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Students protest censored lesbian yearbook photo
Four former members of Colorado’s Palmer High School yearbook staff are protesting after a school adviser ordered them to eliminate a picture identifying a lesbian couple.
Students Rudolpho Tribulio and Anna Carmicheal told Colorado Spring’s KRDO-TV that their yearbook adviser told them that a photo of a lesbian couple holding hands could not be on a page they were creating about high school relationships.
Tribulio told the station that the advisor said, “You either cut the gay couple or I cut the page.”
Tribulio and Carmicheal were dismissed from the staff after they refused to remove the photo. Two other students quit the yearbook in protest.
District spokeswoman Devra Ashby said the photo was one of three rejected for violating a policy against “excessive displays of public affection.”
“A photo of two women holding hands could be allowed in the yearbook. That doesn’t go against the policy,” Ashby said. “The photo was part of a collage that included multiple pictures with multiple public displays of affection. When the photos came back from that page, there was too much PDA and that is against Palmer policy.”
She said the yearbook is replacing the relationship page with a diversity page.
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