Gay Florida Student Brilliantly Outsmarts School Administration Who Censored His Grad Speech

Senior Class President Zander Moricz was ready to give his commencement speech at the graduation ceremony of Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, but was forced to change his plans.

Turns out, the principal called Moricz into his office and warned him that the school would not tolerate if his graduation speech referenced his activism or role as a plaintiff in his lawsuit. In fact, the principal went as far as to threaten the student that the school administration would cut off his microphone, end his speech and halt the ceremony.

Moricz tweeted the incident on his account, stating “I am being silenced, and I need your help,” where he received huge support and more than 153k likes. The 18-year-old said the decision to censor his speech was "dehumanizing," but he didn't want to risk ruining the ceremony for his fellow students.

So he did what he was told to– never mentioned the word “gay,” but made his point right in their face anyway. Can we give this smart man a well-deserved minute of standing ovations, everyone?!

Zander Moricz, a senior and the president of his graduating class at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, tweeted that he was being “silenced” in a thread two weeks ago. He wrote: “My principal called me into his office and informed me that if my graduation speech referenced my activism or role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, school administration had a signal to cut off my microphone, end my speech, and halt the ceremony.”

The 18-year-old teen is also one of the youngest plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the state of Florida over the “Parental Rights in Education” law. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that the law harms LGBTQ students and families and violates their First Amendment right to freedom of speech, as well as their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

The Parental Rights in Education bill was signed March 28 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The law prevents teachers in kindergarten through third grade from discussing gender and sexual orientation in class and restricts what teachers can say in upper grades to what is developmentally appropriate, without saying what that is. The law goes into effect July 1.

A lawsuit has been filed against Gov. DeSantis by several LGBTQ rights advocates in an effort to block the law. "This effort to control young minds through state censorship — and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power," is what the lawsuit alleges.

Moricz expressed his worry ahead of the speech but told Good Morning America on Monday that he felt the support from his fellow classmates and peers. Some of them wore “Say Gay” stickers and stood up and cheered during his speech Sunday.

He said: “There was a lot of hate and a lot of fear surrounding the speech about what people were going to do if someone was going to react poorly because it was really present in the community - that hatred and that fear - and so I was worried and I knew that there was a potential to cut the mic."