Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I graduated from Gloucester High School in 2006. Since my time in our small hometown in Virginia I have received a bachelor’s degree in sociology and Hispanic studies at the College of William and Mary, worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations concerned with environmental protection and education, and began a PhD program investigating community organizations that support public education at the University of Texas in my new hometown of Austin, where I met and married my husband.

Gavin Grimm, from where you are now to halfway around the country, I want to say thank you for standing up for yourself and other people like you. Unfortunately we live in a world that undervalues the contributions of LGBTQ people to such an extent that many people, both young and old, decide that suicide is a more appealing option than continuing to fight against what might seem like insurmountable odds.

As a queer teenager struggling with my identity in the Gloucester ...