When I was in high school, I attended a fundamentalist evangelical christian private school in Georgia. It was so awfully repressive that I think Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum would be put off. Our science class consisted of learning why evolution was a lie. Our "sex ed" class consisted of learning why you should wait till marriage. Bible Class was on the curriculum and we had chapel twice a week.

Two students, a year old than me, were dating. They were both preacher's kids. They, like many other 17 year olds in America had sex. And somehow, through the gossip network, this fact got to the administration of the school. The principal decided that they must atone for the wrong they had done!

So one week during chapel, these two 17 year old kids had to come up, before the entire student body, and apologize to us for having sex. And I remember this girl, Melissa, almost in tears as she read her pre-prepared statement apologizing to the school for her "sin." She was so broken and beaten down and it was horrible.

These male, religious leaders had forced her to come up and confess her "sins" before the entire student body. They set out to humiliate her and punish her and it was sick. These fifty year old men making decisions about this 17 year old girl's sexual life.

And I sat there, like the rest of the school and listened to her forced apology. And since that day, 20 years ago, I have always regretted not speaking up for how fucking fucked up the whole thing was. I should have stood up for human decency and said something to the lowlife, degenerate, school leaders who thought it fitting to drag this poor girl in front school to ask our forgiveness for her private decisions about her own body. It was so completely messed up and I did nothing.

I regret to this day not standing up and saying something.