One was he had mentioned another student's name. And then there was his coming out that he was gay.'"

Although his parents were accepting of him during his involuntary coming out, Evan was not ok with the way it happened:

"I think what it mainly showed is that he didn't have a lot of sympathy for me, or someone in my position. He didn't understand how personal a thing it was, and that I wasn't just going to share it with people randomly, for no reason. I thought it was very inconsiderate for him to do something like that, especially without asking me first."

Evan was not allowed to give his speech and was not recognized as valedictorian at his May 16 graduation. The LGBT organization Out Boulder offered Young an opportunity to give his speech online on Sunday. Click here to read the transcript.