i have to be one to step forward to say, really? you think you know what gay is? well, i m your i m your people magazine s 50 most beautiful. i m your american legion woman of the year. i was the first artist of any genre to play in iraq after the fall of saddam hussein. i was the first. and i m gay. larry: chely, do you think it s tougher being lesbian in the country music field? well, i think it s tough for every american who s gay and lesbian. i think it s tough for a junior high math teacher to be a lesbian, larry. but certainly with never having an openly gay or lesbian country music singer, yes, it s been tough. larry: have you ever been bullied? since my coming out i ve been bullied. i was bullied in school, of course not for being gay because i hid until may of this year the fact that i m gay.
acceptance. but when you re from a very small town you feel like the only lonely person in town. larry: wanda, you agree with kathy that there are links to this like don t ask, don t tell, they re all part of leading up to this increase in bullying? i believe that it is assisting. you know, i m not going to say that that s the you know, the crux of it because this has been going on for decades. but i think maybe what s making people a little more vocal and is because of issues that like don t ask, don t tell and prop 8. they re so much in the forefront right now of politics that maybe that s, you know, causing people to do more harm. but you know, this just goes back to discrimination, prejudice, fear, hatred. i mean, just as a black person, larry, i mean, i know things have gotten a lot better. but there s parts of the united states that i would be afraid to go to as a black person.
bully by condoning the behavior and making the jokes along with them. larry: do you think the bullier feels better about bullying someone he thinks is less than himself? i mean, what do you get out of bullying? i really don t know what they get out of it. i mean, i i ve never been a bully. larry: have you been bullied? larry, nobody s going to bully me. come on now. no. but i have. no. i ve been bullied. and you know what hurts? the collusion. i remember one time i was getting a butt kicked in a park when i was a little kid. and i ll never forget a guy walking by with a briefcase, just walking by. and i feel like at this time we can t be that guy anymore. we can t walk by anymore. that s why it s important to get involved with places like the trevor project. and as i travel the whole country, as you do, you meet all kinds of people. and i can t believe how many people come up to me at shows and they ll say until your show i don t think i ve ever sat next to a gay pers
around we have a safe space kit and a sticker that an educator can put in their classroom or at the window of the door of their classroom and it identifies the educator, the teacher or the administrator as a safe space. and what we re learning from students is that if a teacher, an adult identifies themselves as someone who will show respect and concern, it makes all the difference. and you can go to glisten.org for that information. larry: we ll be back with more after this.
heidemann, who is the board chair, says regarding the policy, we picked a position that we re not going to deal with it. these are issues that can be dealt with outside the classroom. so it doesn t sound like they are planning on changing any of the policies right now. larry: tammy, we ll be calling on you again. i salute you. i know you re out there trying to help others like justin. and we know how sad this there s no way. we don t know what to say. thank you, tammy. thank you. larry: tammy aaberg. nate berkus and country star shelly wright are next. larry: we re back with wanda