An openly gay high school basketball player has been omitted from a yearbook tribute to the team.
Outsports reported that Betsy Layne High School in rural Kentucky this year had a two-page yearbook spread that featured all of the seniors on the boys basketball team except Dalton Maldonado, the team’s starting point guard who came out publicly as gay a couple months ago.
In a lengthy post on his Facebook, Maldonado commented on his omission and also how his parents and school were reacting to him coming out as gay:
‘My family didn’t, and doesn’t, support me being gay as many don’t! We have had countless arguments over my sexuality, and they do not want me bringing my boyfriend around (when I have one.) However, they weren’t the only ones who didn’t like me coming out. My school also didn’t approve. I would hear things that teachers would say, and many media outlets would say I “claimed” this happened in spite of the pictures and text messages I had from my coaches as proof. Then I had a person officiated with the school tell me what they had learned about the school attempting to cover up the whole stor. I recently saw my senior yearbook, I flipped right to the sports basketball page only to find my senior basketball picture missing…which devastated me.”
According to Outsports, the school has repeatedly refused to answer questions or disputed what Maldonado has claimed, despite various eye witnesses confirming that Maldonado was targeted by anti-gay harassment.
