This photo of Felicia Rivera, right, and her girlfriend, Lialani Hernandez, was removed from a San Antonio yearbook.
A 16-year-old San Antonio student is petitioning Brennan High School to allow a photo of her and her girlfriend to be printed in the school’s 2013 yearbook.
The picture, above, depicts Felicia Rivera holding her girlfriend at school. The photo was selected to run on the Valentine’s Day page but the yearbook adviser removed the image from the page after she found out it was two girls.
The couple has been dating for a year and Rivera has gathered more than 200 student signatures to have the photo placed back on the yearbook page.
“You shouldn’t be discriminated against just because you’re gay,” she told KENS 5. “You shouldn’t worry about people bashing you or talking behind your back just for you to be you.”
Pascual Gonzalez, director of public information for the school district, said the photo wasn’t like other photos selected for the page where students were looking directly at the camera and was “too intimate” and “a little bit too much, exaggerated public display of affection.” The student handbook prohibits public displays of affection on campus.
But Rivera’s father isn’t buying the school’s reasoning behind pulling the photo after it’d already been placed and approved, until the two girls were identified.
“They were fine with it until they realized it was girl-girl,” Felix Rivera said. “It got placed, it got set and it was going to print and then it got pulled.”
Even if the photo isn’t put back in the yearbook, Rivera said the experience has made her want to start a Gay-Straight Alliance on the campus to prevent further discrimination from occurring.
Watch KENS 5’s report below.
