SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif- In April, the gay Athletics Director of Mission Preparatory Catholic High School, Bailey Brown, went outside her home to find her tires slashed and her car spray painted with the words "we (heart) r role models." One month later she experienced another incident, this time at her work. In May campus property was vandalized and a note was left under a rock with a reference to Browns sexual orientation.
Police from SLO and Pismo are continuing to look for leads. Kris Gottlieb, who works for "Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays" or "PFLAG" says incidences like this, is why she is constantly outreaching to the community about gays and lesbians.
"Times like this is when I remember how important it is and how much work I need to put in," says Gottlieb. She also knows first hand what it's like to be discriminated against. "There's frustration, because I'm not different, I just appear different and people are taught that people like me are different." That frustration Gottlieb says only builds. That's why she has devoted her life's work to helping the gay community and building relations with the straight community.
"The more understanding that people gain the more knowledge that people gain, and the more experience that people have with the LGBT community, with parents, family, friends, colleagues, allies of that community, the less these kinds of occurrences are going to happen." Mission Prep is one of the schools that PFLAG visits to educate about the gay and lesbian community, and they say in light of this incident they will double their efforts there.
