The sons of a gay man were bullied at school -- and their dad is now fighting back through social media.
Joshua Alameda Franklin, 31, posted a video on Facebook Monday, detailing how his sons Alae'a Stevens-Alameda, 10, and Joshua Poha Stevens-Alameda, 9, were being assaulted, harassed, and taunted because of their dad's sexual orientation.
Franklin, a resident of Puna, Hawaii, said his sons were called antigay slurs like "queer" and "f****t," while administrators of their school, Hilo Union Elementary, stood idly by. The abuse even turned physical, which is recounted by the boys in the video.
"People would ask me about my father, if he was gay, and I would say, 'Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that,'" Alae'a said. In response, a student "slammed my face to a pole and gave me a black eye."
Joshua added that another student "choked my neck and slammed me to the ground."
In an interview with KITV, a local TV station, Franklin said the abuse has gotten so bad that he has withdrawn his sons from class out of concern for their safety. And he claims administrators have been either unresponsive or ineffectual.
"The school is telling the perpetrators that are doing this to my children that they need to tolerate us, and they're using the word tolerance or tolerate in a way where it's very exclusive," Franklin said. "So, basically what's being stated is that they're not willing to tell the kids that are doing this to my children, 'Hey, you know what, there's nothing wrong with being gay.'"
Watch the video below.
My children getting bullied (gay bashing) trying to allow people to be aware that this is happening and that it is not ok!
Posted by Joshua Kamaka Alameda on Monday, March 30, 2015
