Harvard Law School hosts 'Proud Twinkie' for keynote address

Will Larkins, aka @ProudTwinkie on Twitter, a 17-year-old student who penned an op-ed in The New York Times objecting to Florida's Parental Rights in Education Bill, gave a keynote speech at Harvard Law School's Youth Summit "about the modern non-binary experience and how gen-z will change the world."

Larkins promised that he would share the link to the YouTube video once it was up.

Larkins, who heads the Queer Student Union at his Winter Park, Florida high school, claims that the Parental Rights in Education Bill harms students like him. Larkins speaks in The New York Times about realizing that he was gay as a rising 7th-grader. It took a girl at summer camp to show him the ropes. Larkins now identifies as gender non-binary.

By Larkins' view, teachers should have been explaining sexual orientation to elementary schoolers and that in some way, this would have prevented him from being bullied because other children would have known that he "wasn't some tragic anomaly, a strange fluke that needed to be fixed."

Larkins will also be speaking as part of the "Preserving Public Education Speaker Series: Protecting LGBTQ+ Students: Fighting Florida’s 'Don’t Say Gay' Bill" on Wednesday.

The premise of the panel is that the Parental Rights in Education Bill "has garnered international attention for its targeting of vulnerable young people in schools—places that are meant to provide a sense of safety and belonging." Masks will be required of staff, and strongly suggested for attendees.

Larkins' commented on Wednesday about the White House Press Secretary's emotional reaction to talking about the Parental Rights in Education bill on the podcast "News Not Noise," backing her up.

In Larkins' view, no one chooses to be non-binary, they are just born that way. This is what Larkins believes should be taught in elementary school, that "sometimes your gender & body don't align."

The bill seeks to protect young students from activist teachers who would groom children into gender identity and adult sexual lifestyles in manners that are not age-appropriate.