Marcel Neergard

Following weeks of mounting pressure from LGBT advocacy groups, it was an online campaign initiated by an 11-year-old gay student that finally compelled the education lobbying group StudentsFirst to rescind it’s “Education Reformer of the Year” designation awarded to Tenn. state Rep. John Ragan, a proponent of the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Marcel Neergard, an 11-year-old gay student from Oak Ridge, Tenn., is speaking out against the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and one of its leading proponents in the Tenn. state House, Oak Ridge Rep. John Ragan.