For as long as I have been a cognizant person I have had a huge celebrity crush on Anne Hathaway, starting at the ripe age of four while watching the movie, “Ella Enchanted.” No one had to tell me what “homosexuality” was; all my four year old self knew was that Anne Hathaway was really pretty and I wanted to be Prince Char from that movie so I could marry her.
Recently I was at my local library looking for new books to read. On the back of a book shelf were nine books on display with a bookend reading “Happy Pride.” There were nine books to take home and maybe give some other girl like me the permission and language to be seen in the media.
For too long, and especially in Utah, queer people have been seen as a footnote or something to stick on the back of a book shelf. They have been given crumbs of acceptance along with waves of criticism and prejudice.
The public and the government, especially the Utah Legislature and school districts should not be able to tell me that my crush on Anne Hathaway or any other women is unnatural. It should not ban books that give language to what so many people feel inside. It’s time to accept that while not every girl has to have a crush on Anne Hathaway, some girls do and they and all members of the LGBTQIA community deserve to not be a footnote in or a hidden shelf in a library but a display right in front of everyone.
Savannah Sanford, Pleasant Grove
